The following is from City of Treats, a food and drink newsletter by Abridged senior food editor Benjy Egel. Want it sent directly to your inbox? Sign up here.
The most important news in local food this week will come out of Washington D.C., not Sacramento. After the Senate passed a funding bill Monday night, will the federal government reopen? Or will those most in need continue to wonder where their next meal will come from?
For the 13.5% of Sacramento County households that rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as SNAP, or CalFresh within the state, and formerly known as food stamps), November has been a month of uncertainty.
SNAP benefits were canceled. Then they’d be partially released. Then fully — but wait, not anymore.
“There’s a lot of stress and a lot of uncertainty, just because a lot of folks receive SNAP benefits, and there’s a lot of government employees that are going to be affected,” Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services president/CEO Blake Young told me at the end of October. “… There is a lot of people scrambling coming now to our partner agencies throughout the county, kind of overrunning our numbers in our food supply, just in concern that they’re not going to have the means to provide for themselves or their families.”
Sacramento’s recent boom has supported high-end restaurants and cocktail bars. At the same time, a food insecurity crisis that often plays out behind closed doors has worsened. Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services fed 150,000 people per month before the Covid-19 pandemic; now, it’s 330,000, or 22% of Sacramento County. A quarter of beneficiaries are under 18, and more than 15% are over 70. Many have jobs but can’t afford all their families’ basic needs, Young said.
CalFresh benefits give low-income Californians lifelines to grocery stores’ produce, meat, dairy and grain aisles, plus participating restaurants such as Subway and Del Taco. People can also use CalFresh funds at local farmers markets thanks to ancillary organizations such as Alchemist Community Development Corp., which also give out matching vouchers to stretch that money.
Delayed and uncertain benefits have snarled that system. The Florin Farmers Market in South Sacramento, which caters to CalFresh recipients, saw a dramatic drop in attendance earlier this month, Capital Public Radio reported. Farmers within Alchemist CDC’s network will lose about $36,000 in sales every week of the shutdown, according to the nonprofit.
Q4 is usually food banks’ busiest time of the year, and the shutdown has strained the system even more, Young said. They’ll especially need donations and volunteer efforts this winter, particularly if the shutdown persists.
“If it wasn’t for private citizens who give their time, talent and treasures to help us out … I’m not so sure we’d be able to handle what’s going on,” Young said. “Although we are great partners with the government and receive support, it’s really the citizens of our county and of the community that really are the backbone of how organizations like ours run.”
Benjy’s Bites
Here’s my favorite item or two from a local restaurant this week. Send me yours at begel@kvie.org.
Tacos El Paisano | 1490 E. Main St., Woodland | 916-72-6127
Tacos El Paisano’s tacos. (Benjy Egel)
When my friend Shlok returns to the region from New York City, he only wants to eat one place: Tacos El Paisano, a Woodland taco truck that’s roughly a week away from opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Owned by Arif Alfridi and family for the past 35 years, it’s long been parked outside of California Market, which is in its final stages of renovation to become a taqueria (with a mural of the truck on the building’s exterior).
While the restaurant will be open breakfast through dinner, the truck’s menu is more limited: five choices of meat, available in tacos ($3), burritos ($11), quesadillas ($11) and tortas ($11). I’m partial to the fatty cabeza (cow’s head) smothered in tangy tomatillo salsa, or the pollo flecked with red chili flakes and doused in a roasted tomato salsa.
Egel’s Nest
I live, play and cook in this community just like you. This recurring section is a window into my life outside of restaurants and bars, always with a food and/or drink angle.
Mid-70s bliss has hung on through the last few days, but we’re moving closer to true soup season beginning with tomorrow’s storm. As things cool off, I’ll be the first to recommend a filling pot of “lasagna soup,” the Italy-meets-Midwest dinner I’ve been enjoying for the past couple of nights. My girlfriend Abbey sauteed onions and garlic before adding tomato paste, tomato sauce, chicken broth, ground turkey and Italian sausage. After a few hours of slow cooking, she followed with lasagna noodles, ricotta, spinach and a dusting of Parmesan. If you need an exact recipe to follow, this one has five stars after nearly 5,000 reviews.
In The News
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday night on whether to create a “Lodi Winery Business Improvement District.” It’ll add a 1.5% marketing fee to all tasting room purchases if approved, following the lead of several other wine districts around the state. Veteran Sacramento-area wine writer Mike Dunne has more insight here.
Gami Burger is expanding to midtown Sacramento after seeing its smash burgers become smash hits since opening in Carmichael. Owned by Origami Asian Grill partners Scott Ostrander and Paul DiPierro, it’ll debut by the end of November and stay open until about 2 a.m. on weekends. Read more here.
“You haven’t tasted Sacramento unless you’ve eaten at these 11 restaurants,” the article proclaimed. Abridged readers had thoughts on which others should have made the list: two midtown farm-to-fork institutions and an East Sacramento sushi star. See those three and the five honorable mentions here.
Happening This Week
- Sacramento Area Bike Advocates’ annual Supermarket Sweep is this Saturday, with sign-ups closing Thursday; it corrals teams of five to ride to three grocery stores, load up on goods for River City Food Bank and return to Two Rivers Cider, where points are doled out based on a variety of categories.
- The Hive is throwing a free fourth anniversary (and 46th anniversary for sister honey company Z Specialty Foods) party on Saturday in Woodland, with tastes of 30 honey varietals and observation hives for bee-viewing.
- For more of a Saturday splurge, the Loomis Farm-To-Fork Friendsgiving features a six-course dinner from local chefs ($100) at Larry Houghtby’s Barn, with proceeds benefitting local nonprofit Shine With Purpose. Or wait until Monday for the newest instillation in The Immigrant’s Table, a $120-per-person pop-up from Chu Mai pastry chef BennyJann Peneyra displaying modern Vietnamese and Filipino flavors at The Roost speakeasy in the R Street Corridor.
- Oakhouse will host its grand opening Saturday on the second floor of 130 Maple St. in Old Town Auburn. Run by chef Chris Townsend (formerly of Reds’ Bistro in Loomis), the steakhouse will sit above The Lounge, a new cocktail bar on the ground floor.
Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.