A Small Village with a Great Kitchen

I rarely go across the river anymore. Which is funny since I used to live in Cambridge and getting over to Cambridge really only takes 10 minutes for me. Still, I think having that body of water separating Boston and Cambridge is just a mental barrier I can't get past. (and believe me, I'm not the only one. How many of those Harvard students have never even been to Boston?) However, last Wednesday I decided to meet Sue Min for dinner in Huron Village, which is just north of Harvard. It's got a handful of cute shops, which include the Formaggio Kitchen, a lovely gourmet food shop with some great stuff. And since we're both big fans of cheap, casual places that serve decent food, we decided to go to one of Sue Min's favorite places, the Village Kitchen.

Now the Village Kitchen is this tiny little place,with only like 5 small tables. Oddly enough, it's an Italian restaurant, owned by an Armenian family. It's super casual and all their stuff is lovely and all reasonably priced. When i got there, Sue Min had already decided that she was gonna get the Pasta Puttanesca. I perused the menu and settled on the lobster ravioli with pink sauce. (I think it was like $12, so a definite deal). when we went up to order, there was a very tempting display of assorted veggies (like the zucchini which had just come off the grill) so we also decided to share a platter of antipasti.

As we waited for our food, lots of neighborhood people were coming in and out of the place, picking up pizzas or grabbing a casual bite. Unfortunately, I was sitting in the seat closest to the door, so felt a breeze everytime it opened. so if you ever go, avoid this seat. Otherwise, it's a very cozy atmosphere.

So here's our plate of antipasti. As you can see, it's huge. so good thing that we shared it. And to be honest, had I known how good it would be, i think i would've just ordered one plate for myself and just eaten that for dinner. There's caluiflower, tomatoes and mozzarella, zucchini, eggplant, spinach and lots of other stuff. yummy!

By the time we'd finished this and our pasta dishes were ready, i was pretty full. So here's my ravioli. As you can see, the sauce is actually more yellow and not pink, but i enjoyed it anyway. I also like finding little chunks of lobster floating around in the sauce. it added some nice flavor and texture. And i also enjoyed the fresh basil that was in the sauce.

Here's Sue Min's still steaming pasta puttanesca. She also liked it a lot. (but she's regular at this place, so she knew what to order).

So all that plus the drink and tip came to about $20 for me. (it was a bit less for Sue Min). The entrees are all under $15 , and because I 've never had one of the regular meat entrees, I can't really recommend those. But I think they do a great job with the pasta, and it was certainly worth a trip all the way across the river.