Sheryl Julian, the Globe's Food Editor, writes regularly for the Food section.
Devra First is the Globe's food reporter and restaurant critic. Her
reviews appear weekly in Calendar.
Ann Cortissoz is on the staff of the Globe and writes the First Draft beer column for the Food section.
Stephen Meuse writes about wine for the Globe's Food section. His column on
Plonk ($12 and under wines) appears on the last Wednesday of the month.
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« August 12, 2007 - August 18, 2007 |
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| August 26, 2007 - September 1, 2007 »
August 24, 2007
A little seasonal inspiration for you from the Copley farmers' market today. Have a good weekend.
Posted by Devra First at 03:24 PM
August 23, 2007
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Front: KO Prime's 30-oz. rib eye. Back: The disembodied hand of someone in a steak coma.
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Today I reviewed the steakhouse KO Prime, from whence came the whopping 30-ouncer pictured above. The Federalist recently closed, reopening as the steakhouse Mooo (oof, second-worst name ever). Restaurant L is now the Asian-influenced steakhouse Boston Public Meat (worst name ever, though it appears they may have changed it to simply Boston Public). And the Aquitaine Group, whose new French bistro Gaslight just opened serving steak frites galore, has a Newton steakhouse called Prime 128 (isn't that a real estate term?) in the works for later in the fall. The new steakhouses join Morton's, Ruth's Chris, Smith & Wollensky, Fleming's, Abe & Louie's, Bonfire, the Capital Grille, Grill 23 & Bar, the Oak Room, etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum.
The restaurant business is tough, and I understand wanting to make a sound investment -- three of the 10 top restaurants reserved last week on OpenTable.com were steakhouses. But how many steakhouses is too many steakhouses? I think we've reached the saturation point. Clearly Boston has a hunger for giant beef slabs. But really, we'll eat other things too! Witness the recent success of T.W. Food in Cambridge (review here). And I'm looking forward to Myers+Chang, Christopher Myers and Joanne Chang's Asian eatery opening soon on Washington Street. (Their craigslist ad for servers and line cooks describes it thus: "No gloppy sauces. No foams, powders or gels. No ancient Chinese secret. Just fresh, bright, addictive chow and a commitment to offering great neighborhood service in a super new space.") Then there's the whole Fort Point Channel movement, which is sure to bring the city plenty of non-steaky goodness. Exciting things are happening on the restaurant scene. So let's keep going in that direction. No more steakhouses for a while. Do it for the cows.
Posted by Devra First at 01:29 PM
August 22, 2007
This recipe for tomato and bread salad, called panzanella, is in today's Food section in a review of davidlebovitz.com, a blog written by former Chez Panisse pastry chef David Lebovitz. Food contributor Jonathan Levitt made the salad and sent this in before he sat down to lunch.
(I wasn't invited.)
Posted by Sheryl Julian at 11:36 AM
August 21, 2007
Watching the passersby at the Fisherman's Feast in the North End Sunday night.
Posted by Devra First at 04:13 PM
August 21, 2007
I'm reading an intriguing little set of essays by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic ("Cafe Europa") about life in eastern Europe, post communism. My fascination with the book apparently put me on heightened alert for things Romanian.
Last week, while browsing through the bins at the Wine Press on Beacon Street in Brookline, I came upon the pinot noir pictured here. Dealu Mare ("Big Hill") is an ancient winegrowing region 50 or so kilometers north of Bucharest. A $15 Romanian pinot with Vox Populi ("voice of the people") printed in Roman square capitals on the label proved impossible to resist.
It may seem improbable, but Romania has a long and distinguished wine-making pedigree, reaching back to the days when it was the part of the Roman province of Dacia. In her "World Atlas of Wine," Jancis Robinson calls Romania "a Latin country in a Slav sandwich" and says the region, with an extensive coastline along Black Sea's eastern shore, has enormous unrealized potential for quality winemaking.
So what about the wine? Well, there's a lot of lovely, sweet, unmistakeable pinot fruit here -- more than you'd expect. There's good acidity, too, and some modest grip. The downside (for me, at least) is the oak treatment, which could be lightened up a bit.
We'll finish it up tonight at our table at the Cafe Europa.
Posted by Stephen Meuse at 10:44 AM
August 20, 2007
I recently blogged about the cookbook put out by San Francisco bakery Tartine, but a lack of AC has kept me from baking. Now that it's a little cooler (today someone in my building was cooking pot roast), I feel like turning the oven on again.
The first thing I baked from the book was a cherry clafouti.
There were a few quirks with the recipe -- it goes on about what a great flavor the cherry pits impart when you make a clafouti with whole fruit, then proceeds to call for pitted cherries. (I left mine whole.) It doesn't mention anything about dusting with confectioner's sugar after baking, but the photo shows someone doing just that. (I didn't bother.) But it was easy, and one of the best clafoutis I've made: light and fluffy.
I also made a fresh fruit tart.
I woefully underbaked the shell, even after tacking 5 extra minutes onto the suggested baking time, and my oven keeps a pretty accurate temp. But put enough pastry cream on anything and it tastes good! Tartine's pastry cream is simple to execute, silky and flecked with vanilla bean innards. Mmm. The blackberries come from a friend's urban garden and were what inspired the tart in the first place; the white peaches and shiro plums are from the Copley farmers' market; and the mango is from Super 88. (OK, not so local, but 99 cents each and perfectly ripe.)
Thus far I recommend the book, even if it doesn't include the recipe for Tartine's fantastic morning buns, airy and orange-scented marvels that make sticky buns seem mundane. For those, looks like I'll have to go to San Francisco.
Posted by Devra First at 05:27 PM
August 20, 2007
Yesterday, the farmstand tomatoes and basil were too good to resist, so I bought much more than I needed. It was fun to see how dramatically different two dishes could be, made from the exact same ingredients.
This one contains tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and basil.
And this one contains tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and basil.
Can you eat too many native tomatoes this time of year? I can't. I just like them to look completely different.
Posted by Sheryl Julian at 10:53 AM
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