Recipes

June 25, 2009 Appetizer

Taiwanese Meat Sauce over Rice (lo bah png)

"Lo bah bng," a meat sauce made of ground pork cooked in soy sauce with shallots and spices, is very classic Taiwanese home cooking. Whenever I have this, I am reminded of the food my mom used to make.

It's surprisingly easy to make - just takes time on the stove.

This recipe is adapted from Homestyle Cooking of Taiwan by members of NATWA

Ingredients
2 dried black mushrooms
5 shallots, minced
½ lb ground pork
1 t rice wine
½ cup soy sauce
2 cups water
1 t sugar
½ t 5-spice powder
6 cups rice (cooked)

Soak the mushrooms in hot water until soft. Meanwhile, mince the shallots. I used a food processor, which made it a lot easier. When mushrooms are soft, slice them into thin pieces.

Add 1 T of vegetable oil to a wok and put on medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add shallots and stir fry for about 1-2 minutes, until they start to brown a lot.

Add mushrooms and ground pork. Stir fry until the pork is cooked. Add rice wine, soy sauce, water, sugar, and 5-spice powder.

Let it simmer for 1 hour.

Ladle out the meat mixture and pour over rice.

There will be a lot of excess liquid. Leave that in the pot. You can optionally mix the meat sauce together with rice as well and garnish with some scallions and red pepper flakes.

June 23, 2009 Ice cream

Simple Lemon Ice Cream

I received this book for Christmas in December and this is the first time I am using it to actually make something! The author, David Lebovitz, actually has a great blog about food in general. He is currently living in Paris and conducts food tours, book signings, etc. I would love to go on one of these food tours, but they cost over $3500 per person, double occupancy!

Since I had a lot of lemons left (after making the lemon ice cream sandwiches), I decided to make some lemon ice cream from David's book. This ice cream is refreshingly lemony, light, and perfect for a hot summer day. Plus, it's easy to make since it does not involve any eggs or any cooking.

Ingredients:
½ cup lemon juice (I squeezed 3 lemons)
2 cups half & half
½ cup sugar

Step 1: zest 1 whole lemon directly into a food processor (or blender).

Step 2: Add sugar and process until the lemon zest is really fine.

Step 3: Add lemon juice and mix until the sugar is dissolved.

Step 4: Add a pinch of salt.

Step 5: Add half & half and mix together.

Step 6: Chill for about an hour

Step 7: Freeze in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. I personally use a Lello Gelato Pro, which I love since it has its own condenser. That just means you can make ice cream any time you want on a whim since you don't have to worry about freezing a big canister the night before. It is a bit expensive though. If you want, you can consider the Lello Gelato Junior, which still has its own condenser but just can't make as much ice cream at once.

Now you can serve it in a lemon shell for fun!

Or a martini glass. 🙂

June 23, 2009 Cambridge

Miracle of Science

The Miracle of Science is a bar and grille located between Central and Kendall Square in Cambridge. The name seems appropriate considering it is not far from MIT, one of the best known institutes of science and engineering.

I love the menu - it's basically a modified periodic table that lists out various grill items. My favorite thing to order is the chicken salad (Sc on the period table - $8.75). Wild greens are tossed in a lime cilantro vinaigrette and topped with grilled chicken. The dish is simple and light, but works surprisingly well. The chicken is well seasoned, and I am able to finish the entire salad, which is always nice.

Bryan always orders the Ronie Burger, (Rb) which is a jalapeno burger topped with Montery Jack cheese. It comes with a side of roasted potatoes.

Bryan also ordered a vegetable skewer ($5), which adds vegetables to the meal.

I like this place because the food is great, the atmosphere is laid back, and the prices are quite reasonable. Plus, it's a wonderfully nerdy (check out their phone number below!)

It's a great place to stop by for lunch or a casual dinner.

Miracle of Science
321 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
617 868 ATOM

June 23, 2009 Vegan

Doughnut Peaches

I love these peaches! I think they have a super short season, as I've only seen them around this time of year. They are like peaches, but they are flat (doughnut shaped!) had have a much smaller pit. They are much neater to eat than peaches, since you can pretty much fit your mouth around the entire width of the fruit.

I saw some at Whole Foods Market, but it's likely that they are in many other markets as well.

Enjoy!

June 21, 2009 Back Bay

Casa Romero

Casa Romero is a more upscale Mexican restaurant in back bay near the Prudential Center. We love coming here for their Early Bird special, which is an incredible value. As long as you order before 6pm and leave by 7pm, you can enjoy a 3-course prix-fixe menu for only $21.95. Considering that most of the entrees are around $20, this is a great value.

We thought the chips and salsa were OK. My favorite chips are still the ones at Cantina Le Mexicana, which are covered with unique spicy sauce that I've never seen anywhere else before. I personally thought the salsa was a bit salty and lacked depth compared to other salsas I've tried.

Bryan ordered the shrimp flautas as his appetizer. Although he said they were good, he admitted that he liked the flautas at Cantina Le Mexicana better. Hmmm . . I'm seeing a trend here.

I ordered the special of the day: garlic mushroom cream soup, which was very flavorful. I really liked it, and I don't think I've ever had this soup at any other Mexican restaurant before.

Bryan orderted the special for his entree: Stuffed Squid. Juicy, balanced, and flavorful, this dish was well made.

I always get the Grilled Marinated Vegetables Served with a Guajillo Sauce when I come here. They grill the vegetables perfectly. Plus, the dish is light, healthy, and really tasty. The spinach and cheese quesadilla is also good.

Dessert! The best part! I love flan, and this flan did not disappoint. The burnt sugar sauce surrounding the flan was deeply flavorful, and I found myself licking the sauce even after I had finished the flan.

The ice cream was nothing special - ordinary vanilla ice cream with Kahlua on top. It tasted fine, but nothing extraordinary.

Over all, I think Casa Romero is a solid restaurant. It offers some more creative options that you won't typically find in a more casual Mexican restaurant. I'm not sure how I would feel about this meal if I had paid the regular dinner price. In that case, I would possibly just opt to go to Cantina Le Mexicana instead. Nevertheless, if you are in the area, it's worth checking out.

30 Gloucester St
Boston, MA 02115-2509
(617) 536-4341

June 21, 2009 Dessert

Frozen Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches

I tried this at a friend's house back in February and loved it! Mine is based off of a recipe from the Food & Wine Magazine website with some minor modifications.

- I used 8 oz of creme fraiche

- I used Trader Joe's Brand Butter Waffle Cookies (only $2.59) instead of Jules Destrooper Crisp Butter Wafers, which are closer to $5 a box. Some people claim that you should accept no substitute, and that the Jules Destrooper wafers are superior. I have not tried comparing the two, so I can't comment on that. However, if you really are serious about making these, you can pick them up in bulk at amazon.com at $2.64 each, which is a pretty good deal.

- I omitted the pistachios since I'm not a big fan of nuts in desserts

Ingredients
¼ cup lemon curd (I got mine at Whole Foods)
1 lemon
1 container (8 oz) Creme Fraiche

A box of butter waffle cookies

Step 1: Grate lemon peel into a chilled bowl ("zest" the lemon)
Step 2: Add the creme fraiche (entire container) and lemon curd to the bowl.

Step 3: Mix until firm peaks form (it will have the consistency of whipped butter). For me, it took a couple minutes of mixing for this to happen.

Step 4: Lay the cookies out onto a tray on top of wax paper. I was able to fit 15 cookies. Scoop about a tablespoon of the lemon cream mixture onto each wafer.

Step 5: Lay the second wafer on top. You can press it down a bit to spread out the cream.

Step 6: Put the tray in the freezer and freeze for around 4 hours.

Step 7: Enjoy!
(You can cover the sides with crushed pistachio nuts if you desire)

June 21, 2009 Italian

Pappardelle with Hot Italian Sausage in a Tomato Cream sauce

What do you do when you have a ton of leftover tomatoes that will ripen before you can eat them all? Make sauce! I had a bunch of leftover tomatoes from Costco the other day and decided to spare them all from Overripe Land by cooking them into a sauce.

Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic (finely minced)
1 T tomato paste (To see my post about freezing leftover tomato paste from a can, click here).
all your leftover tomatoes (I had about 10 campari tomatoes from Costco)
1 hot Italian sausage cut up into small pieces (4 oz meat)
1-2 T heavy cream
chopped basil as garnish

Saute the garlic with a table spoon of tomato paste. Cut the tomatoes in half and add them all to the pan. Stir the mixture, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let it cook for about 15 minutes.

At this point, I actually stored the sauce in the refrigerator for several days. The beauty of setting the cooked sauce aside is that you save the tomatoes from going bad, and you also allow the flavors of the sauce to intensify a bit.

Of course, this is completely optional, and you can proceed directly to mix the tomato sauce with any vegetables or meat of your choice.

I decided to add sausage & cream.

Begin boiling water to cook pappardelle. I personally like to use an electric kettle because it boils the water so much more quickly. I then add the boiling water to a pot in order to cook the pasta. I have an Oster electric kettle, which I really like.
Saute about a tablespoon of olive oil with 3 cloves of finely minced garlic. Add 1 hot Italian sausage (cut up into small pieces) and cook until the meat is done. Add the red sauce and stir. Add about 2 T heavy cream and stir.

Undercook the pasta by about a minute since you need to add it to the sauce. I cooked the pappardelle for about 6 minutes (recommended time is 7 minutes) before quickly dumping out the water and mixing the hot pasta with the sauce.

I like to use de Cecco's pappardelle (from Italy), since it's make with eggs. Out of all the dried pastas I've tried, I still think de Cecco's papardelle comes closest to tasting like fresh pasta.

Typically, the egg-based pappardelle sells for close to $4 a box. However, since pasta doesn't really go bad quickly, I recently purchased 10 boxes at once from Amazon. By doing this, I only paid about $2 a box. I save money, and I'll be all set in case there's a natural disaster!

I just looked, and it looks like there are no bulk pappardelle de cecco deals currently available on amazon. However, you can get some pretty good deals on angel hair, perciatelli, or farfalle. It looks like the angel hair is egg-based, so that might be your best bet. Having never tried those, I can't say for sure.

Anyway, back to our cooking! Put some chopped basil on top for garnish, some shaved parmesan cheese, and you're all set!

Enjoy!

June 18, 2009 Allston

Fish Market

"Fish Market" is a new sushi restaurant that very recently opened in Allston. Nestled in a neighborhood with Gitlo's (Cantonese dim sum), Jo Jo Taipei (Taiwanese food), and Shabuzen (shabu shabu), it really rounds out the neighborhood's Asian selections nicely. I'm a bit jealous of all those people that live right in Allston - what food choices!

Founded by two sushi chefs from Oishii (pictured above), the menu feels eerily similar as you recognize familiar offerings -- for a fraction of the price. The restaurant is tiny (similar to Oishii), consisting of a sushi bar and about three tables. Make sure to call ahead if you have a large party (like we did).

My over all impression? The fish is fresh, the sushi skills are very solid, and the prices are reasonable. I would rank it similarly to Fugakyu, and definitely above places like Bluefin, Cafe Sushi, Daikanyama, and Dabin. You can tell these chefs have had good training - they clearly know what they are doing. The result? Cool, innovative dishes not found in your typical run-of-the-mill sushi joint. The chefs are also really nice, and are very generous in offering various freebies on the house.

For example, not only did they take an additional 10% off our bill, they also offered us appetizers and desserts on the house.

One negative - the service was a bit slow, although that can be expected. There were only two sushi chefs making sushi for a table of 10. However, the dishes were made with care, and each entree was beautifully presented.

One of my favorites was the toro with tempura crumbs. Toro (tuna belly) is finely chopped up and mixed with spicy mayo, sesame oil, and some other spices. The mixture is then either served in a bowl ("sashimi style") or on top of rice (nigiri style - see left most piece in picture above). The toro itself was already really good, and the mix of flavors enhanced the sushi.

I also ordered salmon (my favorite) and super white tuna. Although both were fine, neither one amazed me, and I think I've had more flavorful fish at Fugakyu (and definitely at Oishii). Nevertheless, they were enjoyable.

I ordered one of my favorite rolls from Oishii - the yellowtail truffle maki (pictured at the top). Although it was good, it was noticeably less tasty than Oishii's truffle maki. I wasn't sure why. It wasn't until later that I figured out why. I went back to Oishii's menu and noted that their version is make with toro instead of yellowtail. That makes a lot of sense now . . . naruhodo . . Oishii's roll is also around $25 while this roll was only $15, so perhaps it's a bit unfair to compare the two.

The restaurant is new, so it's natural that they have some kinks to work out. Nevertheless, the sushi is really fresh and definitely expertly prepared. The lunch prices are phenomenal (around $10) and are definitely an insane bargain considering the quality and skill in the food you get -- especially when you add in the freebies! (my friend said she got toro appetizer for free the last time she went!) Do check this place out.

Note: As part of their grand opening (up until August 31), they are offering free desserts during lunch and free appetizers and dessert during dinner.

Sashimi Combo

Spicy salmon roll

Rainbow roll

Our free appetizer
Sashimi combo in all its glory

Our free dessert. We got to choose from various Asian flavored ice creams (red bean, green tea, and black sesame!); mochi ice cream; or fried ice cream (shown below).

170 Brighton Ave
Boston, MA 02134
(617) 783-1268

June 18, 2009 Cambridge

Taste of Cambridge - postponed

Update: due to anticipated rain, this event has been postponed from June 18th to June 25th.

A great way to try out a bunch of great Cambridge restaurants at once is to go to Taste of Cambridge. I have never gone before, but the list of restaurants looks great!

June th 5:30-8pm 2009 at The Charles Hotel

The proceeds benefit local Cambridge charities Youth on Fire and Club Passim's Culture for Kids/Music Speaks.

$75 - VIP ticket (special area with passed hors d’oeuvres, desserts and samplings of specialty drinks created by local Celebrity bartenders)
$50 online ($60 at the door) - 4 drinks and food from all 50 restaurants
$12 - kids 6 to 12
$0 - kids under 6

source: www.tasteofcambridge.com

Participating Restaurants

• All Star Sandwich Bar
• Amelia's Trattoria
• Asgard Irish Pub
• Boloco
• Border Café
• Bukowski Tavern
• Café of India
• Cambridge Common
• Cambridge School of Culinary Arts
• Chez Henri
• Chipotle Mexican Grill
• Craigie on Main
• Crazy Dough’s Pizza
• East Coast Grill
• Eastside Bar & Grille
• Finale
• Formaggio Kitchen Inc
• Garden at the Cellar
• Grafton Street Pub&Grill
• Green Street Grill
• Harvest
• Henrietta’s Table
• Hong Kong Restaurant
• Hungry Mother
• Iggy's Bread
• J.P. Licks
• John Harvard’s Brew House
• Jose's Mexican Restaurant
• Koreana Restaurant
• Le Cordon Blue/
Technique

• Legal Seafood
• Muqueca
• Koreana Restaurant
• Le Cordon Blue (Technique)
• Legal Seafood
• Lizzy’s Ice Cream
• Muqueca
• Noir
• Oggi Gourmet Food
• Ole MexicanGrill/Olecito
• Om
• Picante Mexican Grill
• Redline Food & Drink
• Rialto
• Sandrine's Bistro
• Savenor’s
• Small Plates
• Stone Hearth Pizza Company
• Summer Shack
• Ten Tables
• Temple Bar American Bistro
• Tommy Doyle's
• Tory Row
• Trader Joe’s Cambridge
• Uno Chicago Grill
• Upper Crust
• UpStairs on the Square
• Veggie Planet

June 17, 2009 Japanese

Totoro Bento #2

Just for fun, I had some leftover rice, orange chicken, and snap peas, so I whipped up a bento for lunch tomorrow.

June 17, 2009 Recipe

Summer Asian Cucumber Salad

This is a great summertime dish! If you have cucumbers on hand, you can make this dish in about 20 minutes (including marinating time). In this case, I used pickling cucumbers, but you can also use normal cucumbers. I used a recipe similar to the one posted here. The only differences this time are:

1) I only "salted" & squeezed out the water once since pickling cucumbers have less water content than regular cucumbers

2) I used kosher sea salt instead of soy sauce

3) I did not have fresh garlic on hand so I used garlic powder instead

4) I omitted the sugar

The dish was still delicious - crunchy, refreshing, and light. All in all, it's quite flexible how you want to flavor the cucumbers.

Experiment!

June 16, 2009 Chinese

Pea Tendrils (Pea shoots)

Pea tendrils are the young shoots of a pea plant. This vegetable is very common in Chinese cooking and can usually be found in a Chinese supermarket. This is one of my favorite vegetables - it's got a mild balanced flavor, it's chock full of vitamins, and it's so easy to cook! Just stir fry for a couple minutes with some crushed garlic, oil, and salt and you've got a healthy and very tasty dish.

If you see some larger stems, make sure to remove them. The tough stalks are not fun to eat. You don't want to make the same mistake as the chef who made my chicken dish the other night.

Add ~1 T oil to a wok. Once the oil is hot (you can test it by flicking in a tiny bit of water to see if it sizzles), add the crushed garlic and let it brown & become fragrant (about 1 minute).

Add in the vegetables and cover for about 1-2 minutes. Stir the leaves around in the wok until al the leaves have wilted and cooked. Add salt to taste.

That's it! You don't want to overcook - otherwise it starts to turn slightly dark greenish yellow, not the beautiful bright green color that it should be!

June 16, 2009 Greater Boston

Rancatore's

My favorite thing to order at Rancatore's - the ice cream sandwich with French vanilla ice cream! YUM. The chocolate wafer is crispy (not soggy like those grocery store kinds), and the premium homemade ice cream is dense, creamy, and pairs perfectly with the crunchy chocolate wafer.

I have tried ordering sandwiches with other flavors, such as Hydrox cookie or coffee. I find that the other flavors are either too sweet or too strong and do not complement the chocolate wafer as well. The simplicity and subtleness of vanilla works so much better.

Some background
Rancatore's ("Ranc's") and Toscanini's ("Tosci's") are owned by brothers Gus and Joe Rancatore. Gus got into the business first and opened Toscanini's. Joe then learned the art of ice cream making from Gus and opened Rancatore's. Toscanini's, which is in Cambridge, tends to carry more exotic flavors, such as jasmine tea, grape nut, and cucumber sorbet. Ranc's, on the other hand, has more traditional suburban flavors, such as Hydrox cookie, chocolate, vanilla, etc. Nevertheless, even though Ranc's carries less interesting ice cream flavors, it trumps Tosci's in one major way because it has these amazing ice cream sandwiches!

Also, Rancatore's is right in Lexington Center right on the Minuteman Bike Trail. One of my favorite activities is to bike from Cambridge all the way to Lexington on the trail, treat myself to a nice ice cream sandwich, and then bike back!

You could even stop by Toscanini's for a second round of ice cream in Cambridge!

1752 Massachusetts Avenue
Lexington, MA 02421

(781) 862-5090

June 15, 2009 Boston

Capital Grille (Boston)

I received a coupon from American Express for an incredible deal at the Capital Grille: Your choice of any two entrees and a bottle of 2005 Stonestreet Legacy Cabernet Sauvignon for only $100. Considering that most entrees at the Capital Grille cost about $35-$40 and that wine sells for $65 pre-restaurant mark up (the Boston Capital Grille was selling the 2004 bottle for $150 on the menu) - it was an excellent value.

Bryan ordered the Delmonico bone-in ribeye medium rare (22 oz) and I ordered one of the daily specials (9 oz seared sashimi-grade bluefin tuna with wasabi mayo over a bed of seaweed salad). We shared creamed spinach and the lobster mac-n-cheese. We also started with a tomato/basil/mozarella salad.

The food was excellent. The steak was cooked perfectly and had very good flavor. Accordingly to Bryan, it much better than his steak at Moo, although when pressed he still thought Grill 23 was the best. I received a very high quality piece of tuna that was perfectly seared. Absolutely delicious.

The lobster mac-n-cheese was definitely the highlight of the sides. A perfectly baked crispy top, large chunks of lobster inside, and a great strong cheese flavor that gives substance to the entire dish. For only $15, it's one of the best values here.

Creamed spinach and the salad were solid, although not very unique.

Over all, especially for the price we paid, it was definitely a very enjoyable meal.

Oh . . and the wine is really good! I would highly recommend it.

P.S. I left my memory card at home and therefore could not take any pictures. Sorry!

June 14, 2009 Greater Boston

Dabin

I had a great meal at Dabin over the weekend. Dabin is a Japanese/Korean restaurant in Lexington Center. We like to go during lunchtime on Saturdays. There's always open tables, the food is good, and the prices for lunch are an exceptional value (especially compared to the dinner prices)

I like getting the chirashi ($13.95) because the fish is pretty fresh. Honestly, I thought the fish here was tastier than the sushi I had at Daikanyama the week before. In fact, I thought some of the fish at Daikanyama was a bit bland. At the time, I thought it was because I had just come back from Japan where I had enjoyed the best sushi I'd ever had in my life. I thought my tastebuds had been "ruined" for life.

Fortunately, that's not true. I thought the fish in my chirashi was very flavorful. Additionally, the sushi rice in the chirashi is mixed with flying fish roe, which makes for a more colorful and flavorful dish.

Another cool thing is, because it's a Korean restaurant, you get all the free little appetizers in the beginning. Yum . . . .

Some other dishes ordered at my table:

Nabeyaki Udon (which comes with two pieces of shrimp tempura!) $10.95

They also offer bento boxes at reasonable prices. This is the tempura bento for $10.95.
Dabin Restaurant
10 Muzzey Street
Lexington, MA
(781) 860-0171

June 12, 2009 Dessert

Toasted Black Sesame Ice Cream

I first decided to try making this ice cream because Bryan had tried it at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in New York. I have since made this many times and it has always been very popular.

Note: Over all, I've found that the best way to make this ice cream is to make it over 2 days.

Day 1
Make the Cream Base

2 cups half & half
2 cups heavy cream
¾ cup sugar
4 egg yolks

Heat the half & half, heavy cream, and sugar in a pot on medium low heat until the sugar is dissolved. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the hot cream mixture while continually stirring.

(Note - the stream in my picture is WAY too fast! I was having trouble holding the camera and pouring at the same time. If you do it, pour it much more slowly and thus you will have a thinner stream. Also, you would ideally be whisking while you are pouring, but alas, I only have 2 hands.

Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon (~8-10 minutes). Important! Don't let the mixture boil, otherwise it will curdle!

This step is optional. You can filter your mixture through a sieve to ensure super smooth ice cream. This is the first time I did that (partly because I had some egg solids due to my poor pouring & lack of mixing earlier!) If you did everything right, you shouldn't have too many egg solids.

Finally, let the mixture cool a bit and then put in the refrigerator, ideally overnight, but at least until cold (several hours?).

Day 2
Pour the cream mixture into the ice cream maker and make ice cream according to the manufacturer's instructions. I personally have a Lello Gelato Pro which I LOVE because it has its own condenser and thus I can make ice cream whenever I want on a whim.

While the ice cream maker is whirring away, toast ⅓ cup of black sesame seeds in the toaster oven. I spread them out in a thin layer and just pop them in the toaster oven. Don't worry if you hear some popping noises. It's just some of the seeds "exploding" open. Not to worry. The toasted sesame seeds should smell fragrant.

Grind up the sesame seeds in a spice grinder. I've found that it's important to freshly grind the seeds because the powder quickly loses flavor as it is exposed to the atmosphere. You should end up with a glorious, luxurious black powder.

Once the ice cream maker is done (around 40 minutes), stir in the sesame powder. The ice cream should still be soft enough that you can do this very easy.

Once it's completely incorporated, store in small containers. I find that the ice cream freezes much more quickly when you divide it up into a couple smaller containers. After around 4 hours or so (but ideally overnight), you can serve! Bon appetit!

June 11, 2009 Recipe

Homemade Croutons

I had a bunch of leftover bread that was definitely going stale. I decided to make croutons, something I'd never done before. I had enjoyed a lovely frisee salad with a poached egg, blue cheese, and lardon at the Monday Club in Harvard Square the other day, and I thought I would try to re-create that salad at home.

Homemade Croutons
~ 4 cups of bread, cut into cubes
⅓ cup canola oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced finely or blended
salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Step 1:
Cut the bread into cubes (this is much easier with a bread knife)

Step 2:
Mix the oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and spices (rosemary and thyme) together.

Step 3: Stir in the bread crumbs

Step 4: Spread out the crumbs on a baking sheet in one layer

Step 5: Bake at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. You can then check it and stir the mixture around. I think this is a forgiving recipe, because I forgot about it for another 20 minutes before I came back and checked, but luckily, they had no burned. Instead, they were golden brown and crunchy.

Perfect!

Let cool on a paper towel and then store in a plastic airtight bag!

June 11, 2009 Cambridge

Upstairs on the Square (Monday Club) {NOW CLOSED}

This place has phenomenal food for reasonable prices, and Bryan and I are so bummed we did not come here and eat sooner.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day, so I have no pictures of food.

Some background - this restaurant used to be called Upstairs at the Pudding (named because they were renting from Harvard's theater group the Hasty Pudding Club) until Harvard University forced them out of their location. They reopened in 2002 as a two-part restaurant. Upstairs on the Square, Soiree Club is for upscale dining, while the Monday Club downstairs is a bit more casual.

We went to the Monday Club on . . heh heh . . Sunday.

Bryan ordered a frisée salad with poached egg, bacon lardons, Great Hill Blue cheese & toasted croutons. Such a simple salad, but it was really good, and only $12. Bryan really liked it.

I ordered a salad of warm farro & wild arugula, sweet tomato, shaved artichoke & ricotta salada. I absolutely loved my salad. The farro added a nice hearty texture to the salad, and the greens were really fresh, fragrant, and seemed as if they had been picked that morning.

We were in the mood for Italian, so we were pleasantly surprised to find that this restaurant actually had several fresh homemade pasta dishes. We got two pasta dishes:

Bryan ordered the hand rolled pappardelle with classic bolognese sauce, padano grana & parsley. Although a bit expensive at $22, it was a really good pasta dish. The sauce, a mixture of ground meat, celery, and carrots, was just hearty enough without feeling heavy at all. The pasta was just slightly softer than I would have liked, but other than that, it was great.

I ordered the beet chitarra with crisp short rib & candied ginger ($20). The beet chitarra is actually a homemade pasta made out of beets. I had never seen anything like it before. It had great texture - chewy, al dente. The crisp short rib sort of reminded me of freshly made Chinese pork sung. Imagine strands of short rib meat baked to a crisp and scattered throughout the pasta. It was such an interesting dish, with unique flavors and textures. Really really good.

We sat outside, which was really nice.

Oh, and they have a fair number of good wines at pretty good prices. I think we paid around $35 or so for a bottle of pinot noir from Oregon and we really liked it.

Excellent excellent restaurant. I can't wait to go back.

Oh, and if that's not enough to get you to come, U2 chose to come here after their performance in Somerville back in March.

Upstairs On the Square
91 Winthrop St
Cambridge,MA 02138
(617) 864-1933

June 10, 2009 Cambridge

The One Kendall Square Music Lab

This looks pretty cool. This summer there will be a concert series in Kendall Square featuring local bands and great local Cambridge restaurants.

Participating Restuarants
The Blue Room
Cambridge Brewing Company
BeanTowne Coffee House
Flat Top Johnny’s
Tommy Doyle’s Irish Pub & Restaurant
The Friendly Toast

What's even better, the restaurants are offering sample versions of their most popular dishes for only $5! A part of the money from this event will go to Kendall Community Group, a local charity.

Scheduled Dates
Wednesdays: June 17, July 15, and August 19 from 5:30-8:30p.m

June 10, 2009 Japanese

Bryan Bento

As I was talking on the phone with Bryan today, I asked him what kind of bento I should make tonight. I had made a totoro bento the night before. He said, "make me!"

. . so I did.

June 10, 2009 Recipe

Pan Grilled Asparagus

I've always made asparagus either in the oven or in a wok. My friends gave me a grill pan last year for my birthday, so I thought I'd try making grilled asparagus.

Honestly - it was really easy. I slathered some olive oil over the spears and seasoned with salt and pepper. I then cooked the spears for about 3 minutes one one side and about 2 minutes on the other side.

The second time I made them, I didn't even add that much oil. The caused the outside edges to be a bit more charred. It was still good. I think it's really personal preference how oily you want the asparagus to be.

Yum.

June 10, 2009 Japanese

Totoro Bento

I was inspired by Anna the Red and her awesome bento making skills. Here is my first attempt.

June 9, 2009 Italian

Pasta with eggplant, tomatoes, and basil (vegetarian)

What do you do when you have a spare eggplant at home and your husband (who always demands meat at every meal) isn't home?

You create your own vegetarian pasta dish out of whatever you have in the refrigerator!

I found half an onion in the refrigerator (having made Pasta with Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce only a few days ago). I used a similar technique used in the vodka cream sauce recipe, and sauteed the diced onions in 1 T olive oil and a chunk of frozen tomato paste (approximately 1 tablespoon).

I then added the sliced eggplant (around 3 long thin Japanese eggplants) and about ⅓ cup of broth (you can used chicken or vegetable broth) and cooked until the eggplant slices were soft (~5 minutes? - I can't exactly remember!).

Note about eggplants - if you are cooking with the big American eggplants, you need to soak the slices in water and a bit of salt (~ 1 t) to remove the eggplant's bitter flavors. The thin Japanese eggplants do not have this property and thus do not need to be pre-soaked)

Uhhh . . . I hate to admit the next step, since I typically cook everything from scratch, but then I added a jar of Rao's Tomato basil sauce (one of my favorite jar sauces - it's sooooo good!)

I then added salt to taste, basil leaves, and shaved parmesan cheese on top. I think the parmesan cheese adds the necessary umami flavor to the meal. However, if you want to make the meal vegan, you can easily leave the cheese out.

Haha, after I took the picture at the top of the page, I dumped a bunch more sauce on the dish. I love sauce, and Bryan has accused me of eating pasta with my sauce. Sigh . . maybe he's right. But it was yummy . . . 🙂

June 9, 2009 Italian

Pasta with Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce

I make this dish all the time. It's a great dish to make in the wintertime when you are short on fresh tomatoes. (Don't ask me why I'm posting about it as the summer is about to begin - I have no idea . . .)

Anyhow, this recipe is based off of a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, one of my favorite cooking magazines.

Ingredients
1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes , drained, liquid reserved
1 T olive oil
3 ounces of pancetta (I have successfully made this dish both with proscuitto, bacon, or omitting the meat completely)
½ small onion , minced (about ¼ cup)
1 T tomato paste
2 medium cloves garlic , minced
½ t hot red pepper flakes

⅓ cup vodka
½ cup heavy cream
1 pound pasta
Fresh basil leaves

1) Take about half of the tomatoes from the can (around 5-6) and puree them in a food processor. Dice the other half. Combine the puree and diced tomatoes in a 2-cup measuring cup and add the reserve liquid from the can until you have 2 cups total.

Updated note: you can also use pre-diced tomatoes if you want. According to Cook's Illustrated, the pre-diced tomatoes contain more preservatives than the whole tomatoes, and therefore suffer a tiny bit in taste. I have tried it before with pre-diced and it's not too bad if you're in a pinch.

2) Cook the "bacon" in a pan until crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and put on a paper towel to soak up any residual oil. Pour off most of the bacon oil, leaving 2 T.

3) Saute the onions and tomato paste until the onions are shiny and a bit translucent - about 3 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes in the remaining bacon oil and cook for another minute. YUM!

4) Stir in tomatoes and a tiny pinch of salt. Stir.

5) Remove the pot from the heating source!! Slowly pour in the vodka. Bring the pot back to the heating source. Turn heat back up to medium high and boil off the alcohol - about 10 minutes. You can take whiffs at the pot to figure out whether the alcohol is still there or not.

If you are comfortable, you can start cooking the pasta at this point, especially if you are making dried pasta and it will take > 10 minutes to cook. Otherwise, you can work serially as well.

The beauty of this dish is that you can stop at this point if you want to store the sauce and finish the dish another day. The last step only takes a few minutes, and therefore can be done right before the guests arrive. I have often made the recipe up to this point and then stored the sauce and bacon separately in the refrigerator.

6) Of course, if you are serving this right away, then proceed here. Once the alcohol has boiled off, add the cream and stir it in until it's hot - about 1 minute.

7) The sauce is pretty stable at this point. You can start boiling the pasta now, or, if you are a multi-tasker, you would have started boiling the pasta during the vodka-boil off stage.

8) When the pasta is almost done, drain the pasta and stir it together with sauce. Mix.

9) Stir in the freshly cut basil (to taste) and the bacon. Add freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Serve!

~~Sorry - no picture of the dish! We ate it too eagerly!!!!~~
I have made this dish countless times since this post, and I finally decided to take a final picture!

June 8, 2009 Italian

Preserving Tomato Paste from a can

Oftentimes Italian dishes require the use of small amounts of tomato paste, typically a tablespoon. If you are lucky, you have access to one of those Italian grocery stores that sells tomato paste in a tube - such a good idea!

However, sometimes you might not have access to that Italian store. Recently, I decided to make Pasta with Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce sort of last minute. Because I could only shop at my local American supermarket, I ended up buying one of those cans of tomato paste.

After using up one tablespoon, I had to figure out what to do with the rest of my tomato paste. I can't remember where I read this great idea, but you can just squeeze one tablespoon sized "aliquots" of tomato paste onto a tray and freeze it. After they have frozen, you can remove the pieces individually and put them in a bag. The next time you need one tablespoon of tomato paste, you don't even need to measure it! Just take one of your tomato paste balls from the freezer and drop it into the saute pan. I find that the frozen pieces work just as well in recipes.

June 8, 2009 Restaurant

Zagat Fast Food Survey

Funny and interesting results from the annual Zagat's Fast Food Survey.

Best Burger: In & Out (I totally agree. I absolutely love their hamburgers)

Best Fries: McDonalds (I guess in fast food land I might agree. I actually like their fries better than the ones at In & Out. Of course, my all time favorite fries come from here)

Best Coffee: Starbucks with Dunkin Donuts coming in second (Since it's a national survey, I'm not surprised. I think Boston consistently votes for Dunkin first! I'm partial to Peet's myself.)

Best Grilled Chicken: Chick-fil-A

Best Fried Chicken: KFC - (do you agree? I love the fried chicken at Chick-fil-A too, although I agree KFC is pretty tasty . . . )

Here are the rest of the results.

source: Zagat.com/fastfood

June 8, 2009 Chinese

Mapo Tofu (Vegetarian and Non-vegetarian versions)

Updated - as requested, I have included a picture of the hot bean paste jar that I used.

Here is a SUPER simple dish that only takes about 5 minutes, only requires about 3-4 ingredients, and tastes surprisingly good (for something that has is missing meat!)

Heat ~1 tablespoon of canola oil in the bottom of a large wok (medium high heat). Add minced garlic (I put about 3 cloves worth) and chopped scallion bulbs (maybe 2 bulbs?) and cook until fragrant but before it starts to burn (~ 1 minute or so).

Add one package worth of diced silken soft tofu (you can use firm too - it's really personal preference). Stir it around to heat it up.

Add about 1-2 tablespoons of hot bean sauce to taste (la doban jiang).

Stir around until sauce is well mixed throughout.

Top with chopped scallions (green part).

Serve!

You can optionally add ground meat and make this into normal Ma Po Bean Curd. If you have Sichuan peppercorns, you can add that as well for a more authentic Sichuan flavor.

June 7, 2009 Dessert

Pierre Hermes Macaron

The Ispahan macaron is a heavenly pastry which consists of the heavenly marriage of three flavors: rose, lychee, and raspberry. This article by Serious Eats gives an excellent overview.

I absolutely love this macaron, having tried my first one in Paris in 2005. I paid close to 15 Euros for the macaron (at a cafe), but it was totally worth it.

When I went to Japan in April, I again stumbled upon a Pierre Hermes bakery in the basement of one of the fancy department stores in Japan. Since it was "only" about $8 each, I quickly snapped one up to enjoy later in my hotel room. 🙂

Recently, a friend expressed interest in trying to making macarons together some time. I found this recipe for the Ispahan macaron. Unfortunately, it looks a bit too daunting for my first macaron, so perhaps I'll try something much easier, such as this or this. Also check out Joy's post, which details how difficult it can be to make these things!

June 7, 2009 Cambridge

Grafton Street Pub & Grill

We tried Grafton Street Pub & Grill again recently. This restaurant is at the edge of Harvard Square and has a decent outdoor eating area. The weather was nice outside, and we scored an outside table!

The restaurant calls itself "a combination of a traditional Irish pub and contemporary European restaurant." They have a big bar with a big selections of beers, and the ambiance inside is definitely buzzing with activity.

As we didn't go inside, I cannot really comment much else about the inside. As for the food, we definitely thought the cooking was solid. My salmon was perfectly seared on the outside and moist on the inside. The portion size was not too big, and the salad on top was refreshing.

Bryan got the seafood paella, which he enjoyed. Again, very reasonable portion sizes. I think we both finished our entire meals, which is quite rare.

Although we enjoyed our meal, in the end, neither of us was wowed. We thought that, for the price, you could get better food. Nevertheless, if you happen to be in Harvard Square and you want solid cooking in a nice atmosphere, Grafton's is not a bad bet.

June 5, 2009 Chinese

Bryan's Lunch today

Chinese chives with 5 spice tofu
Pea Shoots stir fried with garlic
Salmon braised in soy sauce and wine
Spicy Mapo Tofu (vegetarian)

June 5, 2009 Restaurant

Little Q Hot Pot (Quincy)

Little Q is my favorite hot pot (shabu shabu) restaurant in the Boston area.

Why? The reason is simple. The broth.

The quality of the broth is key because you're essentially cooking your own dinner with raw ingredients they give you. Here, the broth is really good - kind of addictive actually (I've known more than one person, myself included, who could not stop drinking the broth straight out of a teacup long after the meal was over). My favorite is the mala broth, which is really hot and spicy, but also wonderfully fragrant with a mix of many Chinese herbs.

Because the Mala is so spicy, it's a good idea to have a "ying yang" hot pot where you get half spicy broth and half herbal broth (see picture below).

I personally think getting high quality meat is really important. Although the meat here was nothing like the kobe beef that I had in Japan, I still enjoyed the meat here. I think the lamb was especially tasty here. We also ordered the "choice beef", which I found to be rather ordinary. It might just be worth the $20 to order the highest grade meat.

Little Q is being forced out of its current location by the city, which has other plans for the shopping center. Currently, all the other tenants in that building have vacated. Little Q is fighting to stay in that location until the end of the year. Rumor has it that they have secured a space in Boston. I'm excited about that, because I would definitely go more often!

Update! Little Q has since opened TWO locations, one in Boston and one in Arlington!

June 4, 2009 Cambridge

Benatti

Benatti is a new, upscale Italian restaurant that very recently opened in Cambridge in Inman Square. I had read some pretty good reviews about the place, so Bryan and I thought we would try it out tonight.

Over all impression? The food is fine, but really expensive and the portions are tiny, just like all the reviewers said.

Pastas are around $21 and the meat entrees are around $32. You can get ½ portions of pasta for half price plus a $3 surcharge. I came away disappointed because I was expecting to be wowed by the food, but I only thought it was alright. I didn't think it was worth the $94 food bill (before tax & tip!).

This is what we ordered (sorry, I forgot my camera, so no pictures today). I started with the antipasto of grilled vegetables. It cost $11 and consisted of one slice of eggplant, one slice of zucchini, half a roasted red pepper, an asparagus spear, and a small wedge of fennel bulb. The roasted veggies were fine and the balsalmic vinegar + oil dressing was nice. However, the flavors did not wow me, and I thought it was kind of expensive for what I got.

Bryan started with the pan seared sea scallops over sauteed fennel and spinach in an orange juice reduction. This was actually pretty good, and probably the highlight of the evening. Oh, I will say that the fresh bread is delicious! It's warm on the inside and crispy on the outside. Served with balsamic vinegar and oil. I really think the chef likes balsamic vinegar.

My entree was the handmade pasta stuffed with seasonal herbs and vegetables tossed with sundried tomatoes and asparagus. I thought the raviolis were slightly over cooked (just a bit over al dente) and I thought the dish was borderline salty (note - I do not eat very salty in general. Bryan thought the salt level was fine.) I only ate half of my dish (4 raviolis) because I just didn't feel like eating any more of it.

Bryan ordered the lasagna, which was also made with handmade pasta. Although it was good, it was not nearly as good as the pasta that we had at the Monday Club a few days back. The prices at the Monday Club are lower, and the food is better. We both agreed we much preferred the Monday Club.

Well, I was really excited about the idea of a good Italian restaurant that made homemade pastas in Cambridge. Maybe my expectations were just a bit too high. We likely will not go back anytime soon, although I'm willing to go back one more time to give them one last try.

June 4, 2009 Greater Boston

Daikanyama (Lexington, MA)

Daikanyama is a relatively new sushi restaurant that opened in Lexington Center less than a year ago. It was started by Judy and Ming Chow. Before this endeavor, Judy Chow was a partner at Fugakyu Cafe in Sudbury. Her husband Ming Chow worked as a sushi supervisor at Whole Foods for seven years.

If I'm in the Lexington area, I like coming here for lunch because the prices are reasonable and the sushi is pretty good. Sadly, ever since I went to Japan and had the most amazing sushi ever, I have not been able to enjoy sushi in America as much as I did before.

Nevertheless, this place is a nice place to go for lunch, and I've never had to wait for a seat.

Here is the makimono lunch special, which is only $9.75

The sushi-sashimi lunch special is a good deal for only $13.75.

The sushi lunch special is also good, and you get to choose which maki you want, plus it's only $9.00. Here, my friend has chosen the Alaskan maki, which is salmon with avocados (yum!).

Green tea is free, and the ambiance is nice. On Sundays they only offer the dinner menu during lunchtime, so if you want to enjoy the good value of the lunch specials, go Mon - Sat.

Daikanyama
43 Waltham St
Lexington, MA
(781) 860-9388

June 3, 2009 Boston

Icarus

Icarus, a great iconic restaurant in the South End, has announced that they will be closing their doors after 31 years of service in Boston.

Typically, entrees here are in the $30 range. However, as a final good-by, they are offering a three course $31 prix fixe from June 1, 2009 to July 1, 2009.

Bryan and I had our first date here back in September 1995. We ate here before heading out to see Phantom of the Opera in Boston. We had an excellent meal - considering we were college students back then, it was quite a stretch on the budget . . (uhh, on Bryan's budget, I guess). 😉

We haven't been back since but now that it's closing, we've decided to go this Saturday sort of for old time's sake, and also just to say good-by to the place where we had our first date.

Of course, I'll post pictures and details of our meal there. 🙂

June 3, 2009 Cambridge

Garden At the Cellar (update)

I first reviewed this restaurant back in 2007 soon after it had opened. It has now been two years and I still think the food is just as incredible. Bryan and I probably come to this restaurant at least once a month, if not more. The only reason we don't go more often is that the small "gastropub" fills up quickly - often the wait is longer than 40 minutes on weekends.

The prices are great, the ambiance is relaxed, and the food . .the FOOD!

Here are some pictures for your pleasure. 🙂

Spring Dug Parsnip Soup, black truffle and thyme $9
I really like this soup - I've ordered it at least twice since it has appeared on the menu

Hand Rolled Ricotta Gnocchi braised rabbit, parsnips, mint, English peas $20
Bryan really like to order this dish. The texture of the gnocchi is good, and the flavors work really well together.

Rosemary-Truffle Fries $5
You absolutely have to order this if you come here. This is my all time favorite item on the menu. It tastes *especially* good if you order it as a separate side because it's SUPER fresh when they bring it out - really hot and crispy! It's still good when it's part of the steak frites entree, but sometimes I think those fries sit for a while longer (maybe waiting for all the dishes at the table to be cooked) and therefore they aren't quite as hot when you get them.

Order the side dish ($5) and you'll enjoy the friers at the peak of their freshness in all their truffled glory! YUM . . . .

oh . .and I totally skip the ketchup when eating these. How could you pollute the elegant marriage of truffle oil, rosemary with ketchup????Other dishes that we often get are:

Steak Frites - grilled Prime skirt steak, garlic spinach, parsnip purée, rosemary-truffle fries.
Bryan likes to order this rare, and they cook it perfectly. The spinach is flavorful, the parsnip puree is sweet and fragrant, and the fries .. THE FRIES! They are still really tasty!

Grilled Flatbread
I think all of their grilled flatbreads are really good. I like to order them if I want something a bit lighter that will reheat well if I want to take it home. The crusts are thin and crispy, and the topping are fresh and unique.

On tiny side note amidst this glowing review - I did order the Free Range Chicken with asparagus, bacon braised pea greens, celery root purée and was disappointed.

It was really the first time I was ever disappointed there. The chicken was fine - well crisped skin with moist meat. The problem was the pea greens. I guess I'm used to pea shoots since I often eat them in Chinese restaurants. Pea shoots are really tender and are one of my favorite vegetables.

These pea greens were really tough! It felt like I was eating weeds. I had to spit out about half the fiber from the vegetables because I could not swallow it. I also found the celery root puree to be only OK, especially compared to his parsnip puree (which comes with the steak frites - an excellent dish, btw - and is absolutely delicious).

Anyway, please don't let that stop you from coming to this restaurant. Truly, we still love it and go all the time - just don't order the pea greens unless you want to chew all night.

May 29, 2009 Restaurant

Cantina La Mexicana

Updated Post

We first visited Cantina La Mexicana back in October when one of our Texan friends recommended this place to us. Our initial impressions were quite positive. We have since visited this restaurant quite frequently - almost once a month, if not more.

Some background, first . . .

The restaurant is called Cantina La Mexicana. The take out counter next door is called Taqueria La Mexicana. I believe the food comes out of the same kitchen, and therefore both taste equally good. The great benefit of the Cantina is that it has a liquor license, and therefore you can order Coronas ($4), margaritas ($7-$9) or sangrias ($6) to your heart's content.

What have we learned from eating there so often?

Over all, the food is excellent, and you won't go wrong in ordering most things. If you ever ask them which meat they recommend, they will almost always say "the beef." It's true - the beef is really good. They use Brandt beef, which is naturally raised, antibiotic-free beef raised by a single family owned business that serves high end restaurants, such as Grill 23. I don't even like beef that much, but I always order beef whenever I have a choice.

One of our favorite dishes is the Gorditas Mixtas ($7.95) little cornbread "tarts" topped with avocado, marinated shrimp, and meat (pork, chicken, or beef). Ha ha, my favorite gordita is actually the shrimp one . . although the beef is good too. I like the shrimp one because the addition of sour cream makes that gordita more moist. I rectify this issue for the chicken and beef gorditas by dumping a ton of the excellent free salsa on top. Yum!

Another all time favorite is the Chiles Rellenos ($3.75) with beef, of course. I am by no means an expert on Mexican food, but these are the best chiles rellenos I've had in Boston.

My third favorite, Coctel a la Campechana ($8.95), is a cold ceviche-like dish served in a martini glass. It consisted of Maine shrimp, calamari, crabmeat, and chunks of avocado tossed with a citrus dressing over avocado crema. Sorry, no picture of this.

This is definitely a place off the beaten path that's worth checking out! You can go there on your way to Target in Somerville or Costco in Everett next time.

May 28, 2009 Boston

Favorite Eats in the Boston/Cambridge area

Recently, a friend asked for a recommendation for a good restaurant in which to celebrate his anniversary with his girlfriend. Naturally, being a foodie, I sent him a list of my favorite restaurants, based largely on food and atmosphere, of course. 🙂

Craigie on Main (formerly Craigie Street Bistrot)
Excellent French-inspired food. If you want to splurge, you should do the chef's tasting menu, which is where you get to enjoy Tony Maws "at his best." Make sure to call ahead to confirm that they are offering it that night. They often don't offer the Chef's Tasting on Friday nights.

Oleana
This is probably the best Mediterranean restaurant in Boston. It consistently makes top-ten lists for Boston food. I personally love their food because it's creative, healthy, and really flavorful. Try the Deviled Eggs with Tuna & Black Olives or the Whipped Feta with Sweet & Hot Peppers.

Prezza
This is our favorite restaurant in the North End. Really good food and nice romantic atmosphere. The menu changes frequently depending on what's in season.

Monica's Ristorante
Another excellent Italian restaurant in the North End - our former favorite before we discovered Prezza.

Oishii
Probably one of the best sushi restaurants in Boston, but be willing to pay for it! There's a swanky one in the South End (more expensive) and also a traditional one in Chestnut Hill. Food is creatively made, sushi is extremely fresh, and the everything is really tasty.

Bergamot
This new restaurant on the Somerville/Cambridge border has excellent food that's inspired by ingredients that are fresh, local, and seasonal. Keith Pooler is an incredible chef and changes up the menu very frequently. The service is exceptionally good here, and the bar is also fantastic.

Hungry Mother
This East Cambridge Southern restaurant (with French influences) serves up flavorful and perfectly executed food every single time. Every dish I've ever tried here has been incredibly good. It's a super popular restaurant, so book early!

Restaurants with excellent food with reasonable prices

Gran Gusto
This is a really good Italian restaurant off the beaten path in north Cambridge. They have one of the best and most authentic thin crust pizzas.

Mu Que Ca
Really good Brazilian style coastal seafood . They specialize in moquecas, which is a dish consisting of seafood and vegetables cooked in a clay pot. Really delicious. This restaurant is small, inexpensive, and very popular. I don't think you can make a reservation, so you often have to wait.

Hungry Mother
Southern American food with a French influence. This restaurant is wildly popular and serves up quality food at decent prices. The ambiance is festive (if not a bit loud). The food is excellent.

Garden at the Cellar
This local restaurant focuses on fresh, local ingredients and has the best French fries I've ever had anywhere (rosemary truffle fries). The food is delicious here, and the prices are reasonable. It's a great value for the quality of the food.

Steak
If you like steak, Bryan's favorite place in Boston is Grill 23, partly because they have more interesting options (like Kobe beef!). Smith & Wollensky, Ruth's Chris, or Capital Grille are all pretty solid choices as well.

May 25, 2009 Dessert

Ice Monster

Shaved ice is a classic Taiwanese dessert in the summer. One of the best known places in Taipei is called Ice Monster.

For around $5-$6, you get a HUGE bowl of shaved ice with your choice of toppings. I heard the mango one was incredible (with chunks of sweet, fresh mango on top). I did not hear of this until after I had visited Ice Monster, so I did not order that dish. If I ever go again, I would definitely try it. The Taipei Times has an interesting article here that talks about how the owner, under the pressure of difficult business and tough financial times, developed the mango shaved ice that shot business off the ground.

Anyway, I didn't try the mango. Instead, I ordered the mochi shaced ice.

It was still incredible! It had mochi balls of all different shapes and sizes, and even a huge flat mochi pancake on top. The dish also had sweet red bean topping (azuki) and condensed milk. It was really good! The various mochis had subtly different texture and flavors, so it was fun to try them all. Some were really chewy ("Q" in Taiwanese), while others were softer and sweeter. Over all, they complemented the azuki and condensed milk perfectly. The portion size is generous, and I shared one with my mom. We could have easily shared with a third person.

Ice Monster is located at 15 Yongkang street. Right off of Ding Tai Fung (original), not too far from other good places to eat. Apparently, one of the famous beef noodle restaurants is also on this street. The original Ding Tai Fung is also nearby.

Ice Monster
15 Yong Kang St., Da'an
hours: 11am-11pm

May 24, 2009 Taiwan

Aoba (Chin Yeh)

My mom told me that Aoba ("Chinyeh" in Chinese) was better than Shin Yeh, which everyone on the web seems to rave about. Shin Yeh is a large chain, and recently opened a nice classy outpost on the top of Taipei 101. Since my relatives all said Aoba was better, we went there instead.

The food was definitely solid, but we were not blown away. The 3 cup chicken (pictured above) was tasty, and better than any version we'd ever had in Boston.

The Taiwanese lumpia (pictured below) was interesting, but not that yummy. I think I liked the one I had at a Singapore food stall better.

I loved the rice noodle soup (only $3!). It was tasty with strong umami without being too salty, and it was satisfying to eat.

It reminded Bryan of those rice noodle ramen packages that they sell.

Finally, we ordered the special, sauteed livers. I'm not a fan of liver, so I didn't like it that much. Bryan only thought it was OK.

All in all, it's a nice place to try some traditional Taiwanese food, but if you think your stomach can handle it, you can probably get just as good food on the street for a lot less money.

May 23, 2009 Recipe

Yonghe Soy Bean Milk / Sheraton Taipei

When we were in Taiwan, we had breakfast included at our hotel every morning. Actually, the breakfast at the Sheraton Taipei is pretty good. Here is a picture below of a typical breakfast. It was a buffet, and I typically would get congee with a bunch of sides (chili bamboo shoots, pickled cucumbers, gluten, fermented tofu) and of course topped with a good heaping of pork sung.

There was also you tiao (fried oil stick) with soy bean milk (not pictured), which we sometimes had.

As a result of the included breakfast, we did not get a chance to venture out and eat Taiwanese street breakfast until the last day!

And oh, how good it was! And cheap! Why didn't we come earlier???

We walked down the street that the Sheraton was on (ZhongXiao East Rd) away from Taipei Main Station for about 15 minutes. We then went to this hole in the wall traditional Taiwanese breakfast place.

Yummmm . . it was so good. This is everything we ordered.

Dan pi is an egg burrito of sorts. The freshly handmade pancake is cooked with a fried egg and then rolled up. It was delicious here, and probably cost around $1. In fact, most items cost around $1 or less. I think the entire meal was less than $5.

Pictured below is a shaobing youtiao. Essentially, it is a fried dough stick inside a sesame pastry. You dip the "sandwich" into the sweet soy milk (kind of like a French Dip).

Salty soy milk is fresh soy milk that had curdled due to the addition of vinegar. The remaining product looks a bit like very soft tofu in soup. Salty soy milk typically includes chopped up "you tiao" (yes, the fried dough sticks from before), za tsai (chopped pickled mustard greens), scallions, and hot oil. If the soy milk is not good quality thick soy milk, the salty soy milk won't curdle as thickly.

The soy milk here was excellent, and the salty soy milk was nice and thickly tofu-like.

If you go to Taiwan, I would definitely recommend you have traditional Taiwanese breakfast at least once!