Grab a handy red plastic tray, and dive headfirst into the freezer to actualize your dumpling dreams with pork and green chive, lamb and Napa cabbage, or beef and daikon dumplings, never frostbitten or brittle. Cooking yields tender, juicy dumplings with a bit of chew. The Shanghai soup dumplings are a permanent fixture in my freezer, reserved for blustery SF evenings. Wontons, shrimp-and-chive pancakes, and pork buns, perfect for a dim sum party, round out the shop’s frozen offerings. The Ferry Building Farmers Market is the best-known market of the bunch, serving as the living blueprint for the Bay Area’s love of all things organic, local, and seasonal. (Disclosure: I’m on the board of CUESA, the organization that runs the market.) But I also have a soft spot for the independently owned and farmer-run Heart of the City Farmers Market at Civic Center/United Nations Plaza, which has only a handful of paid employees. In operation since 1981, the market transforms a hardscrabble public plaza into a vibrant outdoor market, frequented by award-winning chefs and casual shoppers alike every Wednesday and Sunday.
