There’s more awareness this year about Juneteenth, June 19, which commemorates the 1865 day slaves in Texas learned they were free, and aside from buying food at Black-owned restaurants and businesses that day, there are two very enticing ways to support several of San Francisco’s independent Black food vendors. (Here’s a list of ways you can commemorate the holiday with protests and virtual gatherings, and catch a provocative Juneteenth play online from Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.)
Bayview Bistro, a parking lot hub for mobile food businesses serving Bayview-Hunters Point, recently launched a weekly box featuring a different rotating selection of dishes each week. For the Juneteenth edition, the boxes will include options from Rome’s Kitchen (smothered pork chops), Gumbo Social (jambalaya), Yes Pudding (corn pudding and peach cobbler), the Vegan Hood Chefs (Charleston red quinoa, Nubian salad, veggie stir fry over quinoa) and Big H BBQ (baked beans with or without turkey). Choose between plant-forward and omnivorous boxes that feed two people ($65) or four ($130). Place an order by 3pm on June 17 for pickup on June 19 from 3-5pm.
La Cocina also has a weekly box with a changing selection of items from the food businesses nurtured by the incubator, and this week’s is a Juneteenth box that features 10 of the Black food businesses that have been supported by La Cocina. There are four price tiers available, ranging from $100 to donate a box to East Bay farms Raising Roots and Black Earth Farms and $125 to buy one for pickup or home delivery between 12-3pm on June 19 all the way up to tier 4 for $1,000, which includes a contribution to a Black storefront fund. La Cocina also offers the choice of a vegetarian or an omnivorous box. Both feature Crumble & Whisk (vegetarian quiche), A Girl Named Pinky (carrot cake), Soul (deep green juice and deep greens), MexiQ (soyrizo hash with nopal and potatoes and chicken with macaroni salad), the Healing Kitchen (vegan mackin’ cheese with tofu), Peaches Patties (spinach, lentil, curry chicken and Jamaican beef patties), Minnie Bell’s (greens and cornbread), Boug Cali (chicken, shrimp and sausage gumbo with white rice), Teranga (vegetable domada with rice) and Zella’s Soulful Kitchen (spiced vegetable pickles).
