What I've Been Eating

 

The month is drawing to a close, and I wanted to check in and let you know what I've been up to, since that category does not include updating this blog, heh. The crocuses above have come and gone, and now we're firmly in daffodil season. I've even had my first iced coffee of the year!



I also made a truly spectacular meatloaf, which we ate for a week and weren't tired of. In fact, I kind of want to make it again right now.



I made this perfectly fine vegetable paella, though I cobbled it together from several recipes and I seem to have missed a step somewhere, because my soccarat was not very crispy. Will have to try again soon, I think. I want to get paella right, since it's so versatile. This time around I did learn that greens are not the best addition, the arugula I used burnt on the bottom before the rice did.



We went up to Maine last weekend to escape the madness in Boston, after having spent Friday locked in our house, frantically updating twitter and hoping for some resolution to the city's fear. My dad took us to Fishbones in Lewiston where we had a darn tasty appetizer of lobster and brie inside puff pastry, served with blueberry preserves.



Oh and last night I made this excellent salad using CSA radishes (even the leaves! I love that), plus some guilt-laden cherry tomatoes and mini cukes from the supermarket. I know I should try to hold out for summer veg, but it's starting to warm up here and I am totally over storage crops at this point.



This weekend we'll start planting in the garden - just potatoes and greens, saving the rest until we get back from our vacation in early May - and grill some hot dogs since the weather looks positively dreamy. We might hit 70 on Sunday! So, what have you been eating?

Area Four

Adam and I finally ventured into the all! new! Kendall Square today after a shopping blitz at the Cambridgeside Galleria. Incidentally, that's my new strategy for shopping, which I loathe: what do I need? Go in fast, get it, pay, and leave. No dilly dallying. Don't make eye contact with the tweenagers. I was in and out of Sephora in less than 6 minutes, but I got the mascara I needed, word.

But back to Kendall. There are all sorts of new restaurants over there and I haven't been able to check any of them out yet, but we both had pretty good weeks at work so out we went for celebratory pizza at Area Four. We split an appetizer special - big long crouton with fresh ricotta and broccoli rabe and chili garlic oil. The broccoli rabe was cold, like fridge cold, and I wished it had been at least room temp, but the flavor was good. The pizzas were great - piping hot and savory as all get out. Adam got the putanesca, not shy with the anchovies, and my clam and bacon was indulgently rich. Yum.

Restaurant Marliave

My mom and dad are in town for a pharmacy conference today and tomorrow (my dad is speaking at his alma mater, which is pretty cool) so Adam and my sister and I went out to dinner with my mom. We ate at Restaurant Marliave, which I always want to call either Café Marliave or just The Marliave. It's one of Boston's oldest restaurants, and it's got special significance in my family; my mom's parents used to go on dates there. Adam and I went out for reuben sandwiches there right after we got engaged. If you haven't eaten enormous sandwiches while keeping your brand new engagement secret from your waiter, I highly recommend it.

Tonight I did something I never do anywhere: I ordered the chicken. Julia actually said "woah, you never order the chicken." But guys, the chicken? It was so freaking good. Crispy and salty, with mushroom risotto and big cloves of delicious roasty garlic. So good. The reubens, obviously, are wonderful, the cocktails are excellent and the cheese selections are spot on. I don't generally talk about restaurants in this space (I don't feel like restaurant reviews on blogs are fair if you've only eaten in a place once), but Restaurant Marliave is a reliable winner.

Restaurant Marliave
10 Bosworth Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-422-0004

Restaurant Week Boston

Boston is a city of some truly excellent restaurants, and the twice yearly Restaurant Week comes in handy when there are visitors in town. Adam's parents are visiting from Oklahoma through Saturday and we've eaten quite well so far! Tomorrow I'll finally get to cook a whole meal for guests in the new kitchen, but until then, let me tell you my impressions from some of our out-and-about meals. Please be advised that I am not a restaurant review blogger in any way, shape, or form, and these are just recaps of meals I ate this week. I encourage you to get out and enjoy Restaurant week for yourselves!

We started with dinner at Taranta, a North End Italian restaurant with a Peruvian spin, on Sunday night. The small first floor dining room was pretty loud, but there was one (ahem) boisterous table of eight right near us. In particular, I liked that they had such an extensive Resto Week menu - six entree choices - since places I've been in the past for the prix fixe special had very limited options. I was sad to see that the espresso crusted filet mignon wasn't on the list, but at least it's still on the regular menu, so you can get it in a couple of weeks! Adam's dad ordered the skirt steak and yucca fries, which were just the right contrast of fluffy interior and crispy outside. Adam's corn crusted tilapia was butterific and tasted faintly of the tropics; perhaps they used cocounut in the preparation somehow. My orecchiette was served with a pleasantly zingy aji amarillo sausage and not enough broccoli rabe for my tastes, but I'm a green fiend. Desserts were solid but not standout. Guava and creamy ricotta cannolo, or tiramisu, both sauced with macerated berries. I could picture them in the back filling the cannolo, cutting a square of tiramisu and ladling the berries onto each plate... sadly this mental image made it feel sort of cafeteria-like, even though the desserts were pretty good. I wish dessert wasn't "required" as part of the Resto Week menu, that way people wouldn't phone it in. Regardless of the lackluster desserts, I'll go back to Taranta for sure.

Last night we got a big group together for dinner at Gargoyles on the Square in Davis. In the past, the service here has been great for couples and a little slow for groups, and that stood true last night as well. I understand they were swamped because it's restaurant week, but they took our forks with the entree dishes and didn't bring us any for dessert until I flagged someone down and asked. Not a huge big deal, but we were all sitting there, drooling on our chocolate tarts with no way to eat them... it seemed that there was only one waiter for the front room supported by lots of food runners, which could work under less hectic circumstances, but the poor guy was pretty overworked last night. So now that I've told you the tiny little negative, let's focus on how good the food was, shall we?

I must admit, I have eaten at Gargoyles before and loved it. I have eaten the duck confit with cashews and mango sticky rice before... and loved it. And that's exactly what I did last night. Our friend Ariana has ONLY ever ordered the duck confit at Gargoyles, and she's been there more than me! So it was not exactly shocking that I liked the duck last night (and the leftovers for breakfast, wee!). But the real knockout of the meal was the roasted zucchini soup with almond sour cream and shredded pork. Holy mother of flavors, Batman. This stuff was intense! Smoky from the roasting of the squash, a little sweet and spicy kick in the almond cream, and shredded pork so tender it should be illegal. I simply can't wait to try to recreate this bad boy at home.

Have you guys been enjoying restaurant week? Where have you been? What was the best dish? Where are you dying to go?

Seattle

The second leg of our Pacific Northwest adventure started with a drive out to the coast. I got to put my toes in the Pacific for the first time ever! Then we had a tasty lunch at Baked Alaska in Astoria and crossed a very, very long bridge.

Here is a quick shot of a couple small plates we ordered at Purple Wine Bar, recommended to us by a friend and the closest place on our list to the hotel, hence it was our first dinner in Seattle. The wine was good. The food... was ok. I actually really liked my fennel/dill/chilled shrimp/citrus salad (bottom left) and plan to re-create it soon. The hummus was pretty dry, and the bisteeya was sort of flat tasting. The desserts, however, were phenomenal, and just the right size.

Ok, ok, here's my gratuitous Pike Place Market shot. We went, it was overwhelming, and Adam bought a really beautiful kaleidoscope. I enjoyed it in the morning the first time we went because there are lots of beautiful fruits and flowers on display, but we went back one afternoon for some reason and it was crazy crowded and therefore not quite as much fun to stroll through.

After exploring the Olympic Sculpture Park one morning, we were in the vicinity of Boat Street Cafe. I had heard about their amazing pickles, but sadly none were on the lunch menu that day. I had to make due with this asparagus, tomato and emmenthal sandwich. Picture me heaving an enormous sigh and putting the back of my hand to my forehead. HA. This sandwich was so awesome I didn't miss pickles. Once I figure out how to make ridiculously good rolls, I'm definitely making it for myself. So, so yummy.

Adam and I spent two whole afternoons at the Seattle Public Library. We LOVED it, and not just because we are big readers, but also because it's an inviting space where they didn't hassle us for playing cribbage. We were looking for a snack and found Post Alley Pizza just a few blocks from the library, a nice little hole-in-the-wall pizza place where they put hot dogs (!) and mustard (!!) on a specialty slice called the Coney Island. Clearly I am a fan.

A slightly more upscale meal we enjoyed was at Cafe Lago, which was 100% worth the bus ride. I've already told you how good the pomodori al forno was, but did I mention the martini sporco? Sporco is Italian for "dirty," so theoretically this is a dirty martini, right? But here's the thing! They infuse the gin with olives, so you can taste the "dirt" but it doesn't cloud up the drink. The rim is salted with olive-salt and black pepper, and the olive speared with a fragrant rosemary sprig. I can't think of a reason not to use rosemary in your next martini, it was a really delicious touch.

One of our favorite meals of the trip is a meal of which I have no photographic evidence. My camera battery had died, and I charged it briefly thinking I would want pictures, but I was enjoying myself too much to take the camera out of my purse! We had dinner one night at Shiro's Sushi, the oldest sushi restaurant in Seattle. Please, please promise me that if you go to Seattle you will go to Shiro's. It took us a LOT of poring over the menu to decide which direction to go, but in the end we went with one of their omakase options - essentially letting the chef decide what we would eat.

We had smoked cod. We had oysters with chili, and asparagus with peanut sauce. We had chawanmushi with unidentifiable beans and the world's tiniest mushrooms. Shiro prepares tuna using an "old school Japanese method" according to our waiter, soaked in sake and soy sauce, which gives it a curious sweetness. There was sashimi and broiled cod (so rich and savory!) and eggplant and miso soup with tiny local clams. The last course was sushi (fish over rice, not rolls), and we tried geoduck for the first time - it was dense and chewy and not my favorite thing on the plate, but I ate it. There was also a raw shrimp sushi on the plate, which the waiter informed us was "alive one minute ago and crawling around!" Hm. I had a tough time with raw shrimp, and please don't tell Shiro, but I cooked it myself, very briefly, in the miso soup that was also on the table. I regret this. I do not regret eating the shrimp heads the waiter brought out shortly afterward, calling them "just like Japanese chicken nugget!" and instructing us to spritz them with lemon and eat the whole thing, eyeballs, legs and all. By the time he brought out melon and grapes, we were stuffed to the gills (pun intended), but very happy.

The food we ate on this vacation was wonderful. Weird, classic, sweet, savory, rich, light, crunchy, chewy, cheap, expensive, and wonderful. I hope you've enjoyed my recaps, and I can't wait to get back to our regularly scheduled programming and start talking about what I've been making with our CSA shares!

Stumptown

I got back from vacation over a week ago, but already it feels like forever. I have been putting off and putting off telling you about my trip because I've been agonizing over the details like "Oh, but I have to tell them about Simpatica! Oh, but I don't have a good photo of Samantha and Dave!" And then I realized that I'll never be able to get to all the things that made this trip wonderful. I've shown you some highlights, but if you're looking for allll the photos from the trip, I've added a link to my Flickr photos over there on the right.

Let's get into some more highlights, shall we? Our first breakfast in Portland was Pine State Biscuits; one order of sausage gravy and one order of mushroom gravy later we were very, very happy campers. Oklahoma-born Adam said they were, ahem, the best biscuits he has ever eaten. I'm pretty sure that's a ringing endorsement. If you're in Portland, go there. Get biscuits. Be happy. Plus, it smells AMAZING in there.

And while we're talking breakfast, we're going to have to talk about Voodoo Doughnuts (the Magic is in the Hole!). We went in for a sampling of donuts and then down the street for Stumptown Coffee (omg delicious). I showed you the photo above already, but behold, the aftermath:

As much as we wanted to, we just couldn't do it. Now, I've already told you about Paley's Place, where we had scrumptious rabbit ravioli, razor clams, and rhubarb financier, and Widmer Brothers with its excellent beer and tasty veggie burger. I also have to mention how nice it is to plan a trip online. All I had to do was ask the hivemind of Twitter where I should eat in Portland, and not only did Samantha provide a list, she suggested we get together for a meal! We went to Simpatica Catering because they had a great dinner there the night before, and really, the brunch did not disappoint. I've got plans to recreate my light-as-a-feather crepes full of veggies as soon as possible. One other tasty thing from Portland I look forward to re-creating: the specialty cocktail from Blue Hour with jalapeno tequila and mango puree. Woo!

As a parting shot, here is my favorite succulent plant ever, Hens & Chicks. They were all over the rock walls. Ok, I know that's not the most logical and orderly post I've ever posted, but come back tomorrow for an illogical and disorderly post about Seattle, ok?

Vacation Highlights!

Hi friends! It's weird to be back at the computer after a ten day vacation, but while I slog through almost four hundred photos, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite bits and pieces from Portland and Seattle.

Brown butter financier with rhubarb compote and mascarpone ice cream at Paley's Place in northwest Portland. This was one of the best meals of the trip, and I have never seen a restaurant owner work so hard. Kimberly Paley went out of her way to talk to every. single. guest. who walked in the door. Very, very pleasant experience.

Flight of tasty beer at Widmer Brothers in Portland. Sadly, our favorite brews are available ONLY at the brewery's Gasthaus Restaurant, but we did get to have some delicious Broken Halo IPA.

Voodoo Donuts. Here you see the legendary Maple Bacon, which was indeed delicious. When we saw Anthony Bourdain's lecture tour the night before, an audience member gave him one of these, and he was so excited he actually jumped up and down on stage, so clearly we had to try it. To the left is the Voodoo Donut itself, doll shaped with a pretzel stick for stabbing at the raspberry filling. The one above it has a name I can't remember, but mostly it was just A Big Mess - peanut butter and chocolate and waaay too much donut. The small piece is the Classic Buttermilk, which I very much enjoyed.

We drove out to Astoria on the Oregon coast before heading to Seattle on Monday, and I got to stick my feet in the Pacific for the first time ever. Totally worth the extra two hours of road trip.

This is one of the top three meals we had in Seattle, I think. I'm so grateful to Amy for suggesting it (via Twitter), and if you go to Seattle, I can heartily recommend Anchovies and Olives. If you go soon, try the hamachi crudo, it's got pickled rhubarb, sweet peas and basil puree, and it's fantastic. Plus, look how cute the olives are in their little canning jar!

Cafe Lago, and the legendary pomodori al forno. Molly's Bon Appetit column is the reason this was on my list of places to eat, and these tomatoes did not disappoint. Luckily, I know I can make them at home!

There were lots and lots (and lots) of amazing meals in Portland and Seattle, and I will do my best to tell you all about them, but now I leave you with this Great Blue Heron who was hunting at the Chittendon locks on Thursday, and a link to my brand spankin' new Flickr account, where I have started to upload more photos from the trip!

Where on Earth Have I been?

Goodness gracious, friends. It's been a week since I last posted! My sincere apologies for staying away so long. Would you like to know what I've been up to?

Adam and I wandered into this desolate location a couple of Saturdays ago. That little food stand you see is Speed's Hot Dogs, home of the WSJ verified World's Best Hotdog. They aren't kidding, man. Observe:

The wiener itself weighs in at about two pounds. Add a toasted bun, chopped onions, mustard, ketchup and relish and HELLO GORGEOUS. But... next time we'll split one. We ate these at 3:30 pm, and for dinner, we had water. Oof. Let's talk about vegetables now, shall we? To work up an appetite for the giant snawsages, we did some container-garden prep work. That is, we cleaned out pots, mixed up dirt, spraypainted some stuff, and planted the hardiest veggies in a giant half-barrel planter.

Squeee! Chard sprouts! Aren't they precious?

And spinach, but it looks like grass to me. Good thing I labelled it.
I think the bok choy is the cutest. I thinned out the sprouts after taking this photo, but that's sort of all I know about gardening. I'll keep you posted at how things go with my hardy green plants and also how they go with these guys, who I have less confidence in -

Those are cherry tomato seedlings. Behind them are about 5 kinds of hot pepper seedlings... We'll see how this turns out. I'll be out of town from May 28 - June 6 (Portland + Seattle + Vacation = can't. wait.) and I plan to actually put these in pots as soon as I get back. If they don't take, I'll get seedlings. I'm trying to keep my expectations low for my first year of container gardening. What's that? You come here to talk about food? Ooooh, ok. The day after the hot dogs, we had Salades Nicoises - hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, olives, baby taters, green beans and tuna on a bed of arugula with tarragon vinaigrette. Adapted from this recipe at Simply Recipes, and it was great.

Oh and we made pasta from scratch. I'll have to talk about that later because it was a great experience, but look! Shrimp scampi on home-made fettucine!


I am sorry not to have a recipe for you today, but there are things going on behind the scenes here and I have been quite distracted. Don't get too excited - it's just that I finally bought hungrybruno.com and am wading through the process of doing more than having it redirect automatically to blogger. Daunting, I tell you.

Figs and summer evenings

We have been having truly glorious weather here in Boston lately. It's supposed to be ridiculously hot and humid this weekend, but for now the nights are cool and the days are warm and breezy. Perfect weather for an outdoor concert, but I'll get to that in a minute. First, Figs!

I'm not sure who took a bit out of that sign... I guess they were hungry? Anyway. This is the second of Todd English's Boston area restaurants I went to over the course of two days (I had a lunch meeting at Kingfish Hall on Tuesday.) It was an interesting experience. The food was good, but the space is sort of weird. It's very narrow, and I was sitting with my back up against a tray of silverware so there were constantly servers hovering around, setting up other tables.

We started with the "Asparagus Frites" which I was not expecting to be breaded, but it was fairly light. The salad underneath was over-dressed but the arugula was tasty. I probably would have eaten all the greens had the over-zealous server not taken the plate away as soon as the asparagus were gone.

They let you split the pizzas down the middle so we had two, which was good because the name of the restuarant had given me a hankering for the combo you see above: figs, prosciutto and gorgonzola. There was a fig/onion/balsamic jam underneath it all. Frankly, there were too many figs. I am a huge proponent of the sweet/salty combo but this was so much fig it almost felt like desert. Adam thought the prosciutto was too salty, but I was pretty glad it was there as a foil for the figs. Also, those strange green things on top? Yeah, I still dont' quite know what they are. Green onions, maybe? Very odd and they kept falling off the pizza.

The other half was their special of the day, artichoke and spinach. Also delicious, this was more traditional. Yep. Hm. That's about all I have to say about this one. One more note on the pizza: the crust. It was crispy but suuuuper flour-y. My face felt gritty at the end of the meal. In conclusion, this was an ok meal, reasonably priced (pizzas are $13-$18 and feed two people), and I'd probably go back again. It was conveniently located (42 Charles Street) for the next activity on the evening's agenda:

The Landmark concert series at the Hatch Shell is not a bad way to spend a Wednesday evening.
Just make sure you bring a blanket.

Or some camp chairs.

Or you could improvise.

OR you could just sit there and curl your toes. Next week's concert schedule is for Gershwin and Gospel. If I can convince Adam that George and Ira can be fun, maybe we'll picnic. I'll keep you posted.

Cuchi Cuchi Cool

Dinner on Wednesday was very interesting. Cuchi cuchi is all super art deco looking inside (stained glass and overwrought light fixtures), and their cocktail menu is separated into pre-prohibition and post-prohibition drinks, and then some newer mixed drinks... a little overwhelming, but I ended up with a perfectly serviceable mojito. The waitstaff is dressed flapper style and it's all very strange, but pretty in a McKenzie Child sort of way. The service was sort of slow but whatever, we weren't in a hurry.

We had five "small plates." Cuchi Cuchi's website states about one million times that they are NOT a tapas bar. But it's tapas style food - small plates for sharing, organized by what's in them with a note about the country of origin. I think we were supposed to get bread and eggplant dip before the food came out, but the service was a little inconsistent and it came out with our first two plates. Here are said plates in the order we got them:

1. Seafood filled avocado - You can't really go wrong with avocado, though the various bits of seafood were a tiny bit overcooked/chewy. I like the concept and I might try it at home.... though I think I liked this one more than Adam did. Good job, Guatemala.

2. An Asian salad - This was mostly just julienned veggies with peanut ginger sesame dressing - neither one of us were blown away by this one, and it was a little too strongly flavored. I drank a lot of water while eating it.

3. The "Cuban Cigar"- A very tasty short rib wrapped in empanada dough and served with really good black beans. The dough was light and flaky, the rib cooked perfectly and the beans savory and delicious. Yum.

4. Duck a l'orange crepes - This one came in second; it was a great mix of sweet and savory. Served with a grain salad of some sort.

5. Fried artichoke hearts- the piece de la resistance from Italy, filled with gorgonzola and basil and served with a buttery sauce of pistachios and olives. Oh. Sweet. Mama. I had to ask Adam to repeat his story because I stopped paying attention as soon as I put the first bite in my mouth. I would go back there just for these.

Since the portions are small (in a good way), we had room for dessert, which rarely happens to me. We ordered the cheesecake, because the menu note was so good - still in the mood for something small, rich, and beautiful? Hee hee... yes. The standout of the tiny little (again, in a good way) cheesecake was the lemon curd around the edges. The cheesecake itself was just ok. The tiramisu was served in a martini glass, was a little heavy on the whipped cream.mascarpone and light on the lady fingers, and had way too much cinnamon on top... we actually scraped a lot off. I don't think I'd order it again.

In general, I get the impression that this place thinks it is really cool. It is, that's for sure, but it's not in any way understated; decor, costumed waitstaff and strong food included. Adam made a comment at one point that it would be a good place for a fancy girl's night outting, and I think that about sums it up.

Cuchi Cuchi
Dinner nightly5:30 - 11
Bar until 12:30
Closed Sunday
795 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: 617.864.2929