Saveur 2018 Vol. 3

NORTH AMERICA 1 PORTLAND, OREGON Breaking sushi stereotypes, p. 17 2 KAUAI, HAWAII Making mead with an island influence, p. 21 3 PORTLAND, OREGON Rebellious pizza-making, p. 32 4 BROOKLYN, NEW YORK Innovative vegetable stocks, p. 38 5 PUEBLA, MEXICO Communal cooking, p. 54 6 NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA Rediscovering black-Scotian cuisine, p. 96 7 OAXACA, MEXICO Barbacoa for breakfast 8 EVANSTON, ILLINOIS Reviving Midwestern wheat SOUTH AMERICA 9 LA PAZ, BOLIVIA Exploring local food markets, p. 88 10 AMAZONAS, BRAZIL Solar-powered ice machines EUROPE 11 CHIOS, GREECE Mastic production, p. 20 12 MONTALCINO, ITALY Twin-sister winemakers, p. 22 13 JABUGO, SPAIN Learning from a jamón master, p. 26 14 PUGLIA, ITALY Garden cooking, p. 60 15 ALOJA, LATVIA Celebrating country fare, p. 76 16 SARDINIA, ITALY Mysterious mountain island 17 PARIS, FRANCE Fresh market strawberries AFRICA 18 KHAYELITSHA, SOUTH AFRICA Empowering a community through food ASIA 19 MUMBAI, INDIA Modern kitchen, ancient methods, p. 28 20 SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA Kimchi traditions, p. 40 21 KARNATAKA, INDIA Dosas at home, p. 46 22 AMMAN, JORDAN Endless falafel at Hashem 23…

IT’S APPARENT BY NOW THAT WHAT HAPPENS in the food world can have big, sweeping reverberations outside of it. The choices we make individually and collectively about food—like what we eat, and how and where we grow, make, and consume it—affect everything from agriculture and the environment to political policy, world hunger, climate change, and so much more. Food also plays a societal role, influencing how we act toward and around one another, and the way we experience people, cultures, and traditions that are different from us and our own. Ultimately this all factors in to how well we understand and relate to one another in our communities and across borders. We are happy that 2018 is a year, long overdue, in which women are being prioritized, listened to, and celebrated…

OREGON • GREECE • HAWAII • TUSCANY • SPAIN • MUMBAI TWELVE YEARS AGO, FOLLOWING a short but eye-opening stint in prison, Mary Stallworth needed a new career. Floating around Detroit kitchens as a line cook between gambling binges wasn’t going to cut it anymore. But because the restaurant business was all she knew, Stallworth worked to advance past the line. Half Japanese and half African-American, she found a unique niche as the liaison between the sushi bar and the rest of the kitchen at Chen Chow Brasserie in Birmingham, Michigan. She picked up skills, first making rolls for family meals, then training to help put out large orders. Just as she began to feel she had found her calling in the world of rice, fish, and seaweed, the sushi chef…

THERE’S AN ART TO MAKING MASTIC TREES CRY. It takes a little bit of pressure to lodge the tip of a pick into the bark and pull it across the tree in a process called kentima, or sewing. Too little force and nothing happens; too much and you risk damaging the tree, drying up its precious resin long before retirement age. The incision should immediately start to shimmer with oozing sap, which will eventually elongate into sticky, glittery tears. Chios mastiha, or mastic, has a distinct, piney taste that people either love or hate. When it dries off the tree, you’ll find it in opalescent white pieces of varying shapes and sizes. While perfectly edible in this form—a chewy, slow-dissolving candy—it is also consumed in a variety of other ways. One…

A SOFT AMBIENT GROOVE drifts through the tasting room of Nani Moon Meadery on Kauai, as three travelers take their first sips of Laka’s Nectar, the most honey-forward blend in mead-maker Stephanie Krieger’s collection. Light, complex, and occasionally effervescent, her meads are nothing like the dense, sweet honey wines created by ancient brewers. By the time the group has finished their glasses, mead has shaken its 7,000-year-old reputation to exhibit complexities as diverse as its modern makers. Krieger was a marine scientist before she shifted to mead-making. She is using her training to help forge a new path for the industry, one committed to local sourcing and countering the global decline in bee populations. She concentrates on local fruits that don’t export well—all grown within 15 miles of the meadery—and her…

IT’S NOT THE KIND OF PLACE where you’d expect great wines were being made. Bras and T-shirts are strewn on a clothing rack, turning dry and stiff in the relentless sun. Children’s toys and wooden bikes, temporarily forgotten, are scattered around the stone terrace. And two women, shouting to each other from somewhere in the house, are either really mad or simply Italian. This is Campi di Fonterenza, a biodynamic winery in the Tuscan hilltop town of Montalcino. It’s also home to Francesca and Margherita Padovani, identical-twin sisters who have been making a formidable Brunello di Montalcino since 2004. “This was our parents’ summer home,” says Francesca, who moved here from Milan with her sister almost 20 years ago. The sisters Padovani are like beautiful agrarian hipsters—thick dark hair, chiseled features, worn…