CHOCOLATE SOUFFLES AND OTHER LESSONS LEARNED ON TURKEY DAY

Here in Boston, many of us often find ourselves without family members on Turkey Day. Some of us live too far from home, some of us own businesses and can't travel and some of us would just like to avoid parents at all costs. Which is why it's great to gather all of these friends togther and celebrate a day dedicated to excessive eating. This Thanksgiving, we celebrated with dinner at my house and we did it potluck style, which was great cause it divides up all the work and that meant I spent most of my day sitting on my couch and watching tv. I was in my pajamas until 4pm. At any rate, my contribution to the potluck was duck breast, potatoes cooked in duck fat and chocolate souffles.

So for Turkey Day, we decided not to have turkey. Despite Katie's opinion that it's just not Thanksgiving without turkey, I prefer to think of Thanksgiving as a day to get the people you care about for a night, when you can actually sit down, have a conversation and consume a meal (almost like you were an adult.) It's amazing how few of us actually do this. It's not so much the food that matters, it's the company. That being said, we're a big group of foodies, so we're not gonna have crappy food, either. In place of turkey, I decided to make duck breast. I used the recipe from my previous posting (the one that Martha made) and this time, I ordered the duck breasts from D'Artagnan and had them shipped to me. At the end of the day, the breasts, including the shipping, cost as much as it would've had a just gone to Whole Foods and bought them, except these breasts were much thicker and I had a guaranteed supply. So it was totally worth it. This time i also marinated the breasts for 2 days and I improved my technique cooking them, so I think they came out better. (i'm not repeating the recipe here, just go back and look at my previous post).

What I will detail is my chocolate souffle making. Here's the recipe below, stolen from the Scharffen Berger website. To be honest, I don't like Scharffen Berger chocolate. I find it too acidic. So i'm not all broken up that they sold out to Hershey's. But this is still an excellent souffle recipe.

Here's what you'll need:
Butter and sugar to coat the souffle cups
8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 tablespoon sweet butter
1/3 cup milk
3 egg yolks, at room temperature
4 egg whites, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup sugar
Eight 6 ounce souffle cups

So first, heat your oven to 375F and coat the interior of your cups with butter and sugar. Next (and i didn't remember to start taking photos until later in the process) put your chocolate, milk and butter all in one bowl. Place bowl over a pot that has small amount of water at the bottom and turn on the heat to melt the chocolate.(This is known as a bain marie) Here are a few tips I'm gonna give you. First, I've seen some ppl place the bowl directly into the water. Hell, when i was a kid, I even did this. I thought it would speed up the melting process. But that defeats the purpose of a bain marie. Don't let the bowl touch the water!! The steam created by the heating water is what will melt the chocolate. And why? Because it will melt the chocolate across a more even surface area. Second, you'll see that i place my bowl on top of the pot before the water was heated. The reason why is so the bowl and chocolate will heat slowly along with the water, which is better than shocking the chocolate by placing it over direct heat suddenly. (it will prevent chocolate from breaking if you're ever making a ganache). Ok, so as the water heats, stir the chocolate until it's totally melted. Remove from heat and add your egg yolks.

Here's another helpful tip. The recipe tells you to bring the eggs to room temp. And say you forgot to take the eggs out of the fridge and you don't want to wait from them to come to the right temperature. The key is to place the eggs in a warm bowl of water for a few minutes. That'll help bring them to the correct temperature. Anyway, here's the chocolate with all the other ingredients already mixed in. At this point, the chocolate has a rough, grainy look to it. The first time I made this recipe, I panicked a bit, thinking the chocolate had broken. But it evens out in the end, so don't worry.

The next step is to whip the egg whites. Which i documented thoroughly for all of you to teach you how to whip egg whites. People have a fear of making souffles, and I think it has to do with the egg white part. When I was a kid, I remember the first time I had made a recipe calling for whipped egg whites. It was a recipe for a Sacher Torte. Now, coming from a Taiwanese family, baking is not something that I grew up with. My mom didn't make cookies and cakes from scratch (though she does make excellent sticky rice) and I was the baker in the family. Having never used whipped egg whites in a recipe, I didn't have a very good idea of what it meant to whip the whites to soft peaks. (I now realize that i had overwhipped the whites when I made that first sacher torte, but live and learn)

So here's the thing. When you're whipping eggs whites, all you're doing is forcing air into the whites. And during the whipping, the whites go through several stages. I'm not going to confuse you and tell you all the stages, just start whipping with a handblender or whisk attachment. When the whites are a bit frothy, start adding the sugar gradually, along with the cream of tartar. Ok, and then the key is to keep whipping until the eggs start rising and turning white. Here's a pic.

Gradually, the egg whites will acquire a shiny, wet look to them. This is the point where you want to slow down your beating. Every so often, lift up you beaters or whisk and look at what happen to the egg whites when you do it. Do they just slide off? Then you need to keep whisking. For this recipe, we're asked for eggs whipped to "soft peak". To figure out if it is at soft peak, lift your beaters again, the egg whites are shiny and they stay on the beater, but the peak of the egg whites will fall and point down. Here's a pic. That's what we want. If you're ever asked for egg whites with "stiff peaks" it means that when you lift up your beaters, the egg whites will stand straight up, and the peaks won't fall.

Moving on, we're gonna combine the melted chocolate and egg whites. And remember what I taught you guys about the rules of thirds. And here's another lesson. Always add the lighter ingredient (whipped egg whites in this case) to the heavier ingredient (the chocolate mix). So here's a pic of the first third of egg whites going into the chocolate. Fold the remaining whites in thirds and you'll end up with this lovely chocolate mixture. Ok, and here's another lesson (i'm so full of lessons today!). When you're folding, you're always told to do it with a spatula and be super careful not to deflate your egg whites! But i fold with a whisk. Why?? The purpose of folding is to avoid decreasing the volume of air whipped into the whites. What is the point of a whisk? To add air! So rather than trying to prevent your egg whites from deflating by using a spatula, why not just add more air by using a whisk? Makes more sense. Think about it.

I divided up the mix into my waiting souffle cups and here's the cool thing with this recipe, you can now refrigerate your souffle, covered, for up to 24 hours. So my souffles went into the fridge, to be baked right before serving.

From the title of this post, I mentioned that I also learned some lessons this Turkey Day. Lesson 1: recipes from a 1960s edition of the Joy of Cooking make no sense what so ever. But at least Leah and I figured out why Julia Child was so popular back then. If all cook books were written like the 1960s Joy of Cooking, nothing would have ever been cooked. It's completely incomprehensible. No wonder Julia Child was needed to decipher recipes for us all. Lesson 2: Bring your souffles to room temp before cooking them. ( I will also mention that Kjell and Huong learned that tapioca starch cannot be substituted for corn starch when making a lemon meringue)

So we'd finished our massive dinner and everyone was ready for dessert. I stuck my tray of souffles into the oven, directly from the fridge and allowed them to cook for 15 mintes. Now the 15 minutes is a key part of souffle making. You can't open the door during these first few minutes or your souffle will collapse! Why? By opening the door before the souffles have started to rise, you create a decrease in temperature and that's what will cause your souffle to fall. The timer went off, I checked my souffles and they hadn't risen. Crap. I didn't want to overcook my souffles because they'd lose that nice molten center if left in too long. I let them go for another 5 minutes. Checked again and they'd risen more. 2 more minutes and they were perfect. So they ended up taking an extra 7 minutes. Here it is, the finish product spinkled with powdered sugar and totally yummy.

After speaking with my friend Akash today, I figured out that I should've brought the souffles to room temp prior to baking them. If you noticed in the original recipe, the eggs and the entire mixture is at room temp and I think the refrigeration part is what caused the delay in cooking. Ah well, it was still delicious, as was our entire meal. And as a parting picture to all of you, here's a pic from the Thanksgiving Day table. There's the my platter of duck, with my potatoes in the background, Arti's dates wrapped in bacon, May Ann's mashed potatoes, Leah's sweet potato casserole and my bottle of '94 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. Not pictured were samosas and lemon meringue pie from Kjell and Huong, Karishma's Chocolate, Pear and Almond tart (I was very impressed with how well it came out, especially since it was her first time making it), Harin's very yummy turkey cooked peking style with wraps, and Leah's Corn Pudding. Hope you all had a great Turkey Day, and next year, my souffles will be even better.

INSPIRATION FROM RUSSO'S, CREAMY POLENTA WITH MUSHROOMS

Yesterday after work, I decided to make a quick run to Russo's to pick up some supplies for Thanksgiving. I knew it'd be probably be crowded, but I wanted some nice fresh ingredients since I wouldn't be using them until Thursday. So after getting lost and consulting the map a few times, I finally arrived to busy shoppers with full carts. You know it's busy when you get in a traffic jam of grocery store carts.

So the last time I wrote about Russo's, I commented that it was a good idea to arrive with recipes in hand, so you don't get sidetracked and end up buying a bunch of random stuff. But sometimes the ingredients provide the inspiration. So yesterday, I saw some beautiful mushrooms and decided that I was gonna make some creamy polenta with mushrooms. I picked up a handful of chantrelle mushrooms and oyster mushrooms and a bag of polenta.

Here's the bag of polenta. When buying polenta (which is basically Italian cornmeal), you wanna look for stone ground polenta. But this bag didn't have much English on it and I didn't want to buy the instant stuff, so I chose this one.And here are my mushrooms. Aren't they pretty?

So the great thing about polenta is that it's traditionally a peasants food. So it's super easy to make, with few ingredients, yet it's really filling. Kinda like risotto, a little goes a long way. So i consulted a few recipes and relied on my polenta making experience for this dish.

First, I started the polenta by boiling 3 cups of water and then pouring in 3/4 cups of cornmeal. Ok, actually the recipe on the back of the bag of polenta and all the other recipes I consulted said water. But i wanted a little extra flavor, so I used 1 cup of chicken stock and 2 cups of water. Then I let it cook for 3o minutes, stirring occasionally. Here's the polenta after 10 minutes in the pot. See, it's thickened nicely.

Next, I started to cook my mushrooms with a simple sautee. I cleaned and chopped the mushrooms and chopped up half a shallot. I threw the shallot into a pan with some olive oil and when it was golden, i threw in the mushrooms and a few sprigs of thyme. I let that all cook down until the mushrooms were tender.
And back to the polenta, which has been bubbling away on the other burner. So again, the cool thing about polenta is that it can be really simple, just flavored with some salt, or you can add other ingredients. Before I took the polenta off the heat, I threw in a tiny bit of half and half to make it more creamy. I also tossed in a chunk of butter, some salt and pepper and best of all, a combination of shredded gruyere and pecorino romano cheeses. (see it below) Then i stirred at all up until it was creamy, cheesy and smooth.I spooned some of the polenta into a bowl and also added on a few spoonfulls of the mushroom sautee. Looks nice huh? And it was all very yummy. I feel like Rachel Ray, having made my 30 minute meal. Except that she pisses me off with her perkiness and EVOO. So if you're every feeling inspired, make this easy polenta and top it with anything yummy you have lying around in the fridge. It makes for a great warm meal, especially on a cold winter's night.

AN ORGY OF MEAT. DINNER AT GREEN FIELD.

A week ago, it was my friend Akash's birthday. Unfortunately, as you all know, I was in NY attending the Chocolate Show and Akash was out of town attending a conference. So we decided to celebrate this weekend by going to Green Field Churrascaria, a Brazilian BBQ place in Brighton. Here's a pic of the big steak knife and cute little logo on the napkin. (that's right, you're about to eat that logo).
I chose Green Field cause I had heard of it before. It's actually a pretty big chain of restaurants and they even have locations in CA. In addition, knowing my group of friends, I suspected that they would appreciate this type of restaurant. And what type of restaurant could that be? An all you can eat place where servers bring you hunks of meat on skewers and cut off slices for you. Here's a pic of three of the skewers with Ed in the background.
So here are my three tips. 1. Arrive very hungry. 2. Leave yourself a lot of time for dinner and 3. Don't waste stomach space on the sushi bar, cause the sushi is pretty crappy and you're there for the meat anyway. Oh right, I also picked Green Field because I knew that it is the largest restaurant in Brighton. Meaning that even if you arrive with a big group of friends on a Saturday night at 7:30, you're still likely to get a seat without making a reservation. So walking into Green Field, you'll immediately notice the decor. And this being a BBQ joint, that means cow hides, and the heads of deer and other such animals mounted on the wall. I was not thrilled. I sat as far away from the cowhide as possible, though Ed had a good time playing with the tail.

Next comment about service. It sucks, which is why I'm telling you to give yourself a lot of time for dinner. Maybe it was the size of the restaurant and the amount of ground she needed to cover, but our waitress was MIA the majority of our dinner. It was nearly impossible to track her down if we needed anything and at the end of dinner she took 15 minutes to run our credit cards. But back to dinner. So all Brazilian BBQ places have the obligatory buffet. And there is a myriad of rices, different Brazilian dishes, salads and this place had sushi. But really, all of that stuff is there to fill you up. Don't waste you're time eating french fries you can get from Mc Donald's. (Though I did enjoy these yummy cheese puff bread thingies and ate 3 of them). However, here's a pic of Akash's place after we returned from the buffet. Many of those pieces of sushi went uneaten as soon as the meat arrived.
And onto the meat. So at each table you're given these funny little wooden sticks that have a red side and a green side. If you want meat, you flip it over to the green side, and if you need to take a break or want to stop, you flip it to the red side. After succeeding at catching the attention of the servers, we started getting an endless supply of meat which included: various cuts of beef, pork, rabbit, chicken, lamb, sausage and duck. Now for those of you who read my duck post, you'll know that i don't eat red meat. or pork. or rabbit. (you get the idea) so that mainly left me with chicken and duck. Luckily, I also can't eat that much, so I was happy with a few portions of chicken and some chicken hearts. (that's right katie, chicken hearts. yummy!!) I did take a bite of Akash's duck (I was pretty full by the time it rolled around) and I found it too overcooked. That's the thing that I've found with duck. It's either got to be rare to be tasty, of cooked until super tender, like confit. Anyway, here's a pic of my plate. There are only some pics of chicken, but hey, that's what i eat!
We ate for about 2 hours straight. And believe me, there was a lot of food on our table. I think for a period of time, we were the epicenter of meat consumption in the restaurant. The entire dinner is very reasonably priced. It's just $16.95 for the buffet and meat. Drinks and dessert are extra. Most people at the table ordered some exotic fruit juices and at the end of the meal, they also got 2 different mousses- a coffee mousee and a passion fruit mousse. (both pictured below). Everyone at the table enjoyed the coffee mousse, though most people weren't fans of the passion fruit.So in conclusion, this restaurant is a great place to try if you have a big appetite, love meat and aren't afraid of cow hides of deer heads on the wall. I'm sure leah would've loved it, had she been in town, or Juliet, i promise to take on your next trip to Boston, and it was an excellent choice for dinner for Akash's 32nd bday.

MY FAVORITE CHOCOLATE SHOP!

Last week i was reading the Amateur Gourmet and what did I find, but an entry about Kee's Chocolates. Now, the writer had just been wandering around SOHO and had stumbled upon Kee's while walking down Thompson Street. Unbeknowest to him, he had found one of the best chocolate stores in New York, and in my opinion, the U.S.

I've been going to Kee's for a couple of years now. And I always identify her shop by the green awning outside. Here's a pic for you. So here's the story. Like many chocolatiers, Kee stared off working in the corporate world. But she quit the life and decided to attend FCI so she could pursue her passion. At FCI, she trained under Jacques Torres and after graduation, she opened, her tiny little chocolate shop, Kee's Chocolates (which was originally called the Chocolate Garden, but had to be changed due to some trademark infringement).
And this is what I love about Kee's. It's a tiny little place, but she makes everything right there by hand. With a little refrigerator, marble table and induction burner. And Kee is always there. In the nearly three years that I've been going, there's never been any time when she isn't in the store (minus the times that they're closed for holidays and such). Her ganaches are super smooth and lovel, the enrobing chocolates super thin and she has innovative flavors, but nothing too wild. My favorites include the Thompson, Cappuccino, Passion Fruit and Toasted Sesame. My designer, who works near by, loves the Thai Chili. Since everything's made fresh, the flavors change fairly often. So you might not find your favorite flavor every time you go. That's ok, though, cause it forces you to try something new.
Here's a pic of the box I brought back from NY. There are two sesame, two lemon basil, an earl grey and some flavor I've never tried and don't remember. So the lesson is, if you're ever in NY, stop by Kee's on 80 Thompson Street for some exquisite made chocolates that are lovingly made. Tell her that the girl who owns a chocolate shop in Boston sent you.

DINING IN NEW YORK, MINTY CHOCO CHIP GOES ON THE ROAD!

Well here i am, back from New York following the worst train ride of my life. Amtrak you have disappointed me. No wonder you just replaced your CEO. But why was I in New York you ask? Well, to attend the NYC Chocolate Show, the biggest chocolate show in the US. Lots of fun, but really, I was there to work, and this is a fun blog, so I'm not going to talk about work. What I will talk about is dining in New York.

Now as any reader of this blog knows, I greatly value New York food above Boston food. So going to New York is always a nice little treat for me. Of course, not everything is going to be perfect, and there are always going to be duds among the good places. So let's talk about the place I liked eating at the most this weekend. And the winner is...

SPICE MARKET
(like the red? It's also one of the only places I took pictures). As some of you may know, Spice Market is owned by Jean Georges. It's his hipper restaurant with lots of Asian influences. And it's located in the very trendy Meapacking district. I've wanted to go to a Jean Georges restaurant for some time. Normally I can't afford it, but my buddy Moses says he goes here once to twice and week and he said the appetizers were "cheap" so he and his girlfriend Roxanne took me for some cocktails and snacks. (which really ended up being my dinner). Now, what I really like about Spice Market is its design. It's beautiful and dark and you feel like you're really in another country. They really paid a lot of attention to details and thought about things. As Moses and I waited for Rox to arrive, we sampled some very yummy cocktails at the bar. Here's mine, I ordered this drink cause it had passion fruit in it. Plus champagne and some other ingredient i don't remember. But it was super tasty.

And here's Moses' cocktail. He had a pineapple mojito. I didn't try it, but it certainly looks pretty. So Spice Market is divided into a main floor and a bottom floor. The mian floor holds the dining room and bar. The bottom floor is like a lounge where you can order drinks, appetizers and desserts, which is what we did when Rox arrived.

Ok, so here's the deal. The appetizers are not "cheap" as Moses had said, but they are very reasonably priced. So i always like that. I got an order of chicken samosas and an order of spicy chicken wings. Here are the samosas.

There are three pretty big sized samosas and they come with a yummy green dipping sauce which i'm sure had mint in it. I really enjoyed these. since they used phyllo rather than the normal samosa pastry, these were much lighter than the samosas you get at your local Indian restaurant. Ok. I just tried to look up the actual description for you all, but apparently Spice Market isn't listed on menupages and Jean George's website was no help. So tough. Though I did get distracted and start reading an entry on the Amateur Gourmet about Janet Jackson Breast Cupcakes. But I digress. Back to my appetizers.

Here's a pic of my spicy chicken wings.

Now when I ordered these, the waitress warned me that these were really spicy. Which they were, but not in a bad way. What I also like was the slices of fresh mango topped with mint that i could use to cool my palate in between wings. It's a really simple combo, but i liked it alot. Maybe even more than the wings. So as I said, these appetizers weren't "cheap" but they were super reasonable. I think the samosas cost $9 and the wings were $11. And for a Jean Georges restaurant in the Meatpacking district, I guess you could all that "cheap". The other thing is that these were really well made appetizers. Not like when I went to Pomodoro and got totally ripped off. And that's one of the big differences between restaurants in NY and those in Boston. You really do get more for your money in NY.

Ok, my last comment is that I also discovered that I could never be a waitress at Jean Georges, cause man were those uniforms skimpy! Basically, they've got all the female waitress wearing orange scrubs. But the top has no back. just 2 pieces of string holding it together. I don't see why they can't make them men wear skimpy outfits too. At any rate I had a very enjoyable time at Spice Market. I'm not sure how much it'd be for dinner, though I can pretty much guarantee that based on the appetizers, the entrees would be in the mid 20s up to the 40s range. But it really is a lovely atmosphere and I'd love to go back there again for a full meal.

GALLERIA ILLY
No No. illy Cafe has not opened its first store in the U.S. What they have done is opened an exhibition space in SOHO to introduce American to illy coffee. Yes, I realize that illy has been around for a while, but i think this is a cool concept. So off i went to check it out. and here's the cappuccino that i ordered below.

ain't it pretty? i gotta work on my espresso art. Ok, so here's the thing. This is just a temporary exhibit space for illy. They're only gonna be open for another month. But it's beautiful. Huge floor to ceiling windows where you can have a coffee and watch ppl walking by on West Broadway. I sat right in front and munched on my lunch while sipping my coffee. You can also order desserts. Really relaxing. My friend Jayna was studying coffee houses for a project and she noticed that Americans in coffeeshops never just sit and watch. They're always doing something. Reading, talking on the phone, etc. They never just sit! I pointed out that I'm sure it's the American thing because if people just sit and do nothing it feels like a waste of time. But at galleria illy, there were plenty of ppl just sitting and watching and drinking. I thought it was great.

ok, so here come the criticisms. think of them as constructive criticism. Since this is a tempoary space none of the machinery they're using is hardwired in. A true industrial machine needs to be hooked up to plumbing, and of course, you can't do that if you're only using a space for 3 months. I think that kinda effects the quality of the coffee a little. The second problem is that I watched the barista make my coffee. and he pulled the shot prior to steaming the foam. (ideally both the steaming and the shot pulling take place at the same time so the shot isn't sitting there breaking down while you're waiting for the foam). Lastly, my cappuccino cost $5. And that's just freaking ridiculous. Yes, i know they need to pay for this beautiful space, but $5? No way.

Otherwise, the staff was super helpful, the displays beautiful and it was a great place to relax while waiting for my friends. Sometimes, it's just fun watching all those ppl rushing by. So if you have the time, definetly stop by galleria illy for the one more month that it's open, I think you'll find it very enjoyable too.

SHOPPING AND DINNER UNDER ONE ROOF, A TRIP TO SUPER 88

Last night Arti mentioned that she wanted to do some grocery shopping at Super 88, so I figured we could meet up there for some quick dinner and then she could shop away. For those of you who don't know, Super 88 is this giant Asian grocery store on the border of Boston and Allston/Brighton. I like this Super 88 more than the ones in Chinatown because it's bigger and a whole lot cleaner. The other great thing about Super 88 is that they have a nice food court attached with a number of different restaurants, so you can find food to make everyone happy.

Arti had a cold, so she decided that she wanted to order some spicy soup to help clear her sinuses. She order a Tom Yum Noodle soup from the Thai restaurant in the food court. Here's a pic of it along with the watermelon juice that she ordered from Lollicup, the bubble tea shop.








I decided to also have a noodle soup and ordered a pho ga (aka. pho with chicken) from the Vietnamese restaurant. Here's a pic of their sign:
And of course, a pic of my dinner- a big bowl of noodle with the fixings (raw bean sprouts, basil and lime) on the side. My pho was pretty good. Not the best in the world, but also not the worst. A little too much white pepper on top, but for less than $7, I'm not gonna complain a whole lot. It was so big that I ended up eating only half of it, but I've never really been up to finish a whole bowl of pho anyway.Oh, and for those who don't know, the Super 88 food court finally got a liquor license. It was a big contentious issue for sometime, but it looks like they finally won out. So now there's this little roped off area on the side of the food court where there's a bar and you can order drinks and watch tv. Personally, I'd rather have a drink in a real bar, but if you'd like to have a beer with your big bowl of pho, at least you can now.

After dinner, we just hopped over to the supermarket where Arti bought a lot of instant noodles. I guess it is better than eating nothing when you're tired. And so, if you ever want to eat and shop at the same place, Super 88 is a great location to pick up something exotic and quick and satisfy even a group of diners with lots of different tastes.

SUNDAY BRUNCH IN THE SOUTH END

Long ago, when I had a life, I would frequent the South End for brunch. Usually on Saturdays, since I worked on Sundays, the girls and I would head down there and munch and talk. Very Sex and the City like. But then the girls moved, the store opened, and I stopped going to brunch. But today, Leah and decided that we wanted to go to Sunday brunch. We just needed to get there early and head off to work afterwards. So at 10 am, we were on Tremont Street, parked in the perfect parking space and standing in front of Aquitaine.

I love going to brunch in the South End, cause most of the time, I can't afford to have a normal meal at any of those restaurants. But brunch is great cause you get to sit in these lovely restaurants and eat for $10-$20. And it's got such a relaxed, neighborhoody vibe that it's just very enjoyable. So back to Aquitaine. we learned that even at 10am, you can't get a table there. Though the restaurant was fairly empty, all the tables were reserved, and they couldn't seat us until 1. And so we crossed the street and headed to Metropolis. Another favorite of mine for brunch. And that's the other thing about having brunch in the South End. There's such a high concentration of great restaurants that if one of them is full, you just head to the next one until you find a place. (why they can't open just one of these in Kenmore Square is beyond me)

We were seated immediately at Metropolis, which was pretty full, even at that time. As I said, lots of neighborhood people. And it's really nice to see what people our age normally do on a Sunday morning. We both got coffee. I wasn't very hungry, so I just ordered a side of wheat toast and apple chicken sausage while leah got a monte cristo.

Here's my breakfast. Had to use my cell phone cause i forgot my camera, but i think the pics came out ok. anyway, pretty simple and yummy.
and here's leah's breakfast. I didn't get a good picture of the cranberry pear compote that it came with. But it was a good choice for leah since she was struggling with the always difficult debate of savory or sweet for breakfast and the monte cristo included both. She was a bit disappointed that the pears weren't in the actual sandwich, but i think it was enjoyable over all.
The waitress kept our coffee mugs full and I was very happy with the experience. We were lucky to have gotten there early, though, cause there was already a line when we left. Since we had some extra time, we checked out some stores and restaurants in the area. We discovered that Perdix serve breakfast, which based upon the number of ppl in the restaurant, not many ppl know yet, so we're gonna go there next time, since I've wanted to visit for a long long time. And they have a really beautiful view over a garden in back. So even though I could've slept in on this rainy sunday morning, i'm glad i got up early and had brunch with leah. Hopefully we'll do it more often in the future

THE CREAMIEST CREAM CORN

Last night I wan't particularly hungry. and I was really really tired, but i figured I should make something for dinner. And I remembered that I had bought some fresh corn when we went to Russo's. Now normally, I would just steam the corn and rub on some butter, garlic salt and whatever other I happen to have around, but last night, I decided that I wanted to try something different and make cream corn.

Back when I had food tv, I had watched an episode of Good Eats which featured corn. Alton Brown made some really yummy cream corn, so i went online to find the recipe. I also checked Cook's Illustrated for a cream corn recipe and so, took elements from both recipes to make my own version. Unfortunately I left my camera at home, so I don't have a pic for you guys, but it turned out so well and it was so easy that I wanted to share with all of you.

Here's what you'll need:
5 ears of corn
2 T butter
1/2 an onion or shallot, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t tumeric
a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary
1 c heavy cream (you can substitute half and half, but it won't be as creamy)

So first you have to cut the kernels off the corn with a sharp knife. Then you take the back of the knife and scrape the corn cob to get the remaining "juice" out of the cob. (This step is called milking). Then set the corn aside.

In a pan, melt the butter and sweat the onions/shallots. Sweating means that you cook the onion/shallots on a low heat until they become soft and translucent. Next, toss in the garlic for like 3o seconds. After that, toss in all the corn and remaining ingredients and let it cook for 10-15 minutes until the corn is cooked through and the liquid in the pan has thickened, stirring occasionally. And that's it. That little addition of tumeric made a huge difference. It added so much additional flavor. I loved it. I think adding a little jalapeno the next time would also add some additional kick and dimension. I liked this dish so much that I've decided to make it for Thanksgiving and if you ever have some extra corn handy, I definetly suggest trying out this creamy cream corn recipe.

A FOODIES PARADISE, RUSSO'S IN WATERTOWN

I had heard about Russo's a while ago. My sister Christine often went and came back with fresh fruits, veggies and pints of yummy stuff. But I never had time to make it out there myself, especially since it's located in Watertown. I'd always have plans to go, with my little google map printed and never made it. But yesterday, Leah and I took some time off and finally made it to Russo's, which is located in Watertown. And let me just say, this is the best produce market in Boston. Actually as far as produce markets in general go for the U.S., I'd rank it right below the Wednesday's Farmer's Market back home in LA.

Let's start off with some pretty pics. There Leah's picking out some carrots. She bought a lot of veggies. So the story behind Russo's is that they are a big produce wholesale for lots of the restaurants in Boston. They opened this mega produce store after their wholesale biz had been established. And everything is really reasonably priced.
But since they supply so many restaurants, they have this AMAZING variety of produce. First, there's an outside portion (which they cover with a tent in fall/winter). They even had fingerling potatoes, and these cool blue potatoes that Leah got, parsnips and all kinds of crazy things. A lot of things Leah and I would pick up and be like, so what do you do with this? How do you cook it?

Then you go inside. And it's all green. cause there's so much produce. I mainly bought a ton of fruit, but they had such a wide variety of stuff. Lots of Asian veggies too like Chinese long beans, winter melons, crazy types of basil (they had this deep purple one that'd I'd never even seen before, but smelled fantastic), baby bok choy, etc. Now of course, you can say, well i can just get that at Super 88 or another Chinese super market. But the key here is that everything is under one roof. Here's another pretty pic for you.
Moving on, I was a little disappointed by the prepared foods section. I like buying premade salads from Wholefoods cause I can just grab it out of my fridge in the morning and take it to work. They didn't have any premade salads here, but i definetly got some premade meals which were very tasty. (i ate one for lunch today). The also have a lovely cheese section, fresh pastas, fresh breads, a little bakery and a hot foods counter. Leah got a meatloaf dinner, which she enjoyed a lot. (the meatloaf was wrapped in bacon).

Here's the nice pepper section. I found it very colorful.
We both decided that Russo's is the kind of place you want to walk into with recipes in hand and an idea for what you want to buy. Otherwise, you go kinda nuts finding all this cool stuff to use, buy way too much food and will probably end up at home thinking, now what am i supposed to do with these? Luckily, we made it out of there right before 5, cause that's when a ton of people starting show up and parking got more difficult. At any rate, I had a fantastic time at Russo's and will probably do some Thanksgiving shopping there, and it's certainly worth the extra little trip from Boston.

YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY POMODORO

On Wednesday Katie and I decided we'd like to go to dinner. I suggested this sushi place in Brookline Village that Leah just went to. Apparently they've got 50% off sushi every night. But Katie wasn't into sushi and said that whatever restaurant we ended up at had to be tasty. So i thought of Pomodoro, which is also in Brookline Village.

Now some of you may have already heard about the original Pomodoro in the North End. Having gone to that one and having had a good experience there, I figured that trying out the new one wouldn't hurt. Especially since it's much closer to me and parking is a whole lot easier in Brookline Village than the North End. So I pick up Katie and Dustin and off we went.

Even though we arrived right before 7, the first thing we learned was, make reservations. The restaurant is actually pretty small, and when we arrived, all the tables were full or reserved. We could've waited an hour for a table or take the 3 seats at the bar. We ended up at the bar. Which wasn't a bad spot. The bar is actually really nice. It sits in the center of the restaurant with seating on 3 sides. and it's rather pretty. I sat in front of where the bartender had her garnishes set up and I like how it looked. So here's a nice pic.

I really liked the decor of the place. Nice dim lighting and an intimate setting. I also like that fact that it was comfortable and laid back. More formal than the North End location, but it was filled with neighborhood people who were there to relax and enjoy dinner. And that's about where the pros will end. Like I mentioned, this restaurant is small. Which is probably why it's also very very loud. Dustin was sitting 2 seats from me at the bar and I could barely hear him. At some point during the meal, i think they actually tried to play music ontop of all the noise, which was just ridiculous.

Next, they need to hire a receptionist, maitre'd, greeter or whatever you'd like to call it. Sitting at the bar, the bartender had to make drinks, serve dinner and on top of that, she was answering the phone, taking phone orders and taking reservations. That is too much for one person to handle in a crowded, noisy restaurants, and thus, service suffered. Be prepared to wait. And for things to be forgotten (like Katie's 2nd glass of wine).

Ok, onto the meal. The menu was small, and I like that. It means that ingredients will generally be in season. More is not better and it's a lot easier to make 20 things well than 100 things poorly. We were started off with some yummy bread and foccaccia with a nice plate of olives in olive oil. I then ordered two appetizers. One was an order of arancini and and the other an order of duck confit. Katie ordered the risotto and Dustin ordered a steak. Katie and Dustin also ordered wine, and I gotta say, I really liked Katie's glass of house white. (there was a choice of 2, i don't remember which one she got).

And here's a pic of my arancini below. Aren't they cute? Arancini actually means oranges in Italian, and i guess, these guys are supposed to look like oranges. In Italy, it's really casual food that you can order at a pizza parlor. My arancini were made of porcini mushroom risotto and stuffed with cheese. And served with a small salad. Now, I'll admit that these were pretty tasty. However, I had a big problem with the portion size/price. As you can see there are only 2 arancini, which are both slightly larger than a golf ball. And for $10, I expect either 4 on a plate, or if you're gonna serve me only 2, charge me $7. (maybe one rolled off and got lost?) We're talking about left over risotto, stuffed with cheese, dipped in breadcrumbs and fried. It's not complicated. The Amateur Gourmet made them at home just the other day. It should not cost $10.

Moving right along, here's the pic of my duck confit. This was a much better appetizer. It's a large leg/thigh of duck. And it's cooked well. The meat fell off the bone. There's a funny little sauce on it which contained grapes and raisins. And i think that worked well. Other than the raisins. I hate raisins and pushed those aside. Plus it cost $12. Definetly worth it, but that just focuses even more on how the arancini are grossly overpriced.

I tried taking a pic of Katie's risotto, but it was white on a white plate, so it didn't turn out well. but neither did the risotto. Basically, when the risotto was served, there was still broth in it. That's not supposed to happen. Katie actually had to continue stirring the risotto after it arrived so that the broth could absorb completely. And Dustin's steak was another expensive disappointment. It was a large portion, but it turns out that half of it was all fat. And for a $24 steak, that's just wrong.

By the end of the night, I think we were all pretty disappointed with our meals. And it wasn't a cheap meal. I remember the Pomodoro in the North End costing less, but then again, that was a year and a half ago. I know I can come off as being very critical about restaurants, but seriously, if you're gonna charge that much, you're just gonna have to do better. That's not just you, Pomodoro, that goes for all the restaurants in Boston. My final conclusion is that Pomodoro would be a great place for drinks and appetizers. The bar is very nice and they have some very creative cocktails. But I'd suggest passing on dinner and heading out to somewhere like Giacomo's. It's not as cool and pretty, but the food is certainly better and worth every penny.