Last night I attended a dinner hosted by the folks at Forage SF, a local group dedicated to foraging wild foods. They distribute a monthly "CSF" box (similar to a CSA, but with foraged foods instead of cultivated ones), and put on these dinners from time to time. I was really excited to go, and it was fun to see all the different things one could do with the foods growing around us. My only criticisms are that there were no greens on the menu (when it seems to me that there are edible greens like wild arugula and miners lettuce pretty much everywhere I go), and that some of the main ingredients on the menu were not actually foraged or local (for example, the paella had several vegetables in it that are not in season, not to mention that the rice was not local or wild. If I'd been cooking this dinner I would have tried to procure some wild rice that had been foraged in Minnesota or something along those lines, or just served the mussels in a different way). Otherwise it was a real treat to enjoy an interesting menu and meet some new people! I definitely am curious to attend another of these dinners in the future. This is the menu we were served (I reworded some of it, to better describe what we ate). I think the highlight for me was the black olive leather served with the financiers. It was like a fruit leather but salty and sweet, and really delicious! Unfortunately the lighting wasn't very conducive to picture-taking, so the above photo is from the Forage SF website.
Chantrelle1 Bisque with Cowgirl Creamery Creme Fraiche
Acorn4 Bread with Honey Infused Raw Milk
Paella with Local Mussels5
Feta Cake with Ocean Water1 Foam and Persimmons3
Black Walnut2 Financier with Black Olive Leather
Sage Chocolate Mousse with Wild Huckleberries1 and Tapioca
1Foraged in Mendocino
2Foraged in Willits
3Foraged in Berkeley
4Foraged in Lafayette
5Foraged in San Francisco
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