Welcome to Lily Belli on Food, a weekly food-focused newsletter from Lookout’s food and drink correspondent, Lily Belli. Keep reading for the latest local food news for Santa Cruz County – plus a few fun odds and ends from my own life and around the web.
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… Moss Landing-based mushroom farm Far West Fungi is harnessing a surge of new interest in mushrooms – and celebrating more than 40 years in the industry – by launching the Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival this Saturday and Sunday at Roaring Camp in Felton.
This two-day mushroom extravaganza includes dozens of panels and presentations from leaders in the industry, including herbalist Christopher Hobbs, mycologist David Arora, psychedelic researcher Allison Feduccia and American truffle pioneer Charles Lefevre. There are also cooking demonstrations from Bay Area chefs, including Brad Briske of Home restaurant in Soquel and Eric Tucker of San Francisco’s Millennium, plus nature walks, DIY-demonstrations, artists, a mushroom-themed food court, live music and kid zone. Here’s a preview of the exciting new event.
… Thank goodness I was alone in the Lookout office when I opened the email announcing that food writer and Food & Wine magazine restaurant editor Khushbu Shah is coming to Santa Cruz, otherwise I would have had to apologize for the high-pitched squeal I let out. I’m a fan — Shah’s work has been published widely in places like The New York Times and Washington Post. Now she’s promoting her debut cookbook, “Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian American Diaspora,” which seeks to explore the question: what is Indian food in America? (If you pick up the most recent issue of Food & Wine, there’s a whole spread devoted to the release, with mouth-watering recipes for achari paneer pizza and mango pie.)
Shah will visit Bookshop Santa Cruz on Sunday, June 23. The event is free but registration is required. Click here for more info. See you there!
… Last Sunday marked the last day for two restaurants and a tasting room, which all closed independently on the same day. In Aptos, French bistro Cafe Sparrow closed after 38 years, citing rising costs. Across the street, Doon to Earth, a tasting room collaboration between Bonny Doon Vineyard and Ser Winery, called it quits after less than two years. And in downtown Santa Cruz, it was the last weekend for vegan cafe Honey B Market, which opened at the end of 2022. I’ll miss the cashew soft serve!
… Hop N’Barley Beer Festival will return for another year of suds and sunshine at Skypark in Scotts Valley on Saturday, July 13. If you’ve been to this locally-run beer festival over the last 13 years, you know it’s a blast, with two stages of live music, a wide range of food options, outdoor games and dozens of breweries and cideries pouring samples of craft beer and cider. Tickets are on sale now for $50 per person. All of the proceeds benefit the Homeless Garden Project. Head to BOLO for more info.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
With the Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival on the horizon, reacquaint yourself with the Santa Cruz region’s vibrant mushroom culture. In this story from February, I spoke to Chad Hyatt, a freelance chef who specializes in creating mushroom-focused feasts, professional forager Freddy Menge, whose culinary mushrooms are used at some of the best restaurants in the Monterey Bay, and Far West Fungi store manager Naomi Wolf, on how to purchase mushrooms to use at home.
NOTED
If you tried to grab an ice cream cone at Marianne’s Seacliff location in Aptos last week, the shop may have looked closed, but the building is just under construction, staff say in an Instagram post. Until it reopens on Sunday, guests can get their ice cream fix via the Cookies N Cream food truck out front. It’s serving 12 Marianne’s flavors, plus quarts and novelties like its chocolate-covered cheesecake, from noon to 11 p.m. daily.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
“Organic Rising,” a feature-length film that seeks to demystify the differences between conventional and organic farming, is coming to the Rio Theatre this Friday at 5 p.m. The film features a number of local organic farmers, including Tom Broz of Live Earth Farm, Jeff Larkey of Route 1 Farms, Caleb Barron of Fogline Farm and Joe Schirmer of Dirty Girl Produce, as well as Nesh Dhillon, director of Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Markets, and farmers throughout the Monterey Bay and Salinas Valley. After the screening, there will be a Q&A with director Anthony Suau, Broz, Larkey, Dhillon and Jessy Beckett Parr of California Certified Organic Farmers. Tickets are $6.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
Say what you will about Trader Joe’s, but I think few would argue that the grocery store chain has the snack game down. One of my all-time favorite snacks – the ube pretzels – has suddenly returned to the local TJ’s, and because I’m a good friend, I had to let you know. These little pretzels have a violet-colored yogurt-like coating flavored with ube, a purple sweet potato commonly used in desserts. They are obsessively delicious, and in fact, the whole ube line, which includes pancakes, a dessert spread and ube-covered chocolate cookies, is pretty great. It’s been at least six months since I last saw them for sale, and they disappeared within a couple of weeks. A bag runs around $3 in store, although I discovered that they resell on Amazon for five times that in the offseason.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ While local Swifties were immersed in Taylor Swift’s new double-length album last week, the pop superstar was having dinner with friends just across the bay in Carmel. On April 19, Swift, boyfriend Travis Kelce and friends Bradley Cooper and Gigi Hadid had dinner at Michelin-mentioned French bistro La Bicyclette. Is it too late to ask for an autograph? (San Francisco Chronicle)