SIMPLE RECIPES, DELICIOUS RESULTS

Over the last week, I've continued to try out various recipes from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbook. On Monday night I made a dish of chicken and chickpeas. Here it is below.

I'd give you the recipe, but it's at home and I'm at work. But it turned out really well and it was super easy to make (not suprising since it's Mark Bittman and he really doesn't do complicated stuff.) Actually, I served it leftovers last night with couscous. Allowing the flavors to meld over a few days was a great idea. I was out of chicken, the vegetarian version was just as good.

Here you'll see another simple recipe I tried out. It's a pancake recipe from the NYTimes from 1966! (recently republished in the NY Times magazine section). It's a bit different because it's made in a skillet and sits in the oven where it browns and puffs up.

The recipe is so simple, but the results are fabulous and I think everyone enjoyed it. If I had two cast iron skillets, I would've made two of these and look foward to making it again.

SUNDAY EATS

Finally, a day off after a long week. The weather could've been nicer, but considering it's Spring in New England, I should just be glad it's not snowing. Tom and I woke up fairly early and debated our breakfast options. I proposed going to the perenially packed Coolidge Corner favorite, Zaftigs. Since we'd get there at almost 9AM I figured there wouldn't be a line. But Tom shot down that idea. (which ended up being a good thing. As we drove by, we noticed a group of people standing outside, waiting to get in.) Instead, we went to Rubin's Deli, a little farther up Harvard Ave., closer to Allston. We drive by this place all the time, but since it's set in a rather nondescript building, we'd never been in. After a quick google search, we figured out that they were open for breakfast. (Actually, they open at 8 on Sundays). When we stepped inside, we found the place nearly empty. The only other diners were a couple sitting in a booth. A long deli counter lined one side of the restaurant, so we were confused as to whether we ordered at the counter or sat ourselves. Luckily, a waitress appeared and told us we could pick anywhere we wanted to sit. So I chose a comfy red booth. The decor in here seems to have come from the 60s, with the stereotypical Jewish Deli feel. But it was well maintained and quite comfortable.
After checking out the menu, I began to wonder why cream cheese was referred to as non-dairy and there wasn't any butter, just margarine. Tom then reminded me that we were at a Kosher establishment. I figured the bagels here would be great, so I ended up ordering a toasted bagel and a side of hash browns. Tom got the Challah french toast (which I also considered ordering, but he beat me to it) and a side of smoked salmon hash. As we waited for our food to arrive (and despite being only the second table there, it wasn't too speedy), I took note of the surroundings. This is definitely a casual, family run place, and they do most of their business on a take out basis. Plenty of orders were being picked up at the deli while we ate. I also checked out their sandwich menu, and I don't doubt that they would make some kick ass sandwiches.

But back to breakfast. Here are my hash browns.
They were ok, but I really do prefer hash browns with crunchy bits, which these lacked completely. I didn't photograph my bagel, but it ended up being an egg bagel and it was strangely sweet. It wasn't that great, so I was a little disappointed in that.

However, the star dish of the day was the smoked salmon hash. I'm not a huge fan of salmon anymore, having filled my lifetime quoting after working in a restaurant, but this was tasty. Cooked with eggs and potato, it was my favorite dish of the morning. Tom also enjoyed it quite a bit.

And here is his challah french toast. Again, I expected it to be amazing, but it was actually quite soggy, with a pudding like texture. (I really do prefer it when things are crisp and crunchy). As we finished our meal, more people would start to enter the restaurant, but even as we left, there were only 3 couples eating. The food here was well priced, just $20 for the two of us, but I don't think I'll be back for breakfast. I certainly would like to have a sandwich from them, tho.

After breakfast, we made our weekly pilgrimage to the Whole Foods. We hoped to miss the crowds, but even at 10am, there were still plenty of people there. I had several recipes in mind that I wanted to make. For Tom's birthday, he had received a number of Amazon gift certificates. And I had encourage him to spend them on new cookbooks. I was very happy with the new books, especially Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It's quite comprehensive, and even encouraged me to use new ingredients. So for lunch, I made this simple salad garnished with shrimp. (The shrimp were made with Bittman's recipe). They ended up being quite tasty and if only we had some crusty bread, the shrimp could have been eaten alone with just that. If you've ever had tapas and enjoyed gambas al ajillo, it tasted a lot like that. The parmesean cheese that I added helped add some sweetness to the salad and I think it was great.

For dinner, I wanted to try out another Bittman recipe. This one was for extra crispy white fish fillets. Tom and I had purchased tilapia fillets earlier in the day, and they were perfect for this recipe. Also, earlier in the week, we had purchased bread from Clear Flour. I used the uneaten Italian loaf to make some spectacular bread crumbs. So here's my mis en place.You can see the plate of breadcrumbs, seasoned with some fresh herbs, salt and pepper, a plate of beaten eggs and a plate of flour. This was super easy. You coat the fillets in flour, then egg, then the bread crumbs and put them in a hot pan with olive oil. I also roasted some red potatoes with herbs to go on the side. Here's everything finished. The hardest part of the recipe is gauging when the fillets are ready. I had to keep poking and prodding and eventually took a knife and cut one open. Not great for presentation, but the fish was cooked perfectly and turned out delicious. I'll be trying out more recipes from these cookbooks (am flipping through Molto Italiano by Mario Batali today) and will report back on the results.

TORY'S

And now for the review you've all been waiting for, Tory's. I will spare you the suspense and let you know that I prefer Yakitoriya to Tory's. Tory's has good yakitori and a much larger selection of dishes than Yakitoriya (especially some unique ones), but Yakitoriya is still my all time favorite yakitori place. I guess I've been spoiled by Yakitoriya because it's the first yakitori restaurant I've ever been to, and it tuns out, it's also been the best. (well, for now. I still haven't had yakitori in Japan).

As I mentioned in a previous post, Tory's is the sister restaurant of Yakitori Totto. It's newer and a much larger space, so they were able to accomadate our party of 8 without a problem. When we arrived at the second floor space, we found a sleek, chic space, that was already packed with Japanese diners enjoying their yakitori. (I'm serious, everyone in there was Japanese). Here's their logo, which is stamped everywhere. (plates, menus, tshirts on waiters, etc.)
We got seated at a section of seats at the very front of the restaurant, and got to enjoy this lovely view of the drunkards celebrating St. Patty's Day below. I'm not joking, no one was walking straight. It was fairly entertaining.And then we were given a load of menus. Like 4 different menus. I liked this one the most, cause it had the pictures. I always find it humorous when given menus with pictures of the food (the point and order method). We were also given a menu with chef's specialties, a menu with the regular menu and a fairly extensive sake menu. And we began the ordering process, which ended up being one of the most frustrating parts of the dinner. So here's tip number one. If you go to Tory's go by yourself. Maybe with one companion. Sit at the bar or a small table. DO NOT go with a large group. This isn't the place to do it. At Yaktioriya you're allowed to order a set of yakitori sticks and then switch out whatever you don't want. At Tory's, you just order by the stick. We all wanted to order our own stuff, but the waitress forced as to order as a group. Who wants chicken breast? Raise your hand. Who wants chicken thigh? Raise your hand. This was super confusing and frustrating for both the diner and server. When the food finally arrives, you're wondering who ordered this? Did I get this? How many did I order? (and it'll get worse later, when you wonder who's paying for what. Another reason to only go with one other person). They'd be much better off giving you a list and allowing you to check off what you wanted. (like at many sushi restaurants).

We were a bit disappointed because I was excited to try things like the soft knee bones and more unique yakitori. But these items were limited and they were already sold out by the time we arrived. (at 7pm!).

After the ordeal of ordering, we settled in. Tom and Jeany ordered some interesting dishes that took a little while to cook on the table, so those arrived first in these clay pots sitting atop burners. Tom ordered a chicken rice (called gohan) while Jeany's ordered a tofu. I was able to see the tofu before it started cooking and it was literally a liquid form. We were given strict instructs not to open the pots (the rice would take 3o minutes to cook, the tofu 25 minutes). Our waitress repeatedly told us not to touch the pots, to the point where I began to wonder, if they wanted to be so strict about it, why put it on the table in front of us? Why not cook it in the kitchen and then give it to us. Obviously there's a lot to be said for presentation, but being didactic about it isn't much fun.

And fairly soon after that, food began arriving. The first thing I got was my chicken liver. It was infused with a lovely smoke flavor, but a little dried than I expected. It was still tasty, though. And that would be the theme for the night. The chicken was well seasoned and had an incredible flavor from the charcoal used, but it wasn't as juicy as I was accustomed to.A listing of my other dishes include chicken gizzard:chicken heartsshisito peppers (which were really hot, but enjoyable)and chicken meatball (incredibly juicy and delicious.)I also ordered a nice grilled riceball with miso. I loved the crunch that the grilling gave to the rice, along with the ume flavored pickles on the side.Since we had so many people at dinner, we got a huge variety of dishes, but I really only photographed the things I ate. Back to those clay pots, which were certainly winners for the night, here's the cooked tofu. It was silky and smooth with an intense soybean flavor that you don't get from normal supermarket tofu. And it was infused with that same charcoal flavor.

And I really enjoyed the chicken rice, which had cooked up perfectly and again, had that same flavor of charcoal.However, confusion reigned during dinner. At one point, we were given a whole plate of chicken breast that was destined for our neighboring table. But not remembering what we'd ordered, we ended up eating it. Until our own orders showed up. Does that mean we paid for it? Who knows. It was also confusing because half our party showed up over a half hour late. Yet we finished at the same time. Even though we had ordered a half hour earlier, a few of our dishes arrived at the end of the nearly 2.5 hour meal. By this time, I was tired, hot and ready to go home.

In conclusion, would I go back to Tory's? Maybe, if I lived in NY. It was a good dinner, but it was expensive(for yakitori, not for a dinner in NY) and it took a long time. I'd prefer waiting for my trips home to get Yakitori that I know I'll love. Also, service could be very slow and not very accomadating. Still, if you do live in NY, I would drop by, have a seat at the bar and certainly order the tofu, gohan and chicken hearts.

NEW YORK DAY 2: FOOD TOUR!
I had planned out a full day of eating in New York. But we got a late start in the morning, and instead of heading to Caffe Fallai for breakfast, like I had planned, we made a quick stop at Almondine Bakery, an adorable French bakery around the corner from my cousin's condo, where we grabbed delicious sandwiches and pastries. Then it was off to SOHO to start our food tour. I needed to do a modicum of work during this trip and had heard that a new chocolate shop had opened east of SOHO on Broome street. Unfortunately it was closed. But as we trekked back, we ran across Despana. (Which literally means from Spain). We had noticed the the leg of Jamon Serrano in the window while walking to the chocolate store, but I didn't recognize the name until we were heading back.

I'm familiar with Despana because I always attend the Fancy Food Show and Despana imports a lot of foods from Spain. I've wanted to go, but for some reason, I thought it was uptown, so it was quite fortunate that we stumbled across it. When we entered, it was clear that they had just opened. On the left they had shelves of Spanish products, like olive oils, olives, etc. and lots of samples out to try. On the right, they had two large display cases, one filled with sausages and others with cheeses (and samples galore!) and at the very back, they had another small case filled the tapaps and pinchos, like the ones I'd seen last summer in Barcelona. There was a tiny table and I wish we had more time to stop and samples some tapas. (We'll do it next time) But I did encourage Tom to try the sausage samples.
He ended up getting two types of sausage and we brought them back to Boston so he could share them with a friend.

Our next stop was Kee's, my favorite chocolate shop in all New York. I hadn't been in quite some time. The last time we went to NY we didn't have time to stop and Kee's is always closed in July when I'm there for the Fancy Food Show. (Not surprising, July is our slowest month, too.) Tom (my cousin, Jeany's, husband, who's also a fan) had warned me that Kee's had changed a bit, and he hadn't seen her in a while, so he wasn't sure what was up with the place. But I'm here to tell you that all is well at Kee's. Let me backtrack a bit. Kee's opened in 2002, when I still lived in NY. I would go there to buy chocolate whenever I had time and I loved the tiny space (probaby 50 sq. feet) which included the minute production area and shop. There wasn't a time that I've gone that Kee wasn't there, selling chocolates or doing production, and I continued to visit even after I moved to Boston.

Skip foward five years and Kee's is still going strong. She's expanded into the neighboring space, which is equally tiny, but now the production area is separate from the retail area. Plus she has lots of employees now. In the retail area, we bought two large boxes of chocolate, with a bunch of new flavors that I'm excited to try. (like the smoked salt) I also peeked next door, and there was Kee, working away with two assistants. It makes me feel really good to see a small business succeed, and yet, Kee hasn't blown up and expanded like crazy. She's still a small neighborhood shop, working away and making what I consider the best chocolate in Manhattan.

The one request that Tom made during this visit was a trip to the Excellent Pork Chop house. So we walked over and joined Jeany and Juliet for a simple lunch there. I got my usual bowl of noodles and fried chicken. It was delicious as usual, especially while there was so much snow on the ground. And after lunch, we continued on our food journey. Our next stop was Il Laboratio del Gelato, in the Delancey area. And while walking up there through Chinatown, we stopped for some freshly made cakes. (Translated into English, it literally means small chicken egg cakes). My little sister loves these things, and they sell them on the street in Taiwan. $1 got your 15 little cakes, which come out steaming and delicious.It actually wasn't such a terrible thing that there was so much snow on the ground. Though it was certainly cold, slushy and messy, it also required more effort and more calorie burning. So we were able to continue eating throughout the day. Pretty soon, we had arrived at our next destination, Il Laboratio del Gelato. This is another place that I visited when I lived in New York, but it was a rare trip, since it's not the easiest place to get to. It was started by the founder of Ciao Bella who after selling Ciao Bella, started a much smaller operation that creates incredible gelato. (small batches, fresh flavors). The prices are pretty high ($20 a gallon), but it's worth it for the quality of the gelato. Here's a pic of the case.I got a small cup with espresso and chocolate. Both were wonderful, especially the espresso, with it's little particles of coffee bean ground in. Tom tried a more unusual flavor, rice, but I enjoyed his toasted sesame more. And Juliet's hazelnut was also great. It might've been close to freezing outside, but this gelato could be enjoyed in any weather.

Our last stop for the afternoon was the Essex Street Market, just a few blocks for Il Laboratio. There's been a lot written about Essex Street Market lately, and being a great fan of markets (especially the outdoor kind) I wanted to have a look. Essex Street used to appeal much more to an ethnic, working class clientele, and that's still apparent today. It reminded me of a smaller sized Reading Terminal Market. It was filled with vendors selling impeccably fresh produce, meats, fish and cheese. And it wasn't too expensive, either. Here's a shot of some produce.
And a huge trash can full of cherimoyas. It didn't look like the cherimoyas that I was used to in Taiwan. The skin was smooth and these guys were unusually large, but it was great to see a different fruit being sold.

Lastly, here's a shot of the famed Saxelby Cheesemonger's aging room. I just thought it was cool that they had an aging room right on site. Had we not been stuffed full at this point, we may have tried a few things, but we needed a break from all the eating. We went back to DUMBO to rest up, help build furniture and read trashy magazines and to get hungry enough for dinner at Tory's.

NEW YORK: DAY 1

It had started snowing and Boston was expecting 4-8 inches of snow, awaiting the arrival of the largest winter storm of the season thus far. In anticipation of the storm, Jetblue cancelled over 200 flights. And so, on that cold wintry day, we boarded a very crowded train and headed down to New York. Luckily, we had decided to take the train this time. If we had planned on driving, we would never have even made it. I've been planning this trip for weeks, and wouldn't it just figure that I chose to go the one weekend this winter where there would be significant amounts of snow and make walking treacherous and difficult? But we pushed on.

By the time we arrived in New York, the city was covered in a thick blanket of snow. In addition, the streets weren't being plowed fast enough and the wind was blowing painful ice crystals directly into my face. As we struggled to get to my cousin's condo in DUMBO, Tom asked if we were really going to venture out into the snow again. Of course! I replied. We had reservations at Enoteca.

So yes, I was able to score my reservation at Enoteca on Friday morning. And when the reservationist plugged my info into their computer system, she realized that we'd been there before. That was a nice touch. I made the reservation for 6 people, but in the end, we only had 5. When we finally arrived at Enoteca, not surprisingly, the restaurant wasn't bustling like the first time. The bar empty was nearly empty (though Joe Bastiniach was sitting there making phone calls), but the Enoteca was still pretty full. We were seated at the largest table they had, which comfortably holds six, but in the future, I won't go here with a party greater than 4. I won't go into the details of the meal, because the menu was exactly the same as the first time I went. I will say that the Spaghetti Aglio e Olio was probably the best thing I had. It was soooo simple. Perfectly cooked fresh pasta, some olive oil, salt, garlic, parsley and red pepper flakes, but delicious. I don't think I could reproduce it in my own kitchen. Tom got to enjoy his lardo and I also had a wonderful chocolate hazelnut tart for dessert. Service was impeccable as usual.

Though I wasn't as stuffed as the first time I'd been to Enoteca, I think we all walked away from dinner quite happy. It was certainly worth a cold, wet trek in the snow and was a great start to a weekend filled with food.

MEATBALLS FOR YOU AND ME

As I mentioned earlier, we were at Whole Foods on Sunday and I bought some ground turkey meat to make meatballs. I was inspired by the Amateur Gourmet's recent post about meatballs using Lidia Bastianich's recipe and based upon that, I made my own meatballs. I'm not going to detail the entire process (you can check the Amateur Gourmet's blog to see it in detail, plus my hands were dirty, so I didn't want to touch the camera), but here's a pick of them, rolled in flour and ready to be fried.Next I panfried them in a generous amount of olive oil.
And eventually finished them by plopping them in homemade tomato sauce and serving with spaghetti.This was perfect, filling comfort food. I was so full after eating it, that I could barely move. But what I liked about the recipe was the addition of orange zest. It added something to the meatballs, an additional complexity. The only thing I was really missing was the fennel seeds, but I'll remember to get those for next time.

KIWIBERRIES AND I'M EXCITED!

Ok, I was just reading Michael Ruhlman's blog and after having meals at Daniel, Jean Georges, etc etc....He raves about Yakitori Totto. So this just makes me even more excited about dinner on Saturday, because we'll be going to Tory's, the sister restaurant of Yakitori Totto. (I didn't make reservations at Yakitori Totto because I've heard it's a smaller restaurant). Even better, Thomas Keller called it his favorite restaurant in NY.

And onto other discoveries, look at this This is a kiwiberry. I'd read about them in an issue of Time and happened to see them at the Whole Foods on Sunday. Basically, it's like a cross between a kiwi and a grape. As you can see above, it looks like a kiwi on the inside, but it's smooth on the outside, so you can eat the whole thing. I didn't actually want to buy them, cause they are EXPENSIVE. We paid $5 for about 12 of them. But it's not often that you get to try a totally new fruit. Verdict, I thought they were Ok. Tom said he needed to get used to them. I still have a few left if you wanna come over and give them a try.

RESTAURANT WEEK DINNER NO. 2: CHEZ HENRI

It takes a lot to truly piss me off. I takes even more to make me complain on a public forum (like Chowhound). Actually, I've only done it once and that was during my disastrous 26th Birthday dinner at the Red House. (You can go back and find that blog entry on your own time). But dinner last night qualifies as one of those meals that truly pisses me off. And when I do get pissed off, it's NEVER about the food. It's ALWAYS about the service. As I've written earlier this week, we had reservations for Chez Henri last night to celebrate Tom's 35th birthday. It was a nice coincidence that it also happened to be restaurant week. I've wanted to go to Chez Henri for some time, I've heard that they have an amazing bar menu with French and Cuban influences, so I was looking foward to this meal.

When we entered the restaurant, I noticed that it was packed (not shocking for a Friday night). The bar area was completely separate from the dining room and had it's own seating area. We were seated pretty quickly and I noticed that the dining room had some fun, quirky decorations like ceramic chickens and unique glass lamps that hung from the ceilings. It was a smaller dining room than I expected, but that gave it an intimate, cozy quality. We were handed menus as we sat and perused them for a bit. I noticed that almost every entree on the menu contained some form of pork, though. In the salads, the soups, even the seafood dishes. So it's not a great place to take a Kosher diner. Much like Union, Chez Henri only gave you two options for Restaurant Week, so it didn't take us long to decide. However, it did take a while for our waiter to show up, and nearly 10 minutes had elapsed before he decided to grace us with his presence.

He asked us if we wanted to order drinks (Jayna got a mojito) and was sharp enough to notice that we'd been sitting there so long that we were also ready to order. After we ordered, he went off and we scarcely saw him again for the rest of the night. The runners took care of us from there on out. We were given a basket of bread which had these awesome little round rolls enhanced with cheese and roasted peppers and our appetizers arrived soon after that. Everyone else at the table ordered a soup made from Maduros (ripe plantains).
I think Leah and Tom's favorite part of this entire soup was that large chunk of bacon you see peeking out of the bowl. The also commented on the mellow flavors of the soup, claiming that it didn't really taste like plantains at all, but more like some type of squash. Meanwhile, I broke from the pack and ordered a salad of arugula and serrano ham. (You can see the ham under all the greens).After removing the serrano and handing it off to Leah and Tom (and noticing how fatty it was), I enjoyed my simple salad that was well dressed and quite tasty.

The runners removed our plates and this was when we proceeded to wait for our entrees to arrive. Now, since this was a fairly small restaurant, I could actually see most of the tables around us. I noticed that the table of 4 behind us had ordered about 5 minutes before us and gotten their entrees nearly 15 minutes before we got ours. This could certainly be blamed on the kitchen, but not once did our waiter come and check on us. During this time, I was also able to notice how well staffed the restaurant was. There were 3 waiters (for a not huge dining room) in addition to at least 3 runners and a manager. Our water glasses were kept filled by the runners, but that was about how much notice we got.

Eventually our entrees arrived, and you could tell that Tom's order of pork had spent a bit of time under a heat lamp. Both his and Leah's pork loins were a bit dry, though they did get a very generous serving. Meanwhile, Jayna and I had both ordered a tilapia on a bed of rice with a red curry coconut sauce. Once again, I was surprised at how well prepared my fish was. It actually tasted much more Thai than Cuban, but I really liked the moist fish along with the topping of crisp, lightly pickled veggies.
Our waiter failed to check in on us and even give the cursory "How is your meal?" during this time. After finishing our entrees, our plates were finally taken away by a runner, and we proceeded to wait for our desserts (which we had ordered at the beginning of the meal.) During this time, I also noticed that the waiter had forgotten Leah's order of Cuban fries, but it was too late for those. Finally our waiter made an appearance, asking Jayna what she had decided on for dessert (she couldn't decide at the beginning and asked for a suggestion). She ended up ordering the Tres Leches cake, like Tom and Leah.

When our desserts arrived, the rest of the table enjoyed a sweet, dense cake finished with a marshmallow topping and surrounded by a pool of chocolate-coffee cream.
In the meantime, I ordered a simple mango sorbet. It was cool and refreshing, but didn't seem to have been made in house.
Then the real waiting began. We had been at dinner for nearly two hours at this point. The table of 4 behind us had left long ago, as had another table that was seated shortly before we arrived. Our plates remained visibly finished and untouched before us. I even had my napkin on my plate. Meanwhile, I started counting the number of times our waiter walked passed us and utterly ignored our presence. He made about 12 trips past us (as I said, this is a small restaurant) and during this time, we began to debate what exactly we had done to deserve such awful awful service; such flagrant neglect and rudeness. We weren't overly pick or demanding. None of us had made a special request. Even the runners were ignoring us. As I looked around at the other tables, I noticed that no one else was receiving this type of treatment. The dining room was still well staffed and there were a few empty tables by this point. Finally, Tom asked us for the check, and even that didn't arrive promptly. (It was also missing Leah's order of Cuban fries, which the waiter had never bothered to enter).

The only conclusion we could arrive at was that our entire table hadn't ordered drinks. (except for Jayna's mojito) and with the waiter, knowing that the bill wouldn't be bumped up anymore, he felt that it was OK to simply ignore us. This is the second time that this has happened to me in a month. (the other time was with dinner Taberna de Haro when our waiter went MIA). This was truly frustrating and I was mad. All of us had worked in foodservice at some point, and Leah and I own businesses where we interact with the public on a daily basis. We would never have treated our customers like this. When we finally paid the bill, I refused to allow Tom to tip any more than 15% (he's a very generous tipper and normally gives 20%. I often think he overtips) and dinner ended up taking 2.5 hours. We were all exhausted after the meal and stumbled out of the restaurant, full, but certainly unsatisfied.

And I'll conclude with this mini rant. By and large, the Restaurant Week meals that I've had in Boston have been quite good; better than the ones I'd had in NY when I lived there. But for restaurants, this is your time to put your best foot foward and introduce yourselves to a new audience. I don't think we should blithely excuse shoddy service, poor food and long waits on Restaurant Week. It can be done well and if so, I'll return to that restaurant in the future (Union and Mistral). And restaurants are not required to participate in Restaurant Week. If you don't want to do it well, then why bother? Plenty of restaurants can't justify the cost and don't participate. For me, I will never visit Chez Henri again. As I've said a million times before, great service can make up for mediocre food, but poor service will never make up for the most delectable, luxurious, awesome meal in the world.

TOM'S BIRTHDAY PIE

Most people have cake for their birthdays. But Tom has never been a fan of cake, nor cookies. What he loves most in this world is pie. Any type of pie. So for his 35th birthday, I decided to make him a pumpkin pie with spiced walnut streusel. He had asked for a normal pumpkin pie, but I felt that was a little too easy and boring, so after a tip from Leah, I turned to Epicurious to look for some more interesting ideas. That's what lead me to the spiced walnut streusel. I was also happy to make the pie because it gave me the opportunity to use my Cuisinart and to try out Martha Stewart's pumpkin pie recipe.

I didn't detail the whole process for you guys, but I made the crust, rolled it out, made the filling and streusel and stuck the whole thing in the oven. It wasn't that difficult, no lattice crust, double crust or anything. Here's where I did stray. Rather than using the recipe for pie crust and pie filling from Epicurious, I used Martha Stewart's recipes. But you'll notice that because the walnut streusel topping was already spiced, the Epicurious pumpkin pie recipe didn't contain any additional spices. The Martha Stewart recipe, however, did. I worried for a few seconds that the pie would end up over spiced, but Tom had also said he liked pumpkin pie the most because of all the spices.

Here's the finished product. You may be able to tell from the picture that the interior is still a bit gooey and soft, despite my efforts to cool and chill it before I sliced. It's probably firm now that it's spent a night in the fridge.

And here's Tom enjoying his first slice. (He doesn't normally look this goofy and he may make me take this pic down, so look at it while it's still here).

Even though we wouldn't admit it until later, he didn't love the streusel topping. He would've preferred a plain pumpkin pie with some whipped cream. I thought it turned out pretty well, but I haven't a made fresh pie crust in a long time and need to work on my technique. For those of you who did receive some slices, please feel here to add a comment and let me know what you think.

I JOIN A CSA

After spending a little time online yesterday, I decided to join a CSA. I looked at the different options and prices and decided to sign up with Stillman Farms, a family farm located out in Lunenberg and New Braintree (does that mean there's an Old Braintree? Maybe not because, as you all know, we have West Virginia, but no East Virginia. But I digress.)

In case any of you are thinking of doing the same thing, let me save you the trouble of researching and explain to you how it all works. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. So what happens is, farms in most areas of the country can't grow crops year round. Like many industries, they have slow periods (the winter) and busy periods (the summer/fall). During the winter months, they're not making much income, if any, but come spring, they need to start buying supplies and materials to start planting, hiring employees, etc. As a business owner, I totally understand this. It's about cash flow. When I'm sitting around during our slow months (January and July) I'm wondering how I'm gonna pay for inventory in the future. This is especially hard on small businesses (or farms in this case.)

When you join a CSA, you're buying shares in the farm's future. You're giving them money upfront to buy the seedlings and supplies they need for the upcoming months (providing them with cash) and in return, you get a share of the crops when they become available. In Boston, the shares start going on sale January-April (while they last) and most crops become available mid June-October/December. Prices vary from $600-$450 for full shares and some farms also offer half shares that are around $300 for 16-20 weeks of fruits and veggies. I purchased a half share for me and Tom for $300 for 16 weeks.(a full share is more appropriate for a family of 4).

Then there's the tricky thing of pickup. For some farms, you gotta pick your order up at the farm and it isn't easy to make a weekly trip to the burbs. But lots of places make it easier and you can get a local pick up. We'll be making pickups on Sunday at Clear Flour Bakery, which is great since we already go there every Sunday. (as a side note, Tom said he'd been spoiled by Clear Flour. When eating an ABP sandwich yesterday, he said he didn't enjoy the bread.) There are also pickups at places like Harvest Market in Cambridge or Somerville, etc.

Some CSA's have added bells and whistle. Like you can have an allotment of pick your own fruits and veggies if you go to the farm. Some will even give you discounts if you pledge to do a certain amount of work on the farm (like weeding, which could be fun if you really wanna get your hands dirty). One even required that you do work on the farm to join the CSA. Overall, I went with the simpler plan with an easier pick up. And Stillman's looked more organized than some of the smaller farms. We get a newsletter ever week to tells us what to expect the following week and updates on the farm. I'm really looking to the fresh fruits and veggies we'll be receiving. And it just feels good to be supporting a local farm. (a small business, just like me!) So to find a CSA near your, click here.

SHOULD I JOIN A CSA? AND OTHER NEWS IN THE RESERVATIONS DEPARTMENT

Ok, I'm a little annoyed right now because I just wrote this long, lovely post. And when I went to publish it, I got kicked offline. So here I am, retyping. Sigh. I guess it's a good think that I have so much free time at work today.

So as many of you know, I'm off to NY in a week for a food filled weekend (actually, most of you will be coming along.) This will be the first time since before I opened the store when I'm visiting NY and NOT WORKING. I normally just fill in any fun and dining around my work schedule, but not his weekend. It'll just be a weekend of gluttony. Yesterday I got on the phone and started making my reservations, which ended up being much easier than I expected. No one asked for a credit card. On Saturday night, we'll be dining at Tory's (It's a yakitori place; we'll see how it compares to my beloved Yakitoriya in LA). On Sunday we're having brunch at 12th St. Bar and Grill in Brooklyn and lastly, I tried to make reservations at Room 4 Dessert. Unfortunately the woman said that that was their busiest time of the day (9:30 on a Saturday night), so she'd call me back. I have a feeling I'm not going to hear from her, so I'm gonna start searching for another place. The only reservation left is for Enoteca, so I'll be making that reservation next week. I got lucky last time, so am hoping for the same this time around.

In other news, I'm wondering if I should join a CSA. (Community supported agriculture.) Time magazine did a whole cover story this week on whether it's better to eat locally or organically. The article was subsequently picked up by blogs and the Today show. For me, I would rather eat locally than organically. There's something to be said about enjoying an ear of corn that was picked 6 hours ago compared to eating an apple that was shipped from Chile, even if it organic. However, I live in Boston, where the growing season is pretty short. (I'll note that the Today show interviewed shoppers at the SF farmer's market. Unfortunately, nearly 90% of the nation cannot benefit from a year round growing season.)

But the Time article got me thinking and I started looking for CSAs in the Boston area. As most of you know, I have a subscription to Boston Organics, where I get an order of organic fruits and veggies once every two weeks. It's super convenient since they deliver to my store. They source locally when they can, but that's basically impossible 6 months out of the year. So a lot of the stuff comes in from CA, Florida and even South America. The produce I get from them is also highly perishable. It lasts maybe 3-5 days, so I normally have to cook it right away, which isn't always easy. Joining a CSA would be nice because the food would be super fresh. The payment upfront can be a lot (ranging from $300-$600), but I think it averages out. Plus most of these farms have once a week pick up locations in Cambridge or JP. One of them will even deliver. I'm thinking I'll join over the summer, but I'll do some more research and let you know the one I pick.

ARE YOU REALLY ED LEVINE??

I'm sitting here at work today, paying bills as usual and organizing for a charity event that I'm participating in this evening, when Tom sends me an IM. He asked if he knew that Ed Levine (or someone claiming to be Ed Levine) had commented on my blog. So right now, everyone scroll down to my post about Mozza and read the comment. Then offer your opinion as to whether or not this is truly Ed Levine.

I write this blog for a few reasons. Mainly because it keeps me entertained at work, and it keeps my friends entertained for a few minutes while they're taking a break from studying or working. It also lets me keep track of restaurants I've visited and things I've eaten, rather than letting all those meals fade away in my memory. And it lets family and friends who aren't close by know what I've been up to. It's a small blog and I'm pretty obscure. I don't think I even pop up on a Google search. So I find it a bit implausible that someone as well known as Ed Levine would have found it.

Of course just in case it really is Ed Levine, I went and edited my previous post on Union (I found a few spelling mistakes.) And for those of you who are still wondering who Ed Levine is, then you don't really read my blog very often, since I'm always commenting about his website, Serious Eats, or his old blog Ed Levine Eats. He's a well known food authority. Ruth Reichl actually dedicated a whole chapter in her book Garlic and Sapphires to Ed. So if you are really and truly Ed Levine, I thank you for reading my blog. It's an honor. Really. (And for the rest of you, I don't love you any less.)

THE FASTEST RESTAURANT WEEK DINNER EVER

In a previous post, I announced that restaurant week had officially started in Boston. So last night we went out to our first of two restaurant week dinners. The first was at Union in the South End. I have wanted to go to Union for sometime, mainly for their Sunday brunch, but of course, I still hadn't made it there, even after a strong endorsement from Leah. This was the perfect opportunity to check out their decor and sample some of their dishes.

So we arrived on a very cold and windy Boston evening(the forecasters call it "blustery"). Luckily, I had found some street parking nearby. As we walked into the restaurant, I noticed that it was much smaller than I had expected. But it was cozy. The bar area is partitioned off from the dining room area, but both were packed. I gave my name and we were quickly escorted through the bustling dining room. We were seated towards the back, and I could immediately tell that all those around us were also enjoying the prix fixe menus (why else would a single table have 3 of the exact same dessert?). The dining room is very dimly lit and filled with black leather booths. The tables are also very close together, so I gave up on trying to take pictures with flash since I knew this would disturb our neighboring diners, and since it was so dark, it was pointless to take pics altogether.

It's hard to tell what dining at a restaurant during restaurant week will be like. In the past, I've had some truly disappointing meals, almost dismissing restaurant week entirely. On the other hand, I've had some great meals, like at Mistral. If you remember from last year, Rialto kept us waiting 45 minutes for our table during restaurant week. Even though they'd participated numerous times, they still didn't have their routine down for this busy time. Union was the total opposite. They had this restaurant week thing down to a science. The service wasn't unpleasant, they didn't rush us out, but they were efficient beyond belief.

I was happy to see that for restaurant week, they still served you a mini cornbread in a cast iron skillet, which Leah had told me about. It was toasty and warm, and delicious. We gobbled that up quickly. Union only gives you two choices for restaurant week (again with the efficiency), so I ordered one selection while Tom got the exact opposite. For my appetizer, I got a black bean soup with shrimp ceviche and avocado and Tom got a wedge of iceberg with blue cheese and bacon.

Remember, during restaurant week, restaurants are trying to stretch their budgets and break even, so they don't give you the best stuff. But I think Union did a good job. Tom and I both enjoyed our appetizers, but my soup was really filling. We're talking about a bowl of pureed beans. So I was kinda full after my soup, even though I didn't finish it.

Immediately after we finished our appetizers, our plates were whisked away, and there was a small break before our entrees showed up. Tom had gotten a pork loin with sides of pureed sweet potato and red coleslaw while I had a catfish encrusted in nuts on a bed of rice and spinach all in a bourbon cream sauce. I was surprised that my catfish fillet was really well cooked. It was also a very thick and generous portion. So much so that I only ate half of it. The waiter inquired if I hadn't enjoyed the entree, but it was just that I was full. It was a very good dish, though. Tom also like his pork, though it may have been sitting under a heat lamp for a while (we can blame that on Restaurant Week).

Lastly, we finished with dessert. I could tell that 90% of the tables around me had ordered the exact same dessert that I'd ordered, a rocky road bread pudding. I'm not a fan of bread pudding (it has to do with the texture) so I kinda poked at this one. It was served warm, which I appreciated and it tasted pretty good, but again, I was stuffed. And really, it wasn't worth the calories to eat something I didn't love. Tom had a mini banana cream pie, which you could tell was assembled quickly and easily. I don't think the tart shell had been made in house, but you can chalk all this up to Restaurant Week.

Overall, we had a pleasant meal. And we made it out of there under an hour (not a bad thing since I was exhausted after a full day at work). Again, the service wasn't unpleasant, just uber efficient. I don't think they would've minded had we stayed at dinner longer. The final last touch was quite pleasant. They presented each diner with a coupon, where you could return to Union in the next 2 months and enjoy any three courses off their regular menu at the restaurant week price. I think that was quite generous. (I just checked their menu and the most expensive three course meal you can order is about $51. So getting that for $33 isn't a bad deal). Union isn't a super expensive restaurant. The prices are quite reasonable, in line with Eastern Standard and other places, so I wouldn't be surprised if we were back soon.

AH MOZZA, YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD DEFEATED ME....

I was about to give up and wave the white flag. I'd been trying to call Mozza continuously for 4 hours and still hadn't gotten through. Getting reservations at Per Se and Enoteca wasn't this hard (although I'll admit both cases involved a little luck). But this was ridiculous.

As some of you know, I'm off to LA next month to attend my best friend's wedding. I'll only be home for 4 nights, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to try out the new Nancy Silverton-Mario Batali pizza joint, Mozza. It has been highly praised, and Ed Levine announced that it could be one of the best pizzas in the U.S.! Since I normally go home once to twice a year, I thought this would be the perfect time to try it out. Of course, I was also checking the blogs and Chowhound and knew this was a tough reservation to get (by LA standards). They were taking reservations 31 days in advance, so yesterday, I got on the phone at 10AM (LA time) and started calling. The lines were busy. The problem was, I wasn't sure if they were busy cause the reservation lines hadn't opened yet(sometimes restaurants will do this), or if they were busy cause people were calling in. I tried a few more times and gave up. At 11:30AM, I tried again. Still busy. But I knew that the place opened at noon, so I decided to call then.

At noon (LA time) I started my calls. Luckily, my cell phone has this cool automatic redial function. So I kept my phone redialing until a line opened up. An hour and a half later, I got through! But the phone just kept ringing; no one was picking up. I hung up and tried again. This went on for another 2 hours. During this time, I had watched half of The Departed, closed the store, picked up Tom and headed down to the South End for dinner. It was at this point, that my phone FINALLY rang through! I was driving, but quickly pulled over. Making the reservation wasn't hard, either. They seemed to have plenty of spots available.

After all this effort, I hope this pizza is worth it. Tom asked why I didn't just have someone in LA make the reservation, but of course, I'm the only one crazy enough to spend nearly 4 hours redialing a restaurant to make a reservations 31 days ahead. People you're lucky to have me, otherwise, you'd never get to eat at places like Enoteca and Per Se. That being said, I'm looking foward to my dinner at Mozza. In exactly 30 days....

FREE COFFEE!

Well, this doesn't particularly excite me ('m more interested in the free ice cream cones that pop up when Ben and Jerry's is celebrating Free Cone Day in April), but I'm surrounded by friends who are addicted to coffee. So here you go, courtesy of Kitchen Dish:

"COFFEE ON THE HOUSE New Yorkers are in for a lot of free coffee in the next couple of weeks. The first freebie is tomorrow, when McDonald's will hand out free cups of the stuff to anyone who asks for it, at any location. It's in celebration of being named by Consumer Reports as having the best coffee for the price (compared with other fastfood chains).

Then next Thursday, Starbucks is celebrating its second annual "coffee break" by pouring free 12-ounce cups (tall, not grande or venti) of brewed coffee between 10 a.m. and noon.

And then finally, on Wednesday, March 21, Dunkin' Donuts will celebrate the first day of spring with a free 16-ounce cup of iced coffee all day long."

True, this article specifically refers to McDonald's, but these promos normally run nationwide. You can check individual websites on your own to verify.

HI RISE V. CLEAR FLOUR

Welcome to the start of Boston's Winter Restaurant Week. That's right people, if you don't have reservations by now, you're probably not gonna get them. Just kidding. There are so many restaurants participating, I'm sure it's not hard to get one, even now. I have two reservations for this week: Union and Chez Henri. Both restaurants I've wanted to visit for sometime, and now I finally get to go! Actually this month will be filled with eating, since I'm headed out to NY next week. It'll be the NY foodfest weekend. And April will be the time to purge my system, exercise and lose weight month. But let's just make it through March first, shall we?

Yesterday we actually went to two bakeries in one day. We started the morning by having brunch at Hi Rise Bakery in Huron Village. We were joined by a number of friends and when we arrived to Hi Rise, the place was packed. However, the crowd tends to ebb and flow there. So after placing our orders and slowly grabbing seats, we were eventually able to grab a whole large table to ourselves. I got a sandwich and only finished half of it. (I'm having the other half for lunch today). Tom got a very generous bread basket. And since it was his first trip to Hi Rise, I think it was a great way for him to try out the breads there. Overall they were well made, but I think the breads at Hi Rise just tend to be bolder breads. The don't have the delicate artistry of the breads made at Clear Flour. So after some grocery shopping, we made out weekly trip to Clear Flour. I was able to grab two of those delicious sesame bread sticks, while Tom got an Epi French baguette (the braided kind). The breads tasted wonerful, as usual. And I'm glad the we make a weekly trip here now.

Now we just need a visit to Iggy's and Sel de la Ter to make this survey of Boston bakeries complete.

I TRUSS A CHICKEN

I'll get back to the title of my post in a minute. First, let me show this pictures to Katie (the only one who will truly appreciate it). That's right. Tom bought me a jar of Ortiz's Big Papi Salsa. He then proceeded to eat most of it himself. ( I had a little. I'll admit I finished off the bag of corn chips that went with the salsa.) It wasn't too bad. Kinda sweet, but you could identify the chunks of corn and black beans. Now maybe we can all hit a ball like Big Papi.

Ok, back to the title of this post. I decided I wanted to try out this simple recipe for a Roast Chicken by Thomas Keller. The recipe is in his Boucon cookbook, but it's also posted online on the epicurious site. Now, I've made a bunch of roast chickens over my lifetime. But this one promised to have the simplest preparation with the crunchiest skin. I was skeptical about it at first. You don't add any type of fat to the chicken. You don't even baste it. You bascially dry it really well, stick it in an oven at high heat ane leave it alone. The idea is that you don't want to add liquid which would cause the chicken to steam, rather than cookup crisply. Also the chicken skin adds a natural barrier to prevent moisture from escaping. I've always rubbed the chicken skin with something, be it butter or olive oil, to keep the chicken moist, but I thought I'd give this a shot. After all, who am I to question Thomas Keller?

Because this recipe required so little stuff, it was important for me to stick to the recipe. We went out to Whole Foods and bought a 3.5 pound organic chicken. And we also bought some kitchen string for me to truss the chicken. Now, I've never trussed a chicken before, but Keller says that you really should do it, since it helps the chicken to cook more evenly. Reading the comment section of the Epicurious website, I learned that you could find a video of how to acorn squash and rutabaga puree using this recipe. It was simple and turned out quite well. The sweetness of the acorn squash really helped to mellow the sharper flavors of the rutabaga.

But onto the bird. I stuck it in the oven, and left it alone, just like Thomas Keller told me to. And 50 minutes, it came out prefectly cooked and a crispy, golden brown. I did leave it on the rack when I cooked it in the oven, again, hoping the air would circulate beneath and keep the skin crisp. That skin really was crispy (though less so after I basted it with the pan juices). And the meat was juicy and perfectly cooked. This really was one of the bet roasted chickens I have ever made. No kidding. The only problem was that it did smoke and create a little havoc in the kitchen. We had to open the door to air it all out and get the fan going. But other people had had the same problem, so I'll check the comments section again the next time I make this to avoid the smoke.

Lastly, here's a pic of Tom's plate. (He likes chicken breast). A perfectly cooked serving of chicken on the acorn squash and rutabaga puree. I'm looking foward to going home and eating the leftovers tonight.

NATIONAL PIG DAY....

For my friends who love pork, here's something special for you today.