San Francisco Chronicle Food & Home - Spoken Edition

An eating tour starting at the building’s north end and heading south: 1. Steamed chicken bun at Out the Door At $3.50, the fist-size steamed buns at Out the Door may be the most inexpensive meal you can pick up at the Ferry Building. — Jonathan Kauffman 2. Rum drinks + spring rolls at the bar at the Slanted Door I love the sleek modern bar at the Slanted Door, especially for cocktails.

Yelp’s food-safety alerts steer diners away from dirty restaurants, but also spark controversy Check out Yelp’s listing for New Woey Loy Goey in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and below its rating (3.

“If I existed in liquor form, I’d be this”: Oakland rapper G-Eazy now has his own bourbon Five floors above Fourth Street in SoMa, sitting on a black leather couch in the dimly lit bar Dirty Habit, G-Eazy looks restless. The Bay Area native says he has a lot on his mind — specifically trying to find ways to see family and friends before a concert later in Oakland.

Walking into Stan’s Donut Shop is like stepping back in time, to an era when no-frill diners filled the American culinary scene and doughnuts were simply thick and glazed.“People would walk in and freeze, before saying, ‘Oh my gosh, it hasn’t changed at all’ — even if they haven’t been back in 20, 30 or 40 years,” says Julie Clark, co-owner of Stan’s and daughter of founder Stan Wittmayer.

In his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, written after three or more visits, appear in the Sunday Food + Home section.It’s been a big year for James Syhabout. In October he opened CDP, a chic bar next door to his 9-year-old Commis.Then, in December, he converted Hawker Fare into Hawking Bird, his quick-casual restaurant in Oakland.

Bloom and doom in the biennial garden: Why you should harvest before spring As you probably learned in school, a biennial is a plant that lives longer than one year but less than two years. An ornamental gardener knows biennials as the garden flowers that seem to take forever to bloom — foxgloves, hollyhocks and Canterbury bells, among others. A number of food crops are also biennials.

Three comforting soups to ward off winter’s chill, and maybe curtail a cold, too This year’s cold and flu season has been epic. With hospitalization rates for influenza at an all-time high, it’s one of the worst in years. If the hacking coughs I’ve heard around The Chronicle newsroom, not to mention on public transportation, are any indication, we’ve still got a way to go before the season passes.

Cafe X CEO Henry Hu works to get a robotic barista working after it malfunctioned during the opening on Tuesday of the kiosk at One Bush Plaza. Cafe X CEO Henry Hu works to get a robotic barista working after it malfunctioned during the opening on Tuesday of the kiosk at One Bush Plaza. It was a rough first day at the office for Cafe X’s newest robot barista.

A view of the inside of OwlNWood in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, September 12, 2014. The owl on the wall was designed by the owner/designer Rachel Konte. A view of the inside of OwlNWood in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, September 12, 2014. The owl on the wall was designed by the owner/designer Rachel Konte. Rachel Konte, top, inside her OwlNWood boutique in Oakland, which sports an owl image she designed, above. Konte designed Kaya restaurant in S.F.

Nico will be still be Nico when it opens next month. Even though the critically acclaimed bistro spent its last few months moving from Presidio Heights to cozier confines in Jackson Square, co-owner Andrea Delaroque said the concept remains pretty much the same, outside of a few service format changes.“At lunch, we plan to do a ‘formula’ offering either a two or a three-course menu with a choice at each course.

How Maria Echavarria, against all odds, forged a 30-year career in the vineyards Maria Echavarria's first job at 17 led to steady work at Porter Creek Vineyards. A hard-won sense of respect and freedom came much later. How Maria Echavarria, against all odds, forged a 30-year career in the vineyards Maria Echavarria's first job at 17 led to steady work at Porter Creek Vineyards. A hard-won sense of respect and freedom came much later.

Molly de Vries loves to sit around and talk trash.Where it comes from, where it ends up, how to make less of it. And when all else fails, how to transform it into something beautiful and useful.A passionate advocate for living a (nearly) nondisposable life, de Vries opened her store, Ambatalia, in a recycled train container in the Mill Valley Lumber Yard in 2004, with goods designed to help reduce the wastefulness of single-use products.

“We’ve been trying to sell the business for a little while,” says Christian Cisle, owner of the seven-year-old Wing Wings in the Lower Haight, a few days after tweeting a photo of the change-of-ownership sign he just newly posted on the front door. “But we didn’t think that someone would want to continue as Wing Wings.”That was until Eric and Tony Shou, a uncle-nephew combo, agreed to buy Wing Wings and keep it going.

The cocktail Rolodes at Miminashi: Each card holds a recipe, and tells how it is to be served. The cocktail Rolodes at Miminashi: Each card holds a recipe, and tells how it is to be served. Diners can leaf through the Rolodex and choose a cocktail for $12 at Miminashi. Diners can leaf through the Rolodex and choose a cocktail for $12 at Miminashi.

A few months ago, Food took a dive into The Chronicle’s archives to explore beloved recipes from bygone Bay Area restaurants.It was a story that touched a nerve with readers: Dozens wrote in, sharing their own food memories and nostalgic recipe requests. We’re back for round two.One of the most requested recipes from readers was for Blum’s Coffee Crunch Cake.It’s no surprise that the cake would elicit such fond memories.