Spring Equinox and a Joint for Jook

Please join us on the first day of Springtime:

Neblina's Ardent Little Paladar at the San Francisco Skate Club!

WHAT: Neblina's Ardent Little Paladar ft.  jook + all the fixings- free and open to ALL

WHEN: Sunday, March 20 from 11a-2p 

WHERE: San Francisco Skate Club 

WHY: Community Well SF

Our 3rd trip through the Love Kitchen finds us celebrating the magical unfolding of Spring alongside nourishing free food for/with our badass, ever-growing community, and launching the ship for this cook's 39th Trip Fantastic around the Sun. 

Let's have some jook!

The menu this month features the almighty jook (congee, chok, cháo, Okayu, khao piak, kanji, juk....)  accompanied by all the freshest farmers market finds and oils, sauces and pungent, sour, spicy little garnishes for days.

Jook is one of the first 'nutritionist' meals I learned how to make. 

I've made it for people I love all over the world. People who were super sick, people who are getting better, people who were brand new people, people who had been people for decades upon decades and people who had way too much to drink the night before and felt like some sad amalgamation of all of the above. 

It is deeply satisfying to eat and so steeped in healing, cultural and food history that I also find it immensely satisfying to cook and serve. It's Love in a cup and I can't think of a better way to welcome spring and all the new Life that comes with it.

Any money dropped in our tip jar this month goes to the Community Well SF community. 

I am SO excited about them and I am SO happy to be supporting their work this month.

As I make my way through my holistic nutrition studies, I am driven in part by a yearning to educate and empower families to help each other and themselves have a better day/week/year by working partially from the stage of a good meal. 'I'm here to help reduce these ACE scores, have you eaten?' 

Meanwhile Community Well SF is doing so many of the things I would have dreamed of doing in all my current and former roles.

They offer classes in: parenting through different eras of child development; giving birth; talking to your kids about their bodies and sex; how to give massages to infants for parents and older siblings(!!!!!!); personal and family counseling/therapy; sensuality for moms; financial health; yoga--- and so many more things I believe in. Things that I deeply believe will help us keep growing the healthiest, happiest, empowered and thriving communities possible.

And on that I can't think of a better way to celebrate Spring and new Life and our Magnificent City amidst all the possibilities that lie waiting for us in the growing light and the power of a loving community working strongly together.

I pulled this from Community Well SF's website:

“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”  -Martin Luther King Jr.

I hope to see your beautiful face at the table on March 20! 

Bring a friend, bring an empty belly. If you  want to help it shine, please wear yellow, orange or green like Vernal Creatures of Glory that you are.

Until then, I send you Love and Gratitude.

Venceremos,

K

¡Buenas!

Thank you for visiting us out here in the World Wide!

This blog will serve as the home of date/location announcements for upcoming serving sessions at Neblina's Ardent Little Paladar.

Additionally, look for recipes as well as information about our donation recipients and anything else that feels relevant or useful.

Neblina's is a fake little house café in a parallel universe where Havana and San Francisco lean wine-drunk on each other, discussing the power of Love and community between debates about the best place to see a sunset. 

Please see our F.A.Q. post for the verbose explanations.

I committed to opening this monthly cafe/soup kitchen for the duration of 2016 to see what can be done with some sincere effort and absolutely no plan to speak of beyond a recipe and a playlist.

The food is always fresh, hot and good for you. The food is always vegan. The food is always free. The food is always made with love and care and schlepped around the city to your belly with more of that same love and care.  

We are as opulent or casual as you need to be on any given Sunday. Dress up if you like. Put some flowers in your hair. Wear pajamas if you like. Put some chill in your life. It's our new world. It's free. Bring a big, full heart and an empty belly. 

This whole idea is totally (TOTALLY) unrefined and was launched in a half-assed-yet-customarily-fervent hook up between frustrated despair at the state of the world and palpable longing for resonant community at the intersection of Social Justice League and Likes to Cook.

I'm sure it will go through many changes and evolutions as I try my hand at grassroots Revolution. I hope you will walk these streets with me!

I respectfully request feedback, suggestions, ideas and Love.

With gratitude- you are all awesome!

Venceremos,

Kahlilah

{food citizen/proprietress/cook}

F.A.Q.

NEBLINA'S ARDENT LITTLE PALADAR?

Neblina's- is a little café falso, we are based in Sweet San Francisco. 

We are a monthly offering of good food and good vibes (and a totally decent playlist!) for good people- in an effort to propagate Goodness out into our lushly fucked up, infinitely possible World. 

We are ardent. We are small.

We ride in the stilo of a scrappy paladar from the heart of Havana: food, friends and Love are free and served up soup kitchen/family style until the food runs out. This is a Revolution: we always bring our own drinks.

The food will ALWAYS be healthy- our cook is obsessed with that 'nourished' beat. The food will ALWAYS be FREE. 

Each month there will be a jar to accept anonymous and totally unrequired/voluntary donations throughout the day. Any money left in the jar will be sent to an organization doing something in our world that raises the status quo on the current state of the human experience. 

There's absolutely NO pressure to donate. No money goes to me or the food in any way-- it will go directly to someone doing something good out here. Even if it's $4! 

Who gets the money? See below.

WHO GETS THE MONEY?

It changes every month and I have no idea who is next! 

So far we have raised money for the Essie Justice Group, Beloved Streets of America Project and FreeFrom.org

Always taking suggestions!

The dream scenario is that we are bringing folks together for a nourishing meal whilst raising awareness and some money for some excellent people doing their damnedest to do good out in the mad mad mad mad world. 

Social justice social hour. Revolution cafeteria. Justice-y socializing. Peace-propagation victuals.

MAY I BRING MY                    ?

Hell yes! 

Bring yourself and your kids, your parents, your friends, your coworkers, the lady from the bus stop, the beautiful stranger you met at Rainbow, the guy who sleeps in the doorway of your office building.... all of us! 

Everybody is welcome and everyone will be fed until the food runs out. Any food left at the end of each meal will be donated to hungry  neighbors living outdoors.

WHERE IS NEBLINA'S?

Neblina's is an itinerant cafe with an itinerant cook and like the fog of the city we love, we roam and drift these hills- looking for just the right spot to feed our friends. 

We launched at the excellent San Francisco Skate Club and shared our first two meals there. We can do this anywhere we are welcome. I hope to host one in Golden Gate Park and at one of the beaches in the coming months. 

If you would like to provide your home or space some upcoming Sunday, please let me know!

WTF? 

I don't quite know yet. I am so distraught over all the crazy stuff going down (suggested listen: 'Walk Tall' from Cannonball Adderley on the album Country Preacher) out in the world. Families of refugees, trafficking of people for a profit, human beings living outside. Acts of cruelty and administering of shame and oppression and aggression... just shitty, terrible, unnecessary suffering all over the place. So many nasty words and actions flying around. See also: 'So Much Trouble in the World' from Bob Marley and the Wailers on Survivor.

And we all know lamenting is a terrible tool for the task at hand. So I'm making Soup for Peace! 

There's a roiling sea of bullshit out there ready to thwart the beautiful human in all of us. 

And the ocean is comprised of individual drops, right?

So all these rough, tough, traumatic, terrible things are happening all over the world, all day... every single day. 

Meanwhile (all day, every single day)- there are all these honest little efforts ALSO happening all over the world. Passionate, heartfelt energy aimed at making it right, shedding some light, redirecting the tide or smoothing out the ride....

What if we send a few $$ to those who are toiling away at righting the ship? So they can pay their wifi this month or get new pens for the front desk or buy a decent lunch for the badass staff? 

Maybe we can help redirect our sector of the mighty human tide toward peace, kindness, safety and shelter for everyone- and hope it catches on.

All the while we are sharing a nice meal and time together and making new friends while hanging out with old ones.

And that's kind of it. I don't know what else to do right now to quell the storm of despair in my chest--- except drown it in good people and good food gathered in one room to do some good.

As my wisely-mirthful friend says: 'Justice for the World; Justice for your mouth.'

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP? 

Come over and eat! Bring friends, hugs and imagination. Take pictures. Hit your hashtag with #ardentneblinas 

Let me know what you think. Illuminate me to people or groups doing things that make the world better-- so we can send them our support. 

I hope we can all convene and discover new ideas/bands/recipes/hikes/books/happy hours/friends and new ways of being-- all through the magical friction that occurs when smart people have conversations.