Photo: grongar/Flickr

LOCAL BITES

TASTE
Sample delicious food from 30 of Boston’s top restaurants as Boston magazine hosts their 2nd annual TASTE event in support of the Greater Boston Food Bank, Monday, Nov. 14 at the Museum of Science. Specially-made savory bites and cocktails are yours by purchasing tickets here.

‘Round the World
Take a tour around the world at Bella Luna’s Fall Wine Dinner, on Nov. 14. Throughout the night four wines will be served from France, Germany, Italy and the U.S., each complimenting a course of the meal prepared by Boston native chef Sam Putnam. Reserve your spot for this unique event through Open Table, or by calling 617-524-6060 x12.

Fall Flavors
BostonChefs.com will soon host their Flavors of Fall event, Nov. 14, at the Regattabar at The Charles Hotel. Cambridge and Somerville chefs will serve gorgeous Fall fare in support of locally-based Tutoring Plus.

Celebrating Ireland
The connection between Boston and Ireland is pretty much a rock-solid perception if this city. Well, the Beehive is celebrating this perception/reality with their new series Irish Music Mondays.  The evenings will be filled with a variety of Gaelic-inspired food and drinks, as well as live music from Berklee-trained harpist Maeve Gilchrist.  RSVP by calling The Beehive at 617-423-0069.

Continue reading →

Mohammad Tahmili at work in Tabrizi Bakery, Watertown (photo: Elizabeth Hathaway)

“If you had told me when I was opening the bakery that I would be amazed by all the different customers coming in, I would have said ‘No, no, I am opening an Iranian bakery,'” Mohammad Tahmili told us, gesturing expansively with his rolling pin around the small bakery covered with Iranian posters and smelling of the warm dough, rich honey, and spices of Persian baked goods.

During the sunny, Sunday afternoon Sue McCrory and I spent in Tabrizi Bakery in Watertown, sipping tea and listening to owner/baker Mohammad speak as he opened, rolled and folded beautiful mounds of smooth, pliant dough, the shop door continuously chimed to signal the arrival of a customer from another corner of the world. In the space of a few hours, Mohammad greeted Algerian, Syrian, Turkish, Greek, Persian and English customers as old friends, and helped them to their favorite pastries, cookies and bread.

The transcontinental history of the recipes that Mohammad uses in his bakery tell a fascinating story of the movement of cultures and people around the globe. As a keystone geographic region in ancient global trade routes, Persian cuisine has permeated the baking cultures of Europe, Africa and even Asia, today driving a multicultural clientele into Mohammad’s modern-day Iranian bakery in America. And, for over 20 years and counting, Mohammad has been making traditional Persian baked goods on Mt. Auburn Street in Watertown, selling his sweets and flatbread in his front shop and at eight other groceries and restaurants in New York City. Continue reading →

Thankfully, we're not quite here yet. Photo: Mark Skrobola/Flickr

There are two kinds of native New Englanders. The first will loudly proclaim how he loves having “four seasons” here — hot summers, lush falls, dramatic springs, picturesque winters. I understand this, in theory. But I’m not one of these people. Winter, for me, is a long and emotional and difficult haul.

It’s November, and so I’m slowly settling into hibernation mode, beginning to accept the winter depression that affects me every year. I always love the beginning of fall and dread the end of it, when a light jacket isn’t enough and the leaves thin out. I start listening to “California Dreaming” on repeat. And I make lots of soup, of course, but even that feels depressing. Try mustering the same excitement for kale and lentil soup as you would for a ripe summer tomato or juicy corn on the cob.

Borscht is a little different. It’s comforting and warm and satisfying, like the best winter soups, but it’s also one of the most colorful dishes you’ll ever make — who can take themselves too seriously when you’re eating something hot pink? It can be made simply, with little more than beets and beef broth, or fussed up with all the fixings. I like borscht with a little bit of everything in it, like this version, adapted from The Joy of Cooking, on Matkonation.

I like it served with dark rye and a side of stuffed cabbage. Those Eastern Europeans — they know a thing or two about lasting through the winter.

Susanna Bolle is our stealth weapon here at PRK.

She gives a great interview, takes gorgeous photos and, with elegant writing, informs us all about the best mixologists and what they’re mixing in and around Boston. Case in point: her popular post on Idle Hands Nano-Brewers early last week.

But, did you know she was something of a poet in her youth? Susanna’s mom found this old poem recently and Susanna sent it along to us for a laugh. We had to share!

Such wisdom from a 12-year-old…

Photo: courtesy (we think) of Susanna Bolle

The Piccadilly Cocktail with No. 3 Gin (Photo: Elizabeth Hathaway)

Martini. Do you think vodka? Gin. Stodgy old men? Time to catch up on the latest in your city’s mixology and drink culture.

After WWII, clever marketing and advances in distillation made vodka, neutral and versatile, the king of the cocktail menu. But over time, bartenders and cocktail drinkers have found that only so much can be done with vodka’s bland flavor profile. A new indifference to vodka, alongside a classic cocktail revival, is thus to the benefit of America’s long lost favorite spirit: gin.

Maybe it has to do with our nation’s new obsession with prohibition-themed T.V. dramas, documentaries and faux-speakeasies, or maybe it’s just the natural cycle of things; either way gin, with its subtle nuances of juniper, botanicals and spices, has piqued the interest of the nation’s top mixologists and bartenders.

Timing, therefore, is more or less perfect for the Stateside launch of No.3 London Dry Gin, a creation of London’s oldest wine and spirit merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd (est. 1698). BB&R has been a family-run endeavor for eight generations and still inhabits the shop that gives name to their gin: No.3 St. James’s Street. The brand has been picked up by the Anchor Distilling Company in San Francisco, which specializes in selling craft-distilled, family-owned artisanal spirits steeped in tradition and storytelling. Successful in London, No.3 is now seeking to garner the attention of influential American bartenders and mixologists.

One such bartender, Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square, helped organize No.3’s introduction to the Boston bar scene with a cocktail party at the restaurant this past Thursday night. No. 3 London Dry Gin is smoothly drafting not only behind a gin resurgence, but also behind the rise of  boutique spirits on drink menus such as Cannon’s (see Susanna Bolle’s posts from PRK’s “Meet Your Bartender” series). There is a growing sense that the story and tradition behind a spirit foretell the quality of the final product. Thus, for small producers marketing a new brand, finding a way to tell that story to consumers is often as important as getting them to taste it. Continue reading →

Meryl LaTronica, Farm Manager at Powisset Farm in Dover, shares with PRK what they’re up to now that the busy summer CSA season has wound down.

Here’s a farmer in love with her work.

Farm "fireworks" (photo: courtesy of Powisset Farm)

Meryl LaTronica, Guest Contributor
Powisset Farm

Another season put to bed.

This morning I drove slowly down the farm road from my house to our office. Between the two farm buildings, on either side of the gravel road our fields were waking up, quietly melting the frost off the now-dead plants. The weekend snow was only visible in the shady corners of the farm.

At our morning meeting, we lingered in the warm office before making our way out to the fields to harvest the remaining potatoes from the cold, muddy soil. It’s clear that the farm season is winding down as the summer harvests are beginning to fade from our memories.

The work we are doing now is considered, ‘putting the farm to bed.’ It is the act of tucking in the fields for their winter rest.

Much of this work is the harvesting. Over the next month we will be picking the remaining hearty crops from the fields for our winter CSA and winter markets. We will store root crops in boxes, damp with dark soil, and make towers of turnips and beets either in the cooler or our “hay house,” a homemade root cellar. Continue reading →

Nantucket cranberries (photo: ReneS/Flickr)

This just in from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (DAR)…

Scott Soares, DAR Commissioner, today announced $450,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for projects aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of Massachusetts specialty crops– defined as fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery products. The grants will benefit 12 agricultural organizations across the Commonwealth.

Organizations representing apple and cranberry growers, winemakers, and horticulture are among the recipients of this year’s USDA Specialty Crop Block Grants, which are funded by the United States Farm Bill. This year, the USDA provided an estimated $46 million to state departments of agriculture to improve the competitiveness of specialty crops.

Read the list of this year’s grant local recipients are the jump. Continue reading →

Photo: Flickr/laura dye

LOCAL BITES

Idle Hands
Idle Hands nano-brewers in Everett, profiled earlier on PRK, is throwing its official launch party on Nov. 7, 6-8pm, at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge. Come support this local brewery and try for yourself their carefully-crafted beers.

A Slice of Heaven
Get a head start on the Thanksgiving menu this year as Community Servings kicks off its annual “Pie in the Sky” fundraiser, dishing out 13,000 homemade pies for $25 apiece. The money from each purchased pie feed one needy client for an entire week. Grab your own slice of pie here.

Tailgating
Leave your Nerf at home and support Lovin’ Spoonfuls food rescue efforts by coming out to their “Ultimate Tailgate Party,” Nov. 13, 5-8pm. The day will be filled with exceptional food from some of Boston’s top chefs, including a pig roast prepared by chef Jamie Bissonnette of Coppa and Toro, specialty cocktails and oysters from Island Creek Oyster Bar, as well as a silent auction. Tickets can be ordered here.

Holiday Farmers Market
Berkshire Grows will soon host their annual Holiday Farmers Markets. The Great Barrington Market will be held on Nov. 19 and Dec. 17, and the Williamstown Farmers Market on Nov. 20 and Dec. 17. More information, as well as a full list of vendors, can be found here.

Continue reading →

Pepin in action (photo: georgia.kral/Flickr)

Boston University’s Food, Wine and Art Program is holding an event Nov. 3rd we think you should know about. (Translation: Great food! Talented chefs!)

Here’s the scoop. An enticing line-up of Boston-area chefs will choose a dish from Jacques Pépin’s new cookbook, Essential Pépin, and prepare it for consumption. By you.

Pépin, as you might know, is the much fêted, long-time instructor at BU’s Metropolitan College (MET). He co-founded the MET’s “Master of Liberal Arts program in Gastronomy” and “Certificate Program in the Culinary Arts” with none other than Julia Child, and he has dedicated his life to teaching BU students and area residents how to cook. Cook skillfully and creatively, that is, and with intellectual curiosity. The evening is therefore a tribute to Pépin, and there will be no shortage of expertly prepared, interesting dishes.

Festivities begin at 6pm, November 3rd, at the Showroom, 808 Commonwealth Avenue. Pre-registration is required (call 617-353-9852). Tickets are $100/ea.

Here’s the line-up of chefs ‘in’ on this Pépin-inspired evening:

David Becker, Sweet Basil
Chris Bee, Catering on the Charles
Jamie Bissonnette, Toro, Coppa
Peter Davis, Henrietta’s Table
Chris Douglass, Ashmont Grill, Tavolo
Jeff Fornier, 51 Lincoln
Ihsan Gurdal, Formaggio Kitchen
Deborah Hansen, Taberna de Haro
Fabrizia Lanza, Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School (Sicily)
Michael Leviton, Lumiere, Area 4
Barry Maiden, Hungry Mother
Raymond Ost, Sandrine’s Bistro
Jacky Robert, Petit Robert
Leo Romero, Casa Romero
Jason Santos, Blue Inc
Michael Schlow, Tico, Radius, Via Matta, Alta Strada
Jeremy Sewall, Island Creek Oyster Bar, Eastern Standard, Lineage
Joe Simone, The Sunnyside
Jasper White, Jasper White’s Summer Shack

Photo: Courtesy of The Perfect Pantry

When it comes to food, I can be a bit childish.

My dorm room fridge is stuffed with tons of tiny packages of chocolate milk. I drink apple juice everyday with lunch. And, to this day, I still avoid the crust on every sandwich I eat. What is perhaps the most immature aspect of my palate, however, is my undeniable and overwhelming love of macaroni and cheese.

It’s not that I don’t know there’s more out there, or that my palate has not been expanded. I do, and it has been. I love and can appreciate all kinds of foods. Yet, still, not much else can make my mouth water more than a big plate of noodles covered in a perfectly delicious and creamy cheese sauce. I mean, what could be better?

(To celebrate my birthday a few years ago, a friend of mine took me out to a nice restaurant in my hometown and generously offered that I order “anything I wanted.” So I did. When the waiter dropped by to take our order, I asked for the baked mac and cheese with crab — immediately eliciting a gut reaction from my friend, who turned to me quickly and asked, “Wait, really?”)

I sometimes feel that my love of this dish is a bit like a tragic romance — a Romeo & Juliet of sorts, a love that cannot be. But, maybe it can. It is because of this constant embarrassment and unfailing craving that I was so excited to find The Perfect Pantry’s recipe for whole-wheat macaroni and cheese with mushrooms and thyme.

This dish did not come out of a box! It does not contain a packet of cheese-flavored powder, nor does it instruct anything along the lines of “just add water.” There are vegetables, seasonings and real cheese! It’s actually a respectable adult dish!

Basically, it’s perfect.