Parche, a modern Colombian restaurant, has just opened in Oakland’s buzzy Uptown District, showcasing traditional Colombian ingredients with contemporary flair. Colombian co-owner Paul Iglesias, formerly of Canela Bistro & Wine Bar in San Francisco, opened Parche on Jan. 13, celebrating South American cuisine and culture with a menu and cocktail program not typically seen in the area. Parche is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and until 10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 2295 Broadway in Oakland.

Parche, roughly translated, means “a familial-style gathering place for a group of people to come together.” As such, the restaurant’s menu is small plate-centric, with dishes like Arepa de Anis, a corn cake with anise and barranquilla-style ají made with roasted veggies and tahini; Posta Negra, slow-cooked short rib in a Cartagena-style sauce made of cola and panela; and Ceviche de Chicharron with charred mandarin, sriracha, lime juice and pickled red onions.

Look for a thoughtful, Colombian-inspired beverage program, too, including house sodas made with Colombian fruits, boozy coffee drinks and a “Trans-Atlantic tonica” section featuring Spanish and Colombian spirits. Pay extra attention to the distinctive interior design, which features bold colors, custom balays and murals depicting Colombian spirit animals, the condor and jaguar.

Details: www.parcheoak.com.

Either way, if you weren’t a dessert person before this, you will be after reading this take on the region’s hottest new bakeries — from a Walnut Creek shop crafting Romanian specialties to an Oakland cheesecake house and a Santa Clara bakery where a couple has found their encore career in Portuguese recipes.

East Bay Bakery, Danville

Across the street from Blackhawk Plaza, this stand-out bakery with the simple name has been wowing locals with its sweet and savory offerings since it opened in July. Glass cases display in jewel-like fashion the laminated croffles, curry puffs and pretzels that have become proprietor-baker Gaby Lubaba’s signatures. East Bay Bakery has no seating but the counter offers views of the open kitchen, where the bakery crew prepares Lubaba’s unique spins on danishes, cookies and croissants. (We recently spied both a baklava croissant and a pastrami-cheese version.)

Lubaba, who made our 2022 list of Rising Stars, offers a wide selection of classic treats and fresh baked breads, too, including rye brownies and a craveable olive fougasse. But there is a certain magic in the seasonal items — hello, pistachio chocolate escargot — and treats inspired by her native Indonesia. Be sure to get your hands on the crispy beef curry puffs filled with real curry leaves. They go fast.

The treat: Made from buttery croissant dough, the croffle ($5) is a crowd-favorite that taps into something deeply nostalgic. The crispy, almost caramelized outside leads to a chewy, satisfying interior that’s buttery and not too sweet. Perfection.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. weekends at 6000C Crow Canyon Road in  Danville. Also Saturdays at the Orinda Farmers Market and Sundays at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market; https://theeastbaybakery.com

LeLe Cake, Los Gatos

Elena Leskina says she’s pretty fearless when it comes to challenges — whether it’s “new business, new skills, new country.” An electrical engineer by trade, she taught herself how to bake intricate desserts by watching YouTube videos during her young daughter’s two-hour naps back in Moscow. When she and her family immigrated to the U.S. five years ago, she opened a commercial kitchen.

Last June, she launched LeLe Cake, a cute all-day cafe where brunch is as popular as the pastries and custom cakes. It’s worth waiting for a table to try one of the Euro-style dishes that customers rave about — the Syrniki (Russian cheese pancakes) with berries, perhaps, Homemade Salted Salmon Toast or the Gruyere Waffle with goat cheese and onion marmalade.

If you didn’t save room for dessert, stop at the bakery case for a takeout order of, say, Kartoshka (chocolate cake “truffles” topped with fruit), Pavlova or Trifle. The full-size cakes are multi-layer, highly decorated beauties with selections such as the Choco Girl, Poppyseed & Lemonade, flaky Napoleon cake or the Sever, a Norwegian national favorite topped with meringue.

The treat: The star is Leskina’s version of the Medovik, a Russian honey cake layered with fresh raspberries and a light white chocolate and sour cream frosting. It’s available by the slice (three layers) or as a full-size cake (five or six layers).

Details: Open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 14178 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos; https://lelecake.me/

Crumble & Whisk, Oakland

Charles Farrier’s somewhat random entry into the bakery world came when a coworker asked if he could contribute to a potluck dinner. “I was like, ‘Sure.’ I brought a cheesecake. Everyone loved it,” he recalls.

That revelation triggered a slow and deep dive into the art of baking, with Farrier studying cookbooks, experimenting with different styles of cheesecakes, and then distributing them at barbershops and businesses along Oakland’s MacArthur Boulevard and later at farmers markets. This December, he opened a brick-and-mortar location in the Laurel District, where he prepares not just the confection that put him on the map but scrumptious pastries, artfully decorated cookies and so much more.

“This is about building up community, so people can get to know me as a neighborhood staple,” Farrier says. For his breakfast peeps, he has coffee cake, overnight oats and huge cinnamon buns with a jiggly, custard-like frosting. (Try to get them hot.) Folks celebrating a special occasion – or who just want to treat themselves – can order his super-creamy cheesecakes in full and puck-sized versions, with vegan options to boot. And for dinner, you can pick up a flaky-crusted pot pie and a banana pudding that’d fool your Southern grandma, with vanilla wafers and the obligatory toupee of whipped topping.

The treat: The much-lauded cheesecakes are not dense but rather melting, creamy delights with seasonal surprises. Cold weather might see a maple-pecan crumble or apple-cider cake version with chunks of fruit. In the summer folks, rave about the blackberry and corn cheesecake, made with a puree of off-the-cob kernels, thyme and brown butter.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at 4104 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland; www.crumbleandwhisk.com.

Little Sky Bakery, Menlo Park

For years, Tian Mayimin was focused on the law. Since 2017, it’s been all about leavening.

In the beginning, the self-taught baker delivered her naturally leavened breads, baked in her Menlo Park home kitchen, to neighbors. Then she became the darling of the Peninsula and South Bay farmers market circuit with her creative lineup of loaves. Next came pop-ups. And soon she set her sights on a dedicated brick-and-mortar.

Last March, she and her team opened a storefront location on Santa Cruz Avenue near the Caltrain station. Late in the year, she expanded the hours of their indoor pop-up at the State Street Market in Los Altos, all while maintaining a strong farmers market presence. They staff 16 markets every week, with four seasonal ones starting up again this spring.

With the expansions came more innovation. Pistachio Bundt Cakes and Caramel Nut Tarts for the holiday season. Roman-style flatbreads. Baozi, yeast-leavened, filled buns. Open-face lox sandwiches on European rye. Jalapeno Cheddar Rings. A signature Challah made with orange juice and honey and brushed with olive oil. And Volkornbrot, the hefty German loaf nicknamed the king of seeded breads. Some creations are available weekly; some rotate into the lineup.

The treat: The popular Raisin-Walnut loaves go fast. And keep your eye out for batches of the Provencal herbal flatbread called fougasse.

Details: Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 506 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park, with a permanent indoor pop-up at State Street Market in Los Altos; https://littleskybakery.com/

European Delights, Walnut Creek

Since opening in July on Walnut Creek’s east side, this bakery has become a haven for European expats and others craving Italian coffee and classic pastries without gobs of frosting or other sugar bombs. From the open kitchen, Romanian co-owner and head baker Rica Zaharia, a native of Transylvania, greets customers with a smile and talks them through the day’s fresh bakes while the Lavazza brews on the counter.

The glass case holds a medley of goodies, like almond and honey shortbread, apple morning buns and giant, 7-inch cookies packed with caramel and chocolate chips. Some items, like the covri dog, a frankfurter wrapped in golden pastry dough, are a nod to Zaharia’s Romanian roots. Others are collaborations between Zaharia and staff baker, Vida. One such creation, the tiramisu cookie, features pastry cream sandwiched between soft, round ladyfinger-like cookies.

The treat: We’re big fans of the börek. Thin, flaky, phyllo-like pastry dough is filled with ham, vegetables, cheeses and other savory ingredients. Our favorite is the mushroom ($5), which has flecks of herbs and a distinct truffle flavor. Keep an eye out for heart-shaped treats in February.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday and until 2 p.m. Sunday, at 2236A Oak Grove Road in Walnut Creek; https://european-delights.com.

Max’s Cakes, Hayward

This classic, family-owned bakery opened five weeks ago and has already added much-needed pizzazz to downtown Hayward. Horchata cheesecake and café de olla and buñelo cupcakes, nods to baker Max Soto‘s Mexican-American heritage, line the pastry case alongside cookies and brick-sized slices of his Instagram-famous layer cakes. Those cakes come in five flavors, including coconut cream, burnt almond and confetti, and are already proving to be top sellers.

After ordering your dessert, take a seat — or a selfie inside the giant picture frame against the white subway-tiled wall. Or spend some time admiring the historic black and white photos of downtown Hayward lining the walls. Soto appeared on Buddy Valastro’s “Big Time Bake” in 2020 and became the youngest contestant ever to win a “Food Network” competition. There are some pretty cute photos of him eating cake as a baby, too.

The treat: You have to get a slice of cake ($8). Two, actually. The 24-Karrot cake is super moist, topped with cream cheese frosting and brimming with shredded carrots and toasted walnuts. If you’re a lemon fiend, Lemon Supreme, a lemon cake layered with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream, is your jam.

Details: Opens at 11 a.m. Wednesday-Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday-Sunday at 1007 B St., Hayward; https://maxscakesofficial.wixsite.com

Portuguese Tasty Desserts, Santa Clara

What’s new in Santa Clara is delightfully old school: a bakery specializing in nostalgic Portuguese recipes that made their way from the Azores to the Bay Area many decades ago.

When Teresa and Nelio Defreitas retired from school district careers (she as a kitchen supervisor, he as a campus maintenance manager), they decided to resurrect her parents’ Portuguese Bakery, which had been in business locally for more than 40 years. They found a spot and opened a year ago.

“This is what we love to do, especially the interaction with the customers,” she said. “We have such an amazing mix in this community.”

Customers come from as far away as Sacramento for the pillowy Portuguese sweet bread, pastel de natas (custard tarts), rice pudding, a rich, smooth flan and other goodies. The malasadas — the Portuguese doughnuts so popular in Hawaii — are available in 12 flavors (including guava and custard) on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Know you won’t have time to cook for that upcoming potluck? They will bake to your specifications. “Bring me your Pyrex dish and I’ll fill it up with rice pudding,” Teresa said.

The old-school touches extend beyond the recipes. Walk in and you’ll be welcomed, as all customers are, with a complementary cup of coffee, sweet bread samples and conversation. You won’t walk out empty-handed.

The treat: Biscoitos, the not-too-sweet cookie rings, come in almond, lemon, cinnamon, anise, chocolate and other flavors and are perfect for dunking in coffee or snacking.

Details: Open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday at 1085 El Camino Real, Santa Clara; www.facebook.com/PortugueseTastyDesserts/.

Simurgh, Emeryville

If you took a bagel, crusted it in sesame seeds and stretched it out like one of those old-timey hoops kids pushed with a stick, you’d get simit. Every Turkish city has shops hawking simit – and around here, there’s no better place to try them than Hatice Yildiz’s cafe that opened on San Pablo Avenue in late 2022.

A daughter of Istanbul restaurateurs who took an interesting journey to baking – she got a PhD in religious studies in Berkeley – Yildiz makes simit that’s crackling outside, soft and stretchy inside and kissed with the smoke of the oven. Order it with lox and cream cheese or, more traditionally, with tahini and grape molasses. There’s charred-top rice pudding, too, and baklava with housemade phyllo and imported “emerald” pistachios, famous for their startling green hue and nutty-fresh taste. Try the chocolate version, whose honey and bitter cocoa notes somehow improves on the original.

A heartier bite can be found in boreks, quichelike pies with fillings of goat cheese, mushrooms and kale, and stuffed eggplants that were sun-dried in Turkey. Yildiz plans to diversify her savory side this year with lahmacun, as well, a thin flatbread topped with minced beef, peppers and herbs and baked to perfection. (Just don’t call it “Turkish pizza.”)

The treat: The Russian/Ukrainian honey cake is a masterfully constructed slab of housemade graham crackers, condensed milk and brown butter. The sweet-sensory overload is like sticking your head in a honeybee hive, without the bees.

Details: Open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at 4125 San Pablo Ave. in Emeryville; www.simurghbakery.com.

Forest & Flour, Fremont

Many Bay Area residents with dietary issues have found sweet salvation at Sway Soturi’s farmers market booths over the past few years. Now the San Jose wellness entrepreneur can offer a larger menu of organic and gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free, soy-free and corn-free savories and sweets to a broader audience at her new cafe in Fremont’s Mission San Jose district.

“We try to make things that people would miss,” said Soturi, who started baking allergen-friendly fare for herself. Take, for example, monkey bread and soup. Her Monkey Party muffins are as ooey-gooey as expected, thanks to a coconut-sugar caramel. The creamy, satisfying Clam Chowder is made with chicken broth, coconut milk and cashews, which naturally add an interesting nutty tone.

You’ll also find gluten-free muffins (carrot, matcha and seasonal), baguettes, brioche, chocolate chip cookies and more. For lunch, she and her team offer congee and French toast too.

By the way, this greenery-filled cafe is located near Mission Peak, which is good to keep in mind if you need fuel for a trip up or replenishment after coming down.

The treat: The big hit is the aromatic Lavender-Lemon Bread. It’s available by the loaf or as a small toast order, with a side of locally made Rose Petal Jam. Soturi also showcases other like-minded Bay Area purveyors.

Details: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Friday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday at 43587 Mission Blvd., Fremont; https://forestandflour.com/.

Bake Sum, Oakland

As a kid, Joyce Tang loved to eat at bakeries in Oakland’s Chinatown. “When I got older, I didn’t really feel like I saw anyone iterating those types of flavors at the patisseries I’d visit around the Bay Area,” she says.

Her solution: Quit a Facebook job, land an internship at a three-star Michelin restaurant in Spain, then come back and start her own bakery specializing in memories from her childhood. The philosophy at Bake Sum is pastries should not just be beautiful (though they are, wonderfully so), but also meaningful to a staff of predominantly Asian and female bakers.

“We always try to find nostalgic flavors that speak to us and our upbringings,” Tang says.

Walk into the charmingly decorated shop in Grand Lake and you might see lilikoi “mochi bites” and loco-moco danish with a meat patty, gravy and runny egg. There’s a croissant and Spam musubi crossover called a “crusubi” and an okonomiyaki danish with garlic oil-roasted mushrooms, Kewpie mayo and furikake. It all sounds hearty, but with the skill of the bakers in making delicate, flaky doughs, you’ll be ready for seconds in no time.

The treat: The green-onion croissant is a popular offering that blends two styles of scallion pancakes from Northern and Southern China. It has a pleasantly bready, oily and crunchy exterior, with a soft interior of scallions, toasted sesame oil and sea salt.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday-Sunday and 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday and Monday at 3249 Grand Ave. in Oakland; www.bakesum.com.

Moves, expansions and other new-ish bakeries to check out:

Lolita Bakery Cafe: Silvia Leiva Browne has supplemented her Hillsdale Shopping Center location, which opened in 2018, with a larger retail shop where fans of Argentinean baked goods can find her alfajores, empanadas and more. 3790 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo; www.lolitaalfajores.com

Republic of Cake: This longtime Orinda bakery known for cupcakes moved to Danville in 2022, expanding its offerings to include more pastries, quiches, sandwiches and ice cream. 730 Camino Ramon, Suite 196, Danville; www.republicofcake.com

Wingen Bakery: Peek into a new bread room and enjoy extra seating with a bistro-style menu of breakfast and lunch items at this recently-expanded Livermore bakery known for bread and pastries. 50 S. Livermore Ave., Livermore; www.wingenbakery.com

Ono Bakehouse: The East Bay’s only dedicated Hawaiian bakery has been open since Dec. 2020 and continues to wow with malasadas, savory ham-and-pineapple buns and tropical Queen Emma cake. Best to pre-order. 1922 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley; https://ono-bakehouse.square.site

Sunday Bakeshop: StarChefs 2022 Rising Star Award winner Elaine Lau marries classic French training with the Asian flavors of her childhood for magically nostalgic treats that have mass appeal: White Rabbit cookies, a char siu croissant, Thai tea milk buns and halo halo cake are all stunners. 5931 College Ave., Oakland; www.thesundaybakeshop.com

“They’re still my customers,” says Soto, now 22. “They liked seeing a young entrepreneur doing his thing.”

But the road to pastry stardom wasn’t always sweet.

“I faced a lot of stigma when I was younger,” he says. “In school, I was told this was a job for a female, and that I should become a doctor or lawyer. That hurt a lot. But I never let it deter me.”

You might say he showed them. In 2020, at the age of 19, Soto became the youngest contestant ever to win a “Food Network” competition when he took top prize for a four-foot architectural masterpiece on “Big Time Bake.” Now, he’s just opened a brick and mortar bakery, Max’s Cakes, in downtown Hayward, selling his cookies, cupcakes, cake pops and classic layer cakes.

At the ribbon cutting, the city honored Soto for being the youngest homegrown entrepreneur and business owner downtown Hayward has ever had.

“Being able to open in my hometown and break these boundaries and stigmas has really been the cherry on top,” Soto says.

Located inside a former ice cream shop at 1007 B St., Max’s Cakes is polished yet distinctively old-timey. The interior is decked out in hardwood floors with black accents, including a monochromatic chandelier dripping with whisks. There’s a giant picture frame for selfies, historic photos of downtown Hayward and an overall family vibe, from the party-hatted baby pictures of Soto eating cake to the gaggle of Soto relatives working the cash register.

In the pastry case, snickerdoodle and chocolate chip cookies are displayed alongside horchata cheesecake, cinnamon-scented cafe de olla cupcakes, massive brownies and brick-sized slices of coconut cream, speckled confetti, luscious lemon and burnt almond layer cakes.

“We wanted to create an old-fashioned bakery with classic recipes and feel-good food,” he says.

The “we” is his family, including mom, Monica, and dad, Mario, who co-own Max’s Cakes and have always encouraged their son. Soto announced he wanted to be a professional baker when he was 9 years old. He started taking those custom orders at 14 and grew his skills, eventually mastering everything from a two-tier vanilla “Encanto” cake with strawberry filling to cakes replicating objects, like Air Jordans, a Louis Vuitton bag and a 1964 Chevy Impala.

“Any type of material I needed, any time of night, my mom would take me to Michael’s or Target, no questions asked,” he says.

The “Food Network” win and a subsequent appearance on Hulu’s “Baker’s Dozen” in 2021 fueled the custom cake business — and a two-year waiting list. On “Big Time Bake,” the producers nicknamed Soto The Cake Gangsta for his winning Roaring ’20s-themed speakeasy cake, complete with fondant money and a life-size tommy gun made of rice cereal. He got dinged on the cupcake round, though. His barrel-topped cupcake had too much whiskey.

“I was too young to taste it, unfortunately,” he says. “But the nickname stuck.”

The day he turned down 40 orders, Soto knew he had to open a bakery. It took two years to find the right location — he was determined to stay in Hayward — and get the family trained and ready to run a bakery. Soto’s best friend, Kristy, is the general manager, and his sister, Vanessa, and cousins help out, too.

“Food is such a big thing in our culture,” he says. “That’s how we show our love and get our comfort.”

Despite his early stardom and work ethic, it’s not “dessert mogul” that Soto sees in his future. It’s teaching.

“I want to teach young people how to bake and be a resource for them, so they feel supported to pursue their dreams,” he says.

Details: Opens at 11 a.m. Wednesday-Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday-Sunday at 1007 B St., Hayward; https://maxscakesofficial.wixsite.com

The Bay Area is known internationally as a hub for these handmade, architectural artist books. In addition to the region’s long history of printmaking and its thriving academic book arts programs, we are home to CODEX, one of the world’s largest biennial exhibitions of artists’ books, fine press books and other handmade publications.

Each spring, book artists from Santa Cruz to Sebastopol and around the world gather at the  Craneway Pavilion in Richmond to display their work for the public. CODEX may appear like endless aisle upon aisle of exhibitor tables — a whopping 203 in 2022 — but once you stop, chat with a book artist and spend some time with their work, a whole world will open up.

We caught up with three Bay Area book artists who exhibited at the most recent CODEX to talk about their materials, inspiration and often fascinating processes. Here are their stories.

Bryan Kring, Oakland

Bugs. Warts. An all-seeing eye. East Bay book artist Bryan Kring starts with a simple object or idea and unleashes stories and pictures that are at once playful and profound, often with moving parts, windows and other surprises.

Kring, a printmaker and graphic designer, found his way to paper art-making via painting and drawing — he holds a BFA in both from the San Francisco Art Institute — and creative writing.

“I had a hard time parting with my paintings,” says Kring, who lives in Alameda and works in a studio in West Oakland, where he has been tinkering with laser-printed text for nearly 20 years. “With paper you don’t have that problem. You can always have multiples. And there is a certain intimacy that is created with the object when you can hold it in your hand.”

Darkly humorous stories about transformation are his specialty. “Peephole” is a Twilight Zone-like tale told from the vantage point of a door’s peephole, about how simple obsessions can have horrible consequences. In “Wart,” a 4- by 4-inch compressed booklet, Kring befriends a wart on his finger which turns into an eye, becomes his drinking buddy and then his mortal enemy. And battery-operated “Lunae Secutor” is about a fictional caterpillar, which upon realizing it can’t metamorphose into a butterfly, becomes depressed and seeks solace in the moon.

“I like giving personalities to everything,” says Kring, who hand-painted the box-like book’s fuzzy purple caterpillar. Turn a wooden handle, and the caterpillar walks toward a paper moon illuminated by a hidden LED light.

“Peephole” and “Wart” are among his best sellers — Kring’s book sell on Etsy for $10 and up. Along with “Bug,” which is as much about an internal change as it is “the natural desire to kill anything with six legs,” these books connect with people, he says.

Currently, he’s working on a series about a research scientist stranded in the Arctic Circle. By story’s end, he’ll discover his role in the universe and maybe the meaning of life. “Or he’s going to make peace with the fact that there is none,” Kring says. “By doing these books, I sort of answer these questions for myself, too.”

Paloma Lucas, San Francisco

Ever held a micro book in your hand? There is a whole society of book artists dedicated to making these teeny, 1½-inch books. Paloma Lucas of San Francisco is among them.

After a career in finance, the Spanish-born artist found her medium while taking a bookbinding class at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. She discovered micro books and miniature books — those can be a tad larger — not long after. The process for making these minute readers is tedious: Lucas wears magnifying glasses, uses a miniature book press and sews the little pages together by hand.

“I like it, because it’s something you can bring in your pocket and share with people,” she says. “It’s kind of sculptural.”

Her first microbook, “Goodnight Menopause,” is a parodic adaptation of the Margaret Wise Brown classic, “Goodnight Moon.” Instead of bidding goodnight to the moon and mittens, this narrator addresses a fan, a scale and “a little nip of wine.” The poem is by Barbara Younger; the illustrations and bookbinding are Lucas’ work.

“I try to find topics that make me happy and make me laugh,” she says.

Her larger pieces are playful, too. “Let’s Play Pool,” an experiment in triangular box making, is billiards in a box. Inside a green felt-lined triangular box that resembles a billiards rack, there are nine 2-inch mini books, each colored like billiard balls. Those accordion-style books are inscribed with facts about the game and can be read by turning the pages and rotating their sides. The project was inspired by Lucas’ memories of playing pool in Spain.

“Artist books represent a bridge back to the past when books were unique items cherished by their owners,” she says. “They also represent a connection to the future where common books are gradually phased out, and these unique creations again become cherished keepsakes.”

Nanette Wylde, Redwood City

Retired art professor and interdisciplinary artist Nanette Wylde always included artist books in her coursework — even for students in her digital media courses.

“People like to have something in their hands,” says Wylde, an educator for 26 years. “There’s so much screen, and it’s ephemeral. Digital doesn’t have the same richness as something that’s handbound.”

Wylde should know. The Redwood City book artist-writer has been combining the two into socially reflective pieces for 30 years. “Redacted Babar: ABC Free” is a meditation on the endangered populations of African and Asian elephants. The 13 landscape images in “From This Earth,” a collaboration with her husband and book artist Kent Manske, are photographs of a tree stump-like paper-pulp sculpture the duo created from local craft industry byproducts such as glass, flower petals, hair, denim, grape skins and oyster shells.

They conceived and created the project during the 2020 shelter-in-place, when wildfires were raging across California.

“It’s about a person moving through a decimated landscape to find a place that is livable again,” Wylde says. “You Are the Tree,” the 7 foot-diameter replica of an old growth, coast redwood stump, is on display at the glass-encased Redwood City Art Kiosk on Broadway.

And “Over It,” a relief-printed folder-like book, features 13 ways to help actualize one’s agency in turbulent times. Wylde created the book as a response to the political events following the 2016 election. It includes a button that says “create,” poems by Rumi and Rilke and reminders to read, eat healthy and make someone laugh.

“It’s something to help people remember how to take care of themselves,” says Wylde, whose artist books and electronic works are included in collections from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to the University of Oxford.

Now celebrating its 10th anniversary with a new edition, Wylde’s most successful artist book to date, “Gray Matter Gardening: How to Weed Your Mind,” is also a self-help. Letterpress printed on Kozo paper, which has fuzzy, weed-like embellishments, and handsewn with a French link stitch, the self-reflection how-to invites readers to create an environment conducive to weeding, determine what is and is not a weed, understand and remove the weeds and repeat as needed.

“I’m a gardener and I’m a thinker,” Wylde says. “The reason I make books is because books have made me who I am. I really appreciate the exploratory experience of them.”

Bay Area authors of color, led by Oakland’s Leila Mottley, whose powerful first novel is being translated into 15 languages, made splashy debuts we’re still talking about. Here are four Bay Area authors to watch.

Leila Mottley, “Nightcrawling”

“Nightcrawling,” Leila Mottley’s book about a Black girl in East Oakland who gets caught in a storm of poverty, sex trafficking and corrupt cops, blew the literary world away when it came out in June.

Dave Eggers called it “an electrifying debut.” Oprah Winfrey selected it for her book club, making it an instant best-seller. And the book was long-listed for the 2022 Booker Prize, making Mottley the youngest author ever to receive that honor.

Making Oprah’s Book Club “was the shock of a lifetime,” says the 20-year-old Oakland native. “It took months for the reality to set in.”

Despite the media frenzy, which included appearances on late night talk shows with Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers, the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate remains grounded in the day-to-day of her “real life.” Most young adults her age are working or going to college. She writes.

“It’s really not different than any other passion or pursuit,” she says.

Before becoming a famous novelist, Mottley worked as a preschool substitute teacher. After graduating from high school, she spent the summer of 2019 writing “Nightcrawling.” Following a 13-way bidding war, the book was sold at auction to Knopf. Mottley was 18, midway through her second semester at Smith College, when she inked the deal.

The book follows Kiara, a 17-year-old high school dropout who falls into sex work while struggling to pay rising rent for herself and her older brother, who clings to visions of rap stardom. Their father is dead; their mother, absent.

The book is inspired by Mottley’s research into police sexual violence, including a 2015 high-profile sex abuse case, in which members of the Oakland Police Department were charged with sexually exploiting a minor. Mottley was 13 when the case broke and remembers how the coverage was focused on the officers and not on the implications for the young girl.

“I wanted the story to touch on vulnerability within Black girlhood and link that closely to what it means to be harmed by those who are supposed to protect us,” she says.

“Nightcrawling” will be released in paperback this spring. Mottley is currently working on her second novel and will be publishing her first collection of poetry, also from Knopf, in the next year.

Jane Kuo, “In The Beautiful Country”

In San Carlos author Jane Kuo’s novel, “In the Beautiful Country,” (Quill Tree, $17), a lyrical, moving debut written in verse about family, struggle and belonging, the narrator is a 10-year-old Taiwanese immigrant named Anna. And she’s experiencing a beautiful country — the Chinese name for America — that is difficult, to say the least, and nothing like she dreamed.

“I experienced a lot of the stuff she experienced in school,” says Kuo, who immigrated with her parents to northeastern Los Angeles in 1979. “I was subjected to racist taunts, bullied for wearing highwater pants and teased for my lunch.”

The book, which came out in June, mirrors parts of Kuo’s life. Anna lives in a one-bedroom apartment with her parents and spends her days after school helping out at the flailing fast-food restaurant they poured their savings into. The novel is set in the small town of Duarte in Los Angeles County, where Kuo’s own family settled. Like them, Anna’s family endures overt racism, vandalism and feelings of alienation within their own Asian-American community.

A career nurse, Kuo started writing the middle grade novel in 2016 at the height of the deep racial tensions that surfaced during the presidential election.

“As an Asian-American, I remember asking myself, ‘Do I feel welcome here?’” Kuo says. “From a cultural context, the book is really a family story with a lot of nostalgia.”

A fan of adult memoirs, Kuo didn’t set out to write a middle grade novel in verse. But once she found Anna’s voice — vulnerable, insightful and courageous — the 20,000 words flowed seamlessly from one poetic chapter to the next.

At times heartbreaking and desperate — “I’d like to have friends/but I’ll settle/for being left alone” — the book is ultimately about hope and finding advocates, such as Terry, a grocery store clerk who embraces the family. It’s about making a home.

“There really was a Terry and (her husband) Don, and they really did take me to Disneyland,” she says. “What motivated these people to be so kind to us?”

Find out this summer, when Kuo’s follow-up, “Land of Broken Promises,” is released. It takes place a year later, when a more confident and stable Anna heads to sixth grade.

Joanna Ho, “The Silence that Binds Us”

Palo Alto’s Joanna Ho has always been driven by a passion for equity and representation.

The Taiwanese-Chinese American writer spent years in education, first as an English teacher and later as vice principal of East Palo Alto Academy, a high school where 85 percent of the students are Latinx. She’s developed holistic, alternative-to-prison programs that fuse education with residential living. Even her journey as a children’s book author started from a place of inclusivity.

“I was looking for holiday books with diverse characters for my newborn and couldn’t find anything, so I decided to write one,” recalls Ho, the author of three children’s books, including the New York Times best-selling “Eyes That Kiss in the Corners,” a tender story about self-acceptance. “I believe all kids need to see themselves and others in books.”

So it’s no surprise that Ho’s debut young adult novel is a poignant call to action. Released in June, “The Silence That Binds Us” (Harper Teen, $18) is about a grief-stricken Asian-American teen named May who loses her Princeton-accepted brother to suicide. In the aftermath, she contends with racist accusations hurled against her parents for “putting too much pressure” on him.

“The Silence That Binds Us” was inspired by Ho’s experiences as an educator and her research into the high rate of suicide amid Palo Alto teens, as well as interactions in the community, once at a dinner party of predominantly white guests and another time in a ride-sharing car. Both times, people said the same thing: that because Asian families put too much pressure on their kids, it makes it too difficult for other students to compete.

“I’m literally so invisible, people don’t see me as they’re saying these things,” she says. “The book is timely in the public perspective, but the racism and invisibility is something Asian Americans have been dealing with for a long time.”

Ho is hopeful that change is possible. She is inspired by the “insightful, hopeful, observant” youth around her, similar to May, who goes against her parents’ advice to “keep her head down” amid the hate and instead publishes her opinions about these stereotypes and ultimately mobilizes support and solidarity against the racist accusations.

“She takes back the narrative, and that’s very powerful,” she says.

Ho, who is now a librarian at East Palo Alto Academy, has nine books coming out in the next three years, including her first middle-grade novel and “One Day,” a picture book about a mother’s hope of positive masculinity for her baby boy. “One Day” is due out in March.

Lio Min, “Beating Heart Baby”

In the young adult novel, “Beating Heart Baby” (Flatiron Books, $18), Oakland music journalist and author Lio Min cleverly weaves the worlds of anime and music into a coming-of-age story about queer teen love.

The novel, Min’s first, centers around two Los Angeles boys who find a sense of belonging in their high school marching band. There’s Santi, the artist and new kid who is navigating a world without his internet best friend. And Suwa, the prickly prodigy who is trans and working through a tumultuous relationship with his dad.

Both Asian boys are trying to find themselves when they find each other, and it is a shared history they didn’t know they had that provides the biggest, sweetest reward for readers of this lush, page-turning debut. Along the way, the novel explores issues of grief, abandonment and emotional abuse with hope and tenderness.

Its early seeds go back to a summer Min spent working as a camp counselor in Oakland and the illuminating interactions they had with kids as young as 5. Min, who identifies as trans and uses the pronouns they/them, says they wrote the book for all youth, not just those living in marginalized identities.

“I want all kids to live in a world that is a little more tender and accepting than the one we live in right now,” they say. “You can only push yourself to the future, if you can imagine there is a place for you in there.”

In the novel, which is set up as an album, with track numbers as chapters with an A-side and a B-side, Santi and Suwa find their places among the Sunshower marching band community, which, like the entire book, is filled with a diverse cast. There are trans, biracial and pansexual characters as well as Black female role models, like Santi’s loving guardian, Aya.

Min developed the characters and overall book as a novelization of shōnen anime — their second love, after music — but with an element of inclusivity that they felt has long been missing from the genre, which is marketed to adolescent males.

“Even fans of the shows will agree that girls are often ancillary to the story, their interiority is narrow and they’re not treated as well as the boys,” Min says. “I wanted to build an anime from the ground up and do it in a way that was correct to someone like me.”

Bay Area tech firms may be slashing jobs, but the outlook for domesticated junglefowl work is promising despite the egg shortage. In a newsletter this week, the Bay Area’s beloved bagel entrepreneur Emily Winston asked customers to set aside the table scraps this week in consideration of her growing compost. She needs an army of Boichickens.

“What we clean out of the bagel kettle and trough every day is a mess of wet cooked cornmeal and seeds,” wrote Winston, who is opening her 18,000-square-foot West Berkeley bagel warehouse and cafe in February. “I think it could be great chicken feed.”

Not just any chicken feed. These are toppings of bagels deemed the best in the country, not just by us but by the all-knowing, cream cheese whisperers in New York City.

The seeds and onion bits get washed off cutting boards throughout the day, making a sort of Everything polenta when mixed with the cornmeal mush.

“It’s very fancy,” Winston says. Did she taste it? “I did and it was really wet. It has potential as food.”

Coffee shops give away grinds for your garden. Who’s thinking about the chickens? The Boichickens. Winston is.

“There’s some concern about the onion bits,” she says. “But I talked to some people and they said it was OK.”

Winston, who has shops in Berkeley and Palo Alto, with a Santa Clara location opening this year, says she has already gotten interest from chicken owners. But it is still just a pilot program, and in Berkeley only. Swing by 3170 College Avenue and ask for some. They may give you a whole bin.

“Pick up a bagel, (have your chicken) lay an egg and put it on,” she says.

Paris Baguette: This Asian-inspired Parisian bakery and cafe concept continues its Bay Area expansion with its first and only Contra Costa County location. Tri Valley and South Bay residents already have a taste for Paris Baguette’s large variety of fresh-baked breads, gourmet pastries — hello, curry croquette and sugar mochi doughnut — salads, gourmet sandwiches and cakes. Soon, you will, too. Opening: Mid-February. 124A/B Crescent Drive, Pleasant Hill; www.parisbaguette.com

Morgan Territory Brewing: Tracy’s state-of-the-art craft brewery is making its way west. At the second location, you’ll be able to partake in a large and comprehensive program of award-winning beers, including porters, hazy IPAs, amber ales and much more. The Tracy location has Taco Tuesdays with food trucks and weekend events, too. Opening: Early summer. 14A Crescent Drive, Pleasant Hill; https://morganterritorybrewing.com

Small Cakes: This small Danville bakery is bringing its wide variety of cupcakes and dessert jars to downtown Pleasant Hill. In addition to a rotating cupcake of the day, they offer a dozen flavors, some quite unique, including Caramel Crunch, Boston Cream Pie and Hot Fudge Sundae. They do gluten-free and minis cupcakes as well. Opening: April. 9B Crescent Drive, Pleasant Hill; https://smallcakesdanville.com

Mendocino Farms, the fast-casual restaurant known for Not So Fried Chicken, continues its Bay Area expansion with two new locations: one in Walnut Creek and another in Santa Clara.

The first opens Jan. 17 in Santa Clara’s northern tech corridor at the Mission Park Marketplace, 2040 Wyatt Drive, Suite 110. It will be the chain’s 11th location in the greater Bay Area, and they’re donating 50 percent of opening day proceeds to No Kid Hungry, which combats childhood hunger. Opening day also offers an opportunity to win a catered lunch for your office.

Look for new winter menu items, including a roasted veggie-centric Countryside Cobb Salad and a Chicken Parm Dip Sandwich featuring roasted, shaved chicken breast, cheeses, basil, signature krispies, Calabrian chili aioli and more served on a sesame roll with a side of sauce for dipping.

The second location, in Walnut Creek, will be the first Mendocino Farms in central Contra Costa County (San Ramon is the closest). With an opening set for summer, the restaurant will take over the vacated Chase Bank space inside Ygnacio Plaza at 1895 Ygnacio Valley Road, bringing much-needed salad options, such as Mrs. Chen’s Chinese Chicken Salad and The Impossible Taco Salad, to the Heather Farms side of Walnut Creek. Details: www.mendocinofarms.com

Restaurateurs Miyuki and Koji Murakami are ready to debut their new restaurant inside the historic Massolo building at 293 El Camino Real in Millbrae, so you can add it to the list of the Bay Area’s most exciting winter openings. It joins Kaiseki Saryo Hachi in Burlingame, Ranzan in Redwood City and Michelin-starred Wakuriya in San Mateo in cementing San Mateo County as the hot spot for kaiseki cuisine.

Chef Koji brings two decades of experience as executive chef and general manager at Sanraku, the well-respected sushi restaurant in San Francisco and San Jose, to restaurant ownership and the intimate, 30-seat eatery. The soft opening is Tuesday, with a grand opening on Jan. 17. Hours will be 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, with dinner seatings at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Kaiseki dining “tells a story using local ingredients to create colorful and textural dishes,” from sashimi to steamed, braised or grilled dishes and a dessert, “that represent and honor each season,” Miyaki says. Because it is typically a set menu, it can be limiting to guests, either from a cost perspective or due to food allergies, she adds. Hana Izumi will change that.

“I want to allow customers to pick and choose what they want,” says Koji, who honed his skills at Kitcho, a celebrated Tokyo restaurant, and also worked as a private chef for Japan’s ambassador in Washington D.C. “Lunch with a smaller menu, dinner with full courses, and a la carte if they want seconds, to try something different or because they only want specific items.”

If you caught last month’s sold-out preview pop-up, you know what to expect: five or six dinner courses ($95/person), like amuse bouche of garlic octopus carpaccio or slow-cooked duck breast; succulent braised yellowtail collar in ginger soy; chawanmushi, or shrimp and scallop in steamed egg custard; and crab risotto in dashi broth.

Hana Izumi will be reservation-only with dinner service to start. Lunch service, including a condensed kaiseki menu ($40), sashimi tasting menu ($65) and a la carte items, starts Jan. 17. To make a reservation, text 650-302-3012. Details: http://hana-izumi.com.

Owner Lily Leung made the decision to retire after operating the restaurant at 825 Webster Street for nearly five decades. “I want to spend more time with the family and grandchildren,” she told the East Bay Times.

For 50 years, the Chinese restaurant with the red awning served the bustling Chinatown community with a wide variety of lunch and dinner options. The menu was comprised of classic Cantonese cuisine, from won ton soup and chow mein to the labor-intensive dish known as peanut-pressed duck, which drew fans from far and wide.

“Their preparation was spot on, and forgive me for being simplistic, friggin’ good!,” Jon M. gushed on Yelp. “This restaurant, for preserving and presenting this one amazing dish, is a national treasure. THANK YOU for doing what you do so well!”

Leung says she will miss generations of customers who she watched grow up, have families of their own and come dine at the restaurant.

“I think we might have been one of the last traditional old-school Cantonese residents in Oakland Chinatown,” she says. “It’s bittersweet and I know I’ll miss many people. During our lunch hours, we tended to serve a lot of the law enforcement community and I will miss all those people, too.”

As first reported by Oaklandside, Golden Peacock was particularly beloved for its fast and affordable lunch service, which included clay pots, seafood dishes and sizzling platters for as little as $9.