Photo: walknboston/Flickr

Lovers of micro-brews and history buffs will equally dig the two newest historical ales being turned out by Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project of Cambridge. The latest offerings from Somerville-based brewery Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project will take you back – way back. Specifically, to 1838 and 1945.

The two “X Ales” – one like an IPA, the other a mild brown – were released in March and are the fourth and fifth installments in Pretty Things’ Once Upon a Time project. They hail from old London brewery Barclay Perkins and are brewed from recipes for the same beer, made 107 years apart, using historically accurate conditions. That could account for anything from wartime grain shortages to antiquated manufacturing processes.

Pretty Things co-owner Dann Paquette said in a recent telephone interview that the project aims to explore the history of beer – and to show just how fluid it really is.

“We always assume what our grandfathers drank was equivalent to what their grandfathers drank, but that’s totally not true,” he said.

Pretty Things, already known for creativity in modern brews (e.g., Jack D’Or and Baby Tree), has been working with Amsterdam-based beer historian Ron Pattinson to recreate the right brewing conditions as faithfully as possible in order to turn out their X Ales. Continue reading →

Photo: izik/Flickr

Fish. We’re encouraged to eat more of it. We’re encouraged to eat local. Heck, we’ve even been warned that if any imported food is going to make us sick, it’s likely to be seafood. Still, over 75% of the fish Americans consume comes from abroad.

Now, a high-profile grocery chain — Whole Foods –has announced it will no longer carry seafood from New England waters unless it’s caught in what Whole Foods considers a sustainable manner. This means no more gray sole, no more skate, and Atlantic cod only if brought in by gillnets or hook and line.

The new policy reported in Sunday’s New York Times is controversial, not the least with some of our region’s fishermen struggling to turn a profit in a difficult industry. US Senator Scott Brown has also weighed in.

So, where does it all leave us, the consumer? Whose opinions should we trust? Where does it leave our region’s fishermen and the health of our local fishing industry? And what about the health, in numbers, of New England’s prized fish stocks?

Some of these questions will be answered this Sunday — or at least grappled with in a substantive way — at the New England Sustainable Seafood Teach-In organized by locally-based Let’s Talk About Food. Collaborators are the New England Aquarium, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, the Museum of Science, Chefs Collaborative and the Cambridge Science Festival. Notably, Whole Foods is one of the event sponsors.

Public Radio Kitchen will be present on Sunday to report on the Teach-In. But we’re also anticipating the tangle of issues which undoubtedly will be raised during the panel discussions and keynote speeches.

Today, we publish a series of questions posed to Roger Berkowitz, President and CEO of Legal Sea Foods, who will participate on one of Sunday’s panels. Legal’s is an institution here in the Boston area (“If it isn’t fresh, it isn’t Legal!”), and growing gangbusters along the East Coast. It’s a restaurant business and a fish company. What does its CEO have to say about the state of New England seafood? Continue reading →

Chef Jason Bond of Bondir, Cambridge (Photo: Susanna Bolle)

Though the leaves on the trees and the pollenated air tells us in no uncertain terms that spring is here, it’s still too early for much in the way of spring produce here in New England. What we do have in abundance is hearty root vegetables. This recipe for Celery and Celeriac Soup from Chef Jason Bond of Bondir in Cambridge makes good use of them.

Bond knows his roots. He grew up on a farm out west (we’re talking Wyoming, not the Berkshires) where his family kept a well-stocked root cellar. His recipe shines a spotlight on celery, a vegetable that Bond says doesn’t get nearly enough respect.

While the soup is hearty, the flavors are subtle and sophisticated. Add some cream if you want to make it a little richer and more decadent. Add fresh herbs, if you like. It’s versatile recipe with room for lots of improvisation.

Here’s the basic plan. Continue reading →

Rieslings and Gewürztraminers (photo: Katie White/PRK)

Call me crazy, even out of touch, but I associate wine with rolling hills and dusty cellars instead of modern technology.

However, at Wine Riot Boston, last weekend’s three-day wine tasting party at the Park Plaza Castle, photo booth flashes, a DJ and even a Smartphone app were artfully paired with reds and whites from around the globe.

Wine Riot is one of several events hosted by California-based organization Second Glass, which welcomes those intimidated by the complexities of wine to taste and learn in a fun, relaxed environment. And by fun, I mean carnival-like fun. There were blue and white awnings, tall stilt-like signs highlighting the region in which you were presently immersed (South Africa? Oregon? Bordeaux?), neon signs, local food vendors — e.g., Upper Crust Pizzeria and Cow & Crumb Baking Company — and even a fake tattoo stand. All of these ringed the room, providing respite from the Riojas.

Attendees, mostly in their twenties and thirties, could hop from one continent to another or spend half an hour in the Loire Valley (like this girl here), sipping and chatting with different wineries. (Tyler Balliet, Second Glass president and co-founder, encouraged the “unexpected questions”– even ones as simple as ‘What is Burgundy?’). Continue reading →

Photo: Muffet/Flickr

Here’s a chance to pull out your recipe box and have some fun.

Our neighbors over at Here & Now are doing a special program for Mother’s Day (May 13 this year) that’s based on the recipes your mom or grandmom has passed down to you.

What’s your favorite? What’s the family tradition behind this recipe? How did your mom (or grandmom) make it special?

Here & Now wants to know. And they’d love your photos, too, especially if you’ve got a hand-written recipe card or a dog-eared cookbook with personal annotations made right there in the margins. Click here to read the details about their upcoming Mother’s Day show and how you can play a part.

What’s my favorite recipe from my own mom? There are literally too many recipes to count — Baked Maccaroni, American Chopped Suey, Eggplant Parmigian, Risotto Milanese, Plum Cake and Blueberry Pie quickly come to mind. But I have to say I treasure our family’s strufoli recipe most. Lose this, and I lose a piece of my identity. Know what I mean?

All photos: Sue McCrory for PRK

Just a few photos to share with you readers from last night’s Taste of the Nation Boston fundraiser for Share Our Strength — the national nonprofit devoted to ending childhood hunger in America.

Cooking Matters Massachusetts, the local arm of SOS, is dedicated to the same cause through teaching culinary and nutritional skills to low-income families throughout our Commonwealth, all in the name of ending hunger and, of course, empowering families to eat more healthfully. I had a lovely talk with Mass Director Alicia McCabe, and I can assure you there’s plenty for volunteers such as ourselves to do!

Read PRK’s recent post about Cooking Matters, and consider getting involved.

And, yes, the food was excellent. (Thanks to Hamersley’s Bistro, Haley House Cafe, Davio’s, Cuisine En Locale, Blue Frog Bakery, Athan’s European Bakery and Cow and Crumb Cookies.)

Photo: NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr

Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day. Remember, love our Mother Earth often and well — for food’s sake!!! To celebrate, join Picnic for the Planet – Boston on Boston Common, beginning at 11 am.

LOCAL BITES

The Health of New England’s Seafood
Next Sunday, April 29, is your best chance to learn about the health of our region’s fish stock and the health of our fishing industry. Let’s Talk About Food (LTAF) is again organizing a superb event, this time at Harvard University, with a line-up of seafood-related professionals from all walks of the industry. Tickets are $10 for the 1-5pm program; there is a free, related event Sunday evening at the Museum of Science. Read more and order tickets at the LTAF site.

Needham and Newton Unite
On Monday, April 30th, Spring Seasonings: Tastes of Our Neighborhoods is being held at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel, 5:30-8:00pm. Honorary Event chairman Roger Berkowitz of Legal Sea Foods has marshaled together 40 fellow restaurateurs and chefs from Newton and Needham to participate, including not only Legals, but also Spiga, B Street, Petit Robert Needham, Bokx 109, the Center Café and Tu y Yo. Chestnut Hill’s Urban Grape will be supplying beverages. Tickets run $30 apiece. Continue reading →

Photo: TooFarNorth/Flickr

Intrigued by a local start-up we caught word of last summer, PRK sent Radio Boston intern Annie Ropeik into the field to interview a husband/wife team from Arlington, MA, producing a great-tasting, all-natural ‘green’ popcorn.

Annie Ropeik
Radio Boston

Does the microwave popcorn world — a world of artificial flavorings and chemical-laden packages — seem a bit burnt out to you? Arlington couple Kristy and Coulter Lewis, owners of rapidly growing start-up Quinn Popcorn, would say there’s a kernel of truth in that.

Named for Kristy and Coulter’s baby son, Quinn bills itself as microwave popcorn reinvented, and it’s popping up in farmers markets and Whole Foods stores all over Massachusetts and beyond.

“It was such a stale category,” Kristy Lewis told me over the phone recently as she drove home from a demo in Wellesley. “We wanted to do something totally different.”

The biggest hurdle, she said, was the bag. Continue reading →

Photo: qwrrty/Flickr

Spring creeps up on you. In New England, it’s not unusual to have a raw, cloudy 39-degree day followed by one with pure sun, blue skies and temperatures that soars to 86 degrees. It flip flops this way throughout the season—teasing you with glimpses of good times to come.

As soon as the sun gets serious so does my will to be outdoors more, get the garden planted and start eating more vegetables. Spring demands that I raise my healthy food consciousness. And after a winter of soups and stews and too much meat, I am more than happy to succumb.

I was rummaging around the kitchen yesterday and found some farro—a nutty whole grain that is simple to cook — and root vegetables from the last winter farmers market. I also grabbed a few asparagus and chives and leeks (that miraculously wintered over) from the garden. Look left.

I call this my “Ode to the End of Winter Salad.”

You can use virtually any vegetable you have on hand in this salad, as farro is very adaptable. You can also add cubed feta cheese. (Recipe after the jump.) Continue reading →

And so it begins (photo: eren {sea+prairie} / Flickr)

Have you ever shopped at a pop-up market? They’re hip, and they showcase amazing-quality food and real entrepreneurial spirit. But a viable business model for vendors, they’re not.

Alex Loud, Chapter President of Slow Food Boston, describes below his view of the pop-up market phenomenon, and what we consumers can do to keep demand for high-quality food — and food craftsmanship — alive.

Alex Loud
Slow Food Boston

I recently attended my first “pop-up market” which, I have to say, was pretty cool. I came home with three pounds of pork belly, a whole pâté, four Meyer lemon donuts and an insanely good chocolate whiskey cake. It was a haul I’d be proud to bring home from the finest snooty store, much less a venue that basically amounted to a foodie flea market.

If you haven’t heard of the concept of a pop-up market, it’s pretty simple: gather some friends who have things to sell, find a venue, use social media to popularize it and, bang, you have a market for a day. This one in particular was organized by Vadim Akimenko, a young man you might characterize as a pop-up butcher. Despite having trained at the Culinary Institute of America and having experience in a variety of commercial butcher shops, Vadim has been unable to raise funds to open his own locally-focused butcher shop anywhere in greater Boston. As such, he works out of a culinary incubator, consults, teaches classes and organizes the occasional market.

It occurred to me afterwards that Vadim and his market are broadly representative of two trends in this country — one hopeful and one decidedly less so. Continue reading →