Indoor market in Somerville, MA (photo: Lizard10979/Flickr)

Tonight at 6:30 pm the Public Market Commission, tasked with defining the mission of a public market in downtown Boston, will hold a public meeting to hear a presentation of the proposal submitted by the Boston Public Market Association (BPMA) to operate the market.

Envisioned to be indoor and year-round, the public market will showcase a variety of local produce, dairy, meats, seafood, specialty foods and beverages. Both temporary and permanent employment opportunities are expected from it.

Tonight’s agenda: the Commission will update the public on the process to this point, hear a presentation by the BPMA (which submitted a response to a Request For Proposals (RFP) issued in December) and ask questions. The Commission will then open the session to public comment.

WHERE: 100 Cambridge Street, 2nd Floor, Conference Room C, Boston.

Read PRK’s previous reports on the progress and intentions behind Boston Public Market.

Winsor School banner above the Dining Hall tray station (all photos: Sue McCrory)

Late in 2011, the Winsor School in Boston walked away with top honors in a nation-wide competition. This was about food, however, and not academics. Unexpected? Maybe, given the reputation of this highly-regarded independent school for girls.

The recipe that helped Winsor garner first place in the Whole Grains Challenge is “Autumn Whole Grain Pilaf” (recipe after the jump). The pilaf is straightforward enough as recipes go and enticing, at least to this writer. It calls for the New England staples of butternut squash, apple cider and cranberries as the complement to some serious grains — grains such as quinoa and grano, which you wouldn’t expect to find on a secondary school lunch plate.

Curious about the award, and what Winsor does on a daily basis to feed lunch to its 6oo+ community, I visited the school to speak with Regis Downes, Winsor’s Director of Dining Services. It was an education. Continue reading →

Photo: Jaime Lutz

See those bitters up there? They’re mine — or, my live-in boyfriend’s, really, as he got them for his birthday this year. Now that we have seven — SEVEN — different types of bitters, we’ve been having fun inventing cocktails — Aztec Chocolate Manhattans, anyone?

Since drinks only need a small dash of bitters to impart flavor, we’re going to have those bottles for a long, long time. Because of this, I’ve been trying to think of other ways to use them. My boyfriend’s sister recommended putting a drop or two in seltzer water for a refreshing spritzer. With a dash of grapefruit or Angostura bitters, it’s a refreshing — and unusual — alternative to soda. Continue reading →

Photo: klynslis/Flickr

LOCAL BITES

Farm Share Fair — TONIGHT!!!
Get to know a farmer — there will be lots in attendance — and be a part of the summer harvest. This is the mission of the Farm Share Fair happening tonight, 5:30-8 PM at the Argenziano School in Union Square, Somerville.

Chefs Cooking for Hope — TONIGHT!!!
Sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the 14th Annual Chefs Cooking for Hope is being held tonight, 6:30-9 PM, at 125 High Street. Jeremy Sewall of Eastern Standard, Lineage and ICOB is honorary chef of the evening, where you will sip wine and taste foods prepared by more than 50 Boston chefs. Tickets are $100/pp (and now available only at the door). Proceeds benefit cancer research and care at Dana-Farber.

Reminder: Meaty Issues
This weekend the Museum of Science examines sustainable meat — grass-fed or grain-fed? Can you really taste a difference? Can planet-healthy meat feed us all?  — with a four-course sustainable meat dinner tomorrow evening, plus a screening of the film American Meat and discussions with the experts, farmers and distributors on Saturday.

Maple Month in Massachusetts
Massachusetts is all about maple this month. Get yourself to a maple shack! It’s good, clean (sweet) fun. Visit one or both of these sites for information on sugar shacks in your area and maple-related events: Mass Grown and Mass Maple Producers Association.

Pickle Permanence
Remember when PRK’s Jaime Lutz wrote up cult-ish Grillos Pickles earlier this year? Well, it looks like Grillos may be here to stay. Read more. Continue reading →

Photo: Karen Given

WBUR’s Karen Given of Only A Game blogs at Once Upon A Karen. She’s currently taking a course with BU’s Gastronomy program called “Food Writing for Print Media,” and had this to say about learning to cook from her father.

Karen Given
Once Upon A Karen

My mother cooks to feed her family. She produced low-fat, low-salt, balanced meals for four children who grew up healthy and strong.

My father cooks to soothe his soul. He sometimes whistles hymns while he works, turning his kitchen into a Sunday morning church service.

Everything my father cooks begins with a full stick of butter, melted slowly just until it starts to foam. On special occasions, he unearths the faded black stock pot he and my mother received as a wedding gift and makes his “secret” recipe barbeque sauce. The recipe is secret, because it’s always different, made from whatever condiments my mother has in the fridge. But there are three constants: that stick of butter, ketchup and a healthy dose of Liquid Smoke.

When my mother went back to work, some of the family cooking duties fell to me, and I set out to capture the magic I felt when my father was in the kitchen. I knew I’d never get away with using butter by the stick, and my 12-year-old knife skills were no match for my father’s. That left the Liquid Smoke. I put it in everything. Continue reading →

Photo: emmisary/Flickr

In his second contribution to PRK, Chapter President Alex Loud of Slow Food Boston wants to take the heat off the common kitchen sponge as a spreader of E. coli bacteria. Why not take aim at, and take steps to improve, the safety of our food system?

I was recently sent an article from the WebMD website entitled “6 Daily Habits That May Make You Sick.” Although the whole article seems a bit on the alarmist side (to wit, the number five worst thing you can do is open your windows), WebMD’s concerns about your humble sponge seemed notable. From the article:

Most people clean their countertops and table after a meal with the one tool found in almost all kitchens: the sponge. In addition to sopping up liquids and other messes, the kitchen sponge commonly carries E. coli and fecal bacteria, as well as many other microbes. “It’s the single dirtiest thing in your kitchen, along with a dishrag,” says […].

While no one would argue that sponges don’t become seriously nasty—and indeed even hazardous—this struck me as a classic case of missing the forest for the trees. I mean, if you are cleaning E. coli off your cutting board, is it really the sponge that is the problem? E. coli and other such pathogens come from food. They come from the food we buy in the grocery store. They come from the products that our government tacitly tolerated in the food supply until last year. But the sponge is the problem? Really? Continue reading →

Photo: mihoda/Flickr

On March 6 in…

1912
Nabisco debuts the Oreo cookie.

1930
Birdseye frozen foods go on sale for the first time.

(© 2011 Michael V. Hynes)

The Oreo
That’s the best-selling cookie in the U.S. (and now China) pictured up there. Over 400,00 billion have been sold since its debut, 100 years ago today, in Nabisco’s Chelsea factory in NYC. The initial price for Oreos? 25 cents/lb. Continue reading →

Meredith Smith, with dog Hambone (Photo by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. (The dog is his.))

I grew up in a sheltered little town in southeastern Connecticut. New York was the big city, but in my town most people were commuters to New Haven or Bridgeport, both practically right down the street. Food-wise, this meant one thing: I grew up eating the greatest pizza in America. And I’ve been hopelessly snobbish on the subject ever since.

To anyone who listens, I’ve long said that it’s impossible to get good pizza in Boston. A slight exaggeration, perhaps. Even I knew that the original Regina location is mobbed with tourists for a very good reason. And, if Figs weren’t in Charlestown, I’d eat it every week. But for the most part, when other people told me what the best slice in Boston was — Pino’s or Ernesto’s — I was always disappointed. My expectations were too high; their standards were too low. As I said — hopelessly snobbish on the subject.

As it turns out, I may have misjudged this city. First, Sue McCrory post pictures of this gorgeous-looking pie at Posto, putting it at the top of my must-eat list. Then, I speak to Meredith Smith, the editor of Serious Eats’ Slice — my definitive pizza guide. To my surprise, she’s based in Boston, where she’s enjoyed many a good pie. After speaking with her, well…consider my mind opened.

Are you, too, skeptical about the Hub’s pizza? Get some tips from Meredith, after the jump. Continue reading →

Photo: Boston Public Library/Flickr

On March 5 in…

1634
Samuel Cole opened the first tavern in Boston.

(© 2011 Michael V. Hynes)

“On the west side of Merchants’ Row, about midway from State Street to Faneuil Hall, was the first house of entertainment in Boston. It was kept by Samuel Cole in 1634.” — this from a 19th-century source.

It was the Town of Boston that issued the first license to Cole to operate a tavern. Whether Cole led the way or followed the demand, Merchant’s Row, connecting State Street with (now) Faneuil Hall, was a hub of commercial activity in Boston from the 17th century onwards. With the opening of Cole’s establishment, taverns begin to flourish in New England as gathering places for socializing and, eventually, political discussions and meetings. We all know how THAT story ends…

Photo: carcofi/Flickr

As you may have figured out last week, at this time of winter it’s getting harder and harder for me to stick to seasonal eating. Frozen vegetables, however, are a nice compromise – though they may lack the flavor of a fresh and firm produce-stand pick, they are easier to prepare and arguably healthier.

With that in mind, it’s easy to justify buying frozen artichoke hearts for this recipe for Fregola with Artichokes, Feta, Almonds and Herbs — a lovely-looking vegetarian dish by way of Serious Eats. In case you’re wondering: “Fregola is a hard-to-find pasta that’s similar to cous cous (Israeli cous cous is a fine replacement if you can’t find fregola), but larger, chewier, and toasted, which gives it a nutty quality.” A tip: if you, like me, are unable to find Fregola at the supermarket, here’s how to toast cous cous.

The flavors here scream spring — mint! lemon! — even as the warm and creamy preparation is classic winter comfort food. It is still, after all, early March.

(One confession — even if artichokes were in season, I’d probably still buy them frozen. Who has time to deal with preparing a fresh artichoke?)