Latest news with #Pacifico
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. gets rare tropical dishes, plus more recent restaurant openings
From short rib gnocchi to homestyle Mexican platters, San Francisco diners have a slew of new exciting spots to check out for dinner. The latest from the former chef at a Michelin-starred seafood restaurant, a modern Colombian restaurant and a pizza spot that's already impossible to get into are early highlights. There are also new places to caffeinate near Golden Gate Park and Jackson Square. Click here for a list of San Francisco restaurants that opened in April. Tropical popup graduates to fixed location Colombian coastal cuisine popup Pacifico is now serving ceviches and arepas in a dedicated space. Eater SF first reported the project from Daniel Morales, an alum of the Progress and La Mar, and partner Laura Gelvez. Brunch dishes include pancakes made of choclo, a South American corn varietal with large kernels. There are also beefy empanadas and arepas filled with Dungeness crab and egg. Dinner service is expected to start early June. Pacifico takes over the bar and lounge at music venue B Side, where Andina previously served its Venezuelan-style arepas. 205 Franklin St., San Francisco. The snowy plover has a new roost. Popular local coffee roaster Andytown closed the month with the launch of its eighth location in Jackson Square. Find the usual lineup of drip and espresso drinks made with Andytown's select, single-origin coffee beans, along with teas and pastries. 747 Front St., San Francisco. A Mission favorite grows El Mil Amores, the Mission's Mexico City-style brunch hot spot, has opened a new location. Owner Andrea Becerra launched her latest in the former Regalito Rosticeria, fittingly named Regalito El Mil Amores, where offerings lean more into lunch and dinner fare, with adobo-marinated pork chops and chicken poached in mole. The DF plate brings a large sope topped with beans and a thin slice of beef alongside the soup of the day and starchy plantains. For anyone who misses the predecessor's rotisserie chicken, half-bird orders are still available, served with sauteed greens and potatoes. Wash it down with a tepache, a sweet cider made in-house with guava and pineapple that's spiked with tequila. 3481 18th St., San Francisco. Colorful sweets and more Local chocolatiers Topogato launched its first brick-and-mortar store just in time for Mother's Day. The project from Simon Brown and Beau Monroe made a splash with their first treats in 2020, incorporating ingredients such as preserved lemon, puffed rice and Thai basil. Confections in the display case may feature smoked tea peach truffles and others decked out with paint splatter flourishes. Brews by the bay Sip on crisp lagers near sleeping sea lions. Humble Sea Brewing Co. opened its third Bay Area location at San Francisco's Pier 39, where restaurants have created a thriving dining scene. House favorites like hazy IPAs and fresh helles are on tap, perfect as the summer heat rolls in. Pier 39, Space N-111-1A, San Francisco. Hot pizza popup goes steady Recent arrival Jules has brought crowds to the Lower Haight since opening mid-May. The main draw is chef-owner Max Blachman-Gentile's pizza that bends regional genres, with a crust that's crispy like New York pies but topped with the Bay Area's prime produce. Find personal spins on classic pepperoni and mushroom, along with dishes like chicken with blistered snap peas, and charred arrowhead cabbage with Calabrian chile butter. Plan ahead, as reservations seem to vanish as soon as they go live. Shooters only Darts gets the augmented reality treatment at an expansive new bar and entertainment center. Visitors to SoMa's Golden Eye are now shooting for triple bullseyes with a drink in hand, or trying at least. Eater SF reports there are classic cocktails with a twist along with non-alcoholic drinks. To munch in between rounds there are plates of seven-layer tuna tartare, oysters and a seared mushroom steak. New Vietnamese restaurant Pho Star is cooking with everyday favorites around the corner from Guerrero Street in the Mission District. The menu is straightforward, with noodle soups and rice plates served with fragrant chicken and tender meats. Spring rolls and banh mi with five-spice chicken rank high among Yelp users. 3214 16th St., San Francisco. New spin on beloved space The former home of the Mission District's Universal Cafe is back with a new tenant and a new tune. Side A, a bistro mashing up Midwestern flavors and Japanese listening bar style, is now offering short rib gnocchi and chicken cutlets in mustard sauce. Parker Brown, a former chef at shuttered seafood temple Aphotic (which may resurface), and his wife, Caroline, aim to keep the mood casual, with bottles of Miller High Life and straightforward wine list. The Browns hope these elements, plus live DJ sets, set a mood akin to a dinner party. The space where Ritual Coffee served lattes in the Lower Haight did not sit empty for long. Eater SF reports the Coffee Lama has taken over the location, with a similar menu of coffees and expanded food options that include burritos and fruit bowls. 1300 Haight St., San Francisco.
CBS News
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
6 tons of cocaine recovered from "narco sub" and underground stashes in Colombia, videos show
Authorities seized more than six tons of cocaine from a semi-submersible vessel — a so-called "narco sub" — and from two underground hiding places discovered in Colombia, the country's navy announced this week. Officials released video of the narco sub being intercepted off the country's Pacific coast, as well as video showing officers and a sniffer dog locating stashes of cocaine that were buried underground. The navy also released an image of more than 100 packages of the alleged narcotics laid out on the shore next to a military boat. Officials said the street value of the seized cocaine was estimated to be about $300 million. En #Nariño, a bordo de un semisumergible y en dos caletas subterráneas, incautadas más de 6️⃣ toneladas de cocaína avaluadas en 3️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ millones de dólares. — Fuerza Naval del Pacífico (@FNP_ArmadaCol) May 24, 2025 The navy said the narcotics were intercepted in Narino, a region on the Pacific coast of Colombia bordering Ecuador. They did not say how many people were arrested or where they believe the haul of drugs on the semi-submersible was headed. A day earlier, Colombia's navy said forces had seized about three tons of narcotics in the Pacific Ocean that were headed to Central America. Some of the drugs were intercepted after navy ships chased a "vessel moving suspiciously," authorities said, and three people were arrested. The drugs were worth an estimated $97 million. Narco subs typically sit very low on the ocean's surface but cannot go fully underwater. They are popular among international drug traffickers because they can often elude detection by authorities. Though commonly caught off the coast of Colombia, which produces the majority of cocaine found in the world, narco subs have been spotted across the globe in recent months. In March, Portuguese police said forces had confiscated nearly 6.5 tons of cocaine from a semi-submersible vessel off the remote Azores archipelago that was bound for the Iberian peninsula. In January, a suspected narco sub broke in two pieces as a fishing boat was towing it to a port in northwest Spain. In November 2024, the Mexican navy said it seized about 8,000 pounds of cocaine aboard a semi-submersible about 150 miles off the resort of Acapulco. Two months before that, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had offloaded more than $54 million worth of cocaine — including over 1,200 pounds of drugs that were seized from a narco sub.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Better Buffett Stock: Constellation Brands vs. Coca-Cola
Constellation faces significant near-term and long-term challenges. Coca-Cola is still growing at a steady rate in this challenging market. Buffett's classic investment is still a better buy than his newest one. 10 stocks we like better than Coca-Cola › Warren Buffett plans to step down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) at the end of this year, but he's still making some big trades for the conglomerate's $285 billion portfolio. Last year, Buffett reduced Berkshire's stakes in several of his top stocks -- including Apple and Bank of America -- and boosted its cash and short-term U.S. Treasury holdings to record levels. Those cautious moves indicated that Buffett thought the market was getting overheated. But as he pruned some of those long-term winners, he accumulated some new stocks and left his other top holdings alone. One of those new stocks was Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), one of the world's leading producers of alcoholic beverages. One of the classic stocks he didn't touch was Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), the world's largest beverage maker. Both of these stocks might seem like evergreen investments. But over the past 12 months, Constellation's stock declined 23% as Coca-Cola's shares rose 15%. Should you follow Buffett's lead and buy Constellation? Or should you simply stick with Coca-Cola? Buffett started a new position in Constellation by buying 5.62 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2024. He bought another 6.38 million shares in the first quarter of 2025. Those 12 million shares, which are worth $2.3 billion, account for 0.8% of Berkshire's entire portfolio. The investment in Constellation turned heads because the company faces some formidable near-term and long-term challenges. It sells more than 100 brands of beers, spirits, and wines, but many of its top brands -- including the beers Modelo, Corona, and Pacifico -- are produced in Mexico and subject to the Trump administration's 25% tariffs against the country. Even if Constellation overcomes those tariffs by shifting its supply chain or raising its prices, it still needs to deal with the ongoing decline of its cheaper wine brands and lower alcohol consumption rates among younger consumers. It's trying to address those issues by divesting its cheaper wine brands and rolling out lighter and nonalcoholic drinks for the younger generation, but the bears think it could eventually face an existential crisis like the big tobacco companies. From fiscal 2025 (which ended this past February) to fiscal 2028, analysts expect revenue to decline from $10.2 billion to $9.9 billion as it divests some weaker brands. It posted a net loss in fiscal 2025, mainly due to some big goodwill impairment charges related to its struggling wine and spirits segment, but the company is expected to turn profitable again in fiscal 2026 as it laps those one-time expenses. Analysts expect EPS to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% over the following two years as it tries to stabilize its business. The stock looks cheap at 15 times earnings and pays a decent forward yield of 2.1%, but it needs to resolve those pressing issues before it attracts a higher valuation. Buffett started to buy shares of Coca-Cola for Berkshire in 1988. It now owns 400 million shares, which are worth $28.8 billion and account for 10.1% of its portfolio. That makes it Berkshire's third largest position after Apple (21.8%) and American Express (15.7%). Buffett's devotion to Coca-Cola, which he claims to drink five cans of daily, might seem risky as soda consumption rates decline worldwide. But over the past few decades, the company has diversified with more brands of bottled water, fruit juices, teas, sports drinks, energy drinks, coffee, and even alcoholic beverages to reduce its dependence on sugary sodas. It has also refreshed its classic sodas with new flavors, sugar-free versions, and smaller serving sizes to attract new customers. Coca-Cola isn't heavily exposed to tariffs because it only sells the concentrates and syrups for its drinks. Its finished products are actually produced by a global network of bottlers that operate as independent companies. Those bottlers might face a near-term headwind from the Trump administration's tariff on aluminum, but they can easily pivot toward more plastic bottles to offset that pressure. They also don't need to worry too much about the tariffs on exports into the U.S., since they produce and sell their finished beverages regionally. From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Coca-Cola's revenue and EPS to show a CAGR of 4% and 11%, respectively. The stock still looks reasonably valued at 25 times forward earnings, and it pays a forward yield of 2.8%. That's probably why Buffett hasn't sold any of his shares over the past 13 years. Constellation's business isn't headed off a cliff, but it faces much tougher near-term and long-term challenges than Coca-Cola. I see why Buffett thinks it's undervalued at these levels, but it could get stuck in the same trap as big tobacco companies and need to constantly hike prices to offset declining shipments, cut costs, and buy back more shares to squeeze out more earnings growth. So if I had to pick one of these stocks, I would stick with Coca-Cola instead of Constellation. Before you buy stock in Coca-Cola, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Coca-Cola wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $642,582!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $829,879!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 975% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Leo Sun has positions in Apple and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Bank of America, and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool recommends Constellation Brands. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Better Buffett Stock: Constellation Brands vs. Coca-Cola was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
‘We sometimes milked 3,000 snails a day!': the dying art of milking molluscs
The site for the camp is well chosen. Mangrove trees provide shade from the sun; from their hammocks, the two men can look out over the yellow sand of Chachacual Bay. Rocks rise at both ends of the beach, breakers crashing against them. Next to the camp, turtles have left their tracks in the sand. 'They often come at night and keep us company,' says Mauro Habacuc Avendaño Luis, 81, known to everyone as Habacuc. While Habacuc lights a campfire to make coffee, his son Rafael, 42, sets up a small tent for the night. Rain is forecast. 'We've been camping in the same spot for many years,' says Habacuc. 'From here, we roam the coast in search of the purpura snail.' White cotton skeins dyed with snail ink turn from yellow to green and finally 'tixinda' purple in the sun The two men, members of the Indigenous Mexican Mixtec people, are tintoreros, which means 'dyers'. Their work on the Pacific coast is extraordinary: they are the last people to extract dye ink from a rare species of snail, Plicopurpura colummelaris, which belongs to the rock snail family. 'It is one of the oldest methods still practised today for dyeing yarn for clothing,' says Mexican ethnologist Marta Turok. 'The coastal Mixtecs in Oaxaca have been using it for at least 1,500 years.' The Mixtecs call the colour tixinda. As the sun slowly sinks below the horizon, Habacuc and Rafael set out to search for the purpura snails and 'milk' them – as they call the process of extracting the ink. Their work depends on the tides. 'We can only reach the snails at low tide because they live in the zone where the surf hits the rocks,' says Habacuc. Rafael climbs over the rocks looking for snails to collect ink from The men climb from boulder to boulder, looking for the crevices where snails cling to the rocks, which are often covered in algae and extremely slippery. 'One wrong step can cost you your life,' says Rafael. 'We have lost relatives who have fallen and been swept away by the waves.' The rocky shoreline can be treacherous They quickly find the first specimens about half a metre above the water level. Their shells are dark green to black, with small, knotty spirals and grooves on the surface. It takes strength and skill to detach them. 'I have to pull the snail up decisively, tipping it sideways,' says Rafael. 'If you hesitate, it clings even more tightly.' After detaching a large female snail from the rock, he presses on its foot with his finger. The snail first excretes a small amount of urine, which he tips aside. Only then does it secrete a few drops of a milky substance, the actual ink. This contains neurotoxins, which the purpura snail uses to paralyse smaller snails and other marine invertebrates, which it then eats. The substance is harmless to humans. The tintoreros carefully detach the snails from the rock then press gently on the snail's foot to make them secrete a few drops of milky ink Rafael lets the ink seep into a bundle of cotton thread wrapped around his left hand and puts the snail back in a protected place so that it can reattach itself to the rocks. After a few minutes, the snail secretion reacts with the oxygen in the air and the yarn turns yellow and, a little later, green. But it needs the sun's UV light to achieve the brilliant violet colour which lies somewhere between lavender and amethyst. 'If the day is gloomy, the yarn stays green or blue,' says Habacuc. 'You have to moisten it again and put it in the sun, then it turns purple, even if a year has passed since it was dyed.' It is said that the snail purple will never fade and cannot be washed out. 'The clothes will disintegrate, but their colour will last for ever,' says Habacuc, pointing to his white shirt with its purple work stains. 'If you rub purple-dyed yarn, it immediately smells of seaweed and the sea.' Habacuc, 81, has been milking snails since he was 14 years old Habacuc is the head Mixtec dyer in the small town of Pinotepa de Don Luis, the only place in Mexico where the purpura tradition has survived. He learned how to milk snails from his uncle when he was 14. 'I've been doing this for 67 years now, and you can see it in my feet.' He points to his toes, which are curled inward from clinging to the rocks. 'Back then, we could walk from our village to the coast, 40km [25 miles] away, to milk snails.' The purple colour is considered sacred by the Mixtec people Plicopurpura columellaris was once native to the entire Pacific coast of Central America, from Baja California in the north to Colombia in the south. 'We sometimes milked 3,000 snails in one day and dyed seven to eight large cotton strands with the ink,' Habacuc says. But that was a long time ago. The animals have long disappeared from the beaches of his youth. They are now found only in Huatulco national park, with its many inaccessible cliffs and wild coves. Even there, the tintoreros rarely find more than 100 snails a day. 'The cost of travel and food is higher than my profit from selling the yarn,' says Habacuc. 'The only reason we continue dyeing is the desire to preserve our traditions and culture.' The Mixtec tintoreros carefully detach and replace the snails and give them time to reproduce. Snail populations were decimated in the 80s and 90s by hired fishers who ignored these traditional practices The decline of the snails began in the early 1980s, when Japanese companies discovered the ink and used it to dye fine kimonos. They hired fishers on the coast of Oaxaca to milk the snails – but they threw them into the water after milking them or left them lying in the sun. 'They tried to milk the snails almost every day – and killed them,' says Habacuc. 'The mollusc needs a lunar cycle to regenerate.' The snail population declined dramatically within five years. The Mixtecs, with the support of ethnologists and biologists, raised the alarm. The Mexican government banned the Japanese companies and in 1994, declared Purpura columellaris a protected species. Since then, only Mixtecs from Pinotepa de Don Luis have been allowed to milk them. Habacuc and Rafael are two of only 14 men left in Pinotepa de Don Luis who continue the dye-gathering tradition But new threats arrived, as the once remote coastal region experienced rapid development. Roads, hotels and restaurants were built. Thousands of tourists flock to the beaches and beautiful bays every year – and they demand seafood. 'Again and again, we encounter poachers who seize every opportunity to make a few pesos. They don't care about the extinction of a species,' says Habacuc. 'The government talks about protection, but it doesn't even monitor the beaches in Huatulco national park.' Since an earthquake in 2020, the species' future has been even more uncertain. During the tremor, the Pacific plate pushed a little further beneath the Mexican mainland, raising the coast near Huatulco by about half a metre. Some once-inaccessible rocky coastal stretches have since become within easy reach of poachers and tourists. Many coral beds were also elevated. Some are slowly dying, and with them millions of small species that are part of the purpura snail's food chain. Mixtec embroidery depicts the purpura snails that are a part of their culture The Mixtecs are the snail's most important protectors. Their presence in the national park deters poachers, and they follow strict rules so as not to harm the purpura population. For example, not milking snails smaller than 3cm, banning milking during breeding season, and allowing the snails to regenerate for three to four weeks between milkings. It is already dark when Habacuc and Rafael return to camp. They cook the beans they brought with them and warm tortillas around the campfire. 'We always come for seven to eight days, dyeing during low tide and resting during high tide,' says Habacuc. 'When our tortillas run out, we return home.' The dyed yarn is distributed among the town's weavers. There are still about 60 women working as weavers in Pinotepa de Don Luis. The tintoreros take the dyed yarn back to Pinotepa de Don Luis, where women weave it into blankets, shawls and other clothes 'The purpura snail and the purple tixinda dye are sacred to us,' says 79-year-old Socorro Paulina Lopez, Habacuc's wife. She taught her daughter and two daughters-in-law how to weave. 'We absolutely must preserve this tradition,' she says. There are only 14 men left in Pinotepa de Don Luis who continue the dye-gathering tradition. 'We need more educational work so that the fishing communities understand how important the snail is to us and stop poaching,' says Habacuc. 'We're running out of time.' Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage The rich purple dye enhances an embroidered table cloth
CNA
09-05-2025
- General
- CNA
From Chicago to Chiclayo: Peruvian town hails adoptive son and pope
CHICLAYO: Residents in the Peruvian town of Chiclayo chant "long live the pope!" hailing the election of their adoptive son, who for years lived, ate, and prayed among them. Pope Leo XIV spent eight years as a bishop close to the shores of the Pacific, becoming a Peruvian citizen in the process. For Chiclayo locals, he is as much theirs as he is a Chicagoan. "It's a magical day," said Lula Botey, a realtor and one of a crowd chanting, praying, and applauding his selection around St. Mary's Cathedral. Some of Leo's first words as pontiff uttered from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square, were to acknowledge this dusty town on the other side of the world. "Greetings to everyone and especially to my dear diocese of Chiclayo," he said in fluent and modestly accented Spanish. For Botey it was an emotional and unexpected moment. "It was very moving," she told AFP. "We haven't stopped crying". The 45-year-old remembers then Bishop Robert Prevost's "wonderful homilies," during which he "invoked charity and urged politicians to think of the common good". Others in this city of 600,000 inhabitants, remember a "kind," "humble" man who was "close to the people". "He is a person of great kindness," said 57-year-old Luis Cherco, remembering someone who would "greet you in the street". "I really feel very, very excited. You can feel the emotion I have," he added. "The hands of God are here, they are in the Vatican, and they are in Chiclayo now, aren't they?" "THE POPE ATE HERE" On the cathedral's steps, Father Juan Mechan Sanchez leads an impromptu prayer, the Lord's Prayer. A quickly produced poster bearing the image of the new pontiff is brandished nearby, with the inscription: "The pope has a Chiclayo heart!" People rush to pose in front of it. It was around Chiclayo that the now pope once posed for photos riding a horse, and donned boots to face the region's sudden downpours. Bernardo Victor Heredia David, an 81-year-old former theater teacher, still struggles to believe his former bishop is now pope. "We didn't expect it, truly," he said incredulously, recalling a one-on-one conversation with his pastor after his wife passed away in 2022. He is a "very simple" man whose "familiarity made you feel good, and who allowed many people to get closer to God". The new pope has already made Chiclayo known to the world, it is now famous in Peru for more than its food. A few steps from the cathedral, the Las Americas restaurant already displays a sign reading: "The pope ate here". Manager Rodrigo Couto Vasquez enthusiastically recalls the pontiff's taste for good food, notably the local chicharron - in this case fried chicken. He was also known to enjoy goat, duck with rice and Peru's national obsession ceviche, a dish of citrus-marinated seafood served cured and cold.
