The following is from the March 31 edition of 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.
Sign Up for the City of Treats Newsletter
Get the latest Sacramento food news from Benjy Egel in City of Treats — delivered every Tuesday.
Happy Tuesday, friends! It’s Benjy with Abridged.
You may or may not know the name “Joanne Neft” — I didn’t until I saw a concrete square in Auburn with her name on it. But if you’ve eaten seasonally in Placer County, you know her work.
Neft, 90, moved to Placer County 50 years ago and saw there was no farmers market. So she started the first one, then launched Placer Grown, an organization that supports the county’s 14 farmers markets today. Neft tasted a Placer County mandarin when only six farms were growing them, and became so enamored with the citrus that she launched the Mountain Mandarin Festival, which draws more than 50,000 people each November. Along the way, she wrote two locavore cookbooks (more than 40,000 copies sold) and helped conserve land for future farming.
Neft is the subject of Rob Stewart’s latest profile, told with his usual dose of respect, celebration and heart. It’s a slightly longer read (roughly 12 minutes) but worth the time of anyone interested in Placer County and/or the history of the farm-to-table movement in this area.
Today’s City of Treats also has a guide for a great day in Roseville, from a “fancy pants” breakfast sandwich to the Chinese soup dumplings know as xiaolongbao. I popped by a neighborhood cafe for Brazilian pastries and rooftop views, and spent the weekend eating well in San Diego. Plus, a South American corn beverage gets its own festival, and a sushi burrito concept makes its return to Midtown Sacramento.
Let’s go!
BENJY’S BITES
Here’s my favorite item or two from a local restaurant this week. Send me yours at begel@kvie.org.
Brazilian pastries at a central Sacramento cafe
Tupi Coffee | 1901 8th St., Sacramento | 916-692-5258
Sacramento’s short list of Brazilian restaurants includes churrascerias, all-you-can-eat steakhouses, as well as the quaint Tupi Coffee in Southside Park. Açaí bowls and Brazilian pastries dot the café’s menu, along with more classic American toasts and sandwiches.
You can enjoy coxinha ($6), teardrop-shaped fritters filled with a chicken-and-cream cheese mixture, in the verdant dining room or on the rooftop patio. Rissoles ($6), tacky oblong bites somewhat reminiscent of mozzarella sticks, come stuffed with beef, corn, ham or heart of palm in addition to melted cheese. But the pão de queijo ($5) is the one to try above all else, gluten-free tapioca-and-cheese bread that’s ubiquitous throughout Brazilian dining. Wash it down with a Moreno ($7), a sweet mix of milk, chocolate, honey and an espresso shot finished with a cinnamon dusting. It’s delightful iced, particularly as the weather heats up.
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.
San Diego pizza, seafood and Cutwater Spirits
I spent last weekend visiting college friends in San Diego, and I’m still not sure what exactly we did besides paintballing (my first time), sitting on the sand and eating and drinking our way through “America’s Finest City.”
Oscar’s Mexican Seafood is always our stop for beach-adjacent fish tacos and ceviche, though the lines have gotten pretty close to unbearable. We had a lovely dinner at La Jolla Boulevard pizzeria Wheat + Water, where my wood-fired pie included potatoes, béchamel, prosciutto, bacon and jalapeño crème fraiche. And a sore, sweaty party of 11 followed Sunday paintball with a trip to Cutwater Spirits, makers of California’s most popular canned cocktails. The distillery fresh-made seasonal cocktails such as a dark rum slushy with cherry and pomegranate syrups or woodsy bourbon mixed with porcini mushroom liquid, truffle oil and demerara syrup.
IN THE NEWS
How to spend a great day in Roseville
We’ve had writers author guides to great days in Rocklin, Rancho Cordova, Lodi and Woodland. Now, Roseville gets its moment. Placer County native Bailey Snow’s ideal day includes a fancy pants breakfast sandwich from Four Sisters Cafe, a walk along Miner’s Ravine Trail and a trip to the Westfield Galleria mall.
How Joanne Neft shaped what people eat in Placer County
Joanne Neft knows Roseville — and Auburn, Newcastle, Loomis and more. The “Mother of Placer County,” now 90, has dedicated her life to land conservation and promoting local agriculture. She started Placer County’s first farmers market, launched Placer Grown, founded the Mountain Mandarin Festival, and wrote two cookbooks espousing the local produce, as PBS KVIE’s Rob Stewart wrote for Abridged last week.
HAPPENING THIS WEEK
Chicha Fest, pizza and the return of sushi burritos
- The third annual Chicha Fest lands at the Latino Center of Arts and Culture (2700 Front St., Sacramento) on Saturday evening. It’s a celebration of chicha de maíz, an Indigenous fermented corn drink enjoyed by people in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Tickets start at $10.
- Make Fish Market is back in its Midtown Sacramento space after nearly six years away, having re-launched with a soft opening on March 26. Owned by Mymy Nguyen and Jimmy Voong, who also count neighboring Saigon Alley Kitchen + Bar among their restaurants, it previously served people at 1801 L St., Suite 70 from 2013-2020. Nigiri, poke and uramaki (inside-out rolls) are available now, with Make Fish’s much-loved sushi burritos on their way.
- Slice House by Tony Gemignani will open Saturday at 4060 Douglas Blvd., Suite 101 in Granite Bay’s Sierra Oaks Plaza. It’s the pizza parlor’s second area location following Folsom, and a homecoming of sorts — while Gemignani (a former partner in Downtown Sacramento’s Pizza Rock) grew up and became a celebrity chef in the Bay Area, his parents moved to Roseville more than 20 years ago and his father Frank coached soccer at Granite Bay High School. Look for New York-, Sicilian-, Detroit- and Grandma-style pies as well as slices.
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.