Eaters Digest is delivered as a free newsletter via email, as well as on our website. Sign up for texts from me to get an alert the moment it’s in your inbox. To read the full story, click here to become a Lookout member – and access all of Lily Belli’s food and beverage reporting.
Eat this: Chicken & rice porridge at The Midway
It might seem strange to recommend rice porridge in this column – it’s hardly an extravagant dish. But hear me out. Albeit humble, the chicken and rice porridge ($19) on the menu at The Midway, the brand-new restaurant from chef Katherine Stern that opened up this week, is layered and nourishing. I don’t know about you, but it’s exactly what my body was craving on a rainy Thursday morning after an entire month of feasting.
Stern launched The Midway as a stall at the weekend farmers markets in Santa Cruz in 2020, and longtime customers will recognize the dish from her regular rotation. Like all of the breakfast and brunch items on Stern’s menu, it’s inspired by the hyper-seasonal offerings from nearby farms. The porridge is made with chicken from Fogline Farm, located up the coast outside of Pescadero, and enriched with turmeric, ginger and fresh herbs. It’s creamy and cozy, excellent with the addition of a fried egg ($2), and invigorating with a helping of Stern’s housemade chili sauce ($2).
The Midway is open Thursday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for breakfast and brunch, but closed on New Year’s Day. Look for a story on Lookout next week.
1209 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz; more information here.
Best of the Weekend
Below, find a curated list of the best food and drink events in Santa Cruz County for the coming week. At the top, I share my picks of unmissable local happenings.
News of the week
ICYMI – Here are the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed, plus important news from beyond our borders picked by yours truly.
- ‘It’s very disheartening’: Restaurants in Capitola, Aptos damaged by waves – again (Lookout)
- Laurie Love on Wine: An extra-special New Year’s Eve Wine of the Week + all things bubbles (Lookout)
- Laurie Love on Wine: Wine Wander highlights, a Westside wine cubby & end of year fun (Lookout)
- A guide to the best burgers in Santa Cruz County (Lookout)
- Does El Rosal Bakery really have the ‘best tamales in town’? (Lookout)
