To get a little insight into the latest cocktail trends in bars around town, check out a recent post on the Boston Dandy in which this libation-loving blogger gives his two cents on what’s new at bars around town.
The basis for this graduate school bon vivant’s rumination was a recent Food and Wine column by writer Jim Meehan, describing drink trends nationwide. Meehan sees four recent categories of mixological innovation: chef’s cocktails, drinks that incorporate salt, nonalcoholic cocktails and tea-based drinks.
The Boston Dandy sees evidence of all of these trends in local bars (and provides some tantalizing examples of drinks by the bartenders such as Bob McCoy of Island Creek Oyster Bar and Max Toste of Deep Ellum). He then goes one better and adds smoke-based libations to the list, citing the Smoking Cinnamon a drink by Todd Maul of Clio, which uses smoked ice. He also describes his own experiment with pipe smoke and Old Fashioneds, which is very posh indeed.
Sarah Kleinman and her guests give rave reviews to Tres Gatos, a newly configured tapas restaurant in Jamaica Plain. It’s got vibe, it’s got great food and a sweet surprise in back.
God help me — this year I’m hosting my first Passover seder.
I’ll be documenting my experience as the week progresses but let’s just say I’m lucky my mother and I get along–she’ll be sorry she said she’d walk me through.
As I scour websites for recipes and advice, I keep on coming back to the Jew and the Carrot. Whether the topic is Iraqi beet stew or egg creams, it’s a great site for all of your pre-holiday menu-mulling.
Any Passover sites you’d like to share? Comment below or tweet us @pubradiokitchen!
At the top of my “to make” list is Anthony Bourdain’s mushroom soup. I especially love his suggestion at the end of the recipe: “…if you really want to ratchet your soup into pretentious (but delicious), drizzle a few tiny drops of truffle oil over the surface just before serving. Why the hell not? Everybody else is doing it.”
That about sums up truffles: pretentious, trendy, overused and – yes – ridiculously delicious. These rare and rather ugly mushrooms are a staple of high-end Mediterranean cooking for a reason: they add a depth of flavor, what the Japanese would call umami, that is unmatched in any other wild mushroom. And they’re oddly versatile – they seem perfectly at home in both sweet and savory cooking, even if the heady, wild, petrichor flavor always threatens to crowd out other elements of a dish.
The largest importer of gourmet truffle products in the U.S. is Sabatino North America, which opened its first, flagship boutique for the home cook last month at 130 Newbury Street: Sabatino&Co Roma. I headed down to the store, eager to try some truffle products and talk to CEO Gabriel Balestra, whose family has been producing truffles for generations.
Some highlights: a balsamic vinegar aged to the point of sweetness, rich, syrupy and – apparently – just lovely over strawberry ice cream; thick and creamy natural skin lotions, with ingredients that made me smell like an Italian kitchen all day; and the best honey I have ever tasted, infused and enriched with little specks of black truffle floating on top of amber foam.
The honey is really just a work of art, and at the time of my visit it was blissfully available for all browsers to sample, which I did quite generously. I knew I had to have it, so I asked the price – just over $20. For honey. Ack. “It lasts a long time,” the salesman said helpfully. “It wouldn’t in my house,” I answered sadly. I do, however, plan on splurging soon – it’s so good that I really do think the cost is worth it, for a special occasion.
The store also, of course, has well-packaged truffle oils and salts. Take Anthony’s word for it – I’m sure they’d be great on top of some soup.
As some of you may know, I’m a BIG fan of pancakes and I love maple season here in New England. Last year my family paid a visit to a small, privately run enterprise in North Andover called Turtle Lane Maple Farm, and I posted about our outing on PRK.
So imagine my delight upon opening the pages of the Edible Boston Spring issue and seeing none other than Turtle Lane proprietors Paul Boulanger and Kathy Gallagher proudly displaying their wares and talking about their maple ways in Joanna Hamblin’s article “Tap Into Something Sweet.”
Joanna’s interview with Paul and Kathy will bring you up to date on the growth of their business and give you a window onto this typically New England labor of love.
I once thought that a caper was a pickled green peppercorn. They look alike, right? Well, sort of. Green peppercorns are the immature fruit of a flowering vine, primarily grown in Vietnam, India and Brazil. Capers, on the other hand, are the pickled bud of the caper bush – plants that thrive in Mediterranean climates.
How do you feel about capers? There’s something so unique about their briny, pungent flavor.
Today’s Food Therapy is a great way to try cooking with capers – Shrimp with Honey, Sherry and Capers from Bora Panduku of Lola Cooks. Bora’s recipe balances the strong flavor of capers that puts some people off. Her recipe is just a tad sour, sweet, deep and shrimpy.
Bora grew up in Newton, and spent several years in Boston. She’s since moved to Los Angeles, where a dish from the Blu Jam Cafe inspired this rendition. She said she liked the cafe’s shrimp so much, that it became one of the few recipes she has tried to recreate from a restaurant menu.
Radio Boston’s Anna Pinkert is back, this time with a bittersweet adieu.
Dave Rockwood and Wendy Saver opened Scup’s in the Harbor only two years ago, right on top of the working harbor in East Boston. Though they closed this winter, Dave Rockwood hopes that their mission to bring “forgotten” food back to East Boston visitors will continue with a new owner.
There’s a great local blog that you gotta check out. If you already know it and her, Kerstin, then you’ll probably say it’s about time we featured one of her recipes. If this blog is new to you, then here’s a formal intro: PRK readers, meet Cake, Batter, and Bowl.
Personally, I love anything Thai and fresh, but when I read that this salad was inspired by an airport-bought salad (!!), I laughed. I’m heading to Logan tomorrow and already have snacks packed. Ditch ‘em?
Kerstin, of course, is laughing last. She was looking for a break from sweets and pulled together this Chicken and Soba Romaine Salad with Thai Vinaigrette, a tangy-salty dish combining greens, two kinds of protein and carbs. It’s a meal in one.
(P.S. Kerstin is busily prepping for the Pillsbury Bake-Off deadline of April 18th. Check back in and follow her progress! Good luck, Kerstin!)
Decorate
Are your cakes starting to look like a page from Cake Wrecks? Learn to decorate like a whiz in Brookline this Saturday, April 9, with three professionals: Paula Surrette of ‘Cake by Paula’ in Bridgewater, Kathy Mullen of the ‘Gingerbread House’ in Whitman and Anna Tskarissianos. The event, Icing on the Cake, will be held at the Cathedral Community Center of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England from 2 – 4 p.m. Call (781) 255-0186 or email fgiannak@comcast.net for reservations.
Bake / Eat Put your newly honed skills (see above) to the test! Cupcake Camp Boston is BACK and fast approaching this coming Wednesday, April 13th, 7-9:30 PM. Due to last year’s throngs, the venue is bigger: this year you’ll eat to your heart’s content at Arts for the Armory in Somerville. Register to bake, write them and volunteer, or simply show up and attend this spirited event! Taste, mingle, get your sugar fix and bring home some great ideas.
Oysters and Suckling Pig
Both are celebrating that yes, it is finally spring. The folks at Sel de la Terre in Natick are hosting a spring Oyster Festival for the occasion on April 11 at 6:30 p.m. A $40 ticket buys you six oysters, beer, and dinner of suckling pig, baked beans, strawberry-rhubarb cobbler and more. Call (508) 650-1800 for reservations. Continue reading →
I would venture a guess that the worst meal you have ever eaten was in a college dining hall. For me, it was Boston University’s famously awful quesadillas – I still don’t know how the school manages to make them both too dry and too greasy.
At best, lackluster college dining options are merely an annoying problem – particularly for a burgeoning foodie. But often, it’s more than that. For many college students, a huge majority of their food comes from a single place – Sodexo, perhaps, or Aramark. It can be difficult for these students to know if the food they’re eating is sustainable, or organic, or healthy. And even if schools make an effort to be transparent about its food, many students still want other options.
Student-run food cooperatives are one possible solution. Many readers will be familiar with the idea of a food co-op; basically, it’s a grocery store or restaurant that’s run democratically by its own patrons. Co-ops don’t just give students the opportunity to run their own business, though. Megan Meo – a Hampshire College student and co-op worker – says the benefits are “countless.”
“Food co-ops typically make nourishing and sustainable food more accessible,” Meo told me, in an interview via email. “This ‘real’ food becomes more accessible not only from being sold on campus but also through educational programs put on by the co-ops members. Cooperatives have a goal of educating [their] members and customers to help them become more conscious consumers. For those students who are worker-members at the cooperatives, they are able to receive hands on experience with social entrepreneurship and management.”
Meo should know. As the North East Regional Director of the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED), she helps college students across the country form their own co-ops – a challenging pursuit, to say the least. Right now, she’s working on setting up a second co-op at Hampshire. We asked her about this project, and more, after the jump. Continue reading →
