I'M A FAMOUS FOODIE!

Ok, readers, I don't know if you all know this, but I am a famous foodie. That's right. Me. Why do I state this today? Because apparently I have the ability to influence eating choices of completely random strangers. (Yes, I realize I occasionally influence the eating decisions of the 5 friends and family that read this- some more than others, but I'm talking totally random stranger this time) Here's what unfolded last night: Phone rings.

Me: Hey Leah, what's up?

Leah: Umm, did you know that someone mentions you in a review of Oishii on Citysearch?

Me: Uhm, no. What are you talking about?

Leah: (Reads excerpt from Citysearch below)

Me: Uhhh, that's weird.

Leah: Yeah. Ok. Talk to you later!

After having this discussion, I had to look it up myself, so you can click here to find it or keep reading....

Sushi Rolls do not a true sushi bar make. Having eaten at restaurants like Nobu, Masa, Sushi Yasuda, Jewel Bako and other top sushi restaurants in the United States this is merely average fair. I don’t understand why this is rated as high as it is and why a foodie like Caroline Yeh raves about this place. The fish is fresh but average, the presentation and orginality is lacking. This merely an average sushi experinces. I have also had the pleasure of eating at Kyubei 8-7-6 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo, Japan. And had the privilege of meeting the second generation Kyubei himself. Kyubei has been opened for 71 years and it just doesn’t get any better than this. In this temple of sushi only the freshets of fish on perfectly flavored rice some with a hint of wasabi, some with a hint of grated lime is offered up and eaten by true sushiphiles using their fingers to hold the tender succulent morsels up to their eager mouths. There are no bottles of soy on the bar and no wasabi is provided. The sushi is served as the chef see fit. Live shrimp, uni, abalone, tuna belly, yellow tail, all presented on handcrafted pottery. The best I ever had a set of 12 pieces chosen by the chef (omakase shimasu", which means roughly, "I trust you [the chef]." was $80.00 USD with a glass of cold premium sake. Sorry Oishii…………. I will actually be in Boston on business and I am looking at trying Ken Oringer UNI. Lets see if it holds up to my criteria for great sushi.

After reading this entry, I had to think of what made this woman think that I liked Oishii so much. Then I remembered that a few months ago Citysearch had asked me to write something up about local places I visit. My quote of Oishii is "No longer a secret for Boston sushi lovers, it's definitely worth waiting to snag a seat in this cozy restaurant." I don't really consider that a rave. And to be honest, I haven't eaten at Oishii in two years.

I found it totally funny that this person took her review of Oishii as an opportunity to brag about all the high faluting sushi restaurants that she's been to in the U.S. and abroad. And hey, you've got me there. All the places she's mentioned (minus Nobu) are places I can't even afford to eat at. And more than that, everyone reading this knows that I rarely eat sushi in Boston, preferring to go home and eat a local joints in LA. I think Oishii is good by Boston standards, but what I expect at the average sushi place in LA. And lastly, as most of you all know, I don't eat raw fish (it's a texture thing, not because I'm afraid of eating raw stuff), so yeah, I wouldn't be the best judge of raw sushi. I just eat the rolls.

But still, totally random stranger, not even from Boston, thinks my opinion is worth listening to. Are there any more of you out there? If so, speak up. I'm curious.

SHAKE SHACK

Well, it was the last meal of the trip and I decided to take my sister to the famous/infamous Shake Shack. For those of you who don't know, Shake Shack was opened by Danny Meyers (the restaurateur of well known places like Gramercy Tavern, etc. ) in the middle of Madison Square Park. (next to the Flatiron building). It is famous for it's burgers and because it's only open like 4 months of the year, the anticipation and countdown for it's opening is also well known. I think it's most infamous for its lines, which are so long that they have a live webcam on their website so people can plan their visits accordingly. Tom (not my Tom, Jeany's Tom) accurately described it as the In N Out of New York (at double the price and there's only one of them for a population of 10 million).

It opens at 11am, so we arrived a little before then. We saw the Shake Shack team sitting outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and we quickly grabbed some tables. As 11 approached, a line began, so we joined it.

Luckily, it wasn't too bad. And the entire time we were there, there was a line, but it never got to be too crazy. The thing I discovered this weekend is that if you go to NY during holiday weekends, and you hit the places that's normally mobbed by locals, you have a much better chance of getting what you want, because the locals are gone, and the tourists don't know about it. After placing our ordered, we were given little devices that vibrated when our orders were ready- which was less than 10 minutes later.

Here's Tom's order of Shake burger and we shared an order of fries. The fries were pretty good. I know Shake Shack gets a lot of crap for using frozen fries, but due to the way these fries are cut, they end up being really crispy and I enjoyed them. Tom also enjoyed his burger.

Here's my order of Second City Bird dog. It's a chicken and apple sausage with mustard, onion, relish, pickles and red peppers slices. It was good, but so big I couldn't finish it. And they put too much mustard on it, which ended up squirting all over hand. The main thing i didn't like about it was the bun. Since it wasn't grilled or anything, it was a little weak and actually fell apart as I ate the hot dog. The good thing about the sausage was that it was the first apple chicken sausage I've ever had where you can also see chunks of apple inside.

And here's my little sis with her bf, Ben. She's enjoying a double burger. If you happen to order this, be warned that it's two patties on a bun. That's it. So if you want the extra stuff, order a Shake Burger.

I think everyone really enjoyed their food. It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't too expensive, either. (by NY standards) And we got to enjoy it in a beautiful park on a lovely day. I wouldn't wait an hour in line for it (hell, I wouldn't wait 30 minutes in line, maybe 15) but for the day and time, it really was a great meal. So if you're there early, and there's no line, than check out Shake Shack for a yummy burger and crispy fries.

RED HOOK BALLFIELDS

We didn't arrive to the Red Hook Ballfields until 3:30, and we were all starving and ready to eat. Luckily, there were plenty of food options. So what are the Red Hook Ballfields? You can read about it in the NYTimes review. Suffice it to say, it is filled with Latin American food vendors, so I could eat to my heart's content. When we arrived, it was pretty crowded, and even though it was late in the day, many of the vendors had lines for food.

We got in the first line we saw, a line for huraches. They're kinda like gigantic soft tacos, but the middle of each tortilla is filled with a thin layer of beans. Here's a pic of them being grilled. We ordered one for each of us, two chicken and two beef.

Here's mine, filled with lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, cheese and I don't know what else. Though the chicken wasn't grilled (unlike the steak), it was still really tasty. I enjoyed it a lot.

After acquiring are huraches, we got in line for drinks- fresh fruit juice. We ordered one lime, and Tom got a watermelon, which he really liked. Meanwhile, I was off buying one of my favorite food items, grilled corn. Here's a pic of the guy grilling the corn... And here's a pic of my half eaten corn. Smothered with mayo, cheese, chili and lime, it was delicious and I had eaten half of it before we even sat down.

We grabbed a seat on a grassy patch and munched away. And amazingly enough, I still wanted another corn after finishing my hurache. So off we went, and I finished that one, too. Meanwhile, Tom was also still a bit hungry, so he ordered some taquitos.

They had already been fried once, but they were put into the hot oil again, to be heated a second time. They were then topped with some pickled veggies and salsa. When Tom got them, they had been so over fried that they were tough and it was hard to even identify which type of meat was inside (I guessed pork or chicken). They weren't the best item of the day, but I thought everything else was great. And it was just nice to be outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and eating delicious food.

GROM

Well, we had made it to New York. After a tiring drive down, we had some NY pizza for dinner and finally retired for the evening. My sister did bring me some lovely treats from LA. Mainly some fresh cherries! (They're in season in CA right now) And they were delicious. I started eating them as soon as I got them. The next day dawned sunny and very very warm. It was time to head out for some eats and a tour of NY. I had planned on heading up to Soho to check out Caffe Falai and picking up my anchovies from Despana, but we got a late start. So we decided to grab a quick breakfast and head up town. My sister and her bf, Ben, had not been to Central Park, and I thought it'd be a good time to check out Grom on the UWS.

There was a street festival in full swing when we arrived, but luckily, most New Yorkers had left for the holiday weekend. So when we showed up at Grom, the line wasn't very long.

Despite this, it was a bit of a wait because the employees didn't seem to have a system down yet (I guess it has only been open for a month).

So if you don't know what Grom is, it's an Italian gelato shop that's just opened its first location in the U.S. Both the NYTimes and mostly, Ed Levine, wrote a praising reviews of the place, so I had to check it out. I knew about the astronomical prices ($4.25 for a small) and the long lines, but I love gelato so much that I hoped it'd be worth the trouble.

We all ended up getting mediums, and for 4 people, it came out to be $24! (with tax). Here are the medium size cups. (And yes, the medium size is what we'd call a "small" at any other store). I ordered extra noir chocolate, ruby red grapefruit and cappuccino. Tom just got the grapefruit (a sorbetto, rather than a gelato)

And here's the almond granita that my little sis ordered.

So was it worth it? The ultimate verdict: not really. The gelato wasn't any more amazing than gelato I've had in Italy, but more than that, it wasn't so much more amazing than gelato I've had in the U.S.; most recently at Mozza and at Il laboratio del gelato and Capogiro. I mean, the gelatos were very good, and I really enjoyed the mellow, creamy flavor of the cappuccino, but at these prices, I'll go elsewhere. My sister's granita ended up being watery and too sweet. It tasted a lot like the almond jelly dessert that you get at dim sum. So if you happen to be up on the UWS, I'd suggest a trip, but to make a special trip out there? Don't bother.

We walked off our gelatos with a long walk through Central Park...all the way to the Nintendo Flagship store at Rockefeller Center where Tom had his favorite moment of the trip, buying himself a Wii. (Actually, my sister and her bf also bought consoles). After dropping them off at the hotel, we were ready for some lunch at the Red Hook Ballfields.

A LAST MINUTE TRIP TO NY

Well readers, in a few short hours Tom and I will be heading down to NY. What you say? How is that? Well, my little sis was supposed to come to Boston this weekend. We had a trip to Maine planned for some fresh lobsters. But at some point last night, she figured out that she'd purchased the wrong plane tickets. She'd bought them for BWI, as in Baltimore, Maryland. I found out a couple of minutes after opening at the store when I found an SMS message from her.

So after I bit of scrambling, phone calls and planning, we've decided to meet her halfway and spend the weekend in NY. I'm actually not really too annoyed about this. We go to NY so frequently that it's like a second home (or for Tom, he actually IS going home) and I always have a list going of all the places I want to eat in NY. In fact, I already have the entire weekend mapped out. Not of places we should visit, (like the MET, MOCA, etc.) but of places we'll be eating. I want to make a trip to Grom (the new Italian gelato place), the Red Hook Ballfields, Despana(oil packed anchovies from Spain) and maybe even a trip to the Union Square Greenmarket and Shake Shack. So come next week, you'll have plenty of posts to read about this trip to NY.

A PREVIEW OF KO PRIME

The KO in KO Prime stands for Ken Oringer. His new venture, a steakhouse that took over the space of Spire, opened just 3 weeks ago. Not much has been written about it (it just opened after all), but the handful of reviews on Chowhound have been pretty positive. We (Leah, Elisabeth, Tom and I) were able to check it out last night, courtesy of Leah and a Daily Candy party. Leah had been invited to the party, and I crashed (not very difficult at these type of events) mainly cause Leah knows Ken, and we are both friends with Jamie, the former chef at Eastern Standard and current chef de cuisine at KO Prime.

When we arrived, the place was pretty packed, but we quickly spotted the display of charctuerie and snagged ourselves some seats. We snacked on small bites during the time we were there, so of course, this can't be a full assessment of the place. So first for the surroundings. I was told that the space was small and that was right on. The main dining room we were was probably 1,000 sq feet. There was a neighboring bar area, but really, there couldn't have been more then 20 tables in that space. They decorated with chic steakhouse themed decor: antler chandeliers, cow's hide rug and chairs also covered in cow hide.

Even though Ken Oringer is the consulting chef here, it was nice to see that he allowed Jamie's character to shine through, and many of the classics served at ES are also present at KO Prime. I've already read on Chowhound that Jamie is serving bone marrow. But he also has his usual variety of homemade charcuterie. Elisabeth, Tom and Leah snacked on plates full of stuff, while I hoarded things for them.

Of course, I would be out of luck on sampling many of the items at KO Prime, since I don't eat red meat or pork, so here a quick listing of what we did try:

Lobster Bisque: full of lobster flavor, but far too salty.

Salt cod fritters: Served with a dollop of ketchup, it was similar to the ones served at ES, but for some reason, more yellow and again, way too salty.

Tuna tartare "burrito": Pieces of tuna tartar wrapped in a thin, flaky crust. My favorite item of the night; the tuna had a nice texture and didn't taste fishy at all. Just clean and served with a delicious, savory sauce.

Shrimp ceviche on a plantain chip: I got the last one. Not very memorable, and I'm not a fan of plantains, but ate it cause I was hungry.

Mini burgers: Tom had a few of them. Everyone felt the patties were flavorful, but the buns were too big and there was just too much bread. Perhaps it was because these were the mini versions. Maybe the bigger version is different?

Kuamamoto oysters: Tiny little guys. Tom said they had alcohol in them, so he wasn't a big fan. I gave him mine.

Steak with caramelized onion on a stick: Doesn't everything taste better on a stick? Tom said he liked this a lot. (Despite the fact that his caramelized onion fell off).

There was one really nice server who kept bringing us stuff. (I think it's because she was Asian and we were the only group of Asians there. Though according to Leah, I'm not Asian- long story). So we had a fun time. The food wasn't spectacular (SALT ALERT!), but they were just little bites, and after it's been open a little longer, we'll make a trip back and I'll give you a full review.

NANTUCKET DAY 2 AND BACK IN BOSTON

We awoke in Nantucket to driving rain and high winds. We were in full Nor'easter mode, here, with the rain coming in at a 45 degree angle. We packed up and decided to head for breakfast and then to the ferry. While struggling to get to breakfast ( a mere 5 blocks away) we got completely drenched. So it was a real pleasure to enter the Fog Island Cafe, where we were immediately welcome and shown to our seats so we could take off our wet layers.

We were served coffee and given the menus. It was clear that the places was full of locals. The summer season hasn't started yet on Nantucket, and attendees of the Nantucket Wine Festival hadn't really shown up quite yet, so being surrounded by locals was quite nice. While perusing the menu, I was going through the typical dilemma of salt or sweet? Omelette or scramble? Initially I was going to order the Nantucket Fishcakes, Benedict-style, but I thought it'd be too rich. Tom ordered them instead. I think he enjoyed them a lot. They were packed with fresh seafood and crab, which I kept picking out and eating.

Meanwhile, I had a special scramble for breakfast. It featured a lot of stuff I can't recall right now, but I was won over by the mention of artichokes. It was quite tasty and the homefries were pretty good (though they couldn't compare to the ones we'd had the previous day). We didn't welcome the idea of going back out into the rain, but ran for the ferry terminal. Then it was a rocky 2 hour trip back to the mainland. I was thrilled when we finally docked and I was once again on firm ground. After that, it was a drive back up to Boston, and when we finally reached the warmth of our apartment, it was nearly 5. I was able to shower and get dry and then it was off to dinner with a group of friends at Tasca.

When we left for Nantucket, dinner at Tasca had been a group of 5. That's a pretty good number to go with, because Tasca is a tapas restaurant, so everyone can share and try lots of dishes. However, at some point the number had ballooned to 10 people. Huong had made a reservation for 8, and Tasca takes reservations up to 6:30, but the servers were quite helpful in accomadating our large number. Unfortunately, Tasca won't seat you until your entire party arrives, so around 7, we finally got to sit down. Tom and I were starving and exhausted after our long trip from Nantucket, and were eager to eat. Since there were 10 people at dinner, chaos reigned. There was no way that we could all order together, so basically people got to order whatever they wanted. Tom and I each picked 3 tapas and we tried a number of others since we all ended up sharing. Here's a pic of one half of the table:Here's a plate of roasted duck leg served over red cabbage and apples. I hadn't ordered it, but did get to try it. The duck was tender, falling off the bone, but it was also dry. It was an ok dish and it was one of the ones that went unfinished. I ordered the patatas bravas:Leek Tart:and gambas al ajillo:
My favorite was the leek tart. The pastry was crispy and the filling flavorful and soft. The gambas were also pretty good, but the waitress took it away before I could finish dipping bread into the garlic infused olive oil.

Toro is still my favorite tapas place in the city, but I think Tasca is pretty good, too. The good thing is that it is certainly less expensive than Toro, with each tapa coming in around $4-$8/plate. If you do end up going here, I highly suggest going with a smaller group, but I think you'll have an enjoyable experience either way.

NANTUCKET, DAY 1

Well, we were off to Nantucket. No, not for a little weekend getaway. I was teaching a course at the Nantucket Wine Festival for the second year in a row. So I thought I'd take Tom along, since he'd never been, and it's always fun to have a traveling companion. We left super early on Thursday morning (around 6am) to avoid traffic and make it to the 9:15 am ferry. Luckily, the roads were pretty much wide open, and we arrived in Hyannis before 8. Knowing we might have a little time to grab breakfast, I had looked up the Collucci's Brother's Diner and we headed over there to grab something to eat.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I knew about this place after watching an episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay." It's not a show I usually watch, but they were doing a competition in Hyannis! (and most likely, nothing else was on). When we walked in, the place was fairly empty (it was super early), so we were seated quickly. The interior is filled with mismatched furniture and mugs. It's decorated with lots of New England style memorabilia- Red Sox stuff, baseballs caps from local fire stations, etc.

We were given coffee right away, which was quite welcome due to the low temperature outside. We then perused the menu and decided on what we'd be ordering. At this point, a few locals had started arriving and the servers sort of forgot about us. Finally someone came by to take our orders. I ordered biscuits and gravy (I love biscuits) and a side of homefries. Here's a shot of the homefries, which honestly must have been some of the best homefries EVER. They were crispy all over and creamy and soft in the middle. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd been deep fried at some point.

And here are my biscuits and gravy. I was a little disappointed to find the gravy inundated with chunks of meat (what appeared to be sausage), so I had to scrape that off to the best of my ability. In addition, the biscuit wasn't so great. It seemed to be day old and heated in the microwave, because it had the tough quality of microwave heated pastries. I wasn't so thrilled, but was so happy with my homefries that I just finished those up.

Tom, on the other hand, LOVED his order of protein on protein- Corned beef hash with two eggs AND a side of bacon. You know considering that this is what he chooses to order for breakfast, I don't think he should blame me for making him fat. He actually finished the entire thing, too. Sigh, that's my boyfriend...

Then it was off to Nantucket. We took the ferry over and arrived around 12:30. So it seemed like a good time to go searching for lunch. I had printed out a few lunch/breakfast options for our trip and thought the Something Natural Cafe would be a good place to go for a light lunch of sandwiches. I realized that it'd be a bit of a walk from where we were, but the sun was finally peaking out through the clouds. As we began our walk, I noticed that we were walking past homes. There really weren't any businesses about. And when we finally arrived, it turned out that the place was a house.We walked in and looked at the display of fresh bread and pastries and ended up ordering a couple of half sandwiches and drinks. There weren't any tourists here, just locals, and it's probably a place they just stop by to pick up a quick lunch. There are no seats indoors, just picnic tables outside, in a yard, with this boat. It really was a cute place for a picnic lunch. And here are our sandwiches. I got turkey with tomato and cheese on herb bread.
And Tom got a turkey sandwich with lettuce. To be honest, these sandwiches weren't all that great. I could've made the same thing at home. And overall, I don't think it was work the ten minute walk up hill. After I taught my class, we spent the afternoon settling in and getting ready for dinner. Dinner was the one thing I was looking foward to the most on Nantucket, because I had made reservations for us at Sfoglia. Their NY location had gotten a great review from the NYTimes a few months ago, and my publicist had gone the previous evening and had an excellent dinner there. Though it was a bit cold, and the wind had started blowing, we decided to walk to dinner, and this is where Google Maps screwed up. When we finally reached the place indicated on the map (a 20 minute walk), there was no restaurant to be found. I called the restaurant and found out that we needed to keep walking, they were located mid-island and after another 15 minutes, we finally arrived on their doorstep. I'll mention that I didn't take pics here because it was too dark and small and I didn't want my flash disturbing other diners.

The restaurant is located in a small house. It really is quite "cozy" aka tiny. The dining room is dimly lit, but decorated with whimsical stuff. Old kitchen implements and bowls of various fresh ingredients - a tub of potatoes, citrus fruits on one table, a giant bowl of artichokes on another and our table had a glass jar of rhubarb. Tom described the style as distressed-chic. We were quickly shown to our table by one of the two waitresses, who were also filling many roles- answering phones, bussing, seating ppl, etc. To be honest, the space really couldn't fit more than two of them.

We were given a small bowl of olives to munch on and then the menus. It wasn't a huge menu, which I like because that means that things are fresh and seasonal. And we both decided to order several courses. After we ordered, we were given a plate of breads and a plate of live oil on the side. I decided not to fill up after ordering 3 courses. I started off with a bowl of spinach soup and Tom got an order of cheeses. (I found it unusual that they were serving cheese as an appetizer since normally this is served at the end of the meal, but whatever. ) I really like my spinach soup. If you think of saag paneer, minus the paneer and pureed until it was a soup with melt of the mouth veggies, that would be this soup. Nice intense flavors. They topped it with bits of frittata, which I thought were unnecessary. Tom enjoyed his cheeses. His favorite was a gongonzola.

Next, we were served our entrees. I had ordered a pollo al mattone, which is chicken under a brick. I like making this dish at home, but what I liked about the one at Sfoglia was that they didn't just use a breast, they used half a chicken. Plus they had nicely seared the skin and put red chili flakes all over it (I'll be doing that next time). I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken, despite the fact that it was a bit undercooked. (I didn't send it back because I was so full I didn't finish it). But my most favorite dish of the night was the simplest one- a side of radish bagna cauda. Normally a bagna cauda is served more like a fondue, but in this case, I was given a bowl of mini radishes with the anchovy sauce on the bottom and topped, oddly enough, with grated hard boiled egg. The combination was DELICIOUS. The egg didn't add much flavor so much as an interesting texture, but the anchovy sauce and radishes were great. I'm gonna try to make it at home.

Meanwhile, Tom was working on a massive veal chop that was the size of his plate. On top of this, he had ordered a side of spaghetti with calamari. I wasn't a huge fan of the spaghetti, cause it tasted so briny (like calamari, I suppose), but I think Tom enjoyed both dishes. Unsurprisingly, he didn't finish his veal chop.

And lastly, Tom had ordered a freshly made almond and fig jam tart. They had asked us to order this at the beginning of the meal because it takes 30 minutes to prepare. And they said it was large, so we'd have to share. I was a little annoyed that they didn't give me any other dessert options, just bringing out the tart (I know they had other desserts cause they offered it to our neighboring tables), but I wouldn't have ordered anything else, anyway. The tart was warm and delicious. It was served with a scoop of anise ice cream, which Tom ate. I'm not a fan of fig, so I mainly nibbled around the edges of the tart, eating up all the yummy, buttery pastry. We didn't finish the tart, either.

At this point in the meal, the restaurant was nearly full. A neighboring birthday party of 10 was in full swinging and the noise level in the place had become deafening. So we were happy to head out, with our bellies stuffed. The dinner was a bit of a splurge and Tom disliked the dimly lit dining room, but overall we had a great dinner and for anyone who's visiting Nantucket, I would highly recommend a visit to Sfoglia.

PIZZA PARTY!

As most of you know, Tom and kitty moved in about 2 months ago. So we thought it'd be good to have a house warming party with all our friends over. (and I wanted to try out Tom's under utilized pizza stone). Initially, I wanted to buy pizza dough from Clear Flour, but as our guest list grew, it made more sense to make our own pizza dough. I had found a very simple recipe for pizza dough in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbook, and after making it 10 times, I'll repeat it by memory for you right now:

3 cups flour (ap or bread flour- I used ap)
1 tsp dried yeast
2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup water (plus a little extra)

So you chuck the dry ingredients in a food processor, and turn it on. Then using the feeding tube of the food processor, you dribble in the olive oil, and the water and let it go for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, turn it off and touch it. If it's slightly sticky, then it's ready. If not, add water a little at a time until it reaches the right consistency. Knead and from into a ball.

Then set it aside for 1-2 hours until it doubles in size. And that's it. When you're ready to use it, you can either use the whole ball or split it in half for 2 smaller pizzas.

I wanted to make enough dough so that everyone could have at least one pizza. And I added different things to the dough as I got bored making the same one over and over. If you want to add stuff, you do it with all the dry ingredients. I added roasted garlic to some, pepper to others and I substituted one cup of the AP for whole wheat flour in others.

I prepared the dough before everyone arrived, rolling it out onto sheet pans. We also had a ton of toppings for everyone: anchovies, roasted garlic, sun dried tomoatoes, anchovies, prosciutto, pepperoni, chicken sausage, and on and on. During this entire time, I was covered in flour, so I didn't take any pics. I'll be relying on Big Ed's pics instead. So here's his happy face pizza before cooking:

and after:His turned out to be one of the heaviest pizzas. Using the pizza stone and cooking for 6-7 minutes on the broil setting and I thought they turned out great, even though we could only cook one pizza at a time, and had a pizza queue for most of the night. They turned out to be much denser than I expected. And we had set out all our cheese from Vermont as an appetizer, so most people had one pizza or shared. I was left with a ton of dough that I guess we'll be using in the future for calzones, etc. Even at the end of the night when I made my own pizza, I could only finish half of it. (Though the other half was a great snack the following day.)

We finished the dinner with gelato from TJ's. I think everyone had a great time, so if you ever what to make pizza at home, follow the simple recipe above and I think it'll turn out great.

TAIWANESE DIM SUM IN BROOKLINE

A few weeks Tom, Suemin and I were at Shabu Village eating dinner. During dinner, Tom figured out that he had worked with one of the owners while in college (over a decade ago) and they got to talking. She told us that they had started serving a traditional Taiwanese breakfast during the weekends, and we promised to return to try it out.

Now most of you call Taiwanese breakfast Taiwanese dim sum. Why? I don't know, but I'll go along with it. You know that my favorite spots are the ones in Belmont and Watertown, but they're always packed, and I have to drive farther to get to them. So I was pretty happy to hear that there was a closer one nearby. We invited Suemin, Huong and Harumi to join us and when we arrived at 11:30, the restaurant had just opened and was totally empty.

We were seated quickly, and Tom had a strawberry shake while we awaited the arrival of the rest of our party. Then I took over the ordering. Most of us weren't all that the hungry after the pizza party the previous evening, so I didn't order too much.

We started off with a plate of marinated cucumbers (which turned out to be far too sweet, I could make better ones at home)

And marinated seaweed. This one was good, with flavors of raw garlic and sesame oil.

And then the waiting started. I'm not sure why, since the restaurant was filled with employees and there weren't that many customers, but we would get one dish, and wait 10-15 minutes before the next dish arrived. This was especially strange because almost nothing there was made in house. (I'll explain later).

Continuing on, here's my order of chive pockets. They were pretty good, but they were much smaller than the chive pockets that I'm accustomed to, and you could tell they were not made fresh in house. They had been purchased frozen or premade.

After another wait, our "scallion pancake" arrived. These aren't the normal scallion pancakes that you get. I've had it before, but it's more like a scallion bread. And again, it was premade. You could buy an entire loaf at a grocery store. Sometimes my mom will get it at home. Plus the portion was tiny. After another wait, our orders of soup dumplings arrived. Now I was happy that these did look good and everyone seemed to enjoy them (Since I don't eat beef or pork, I didn't partake)

After we'd finished these, the waitress actually came out to apologize that they're portions were so small and asked if we wanted to order other stuff. Since we were still waiting for our soy milks and beef pockets, we turned her down. And like I said, we weren't that hungry anyway.

We did finally get our soy milks and for whatever unexplained reason, they waited until almost the end of the meal to get them to us. Normally, it's one of the first things served, so you can dip stuff into it. (but they didn't even have the traditional fried dough that you do dip)

The last thing to arrive (after another wait) was the beef in a sesame pocket. People enjoyed this one, too. But again, I have no idea why it took so long since the beef is served cold, so all you have to do it toast the sesame pocket.

So you can all tell that I wasn't a huge fan of Taiwanese dim sum at Shabu Village. First, it took way to long- over an hour and a half. I am a fan of their shabu, but they don't have a full kitchen and aren't equipped to serve freshly made foods. They're really much better at reheating. If I wanted to prepare Taiwanese dim sum at home, I could've come up with exactly what they'd served us. Even though Tom said he liked the convenience of having it so close to us, I'd still rather make the drive out to Belmont to get freshly made fried dough and scallion pancakes. I won't be back for the dim sum at Shabu Village, but I'll certainly be back for their shabu.

A VISIT TO ROZZIE SQUARE

A couple of weeks ago the Dig wrote an article about restaurants in Roslindale. Now, I've never been to Roslindale, and though none of the restaurants really interested me, I started rooting around online and found that like almost all parts of Boston, Roslindale is gong through a revival (aka gentrification). But it still had lots of ethnic places, places to shop at, and I thought it'd be a nice place to walk around on a sunny afternoon.

When I first proposed the idea to Tom, he shot me down immediately. Having spent time living in West Roxbury and Hyde Park, he didn't have many fond memories of Roslindale Square. But after giving it some more thought, he relented and we headed out there. There were two main places I wanted to check out. The first was Fornax Bakery (well really, I wanted to take Tom, cause he's the bread fan) and the other was Roslidale Fish Market. Like many places in Boston, you never realize how close things are when you've got a car. It only took us 20 minutes to get to Roslindale, which is just past JP and the Arboretum. We parked our car a little outside the square and started to explore on foot.

I had told Leah I'd take pics of everything, but I had forgotten my camera at home. So we'll be using out imaginations today. The entire square is centered around a rotary. It's not very big, maybe 8 blocks, which makes it bigger than Huron Village, and it has lots of places where I'd like to shop. And the best part is that there was a lot of ethnic influence and cheaper prices. Our first stop was at Bob’s Pita Bakery. Apparently they used to just be a wholesale business, but now there's a grocery store up front, stocked with lots of Middle Eastern groceries and supplies. Things like bags of spices, tahini, feta, dried beans, etc. I pick up a two pound bag of bulgur, which I've wanted to try cooking for a while, a two pound bag of couscous, and Tom bought an enormous bag of freshly made pita. They also had some beautiful produce, but we had other places to visit and couldn't load up. Everything cost us only $8. I was already liking this place.

We rounded a corner and continued walking and quickly came upon the Boston Cheese Cellar. It was so cute that we had to go inside (plus Tom loves cheese). Though they don't carry as much cheese as Formaggio's (but who does?) or Whole Foods for that matter, they did seem to have a diverse selection. It's a super cute store with hardwood floors and other gourmet food selections (like chocolate- the buyer clearly goes to the Fancy Food Show every year.) One older woman was manning the store, and though she wasn't overly friendly, she did let Tom sample whatever cheese he wanted. He tried two blues and ended up getting some of both.

Next we were off to Fornax, and we found it pretty quickly. Inside we discovered a space with mismatched chairs and tables and a large selection of breads. It took Tom and me a little bit of time to figure out what we wanted, and while we thought about it, I also noticed that they serve sandwiches. We ended up getting one baguette, a butter croissant and a slice of carrot cake. Here's the baguette and butter croissant.For me, the butter croissant was far too buttery and heavy. The butter actually leaked out onto the paper bag as we carried it. I like flakier croissants. The baguette was passable, but we've truly been spoiled by Clear Flour and nothing really matches up. Lastly my carrot cake was disappointingly greasy and rather tasteless. I could've made a better carrot cake.

Our last stop was the Roslindale Fish Market. Run by a Greek couple, the grocery/fish market is totally cute. It's filled with imported Greek goods, most of which I wasn't familiar with. But you could get cans of sardines, and grape leaves and lots of fresh feta and olives. I went over to the fish counter, which wasn't packed with stuff, but I did see some gorgeous fresh red snapper. I got a 2 pounder. The husband gladly cleaned and scaled it for me and the entire fish cost $13. (It also cooked up wonderfully- great flavor and texture).They also had salt packed anchovies, probably the exact same ones as I'd gotten at Lionettes. But rather than being $26/pound, here they were $8. I didn't get any because I'm saving up to buy Spanish ones on our next trip to NY.

After an hour, we were loaded down with food and I was ready to go home and start cooking my fish. I had fun on my first trip to Roslindale. It does have its mix of more high end stores, a number of restaurants, a boat load of bakeries, but also things like a thrift store and an office for Head Start. It's clearly a changing neighborhood. I hope to take Leah sometime, cause I think she'd really like it there. And I'll certainly be back for the less expensive, fresh food and neighborhood atmosphere.

WAGAMAMA

I hadn't been down to Fanueil Hall in over a year. I truly detest visiting this tourist mecca of Boston, but that's where Wagamama was located. So on a pretty sunny Sunday morning, Tom, Leah, Patrick (Leah's friend) and I all headed down there to check it out.

We were worried that there'd be a line out the door (that's what people had been describing), but when we arrived at about 11:45, the place still hadn't opened. I doesn't open until noon on Sundays. I mini line had started, so we stood in it for a few minutes. Someone came by with menus and we browsed them as we waited, but soon the doors opened. The restaurant is very light, with huge floor to ceiling windows, and has a modern cheap chic about it. (Think Ikea). We were seated at one of the many communal tables, which had helpful little shelves underneath for our stuff. As we were seated, you could see the line outside ebbing and flowing. The line mainly existed because they had only one person seating people, not because there weren't enough seats.

Here's a pic of the kitchen that lines on side of the restaurant.

Our waitress came by pretty quickly to take drink orders and explain the concept. Despite using a handheld computer, she still wrote down our individual orders on our paper placemats. Leah and Patrick started off with carrot juice, and I got a very yummy concoction of apple juice, passion fruit and orange juice. The fruit drinks were fresh and delicious. We then turned our attention to the acutal food. The menu is quite extensive, and it was hard to decide what to get. The waitress explained that they don't have traditional appetizers, since they make the food fresh and bring out food whenever it's ready (like at Chinese restaurants). So I ordered a side of fried duck gyoza. Huh, this is kinda funny, but I'm looking at their menu online and they don't list duck gyoza as an option. At any rate, here's a pic of them.

I thought they were pretty good. The fillings had plenty of duck, but I expected them to be panfried, not deep fried. And I wasn't a fan of the actual wrapper. It was too thin and didn't have a great texture. Tom had an order of Ebi gyoza (with shrimp) and I thought it was much better than my duck. The filling was more flavorful and juicy.

Then it was onto the noodles. I wavered for a while deciding what I'd get. Tom's order of teppan-fried udon noodles with chicken marinated in ginger, garlic and lemongrass. Served with mangetout, red onions, beansprouts, chilli, egg and spring onions. Garnished with pickled ginger and fresh coriander came out first. He was surprised at how juicy the chicken was and enjoyed it.

Leah and I both ordered the ebi kare lomen, a spicy soup made from lemongrass, coconut milk, shrimp paste, chillies, fresh ginger and galangal. Served with ramen noodles and garnished with grilled prawns, beansprouts, cucumber, lime and fresh coriander. Here it is below.

I was expecting the broth to be sweeter (due the addition of coconut milk) than it ended up being. The broth was slightly spicy, but not too much, and I liked the use of fresh ingredients. However, the noodles were overcooked, and didn't possess that nice al dente bite.

We skipped dessert and opted to go to Modern Pastry in the North End instead. Overall, lunch was ok. The service was efficient, and not what had been reported online. (The restaurant wasn't full when we went, though.) It's a popular place for families and we were surrounded by children. But it was quite expensive, at nearly $20/person, and it wasn't all that spectacular. I've been comparing it to Penang, just cause it's another highly successful Asian eatery that has a large menu, many locations and a loyal following. But the food at Penang is just so much better and less expensive, it doesn't even compare. Perhaps people in the U.K. go here because a $20 lunch is cheap. London is known for being super expensive, but for me, I'd rather get my ramen elsewhere at a lower price. They'll be opening a second location in Harvard Square, and when Leah asked if I'd go back, I said, if I were a Harvard student, and I'd exhausted most of the options in Harvard Square, I'd eat there. So I guess that means I won't be going back any time soon.

I HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM

People, I gotta tell you. I have issues. Minutes after booking tickets to London to visit Jayna this summer and researching what hotel to stay at, I'm online trying to figure out what chocolate shops I'm going to be visiting. Despite having never been to London, I'm not looking up the tourist attractions like Big Ben or Kensington Place. Instead, I'm trying to figure out what are the most popular chocolate shops in London, how many I can get to in a day and how I'll get all the chocolate back in Boston intact (since it'll be August).

Furthermore, we're going to Toronto in July. And I've ALREADY figured out what chocolate shops I'm going to. We haven't even booked the rental car or hotel yet. Like seriously. It's crazy. What's wrong with me? And yet, I can't help myself...