I Came To Eat!

2011-12-18T22:04:00.002-05:00

Punch

2010-10-17T11:09:00.003-04:00

There's an article in the NYT about the revival of punch in cutting edge bars and cocktail menus. The writer speaks of one bartender/historian's interest in Charles Dickens era punches but I love punch and I'm certainly not old enough to know anything about Charles Dicken's recipe.

My parents did a lot of home entertaining when I was younger. My Dad was a Naval officer and parties at home were a given. My mom had a huge crystal punch bowl and beautiful little matching crystal cups with handles In the punch with rum and various fruit juice and ice would float slices of oranges, lemons and limes. It was always beautiful and even as a young girl I was allowed to have a small glass of the party punch. I loved it because it made me feel so adult like to carefully hold one of those crystal containers but the refreshing and sweet elixir from that punch bowl was like nothing else I'd ever tasted or had on a regular basis. Sure I drank a lot of Hawaii Tropican Punch as a kid but this was different. It wasn't as sweet and sticky. It was light and the hint of rum just added enough bitterness to my 9 year old tastebuds.

I don't know when punch fell out of vogue but I'm glad to see it making a come back. And if you can find places doing it in beautiful crystal punch bowls with lovely delicate crystal mugs, definitely give it a shot!

Food are E are no longer...

2010-10-01T12:02:00.005-04:00

the only loves of my life.

Two months ago we adopted two adorable schnoodle pups that we named Diesel and Dexter. It all happened when I saw a picture of Diesel online late one night (the second pic) on pet finder from a shelter in South Carolina. I melted. I never had anything other than a fish as a pet as a kid. My allergies were so bad as a child, chances were good I'd never know the soft purr of a housecat but there were a lot of hypo-allergic dogs out there and well I always thought I'd be a dog person as an adult anyway. I also always knew I wanted to adopt a pup from a shelter. There were so many dogs in need of good homes, but would I ever find a puppy in need that was also not going to aggravate my allergies?

WELL, not only was the dog in the picture unbelievably adorable, but she was one of those hypo-allergic dogs (with hair instead of fur)!!!!! I felt it was all meant to be. We applied to adopt, crossed our fingers, and I looked at her little pictures on line everyday. When we learned we were approved and Diesel would be a part of our fmaily, we also learned she had another brother. Dexter, we adopted sight unseen but if we could keep part of the family together, I really wanted to do that. I'm so happy we got them both. I didn't care what Dexter looked like, I knew that E and had a good life to offer to any dog so I was happy to open my heart to another lil furry dog as well.

I won't lie, the first three weeks were a bit hellish. They were so young 8-10 weeks when they arrived that we had no choice but to get up at 3am and walk them. But now at 4 months, I feel like we've all fallen into a nice routine. Finally they're getting the hang of going outside to use the bathroom and sorta kinda getting the leash thing. I'm hopeful they will outgrow the puppy biting thing as they continue to grow. And grow like weeds they're doing!

Not only are they both adorable, loving and sweet towards me and E, but they really like people in general and other dogs. We really won the pet lottery when it comes to pups with personality. You'll often find us walking the streets of Kenmore and Fenway and they've developed a fan base. Sometimes when we're walking, people we don't even know will come up and say hello to them by name.

Our favorite food place is definitely Berryline. Not only do they allow us all in the place when I want a sweet treat, but they very cheerfully give me two sample size berryline yogurts for Diesel and Dexter to enjoy as well. SO nice! As a result, the Fenway area Berryline is kinda like our "Peach Pit". But even before the pups, I often would go in for some tangy frozen froyo. If you haven't checked it out, you really should. Go. Besides you might run into me and the furry kids getting our Berryline fix.

Grotto

2010-08-09T14:31:00.004-04:00

With my new "diet" restrictions (somewhat Paleo with frequent dairy stops), dining out hasn't held the same appeal for me it once had. Menus are a little tricky to navigate, and my weakness for empty carbs in the form of bread and pasta have been well documented. So if I'm gonna blow a night on food, it better be damn good. That said, Grotto did not disappoint on the food end of the bargain. But that's really only half the story. Perhaps it's best to start at the beginning.

E saw that Grotto had a lobster pasta special but upon closer inspection of the menu on-line, we realized it was part of the regular menu line up. The menu looked fantastic though with plenty of offerings for both of us. So E made a reservation a week in advance and we both put some effort into our attire that day. For me, it meant actually combing my hair and for E it meant looking like her usual cute self.

We arrived to the small basement space and had a very awkward first encounter. Neither of us was certain if she was a hostess, manager, server. But the first person who greeted us wasn't anything other than harried. She waved her hand to two tables off to the side of the door and in the middle of the dining room and told us to take either of these two places. And she went off, not to be seen again. Um, ok. E was not pleased. She had called and made this reservation a week prior and wasn't happy 1.) that the tables were in a really akward place in the dining room 2.) we were kinda waved off. We stood there for a bit, pondering if a change of tables would be possible. We were told by a waitress (we think she was a server) that those open tables in more optimal locations were already reserved for larger parties. So we sat. And a choice had to be made. Either I could move the table back so E wouldn't get constantly bumped by the people at the table behind her or we could leave it were it was and I wouldn't get bumped constantly by the people who worked in the restaurant trying to serve the table behind me. We made the choice to move the table towards me which resulted in me being bumped on the back of my seat thru-out my meal. It wasn't really a big deal for me (which is why I made the choice to kinda take one for the "team") but I did reflect with E on the fact that I'm not a big person. I'm 5'2 (ish) and weigh 120-125 (ish) so if I was any bigger, this table and seating arrangement would have not really worked well.

Regardless, I was ready for a nice meal and looking forward to having some tasty empty carbs! One of the things about the menu was that it was kinda heavy for the summer. Fondue, cheese garlic soup all of these things were listed as appetizers. And a lot of rich sounding pastas and heavy meats for mains. For our appetizer I ordered the garlic, parm and truffle soup and E ordered the only summer sounding item on the menu, the mozzarella, tomato and arugula salad. Only thing was that it ended up not being all that summery afterall. The server let us know before the dish came so we were aware but I was really surprised at how the dish was described compared to what truly arrived. It was basically a grilled cheese sandwich with some nice sundried tomatoes and dressed greens. It was a nice dish but again fairly heavy. The soup was lovely. Rich and creamy. I wish that it had a bit more truffle going on but eh, it was still pretty darn good. E also ordered a fairly reasonable wine. She said it was usually over $100 but at Grotto it was only around $60. Seemed like a good deal to me but I don't really drink so I had a few sips but as to how good it was, well, that's really lost on me.

For our mains we ordered the braised short ribs with gorgonzola and gnocchi (me) and spaghetti bolognese (E). Again, heavy dishes but really nicely executed. The pastas were both clearly homemade. The gnocchi was feather light and the pasta for the bolognese was cooked perfectly al dente. I loved both dishes. But by then E and I were stuffed from our appetizers. So we only had a few bites before dessert.

And of course we got dessert! Well, I should say I had dessert. I ordered the banana bread pudding and E ordered the molten chocolate cake for me to eat, of course. The desserts were very good. Not especially note worthy but good and a nice ending to a really lovely meal.

We still had an entire bottle of wine at the end of the meal and were relaxing and talking a bit after our dishes were cleared but I clearly got the sense that the staff was a little stressed and were really wanting us to go already. I can understand that in such a small place it's hard to maneuver around the tables or turn tables when there aren't that many but making us feel rushed after I was bumped into constantly wasn't cool. Even if someone had just said to us, here is your check, please take your time and poured us more wine, I would have thought, "well how very gracious". It wasn't the case.

So overall, I enjoyed the food quite a bit and found it to be an excellent value but the space lacked "romance" for me and the service seemed a little all over the place. I would absolutely go back to Grotto but next time, I think we'll specify that we want a corner table.

Dry Cupcakes, Crossfit, a Brief Brush with Lipo 6, and Discovering Quinoa

2010-06-23T13:06:00.004-04:00

What's with the odd comments in Chinese that I get on this blog? Anyone else getting this too? Since they're all in a language that I can't read, I assume they're either spam or porn related and delete them. If you happen to be leaving legit comments to me in Chinese and haven't seen your comment pop up, I apologize.

I've been around. I haven't had any culinary revelations to speak of so I've been keeping my trap shut. Lately Boston has been disappointing me in the dining out arena. This happens to me every so often. But lately it seems to be an epidemic. I recently tried Rocca and Zocalo and both really sucked ass. Like sucked so hard. A meal at Sorelina was really damn good, but my main dish (pork chop) was a bit on the dry side and not worth the cost. Sorelina is pretty as hell. I wish I had just stuck to appetizers and pasta. That seems to be where they shine. Anyway, nothing really blowing up my skirt these days in the world of food.

Speaking of not blowing up my skirt, I've come to a general conclusion about cupcake culture in Boston. The cake part is ALWAYS dry. I've been to the Buttery, Sweet, Lindells, and had a Kickass Cupcake and so I feel fairly comfortable making this statement. I don't ever doubt the tastiness or the quality or care put into the products and sometimes I find myself craving a cupcake so I'll indulge but the cake is always a tad dry to me. Maybe the assumption is that you have a glass of milk (or a glass of wine) with the cupcake? I dunno. I've tried the cupcakes at all the major suppliers of this trend in Boston and found the cake part is always dry. Now before you go getting your panties in a bunch and telling me that it has to be me. When we went to Austin we found a cupcake place (well Airstream Trailer really) called Hey Cupcake and those cupcakes were not dry. Even after they had sat all afternoon waiting for us to sample them. Nope, not dry. I'm telling you people, dry cupcakes is so totally a Boston thing. Anyone had thoughts on this? Please don't beat me. Okay... Moving on.

As some of you know I've been doing Crossfit for a little while now. And while I suspect I'm getting stronger, I haven't lost any weight. The other day I was in class with a couple of guys and they were joking that they just walk in and lose weight. Nope, not me. And I've got about 10-15 lbs I could stand to lose. So in a fit of desperation and after being advised by a very gay South End man on the benefits of it, I decided to try Lipo 6. I did it for about 3 weeks and stopped. I did notice I lost weight but for me it came at a price. For one thing I couldn't have coffee. And I'm in love with my nespresso maker. Seriously, I might very well die without the sucker. So that was a true bummer. I also noticed feeling a little depressed while I was on the stuff and lastly, my lymph nodes in my neck began to swell and become painful. I'm not 100% certain that the last thing is a symptom of Lipo6 but I do know that I stopped taking them and my neck began feeling lots better. Granted I'd love to lose some poundage b/c I've been putting in the Crossfit time but it wasn't worth it for me. I realized something during those 3 weeks; I'm unwilling to damage my overall mental and physical health to be thin. "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels" is a freaking lie!!!!!

And lastly, I'm back to trying to be fairly carful with my eating habits but not overly restrictive. I've discovered the joys of quinoa. Seriously this stuff is damn tasty and good for you too. Lately I've taken to making a big bowl of it and mixing it with feta cheese, mint, tomatoes, pine nuts, raisin (prums work too), parsley, avocado, white miso paste, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. Infact this is what I'm about to dig into for lunch right now. I like quinoa and since I am debating going on a Paleo diet for a bit, I hope I can continue to eat it. Seems to be some mixed opinions on whether quinoa is Paleo allowed. It is a seed and not a grain so I think it makes the cut. The feta in my salad probably would not. Lucky for me the steak I'm gonna have for dinner is definitely Paleo approved. Perhaps I'll give it a shot.

XOXO

There Aren't Enough Cuss Words to Describe How I Feel

2010-04-05T22:06:00.004-04:00

...about Ben and Jerry's selling out and doing an exclusive flavor with Walmart for Walmart Super Centers. Super Center!?!? Seriously the only time I've ever seen Supercenters are in rural or semi rural locations where they've blown away all the local mom and pop grocery/hardware/knickknack stores. Secondly, it's Walmart. WALMART?!? Yes, the Walmart that has a record of treating its own employees like crap giving them such small salaries that they can only afford to shop at Walmart. The same Walmart that refuses to give its employee healthcare or allow them to unionize and the very same Walmart that takes down small businesses at any cost/price. Yeah THAT Walmart.

Sigh. I'm so disappointed with B&J right about now. Not only do I dislike Walmart immensely but even if I didn't feel as strongly as I did about them, there are no Supercenters near me so I can't even try this new flavor and well that as a life long Ben and Jerry's lover that really sucks. It sucks hard.

So thanks for a whole lot of nothing Ben and Jerry's. Way to keep a loyal fan(s) happy.

Finn Jr.

2010-03-25T22:41:00.004-04:00

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our household. My sourdough starter that I named Finn Jr.

I got the idea for making a sour dough starter from a Twitter pal named "Finn". He started tweeting about his sourdough starter dying and having to start a new one. I got curious and asked him if a very infrequent non-baker such as myself could create a sour dough starter and only use it once and a while? He said yes. Finn claimed that sour dough starter took little to no time to take care of and was worth it.

I did a little bit of online research and found this recipe: Beginner Sour Dough Bread It was not only simple but also very comprehensive in the steps. Other recipes I found online seemed a little bit vague or called for yeast (I didn't have any) or even potato starch. King Aurthur (my flour of choice btw) goes as far as to sell a sour dough starter kit online. I think it was only $35 or something but still it seemed a little bit lame and cheaty.

I also chose this recipe because I loved the idea of using the "wild yeast" in the air and all around us to create my sour dough. It seemed like a super neat science experiment and as a kid who excelled at science fairs (I went to regional in 9th and 10th grade) that seemed really neat to me.

And so I began. I used the instructions I found online as my chief guide but after three days I was a little skeptical that the sour dough had fermented enough or produced enough yeast. My Twitter friend Finn said that he had been feeding his starter ("Veruca") for 12 days and it was now time. So I asked him if he thought my starter was ready? He confirmed what I thought and said no. So I've been letting "Finn Jr". grow and grow. Last night he became a rebellious teenager and we woke up to him trying to escape the safety of his jar to explore the world (thus the picture above this posting).

He seems to be doing just fine. Lots of bubbles and activity for sure! See:

Speaking of which, I need to go feed him again now. I'm going to make my sponge with him on Sunday and if all goes well, I will be able to share my first loaf of sour dough bread from Finn Jr. on Monday with some friends we're having over for dinner. I'm actually going to be sad when it becomes time for me to put Finn Jr. into the fridge and I don't have to feed him everyday but like all children, he will need to move out of the nest and learn to fend mainly on his own.

But I certainly am one proud mamma for now!

CSA Update

2010-03-22T00:40:00.005-04:00

This year E and I opted to not do a CSA. I enjoyed it in the beginning but our CSA quickly started going downhill. They never put together our orders and every time I'd have to take a solid 30 mins to pick out what I wanted. Where's the fun in that? And I didn't feel like our CSA had the widest or best selection. I wanted to like them, I really did. And well I tried.

But don't worry, I'll still be hitting the farmer's market hard this summer :)

Tidbits

2010-03-21T23:56:00.008-04:00

March is one of my favorite months. To me, it's always been the beginning of spring. Here in Boston, it still feels like winter (except for the past few days but it was a bit of a fluke, a lovely fluke but a fluke nonetheless) but I don't care. March = Spring in my book.

Also, March is my birthday month. Let me be clear about exactly what day my birthday falls on, Saint Patrick's Day!

When my family adopted me, my mother and her side of the family were all filled with glee. Why? Well they're hardcore Irish Americans and any child born on Saint Patrick's Day was meant to be theirs.

I grew up with the luck of the Irish always on my side! Or least always with birthday cakes with green frosting and every Saint Patrick's Day birthday card ever produced given to me at least twice.

This March I was extra lucky and gifted with a new Nespresso maker from my very thoughtful parents. This is the model they got me:

Granted it's not the fanciest of all the models but since it's mainly me using it, I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. Oh man, I love this machine so damn much. The espresso is fantastic. We're talking crema on top and amazing flavor. And the milk frother is straight out of the Jetson's. It froths and warms my soy milk in what feels like seconds. And the container never gets hot. If you like espresso based drinks, I recommend giving Nespresso machines a shot. There is a Nespresso store here in Boston and it's really a relaxing and being zen lil spot. I went there to get new coffee capsules and was treated to an espresso while I shopped. It was lovely. The entire experience of owning this machine and visiting the store has been awesome thus far. I'm fairly certain that my new espresso machine and I will have a long and happy relationship!

This year for my birthday dinner with my friend Walter (who also has a birthday on the same day as me), we opted to go to Lineage. It's a place I've been to before and never been disappointed with the service or the quality of the food. It was a nice meal with two of my favorite people, E came along this year. Since this year our birthdays fell during restaurant week, we opted to order off the RW menu. We had a steak with a salsa verde that had me absolutely come close to licking the plate clean. I also enjoyed the parsnip soap that I ordered as my starter. But it was almost too rich and buttery for me. Luckily Walter and E were there to help me finish it off. The 4 desserts we tried were good but fairly unmemorable. Overall a lovely birthday dinner!

And lastly, E and my friend Ed had arranged to have a pizza party at Picco for me. As is well documented here in this blog, I love pizza and I love Picco. Plus they got me a birthday cake from Eldo cake house in Chinatown. I really do have great friends. Thanks you guys!

A great time was had by all!!!

Bye Texas!

2010-01-21T10:28:00.001-05:00

I already miss you. Thanks for the food memories!

Dallas Parent's Style

2010-01-18T22:01:00.006-05:00

My parents made the move to Dallas when I graduated from college. So even though I sometimes go to Dallas to see them, it's far from my "hometown". Infact, I'm so unfamiliar with the city that sometimes I'm shy to tell people where my folks live, because they always say "which part of Dallas?" and honestly, I haven't the foggiest idea. I do know that GWB and Laura Bush are neighbors (ick) and that my Mom and Dad are very happy in Dallas. And honestly the latter is all that matters to me. They've really embraced this town and culture. Infact, as I'm sitting here typing this the family is sitting around watching a Johnny Cash Live in Concert DVD. No lie.

I enjoy visiting my parents very much. It's something that I don't get to do very often. It's a visit that always includes good food and a long soak in my mom's amazing jacuzzi tube.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my Mom was a very good home-taught cook. Even with my entire family coming in for a visit, she made some awesomely tasty meals with a white chicken chili the first night including a cold bok choy salad (I need the salad recipe!), holiday cookies and chicken on the grill the second night. The third night my parents' hosted a small cocktail party complete with my Mom's sweet and sour meatballs (yum) and shrimp cocktail, which is my fave. It was a good time with a hired guitarist singing some tunes for the guests' enjoyment. It was a lot of fun.

Our last night in the big D, my parents wanted to take us to Fort Worth so my nephews, both 5, could see the Longhorn sauntered down the street and then take us all to the restaurant Reata.

The restaurant is a favorite of their's for the food and decor. Inside it pays homage to the movie Giant. A fantastic movie that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys epic old movies. It has Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean in it...Seriously, that should be enough said.

My parents reserved a large glass room for the fam to sit in. The room happened to be in the center of the ground floor dining room (my Dad later told me that there were actually 5 floors to this restaurant) so we were able to look out at the decor which included movie pictures, a wax statue of James Dean, plenty of horse saddles and various other cowboy and other Giant memorabilia.

I ordered the chicken fried steak with black pepper white gravy. One of my favorite meals that I can't often get in Boston for sure. I also got a field salad as a starter but it wasn't really worth mentioning. However, the chicken fried steak came and it was immensely. It came served with mashed potatoes and crisp garlic green beans. It was delicious! I felt a little guilty about going to a "fancy" restaurant and getting something that isn't fancy at all. But it was really quite good. The crust was good and crisp and the gravy was flavorful and rich. The greens were fantastic and not to be a disregarded side. The potatoes I also liked however they were not as amazing as the rest of the meal. Plus they had been flavored with blue cheese as was the mac and cheese (a side that was ordered for the entire table to share). And even though I'm a huge fan of blue, I know that it's strong flavor doesn't agree with E at all. So it seemed odd that the menu gave no mention of blue cheese in either the mac and cheese or the potatoes. Oh the mac and cheese! First of all it had blue cheese (yum!) and there were shards of bacon strewn in it as well (double yum!).

Overall, I was very pleased with my meal choice but sadly too stuffed to even consider dessert but if I had been interested in dessert, I would have asked for the Texas pecan pie. I had a feeling that it would be have been amazing and possibly had chocolate involved somehow.

A very nice end to our week long stay in Texas. Sadly, we head home back to Boston tomorrow and while it will be nice to get back to our home, etc. I will miss seeing my family and being able to spend time with them. Oh yeah and the close to 70* weather isn't bad either ;)

Austin!

2010-01-14T22:46:00.005-05:00

I took a week off from the chill of Boston and headed west to see my folks in Dallas. E and I decided to take a couple of days and visit Austin. I'm in Austin right now. I'm loving this lil town. And culinary wise, it's been really good to us.

We arrived at the Austin Motel last night. A place I highly recommend for people looking for a bare bones, reasonably priced lodge. It's in a really great location with plenty of fun shops and good eats all around (more on that in a bit). The service is friendly and warm and since they were the first people in Austin to truly greet us, my initial impression was a good one.

We were excited to finally arrive and wanted to experience some good BBQ. In Boston, we have a couple of decent BBQ joints but nothing that is really crave worth in my book.

So after doing some Chowhound research (Yelp reviews are completely not useful. The level of snark and meanness just makes me think all places sux inclu. my own lil amazing shop, but I digress..) we found two places that sound promising: Mann's and Rudy's. So off we went. Unfortunately we arrived at Mann's only to find that they had closed. They close at 8pm. Eeek too early for us. Oh well so off we set to Rudy's.

Rudy's is a little overwhelming at first glance. It's set up almost cafeteria style but with three stations where you order your meat choices. When it was our turn: we already decided on ribs and brisket, we were helped by a young man by the name of Brad.

Let me just say service means everything to me and Brad was great. He was really into making sure we made the right meat choices. And started us out by giving us samples of everything including the sides. He patiently told us what each thing was and asked what we thought. He was a knowledgeable and really personable guide. We decided on the moist brisket, St Louis Ribs (based on Brad's rec), creamed corn, coleslaw and pinto beans. Unfortunately the St Louis ribs were sold out and so we went with the baby back ribs. After filling out our massive order of food, Brad topped it off with what had to be half a loaf of white bread.

We got all this food plus a soda for myself and beer for E for less than $30! Quite the bargain. And how did it taste? AWESOME! Ok so the babyback ribs were not a fave for either of us but they were absolutely smoked properly with a wide pink smoke ring and a good amount of char on the outside. But the most amazing part of the meal was the moist brisket. The white bread came in handy as I made myself a lil sandwich with the brisket, a little BBQ sauce, coleslaw and pickles. Oh man, I really had died and gone to meat heaven. The brisket was so delicious. It was melt in the mouth tender but with burnt bits that provided a bit of good texture change.

I decided that I wanted to marry the moist brisket.... Yeah, I liked it that much.

A great evening overall.

Today we woke up and went to check out but before we did so, we thought to ask the motel staff for a breakfast place recommendation. They said the placed next door had great food that included grits. Say no more! E wanted grits. Sadly, I don't remember the name of the place but it's right next to the Austin Motel and is very cute with a modern 50's motif.

The service was friendly and helpful especially since plain grits were not something on the menu. They typically put goat cheese and herbs into the grits and well E wasn't down for that. The server said that she didn't see them having a problem making them plain for her and so we ordered. Simple eggs, bacon, toast and grits for E and shrimp and grits plus a side of bacon for me. We also shared a fruit bowl (pineapple, grapes, cantaloupe) that was nice too.

Behold!

Everything was super delicious and there was a ton of it too. That seems to be a overarching theme to food in Austin and dare I say Texas? Food servings are very large...Not something I'm complaining about!

E and I spent a really nice day wandering around and getting a feel for the city. For snacks we got cupcakes at "Hey Cupcake". This place is nothing more than an air stream trailer. Actually, we saw that there were plenty of food trucks and rv's. It was kinda rad to see so many food carts. In Boston we hardly have any. The cupcakes were $2.50 (Boston people who complain about the price of cupcakes take note, it is a fairly standard price). E opted for a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting and I got a red velvet one. Both were really fantastic. Moist with plenty of tasty frosting. Another plus for me? The chocolate one didn't have a butterceam frosting but a really nice sugar and milk frosting. I tend to not enjoy buttercream so I was really into this. Also the red velvet one had an exceptionally well done cream cheese frosting. Later, we also split a slice of pizza from a place called Home Slice. It came recommended to us by a local who told us that they annually take a trip to NYC to study the pizza scene. Neat. We got a slice of the Marguerite to try. It was very good. The crust was nicely executed. Crisp and chewy where it needed to be. Good air bubbles in the crust but not enough char because the crust was a bit blonde and could have been cooked a bit longer. The toppings were good and we were pretty happy with the rec.

We were suppose to head back to Dallas tonight but we opted to try and stay for one more night. Asking the good folks at the Austin Motel to hook us up with a room. We made a bit more and got upgraded to the "Mediterranean" suite. It's a bigger room with one side of the room wallpapered in a cliched Mediterranean scene. It's a little campy and fun.

For dinner tonight we decided to do Tex Mex and again used Chowhound as a resource. E said that Jorge's looked good. She was able to make a reservation on Open Table so this time, we knew it was open ;)

When we arrived, E told the hostess that we had a reservation on Open Table and she kinda shrugged saying that sometimes it didn't work for them. Seemed odd but she looked anyway and sure enough there was our reservation. The hostess lead us to a table but quickly accessed that we'd be sitting next to a huge table of crazy acting children and their passive parents. So she led us away to a corner table that was perfect. We were given menus and looked over while we munched on very good chips and salsa.

We did sit for quite a bit of time and noticed that not only did we not have any silverware but we also didn't seem to have a server. Drink orders were not taken, nothing for literally 10 minutes. E finally got up and spoke to the manager who very quickly took care of the problem. But honestly we were upset about it at all. We just wanted to order.

E got a sampler entree and I got the chicken enchiladas. Again the portions were huge. And again the food was massively tasty. I didn't really love the taco that was part of E's dinner because the shell had been fried and the grease from the beef filling had made the taco a bit soggy. I tend to enjoy steamed corn tortillas for my tacos so it's more of a personal preference than anything else. But I really enjoyed my chicken enchiladas. I got them in a red sauce that was very flavorful as were the refried beans and rice that came with our dishes. We were both very satisfied. As witnessed here

We got our check and saw that they had given us a 50% off discount for the wait we had. It was a very pleasant surprise and one that we weren't expecting.

Overall, Austin has really embraced us and we're kinda enthralled. Infact so much so that we've been contemplating if a move might be possible for us. Let's just see what happens.

Here!

2009-12-21T23:32:00.001-05:00

I swear I'm still here and I promise to blog more about food and less about my woes around my tummy/food in the new year.

XOXO

Sigh.

2009-11-29T00:26:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving dinner went well. It was a gluttony fest and I was happy to share it with E yet another year. The sticky rice stuffing I adored but E felt it was too sweet. Maybe I overdid the quantity of Chinese sausage or the soy. I'll continue to have to work to tweak the recipe. But now we own a huge bag of sticky rice so maybe I'll work on my rice pudding recipes next? I have a lovely one that calls for coconut milk, dried sour cherries and mangoes that I haven't made in a while.

The community servings pies were kinda well, average. I was a little disappointed in a couple of things:

1.) the crusts were clearly supermarket made. Blah to that!

2.) the apple pie sported a crumble topping that was not very crumbling. It was actually quite soggy by the time it got to us (10am in the morning on Wednesday) and had a cornstarch thickened apple filling (ala McDonald's).

I was really hoping for more. Luckily it's hard to really f up a pecan pie so I was pleased with that.

All in all it was a very nice Thursday off with the one I love the most.

So the reason for the pepto? I'm not really sure to be honest but I came home last night, ate some Trader Joe's Flaxseed Chips and then thought I was gonna die from stomach pains. It was pretty bad and pretty instantaneous and lasted almost all night.

And tonight as I was eating our turkey day leftovers I felt like everything tasted gammy and just weird. Lately my stomach and my taste buds haven't been really happy and I'm not sure what's going on. I usually have a stomach of steel and I'll happily eat just about anything. I will say that my employee's mom made me a lovely sandwich for lunch and I ate that no problem.

Sigh. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with me, food and my body these days but sometimes it feels like I'm not making much progress. E and I will be doing a juice detox later this week so hopefully that will help to reset some stuff for me.

Our Thanksgiving Day Dinner...

2009-11-23T20:18:00.003-05:00

E and I didn't really feel like doing turkey this year so here is our T-day dinner menu:

Fried Chicken Legs
Sticky Rice Stuffing
Baby Bok Choy

Community Servings Pie (Pecan for me and Apple for E)

I'm really excited about this meal!!

I hope all of you have a really wonderful Turkey day with those you love.

Childhood is Calling?

2009-11-23T19:52:00.003-05:00

My mom did make rice krispy treats when I was young. They were simple and seemed marginally more nutritious with the addition of rice cereal. When I went to college, our Dorm Mother (we actually had those...an adult woman who often had a family with them living in the dorm to look after us kinda like Edna Garrett on "The Facts of Life") made them for TV night but she used an entire stick of butter for one batch. They were overly rich in a way that was both addictive and kinda sickening. And when I became an adult, well rice krispies became prepackaged as a snack I'd eat during my office job. They even came in peanut butter and chocolate dipped. Certainly these were not the rice krispy treats of my past. I didn't really think much about rice krispy treats at all...

Until those commercials with the mom and kids. Oh you know the ones. They're set in black and white with the cute kid all in awe over rice krispies. Damn you marketing! So when I was in the grocery store with E today, I told her I wanted to make rice krispy treats. E proceeded to tell me that she had never had a homemade rice krispy treat to which I was both shocked and amazed. I thought everyone had had homemade rice krispy treats. Sure the packaged ones were good but nothing like the ones you made at home.

So happily I made E and me some rice krispy treats but these I decided to change a little bit. I browned the butter before melting and folding into the marshmallows and mixing in the cereal. I didn't notice a difference in the taste profile at first but asked E what she thought. She liked them a lot and said she noticed the nuttiness of taste that the brown butter brought. I decided that clearly I needed to try another taste and so tried it again. And you know what? Browning the butter is a good move. I don't think you need to add extra butter to the recipe ala adding the freshmen 15 move that my Dorm Mother did, but I do think the added step of letting the butter heat until it gets brown is a nice one. A subtle but grown up taste to something I remember from long past.

I was glad to share it with E but with a new touch that is all our own.

A Spare Tire!

2009-10-30T22:29:00.002-04:00

After a year of carrying about 10-15 lbs more than I want, I still haven't made much progress on losing it. I have to admit that there hasn't been a lot of sacrifice on my part in regards to my eating and maybe limiting my intake of tasty things.

However, I refuse to give up on losing the poundage! I'm going to try and be a bit more mindful of what I shove into my pie trap for the next month and step on the exercise and see where it all leads me.

Hopefully I'll find my way!

XOXO

I Suck

2009-09-30T18:25:00.009-04:00

It's been way too long since I last posted. I even had a fairly good food trip to NYC that I never got around to posting about. The store has been sucking my mine. Oh sure, I always blame it on the shop but seriously, small business owners definitely know what I'm talking about when I talk about my lack of time and energy.

So what has gotten me out of my non-posting slump? A change of seasons perhaps. Fall is certainly upon us in New England. Luckily our CSA share doesn't end until the end of October so we've gotten to see what the change in seasons brings.

Tonight we're having a couple of friends over. One is an old friend I've known forever and another is a fairly new friend I'm introducing to E. Infact the old friend asked what time for dinner, I said 8 and she said she'd be here around 6:30. That's how we roll.

So when I went to the CSA on Monday, I knew I wanted some stuff that we could cook or share with friends. I was happy to see heads of lettuce and some last of the summer cherry tomatoes. I grabbed a couple of green peppers so I could make a salad and Beth's favorite salad dressing to go with it. I also was thinking of making an apple tarte tatin. In my family, the only apples we cooked with were Granny Smiths. We're a family that really enjoys tart with our sweet. So alas no GS were to be found but they did have plums. I found this kinda cool because I always only thought of plums as an early summer or late spring fruit. I didn't know they were still even really in season. So I grabbed a container of plums and decided that I wanted to try and make Evan Kleiman's plum sour cream pie. The recipe is here.

I also really wanted to try and make an apple tarte tatin. My friend Caroline makes one every fall and she uses puff pastry dough. So I went ahead and looked for a recipe on epicurious and found this one.

So I was going to attempt two new recipes. I wasn't 100% that either would work out well. Infact, I was a bit concerned that the desserts would be a big fail but I hadn't been baking in so long that I wanted to try something new.

I started by cutting up the plums. Look how pretty!

It seemed like a lot of plums and Evan didn't really say now many. So I decided to make two pies. I ended up doubling the sour cream mixture. Unfortunately, as I was pouring the plums and sour cream into the pie crusts I started to realize that maybe there was too much sour cream stuff and should have just stayed with one pie. My hunch was confirmed because the pies took close to 2 hrs to cook. Eeek. They looked cute coming out of the oven though:

Look! Pie crust cozies, teehee. Anyway, I let the pies cool and snuck a piece. The filling wasn't right at all. It was lumpy and not sweet enough. I was kinda bummed but hoped that the ice cream a guest was bringing would help disguise the issue.

I moved into the apple tartin.

I followed the recipe down to the letter and when it came time to flip, the middle of my apple tartin was completely burned. I was so sad. I even used less time than what the recipe asked for just because I knew our oven ran hot (damn electric!)

Sigh. Well luckily, Jenny did bring ice cream that that helped. It also helped that E made an amazing pasta dinner. But E making an amazing dinner is to be expected.

Since it's fairly early in the fall season, I think I will be attempting the apple tartin again. Watch out apple tartin, I'm gonna make you my bitch for sure! ;)

Marliave Restaurant Week

2009-08-17T02:35:00.001-04:00

Imagine yourself coming home after work on a Friday night. You plop down on the couch next to your partner in crime. "What do you want to do for dinner?" "I dunno, what do you want to do?" Imagine that this conversation gets played out over and over again over a period of 30 minutes. Sad. I know. But sometimes when you've live in a place long enough, you get so bored with everything and this includes meal options.

Luckily I remembered that a friend on Twitter had recently tweeted about her RW meal at Marliave and I've heard good things about it from my partner in crime as well. Typically, I avoid restaurants during RW because I've never had a stellar experience. The quality of the meal is average to sucky and the quality of the service really blows too. Infact, the service is why I avoid RW all together. When I go out to eat, I'd rather not be viewed with unveiled distain. I get it though. You get the odd assortment of people coming to your fine dining establishments acting like they're rock stars when infact all they are are a bunch of hacks. We sometimes get people like that in my shop as well and let me tell you, serving them is not pleasant. It's not about the cost of the meal but it's more about a certain mentality that seems to go with it at times too. So I can't imagine having to work RW for 2 weeks twice each year.

So after 30 minutes of our played out convo on the couch, I checked Open Table and saw that we could book a reservation for 9pm. Perfect. It gave us enough time to get ready and hope on the T. I decided it was time to bust out my new Manolos (see above!) and take them for a test drive. Luckily I didn't have to do much walking because walking in these shoes was not easy at all. It wasn't that they're painful but because they are so high, they pitch me forward a little too far. So walking because an interesting endeavor. I'll have to figure out how to exactly "fix" the situation with my shoes because I love them so much and refuse NOT to wear them. If I had to chose my true loves in life, I'd list: food, premium denim, insanely expensive lingerie, make-up, E and stupid expensive shoes (not in that order but close to).

Slowly, very very slowly (due to my heels) we made it to Marliave. Luckily we got there by 9pm. I have to say that I thought it was odd that I was able to get a last minute reservation on a Friday night so easily.

Hmm...sadly, E and I should have taken it as an indication of what we should expect. I was going to write up an entire review of our meal but E beat me to the punch and already did a fantastic write up here. I'll let you read her take on it because she use to work in the restaurant industry and her observations seem so keenly on point with Marliave.

Here's the thing. I wanted to like it so much. I'd heard so many wonderful things about it and their RW menu was beyond expressive in its number of offerings. But what I got to experience didn't feel like Marliave in its prime at all. Even the space felt a bit run down and not looked after too caringly. The food was decent but the attention to the experience overall wasn't good. Perhaps it can be best summed with my dessert that came to my table looking like a giant boob. I suddenly felt like E had gotten me a gag dessert from Sweet Nothings.

However it was fun to try Marliave. Although I won't be jumping at the suggestion, I'd definitely give it another shot at some point. Besides any excuse I get to show off my expensive shoe collection is always good by me!

A Quick Lactose Update

2009-08-16T15:08:00.003-04:00

The lactose intolerance test came back positive. Explains a lot. However, doesn't explain the odd skin rashes. I still believe those are wheat related so I'm gonna ask for the blood test.

Even though I was really sad to get the test results back positive, I decided that it's not gonna keep me from living my life. For example, I had ice cream last night and didn't seem to have any issues. I have skim milk in my coffee today and everything seems good. I did skip the cheese from my egg/bacon croissant because 1.) I didn't want to press my luck 2.) I don't really care for the melted plastic texture on my sandwich.

I think I'll just be mindful of what I eat, how much I eat...Besides, isn't that what we're all suppose to do anyway?

Thanks for all the support everyone!

Julie and Julia, Meh.

2009-08-16T00:45:00.004-04:00

Everyone I know who went to see the movie has gushed about it. I mean, GUSHED. Go see it, see it now. Men, women, gay, straight. How could I an adorer of food not see Julie and Julia? So I went to a 10pm showing by myself...I packed ice cream for a snack and set off.

I wiggled in my seat in full anticipation of the amazingness that was about to occur. Sure, I read the book and thought it was painfully boring; so boring that I skimmed the end and laid the book down. But everyone said that the movie was better than the book and it had Meryl Streep for goodness sakes! And this movie reconnected her with Stanley Tucci. I loved them in the Devil Wore Prada. And while I didn't love, love that book (I did finish it and enjoyed it as a day read) I adored the movie and could watch it day in and day out.

So I expected the same greatness. And while Meryl and Stanley were totally lovely and moving as Paul and Julia, I couldn't quite get passed by my distaste of Julie Powell. Amy Adams is a really great actress because she had me disliking her just as much as I remember from the book.

Julie Powell is disliked so much in the blog world, I believe, because so many people are jealous of her almost meteoric rise to fame and fortune. Personally, that doesn't bother me all that much, kudos to her for all that. But what does bother me is this feeling I get from her of her overwhelming sense of entitlement. I have this feeling that she's a person who isn't mystified by her fame/fortune but sees it as her God given right. I imagine her internal dialogue goes like this,"Of course, I'm a successful writer, fools! In fact, fate was suppose to have made me one years ago! Duh!"

And maybe my sense of her is way off and she's a sweet, humble little slice of pie, but she certainly doesn't come off as such in Julie and Julia in book form or movie form. Sadly, I think her next book, "Cleaving" will just confirm my sense of her further. It's apparently a book about her affair and need to run away and learn the ancient art of meat butcher. Oh jeez. Yes, that's how we all get to deal with issues in our lives, by running away to butcher shop training. Very few people have such a charmed life.

Overall, I liked the movie but couldn't love. Infact, all the flashes to Julie Powell scenes made me cringe and left me yawning. I couldn't get over my distaste for her long enough to enjoy anything she did.

I guess the easiest way to sum up my feelings for this movie is to say that if they make Cleaving into a movie, I won't be standing in line for a ticket. But if anyone wants to just make a movie devoted to Julia and Paul, I'm in!

Wait, I thought milk was suppose to do a body good?

2009-08-08T15:13:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry I haven't seen posting much lately. My work life has truly eaten up time, space and energy for little else. I'm trying to get an online shop for Jean Therapy up and have another little pet side project in the works as well. Sometimes I consider blogging but my meals and life with food really haven't been anything too special these days.

I've been trying to make peace with my issues with wheat. It's been tough. Anytime E had anything with bread involved, I ask to take a sniff before she digs in. And I take a deep inhalation. Sometimes I have a little nibble. Even a hotdog bun causes me to go into rapture. I miss bread so damn much that it all seems so damn unfair. If only I had known how truly "unfair" it was about to get.

Recently I had a doctor's appointment. I remembered to mention my stomach issues to her and she instantly scheduled a lactose test for me. I was a little taken aback. I mean, I'm Korean and all but I'm also adopted so I've had a glass of milk with every meal since I could remember. Dairy in the form of cheese and ice cream are a daily requirement for me; my cheese bin in the fridge is always stocked so I can have a quick snack and don't even get me started on the gallons of ice cream I typically have on hand.

When I came home and told E, we both thought the same thing. Perhaps, not really meaning to, my doctor had kinda stererotyped me as being lactose intolerant because I'm Asian. No matter, I'd go ahead with the test. It would be one more thing to rule out for me to be allergic to.

The test is a breathorlizer dealie and one that takes three hours to administer. Also, you can't have anything to eat or drink for 10 hrs before and this includes water. Since I was having the test in the morning I was able to sleep for most of the 10 hrs. But the period from 9-12 was a little rough because this was my typical midnight snacking time. E will have a glass of wine or bourbon and I reach for ice cream. Actually it's probably not the healthiest evening routine and I think we both might want to reevaluate.

I arrived for the test early. I was parched, cranky, tired and my breath was a little funky because I couldn't use "a lot" of water to brush my teeth and absolutely no Listerine. "Why, did I decide this was a good idea? I already KNOW I'm not allergic to lactose". I fumed and chided myself for going along with the test.

Soon I and four other people were ushered into a room and given clear keg cups half full of what looked like water. These were the lactose/sucrose solutions and we were told to drink the entire portion. I took a small sip thru my straw and deemed it not so bad. It was tepid and slightly sweet.

"Well, it could be worse", I thought as I proceeded to try and down the rest of the solution.

Okay, a few more sips into the beverage and I changed my mind. It was disgusting. Drinking lukewarm sugar water is really not fun at all. It was a lot to stomach and I was having trouble downing it all. I kinda felt like a wuss until I looked around the room at the four other people. They didn't look too happy either. Infact, the woman next to me said, "blah, this is awful!".

So armed with the knowledge that I wasn't the only one suffering, I pulled thru and emptied the cup. Every 30 mins for 3 hours we had to come back to the room and blow into the plastic bag. So for 3 hours, I played with my phone (the day that Twitter went down! drats!), watch the Today show and marveled over how many times they recycled the same damn new stories and internally kicked myself for taking the test when I was so not lactose intolerant.

But the reason for kicking myself changed about 20 mins after I chugged whatever was in the cup. My tummy was a mess. I was in a bit of pain and had some GI distress. F-ck! And it didn't stop. My tummy was a mess all day and into the evening as well. Damn me for taking a test that made me so sick!

I haven't gotten the test results back but I'm fairly certain that my test will come back positive and I am indeed lactose intolerant. My GI distress was almost immediate.

While the possibility of being both lactose and wheat intolerant really bums me out, I'm also trying to figure out how to move forward. People have told me that there are plenty of substitutes for wheat and cheese. Plus I know my friend V uses the lactose pills so he can easily handle the cheese on a cheeseburger. And I know that this is true but I also wonder if the best course of action, for me, not for anyone else, is to clean those foods out of my diet completely and see how I feel. I'm tempted to do the latter but I'm also baffled by what to eat, especially as someone who is so wedded to cheese and ice cream. And yes, I've had rice milk and soy milk ice cream and I don't really enjoy either one very much. And sorbet?! I mean it's got a place but sometimes you just want a big ole ice cream sundae or a vanilla creme brulee.

Alright, so I'm being a little pouty about the entire situation and I recognize that. Besides, if all this had come up for me years ago, I'm sure that I wouldn't have the world of alternatives and subs I have at my disposal now. And you know what? Pecan crackers aren't really half bad so maybe I'll be ok afterall.

Danielle Chips

2009-07-03T12:18:00.004-04:00

It's no secret that I'm a small business owner right here in Boston and as a result I meet a lot of other small business owners too. One of my friends owned her own chocolate shop here and it was thru her I met my buddy Ed. Ed owns a company called New England Herbal Foods. They produce dried fruit snacks called Danielle chips. They're really good. I especially like the jackfruit chips and especially dislike the durian chips (but hey, I wasn't raised eating durian so I never acquired a liking for it).

Okay, so I was pretty darn pumped when I saw that Danielle chips were cool enough to be picked up on one of my favorite style blogs Cool Hunting. I alerted my friend Ed who didn't even know about this shout-out. Honestly, the product really does speak for itself. And the packaging is kinda urban cool too.

Anyway, this has been Danielle chips year for sure! Besides getting a shout out by Bobby Flay on the CBS morning show, they also picked up a sofi gold medal!

Being that I don't really know a lot about what the sofi award means or a ton about the Fancy Food Show either (other than the Barefoot Contessa was there!!!!!!), I'll just link you up to stuff that kinda explains it all at the bottom of this post. I do know that when your business wins an award, of any kind, it's a big deal. And to win a national award and national press is a huge deal.

All I can say is that these two guys that have this company rock and my friend Ed is one of the best guys I know. Seriously, if you wanna great snack, great product look for Health Spa stuff or Danielle Chips. They're SOOOO good, no really they are. Like I said, the jack fruit is my fav but the pineapple is good, hell even the durian (if you're into that stuff) is good. I'm so proud of my friends. Congratulations you guys! Ed, I'll see you at the cook out tomorrow so expect a big congratulatory hug from me!

SOFI Awards

Here!

CBS News!!!

Watch CBS Videos Online

A Meal for One

2009-06-24T23:03:00.002-04:00

CSA greens: lettuce, purple kale, the leaves of kohlrabi. Cowgirl Creamery Point Rey Blue (thanks Caroline). Parm. Olive Oil. Rice Wine Vinegar. Red Pepper Flakes. Salt. Pepper.

Dolin: a tiny glass on ice.

Love.

Why the hell did I wait this long to join a CSA again?

Mean Girls

2009-06-22T15:23:00.004-04:00

This rainy afternoon, I trekked down to Boston's City Hall to pick up my first ever CSA share. I was excited to see what we had scored and to meet my CSA farmers/providers as well. The City Hall farmers market is a bit small but for someone, like me, who lives in the city and doesn't have access to a car, even tiny markets like this one in a T convenient place make a huge difference.

I joined the Silverbrook Farms CSA. I didn't know much about them other than they had several pick up days and times and the locations were also in T accessible locales. I wanted to join Stillman Farms CSA but they lack convenient pick up places unless you happen to live close by and very limited days/times. I was bummed because my friend Caroline, who moved to CA, raved, raved, raved about Stillman's CSA. Infact, her great experience was the catalyst for me wanting to join one too.

So off I went! I walked passed the four other stalls and made a mental note to stop by each of them on my way back home. When I finally arrived to the Silverbrook Stall, I noticed it didn't seem as lush or showy as the other veggies stalls. Infact, they lacked fruits. I noticed that the other two vendors had cherries and strawberries out. No matter, my CSA peeps won me over with their earnest and friendly nature. I introduced myself to them. They were quick to apologize that there would be no strawberries this week, as had been previously announced, due to the weather but that they were giving us freshly made strawberry jam instead. In my bag went fresh eggs (!), cheese, a huge head of lettuce, kale, chard and an alien looking veggie that looked like a cross between a green turnip and lettuce. I was pleased with my portion. So many veggies! I was a little sad that there weren't any fruit-y type veggies but again, no matter. My CSA peeps were extraordinarily nice and friendly. I'm delighted at the prospect of going every week to see them!

I walked back to the various stalls and stopped by a bakery stall for a company called the Danish Company. The man working there was wonderfully friendly too. I asked if he had any gluten or wheat free offerings and he showed me the almond macaroon and the coconut one too. I bought 1 of each to try. The size of the almond macaroon was a little small compared to Modern Pastry but it was very good as was the coconut one. As he wrapped up my cookies, he asked if I'd be interested in buying gluten/wheat free bread. I said absolutely and that I'd be back each week for the my Silverbrook CSA. He brightened over the prospect of me coming back each week and mentioned that he had talked to the Silverbrook CSA kids about doing a collaboration with them. I said that I thought that'd be a great idea. I bid him farewell and told him I'd be back next week.

I was so happy over my positive interactions that I decided that I wanted to at least check out Stillman Farms booth. They had the first stall and it was apparent that they took what they did seriously. Besides a large offering of strawberries they had maybe four different varieties of beets, plus a freezer full of meat. I saw chorizo and was so tempted to grab some to go with the eggs that I had gotten from Silverbrook. But I held off. The two people working the booth didn't seem really interested in helping me at all. I stood there for a bit and waited. I finally asked the man about some beets. He answered my question but wasn't very friendly. It was clear that Stillmans was like the "cool" kids of the farmer's market. They didn't have to be charming or friendly. They knew they were the poo. Finally I decided, I'd buy some beets and strawberries and I mentioned to them both that I wanted to join their CSA, to which the answer came back, "well we're just so popular..." Really, seriously that's your answer?!?!

"Um no," I said, "I just couldn't make the times and locations of your pick up. I wish you'd do the CSA pick up here". The woman (who was a bit nicer than the man) said something about there being a 1000 something or other and it's just too hard to coordinate. No worries. I'm not complaining. I then went on to explain that my friend Caroline who moved to California was a big fan and she was the one who told me about them. I figured flattery would get me in good with the cool kids.

Not so much. Instead they faced each other and said, "wow that's cool that someone who moved to California is still talking about us". Um, yeah. Hello, remember me? I'm right here. Hello?!

Ok, I get it. You guys are all farmers and that's what you do. But the best way to describe the Stillman farms people would be to call them the Mean Girls of the Farm Stand. They seemed a little stuck up and kinda over it. Maybe it was the crappy weather. I'll certainly go back and buy things from them and give them another shot but I'm kinda glad I didn't join their CSA. If Stillman Farms are the Mean Girls of the Farmers Market, then my little Silverbrook Farms would be the Band Geeks or in Mean Girls, they'd be the Math Team. And well, as a former band geek, I think I've found my peeps.

It's Food Related...Kinda.

2009-06-21T22:43:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite trashy shows is Bridezillas on WE. It's basically a reality show of Brides who've gone completely bonkers trying to plan their "big" day. I think I love it because as insane as life makes me, I'd never act the way these ladies do. But gosh darn it, sometimes I really wish I could let go and just go bonkers too!

I've watched many episodes over the years but his is perhaps the best scene I've ever seen and yes it does involve food ;)

Enjoy!

Bon Chon Chicken is Chicken CRACK!

2009-06-21T13:42:00.005-04:00

If it's not already apparent, I'm fairly proud of being Korean American. E sometimes teases me and calls me more "white" then she is. Mainly because I was adopted by a white family and well my name is certainly not Korean sounding at all. There were times when I was growing up and I hated being so different from everyone else in my family. I didn't grow up around many Koreans or many Asians for that matter. And well, as a result all of the things I know about Korean American culture or Korean culture I've had to find it on my own. But there are many things about me that I've been told are very "Korean" without me having to search for it. My fiery temper and fierce sense of pride and loyalty are things I've always been kinda proud of; I've been told often that those very traits are unbelievably Korean. I'm sure that if you look for a connection to any culture you'll find it and so my traits aren't necessarily all that "Korean" but hey, growing up apart from Korean culture means I'll take any connection I can get!

So besides my inherit (good looks, kidding) Korean qualities, I wanted to connect a bit more. My forays into speaking Korean were squash long ago. Korean is hard to learn, dudes! But one of the first things I connect with is food and finding my "roots" via Korean food was a good place to start. It was thru Korean food that I discovered that my love, scratch that, obsession with anything pickled, pungent, spicy and salty was fine, normal even. And so it was that I discovered a new sense of pride in being Korean. Many Koreans love intensely flavored food and as a result many Korean dishes are a big wallop of spice and flavor. No meek wallflower dishes here! I'm so proud to be a part of any culture/race where kimchee is involved. No seriously, I really am!

Another huge source of pride for me is Korean's love of fried chicken. When I started reading about Koreans absolutely loving fried chicken wings and eating them as bar food in Korea as well as places in LA or NYC, I pumped my little fists again in pride, "my peeps rock!".

I LOVE FRIED CHICKEN and I love my friend chicken fried HARD! Usually that means a thick batter but lately I've calmed that need down (especially after learning that triple batter isn't always the answer). But I like a very crisp skin or batter on my chicken. One that shatters or crackles when you bite into it. It's not always the easiest to achieve or find so when I learned that Bon Chon Chicken was coming to Boston, I did a little jig of happy.

Part of my reading included Bon Chon Chicken and how, despite the savory wing glaze that the chicken is coated in, the skin is very crisp and crunchy. I remember thinking, "but how?". Most chicken wings are fried and then coated in wing sauce but what happens is the skin completely softens up. It's still tasty and good but no crackle or crunch. According to the article I read, it's not that Bon Chon double fries their chicken wings rather they fry them at such a low temperature that the fat in the skin is rendered out. So the result is a skin that seems like it's been battered in something but isn't and also retains its crunch. The other fantastic thing about Korean chicken wings is that they are usually served with a side of pickled turnips. YUM! So let me get this straight? I get fried chicken and pickles all at the same time?!? Oh hell, yes!!!

In Boston, if you want Bon Chon Chicken, you have to go to this nightclub called Privus. They're only open for dinner and you can do take out too. It's sorta this amusing set up. I mean, one night we went and had dinner only to leave as the girls in trashy club dresses sauntered pass. The club techno music in full effect. I know, it sounds really odd, but trust me, it's worth the visit!

This Bon Chon franchise has only two flavors for sauce: spicy or soy garlic. The spicy is really, really, really spicy! So be careful. I can usually only eat 1 or 2 pieces of the spicy comfortably and then have to switch to soy garlic. The pickled turnip helps to cut the spice but not a lot. So again, be careful. But also be careful because this chicken is super addictive too. I swear to God, you will be thinking about it constantly. Wonder when you get go and get your next chicken fix. And if you have to get take out or have leftovers, you can throw them in the fridge and not worry about them getting soggy overnight! I've had Bon Chon chicken leftovers cold for lunch the next day and the chicken is still crunchy on the outside! It's like freaking magic or crack, I'm not entirely sure which one yet.

Bon Chon Chicken might just be my favorite fried chicken, ever! I can't help but gush when people asked about it. I wonder if part of my gushing is Korean Pride, who really knows. All I know is that Bon Chon is seriously yummy!

Cheese Gromit Cheese!

2009-06-19T12:03:00.002-04:00

I think that people close to me, as well as not close to me, know that I love India Quality restaurant in Kenmore. I often get IQ for lunch when I'm working at Jean Therapy. I always order the came thing. I think I don't get anything different because I've tried to deviate before and, while it was good, it wasn't exactly what I really wanted. I always get the saag paneer. I love the taste of curry with the texture of the creamy spinach/greens and the chewy, sorta spongey, cheese! It's a wonderful dish full of comfort and complexity for me.

So when I saw a recipe on-line a while back for making paneer cheese at home, I cut and paste the recipe to an email, sent it to myself and archived it. What I cut and pasted is below this post. I'm sooo sorry to the blog where I found the recipe because I can't for the life of me remember where I got it.

In any event, it's a very simple recipe and I was kinda excited to be able to say, "I made my own homemade cheese". So how did I do? Well, for such an easy recipe, I managed to mess it up. A couple of suggestions, so you can learn from my mistakes:

1.) Use a cheesecloth and not a kitchen towel.
2.) Wait until the curds have cooled a bit to dump them into the cheesecloth in the colander.
3.) Wait until the curds have really cooled off to start squeezing out the liquid. E and I were so excited over making cheese that right after dumping the hot curds into the kitchen towel in the colander, she started squeezing out the liquid. This resulted in most of the hot cheese sticking to my kitchen towel.
4.) Make the cheese ahead of the sag. This will give you time to really press it and get the liquid out before you attempt to fry it.

Will I make cheese again? Sure, but it won't be a staple in my kitchen that's for sure. I don't think I was born to become a cheese maker anytime soon. A cheese eater on the other hand, well, that's another story entirely! Also, the sag recipe I got off the Internet somewhere (again can't remember where) wasn't quite right. It called for yogurt and didn't have the creamy mouth feel I was use to. So if anyone has a fairly foolproof recipe for saag, please share!!!!

Basic Paneer

This comes from my oft-consulted copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian.

You’ll need:

2 litres whole milk
3-4 tblsps white vinegar

You’ll also need:

A large, heavy saucepan in which to boil the milk, plus a colander and tea-towel for straining.

The Steps:

Place your colander in the sink and line with a clean tea-towel or few layers of muslin.
Put the milk in a large heavy saucepan over a medium-high heat.
Stir the milk occasionally while it’s heating, otherwise you’re likely to end up with burnt milk residue on the base of the pot (at least that’s what happens to me!)
When the milk is just beginning to boil, turn the heat to low and add 3 tblsps of vinegar. The milk should curdle and separate into solid white curds and a thin greenish liquid, the whey.
The curdling should start happening right after the vinegar is added. If it doesn’t, add another tblsp of vinegar.
Once the milk is separated (which won’t take long, maybe a minute or so) remove from the heat and pour the contents into your lined colander. Most of the whey will drain out.
Now, you can either just let the curds sit and drain for 5-10 minutes and use them as soft curds (as you might use ricotta) or you can press them into a solid patty.
To press into a patty, gather up the ends of the tea-towel, twist and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Then take your little cloth bundle, flatten it into your desired patty shape and leave the top firmly twisted. Sit it on a board in the sink and top with another board and weight it down for about 3-4 minutes. The weight (a heavy pot, say, or a combination of pots) should weigh at least 2.25kg.
The paneer is now ready. It can be sliced and fried or cut into cubes and used in any number of Indian recipes.

The Variations:

Having read Jenni’s post on the world of dairy infusion, I thought, hey, ho, I could add something into the milk to impart some flavour while it boils. So far I have tried adding a piece of cinnamon stick and ended up with lovely, mildly cinnamon-flavoured curds. There are lots of other things you could try adding, like bay leaves, cloves or other whole spices, depending on how you want the curds to taste.
If you’re going to press the paneer, you can mix herbs or spices into the curds just before you press them. For Indian dishes I like to add 1 tsp of toasted cumin seeds and a couple of twists of black pepper to the paneer but you can choose the flavouring to suit whatever dish you’re making.

The Results:

Approx. 250g of paneer

Quit Punching Me in the Stomach, Thank You Very Much!

2009-06-18T14:12:00.003-04:00

I'm still here! I've been remembering to take pictures of food I've been eating but just not finding the time to post about what I've eaten. Such is life. I'm going to try and do a few posts over the next few days so I can bring you semi up to speed on my food life. Just to highlight: I (very badly) made cheese and discovered a new useful kitchen tool.

But the latest food news in my life is that I recently discovered that I have some weird reaction to wheat. Ok, so I'm not 100% ready to called it an allergy just yet. As someone who once dated somebody who had a wheat/gluten allergy where if he had some he'd do into anaphylactic shock, well I'm not ready to call what happens to me an allergy. It feels disrespectful to those who truly are allergic to such things.

What I have noticed is that if I eat too much wheat stuff I feel really bad; I get stomach gas that feels like someone is punching me over and over again. I also get a lovely rash on my arms and legs (I say this as I itchy my leg, reaction to wheat in the batter of some fish tacos I had on Tuesday, I think).

So being 34 years old and learning that you can no longer eat, with abandonment, the foods you love and grew up with is a big life change. At least, it has been for me. Let me tell you I love wheat so very much. I love pizza, pie, cake, bagels, donuts, bread and so many other lovely wheaty things and have been really bummed to have to let those foods go for the most part. Thru the recent loss of these carby loves I've noticed a few things:

The first thing is that wheat is a damn hard thing to avoid if you try. On Sunday I went to brunch with some friend to a place called the "Friendly Toast". I heard that they made good huevos rancheros and I knew that they also made a lot of vegetarian friendly dishes so I thought that the wheat issue wouldn't be an problem, despite the name of the place being "The Friendly Toast". No so. Everything came with bread and I mean everything! Including the huevos rancheros. They didn't come on top of corn tortillas as I would expect, no they came in top of a big slice of wheat bread. Ok, fine, I won't get the bread but when everyone else's brunch dishes came with thick fluffy slices of toasted cheese or wheat bread, I started to feel a bit like a second class citizen. Clearly toast was a big deal here and I feel like I really missed out not being able to partake.

The second thing is that wheat is super easy to forget about. On Tuesday I went to La Verdad for tacos with E and our friend R. It was a lot of fun and in the heat of the moment I decided I wanted fish for dinner thus ordered the fish tacos. R also has a gluten allergy and was going to say something to me but she figured I knew already that there was most likely wheat flour in the batter encasing the fish (duh!). E completely forgot about my allergy and for a few hours so did I. I ate the tacos without even thinking. Once I got home, I was greeted with stomach pains so bad that I had to get into bed in the fetal position or weakly walk over to the bathroom. Oy vey, it was really bad. In the past, this would occasionally happen to me and I would wonder if I needed to be taken to the hospital because the gas pain was so unbearably painful. And just as quickly as it hit me, it would go away as well. It's really great that I now understand what was happening to me but not great when I forget about it.

Slowly, I'm learning how to manage without as much wheat in my diet. I've become a big fan of corn tortillas in place of bread at home and have found that I can buy a big stack at Shaws for $2.50 and it lasts a long time. I've also discovered Lara bars too! I had to admit I was skeptical of yet another "power" bar but Lara bars are different. They're all natural and taste great. They remind me a lot of the date nut cookies from Archway that my Dad enjoys for dessert after dinner. Lara bars are very tasty but you have to know that they won't really actually taste like "pecan pie" or "cherry pie" or whatever but are tasty in their own way.

And E has promised to come up with a wheat free cake recipe and pizza crust recipe that will knock my socks off. So life after wheat might not be so bad after all.

Gourmet Dumpling House

2009-05-08T13:54:00.003-04:00

I make no bones that I love a good, cheap meal! As much as I adore fine dining and an excuse to get dressed up and put on some make-up, I love a meal that is down and dirty and just delicious. So Chinatown is a section of the city I often find myself wandering towards. My faves use to include Taiwan Cafe and Hong Kong Cafe. But lately, I've noticed the quality of the dishes at both places going a bit south. It made me a little sad and I found myself in need of a new place to fill in the gap. This is how Gourmet Dumpling House came to be near and dear in my heart. Elizabeth and I passed by it a few times and often said we'd stop on and try it soon. But E's not a huge fan of Chinese food and I was a little worried about her not enjoying her meal if we tried a new Chinese joint. But the place got rave reviews from my friend W and so we had to try it out.

First of all, the menu is huge! For such a little place, it's got one of the biggest menus I've seen. And don't let the name fool you. Dumplings are not the only thing they serve. However, the dumplings are very good. I especially like the long, pan fried Taiwanese style ones. They take longer to arrive but they're worth the wait. One dumpling dish I wouldn't order again from them would be the soup dumplings. They were a little dried out and not as soupy on the inside as I'd hoped. For soup dumplings I'd stick to Taiwan Cafe.

Among the other things they seem to do well is seafood! Recently, I had the crabs with ginger and scallion and the clams with black bean and basil sauce. Both were excellent. The portion on the crab was insane while the portion on the clams was a little less insane, it was still a very generous serving.

My standard favorite of watercress with garlic is hard to mess up but sometimes it comes out of places and is kinda not good. This is not the case with this place! Everytime I've ordered it, it's fantastic. Crunchy stems and soft leaves with sweet slivers of garlic.

And if you like that old standby, scallion pancake, definitely order it here. It's really flaky and good.

Like most places in Chinatown, the space and the decor leave a lot to be desired. The space is small and the family that runs really packs it in. Take for example, the picture up above. This was my seat one night. I was by myself and got the table that was jammed next to the fish/seafood tanks (literally the table ledge was jutting over the lower tanks). I swear they were staring at me the entire time I was eating. It was a bit creepy but with so much yummy food, I soon got over it. It was also the table in the corner next to a very dirty broom/dust bin and so led me to believe that perhaps it was the staff dining table. But on other occasions I've seen them seat other couples at that table so clearly it's used by other diners as well. I will note that all of them and me aren't Chinese, hmmm....jk. The service isn't the most pleasant and they don't mind bumping into you, shoving you aside to get by but given the space and the number of people vying for a table, I actually don't fault the servers too much. Plus I've had one of the owners just seat me when I was waiting for another person in my party and as I apologized and said I'd just go ahead and order while I wait, he waved his hand and said there was no need. I appreciated that he tried to go the extra step in courtesy.

Overall, this place rocks. And as word has gotten out, it's become busy as f-ck but I'm sure it will kinda die down soon. It was like this for Taiwan Cafe as well; when it first opened, it was literally mobbed every weekend. Overall, this just affirms that the best, cheapest meals are to be found in Chinatown. And if you ever want to find me during the week, just wait for me at the Dumpling House. Chances are I'll show up before too long!

How We Do Leftovers at 184 B-

2009-04-29T22:21:00.006-04:00

Lately, Elizabeth and I have been trying to economize and eat out a bit less. We try to be careful with our limited funds, but even still we enjoy eating well. Since we both had Monday off, we decided it would be nice to try the $17.50 lunch at Sel de la Terre. I love Sel de la Terre. I had never been to the new Back Bay location but I was familiar with the waterfront locale. My friend, Beth, enjoyed the food there and so we'd sometimes go for dinner, splitting the fries and loving the in-house made bread. I had fond memories of the first Sel de la Terre but only ever went for dinner, never went for lunch and thought it'd be fun to try.

Elizabeth and I walked from our apartment, one of the perks of city living, and found the day to be beautiful but really chilly. The next day it was 93*! Oh Boston! What a strange spring you have. Anyway, we opted to sit at the bar. The bartender was nice and competent enough. Elizabeth was able to get her sazerac and I tried something from the bar menu called "London Calling" it's a gin based cocktail that was light and refreshing. We both decided on the $17.50 prix fixe lunch. It changes everyday but when we were there it was a starter of salmon croquettes and then duck meatballs with harricot verts and potato puree. We also opted for a side of french frieds. Yum!

The bread from Sel de la Terre is really good. My favorite bread in the bread basket was the olive bread. It had a chewy crust and the flavor of olive was very prominent.

The salmon croquettes came and were clearly made ahead of time, taken out of the fridge and seared on each side for a nice crust. They did arrive a bit on the cold side, which I was cool with, but E wasn't so certain she was down with it. The little side salad that came with the croquettes are lovely. It wasn't your usual mixed green salad and included flowers and pea shoot leaves. It was nicely dressed and I really appreciated that they treated the salad as important as the croquettes. I really enjoyed the first dish because they took me back to the days of my Grandma E's salmon croquettes (her's will always be tops in my book!!).

I was pretty much full after the first dish but we still had duck meatballs and french fries coming! The meatballs were very good and came with an accompany compote of some sort. It looked like a bit of caramelized onion and since E doesn't do onions, she handed hers over to me. I prompted ate it and realized it was onion but citrus of some sort. Elizabeth tasted some and realized it was blood orange, her favorite fruit! She was crushed that she didn't know. It was a lovely accompany to the rich meal. The pureed potatoes were really just a pool of butter with a bit of starch for show. The french fries were wonderful. Hot and not too skinny for me but still skinny enough for Elizabeth.

All in all, it was a HUGE lunch. Both of us were stuffed and only finished half of the meatballs on our plates. We decided to take it home and do something fun with the leftovers.

I was hankering for some Greek food as I often do and thought the meatballs would be really good in a sorta gyro sandwich. I mentioned my craving to Elizabeth and told her I was thinking soft flat bread with a yogurt and cucumber sauce. Pita bread wouldn't cut it. How about naan? But would the grocery store even have anything like naan?

So last night E and I took a trip to the Shaws across the street in search of ingredients. And guess what? They did have naan. Elizabeth spotted it in the fresh bread/bakery section and it was the last one too! I was really impressed that they had it at all and that it was the last package. We also got some Greek yogurt (again so happy but so shocked that they had it at Shaws).

Elizabeth put together the sandwiches which consisted of the leftover meatballs and beans. These she put on the naan and threw into the oven. On top she put shredded carrot, roast red pepper and oil cured olives. She chopped some mint and cucumber and mixed it into the yogurt and when the meatball topped naan had warmed thru, she put everything on top.

It was a delicious meal and a great way to use the leftovers. I was so happy that I mentioned my idea to Elizabeth because it truly was a very yummy dinner. It was so yummy that I was 1/3 of the way thru and then took the picture. Sorry! (burp)

So if you're stuck with leftovers, don't ever be sad! Just think about something you're craving and see where that takes you.

Oatmeal with Soy Sauce

2009-04-20T20:13:00.002-04:00

Given the fact that I've eaten this dish non-stop for two days it is a little sad that I don't have proper picture. But trust me when I say that this is a good, dare I say great, little dish.

A little while back Mark Bittman made mention of adding scallions and soy sauce to oatmeal. Little did he know that he'd started off a sh_tstorm. The comments all over the internet came pouring in. Some were curious, even supportive but the majority of people found it strange and gross to put soy sauce in a good associated with milk, brown sugar and raisins.

I admit to being very intrigued but never really followed up on the idea. I had grown up on oatmeal for breakfast as a child and actually never really cared for it. No amount of brown sugar or raisins made it sweet enough for me and it would often sit in front me getting cold and going uneaten. My mom, trying to get me to eat a proper breakfast, would often threaten that if I didn't eat the oatmeal that it would reappear for my dinner. And lo and behold, it would. For dinner I'd sometimes be faced with the very oatmeal I had not eaten for breakfast. Only this time, it was cold from the fridge. Bad childhood food memories indeed.

Oatmeal had a place in my kitchen but only as an ingredient in oatmeal cookies and it sat beside the sugar and flour in my pantry. But again, my curiosity got the best of me and I found myself hungry after a workout. I didn't have anything in the kitchen worth fixing before I had to scoot to work but I was tired of my usual pumpernickel bagel. Ahh, now seemed like a good time to try the Mark Bittman oatmeal trick.

I cooked the oatmeal according to the instructions but without milk and when it was finished I added a handful of chopped scallions and about three spoonfuls of soy sauce. I stirred it in and tasted. It tasted familiar and comforting. Infact, it was delicious! It was like rice congee but without the rice! The scallions added crunch as well as flavor. How could something so simple be so good or so controversial?

I went to work but thought about the dish all day. That evening after it had cooked I added a bit of sesame oil and another handful of chopped spinach. The sesame oil didn't really add much and provided a lesson in keeping things simple but the spinach added a bit more green crunch and was lovely. I imagine asparagus would be great as well. Later, I added a chunk of herbed goat cheese and some oil brined olives; it was wonderful as well. Not as good as the soy sauce version but different and still really tasty.

Not convinced? I say, "try it!". Considering how cheap oatmeal is, you have nothing to lose if you don't like it. Plus, if oatmeal isn't really your thing, you can just make some cookies with the leftover oats.

Leah's Riff on Mark Bittman's Savory Oatmeal Idea:
1 cup oatmeal
2 cups water
dash of salt
(cook oatmeal, water and salt as directed)

1 cup fresh chopped spinach
2 stalks of scallions
4 teaspoons of soy sauce (more if you're a salt fiend like me)

Once the oatmeal is cooked and still hot add the spinach, scallions and soy sauce. Stir like crazy and eat.

Leah's Second Try:
1 cup oatmeal
2 cups water
dash of salt
(cook oatmeal, water and salt as directed)

1 good sized nub of goatcheese
6 oil brined olives pitted and chopped (or if you're like me, ripped apart with your fingers).

Once the oatmeal is cooked and still hot add the goat cheese and olives. Stir like crazy and eat.

I'm still a big fan of the soy sauce version but if you're a goat cheese fan, the second version will probably win you over.

March Food

2009-03-26T16:35:00.005-04:00

I'm become such a sloth when it comes to blogging lately! I won't even bother to say much about these photos except this kinda sums up the food I ate this past month.

I'm sad the picture of this pizza is so small. It's from Picco in the South End and it's one of my favorite places for pizza in the city. The crust is perfect...not too thick or thin and the perfect char on the bottom. I should have done an upskirt pic but I'm an amateur so you're left with this crappy photo. Trust me, the pizza is good stuff. The service is hit or miss. Sometimes I get nice people who are very attentive and other times I've had servers that I wanted to throw knives out. But go for the pizza and the home made ice cream!

For our anniversary, E made triple battered chicken for me. I love fried chicken and I tend to love a thick crust. She did a great job getting a thick crust. How she got all that crust to hang into that poor little drumstick is beyond me. It had good flavor and made sure the chicken was juicy but it was a little too thick, even for the likes of me! But A+++ for effort.

In keeping with my needs for Korean food, we went to a place in Chinatown that was eh. But sometimes when you crave something you just have to have it no matter what. But seriously, can someone come up with an amazing Korean place in Boston already?!?

Facebook and Twitter = Recipe for Disaster

2009-03-13T23:19:00.007-04:00

A friend emailed me via Facebook with a link to an article on msn.com where Anthony Bourdain does picks and pans of food shows on TV. The best quote from Tony was regarding the show, "Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee."

The most terrifying thing I've seen is her making a Kwanzaa cake. Watch that clip and tell me your eyeballs don't burst into flames. It's a war crime on television. You'll scream.

Those seemed like might strongly words even for Bourdain. I was intrigued but too busy/lazy to seek out an episode of Semi Homemade involving Kwanzaa cake, but decided to Tweet my thoughts:

Sandra Lee made a Kwanzaa cake at some point?? Omg so wrong on so many levels and I really want to see that episode. about 7 hours ago from web

And wouldn't you know, I got a response from a friend a few minutes later:

msdixon@denimmafia Ask and you shall receive http://tinyurl.com/4jtbu2about 7 hours ago from TwitterFox in reply to denimmafia

It was a link to the Sandra Lee Kwanzaa cake fiasco. And for your viewing pleasure I'll embed it here for you as well:

O.M.G. Seriously, how do angel food cake, chocolate frosting, apple pie filling and cornnuts (aka acorns) go together? Who does that? And how does anything in this cake reflect Kwanzaa? How do cornnuts become "acorns" and suit cake decorations? It's as if Sandra Lee is a complete stoner and just mashed a bunch of things together because she got the munchies.

And honestly, what about this cake reflects "kwanzaa"? So yeah, while Bourdain's word seemed intense, they were absolutely befitting in this situation. A war crime indeed. And yes, I screamed!

Back to Basics

2009-02-16T21:25:00.009-05:00

I love Ina Garten. Although I've only experienced limited success with her recipes, I love her show on Food Network. She makes the sorta food I want to eat. She's not overly chipper ala Rachel Ray, sexpotty like Giada or overly geeky like Alton Brown. No, she's the kind of woman I imagine being good friends with. I imagine her as friendly, smart and extremely generous. So this might be why I always refer to her cookbooks first whenever I decide I want to cook something up for myself that I'm unfamiliar with.

I own almost each of her cookbooks and they all live in my tiny kitchen so I can quickly refer to them. Even so, I wasn't feeling overly inspired by any of them lately. But Ina recently came out with a new cookbook called Back to Basics that I thought looked awesome. So awesome that I bought it was a gift for food buddy Caroline and was a little sad to give it away. So E bought it for me as a Xmas gift so I had a copy of my own.

I found a yummy sounding butternut curry soup inside and have been wanting to try it for a while now. It looked very simple and easy. And since I had a day off from work, I figured I might as well give it a whirl. I also decided that I wanted dessert too and was craving chocolate mousse. My craving is odd given the very bad experience I had with chocolate mousse in the 8th grade.

My 8th grade French class was having a party, and I was given the task of making chocolate mousse. How I ended up with this task is beyond me, because I had no clue how to make it. But sure, I told the teacher I'd give it a shot if she gave me a recipe for it. Too bad the recipe she gave me involved things that a 13 year old knows nothing about, such as brewed coffee, cognac and an ice bath. All I can say is that the mousse was a disaster and turned into lumpy chocolate soup sans coffee, cognac and ice bath. That was the first and last time I made chocolate mousse until tonight.

I, being an Ina devotee, checked to see if she had a recipe for chocolate mousse and she did. It, of course, involved two different types of alcohol. Given my experience with Ina's tiramisu and the sheer amount of rum in that dish, I decided that I'd use a different recipe. I wanted something fairly simple but with a slight depth of flavor. I looked in my Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe that involved a total of four ingredients: chocolate chips, sugar, egg yolks, whipping cream. And while the recipe was idiotically simple (why didn't my French teacher give me this recipe to make?!?!), I was afraid the taste would be dull as well. I decided to improvise a bit and added instant espresso to the cream I had to heat as well as some good vanilla extract too.

What resulted was an incredibly rich and light mousse with the exact depth of flavor I wanted as a result of the espresso and vanilla. Yum! It's the sort of thing that you can't eat a lot of, but boy, you really wish you could! Thanks Betty Crocker Cookbook!

So back to the curry butternut soup...it was simple, simple, simple. Roast cubes of butternut squash, onion and apple until they're soft and cooked thru, run it thru a food mill (or a blender in my case), add to chicken stock, sprinkle with curry, salt and pepper and garnish with coconut, banana and cashews.

I liked how easy the soup was to bring together, although I hate, with a passion, cutting the squash. It's just so boring to me and seems like it always takes forever to peel and cube. So I roasted and pureed and soon dinner was ready. E dressed the greens I purchased with a simple oil and vinegar dressing and I pulled out soup bowls.

The soup was nice. It was sweet because of the butternut squash. The curry flavor wasn't as apparent as I had hoped though.

I wonder if I'll always be kinda lukewarm about the actual outcome of my Ina Garten recipes. I mean, I love her so much, but everything I'd ever followed of hers, turns out eh. It's good but never great. Perhaps I love Ina so much, too much that nothing will ever live up to my expectations. Maybe I need to start building a lower pedal stool in my head for my Ina. I'll think about it...

Lunar New Year

2009-01-18T15:30:00.005-05:00

Just to clarify before I go on, I'm Korean American. I was raised by a white family so my knowledge of Korean culture is limited at best. I do know that Korean's don't really get into the Lunar New Year Celebration. However that said, if I have to give offers to any sort of god, I'd rather have it go to a "Kitchen God" any day of the week!

At Lunar New Year, many Chinese families pay their respects to the Kitchen God known as either Zaowang or Tsao Wang. One of the most popular lesser gods and credited with the invention of fire, the KG is the one who oversees the virtues of a family. Why the kitchen? Well, the heart of any family tends to be here, in the kitchen.

So apparently, KG duties include going back to heaven to report on how good the family is. And the idea is to bribe him before his big trip up. So families will put offering for him by the stove. Food that symbolizes sweet life, prosperity, longity, etc. I think wine is also set up in hopes of getting KG boozed up so he'll be even happier to sing the praises of the family once he arrives in heaven.

There is something so adorable about this practice and yet so familiar. It sorta of reminds me of the wine that Jewish families leave out for the holy spirit. Offering to gods and spirits cross so many culture borders and I really love that. But I love the idea of the KG so much b/c I love the idea of a god living inside my stove!

Perhaps, I should give my KG an offering so he will not only sing my praises in heaven but also so he can figure out how to get that darn electric oven to bake cakes evenly.

Even though this really isn't a holiday that I celebrate, I do plan on going to Chinatown next Monday to feast on clams, dumplings, pork and noodles! Yum!

Dinner at 180 Brookline Ave, A Cultural Study

2009-01-08T14:45:00.002-05:00

Elizabeth's Dinner:

a sandwich, edamame and wine

My Dinner:

kimchee, edamame, diet coke

RIP

2009-01-08T14:27:00.004-05:00

A fire earlier this week destroyed the restaurant block of Peterborough St. In total seven businesses including six restaurants and one dry cleaning business were destroyed. If Fenway Park is the heart of my neighborhood, well this block was certainly the stomach. I have so many fond memories of meals with friends on this block in the smmertime. Plus, at least a few of my weekly meals came from either Rod Dee or El Pelon (both of which I've mentioned on this blog).

One of my employees worked at the Sorrentos located on this block and everytime she walks past it (she also lives in Fenway) it makes her want to cry. It's pretty sad to see the black charred remains of what was once a vibrant and thriving space. It was a block that everyone in the neighborhood knew and to say that it will be missed is an understatement. The owner of the property said that he will rebuild but I guess it's now a question as to what will go into the spaces. I hope El Pelon and Rod Dee come back!

El Pelon suffered from a fire about 13 months ago and that forced them to close and rebuild, but they were able to reopen in the summer. I'm not 100% certain how fire insurance works but to have a fire again 13 months later, well it might be a case of the insurance company not covering the entire cost to rebuild. But I don't know. In any event, a big black hole is now part of my 'hood. Sigh.

2009!

2009-01-04T22:30:00.003-05:00

Happy 2009 Everyone!

This time last year I made some resolutions that I was good about keeping for about a month. Yeah, so this year I decided not to make any except for maybe losing the 10 lbs I somehow gain between this time last year and now.

Weight has always been something that vexes me. Even when I was young, I was concerned I was "fat". In truth, I've never had to really truly worry too much about my weight. But I do have a comfortable range for myself and I'm a bit outside my range these days. Easy enough! It just means I need to curb on certain foods and step up some exercise.

And so it is with a heavy heart that I leave the Daring Bakers group. I learned a lot about baking from this blogger group and ate a lot of yummy things I made too. But with my new commitment to eating a little bit healthier I feel that my mission in life doesn't really align properly with this group.

Don't worry, I'm not closing down shop completely! I'm definitely going to try and keep up with this blog and tell you about some of the lovely things I get to eat.

Posted to Yelp: Review of Teavana

2009-01-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

800 Bolyston
Shops at Prudential
Boston, MA 02199
(617) 262-1888
"If I could give this place negative stars I certainly would.

This afternoon I headed into Teavana with fiancée the purpose of buying my mom a gift. She's obsessed with the mint tea from Oleana and I've been on a search to find something as aromatic.

The store was busy and very chaotic. People tended to crowd around the free vats of tea. My fiancée and I scooted to the front to try and get help. It looked, at first, as though there were only two people working the counter and they were helping others already. So I went ahead and stood close to the counter and thought I'd wait for assistance.

My fiancée spotted an employee who was walking thru the crowd. His idea of "help" was to inform us that there were two lines in order to be served. I did get a chance to ask him if they had mint tea and if I'd be able to try a sample of either of them. No, he said but I could smell the tea. But I needed to wait here for help from the people behind the counter. "Okay," I thought, " No problem! I don't mind waiting for help".

But what happened next made me so angry that I actually just walked out the door and didn't make my purchase.

The same young man who informed me of the "line" for which I was next up took it upon himself to help a guy who wasn't even in line. He even had the gall to start putting together tea samples for him to try and pulling loose tea for this man. This was after I was tersely informed I couldn't sample the mint tea I wanted to buy and told to stand in line (even though I was first in line for help).

Now, I'm queer and I take a huge amount of offense at homophobia of any kind, but this Teavanna employee is the kind of person who gives queers every place a bad name. I basically was ignored because I didn't have a penis.

Another employee even asked, "Are you waiting to buy loose tea?" Yes, you motherf_cker! I'm trying to buy a gift for my Mom. And yet again I was informed that i needed to wait in one of the two lines forming. This was my cue to leave.

First of all, never have I been treated in such a rude manner at any store. If I could have avoided interacting with anyone there, I would have just grabbed the tea and left but the way the store is set up, you must interact with the employees. And that would be just fine if I had gotten some customer service instead of being informed over and over again about their made up bureaucracy of two lines, which I was standing in.

Secondly, being that I own stores, I'd think I would know a thing or two about about helping customers. And never would I ever skip someone tho the front of the line for being gay, a lesbian or proud owner of a penis. I was so completely ignored (except to be told about the stupid damn lines) that it made me feel that being nice and patient at Teavana doesn't work in one's favor.

Third, if you know I'm there buying a gift and I'm not a browser, it would be common sense that you'd want to help me make my purchase and be on my way. But it felt like not a single employee was interested in doing their job.

Lastly, this place sucks for hiring people who clearly discriminate based on sexual orientation. Trust me. And I'm usually the last person to use Yelp to write something bad about another place but my experience was so horrifying bad that I really had no choice."

With a Last Name Like Mine, Well the Burger Better Be Good!

2008-12-18T18:15:00.004-05:00

I'm sorry that I've been so light with my posts these days. Busy busy busy. And by the time I get around to thinking about writing something either a.) I've forgotten exactly what it was that I ate b.) I don't have any pictures or any motivation to really pull something together. Sadly, my lazy ass ways get in my way too much in my life. But anywhooo....

Well, what sort of things have I been eating lately? A lot of homemade meals for sure. With the economy as poor as it is, E and I spend our monies buying groceries that allow us to not only economize but eat well too. Since we're both food lovers, going out for meals can sometimes be costly endeavors. But cooking at home allows us to enjoy some lovely meals for a fraction of the price of dining out, plus we end up with really fantastic leftovers for lunch.

Most of the meals we've eaten have already been documented here...homemade pasta and bolognese, pork chops but this week E made a really nice chili in the crock pot.

While the chili sauce/broth didn't really thicken up as much as what I'm use to the favors were still very good. And what really brightened up the flavor was a pear and orange pepper salsa that E used to top the dish. With cheddar cheese and fresh corn bread crumbled into the bowl, this dish was delicious, comforting and filling! I could barely finish my one bowl of chili. Maybe E will share the salsa recipe with you, or maybe not. But it's a great idea. I like the kinda homey comfort food chili paired with the freshness of raw pears and peppers. Sounds odd but trust me, it was very good.

As well as we've been eating at home, we certainly have been missing our stepping out for meals. Or at least, I have on occasion! I enjoy the act of sharing a meal at a bar or a restaurant with friends. And so last night E and I met our friend J and A for dinner. We decided to meet at Eastern Standard because they had some business to conduct as well as wanted to stop in for a pre dinner cocktail. I arrived and was famished. Since I hadn't had anything to eat, I decided to hold off on a drink right away. E arrived shortly after and we went back and forth about where to go for a nice meal. While E and I had a lovely quick conversation with Garrett Harker (I really do adore that man) and A + J called over to Tommy, the head bartender of Craigie on Main, to see if they had room at the bar for four. A and J have been raving about the burger, and well, I'm always in search for a good one. It turned out Tommie had room for us and after a short cab ride over the river to Cambridge, we arrived at the new Craigie Street.

What use to be a medium sized mediocre Italian restaurant had been transformed into a lovely cozy bistro style dining room with an open kitchen complete with a "chefs table" of a counter top and bar stools at the entrance. I didn't get to see much of the dining room portion of Craigie because we beelined it over to the bar to the right of the entrance. A little, fairly dark lit space, it oozed the word "cozy". We had a bit of a wait but soon enough we got seats and were able to properly greet Tommy. A and J know Tommy well, but I only know him because of his work at Eastern Standard. He would often take care of me and E. And when he first started she called him Dennis the Menace (a term of affection). Tommy was a very good young bartender. A pro at his craft with an easy manner and a very charming smile...he's a really good guy.

We ordered four burgers off the bar menu (all of them medium rare expect for me. I tend to like my meat as rare as possible) and an order of pate to share as a starter.

The pate was lovely. It was served with small dollops of grainy mustard, minced gherkin pickle, minced shallot, salt and black peeper and a tiny salad of frisee and baby greens on the plate. We all got served good sized bread points (toasted and big!) so we could spread the pate on. I was a little cautious at first and just took a little bit in case I didn't like it. Too bad that wasn't the case! It was absolutely delicious. It was meaty, fatty and creamy. The texture was both smooth but not so smooth that you didn't think it was house made. If I could have toast always spread with this stuff, I'd probably never eat anything else ever. That pate was so good and it truly didn't need any of the other stuff on the plate. I guess the salad was there to break up the meaty fatty richness of the pate but I didn't eat any of it and didn't want it. I was fine with fat and meat pulverized and spread on my toast!

The burgers came soon after. And they were lovely to behold. The buns were so perky and the sea same seeds looked as though they had been lacquered so the bun appeared to be almost looked fake. The burger came with fried sweet potato threads and more of that frisee salad. Tommy said that the buns were made in house especially for the burgers.

Okay so first thoughts: I wasn't happy that traditional french fries weren't served with it. I also wasn't happy that we weren't offered ketchup or mustard. I also forgot to ask for bacon for my burger for which I'm sure I would have been stoned by the chef. Anyway, all that aside...

The burger was very seasoned with salt. I liked that but I could see how that might be off putting for some people. I mean, I like salt and have been known to add salt to potato chips at times so that should tell you something. The meat was very loosely packed almost to the point of falling about too easily for it to truly be a "burger". While I don't love a dense pack, I do like a burger that holds together well. The meat was almost fork tender in terms of texture. Apparently it was a mix of lamb, beef, marrow, fat. It had a very good meaty mouth feel and I liked the amount of fat they used. The taste was everything a burger should be but the texture of the patty threw me a bit. I was pretty happy with it and thought it was so delicious that I didn't need mustard or ketchup but like the pate we were served prior, at least the grainy mustard was on that plate so I'd like to offered those staples.

The fried sweet potato fries or threads were very good but not my favorite. They got very cold fast and I actually found them hard to eat. I gave most of mine to Elizabeth (who loved them!) who traded me the other half of her burger. The little salad was a nice touch and I enjoyed it as a way to break up the meatiness of eating one and a half burgers. At this point, I also order a regular coke so I could enjoy the sugary sweet carbonation against the backdrop of the burger. I get a little nostalgic when I eat burgers. It reminds me of Dad grilling burgers when I was young. And the drink of choice back then? Well, regular coke, of course!

Overall, I enjoyed the burger quite a bit. I felt that it was well made and actually worth the $19 price tag. Yes, I would go back for the burger and definitely rate it higher than the Radius burger hands down!

However, is it possibly the best burger I've ever eaten? No. Burgers serve all sorts of different purposes for me from the nostalgia of Dad grilling to my poor college student days at Mr and Mrs. Bartleys eating a triple "Clinton" burgers elbow to elbow next to my fellow starving student friend to a relax burger at brunch with friends just because I can! I think that Craigie's burger certainly has its place and is possibly one of the best in Boston for sure. But I also think it shows the caliber of Craigie (it was very thoughtfully made and well executed) and made me more hungry to try other things on their menu. I want to go back for the chef's whim menu and some of those Nova Scotia smelts (think they're better that New Castle, PA smelts?).

But what made the evening so great was being able to share the meal with E, J and A and Tommy too. I will definitely rate that evening at Craigie very highly for the company and the food. So everything combined, the evening rated a perfect 1o for sure!

And on closing, I will say I finally had a drink after my meal. Tommy mixed what I think was called a 50/50 with this beautiful Vermouth I think that was called Doylton. It was a perfect end to a lovely night out with friends and loved ones.

Thanksgiving, My Single Contribution

2008-12-01T22:26:00.003-05:00

Elizabeth did all the cooking this year! I was so happy to just chop veggies and make my daring bakers cake. I did contribute one item which I will detail later.

We ordered a locally raised turkey from Savenors and had to go pick up it. So after work on Wednesday (only a half day!) E and I took my rolling suitcase over to Beacon Hill to pick up the bird. I think the key to urban living sans car is a rolling cart or suitcase of some sort, fo' sho!

We decided to make the most of our time on Beacon Hill and went to Bin 26 for a lovely romantic pre Thanksgiving Day dinner. True to form, the service was great as was the company. The chef changed and so the food, while usually quite good, was a bit too salty. Actually a lot too salty. I felt awful but I actually (me, Queen of the Salt) had to send my entree back. It came back and was pitch perfect. Yum. A lovely evening spent with my favorite person.

So Thanksgiving dinner...I had nothing to really report. The meal was very good and there certainly plenty of food. The only thing I made was the cranberry relish which is a family tradition and one of my favorite things in the world. You can use it to cover the turkey or any other part of the meal that you might not find as tasty as other things. It's a wonderful little side because this relish is still really tart. Plus it's really simple and can be left on the stove to just simmer away while everything else cooks. Try it!

1 package fresh cranberries picked over for bad ones or stems
2/3 cup oj
3 tablespoons orange zest
2/3 or less cup brown sugar (clearly the less you use, the more tart the relish)

put all of the ingredients in a pot on the stove over medium heat. as the cranberries start to heat and pop, you may turn the heat down if desired but keep cooking the relish until all the cranberries had pretty much burst and the liquid has thickened.
can be eat hot or cold.

Daring Bakers Challenge November

2008-12-01T13:02:00.007-05:00

This month's challenge comes from:
Shuna Fish Lydon’s recipe (http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006 … he-recipe/)

And hosting this month:
http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/
http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/
http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/

I'm late in posting due to a weekend of missing internet access. Oh well. Better late, then never?

I admit that I let out a long sigh when I saw that this month’s challenge was yet another cake with buttercream frosting. I’ve made so many cakes since joining this group and well, I like cake as much as the next person but I’ve never enjoyed buttercream frosting in any form. It has a mouth feel of biting into a stick of butter for me. So to say I was a tad bit disappointed might be an understatement. But you know, I joined this group so I could bake more and learn more. And well I had done those two things so being a part of Daring Bakers is well worth mastering buttercream!

This month’s challenge was a caramel cake with a brown butter frosting. I saw that there was a homemade caramel syrup that had to be made and immediately that was where I’d tweak the recipe just a bit.

I had a new bottle of Bittermen’s Bitters that had been created just for my clothing shops. It was cleverly titled the “Sexy Freudian Slip” and had the essence of ginger, lemongrass, anise and hot peppers. What I wanted was a bitters that not only worked as something edible but also something wearable as personal scent. And did it succeed? It did! It’s a lovely earthy little perfume that is rather interesting and a bit musky and spicy. Plus it helps to make damn fine cocktails too!

So I decided to shake some drops of my “Sexy Freudian Slip” into the syrup once it cooled. Upon tasting the syrup, the flavor of the bitter really came through very nicely and I was surprised how well all those flavors went with the caramel syrup. It was quite a tasty little creation and I imagine it might be fun to use as a sauce for vanilla ice cream. It would definitely keep your guests guessing what you used to flavor the sauce!

Once the syrup was done, I moved into making the cake. I didn’t have a cake pan that I thought would be deep enough so I made two cakes instead of the instructed one. I cut down the baking time but I still think I might have overcooked the cakes a little. I considered soaking them in something to moisten them up, but personally, I felt that to do so would have been cheating a bit. However, the dry cake might have more to do with my crappy electric oven. Cakes never seem to cook well in my oven. Sadness!

Once the cakes were done, into the frosting. And here is usually when I sigh deeply and think “oh yet another buttercream.” But this recipe was different! And actually really kinda cool. Browning the butter was kinda like a fun science experiment. Who knew that butter contained so many solids? I strained the butter filtering out most of the lumpy solids but some of them did get into the frosting. The frosting was ridiculously easy and came together quickly. I took a quick swipe at the bowl mostly to test the consistency. As I started before, I hate buttercream so I wasn’t expecting to like what I was about to taste.

And what a complete shock I was in for! The frosting consistency was a bit more tender that most stiff buttercreams I’ve tasted plus browning the butter gave a really kinda complex flavor to the frosting. It was in short, freakin’ delicious! Sadly, the flavored caramel syrup taste didn’t come thru at all but the frosting was still an interesting and tasty creation. I was quite pleased with it. And definitely will be making the frosting again. Who knew that browning butter would make such a huge difference in taste?

The next day, in time for Thanksgiving dinner, I assembled the cake. I toasted coconut and pecans to put between the layers with the frosting. And began frosting my cake. The frosting was a bit firmer due to time in the fridge overnight. I had to nuke it for a couple of seconds to get it pliable. My finished product:

I think that the cake came out a little too dry as a result of my two cake solution or perhaps due to my oven. The short term eating solution? Cutting a slice of cake and pouring a bit of milk on top of it. It sounds odd but it’s really good and solves the dryness isse. Besides who am I to throw away cake?!? The frosting was kinda this amazing thing and I wasn’t about to throw that out! Sadly, even though the “Sexy Freudian Slip” shined through in the caramel syrup, the flavor was all but lost in the final product. Perhaps I could try soaking the baked cakes in the syrup next time?

Overall, this cake definitely will take some tweaking from me to get it right! But it’s definitely a keeper and I’m thrilled that I had a opportunity to make it. And this praise is coming from someone who was not thrilled at having to make buttercream, so you know this sh_t is the tight!!!

Suisse Enchiladas

2008-11-18T15:32:00.001-05:00

My Mom is a fantastic home cook. I have many fond food memories from my childhood: thickly frosted homemade chocolate birthday cakes, apricot bars, meatloaf, beef stroganoff, turkey tetrazzini, sweet and sour meatballs and creamy enchiladas. I have fond memories of frozen Weaver chicken too but that’s another entry for another day.

She was self taught and learned by trial and error. Most of her recipes are very reflective of the 70’s back when my brothers and I were still mighty young. By the time I was off to college, she had added salmon and healthier food to the mix and even used such exotic spices as cilantro.

I think many of us long for the foods of our childhood but lately my craving for my Mom’s enchiladas was getting a little out of hand.

So this past Sunday, I called my Mom intent on getting the recipe for the enchiladas of my childhood. Little did I know that E was listening as I was getting the recipe and was starting to get a little alarmed.

“Whipping cream? Do you think I can use half and half and milk instead?”

Yeah. So since I grew up with these enchiladas, I never once thought they might be “odd”. But as Mom went thru the ingredients which included whipping cream, tomato sauce, I realized that perhaps this dish might be only delicious to me and was hardly “authentic:.

Nevermind that E might find my enchiladas repulsive at least she’d get a taste of what 7 year old Leah liked.

The dish took a bit of time because I decided to use chicken quarters and I needed to roast those. I used my beloved Goya adobe seasoning and generously sprinkled it on the tops and bottoms of my chicken. Once cooked, E and I skinned and shredded the meat so it could get combined with the chopped spinach.

Once the enchiladas were assembled and popped back into the hot oven, the dish was quickly done!

But how did it taste? Awesome! No, really, it was good. Rich and creamy and just like I remember as a kid. I think E liked them too but I doubt that they are crave worthy for her. But they are delicious. Sure, they are fat filled and kinda decedent but perfect for a chilly day dinner. I think pairing it with a crisp light salad would be lovely and very complimentary.

When I called my Mom back to give her the full report on how the enchiladas, she mentioned that the original recipe is a James Beard creation called “Suisse Enchiladas”.
I don’t know about the original recipe but here is the one I got from my Mom, enjoy!

8 Flour tortillas (I used 12)
3 Chicken Breast or a whole roasted Chicken (I used 5 chicken quarters)
Tomato sauce, enough to moisten (I used tomato paste thinned out with water b/c it’s what I had on hand)
1 package chopped Frozen Spinach
1 medium onion, chopped (I omitted b/c E doesn’t like onion)
3 cups whipping cream (I used half &half and 2% milk again b/c it’s what I had on hand)
3 chicken teaspoons of chicken granules
A generous slice of jack cheese for every whole enchilada

Step by Step
1) Sauté onion in olive oil until soft. Add chicken, spinach and just enough tomato sauce to moist but not be wet and simmer 20 minutes.
2) Heat cream gently; dissolve chicken granules in cream.
3) Fill tortillas with chicken mixture, roll and place in a baking dish that has been sprayed with a non-stick coating.
4) Pour cream over.
5) 375 degrees for 20 minutes or less.
6.) Put cheese slices on top and bake until golden and bubbly.

'Zza: October Daring Baker's Challenge

2008-11-02T22:12:00.002-05:00

I had a friend who called pizza, "zza". It took me a while to figure out what she was talking about but once I did, I was glad to have a friend who's deep love of pizza meant that she had a pet nickname for the food.

One of my absolute favorite foods, all my childhood memories is a moving evolution of pizza. My family moved every two years and so every move meant a new pizza supplier had to be found! Stouffers French Bread to Pizza Hut to Little Caesars and finally to Bertucci's, I loved it all! When I was 14 I found a wonderfully simple recipe for homemade pizza dough in the back of seventeen magazine. I still use the recipe and have the ripped out pages to refer back to.

So when I learned that this month's Daring Baker Challenge was pizza, I was over the moon! I couldn't wait to try a new recipe for dough. I looked over the recipe but was a little bummed by one small issue. It was a two day deal, which was okay, I could do all the work one day but the issue was timing. The second day's instructions said to pull the dough out of the refrigerator two hours before it needed to be ready. Sadly, with my schedule the way it is with the store and all, I'm lucky to get even an hour to prep before guest arrive for dinner! Luckily, E was doing the challenge with me and had the day off so she was able to come over to the apartment and pull out the dough.

Yay! But back to the actual process. I followed the directions and kneaded the dough a bit more than the 5-7 minutes instructed. I was concerned about the consistency of the dough. It seemed a bit tough to me and I was wondered it would turn out too hard (like the Ina Gartener pizza dough had done on me). I kneaded for more like 10-15 minutes and crossed my fingers that the resting time would allow the dough to really get soft and tender.

The Challenge this month also called for sauce. Didn't matter what kind of sauce but I like a simple pizza and so I thought if we made a tomato and cheese pizza well, a jar sauce wasn't gonna be very tasty. I decided to make a simple tomato sauce from scratch. It was so simple. I simmered a can of crush tomatoes and a couple of cups of red wine with a spoonful of tomato paste, a bit of chicken broth, a handful of dried and fresh basil, dried oregano and two cloves of garlic, Later, I added a slug of olive oil and pat of butter and tasted. It was good but something was missing. I sprinkled in some crush red pepper and tasted again. Still good but missing something still! I stood around and pondered, "hmm..."

I added freshly ground nutmeg and the tasted again, the sauce was awesome! Simple but yet complex. The nutmeg seemed to amplify all the other flavors in the sauce. It was quite lovely. Seriously, why is nutmeg not used in more recipes? Hmm... anyway, I highly recommended it for fall soups and sauces!

On Day 2, I came home to E prepping the toppings. A lovely sight indeed :) She had been kind enough to take out the dough and we were ready to rock and roll. I started to follow the instructions on how to toss the dough but I chickened out. I also chickened out on turning the oven up to 500 and left the oven at 485. (I've been a little scared since my oven door glass shattered due to roasted cauliflower). Luckily, E was kind enough to toss the dough for us. I did notice how tender the dough had become. It was perfectly stretchy and soft. Perfect!

E topped it with my homemade sauce and locally made fresh mozerella and slipped it on the pizza stone.

The final product? Awesome! It was a very, very, very simple pizza all made from scratch, but it might have been the best pizza I've eaten in a long time! The sauce was fantastic but the crust was really quite delicious. It was crisp and light and it cooked perfectly with no soggy edges anywhere!

For pictures and more detail, you should check out E's blog entry...here.

I've very pleased with this Challenge and will definitely keep this recipe handy! However, in the future I'll need to play around with the 2 hour ahead of time step. I'm thinking more like 1 hour or 30 minutes before instead ;)

Thanks for letting me play again Daring Bakers!!!!!!

Envy

2008-10-28T13:31:00.000-04:00

It’s not often that I read something in Boston Magazine that gets me thinking about the deeper moral implications of one’s actions. But there is an article in October’s issue, the entire issue is dedicated to “Envy”, that got me to think about what it means to be authenticate in a world of copy cats.

The article is here:
Envy

Essentially there is a newish restaurant in town that has gotten a very large amount of critical acclaim in a seemingly short amount of time. After Frank Bruni gushed about it in the New York Times (he did say that all the places review was only stellar because they had the handicap of being outside of NYC, um thanks Frank?. A move that is sooo typically Frank Bruni), the place seemed to explode in terms of exposure. I would talk to people about Oisshii and instantly, I’d get the one up stance of “Yes, but have you been to Oya? Really, no? Then you have no idea what sushi truly can be!”.

Seriously? As someone who happened to own one of the first stores to appear in Boston dedicated to jeans, I know first hand what it’s like to be suddenly told that the younger, newer kid on the block is outshining you. I’m of the belief that there is room enough for all of us. But Bostonians tend to believe, in true Highlander form, that “there can be only one”. It’s a mentality not exclusive to Boston, but in a town trying to called a cosmopolitan city (look we have a new Mandarin Oriental Hotel and a new huge Apple store, look look!), well it’s very, very cut throat because there aren’t as many people to impress as say New York. However, even with how competitive Boston is, there are certain rules of protocol and decency.

I think that because Boston is small, most people in any given service industry know each other…And it is mostly through personal encounters. It’s not surprising when a Sales Rep calls me at work and says amazed “Everyone in this town who owns a shop knows you!. Well, in a place as small as Boston that’s not surprising. If I go into a locally owned shop, even if I know I’m just there to pick up a dress or a candle, if I find myself mentally taking notes of the layout or the brands, I will then make an effort to introduce myself and honestly, let the person know what I’m doing. This not only clears my conscious but is the right thing to do in such a small town. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m taking clues from them in a dishonest fashion.

Our new store has a dressing room fashioned after the one’s at Stel’s. I went in and told Tina and John exactly what I wanted to do and with their blessing was told how-to. I know that Nilda from Parlor has called other shops to make sure it’s cool with them to carry a line and I’ve also placed similar calls to other shops and even canceled orders because a friend told me that they wanted the exclusive to a line which they made a good case/point about. This might sound a lot like we’re mixing business with personal but none of us entered this industry for purely business reasons. Granted we all want to make money and make a living, but owning a business is like sharing a huge piece of your personal side. You sell the things you love and you talk about how it came to appear in your shop. Those stories are often hugely personal. Very rarely, did anyone else to see a performance chart regarding what brand/models/colors sell the best and go from there. It’s often about gut and feeling. I had a gut feeling that Rag &Bone would explode. I had a gut feeling that Sevens would do well for us.

As a chef, I would imagine, a lot of it is gut as well. But you can’t make the call to a supplier and say “I’d like you stop selling ketchup to XYZ” because I have ketchup too. You can’t protect the brands/supplies but you can protect the way you put things together and the way you display your talent.

Pictures, films, music and words are easily protected from plagiarizing. Just look at even food blogs these days. One of the major ones I read on a regular basis went after another blog for not only stealing her photos but her recipes as well. We’re talking almost came to a lawsuit. Another one I use to follow shut down, because the food blog community for not sighting properly where her recipes came from shunned her. This might seem like a lot from food blogs…but it’s now a clear understanding of a violation of a larger theme. There are few things that a chef can really protect and doesn’t he/she have a right to do so?

So in a city/town as small as Boston is, for the owners of O Ya to not come entirely clean about what they were up to, even if it meant nothing to them (which clear is not the case because the guy was taking copious notes) when visiting Uni and Oisshii is not only very dishonest and bad form, it should border on illegal. This might seem like a harsh thing to write but think about it. The entire Cindy McCain stolen recipes from Food Network might had not been so bad had someone on staff just added the caveat that the recipes were “inspired” from ones on the Food Network website. We’re clearly all influenced by other things around us and for the owners of O Ya to even just say, “yes, I was very influenced by my meals at those places but it’s deeper than that. He really studied that was going on there. He had the menus faxed to him twice a week and appeared at the restaurants for dinner and was never honest about who he truly was.

Perhaps, any place else, this man’s actions might make sense but not in a town like Boston. And it’s not about a “fraternity of chefs” or a “fraternity of store owners” or even about ENVY. Rather, it’s about being able to wake up every morning knowing that YOU came up with the ideas for what to carry in your store, that YOU made the decision how to put ingredients together. It’s about true integrity and honesty and how we as a community (small or large) and society award such efforts.

Fried Unicorn

2008-10-16T15:35:00.003-04:00

It's no secret that E and I have dated off and on for a couple of years now. And all this time, E has talked about her fried chicken. She speaks of it in boastful sentences. "My fried chicken is off the hook!", is a constant refrain. E has made it for other people in her life...ex's, friends, acquaintances, randoms but not for the likes of me. Hmp! Finally one day, after hear her boast yet again about her fried chicken, I said that her friend chicken was a unicorn to me. Actually, I kinda lost it.

"Your goddamn fried chicken is a f_cking unicorn. I've never seen it!!!! Stop talking about this freaking fried unicorn already".

So after much freaking out on my part and much boasting of her, she offered to make it for me. We invited a couple of friends along for the ride. And so it was that last Saturday I had fried unicorn.

Now, please keep in mind, I don't make fried chicken. However, I am a fried chicken lover...I mean, for goodness sake, I am Korean American and we're all about fried chicken so I like to say it's in my blood. I have fond memories of frozen Banquet fried chicken out of the box, KFC, Popeyes etc. But nothing really compares to my friend Caroline's fried chicken. She's a master of the chicken! She spent an entire summer perfecting her recipes and I was one of her happy guniea pigs. I think she uses cornmeal in the crust and keeps it wam after it's fried in the oven. The result is a juicy chicken and a crisp, light crust that shatters upon impact with one's mouth. Yum. Caroline has made a bit of a snob out of me. Once you have really good homemade fried chicken, it's something that sticks with you. You dream about it all the time. Seriously.

So E set out to make something for me that had already reach mythical preportions in terms of the brag as well as something I already had high expectations regarding. If I had only had commericial fried chicken all my life, perhaps my standards would be low but alas Caroline ruined any chances of that.

E soaked the chicken in buttermilk over night. She asked me what sides I wanted for this imporant meal. I wasn't sure. Almost every chicken meal I had eaten with Caroline only involved chicken. I mean, afterall, wasn't it the star. I think I made something up about wanting biscuits. But then I got an idea. I'd make waffles to go along with the chicken! What could make fried chicken better? Why waffles, of course. And not just any waffle, but a Hello Kitty waffle! (A gift from Caroline, no less!).

So Saturday I made up a mess of batter. I ran out of milk and so used some buttermilk in it's place. I also developed a trick for making the batter a little lighter thanks to Emeril. I watched him use egg whites. He whipped them up and folded them into the waffle batter. Genius! So I do that now everytime I make waffle batter.

E decided that she would make biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes and collard greens. All some of my favorites. She was going to send me to the store to buy bacon for the collards but spotted the ham bone in the freezer from my crock pot pork picnic and threw that into the greens.

How she was able to whip up all that food in two hours is kinda amazing. My kitchen was a bit of a disaster but eh.

So finally I sat down to the mythical fried chicken. (Sorry no pics. I took them all on my digital camera that I haven't bothered to download yet.) And how was it?

It was good. It was a little spicy and the crust was a little less dense than Caroline's. I liked it a lot. But perhaps it's because I've eaten Caroline's fried chicken for so long that I wasn't insane over it. Or maybe because it has been built up so much for so long? Hard to say. It was very, very good though and all the sides were fantastic. My waffles were great but got a little dense as they got cold, so eh to that! But overall the meal was beyond tasty. I can see how E is proud of her friend chicken skills.

And I got a fridge full of leftovers too! I made potato pancakes out of the leftover mashed potatoes and eat them with apple sauce on the side, yum! I heated up the biscuits for breakfast and even though they had cheese in them, I drizzled a little honey over them. Delicious!

I guess I can check eating fried unicorn off my to do list now :)

Sage

2008-10-09T22:38:00.004-04:00

This past Monday night, I had plans to attend the Boston Magazine Best of Boston Dining Party. It was happening really close to the shop and was easy enough for me to make a quick visit. Who am I to say no to free drinks and food?

Actually, as I've gotten older, I've gotten less enamored with such events. A lot of times, the drinks are horrible, the food is mediocre and sparse. The crowd doesn't seem very interesting. Mostly moochers and "style writers" of Boston who all think a little too highly of their selves and their opinions. Not really my scene.

So as I was waiting for Elizabeth to arrive so we could go to this shin dig, I started to think more and more about how I really didn't want to go. What I wanted was a quiet evening with the woman I love. E arrived and was cranky about having to get thru all the Red Sox traffic to get to me. So our fate was decided. Bail on the party and find a nice, quiet place for dinner together.

We headed off to the South End and decided to try out Sage. Elizabeth's friend D.. from Brix had given her the recommendation and said it as his favorite gnocchi in town. That was absolutely worth seeking out!

To our delight, most of the restaurants in the South End on a Monday were ghost towns. We really could have had our pick of any of the places that are typically hard to get into. But Sage was our destination.

We arrived and it was very, very quiet. We both quickly noticed that Sage didn't look all that different from Umbra, the restaurant that was in the space before it became Sage. I didn't mind the lack of decor change because I always liked the space plus it had cork floors which E was delighted to discover when she walked acrossed the dining room in search of the bathroom We decided to sit at the bar and let Vanessa take care of us.

I had had a fairly tough day and was ready for a nice cocktail. I would have loved an Eastern Standard Boxcar but alas. However, Vanessa was game for trying to make one for me. It was a fine attempt and one I very much appreciated. However the vodka tonic I ordered later was a bit better. I did notice that they had Hangar One vodka and that got me really excited. Very few place in this city carry Hangar One and I'm a big fan. Usually I take it as a good sign if such a thing is sitting on the bar. E has a different test...a specific brand of cognac that she loves.

We placed our order and bread with an odd little tomato, olive oil mix came with it. It resembled and tasted like gazpacho but I think it was meant to used with the bread. The bread was standard issue Italian focaccia, which I happen to love, and so I thought the bread was great on its own. No odd gazpacho needed.

E ordered us a cured meat, pickled veg and cheese appetizer to start. The cheese included was only a parm reggiano and E wanted to swap it for an interesting sounding asiago. The cheese sub didn't happen and we didn't want to cause a problem so we ate the cheese that arrived. But Vanessa went and got us a little slice of the Asiago to try. It was lovely. I liked the starte quite a bit. But I found the pickled eggplant to be the most compelling part of the dish. I think the eggplant hadn't been cooked. It was thinly sliced and picked. Since I love all things pickled, I loved the eggplant. It was a nice way to begin.

I ordered two appetizers as my main. I got the duck confit panino and a mixed greens with blue cheese salad. The duck was indeed appetizer size, but it was quite good. The bread was very buttery and golden and the duck was pretty plentiful in those tiny little triangles of bread. It also came with a watercress and pear salad, so I had plenty of roughage that evening.

E's gnocchi with rabbit came and it was amazing! It was everything a gnocchi has to be. Tender, light as air and fluffy. She was kinda enough to give me a bite and I instantly wished I had ordered the gnocchi.

We ate with us pretty much being the only people at the bar. It was a lovely way to dine. We had a competent and attentive bartender, the game on the TV and each other....Oh, and the gnocchi. It was perfect.

And considering my crappy Boston dining experiences, it was just what I needed. Sage very well might become our date place. So if you ever want to see us, stop by Sage on a Monday night, you'll probably spot us there :)

Where?

2008-10-02T17:00:00.003-04:00

I'm sorry for my absence. My life has gotten quite hectic as most normal adults' lives tend to be. I'm certainly not any different for sure. But I've been so uninspired by food in Boston as of late that I don't really feel much like talking about it. Even my old stand-bys have let me down considerably. Why, why, why?

Boston is a city with a considerably smart population of people that tend to eat out quite a bit. I think I eat out for perhaps, on average, 4 of my dinners a week. Sometimes out of sheer laziness but mostly because I'm trying to connect with various friends and breaking bread is a very good way to bridge the gap in terms of spending time with folks.

The best way to sum up my past month with food might be a quick list. A quick and very disappointing list.

1.) Oleana - The meal that mattered the most to me this past month. My parents were in town and meeting my betrothed for the first time. My mom wanted to go here because she enjoyed the carrot soup and thought the food to be fresh and nicely prepared. I made the reservation and was so excited to share E with my folks.

A few slips in terms of service. 1.) table wasn't ready, really no big deal, but didn't even offer us water or a seat at the bar while waiting. 2.) the server was a real pompous bitch. Understand it takes a lot for me to say that about any server. But when my Dad yelled out "waitress" (he comes from a different generation all together) I had to smile. Typically, I'd be mortified and correct my Dad. But this girl was so rude and so condescending that I didn't care. Typically, service doesn't really get to me much but this time it really bugged me. It also goes into my next gripe.

The food kinda blew. That carrot soup my Mom had been looking forward to wasn't on the menu and instead of being sweet about it being missing, our "waitress" (hahaa) kinda glared at my Mom and seemed to lack any sort of sympathy. I ordered a haloumi and squash blossom appetizer. The apps took forever to arrived and we had to beg for bread. When mine arrived it was aflame in ouzo (I think). It finally burned off or so I thought and I proceeded to dig in. Only to find myself choking on a mix of cheese and alcohol. The alcohol had not all burned off and it seemed that maybe the cheese had absorbed the alcohol. It was soaked in the stuff to the point where I couldn't eat it. Sigh.

I think we all liked dessert which took forever. It was the slowest meal ever plus one of the rudest I've had. It was such an awful experience that I'm now crossing Oleana off my list of loves and standards. The meal that mattered the most to me was a big huge f-cked up mess. It was stressful because of the server and the food. And instead of focusing on making this big meeting go as smooth as possible, I found myself focused on the slowness of the dishes to appear, the bitchiness of our server, the lack of attention to the amount of flaming alcohol on my cheese.
Sigh.

2.) Lockobers. My family went here for my Dad's 70th birthday. They told us that they could accommodate two four year old boys with a plate of spaghetti or a grilled cheese. They didn't and wouldn't. And for the amount of money my Mom blew on that place (four digits), it was the least they could do. Food was heavy and rich. Again, I was disgusted at what was a complete lack of customer service when it came time to make good on a promise to be flexible about a meal for my two young nephews. Not cool.

3.) Beacon Hill Bistro. Meal was eh. We sat at the bar and the bartender was a nice guy (no Lee for sure!) but not fantastic because he didn't seem to show much of his own personality. But he was capable and that seemed to be good enough. The skate I was ordered was a skate wing plopped on a piece of squash with some spinach and hazelnuts. It was the most disjointed meal I'v eaten in a long time. It lacked seasoning and connection. It was just weird. I think E's pasta was ok. She didn't really have much to say so that's not a great sign. We did order dessert b/c I was intrigued by the walnut tart (very good) and the peach pie (so late in the season but not very good).

4.) Eastern Standard. My absolute go to place! My last meal with my star employee and we both got the mac and cheese. It's usually gooey and cheesey with a crispy buttery bread crumb topping. It's everything a mac and cheese should be. It's rich and you kinda feel ill after eating it, but it so amazingly good, you kinda always have to order it! Well, they changed the recipe!!!!!! It now includes ham. You know, I love pork but I'm a mac& cheese purist and ham is not suppose to be in my mac and cheese! Plus it's not nearly as creamy and gooey. It was kinda on the dry side. It was disappointing and I wonder if they will ever change back to the way it was before. Sigh.

I was raised to believe that if you have nothing nice to say, well don't say it at all. It's painful to have to talk about how sucky I feel the Boston food scene has been of late. Perhaps it's the places I've been choosing. I dunno. However, I will keep the faith and hope that October marks a better month of food for me!

XOXO

Not Quite Daring, More Along the Lines of Cute and Sweet

2008-08-31T10:45:00.005-04:00

I was very, very excited about this month's Daring Baker Challenge. I was starting to get discouraged with the sheer amount of butter cream I was making every month. I've never been a fan of the taste of butter cream and so it was starting to feel like it was seeping out of my pores.

So I was so happy to see the Challenge take a new turn this month. Eclairs!!!!! The basic form for the recipe this month was from famed Pierre Herme. The rules stated by our lovely host blogger said that we needed to keep at least one chocolate element. Hmmm, nice. That wasn't going to take much arm twisting for me.

Lately, I've been craving Nutella. I can't keep it in the house because much like dulce de leche, Nutella falls into the category of Crack for me. So I thought I'd do a challenge that included nutella in some way, shape or form.

I decided that I'd make a Nutella "pastry" cream by mixing it with whipped cream and piping it into the pastry shells. This challenge was not only going to be interesting to me (as all of them are) but actually was going to be something I was excited about eating too.

I've never worked with choux pastry before and because there is a heating step to making the dough, I always assumed that choux was hard to make. And that couldn't have been further from the truth!

Luckily, E had already gotten all the ingredients together for us to use. So all I had to do was measure and mix. After I quickly measured and dumped everything into the heavy bottomed pan for heating, including the flour! Eeeek, I had to dump out my first try on the mix due to my flour mistake, but even still, the dough came together fast.

It looked really cool in the bottom of my pan. One cute little dough ball that later because a fairly sticky and gooey dough. Because I'm a fairly utiliartian cook/baker, I don't know a pastry bag or tips. Instead I loaded the dough into a 10 gallon plastic bag and cut off the tip. I considered making mini eclairs like Elizabeth had done but hers were very cute and I didn't want to compete with such cuteness. So I went the opposite direction and made big fat rounds out of the piped out choux pastry. Into the oven they went. I will say that we had to double, maybe even triple our baking time (well I did, of course, but so did E and she made the mini ones). So the baking time on the challenage seem a bit off. In any event, the puffs came out of the oven looking awesome. Behold!

They smelled divine. Egg-y and buttery. I was really excited. I let them cool and went about making a hole in the side of each of them so I could pipe in my whipped cream/nutella. Once I did that, I went ahead and nuked the nutella (or whole food equivelant that E found for me, thanks babe!) for 40 seconds. It was melty and perfect. After whipping my cream to firm peak form, close to butter, but not quite there, I folded in the melty nutella. Using yet another plastic pouch from my stash. I loaded the nutella whipped cream in and cut off the tip.

Much to my dismay, I couldn't pipe the cream into the holes I made. The choux pastry puffs were a bit more dense that I had imagined. So I gave up and just sliced them down the side and put the cream in the middle. It actually worked out better for me because it meant I could really load up the pastries with that yummy nutella whipped cream. Mmmm....

Afterwards, I drizzled on the glaze that Elizabeth had made for her eclairs. It had Iclandic dark chocolate in it. I broke off a piece and liked it alot. But I'll be honest. I didn't see much difference between that chocolate or hershey's dark chocolate. I guess I'm just a low brow girl ;)

I was very pleased with the final product.
Look at how cute they are! How did they taste? Um, let's see chocolate, nutella, whipped cream and freshly made choux pastry...that's a recipe for delicious!!! Needless to say, I was really pleased with the results. The choux was airy and eggy but still more dense than what I imagined it would be. I was actually very happy with the resulting pastry. Fairly simple to make, fairly cheap ingrediants and teedaaahh, eclairs!

The nutella whipped cream wasn't as complex in flavors as what Elizabeth did with hers. She used local Mexican chcolate bitters and added other spices as well to her filling. But there's something to be said for the simple. And since I was craving nutella, this challenge hit the spot with me!

Thanks for picking this as August's challenge. I absolutely loved it!!

I am...

2008-08-28T17:59:00.001-04:00

craving anchovies. That is all.

Ufood

2008-08-26T15:13:00.003-04:00

One of my shops happens to be downstairs from my apartment so often when I'm working I will just put a sign on the door, close the shop, run upstairs to make myself some lunch and amble back down. But I do like the lunch options in Fenway. My staff is kinda tired of the selection so it's a good thing a new Panera bread, Chipotle and a sushi join opening up. Our area of Fenway has a fairly ordinary demographic of a lot of offices in the area. Sure, more people and families are moving in but for the most part, the population tends to be desk jockeys.

Across the street from me and the store is a place that was once called Know Fat. As the name would imply, it was a fast food place devoted to "healthy" fast food. The signs were done up in such a way that it always made me think of Time Square or the Vegas strip. The sign seemed like it should say something like "Chicago on Broadway" or "Live Nude Girls". It was big and bold and lit up with big colored light bulbs. Sadly, despite the huge sign, I'd always forgot that Know Fat was there and even an option for food. I think I had it in the back of my head that it wasn't a food place. So I never had a chance to visit and try it. My staff had and they didn't love it but they did have good french fries and that seemed to the consensus.

Two weeks ago outside of Know Fat, stood two people dressed up. One as a giant froyo in a cup and the other as giant French Fries. The Froyo and the French Fries definitely did their job because they caused me to take a second look at a place I'd grown so accustomed to seeing in all it's neon glory. But wait! It wasn't there!!! And in the place of the "Know Fat" sign was a much more subdued sign saying "Ufood...feel great. eat smart". Hmm, looked like they changed their name and their sign.

Honestly, I'm not sure that Ufood is much better that Know Fat. Neither name really get me salivating much. But I was intrigued by the idea of a place that served tart froyo. This is probably the point at which you tell me, "Leah, just go to pinkberry".

Um, gladly, if Boston HAD one. And we don't. Seriously, please believe me when I tell you that not only is Boston slow to pick up trends in clothing but also slow to pick up on trends in food as well. Tart froyo is light years away from hitting Boston. Sigh. People are just beginning to infuse bacon into various things like bourbon, vodka but from what I've heard, New Yorkers are already ovah that!

So since our sour frozen yogurt places are few and far between aka we don't have any, I decided to give Ufood a whirl.

The place is set up so that if you want just a smoothie or froyo there is a stand for you in the front. If you're ordering more substantial things you go up the stairs and to the back of the place. The girl at the froyo stand didn't look like a very happy camper for some reason or other. Even those there was just one other person in front of me ordering. Hmm...I decided maybe I'd get a sandwich with my froyo just to avoid Cranky Pants in the front.

I was glad I made that move because the woman at the cash register was loving life. She was sweet and nice. She repeated the order back to me and even smiled several times. When my reciept printed out, she seemed really happy that I got a free coupon for a small froyo. "You can come back tomorrow and get it", she smiled at me. Omg, only if I get to interact with you! She was so sweet. I got my order to go so I could go back and man the store but also because the place kinda reeked of chlorox. And while I like knowing that anyplace involving food is clean, I don't really enjoy eating it in a place that smells like a public pool.

So how was everything? The portabello mushroom sandwich was expensive and kinda bland. It was very fresh and the bun was nice and squishy but eh, not great or memorable.

The frozen yogurt on the other hand. OMG!!! Okay so a small with fresh raspberries cost me $3.50 and if I wanted it plain it would have only been $2.50; seems like a bargain to me. And it was fantastic. The flavor was perfect and the machine it was pumped from ensured that it would be perfectly smooth. Overall, it was a reasonable price to pay for really tasty Pinkberry type yogurt. It might be my newest food obsession. And all thanks to people dressed up as giant containers of froyo and french fries.

Dear People Who Make M and M Ads,

2008-08-17T21:00:00.002-04:00

I have a bone to pick with you. It was alright when you gave M&M's faces and then even assigned gender roles to the various ones. Okay, it wasn't really alright, it was kinda creepy. I can't even eat a green one without thinking of the girl m&m in little white go go boots, or how about the red one who plays "smartie" to the yellow peanut one? Short of giving them names you made ads that seemed to subtly endorse cannibalism and didn't make any sense what so ever.

And now you are helping to introduce the world to premium M&M's by sexing up the green one. Enough already!!!!! I don't want to think about M&M's doing the nasty when I just a quick chocolate snack. And once again the ads confuse the hell out me. Am I suppose to want to be like green and think I can be a little sexpot if I eat premium M&M's? Does eating premium M&M's make me sexy? And why, for the love of God, why are the M&M's directing and staring in ads that endorse eating them?

Perhaps I'm just dense; I don't get the hip humor and messaging of the gendered M&M ads. So please just make it stop already.

Sincerely,
An ex-customer who is too creeped out to eat M&M's anymore (even the almond ones!!!)

Hell's Kitchen - The Kiddie Edition

2008-08-16T14:03:00.002-04:00

I saw this over at Serious Eats and just had to share it. I'm sure many of you've seen it by now, but this little kid gets everything about Gordon Ramsey right! Right on down to the hand on the hip with the other hand with fingers pointing accusingly. Omg, even as a child, Gordon is a bit terrifying.

I hope there will be more of these ads to come!

A Day in the Life and Rachel Ray, This is How You Do $30 a Day!

2008-08-12T13:36:00.005-04:00

"I had a very good food day" I im-ed to E late last night. "Really? Tell me about it." She im-ed back. And I did

And thus is my life with food. I think about food quite often through out the day. But some days aren't such good food days. The days when I forget to eat at the store and end up scarfing down a handful of nuts and a lone cup of water. Yeah, I know.

I have a true love/hate relationship with food. I know what I should eat and how much of it I should be eating but I can't stick to such things. If I was good, I'd keep to a protein shake in the morning, salad at noon and a big serving of steamed fish and veggies at night. I'd work out everyday and be all fit and shit. But I don't have the will for such things. I once asked a very cut male stripper at a gay bar, still wearing his g-string, if he ever ate chicken wings. The answer was no. And my response was "I don't want to live in a world without chicken wings". And that pretty much sums it up for me.

Like most women I struggle with thinking "life would be so great if I lost 10-20 lbs!". It's an uphill battle kids. Uphill! But what I've found is that the more I embrace the notion of good food for myself (and that DOESN'T include protein shakes) in any manner or form, the better off I am. I'm happier, more content and yes still motivated to work out and take care of my body. It's only when I veer off in either direction - starving myself (which I have done and it's not fun) or binging a bag of potato chips washed out with a huge chocolate shake that things don't work for me. I start hating my body and well, that's not good.

So yesterday was a nicely balanced day of food for me. It started with the perfect little latte and chocolate croissant. It had been freshly made and it was delightful. The layers were perfect and there wasn't just one but two long strips of dark chocolate folded into the center. I got my breakfast goodies from a place called KooKoo Cafe in Brookline Village. The line was a bit long for such a small place but it moved quickly and the person who was there working the register and getting coffee orders was so nice that I got my goodies and left a couple of bucks in the tip jar.

After that, I was off to run errands and such. Around 2pm I was getting hungry and was around the downtown area. I decided that since it was a very dreary rainy day, I needed soup. But not just any soup. I needed something with homemade noodles and veggies too. I went to my old tried and true spot in Chinatown - Taiwan Cafe. It's a restaurant where lots of additional menu stuff is written in Chinese on the walls. It's a place that served stinky tofu (it's 100% more stinky that durian folks) and makes no apologies for it. I've always loved the food there. I've had clams in a spicy black bean sauce that were so good, I was practically licking the plate, soup dumplings that were piping hot and sufficiently soupy in the middle.

Yesterday when I went, I was spoken to the entire time in Mandarin. When I opened my mouth it was clear I was so Americanized. But liked being treated like an "insider" for a bit. I reviewd the menu but what I wanted was comfort in the form of soup. And so I ordered the spicy beef noodle soup with spinach.

Since I was there quite late, I got to watch the wait staff clean and prep bags full of beautiful fresh green beens. They all sat at one table and did their work, clearly enjoying each other's company. It was nice to see. My soup came out very quickly.

This picture does the soup not nearly enough justice. The broth was very rich and spicy. The noodles perfectly toothsome and long. The beef was marbled with fat and just melted in my mouth. It was the perfect lunch. On most days I wouldn't have been able to finish such a big serving but I was really hungry and ate it all!

When I was finished I watched the people sitting around and loved the diversity around me. An older Asian couple finishing up some clams. A group of three giggling young Asian women dripping in Louis Vutton paying their bill and planning their attack at Saks. Finally I asked for my bill, but not before I was asked in Mandarin if I was done (or so I think I was asked hah!). The bill came to $6.50 and that included my diet pepsi too. Alright so this got me to thinking between my breakfast and my lunch, if I was Rachel Ray and on $30 a day (which we all know she's not b/c she makes 18m according to Forbes), I'd be pumped. But I'd also not give any sort of tip. I'd tip maybe 25 cents. Ugh. So thinking this, I had to overcompensate for that level of evil, I left a ten dollar bill and called it a day.

Later I hit the gym and worked on building up to 50lb kettlebell swings. Oye, one day I'll do a full swing! I was so pleased with my workout that I decided to reward myself with a nice veggie sandwich made on my George Foreman grill. That grill is fantastic for grilled panini sandwiches. I roasted up some peppers and eggplant I got from ghetto shaws and later layered them on top of some Italian bread that I had slathered with my homemade pesto. I added fresh local mozzarella (leftover from this insanely good dinner E had made a couple weekends ago) and green olives.

It was a great sandwich. Melty and crunchy due to time spent on the Foreman grill. I know, I know it's suppose to "knock out" the fat, but come on, it makes a fantastic grilled sandwich any day of the week and that is truly the only reason I still have it lying around.

I think the veggies sent me back around $10 and I bought enough so I could have roasted veggies for the rest of the week as well. So stuff that in your pipe and smoke it Rachel Ray!

Overall, I think I ate mostly locally made foods and fairly whole foods. Okay so the noodles, bread, cheese and croissant are really "whole" but they were all local and really lovingly made. Plus, I get my butt moving at the gym so I ended my entire day feeling really good.

A good food day indeed!

Places I'd Like to Eat at in the Next Few Months

2008-08-11T09:40:00.002-04:00

1.) Hungry Mother
- Hitting it on Tuesday with E and friends.

2.) Salt
-I want to order the roasted duck a day ahead. And as someone said to me "anything you have to order a day in advance has to be good". So true!

3.) Oleana
-I love this place! It's my special dinner place. I never get to sit in their garden and I really want to be able to do that.

4.) Shiki
-Friends raved about this place and I've been dying for some good soba noodles. I don't mean that mass made crap but authentic homemade buckwheat noodles.

5.) Ten Tables
- I've been there twice before and I think I enjoyed it each time. But that was two years ago. Sadly, I don't remember the meals . I do think they were very good, but it makes me want to go back and see if it's truly as good as I remember. Most meals that I loved, I remember. This includes my birthday dinner from when I was 5. Mom made zucchini in a cheese sauce and I ate every damn bite, even though I'm not a huge zucchini fan.

6.) Craigie Street Bistro
-For years I've been meaning to try this place but the truth is I never made it out that far into Cambridge and when it comes time to decide on a place for dinner, it always goes forgotten. I've heard the Chef is a bit of a prima donna but has the chops to carry off such attitude. I wanna see for myself!

The Best Burger in America?

2008-08-11T03:21:00.000-04:00

At this year's South Beach Food and Wine Festival, sponsored by Food Network, a competition over the best burger was waged. It was a contest hosted from Rachel Ray. She's a food personality I have very little tolerance for. Over exposed and irritatingly (and fake) perky, her speciality seems to be telling America how to not tip when working with only $40.00 a day and how to "figure friendly" hamburger stew is. Yum-o and sammie are not words and yet RayRay seems hell bent on always using them. Ugh

So since she was the host of this competition, I have very little belief in it's true validity. In any event, the burger at Radius was name #1. And I've been kinda curious about it ever since. It was only after meeting the bar manager from Radius that I decided a trip had to made to see for myself. I dragged E and a few friends along for the ride.

As an aside, I had been to Radius before for lunch during Restaurant Week about two years ago. I thought it was going to be a really fantastic little treat for myself. A lovely lunch to myself. The best thing about the meal? The space was unique and interesting. But the meal? Perhaps one of the worst I've ever eaten. I had an "spice" encrusted fish fillet. The spices were left whole. Have you ever tried eating whole coriander seeds, cumin, black pepper? After a few bites, my tongue actually went numb. It was an awful experience and I hated the fish. The dessert I chose was the german chocolate cake and it amounted to a very dry little lump of cake with caramel and coconut on top. It was like it came from a box mix. It was absolutely lame and I left very disappointed. I chalked it up the overall suckiness of Restaurant week in Boston and vowed that I would never do another restaurant week experience ever again. I feel like people in the food industry hate Restaurant week from the chefs to the servers. Why places participate and always do a half ass job is beyond me. If you don't want to do it, don't!!

And so I was a little wary of returning to a place where I had one of the worse meals of my entire life. But like I said before, curiosity got the best of me.

We met our friends at a table considered still part of the bar but big enough for all six of us. It was nice because it was still located in the bar section but was still part of the main dining room. The bar menu looked decent enough. Nothing too crazy...burgers, fried things...the usual. The only unique sounding thing on the menu was something called "low country" eggs and bacon. Hmm, when we asked about that appetizer, it was explained. It was deviled eggs. Too bad, E and I thought maybe it mean grits would be involved somehow. I was hoping white or red eye gravy. Oh well.

Our friend Avery ordered them. And I ordered the crispy oysters to start.

My oysters:

Avery's "low country eggs":

My oysters were fantastic. They were panko breaded and covered with perhaps $30 worth of saffron stems. The saffron did nothing for the overall taste but did look nice. The oysters were apparently local. They were quite small. I wish they were a bit bigger because much like fried clams what I love about fried oysters is that kinda creamy inside that tastes of the ocean. These oysters didn't have that but they were light and very well seasoned. I did enjoy them.

Avery said the eggs didn't suck but they certainly weren't the best he had ever had. We all loved the whimsical presentation of the bacon. Like a bouquet of bacon!

E, being the expert on alcoholic beverages ordered a lovely champagne for us to share. What the heck it was, I haven't a clue. I think it was rose in color. And it was expensive and special enough that the bartender scolded me when I tried to leave without finishing my glass. I passed the 1/3 left to E and she downed it for me. It was lovely and tasted crisp and bright. I did enjoy it but I'm such a lightweight when it comes to adult type drinks.

Onto the burger. E and I split one and the kitchen was kind enough to cut it half and give us our own plates.

Here is mine:

The burger cames with the cutest little copper pot of french fries. I have thoughts on both the burger and the fries. First the burger.

We ordered the burger rare. It was well cooked but very, very densely packed. Infact, I almost thought for a second the burger had been medium rare but it wasn't. The bun to burger ratio was decent.

Cheese and horseradish were already on the burger. Since I love horseradish I was ok with this but I think it's odd to make that choice for a customer right off the bat. It kinda reminded me of people who put liption french onion soup in their burgers. I don't know why but it felt like a very odd presumptive move. Plus the cheese really did nothing for me. It seemed almost tasteless or lost against the horseradish.

No lettuce, no onions and no pickles are offered. I guess for a $20 burger they're kinda making the statement that this burger doesn't need such things. But I love condiments and I love the way they enhance a burger. And since it is summer and produce is so great, a slice of heirloom tomato or a crisp leaf of local lettuce would have been a welcome addition for me.

The french fries were on the pale side. I like my fries with a little bit more golden. And while they were fried just fine, they weren't seasoned! It was a very obivious blunder after the intense seasoning applied to the burger. No salt, no truffle oil, no pepper, nothing! It was kinda odd.

Alright, so clearly Radius doesn't get my vote for the best burger. It was decent and by far much better than my earlier experience with the restaurant but overall, a bit pretentious and not completely well executed.

My favorite burgers in Boston still go to Eastern Standard (homemade pickles!!!), Aquitaine (anyplace that put creme fraiche in their mustard and boursin on their burgers is alright with me!) and U-burger (cheap and fantastic "fast food").

However, I was pleased to finally try the burger at Radius and look we even got two fantastic desserts as well. A goatcheese panna cotta thingie and something we all dubbed the chocolate unit.

Both were fantastic! As was the company for that evening. We had a great time and ended up being the most ruckus causing people in the joint. What can I say? I roll with some very fun peeps.

Boring

2008-08-05T14:56:00.000-04:00

Clearly, I'm still eating but kinda boring meals. Nothing mind blowing for sure. Friday, I had some really good take out sushi from Sushi Fusion in Washington Square that E went off to get. And Sunday we had brunch at Eastern Standard but lately it's been meals at home for me.

The other day, I was in my ghetto Shaws and found local produce!!!!!! It was amazing to see and of course I had to buy some. I got a big bunch of beets. There were also yellow summer squashes and zucchini. Being that I'm not a huge fan of either of them I didn't get those items. I wish I liked squash and zucchini more because it's nice that Shaw's even stocked local produce and that's a move I'd like to support.

Anyway, I got my beets home and they looked great. I cooked the beet greens like spinach and decided I wanted to eat one of the beets from the bunch raw. I didn't know you could eat raw beets until I read a recent entry over at the Amateur Gourmet blog and saw him mention something about having raw beets. I adore beets but have only ever had them cooked or from a can (and I think those are cooked before they get canned). So I wanted to try it and see if it was something I'd like. I took one of the beets and peeled and chopped it. I added it to some yogurt I had on hand and seasoned it all with salt and pepper. I took the cooked beet green tops and the beets in seasoned yogurt and shoved it all into a toasted pita. It wasn't much to look at but it was a great meal! The beets were certainly not as sweet as they are when they're cooked. But they had great crunch and a flavor that was more like celery root or jicama. Plus the beets colored the yogurt bright pink. Fun! I was very pleased and will certainly be using raw beets in in the future.

Saturday evening, E made me dinner! It was delicious. Spaghetti and meatballs plus dessert. It was a lovely meal and a lovely evening spent watching Thoroughly Modern Millie together.

Sunday evening I was again on my own for dinner. I got the hankering for a blt but I didn't have any lettuce and I wanted to have cheese on my sandwich too. As I was reaching for my bacon from the butcher shop out of the freezer, I spotted my aioli that I had made a month before. I didn't use it all and froze it in hopes that it would keep alright. Well, my modified BLT were certainly need something mayo-esque so the aioli came out the freezer too.

I cooked my bacon in the oven and toasted my thick slabs of sour dough bread. I sliced my bacon and snipped fresh leaves off my basil plants and placed all of that on top of sliced fresh mozzarella. I warmed the aioli container under some hot water from the faucet and got it to unfreeze. I poured the homemade aioli on top of everything and when the bacon was ready put it on top of everything else. With a side of pickles and some grapes, it was a very comforting dinner for me. I think I might start putting aioli on all my BLT sandwiches from now on. Plus the basil was a great sub for the lettuce. I don't know that the cheese really added anything so I might leave it out next time but I love cheese and any excuse to try and include it, I'll always take.

So not a lot of meals out, but still a few great meals while staying in...Not a bad thing for sure!

I'm a Buttercream Machine

2008-07-30T16:33:00.000-04:00

Or at least that's how I'm feeling these days. With four challenges under my belt and three of them involving cake and buttercream, I feel like I'm well schooled on buttercream and that actually being well schooled came in handy for this challenge.

The recipe called for quite a bit of hazelnuts and when I went to my Ghetto Shaws, there were only three measly 1/2 cup packages of hazelnuts. Arugh. Okay, I already knew I wasn't going to make the "hazelnut praline" hooey but I still grabbed a bag of pecans just incase.

Being that I don't own a food processor, I decided I would try pulverizing my hazelnuts for the cake in my blender. Um not the brightest move. (Sorry that the picture isn't flipped for your viewing pleasure).

The parts of the nuts that got chopped started to get a little gummy in the blender and some parts didn't really get chopped at all. Plus, I got a supreme case of the lazies and didn't toast the nuts (I really should have!) so that meant the big chunks of nuts later got filtered out when the dry mixture put sifted thru the mesh sifter. Whoops!

However, for all my hazelnut mishaps, the batter came together nicely.

It seems light and frothy and I was excited about what sort of cake it would produce.
The cake came out perfectly golden and springy to the touch. I was very, very pleased with the results. Onto the buttercream. Alright, so it wouldn't have been a "drama" if my Granny's hand mixer hadn't died in the middle of making the frosting. Drats!

There was no way I was going to be able to beat the semi soft butter into soft whipped buttercream by hand. What was I going to do? Luckily I remembered that the buttercream recipe from my first challenge, the Dorie Greenspan party cake of March was different in that the butter was melted. So I knew I could melt the butter, allowing me to stir it in by hand and end up with a fantastic buttercream.

And you know what? It worked out great! I had a split second of doubt as I poured the melted butter in and started stirring but it quickly came together.
It was shiny and beautiful if I do say so myself ;)

I started on my ganache. The recipe said use a very good quality chocolate. Hmm...personally I'm a nestle's choco chip girl!

The ganache was so easy to make, and I loved pouring it over the cake. I was suppose to smooth it out and make it look all pretty and uniform but I liked how the cake looked with the ganache dripping down the sides. And since I already knew I wasn't piping out hazelnut praline cream all over it, I left the cake be as is.

Actually, I'm very pleased with how my cake ended up looking. I happened to have friends over the night I was ready to serve it. All agreed the cake was very good. Moist and pleasant enough but not near enough hazelnut flavor. Drats! I really should have toasted those darn nuts. Damn my laziness. Oh well, at least I know now for next time ;)

Disappointed.

2008-07-26T13:35:00.000-04:00

This week has been a very sad one for me and fine dining. Yes, I had great success with my return to India Quality. But the other three nights I went out for dinner this past week, I was incredibly disappointed in my experiences.

Being that I'm a small business owner myself, I try to keep my whining about other small local businesses to a whimper. If I had a bad meal, eh, it happens. But all three times I went out this week I was left feeling not only disappointed but also a little embarrassed because it was I who suggested we all go to these places.

I use to think Boston was ok with sub par food but some places made me really differently about that. One of them being Oleana and another one being Rendezvous, back when it first opened. I found dining in Boston wouldn't ever be in the stratosphere of New York but it would be fresh, decent and well executed food. But lately, my theory about Boston dining has been challenged and I'm left feeling a bit cheated. So it's with a heavy, heavy heart I offer up my most recent opinions on these places. I won't go on yelp or foodbuzz with these negative criticisms, but I do want to air them and so I will keep them here.

Our first dining experience this week happened at Tremont 647. I had heard about a "grilling social" that was suppose to occur and I had two friends and E pony up $40 each. The chef Andy Husbands has a rep of being a great BBQ-er and so I was excited to think that maybe we'd get a sampling of his work. Nope. Not even close. I won't go into excruciating detail on this one because E already did a very comprehensive overview of the evening on her food blog. Here:
http://resonance.typepad.com/hedonism/

All I will say is that since it was my idea to go, I felt responsible for how much the event/food/experience sucked. Needless to say we're not going back anytime soon for dinner.

My next dining out experience happened on Wednesday. I talked E into going to dinner at Burton's Bar and Grill downstairs from my apartment and around the corner from one of my shops. She agreed to give it a shot. I had gotten a recommendation from customers of mine who said they even liked Burtons better than Eastern Standard. Whoah!

So we gave it a whirl. Burton's is a local chain and it was pretty much chain style food. Everything was fairly bland and over buttered or oiled up to taste good. Even the sugar snap peas that came on the side of E's crabcake dish were bathed in oil. And sugar snap peas are so sweet and tasty on their own that to coat them in butter or oil with no sort of seasoning was kinda unnecessary.

My tuna dish was perfectly cooked with a rare middle. But the tomato sauce surrounding it did little to enhance the flavor of anything. And the artichokes, capers and peppers were sparse and yet again did nothing to help up the flavor ratio. Luckily E was able to turn our leftovers into great little salad fixings for lunch the next day. Another place crossed off the list of possibilities.

And lastly, one of my friends (and future Maid of Honor) Mark was in town for the weekend. So yesterday we had dinner at the Franklin so Mark would have a chance to meet E. We opted to sit at the bar and eat there. The drinks were great and the falafel appetizer E and I shared as we waited for Mark was very nicely executed. Since none of the main dishes appealed to me, I opted to get two appetizers as my entree, but I couldn't choose between the scallops or the mussels. E persuaded me to get both and she's help me eat it all. So I got the fish taco, mussels and scallops. Both Mark and E got the trout.

The first sign of problems was when they wouldn't let E switch her side of spinach to asparagus. Hmm...yeah we're finding that more and more restaurants in Boston refuse to be accommodating to side swap requests. Even if one offers to pay more, no dice. It's not only strange but a little frustrating. From now on I might have to resort to my Mom's line of "I'm allergic to tomatoes".

The second sign of issues was that the kitchen messed up and put my mussels out first. Our bartender, Nathan (who seemed like a nice enough guy) covered the mistake by telling us he thought we'd like them first because that way there wouldn't be too many dishes at once in front of us. Hmmm.....

The mussels were smoked and decent. They were served with melted butter and since I like butter I was okay with this on the side. The salt and smoke were great on the mussels and I kinda wished that they had done a little broth on the bottom to really utilize both aspects of what made the mussels good.

Finally the mains/rest of my appetizers came out. I was really bummed out by both of my dishes. The fish taco was really a deep fried fish quesadilla. The taco shell had been deep fried and it was still a bit greasy. The filling was covered in cheese. E commented, "I can't taste the fish". And she was right. Everything that I love about a fish taco...the light summer feel of it. The crisp cabbage, the freshness of the fish wasn't there. It was kinda awful.

The scallops were overcooked. E had them sent back for me. I hate sending food back but on this one it was the right call. With only three scallops to have all three overdone seemed more than a bit lacking. The dish came back and the scallops were perfectly cooked this time. I don't remember much about the accompany salad on this dish or anything else so I guess it was okay or perhaps forgettable. I like scallops a lot so I liked this dish but would I ever go out of my way to order any of the dishes from that evening. No. No. No.

E gave me a bite of her trout and while it was well cooked, it was still kinda bland. It seemed under seasoned and uninspired.

For a meal that was an important meeting of two people in my life, I was hugely let down yet again. The dinner wasn't great. It was okay but certainly not something I'd come back for anytime soon.

Sigh. Looks like I'll be cooking a lot more at home these days. Certainly not a bad thing but still it'd be nice to have a reliable mid range dining experience.

India Quality finally learned to look me in the eye and it was delicious.

2008-07-24T22:43:00.000-04:00

About a year ago I stopped going to India Quality around the corner from one of my shops. Actually I stopped going to quite a few places around the store. Ankara, couldn't deal with the grumpy 'ttude and they increased the price on my usual sandwich even though I had been getting the same sandwich every week and the price on the board was less as well. Petite Robert, an employee from that place bragged and announced that she had gone to an industry party in pants she bought at the shop and wanted to return them after she had worn them out to an event.

India Quality was a place I stopped going to because of what happened to me the last two times I went. Both times it was late in the afternoon (I don't eat lunch until around 3pm on most days) and all the servers tend to congregate by the bar where one picks up his/her take out orders. In I walk and as I wait for my change, I feel three sets of eyes on my chest. I'm wearing a tank top, sure but it's certainly not that skimpy and I'm less than an A cup. It skeeved me out and I quickly dashed out with my food. When it happened a second time, I decided I couldn't go back. Even standing there waiting for the 3 minutes to get my lunch and change is kinda agonizing when your chest is gawked out.

And so India Quality's fate was decided. I wasn't going back. But this past rainy Wednesday, the store was fairly quiet and I was in need of something delicious but I wanted something with heat as well. I wanted comfort and spice. Hmm....the options were limited for sure. I decided that since a year had passed since Chestgate 2007, I should give India Quality another shot. The food there is so damn tasty. They're known for having great Indian food. Their goat dishes are fantastic and their vindaloo is plenty hot enough for the likes of me. I went ahead and placed my order for chicken curry with a side of raita. What's a little sexually inappropriate behavior when there is hot and well seasoned curry to be had?

I made my way over and found the place to be very busy even late in the lunch service. There wasn't the usual gaggle of servers at the bar. Infact, the man behind the bar was an older gentleman and he smiled and looked me IN THE EYES when I spoke to him. I was shocked and didn't want to press my luck too much. I tried to get in and out as quickly as possible, shouting over my shoulder "have a lovely day, thank so much, bye" before I left. Afterall, I wanted to try and be polite still.

Once at the store with my lunch, I unpacked everything. The picture on the post of this post (minus the limeade big gulp) is from my lunch special! What I love is that they are thoughtful enough to put a disposable plate into the sturdy white lunch bag. And the plate is pretty darn sturdy too. I got a huge container of rice...white basmati mixed with saffroned basmati and tiny specks of fennel seeds too. And the chicken curry is a very good sized portion too. I asked for it hot and it was the perfect amount of heat for me. My nose was good and runny by the end of my meal and that's a good sign to me. The chicken was tender and moist and there were huge chunks of it in the container. The meal comes with complimentary little papadam crackers. India Quality has nice ones. They don't skimp on the course ground pepper baked into the crisp wafers.

The meal was perfect and exactly what I wanted. By the end I was a bit stuffed and probably should have saved some of it for a snack for later but it was all just too good. It made me want to go back again for dinner sometime soon and get the lamb vindaloo and goat dishes. It made me really happy to know that perhaps they went thru sexual harassment training or that there is at least one person there not fixated on boobs, because it's nice to have a fantastic Indian restaurant back on my food roster.

Circa 1999

2008-07-21T16:27:00.000-04:00

When I was younger, straight out of college, it was important to me to connect with other queer Asian folks. Thus I had what I called an Asian queer posse. Now that I'm older, I don't really seek out friends based on sexuality or race but I definitely understand the necessity and the desire to do so. Because not everyone understand it when I say I'm so over being asked if I'm Chinese or not. Or the assumption that I need a man in my life. Anywhoo...

One of the best things to come out of that stage of my life (besides some very important and profound friendships) was the great belief that food is much better shared and the seasons for food are somehow honored. Hot pot parties were held in the winter and summer roll parties were always in the summer.

A lot of my Asian posse is gone now. Many have moved away from Boston and well even though I stayed here, my life is supremely different than even I could have imagined. I'm happy and in love and most days I love what I do for work. But did I ever see myself discussing what fashion styles are "trending" with most people? Did I ever see myself telling someone that their ass looked amazing in a pair of jeans? No. The answer would be an emphatic no.

So a lot of my immediate friend circle in Boston isn't Asian or even gay for that matter. But that hasn't put an end to my longing for summer rolls. My lust for them begins around this time every year and often I find myself satisfying my summer roll needs on my own. Since I wasn't raised with a ton of Asian culture, I never felt quite up to task for hosting such an event. What if I bought the wrong rice roll wrappers or tofu. Would I know which chives to buy? And rolling the suckers???!!!! Omg, don't even get me started.

I am, perhaps, the worst summer roll wrapper on the face of the earth. Sheer greed and laziness take over as I pile more and more things onto my poor little rice wrap. In the end, I'm always left with something resembling a fat burrito from El Pelon (no offense to El Pelon). I say I like to make them big because I don't have to get up for more very often, but the truth is, I'm a complete glutton. And out of shame for my fattie summer roll technique, I've never hosted a party on my own. I mean, what kind of Asian would I be if I showed non-Asians how to roll summer rolls and they all looked like over stuffed burritos. Nevermind that I'm Korean and raised by white folks, still, the shame, the shame!!

Finally, this summer I decided to own my internal summer roll issues and hold a party of my own. I got up early and went to Super 88 in Chinatown. There I found everything I needed. Infact I was so impressed with myself, I knew what tofu to get based on what I remembered the label looked like from years ago. I would like to say that getting all the stuff wasn't a hassle and in a way it wasn't because everything I needed was right there but it was kind of a pain. If you haven't been to the Super 88 in Chinatown on a busy Sunday morning, you might not understand. But it got to the point where I became okay with mowing down old ladies in the aisles. I know, I know, but dude, seriously, they were shoving me and cutting me off first! I'm just sayin'.

I got pretty much everything I needed and everything you see on the table picture above and guess how much it cost? $15 bucks! Woohoo, I was wicked excited. I need to start buying my veggies someplace other than the ghetto Shaws. That place really is expensive and horrible.

Anyway, I got home and prepped the veg. I triple washed everything and trimmed it all up, which took me a good hour to do. I took a cast iron pan and after wrapping the tofu in a tea towel, placed the pan on the tofu and left it there for a couple hours. This ensured that the tofu would be firm and not watery in the rolls. I prepped the shrimp and noodles and made the peanut sauce (1 part peanut butter, 1 part hoisin, 1/2 part soy, water to thin to whatever consistency you like).

It turned out to be an easy, cheap and fun way to entertain. My guests enjoyed the experience and some of them turned out to be summer roll rolling masters (I'm looking at you E) or least better than their host.

I was so happy to share my love of summer rolls with a new batch of friends and in turn realized that sometimes it's not about being "authentic" with the food when you host a dinner party but it's about being "authentic" with your desire to make sure everyone has a great time.

My Big Fat Greek Dinner

2008-07-21T14:15:00.000-04:00

Saturday I worked in the store all day and had a sudden and instantaneous craving for some Greek food. Tzatziki, grape leaves, feta... I quickly hopped into Chowhound and was kinda disappointed in the recommendations I found on the boards. Nothing new or mind blowing. Greek Isles (close to me but expensive), Greek Corner (far from me but good), Steves (average but cheap), Cafe Jaffee (again cheap, but not as cheap as Steves and not quite as good even). I debated all day calling in a take out order over to Steve's and going after work to pick it up.

But as I ended my day, it started to look like rain and I didn't want to get take out food and have it and myself end up being soggy from getting stuck in a downpour. I had to go to the grocery store for ingredients for this month's DBC anyway so I stood in front of the "Greek" aisle of my ghetto Shaws and pondered what I should do. I grabbed some grape leaves, pine nuts and feta. On my way out, I passed by some pita bread and picked that up too, along with some tazaki. I had every intention of making my own yogurt cucumber sauce, but I got really lazy while shopping, plus I had a DBC to get started on that evening.

Once home, I cut up a pita, tossed the pieces in a cake pan with olive oil, Italian seasoning dried mix and a little sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Into the already prepared tzatziki, sauce, I added mint and a squeeze of lemon juice. I had leftover brown rice that I had made earlier in the week and rolled a few of the grape leaves I had purchased earlier around the rice. Once the pita chips were crispy, I topped them with feta, my juiced up tazaki and some pine nuts. On the side I placed my make-shift stuffed grape leaves.

I was pretty pleased with the results. Okay, okay so it wasn't exactly "Greek" food but it was certainly Greek inspired. My grape leave rolling technique definitely left a lot to be desired and I'd like to experiment in the future with actually making true Greek dolmas. But overall, it was a nice, quick easy meal and a fast way for me to ease my craving for Greek food.

Pearl Oyster Bar

2008-07-16T18:36:00.000-04:00

I have something very bad to admit. Every summer I don't get my lobster rolls from places in Boston. Instead I wait until it's time for me to head to New York. Once there I treat myself to a blow out meal of Caesar salad, Salt/Pepper jumbo shrimp, a lobster roll and blueberry pie a la mode.

I'm sorry Boston for being such a cheater. I know. I suck. But Pearl is just so damn good. And I'm a purist. I need a hotdog bun and mayo for my roll. None of this new fangled hot buttered lobster roll crap.

Sadly, my trip to NYC this month has been canceled. A tragedy for sure. I think I'll have to try some of the lobster rolls in Boston. I already had a B&G one. I reserve the right to remain silent on that experience. So summer shack and kingfish here I come!

Edited to add my review of Pearl Oyster from Foodbuzz here:
Pearl Oyster Bar is a darling little gem located on a darling little street. Whenever I have to go to NYC in the summer, I make sure I make time to come here. Typically I come early, right when it opens for dinner. Believe me, it's a place that fills up quick.

I sit at the bar and begin an intense gorge fest...Caesar salad, salt/pepper shrimp, lobster roll and blueberry pie a la mode. It's a lot of food and I can barely eat all of it but I feel like I need to store up until the next time I can make it down from Boston. Pearl Oyster Bar is almost dear to me. I can't really explain the draw very well. All I know is that when I sit at the bar (even just sipping my diet coke) and watch all the action in the kitchen, I know all is right and good in the world! Believe me this place delivers.

It's good enough to make this Bostonian dismiss lobster rolls more local to her and become a true traitor!

Don't worry, I haven't forsaken the hometown team. And I'll take this opportunity to say, "Go Sox!".

Koreana (or Me Pretending to Keep Its Real!)

2008-07-16T11:17:00.000-04:00

I'm Korean American but was adopted and raised by a pretty fantastic family. White, middle class and living in the 'burbs, they didn't know much about Korean culture, let alone food. The closest I ever got to "my roots" cuisine wise was the occasional meal of sweet and sour pork at the local Chinese restaurant with my family. At the time, these poor little places had to appeal to a very pedestrian palate and so dishes were often of the egg foo young genre. Even the sweet and sour pork came with canned pineapple on top. Don't get me wrong though, I ate it up and love it. I mean, really can anything that is pork and fried be so very wrong?

It wasn't really until college that I even had Korean food. The first time I ever tasted kimchi, it was like a little light bulb went up over my head. I always loved pickled foods and here was the ultimate in pickles, plus in Korean culture kimchi can appear at every meal if you want. Omg, I had found my people! Later I would slowly be introduced to other Korean dishes but the one thing I really adored, besides kimchi, was Korean BBQ.

Korean BBQ crossed into so many food cultures. Who doesn't understand beef or pork sizzling away on a grill? I mean, really now?! So Korean BBQ was my ticket to the familiar and the new. It reminded me of my Dad at home grilling Tbones that had been marinated overnight in terriyaki but the notion of grilling at the table was a new one for me. Even so, I find myself sometimes craving Korean style BBQ so badly and so deeply that I swear it's something that flows through my blood.

In order to get my fix in Boston, there are very few places to go. And even less great places. Even in my limited Korean BBQ experience, I know great BBQ when I see it. A couple of places in New York's tiny Korea town (aka street) fit the bill. Sadly, I don't know their names but I know them by sight and by location on the street. But here is Boston Korean BBQ hasn't really ever caught on. I don't understand why not. A lot of Koreans and Korean Americans come to Boston for school but eh, who am I to dissect the Boston restaurant scene.

So it was one these cravings that led me and my finacee (the spelling on that word looks odd to me, but oh well, I'll chock it up to being newly engaged.) to Koreana for a date after work. Of course we had a couple of friends in tow. Korean BBQ is better with others.

We arrived around 8pm on a Tuesday night and it was packed! We got handed a buzzer, much like the ones one gets at the Cheesecake Factory, and went to sit at the bar for a bit. That proved to be a comedy of errors.

At first glance, the bartender seemed to be in the weeds getting drink orders for the dining room. But actually he was pretty unresponsive in general. At one point, out of shear frustration, E said to the young man "look up, eyes up, hello?". It was pretty ridiculous. The bar was only big enough for 6 stools and there was only 1 other man sitting there besides ourselves. Um, a rule of thumb at any bar should be acknowledge people when they sit down there.

Finally, after a good 30 min wait, we were seated. We ordered three dishes for all four of us to share: galbi, spicy pork bulgogi and bibimbap. We thought if it was too much food, well the leftovers would be tasty the next day.

Our waitress was very sweet, patient and attentive (they should put her at the bar!!). Often when I go out for Korean food with others who aren't Korean, I am looked to as the guide for what to do. Seriously, being that I was raised by white folks, I haven't the foggiest idea. So it was kind of a relief when our sweet waitress just started cooking the meat for us. Maybe my pronunciation of our order was a dead give away.

Everything was very, very tasty! The short ribs were left on just long enough to get charred and sweet caramelized bits to them. And the stone pot for the bimbimbap produced the perfect crunchy rice crust. Yum! I really liked that they brought over a huge squeeze bottle of the chili pepper paste because I really like to go to town with that stuff. Heck, if I could squeeze it onto toast I would!

Some points during the meal, I tuned out everything going on around me and concentrated on getting my fillings into my red lettuce leaves. I think I went through three wicker baskets of the lettuce, pretty much on my own!

The traditional sides were very tasty and when requested, were quickly refilled. The one side that I noticed missing was potato salad. I was a little sad but I guess it isn't all the traditional. But I sure do like the excuse to indulge in mayo and potatoes.

We finished all of the food laid before us. I mean really, who can say no to freshly grilled yummy tidbits of meat? Surely, not me. Again, not an "I'm blown away meal" but definitely good enough to come back for when I need my Korean BBQ fix. I was very happy by the end of the meal. Craving satisfied! And once again, I got to pretend to be "down" with my bad Korean self. Um yeah.

I Concur, Well Sorta Kinda

2008-07-14T14:09:00.000-04:00

While catching up on my Serious Eats reading, I stumbled upon the ultimate New England ice cream guide. It was a collaboration with Roadfooddigest.com, a website I hadn't ever checked out before. I was fairly impressed with the guide and definitely agreed with Sundae School sitting on the top of the list. A long, long, long time ago, when I was still in college, I spent a summer working in Orleans. The summer there was a food extravaganza for me! Besides the amazing and abundant seafood, there were other delights that were specific to Orleans. On rare days off we'd get tender, flaky (almost biscuit like) homemade scones from Fancy Farms and in the evenings hit Sundae School.

The Sundae School was always swamped with a line of customers that seemed to stretch out forever. People tended to be fairly anxious about getting their chance of some great ice cream but were never terribly chatting in line. I remember waiting in line, in anguish sometimes, because the wooded area by Sundae School was a home for gi-normous mosquitoes. But what's a couple 100 itchy bites on my legs when there is rich, creamy homemade ice cream to enjoy. I remember the sundaes (with real whipped cream) being fantastic (of course). But my favorite had to be the peach ice cream. Some nights it wasn't there and I'd pick something else. Honestly all the ice cream flavors were really great. But the peach ice cream was something different all together. Chunks of fresh peach with a ice cream that was peach scented...so deeply peach scented that sometimes it always seemed floral to me rather that fruity. It wasn't like eating a fresh frozen peach, it was 1000 times better because there was ice cream involved too.

Lucky for me I had two jobs that summer so I burned off most of what I ate. Even back then I was a total workaholic and foodie!

Anyway, the Sundae School definitely would top my list too. But the one rating I can't really get behind is Emack and Bolio. In Orleans, it tended to be our second tier ice cream place. If the Sundae School line got to us or if the mosquitoes were especially bad, we'd hit up E&B. It was okay, not great, but okay. Since moving to Boston, I've tried two other Emack and Bolios and both of them were pretty awful. I got a very grainy chocolate ice cream at the Newbury street location and an ice filled vanilla bean at the new one at Trilogy. Not cool, so not cool at all! So I can't really see how JP licks fell one star behind E&B. I have to say I'm a fan of JP Licks...okay, it ain't no Sundae School but their mint chip is decent and their waffle cones also come dipped in dark chocolate. Mmmm...

The only other comment I would make is that there might have also been a category for cost. Ice cream in Boston has become ridiculously expensive. Yet, when I get out to the 'burbs with a friend with a car and get ice cream, it's insane to me how cheap it seems. Are suburban cows just cheaper? Or is it that keeping a cow in the city is a bit too costly and expensive? Who knows but this is part of the appeal of certain places (i.e. Christina's) and part of the turn off (Toscanini's) for others. I'm just sayin'.

Maybe one day I can talk a friend with a car into driving me back to Orleans for a day....that's a thought.

Kippers, Baby Pickles, Beets and Hot Reuben Sandwiches

2008-07-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

I have a profoundly deep love for fish stuck into tin cans. Yes, I know it's really odd. I love kippers, cans of tuna, even the "bad"anchovies packed in olive oil. I've yet to meet a can of fish I wasn't into. I thought about this odd adoration as I was tucking into my afternoon snack of canned sardines. I dressed them up a bit with lemon, chopped parsley and garlic and ate them directly from the tin. I can understand how the overwhelming fishy smell and even look of small silvery fillets would turn a lot of people off, but tins of fish are a pretty standard snack for me.

Overall my eating habits are a bit odd. But the one thing I've come to notice is that my palate seems to mimic my Dad's. While it's true that you tend to love the food you were raised with. I was lucky enough to have a Mom who made almost everything from scratch and was/is a fantastic home cook. The odd thing is that these aren't foods I had growing up. I'm fanatical about the foods my Dad ate in secret or that my Mom would allow him to keep for himself in the fridge. My mom hated brussel sprouts, tinned fish (she said she could always only taste tin), pickled beets...things my Dad absolutely adored. He could make an entire meal of baby pickles with kippers in cream on crackers. He's pull his one jar of creamed kippers out of the far, far back of the fridge and carefully spoon it into wheat crackers. One taste of the kippers and I was hooked (no pun intended). And now as an adult, I adore brussel sprouts. And pickles? Dear lord, I can eat an entire jar in one sitting.

Dad wasn't much of a cook (except he did grill) but he enjoyed making one thing in the kitchen and was good at making it. Hot reuben sandwiches. Somehow he mastered the combination of of the pickled kraut with the sweetness of the 1000 island dressing and the buttery toastiness of the dark rye bread. The ratio of corned beef to swiss cheese was always perfect. Oh man, his hot reuben sandwiches were masterpieces! And since he and I were the only ones in the house who enjoyed reubens, it's truly became our thing. And so whenever I order a reuben sandwich I always hold it up to the Mt. Everest of reuben's...My Dad's. Clearly, nothing compares to Dad's.

And so even now as a 30-something leaning against the sink in my own kitchen snarfing down pickles and contemplating the various cans of sardines in my pantry, I'm clearly my father's daughter. He'd be so proud!

Go West!

2008-07-09T14:07:00.000-04:00

This past holiday weekend found me on a plane to Denver. My very dear friend Mikey lives there and since it's been over a year since we last saw each other, we were long overdue for a visit. I arrived in the early evening. Mikey and I stopped off at Jet, this tiny boutique hotel in the downtown area of Denver to pick up his partner Fisher. Fisher manages the hotel, all 18 rooms ;) It's really cool and if you ever find yourself needing a swanky place to stay while visiting Denver, definitely look up Jet.

Mikey and Fisher had decided to take me for Mexican that evening. Fine by me! Being from Boston means that there is hardly any decent Mexican food. We lack that and Korean food, but that's a discussion for another day. Quickly, we arrived because it was just a short walk from Mikey and Fisher's house (a converted church btw). I wish I had remembered the name of the place but it was super cute and there was a mariachi band too!

I don't really feel very bad for not remembering the name of the place, because in Denver, there is a ton of fantastic Mexican cuisine. I had the standard fish taco, but it can with a sauce bottle filled with a slightly sweet sauce I wasn't accustomed to. I was expecting the usual crema but nope. The sauce was good with the fish at first but after a few bites, I found it too sweet for my taste. It was like a poppy seed dressing flavor but without the poppy seeds. However the fish was very fresh and the taco portion was super generous....five tacos on my plate and I couldn't finish the last one.

Walking back home, we passed by the local "ice cream" truck. A guy pushing a cart, with Spanish words on the sides, down the sidewalk with little Christmas bells strung on the handle. He was selling frozen fruit pops and other cool delights. It was a charming sight and so much more environmentally aware than an ice cream truck. Over the course of the weekend, I'd come to see those little sidewalk carts quite a bit. Sadly, everytime I'd spot one, I was already full from the meal I'd just consumed. Alas, next time!

The next day, we went to Winter Park and just had a quick breakfast of yogurt and coffee before we hopped on the 8am train. A day of sun, mountains and hiking meant we came home and crashed on the couch with take out pizza and movies.

Sunday, Mikey and Fisher suggested we go to Dozens and I was quick to agree. I was pretty sure it was the same breakfast place I had been to years ago with them as well. I remember having a really good breakfast there, something involving biscuits and gravy. Indeed, it was the very place I remembered.

The dish I ordered was called "how the west was won". It consisted of two homemade biscuits, white gravy, sausage and a side of hashbrowned homefries. I remember it being quite good and since I'm a sucker for anything covered in white or red eyed gravy, I ordered it again.

The picture doesn't look like it was very appetizing, but let me reassure you it was very good. The biscuits are actually fairly light and even smothered in gravy and sausage, I could taste the butter and still see the flakiness of the biscuit. It was quite soul satisfying. Especially to be eating outside on the restaurant porch and be able to see the rocky mountains in the background.

My last morning in Denver, we went to this hip spot called Snooze.

It was done in a retro modern style so it looked part dinner and part new school. Anyway, once we sat down in our booth, I noticed the card display at the end of the table. It was all about the choice of coffee that the owner had made for the restaurant. Infact, it was a good 4 page dissertation on his trip to Costa Rica or someplace and how he chose the coffee. Um, yeah. My eyes glazed over after reading the first two paragraphs. But as Mikey put it, the coffee was very good.

Mikey, after seeing me all but moan from my breakfast at Dozens, order Snooze's version of biscuits and sausage gravy (which I think he very much enjoyed). I was still on a South West kick and ordered the Huevos Rancheros. I also got the extra meat (chorizo) and extra vegg added on. What came was quite delicious but part of me had to wonder how much the additional chorizo made it super tasty? I mean, chorizo is sorta like the bacon of the West. And we all know bacon makes everything better!

Overall, it was a very enjoyable visit to one of my favorite cities. Next time I gotta remember to try a frozen treat from the sidewalk cart guy and find a place to feed my chicken fried steak craving. I look forward to my next visit out to Denver. Thanks for hosting me, Mikey and Fisher. Look, even their pups are wondering when I'll come back! Never fear, I'm sure I'll be back to visit soon.

Bare Bones

2008-07-03T16:51:00.000-04:00

I own a small shop in the Hotel Commonwealth. Soon after I opened my store, four years ago, plans got under way for a massive space in the Hotel right next door to me. When I say massive, I mean it really is the size of a stadium sized soccer field. The space was huge but it was also cavernous. I would ride the elevator up to just check out the space and stand in awe. It was kinda like looking into the Grand Canyon of retail leasing space. It was raw area and didn't have anything covering it's cement foundation or gray metal walls. It was truly bare bones and sometimes it's hard for me to still remember what that space looked like before it became Eastern Standard.

Before Eastern Standard opened, there was only Great Bay for dining in the Hotel. It was a fine place to have a good meal. It's still there and because the original chef is gone, some of the magic is really gone too. I've been told that they do a great brunch and only do it for big holidays. But I haven't been back since Jeremy (the chef) left. He was part of the charm. His food was simple, honest and good. He now owns Lineage in Brookline and I adore that spot as well. I'm sure I'll get around to reviewing it sometime soon. So the Hotel only had Great Bay and it was fairly good.

Eastern Standard opened and I won't lie. The first few times I went I was rather disappointed. The food seemed rather heavy, salty and boring. The cavernous space I use to sneak into to gaze upon was transformed into a dark walnut and burgundy leather sorta bistro with a beautiful marble bar and lovely over sized photo pictures on it's dark walls. It was lush and dark. It was lovely space. And so it happened that 9 times out of 10 my friend Caroline (who also owned a store in the Hotel) and I would opt to go to ES for comfort food after work. We kinda gave up on Great Bay and made ES our place. And maybe because we got so use to feeling at home at ES or maybe because the food truly got better, it began to top my list of places to eat/drink/meet friends. Perhaps I became more accepting that I wasn't ever going to have "diet" fare at ES but came to accept that the food would always be on the heavy side with salt and butter galore. And anyone who knows me, knows I'm not one to say no to either of those things!

I certainly became more trusting with my food choices. And the chef that opened ES, this really sweet tattooed kid name Jamie, certainly knew his way around offal and other random offerings. Liver, sweet breads and I think marrow were pretty consistent offerings on the menu. I had the marrow once and it was dreamy. Think butter but with meaty flavor and amplify that 100% over and you have marrow.

Jamie has since moved onto greener pastures and Caroline has moved away as well. But one thing stays the same. I still go to ES when I need comfort in the form of food and atmosphere. Before we ever even met, I think my fiancé already liked ES quite a bit. But her affection for it grew when she realized that the Sazerac was a regular bar offering. In fact, ES has become the place to go for amazing cocktails and our friends Ian and Garry are regulars at the bar. They are folks who enjoy a beautifully made drink. So ES will always be on my list of places to go. I know I'll always find something I like and I also know it will be sure to impress my cocktail guzzling pals as well.

One Can't Live on Food Alone

2008-06-30T16:07:00.000-04:00

I'm at work today and dreaming of when it will be time for me to clock out, hop in the T and meet up with my dearest love and our friend G for some dinner.

We'll be dining at a local Thai restaurant which is decent but nothing spectacular. I wish the noodles in the soup were homemade or that the pad thai was a little less sweet. The soup comes and it doesn't have quite the toothsome bite I want, but that's okay because I'll be eating with people who matter so much more than the food.

We all eat for various reasons...typically because our bodies have signaled that it's time for food. Sometimes we eat when we're sad or happy or bored. Sometimes we don't want to eat but know we need to and other times we can't get enough of something yummy to stuff in our pie traps. I tend to fall in the latter camp, especially when things are good. I tend to forget to eat during the course of the day but if I'm with friends, family or loved ones, my stomach signals eating time quite regularly.

I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but eating is such a communal activity for me. I do love my food and I can sometimes be a little piggie when it comes time to share but I really enjoy eating with others.

So tonight, it's not about the "quality" of the food as much as the company. I know I'll leave dinner feeling very well feed!

Creating a Creature From the Blue Lagoon...

2008-06-28T13:43:00.001-04:00

Or this month's Daring Baker Challenge!

This month's challenge was a pretty tough one for me, but unlike last month's end results, I was terribly proud and pleased with the end product. Would I make it again? Perhaps, unlike the Opera Cake that I would say no to, this one I would consider - the bread is really rich and would make a wonderful holiday gift. Plus it's a great base for many filling options. This recipe makes a lot of dough! And I still have the other half of the dough in my freezer waiting for when I feel the need to have my apartment smell wonderfully buttery and yeasty. The only drawbacks to this bread are as follows:

1.) It's damn time consuming.

2.) My hand smelled like butter for two solid days in a row. I guess this might not be considered a drawback to some, but it's not a great motivational tool when I'm at the gym and trying to concentrate on the spinning instruction telling me to feel the burn.

3.) I suck at making dough wells! I'll get to this later in this post.

But overall, I was very proud of my work on this challenged and others who sampled it, enjoy it quite a bit as well.

Originally, I thought I'd do a savory braid but after emailing the host blogger (who was so sweet and prompt with her replies) I understood that I needed to stick with the more traditional fruit sort of filling. Hmmm....

Well, it turned out that blueberries were all 2 for 1 at the ghetto Shaws! Wooohoo, so I went ahead and stocked up. I love blueberries and have been known to go thru an entire pint as a snack in one evening. I considered just using the blueberries and glazing them with a bit of apricot jam but then remembered that I had also stocked up on lemons. I thought a nice combination would be lemon curd with fresh blueberries.

I remembered a recipe for lime curd in one of my Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and also remembered that she wrote a sub of lemons was acceptable as well.

Okay, okay, I know I said that I was taking time off from my relationship with Ina but I had also seen her make this on the show and ever since had wanted a reason to make it too. It looked like it had just the right about of tart pucker and sweet.

So I mixed the ingredients all together and it looked like this:

It's hard to see in the picture but it resembled yellow curdled milk. It was lumpy and frothy and just gross. However, I wasn't worried. But I had watched her make it on TV and she notes that it will look like this and as it gets cooked, it will come together and thicken up. Now, if I were to just follow the cookbook, I would have been concerned with the state of my curd. No where in the Barefoot Contessa cookbook say anything about the curdle-y appearance of the curd.

And sure enough it came together after a good 10 mins on low heat. Glossy and heavenly smelling. As I waited for it to cool, I sampled a little bit. And sampled a little bit more. Holy bee-jezus! It was good stuff. Tart and yet just sweet enough. Rich and creamy and completely decadent because 2 sticks of butter went into the curd. It was delicious. So it looks like maybe Ina and I are back together, but it's only a temporary trial period for now. I'm still dating other people ;)

Since I'm not a hardcore baker and rarely make anything that calls for yeast (pizza dough being the only exception in my life), I felt that there were a few gaps in the instructions. It begins by telling me to mix the yeast with cold milk...

Alright, so I knew that I needed to activate the yeast but the only way I'd know that is because I have used yeast before. But had I not, I'd hate to think what my bread would have become with unactivated yeast and cold milk...matzo?

Anywhooo, I mixed the milk and yeast and other ingredients together and made my flour well. I made the mistake of dumping the liquid all into my little well. Um and this happened...
So the liquid broke through the flour barricade and I panicked and trying to add flour to the liquid thinking "well it will thicken up". Yeah, clearly a panic move that only made matters worse. So I cleaned up the mess and started over. But this time, I gradually added the liquid a little at a time. Again, not sure the recipe said anything about doing that but it certainly made the situation less traumatic and kept everything in my well.

The dough was left to rest and when it came time to "turn" it with butter the first time, I spread the butter quite thickly. The instructions never said how thick the butter layer should be and since I've never worked with butter in breads (again, remember what I said about pizza?) I didn't know that it would have been better to spread a much thinner layer down. As a result everytime I turned the dough it oozed butter on my kitchen counter and a LOT of it. It got to the point where I had to cheat and scrap the butter off the counter (don't worry it was clean) and add it back into the dough. It also means I sorta lost track of the way I was turning mid way through. Oh well. I hoped for the best for my oozing butter dough.

I let it sit in the fridge overnight and the next day was greeted by my little butterball. It already smelled divine! Mmm, butter and yeast! I rolled it out and even used a ruler to help me get the measurements perfect. I had a great looking little rectangle. But again, confusion arose over which ends I should be making my cuts. The long way or the short way? I took a gamble and did it the short end of the rectangle.

Although I don't think that was "right", it did allow me to put a lot of my filling down the middle. I piled on my homemade lemon curd and 2for1 blueberries. I folded down my ends and began "braiding". I got to the end and realized my braid looked more like an alien than anything else. This discovery was just reinforced by bread dough eye sockets and blueberries for eyes.

He kinda looked like R2D2. But I instantly loves him!! So after a good long proofing session and a little egg wash, into the oven he went.

I tend to think my oven sucks when it comes to baking but this recipe really allowed my oven to finally shine! Look at how evenly golden my creature got:

I was so pleased. Behold, my final Daring Baker creation:

I was pleasantly surprised that the blueberries and curd didn't all come leaking out. It looked awesome. And the taste? Really, really fantastic. Almost like a homemade breakfast strudel. It was rich and I couldn't eat more than one slice. So I gave it away to friends. They said it was really good too. Given my messy missteps, the bread really exceeded my expectations and then some. So yay!!

Thanks again, Daring Bakers!

Wine Braised Mushrooms

2008-06-16T13:41:00.000-04:00

Today is a rare day off for me. I got back from a mid morning crossfit workout that kinda kicked my butt. 21-15-9...Actually, I haven't been working out consistently enough not to get my ass kicked at crossfit. Ugh. Anyway, I was in the mood for some pasta! But I knew I didn't have much of anything in the fridge to coat my noodles with. I rummaged around a bit and found some roasted garlic in plenty of olive oil and lots of mushrooms. A little light bulb went off over my head.

I threw the mushroom slices in with the garlic and olive oil. And continued to rummage in my fridge. I kept checking on the 'rooms and they were looking great. I guess I could have just put the mushrooms the way they were over the pasta and called it a day but I still had some other bits and pieces in my fridge to use. I spotted old wine from one the various dinner parties E and I had given and thought it would be nice to put some in with the mushrooms. I added about a cup or so and watched it bubble away. I also spotted some left over parm cheese, an egg and some scallions.

Once the water (salted, of course) was boiling, I threw in my pasta and tasted the wine and 'rooms. The wine had cooked down quite a bit. I added a little bit of butter, salt and pepper and tasted. Wow, they were good! Once the pasta was cooked, I put it into my bowl, added the 'rooms and bit of wine that wasn't cooked off, cracked my egg on top, grated the parm on top and covered it with freshly ground pepper and scallions.

It was a fantastic pasta lunch. The egg helped the wine and cheese and scallions all adhere to the pasta. The butter added at the last minute gave it a really lovely sheen. Who knew that braising 'rooms in wine would make a fantastic sauce?

Try it sometime. I bet that even if you just braised your mushrooms in red wine and added that to a jarred basic marinara it would liven the sauce up 100%.

"This Posting Was Brought to You...

2008-06-15T12:02:00.000-04:00

By the Glad family of products."

I promised a posting about Top Chef and here goes.

One of the things I find irritating about Top Chef is the blatant product placement. Uncle Ben's Rice, Glad products, GE stovetops....Come on already. Bravo has clearly and very cleverly put together a show that is addictive. I remember when it first debuted, lots of people, including me, predicted it would fall short as a reality show because you really couldn't taste or smell the food and thus how could you really be sure what was being judged? Clearly, I was wrong in my prediction. But Bravo has done a great job upping the celebrity chef quota and figuring out how to make all the drama override the need of viewers to really taste or smell what's cooking. So one would think, they'd figure out a way to be more subtle when it came to pushing glad tuperware on viewers. Apparently not.

The finale of Top Chef rubbed me the wrong way overall. The lesbian turned out to be the villain. Granted, I hated her just as much as everyone else. I kept screaming at the TV screen, "jesus christ, can't you represent the peeps (other gays) better!!!". Clearly she never listened to my recommendations because every single time she came out for judging, she always had her peevy face on. Throughout any criticism she looked like she was about to jump over the judges' table and cut people. She looked irked and irritated to be judged by people she didn't respect. And don't even get me started on her bad lesbian haircuts or her near obsession with Asian food (lucky for her there is no adopted Chinese baby chatter because that would have made any cliche very complete).

Then there is poor Richard. I had to admit, I thought he would take it and be the next Top Chef. But as he puts it, he did "choke". The under seasoning of his dishes seemed weird and out of place with the consistency of the dishes from before. And um, pork belly with pickled ginger???? Oh Richard. I guess I should have yelled at the TV screen and said, "As the straight white dude holding up the establishment, you need to represent". Yeah, I'll know for next time.

I was happy that Stephanie won but all the proclamations about being the "First Female Top Chef" I could have done without. Dude, there has only been four (at most) seasons of Top Chef. It doesn't even begin to compare with being President of the United States. So comparisons with Hillary and Stephanie really need to stop. Statements about this truly being the year of women because a chick won the Biggest Loser are annoyingly stupid.

And lastly, the entire "what is Padma wearing" part of the Top Chef webpage is seriously obnoxious. Don't get me wrong, I love fashion and perhaps love fashion more than the average person but there is something so patronizing about having a section on the TOP CHEF website about what Padma is wearing. Dude, I seriously don't care what she's wearing and the straight guys who drool over her and are dragged to watch the show, because of a girlfriend or wife, don't care either. They'd like to know when Padma takes off what she's wearing and can they watch.

But as much as I bitch and moan about Top Chef, it's true I do watch it. I find it intriguing and fun. Is it quality TV? No. And as such, it's probably the worst form of junk food I could feed my brain. It's like 20 happy meals in one sitting with five red bulls to wash it down. But that said, I'll continue to watch because I'm never one to say no to junk food.

Summer Comfort Food

2008-06-14T16:04:00.000-04:00

Sometimes there is nothing more comforting to me than the change of the seasons. It's like clockwork. It's something that will happen no matter what in New England...not always on schedule, but eventually the seasons do change.

It's very much summer in Boston and as a result I have cravings for fresh fruit, veggies and herbs.

It's the time of year when I become a serious slacker in the kitchen (as if that's even possible for me). I want food that requires little to no cooking. I want simple and light.

I'm a big believer in salads in the summer. Produce is at it's peak and nothing is easier to make and enjoy. These really aren't recipes as much as outlines, meaning there is never any measuring and the quantity of fish sauce might increase if I feel especially into that salty quality it bring, the quantity might go down. I might increase the ginger or the basil. Perhaps that's the best part of salads, they allow you to really get creative.

One of my favorite cuisines is Vietnamese. I love the combination of mint and basil, sweet, sour and salty. So one of my favorite salads is one I created with a simple dressing of soy, good fish sauce, a bit of sugar, red wine vinegar, fresh ginger and a splash of canola oil. This dressing is not all that different from the sauce for Asian dumplings.

I chop up a cucumber, red pepper, scallions, a heart of romaine, shred carrot and soak bean threads. Once the bean threads are ready, I drain them and toss it all together. A bit of cilantro and salted roasted peanuts (smashed in a baggie with a wooden spoon -it also just happens a great way to take out any aggression you might have) garnish the salad and I'm ready!

I have a go-to homemade salad dressing that I use. I call it BZ's salad dressing because it was my friend BZ's favorite. The base goes like this, combine:

half a lemon squeezed
half a cup of balsamic vinegar
two tablespoons spicy brown mustard
five-ten shakes of Tabasco
salt and pepper
a splash of olive oil

You can add garlic if you want, a bit of honey to sweeten it, even ginger. You can increase the mustard or decrease the vinegar.

I used BZ's dressing and added a bit of sugar to dress a chickpea, argula, basil, tomato and fresh mozzarella salad I made today.

Oh man. It was good!!!

Later today I needed a snack. Remembering that I had fresh blueberries and plain yogurt leftover from my cucumber and buttermilk soup. I mixed the two items together. It was a bit too sour for my taste! So again, I winged it and added the zest of a lime and some of that ginger simple syrup leftover from my daring baker challenge. Omg, yogurt with ginger syrup, lime zest and blueberries rule!!! It made a refreshing and lovely summer dessert. Ahh, comfort in a bowl, yet so easy. Who knew?

Top Chef

2008-06-11T23:15:00.000-04:00

I just finished watching the finale and I have some thoughts and will share them soon. But in the meantime I want to be sure and share what I thought might be the best quote from Tom Colicchio describing Lisa's food.

"Big and bold...And all about you!"

Um dude, really? That was the best you could come up with?

More soon.

Dear Ina,

2008-06-10T21:18:00.002-04:00

Hey lady, what's up? I'm loving that I'm seeing new shows and that you are still loving life out in the Hamptons. I haven't heard you mention Chris and Joey lately, so I hope you haven't lost your cute little token lesbian couple on the show. And where the hell has that adorable Parker Hodges gone to? I loved that episode where you made him set up a BBQ fire grill for a "surprise". Poor Parker is probably thinking, "sweet, I'm going to have me some Barefoot Contessa grilled shrimp, lobster, steak!" What was the surprise? Grilled pizzas. Um yeah, Parker probably hasn't been over since he got duped into thinking he was getting a surprise only to get something he could recreate in his toaster oven.

But you're as cute as a button and how could anyone stay mad at you? Especially when you seem to always bear gifts of brownies, carrot cake and free form plum crostata. Everyone knows I adore you and then some (my offer to come live with you and have you feed me every day still stands) but I really do need to sit and have a heart to heart with you.

See, here's the thing. I love your show and your cookbooks make everything seem simple and yum. But lately all the recipes I've tried from any of your three cookbooks I own, well, they haven't gone so great.

It all started with the 40 clove of garlic recipe. Peeling blanched garlic cloves and 40 of them, hmm, well it was time consuming but I figured it was for you. I thought, "This is for my girl, Ina, and well if she said so, I'll do it". So I did and the chicken was nice but it wasn't amazing and certainly was a let down. My own crispy roasted chicken recipe could have kicked your average 40 clove chicken anyday. "Oh well", I thought, "I've had great success with your chicken and biscuits recipe and your pasta, pesto and peas is a magical creation". So I blindly continued to follow you.

My issues with your cookbooks continued into a tiramisu recipe. If the word for tiramisu comes from the Italian phrase, "pick me up", well your tiramisu was sure to knock someone out! It was boozy and so boozy that the minute I opened the fridge, my entire kitchen reeked of rum. It was completely inedible b/c of the booze and I ended up throwing it out. I almost cried over having to waste all that beautiful mascarpone cheese. I pondered how you, dear Ina, could have made such a recipe. Is being married to Jeffrey so hard that you have to numb your woes with boozy desserts? Why Ina, why? Eventually, I took the rum content down A LOT and suddenly the recipe was able to shine. It was simple and lovely. It's a keeper recipe but one that has red sharpie crossing out the rum content to a much lesser AAA membership level.

But this last issue comes over something I hold very near and dear to my heart...Pizza. See, I was having some friends over to try that summer buttermilk and radish soup I had made (it was good, the texture was weird though) and thought I'd finally get around to using my new pizza stone. I was so excited. But what pizza dough recipe to use? I've had this one recipe that I've used since I was 15 and well, don't laugh, it came from Seventeen Magazine. Hey, I told you not to laugh! It's a great recipe, easy to make and fantastic results. And well, I also had your Parties cookbook that I had been given for X-mas (I want to give her a copy too but can't seem to find it anywhere, sold out, or pulled off the shelves for faulty recipes, hmmm...) and I remembered a recipe for pizza dough.

So, who would win the dough contest? You, my dear Contessa, a royal of food network and the Hamptons or Seventeen magazine, a publication that taught me to hate my body and decide I wasn't white enough to ever be pretty? It was a tough contest, well, not really. So I flipped to the pizza dough recipe and followed your directions.

I noticed that the dough didn't rise too much and well, when it came time to roll it out into six rounds, it was no easy task. The dough was tough, tough, tough. And the final outcome? The pizzas were more like cracker crusts than doughy. It was as though I didn't even need to put the yeast into this one. Was my yeast old? Did I over mix the dough? Sigh. Your pizza dough left me disappointed and doubtful.

I have to admit, as much as I'm sure it was a user error (meaning me), I also think perhaps it might be something to do with the recipe. I'm kinda disappointed. I miss the days when I trusted you unequivocally. The days I'd dream of frolicking with you on the beach eating bbq chicken, pasta salad and other delights. Oh Ina, Ina, where did it all go wrong? And more importantly how do I get back to our former magic? I'm afraid to choose another recipe to try, for fear that it will just be another tangled mess of average, disappointment and rum.

I'm going to go back to Epicurious recipes for a while and nurse my wounds. I promise I'll try and come back to you soon, but for now, I need some space. I'm hurt, but I hope we can patch things up enough that we can stay friends. It's not you, it's just me.

Sincerely yours,
L

Not Cooking Soup

2008-06-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

I'd post a picture of my soup here but all you'd see is an empty bowl. Teehee!

The weather here in Boston turned hot and I mean really hot. It's in the 90's, hazy, hot and humid. Ugh.

Even though I get to bask in the glory that is condo central air conditioning, it still feels counter intuitive to cook anything in this sort of weather. So I rely on my favorite heat weather meal, chilled soup and it's so easy!

Tonight I decided that I'd do a cucumber one. I chopped half a peeled cuc into my soup bowl and top that off with 1 scallion also chopped. I had some cilantro and dill lying around so into my soup bowl they went too. I covered this entire mixture with buttermilk until it was half to 2/3 full and then add two big scoops of low fat yogurt. All of this is stirred until mixed and I then add salt and pepper to taste. I happened to some some lemon on hand and squeezed some right into my soup. And lastly (this is key!), I add two big teaspons worth of rice wine vinegar. The vinegar is the perfect kick for this cool and refreshing soup. Yum! I don't know where I got the idea for this soup. I use to use balsamic vinegar but it seemed too heavy and made my soup brown, which was a bit ugly.

Sometimes I throw in parsley instead of cilantro, carrots, radishes, mint, red onion all of this has gone in before too. As for spice, a bit of cumin is kinda fun and if you want a real kick, a little Tabasco adds some heat.

Recently, I saw recipe for buttermilk and radish chilled soup. It was on another food blogger's blog but came way of Gourmet recipe. It sounds yum and I love that it sorta follows my chilled soup ideals with vinegar in it as well!

Trust me, it sounds really weird to mix buttermilk, yogurt and vinegar together, but it's seriously a fantastic cold soup base.

My Summer Cooler

2008-06-01T21:21:00.000-04:00

I'm a serious light weight when it comes to alcohol. A lot of drinks I'm not a fan of and sometimes it makes me really self conscious to become red (damn the Asian flush!). But I'm busy roasting chicken (mmm, sage and rosemary went into my usual marinate of paprika, cayenne, garlic, butter, lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano for dinner and for meals for the rest of the week and looking in my fridge.

I spotted the leftover over ginger syrup and apricot nectar in my fridge and thought it might be fun to mix those items with some St. Germain.

Yum! I call it my new homemade summer cooler. It's delish.

1 part apricot nectar
1/3 part St. Germain (you might want more but for me, i didn't see the need to turn anymore red than necessary)
2 splashes of the ginger syrup (equal amounts sugar/water boiled and a big chunk of fresh ginger chopped and thrown in, cool and store in the fridge)

into a shaker and into a glass, enjoy!

Sweet Boston Or Why My Customers Rock!

2008-05-31T22:08:00.000-04:00

I have a fairly large sweet tooth or as one friend use to often say about me, "Leah has a high tolerance for butter, salt and sugar. It's like a holy trinity for me :)

I, of course, love anything cute and packaged well. So it comes, probably, as no surprise that I adore cupcakes. They remind me of being 8 years old and the days when I was invited to backyard birthday parties. They make me think of carefree days and how wonderful my childhood truly was. I was a very happy kid. Or maybe they are a close enough approximation of my childhood nickname, "Muffin". Apparently my Dad called me that ("Peach" came later) because I was cute, small and warm.

So when I had heard about a new cupcake place opening up in the city, I got really excited. But given my ever expanding waistline and my crazy work schedule chances were good I wasn't going to get a chance to try it out anytime soon. Bummer, but oh well.

Lucky for me, I have wonderful store customers and a dear, dear, dear one came by when I wasn't in the store and left cupcakes from Sweet for us to try. I did try and share them with the one staff person on with me today but she claimed to have an upset tummy, oh well...I did try, right? ;)

The box for the cupcakes was clever. It was sized perfectly for the goodies but it was reminiscent of a happy meal box. The shape was familiar and fun to carry but it was super cool with the plain brown cardboard that I felt kinda cool swinging it along as I walked home.

The cupcakes were small compared to the others I've had at places like the Buttery in the South End. The Buttery cucpakes are so huge that four of these minis would make one entire Buttery monster.

The presentation of the cupcakes was cute and they looked very polished. The frosting was piped out and the final touches dainty and tasteful. I think I got a box with: vanilla, chocolate, carrot cake and mocha (or maybe spice cake).

The cupcakes had waited two days in my fridge before I got a chance to sample them. So they were a bit dry. I have to say, I'm not sure when it became such an issue keeping cupcakes moist. It seems to be a refrain I hear a lot about cupcake places in the area. I remember as a kid always having moist cupcakes. I do think we use to put a bit of oil in the batter but still. A bit of canola in the batter might keep these cupcakes from getting too dry over time. I think it's hard to always buy bakery goodies the day you need them i.e. planning treats for someone's birthday so being able to keep cake and have it taste good even a day after purchase is important, well, I think it's be important at least.

Back to the cupcakes. I like the size quite a bit. They were the small perfect three bite treat. I like the frosting on all of them quite a bit. It wasn't a heavy overly buttery frosting. The vanilla frosting even with it's specks of vanilla reminded me of duncan hines can frosting and that's not a bad thing. I didn't like that the carrot cake cupcake had a vanilla frosting. I like cream cheese with my carrot cake and was disappointed that they didn't do a cream cheese one for the carrot cake.

Overall, I liked the favors a lot and even dry they were nice cupcakes. I like the vanilla the best because the flavor was sweet and very simple. The spice cake or maybe mocha cake one just kinda confused me and the chocolate one was a bit too milk chocolate-y for me. I tend to like my chocolate dark. But make no mistake, I eat every single crumb :) Like I said before, I liked them!

It was a nice treat and such a wonderful surprise to receive from a Jean Therapy customer. I'm so blessed to have such sweet store patrons!

Daring Bakers May - Apricot and Ginger Opera Cake

2008-05-28T19:48:00.000-04:00

I found this month's challenge, well challenging. I tend to love baking but I'm nothing more than a homespun baker. My cakes and cookies always look homemade. A little rough around the edges but tasty nonetheless.

I wasn't sure what flavoring I'd use. I tend to not like the flavor of white chocolate and I've never really done a lot with butter cream b/c all I ever really taste is butter. The mouth feel of butter cream is something I don't tend to enjoy. But I joined this group as a way to grow and learn so if part of the challenge calls for white chocolate and butter cream, well, I'm certainly happy to give it a shot and test it out!

Still uncertain what flavoring I'd do, I took a T-ride to Trader Joes where I was told I'd find almond meal for a fraction of the cost of Wholefoods. While I was at TJ's I noticed fresh apricots. I picked up some of those and got to thinking that one of my favorite flavor pairings is ginger and apricot. Panini, a bakery that has been closed for a while now, use to serve up apricot and ginger scones and they were pretty darn tasty. So I decided that my opera cake would include fresh ginger, fresh apricots, apricot nectar and some white peachello that was leftover from another dinner party.

I came home and go into my crocs and prepped for an evening of baking.

The cake batter came together rather quickly and easily. I grated fresh ginger into the batter and poured some apricot nectar in as well.
But the issue is always my oven. It seems to have two vastly different temperatures. And the result of cooking the cakes at the same time in the same oven based on the Daring Baker instructions resulted in this:

Hmm, I should have known better, since I know that my oven is kinda weird and baked one jelly roll sheet at a time. I went ahead and used the slightly overcooked cake anyway b/c I just assumed that the syrup would moisten it enough.

Into the syrup, I put a serious shot of the peachello and a big chunk of fresh ginger chopped big enough so I could fish it out once it was done cooking.
The apricots I quickly popped into some boiling water and fished out. I let them cool and peeled off their fuzzy skins and set them side.

The mousse also got a shot of grated ginger, apricot nectar and peachello.

The hardest part of this challenge, for me, was the buttercream recipe. I ran into issues when I went to add the boiled sugar (up to 220) to my egg mixture. The sugar did harden but it hardens so quickly that I didn't use quite a bit of it. As you can see, a lot of it ended up on still in the side of my pot and also on the side of my bowl. This buttercream recipe stressed me out. It seemed so wasteful to not even get a chance to use so much of the sugar due to hardening on the side of my pan. Did I do something wrong???
Since Elizabeth had decided to join Daring Bakers too, we decided it would be fun to have a bake off at her place and taste our different takes on Opera Cake. So I decided to put all my cake components into go-to containers and assemble at her place. I would make the glaze her at her place too. Bagged and ready to go, I waited for the bus to take me to Dot.

Little did I know that I'd be waiting for over 40 mins for a bus that would never arrive. Aaaauuurrrgggghhhh. It was so frustrating that I opted to go home and just assemble my cake there.

I opted to glaze the cake the next day after it had chilled a while. Clearly, I need to work on my professional cake glazing skills! Finally it was done.

How did it taste?

I liked it a lot. I wasn't very pleased with the texture of the almond meal from TJ's. Elizabeth had used blanched almonds and made her own meal and I liked the texture of her cake much better. But the flavor of apricot and ginger tasted great with white chocolate. I wish I had used a bit more grated ginger, but I was conservative b/c I didn't know what baking would do to the ginger. Next time, I'll add a lot more! Plus the syrup did moisten up the overcooked cake piece quite a bit and I was very pleased with that too.

I don't think I'll ever go thru the trouble of making an opera cake again but it was nice to try and if you're ever looking for a nice spring flavor combo, I think you can't beat fresh apricot and ginger.

My Most Favorite Food Writers

2008-05-28T13:15:00.000-04:00

I was thinking the other day how I've been influenced when it comes to fashion. The writer I hold in highest esteem is Cathy Horn. My mom was a big deal to me as well but Cathy writes with such intelligence and understanding, that it makes me think that fashion is actually an intellectual pursuit after all (something I've always known!!). In terms of food writing, I have favorites too. And in no particular order:

1.) Ruth Reichl...When I first met my girlfriend, we met via her writing really. I knew her food blog long before I had even met her. And well, I kinda fell for her through her writing. Her style of writing reminded me of Ruth Reichl and it was a compliment of the highest regard from me. Ruth Reichl is an amazing story teller and clearly adores food too. She's someone I'd love to meet b/c whenever I see pictures of her I see warmth in her eyes. I like that that warm translates into her writing.

2.) Amanda Hesser...Gosh maybe 10 years ago I'd read Amanda's columns in the NYT and knew of Mr. Latte. Later the columns became a book which I bought right away. I love the book and I love the recipes in the book too. If I ever was able to write, I think my style would be very similar to Amanda. I followed the story of 'Mr. Latte' religiously. I love the idea of this young bright woman courting a man who liked food but later would learn to love this quirky adorable food writer. Seriously, one day maybe I'll write the story of E and me and how we came to be via food.

3.) Mark Bittman...Talk about someone who makes home cooking seem like fun! I don't really read his articles as much as I watch them via NYT on-line. I enjoy watching him make simple and tasty food. I bet he'd be a lot of fun to dine with as well.

And so there you have it, the three food writers/thinkers who will always have my full attention and adoration.

Tatte Cookies

2008-05-25T09:43:00.000-04:00

For this month's Daring Baker Challenge, I had to get XXX at Trader's Joe. On my walk back from the C-line train, I saw that a new bakery had gone into an old bakery space. The old bakery was fairly good. But they kept really strange hours and were starting to look a little run down.

The new bakery had taken the space and made it over in raw wood, fresh paint and outside patio seating. Nice! I had to stop in and check it out. Especially since I wouldn't have a bakery to visit once inside my 'hood, grrr!

I went in and all the goodies were laid out so nicely. I did notice that most of the stuff seemed very nut oriented and I do mean nut! The tarts and pies were piled file with cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts and silvered almonds. And the individual treats seemed very brioche oriented. Plain, chocolate, halva, poppy seed, savory brioches, you get the idea. It was late in the day around 6pm so perhaps all the other stuff had been taken but I was surprised not to find a single fruit tart or cookie in the bunch.

I went ahead and bought to types of brioche to try. I tried the halva and the chocolate brioche. The brioche was buttery and yeasty, clearly expertly made but the execution of both was a little bit clumsy.

The chocolate brioche had a hard chunk of chocolate at the very buttom on it's center. Hmm, it was almost like a jelly donut but not quite. The hard little lump did nothing to make the brioche anymore tasty. It would have been better if the chocolate had been either chunked up or grated into the already risen dough and baked. The halva made the other brioche gummy and sticky. And I mean really gummy and sticky. The halva flavor made it almost taste like a peanut butter brioche. It was like brioche taffy. To get the flavor of halva they could have used sesame seeds and honey instead of using the halva candy.

I like the place well enough to give it a shot again. I'd like to sit outside and enjoy some coffee and a nice afternoon treat but I think next time it will need to be only if I see anything there without nuts or brioche.

Tatte Cookies

Peach Farm

2008-05-23T15:23:00.000-04:00

One of my oldest and dearest friends was in town for the week and we decided to meet up in Chinatown for a little dinner nosh. She suggested Hong Kong Cafe which I like a lot and so as I was waiting, I got a call from her "I'm on my way, but how would you feel about Taiwan Cafe instead?" I was down for it but being that I just came from work, I was schlepping a huge amount of heavy things with me and I needed to find an ATM for some cash. Most places in Chinatown are cash only, which would be fine, but there is not an ATM in chinatown, ANYWHERE!!!

I walked down the few blocks to Taiwan Cafe where HyeJohn was waiting and she said "um, I need an atm too". Oh boy, so a few minutes later we decided to go to Peach Farm instead. Not a huge loss at all. Lucky for us Chinatown has a plethora of really good food options. And lucky for us, Peach Farm takes credit card.

We walked down the stairs to what looks like a sketchy basement rec room. It's got beaten up carpet and the walls are coated in layers of food grease. The air is thick with lots of food being cooked up and lots of people. They also have the required huge fish tanks of live seafood. I gotta say, I know the idea is to show the customer exactly how fresh the food truly is but sometimes those tanks kinda bum me out. The fish look awfully bummed out. I mean, yeah they are about to eaten and who would be happy about that, but I dunno, I guess I like to be under the illusion that my food is kinda happy and content before become dinner. Whatevahs....

Luckily for me HyeJohn likes to eat as much as I do. How else do you think we could be friends for so long.

There was a bit of a wait for a table and as we waited, HyeJohn moaned about how hungry she was. Well, I had topped at a cute newish Vietnamese sandwich place diagonal to the Hong Kong cafe and got a beef sandwich to try. I offered it to HJ and before I could really explain why I had the sandwich or anything really, she had taken the bag from my hand and was munching away on the sandwich and said it was good. I'll post about the sandwich place another time. Anyway, it was quite amusing to watch her wait for dinner while eating a contra ban sammie.

So as you know HJ was hungry and so was I. We decided on having a seafood dinner set for 2. I also wanted some dumplings b/c I had seen some get served up to a table as we waited to be seated and they looked delicious. I also watched some oysters get served up to another table and was able to beg HyeJohn to let us order oysters too but she said "um Leah we can't order everything!". Um why not?

Alright so the food started coming fast and furious. I like that everything comes out piping hot as it's ready. Yum!

We started with the crab and maw soup.

This was my least favorite of the dinner set. Whatever maw is it's "spongey" as HJ put it. Yeah, she's right. The soup relied heavily on corn starch to thicken it up and I tend to hate soups that are falsely thickened that way.

Next came the dumplings, which you can see above hiding behind the clams in black bean sauce. They were quite delicious. Nothing extraordinary but decent and being dumplings they certainly hit the spot.
Next came the star of the dinner, the crab cooked with ginger and scallions. Messy and hard to eat but really yummy and worth the sticky fingers!

The clams and the Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce were my favorite of the entire meal. The black bean sauce was so good. I seriously wanted to just scoop up the sauce and put it on everything! Black bean sauce on toast, black bean sauce on chips, black bean sauce on...well, you get the picture. And the broccoli was perfectly cooked. It was still crisp and the sauce to veg ratio was perfect!

And this was the dinner set for 2! It was a lot of food and the couple who shared the table with us looked both amazed and a little disgusted as we plowed our way thru the entire meal. Seriously, we ate it all! But it was really good. I like Peach Farm because the food is better than decent, fresh and yeah a little greasy but seriously perfectly executed.

HyeJohn and I left after making little piggies of ourselves and laughed that everyone there probably thought "damn those Koreans can really eat!" And the truth is yes, yes we can.

Reasons I Don't Like Living in Fenway

2008-05-12T13:25:00.000-04:00

Up until now, I've been fairly happy with my 'hood. I have El Pelon, Rod Dee and Eastern Standard within walking distant and a (GHETTO) grocery store right across the street along with a movie theater. A staples, bed bath and beyond and best buy are also right there and it's nice to have them. The usual city conveniences with some unusual ones.

However Fenway also have some really frustrating things about it. And as time goes on, I've started to notice it more and more. That said, welcome to my rant.

1.) There are no cute little locally owned coffee shops or bakeries close by. Hell, I'd even settle for a Finagle a Bagel in Fenway. The only thing we get is a Starbucks (downstairs in my building) and guess what, in the new residential building going in close by, there will be yet another Starbucks. Don't get me wrong. I do occasionally indulge in Starfucks but they are so stupid expensive and such a huge, kinda obnoxious chain that I really try to not buy all my drinks from them. I think that if this neighborhood had some stuff that felt a little neighborhood-y like a small local bakery or coffee shop, it would be a nice touch. So for now the neighborhood feels kinda sterile and corporate like. But I want a baked that morning muffin dammit!

2.) The restaurants in my building kinda blow. Cambridge 1 I will let slide because the owners are super cool and really nice. They also did a really great build-out on that restaurant space. But Burtons....um WTF? It's a suburban Boston chain. Think a tier above Applebees and you've got Burtons. The food is passable but not something I would ever seek out. Let's put it this way, the last time I ate a meal at Burton's there was like three feet of snow so I wasn't about to even walk a block to go to El Pelon. But by the time I was done with my meal, I had wished I had risked life and limb to walk the block down to El Pelon! And the space right next door to my store has yet to have a new tenant. They've been trying to lease that space to a restaurant now for over two years. I've heard it's finally getting leased out but let's hope to god it's to something/someone who can cook already! I will say that I've heard rumors as to what's going in and I'm not very happy about what I've heard, so I'm choosing to ignore the rumors and hope for some damn sushi.

3.) Lack of local anything! This kinda piggybacks on #1. My shop is pretty much the only non-chain, locally owned thing in this area that's getting developed. It kinda sucks that my landlords are more interested in cash than getting cool local businesses into the 'hood. I suspect more "chain" businesses will go into the new building right along with the new Starbucks. Sigh.

More and more Fenway is feeling like a mall neighborhood. If a Cinnabons and Panada Express appear, I might just jump ship.

Spicy

2008-05-09T13:22:00.000-04:00

(More on this photo later!)

It's really no secret that I love spicy food. I also love pickled foods too but I'll save that for another entry entirely.

Luckily I'd dating someone who also likes her food spicy too. The first time we ever met, I introduced her to a little friend of mine, I like to call Green Papaya Salad. Yeah, I really like to put it out there when first meeting anyone...if you can't take the heat, well, we might not be well suited for each other. Thankfully, she was able to take the heat and then some; I kinda love her for it.

Another joy we've discovered is our ability to host small dinner parties and invite our friends over to dine with us. Lately, it's been mostly her friends (you guys need to represent already!). It's a great excuse for us to spend a leisurely day together. In the afternoon we try and get started on the dinner and sometime we fall really behind. I've had to learn to go with the flow more when I feel like we fall behind in our prep. She has to deal with another cook in the kitchen with her. And we manage. But more than managing we also have a really great time.

And this particular evening E wanted to make lasagna. I know she doesn't care much for ricotta so I asked what she was going to use instead. She replied, "well goat cheese, of course". Did I mention how much I love this woman?

E also decided she wanted to make the pasta yet again. Simple but time consuming indeed. I was actually worried we wouldn't have enough food. When I mentioned this concern, she reassured me that over 3lbs of beef, veal and lamb ground meat mixture would be enough. I let her do her thing and I did mine. I decided I wanted to make a Kentucky Derby pie. I had watched an episode of Martha Stewart and it was all about the Kentucky Derby and I watch her make this pie. I found a recipe on the front web page of Saveur and used that. I was delighted that it called for bourbon. I don't really drink a lot but I really do like the flavor that various liquors and distilled stuff impart on food.

When the guests arrive. We usually start with cocktails and cheese. And depending on how far along dinner is finished, we move into a meal. I'm a big believer in salad with dinner. I was raised with a mom who always served a fresh vegetable salad with every supper. It was just my family's way. So salad is always offered, along with bread and dessert (of course!).

And, of course, the star of the show:
It was mammoth. This picture really doesn't do it justice in terms of size (that pan was deep). But I think the picture does capture the general yumminess of the situation quite nicely. E had not only used goat cheese in place of ricotta but, instead of the usual chopped spinach, she used kale. And it was spicy too! I think that one of the things that lasagna always misses is a little punch of spice. It's nice and comforting with pasta layers and cheese and meat but a little zing would be nice. I love that E likes her food spiced well and spiced well kinda on the spicy side. The lasagna was kinda amazing. It was tangy, spicy and the kale gave it a different texture profile. The homemade pasta was a bit thicker than I would have liked but over the course of the week (there were ALOT of leftovers even though everyone who came was stuffed), the pasta really loosened up and picked up more of the flavors of the sauce. It made for crave worthy lunches and dinners for me for an entire week!

My pie was a lot more simple:

Well, partially because I cheated and bought a frozen pie crust (please don't revoke my Daring Baker badge!!!) due to our time constraints. But pie is basically a pecan and chocolate chip cookie in a pie crust. Ridiculously easy, it came together in a matter of 10 minutes. How'd it taste? It was okay. I really liked the bourbon flavor...maybe I was a wino in a former life? However, it wasn't really a show stopper which was okay because it wasn't like I toil forever over this pie. But the biggest surprise for me was how decent the crust was. I was shocked that a frozen pie crust was actually worth eating. It was adequately flaky (not super) and buttery. I liked the crust. But I've been dying to make my Mom's crust on a rhubarb pie but sadly, I've hardly seen any this season.

And as a random aside, I wanted to post this picture of friend Cris's shirt:
Her head is purposefully cut out because she didn't want her face in the picture (Cris is a really hot chick just a little FYI). Anyway, her shirt is a "peace of toast". Hahahaa, how awesome in that? Well, sorta keeping with the subject title on this entry, this picture was taken during lunch at Mary Chungs in Cambridge and let me tell you, their food is loaded with hot! I've always loved Mary Chungs and even now just writing about it is making me crave some dun dun noodles. Yum. I wrote a review of them on yelp so I won't repeat it here. If you feel like seeing it, go to yelp and type in Mary Chung for Boston as your city.

Aha!

2008-05-01T16:19:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry I've been a little MIA lately. It's not that I've given up eating, it's just that a lot of my meals have been had out of the house. And by the time I think, "you should really be taking a picture of this", I'm done with my food.

But I've made two very important to me food discoveries that I want to share.

1.) I have a long standing love of brown rice. It's filling and hearty and it makes me feel like I'm eating something that is kinda good for me but it's still a carb (yay). But I also have this long standing issue with cooking it. My rice is always hard or just bad. I follow the directions to the letter on the packages of rice and still it sucks. Sigh. I'm kinda embarrassed of my lack of rice expertise for a very silly reason too. I'm Korean and while I was raise by a white family that didn't eat a lot of rice at all, I still think it's suppose to be ingrained (heh) in me to be a rice cooking master.

So imagine my delight when reading Saveur this month and there is a recipe for cooking the perfect brown rice that starts with the following intro:

Cooking brown rice, or at least cooking it well, is tricky...Unfortuntely, the labels on most packaged brown rice recommend an ineffective method that suggests boiling water and rice in a two-one- ratio.

OMG YES!!! THIS IS TOTALLY MY ISSUE!!!!

Saveur goes on to say that the key is to boil like pasta and then finish it by steaming it off. I'm so excited. I'm going to try their method and I'll let you guys know how it all goes. This Korean's gonna have game when it comes to brown rice!!! You know it!!

2.) I adore veggies from Chinese restaurants. My favorites tend to be peapod stems or Chinese broccoli but I like my veggies in the simple garlic/sauted sort of preparation. I like oyster sauce but not on my veg. Anyway, I was having lunch at Mary Chung (love that place!) and I was thinking about how I wanted to be able to make veggies like this at home. I look on line for a recipe and after doing a little bit of research, I think I might have found a sorta similar recipe. It's from Elise's blog Simply Recipes and it calls for mustard greens but I have a feeling any green will work.

Mustard Greens Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 pound mustard greens, washed and torn into large pieces
2 to 3 Tbsp chicken broth or vegetable broth (vegetarian option)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dark sesame oil

Method

1 In a large sauté pan, sauté onions in olive oil over medium heat until the onions begin to brown and caramelize, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook a minute more, until fragrant.

2 Add the mustard greens and broth and cook until the mustard greens are just barely wilted. Toss with sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4.

I'm excited to try it. I have some kale and green beans at home I've been waiting to eat so this might be a perfect recipe to try with them. Again, I'll let you know how it goes.

Sadly, I Love Eating Stale Peeps

2008-04-08T22:34:00.000-04:00

s n l - t o p c h e f from seriouseats on Vimeo.

Reason #1 For Why I Love Living In Boston

2008-04-08T21:05:00.000-04:00

I live in Fenway and just a few blocks from one of the best food blocks in Boston. In that block is one of my favorite Thai places. Roh Dee is nothing much to look at and they are a cash only kinda deal but man of man, I swear some of the best pad thai come from out of that place. I can't think of a better night than Roh Dee pad thai and shrimp hot and sour soup taken out and eaten watching masterpiece sense and sensibility.

So simple, so tasty and so soul satisfying.

Sunday Dinners

2008-04-08T20:32:00.000-04:00

I grew up in a family where food was very important. Certain foods always signified celebrations and milestones. Homemade cakes for birthdays, t-bone steaks on the grill in the summer and christmas cookies and mincemeat pies for the holidays. Yep, I ate well growing up and I still eat well.

One of the things I didn't get to have a lot as a kid was friends over too much. We moved so often it was hard to make lasting friendships and my Mom was so worried about what others thought of our house and how we lived (everything had to be immaculate for guests) that it was rare for me to have friends over for dinner.

But now that I'm older, I've learned to combine my love of food and my longing to invite my friends over for meals. This has become something of a regular Sunday dinner that everyone is invited to.

I like simple, full flavor foods. Lots of comfort food but always a nice veggie or salad included and of course some sort of dessert!

My crockpot is put to good use and I've found great luck using it for chili, brisket etc. It's a great time saver and I can make tons of food in it as well.

My girlfriend is also a food lover as well. And luckily she enjoys cooking and entertaining friends as much as I do.

Two Sundays ago, E was in charge of cooking dinner. It was a great home meal of roasted chicken, purple fingerling potatoes (roasted with chorizo...I later made the leftovers into mashed purple potatoes and they were quite good! ) with salad

(covered in prosciutto, my favorite!) and a tiramisu from whole foods.

And this past Sunday was a crockpot bolognese made with beef, sausage, red wine, milk and nutmeg and E's first try at homemade pasta. As documented below:

It was a delicious combination (seriously if you haven't already definitely try making bolognese a crockpot, you must!). And I'm quite proud that we now have a meal that we each can contribute to.

So if you're ever in Boston and in need of good food, good friends and it happens to be Sunday, stop on by. Chicken and waffles for dinner next Sunday!!!