underground markets

Held in an empty parking lot in Oakland on a summer's eve last year, we anxiously waited in a line going down the block, paid a $2 entrance fee, signed a waiver promising not to sue, and finally gained access to various local food makers who lacked legal legitimacy as vendors due to high start-up costs and business barriers. That night, we ate well, homemade everythings from chocolate to chicken bowl. Sadly, SF Forage, whose mission is to give local food artisans a boost toward legitimacy, announced today that the Underground Market has been officially shut down.

Seven hours south by car, in our hometown off the main street (one of the highest traffic-dense streets in Los Angeles County), is a 3-acre farm run by a Taiwanese immigrant family, growing Asian vegetables and aggregating produce from local community growers. It's a for-profit, peri-urban family farm selling vegetables and homemade buns+cakes directly to Chinese moms out of an underground market/shack at prices lower than most grocery stores. Running business for over ten years, the lady at the market puts a free ginger and garlic clove in our bag after we give her cash for the goods.

The most legit food, maybe it comes from the illegitimate, inexpensive family kitchen.