We've been watching Top Chef Just Desserts religiously, and since Episode 1 we've been crushing hard on local pastry chef Yigit Pura. He's young, adorable, has an accent, and can bake, cream, and melt the most hardened among us. Last week he let Gail and the rest of us ladies down easy, saying if he played for our team he'd be making chocolate soufflés for us all the time like he does for his boyfriend.

But wait, it he gets better ...

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Matt Bites blogger Matt Armendariz.

​Have you noticed it? That extra something in the air? Has your food started tasting a little extra sparkletastic, like it's made with Unicorn Meat™? It's no coincidence. The foodie world is getting an extra shot of fabulous thanks to the BlogHer Food conference in town tomorrow and Saturday, Oct. 8-9.

You see, about 80 percent of food bloggers in the world are women, but of the balance, about 80 percent of male food bloggers are gay. So while the conference lures a predictable parade of cupcake devotees topped with a liberal sprinkling of SQUEEEEE, it's also bringing together an unprecedented collective of gay foodie minds. In fact, this may be the gayest food happening since James Beard, Craig Claiborne, and James Villas took brunch at the Continental Baths in 1975. Okay, I made that part up.

Of course, there's no shortage of gay food bloggers already here in San Francisco. Like me, for example.

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Bears, leathermen, clones: the Castro's long been known as a neighborhood of self-expression, not culinary revelation. Last year, that began to change. SFoodie's spent Pride Week highlighting some of our favorites, both new and old. Here, as a guide to the weekend that's the queer equivalent of Christmas and Halloween and the Folsom Street Fair all rolled into one, we offer 10 of our favorite things to eat and drink in America's gayborhood. Happy Pride, everybody.

Thom Y./Yelp

​1. Applewood-smoked bacon beignets at Frances
If you don't have a rezzie this weekend (or next weekend, or the weekend after that...), forget it: chef Melissa Perello's iconic bouchée, or pre-first course nibble ― warm, savory doughnut holes fragrant with bacon smoke ― will be as unattainable as that torso model grinding to some "Poker Face" remix in front of the dance stage at Civic Center Sunday. But just think: You can taste the beignets, eventually, if you're patient. Try saying that about the torso model.

Frances 3870 17th St. (at Pond), 621-3870.

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Three Twins

​Ice cream will reach new heights of gayness this weekend as two parlors dish up special flavors for San Francisco Pride. Haighteration reported earlier this week that Three Twins will be serving Rainbows are Gay sherbet, Pink Triangle, Pride Vanilla, Hot Cookie (using product from the Castro mainstay), lavender, Don't Ask Don't Tell ("vanilla with blueberry dessert from military rations"), Salted Nuts, and Rice Milk Harvey Milk and Cookies.

"Are You Being Served?"'s Mr. Humphries, 50 percent of Humphry Slocombe's namesake.

​In La Mission, Humphry Slocombe will of course be scooping its exquisite limited-edition Harvey Milk and Honey Graham Crackers. The flavor was officially commissioned by Equality California for Harvey Milk Day last month, when it sold out in three hours, and is back for this special occasion.

Pull over, Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, and head west for Big Gay Ice Cream Weekend.

Humphry Slocombe 2790 Harrison (at 24th St.), 550-6971.

Three Twins 254 Fillmore (at Haight), 487-8946.

John Birdsall

Raisin roll ($1.75).

​Clones, leathermen, bears: The Castro's long been known as a neighborhood of self-expression, not culinary revelation. Last year, that began to change. How to navigate the ultimate gayborhood's new edible landscape? As a nod to S.F. Pride Week, we're cruising the Castro's newest hot spots and longtime favorites.

Francis I./Yelp

​Saturday mornings, Castro Tarts attracts grumpy retail boys in sunglasses getting takeout clamshells of eggs to eat en route to H&M or Banana, portly guys from the neighborhood poring over the Chron with lattes, and whoever else happens to be up on Castro Street at 8:30.

Owner Raymond ― that's the only name he'd give us ― offers up a modern take on the Chinese-American diner, only Raymond, we have to assume, is from Vietnam. That means pho and banh mi (on house-baked rolls that look like the hoagie equivalent of the brioche wrapped around pigs in blankets) along with whitebread-style sandwiches and eggy breakfasts.

You can get enormous flabby croissants (Omnivore Books owner Cecilia Sack swears they're the best in the city) that, if you take them to go, fill your car with the most amazing scent of butter. You can get New Orleans-style Vietnamese coffee made from chicory-laced Café du Monde grounds, and good, strong house coffee brewed from oak-roasted Mr. Espresso.

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​There, on the bottom right corner of the official Pride website, four tiny, alternating ads flash that link to corporate sponsors, each with a tagline that winks to their support of the LGBT community. Anheuser-Busch, a corporation that pulls in almost $37 billion in sales by virtue of controlling roughly half of the entire beer market (and that's just for America), encourages gays and lesbians to "be yourself."

​In contrast, when the Teamsters started boycotting Coors in 1973 over labor disputes, they reached out to minorities including homosexuals, enlisting the aid of community organizer Harvey Milk. The official boycott is over, but the damage has yet to be repaired.

There was actually a PR effort to mend the hurt feelings between Adolph Coors Co. and the LGBT community when Scott Coors ― an actual gay Coors, akin to Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary ― launched a charm offensive, but the family's ties to ultraconservative organizations such as the Heritage Foundation meant that those efforts have not been fruitful. Good luck trying to find Coors Light on tap anywhere in the Castro.

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​
S.F. Rising is a weekly survey of bread in San Francisco ― the baked and the fried, the artisan and the novelty.

Epi
Source: Thorough Bread and Pastry, 248 Church (at Market), 558-0690 .
Price: $1.25
Toast-appropriateness: 0/10.

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Trevor Adams

Eggs are God's little cure for hangovers.

​Clones, leathermen, bears: The Castro's long been known as a neighborhood of self-expression, not culinary revelation. Last year, that began to change. How to navigate the ultimate gayborhood's new edible landscape? As a nod to S.F. Pride Week, we're cruising the Castro's newest food hot spots and oldest favorites.

Weekend mornings, crowds flock to this classy corner on the cusp of the Castro to be wait-listed. Tangerine is a brilliant ray of sunshine on mornings following nights of debauchery and drinking, a place where you can almost hear the fizz of mimosas over the morning buzz of conversation.

Sean Pattansuvoranun's menu shows Pacific Rim influences in things like coconut ginger pancakes ($8), though a dish such as macaroni and corn cakes ($9.50) seems even more exotic. Feeling dapper on a recent morning (and slightly sauced, being on our second round of mimosas) we decided to go savory with the zucchini latke with bacon ($9).

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frankfarm/Flickr

The year-old market has notably enthusiastic shoppers, say the organizers.

​Clones, leathermen, bears: The Castro's long been known as a neighborhood of self-expression, not culinary revelation. Last year, that began to change. How to navigate the ultimate gayborhood's new edible landscape? As S.F. Pride Week kicks off, we're cruising the Castro's newest food hot spots and oldest favorites.

In the past two years, San Francisco farmers' markets have sprouted as thick as fennel in a chain-link lot. The year-old Castro market, which runs from April through October, is one of the best of the city's new crop.

John Birdsall

​Last Wednesday there were 26 vendors ― just about the peak-season max ― on the block-long stretch of Noe. They included more than a few prime Bay Area vendors: Frog Hollow, Prather Ranch, Far West Funghi, Happy Boy, and a brand-new vendor, Pescadero's Fifth Crow Farm, which sells eggs and grains.

Enormous strollers clogged Noe at last Wednesday's market. Guys still moist from the gym picked over shiny mounds of cherries, while the mass of he-on-he and she-on-she couples, moms, and toddlers blended into the sidewalk scene in front of Café Flore.

Elizabeth Howe, regional market manager for Pacific Coast Farmers' Markets, says Castro shoppers are among the city's most enthusiastic.

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mswine/Flickr

Thali with lamb curry ($10.95).

​Monday, June 21, 2010

Sonya Philip | waxandwool/Flickr

​It's two years since Kasa launched at the eastern pole of the Castro's 18th Street cruise corridor. Chef-owner Anamika Khanna grew up in a Punjabi enclave in London ― leave it to someone not schooled in longstanding assumptions of the Castro as culinary barren ground to pioneer some of the most vivid cooking to hit the gayborhood. Did Kasa usher in the Castro's current restaurant frenzy? It's arguable. (Neighborhood chef Melissa Perello once told us that Kasa's chicken tikka kati rolls fueled Frances's pre-opening phase.) We love Kasa's turkey kebab kati rolls (wrapped in house-made roti), but it's the thali that's fueled more than one of our own pre-opening phases at neighborhood bars.

You pick your thali's central dishes, hofbrau-style, from a steam-table setup, to mingle with basmati, daal, raita, chutneys, and a Punjabi version of the chopped salad. Our favorite option? Potato-studded lamb curry, which juxtaposes a cinnamon-forward spice blend with the delicious petting-zoo pungency of grass-fed flesh.

Kasa Castro 4001 18th St. (at Noe), 621-6940.