How many times have you been to Chipotle, saw their spread of burrito fillings and thought to yourself "man, homemade barbacoa would be so much better than this stuff," then ordered barbacoa anyway? It happens to me all the time, so I finally decided to make my own version of barbacoa--Mexican barbeque beef.

I'm sure there are countless ways to prepare it, depending on the region of Mexico and the availability of a slow cooker. I melded a few recipes together and used some stuff I had on hand. After slow cooking the beef for 10 hours, I served it taco-style in a warm tortilla with some pico de gallo, cheese, chopped cilantro and sour cream. I used simple garnishes so the chipotle and chili powder flavors could really shine through in the beef. Traditionally beef barbacoa is made with the entire cow's head, but for cooking-at-home purposes I used chuck. This is a perfect party recipe because it's easy to make, fairly inexpensive, yields more beef than you can probably handle and everyone loves it.

Slow Cooked Beef Barbacoa Tacos

Ingredients:

For the beef-

After months of walking by the unfinished space, the sushi-deprived Beacon Hill residents can finally enjoy Fin's. Fin's Sushi has a couple locations around town (Symphony Sushi, Fin's Kenmore Square, Fin's Chestnut Hill) and opened their newest Cambridge Street location two weeks ago.

The menu is exactly the same as their previous locations, but the service is more on point than ever and the food shows a major step up in terms of presentation. Rolls I've been ordering at Symphony for years came out at Fin's looking more upscale with updated garnishes and fancy plating techniques. It's nice to see them making the most of their high quality sushi, because it really is some of the best sushi this city has to offer.

Here's what I tried on my inaugural visit to Fin's...

Fin's
240 Cambridge Street
Boston, MA 02114

One of our favorite gastropubs recently added a few new food items to their menu and we could not be more excited about it. Russell House Tavern is an essential go-to in the Harvard Square area which, unlike the average tavern, serves up a variety of jaw-dropping dishes inspired by some seriously out-there ingredients. Bordering on offal, you'll find dishes like beef tongue meatballs and heart raviolis alongside the more traditional fare like grass fed burgers and burssell sprouts served with burratta.

This February Chef Michael Scelfo took it up a notch, introducing gravlax, oxtail and scallops to Russell House's repertoire. Take a first look at some of the new nom-options below and click here for some more oldies (but goodies)

Russell House Tavern
14 JFK St.
Harvard Square
617-500-3055

For those of you who are, like us, completely uninterested in Valentine's Day, not all hope is lost for an awesome February holiday focused on great food and drinks. National Margarita Day is celebrated on February 22nd! Who knew? We thought it would be in May too, but apparently National Margarita day is completely separate from Cinco de Mayo, which gives us all the more reason to drink them.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we are teaming up with Google Places for a margarita event at our favorite place to drink margs and eat nachos, Poe's Kitchen at the Rattlesnake. We're inviting up to 40 people to join the fiesta, where we'll be tasting several versions of our favorite drink AND eating a ton of nachos, just because.

If you're feeling especially ambitious, you can give Poe's famous ghost chili margarita (pictured above) a try. This drink is a monster. It contains over a billion scoville units and requires each person who dare drink it to sign a wavier. Trust me, it's no easy task. Jacki and I tried it out and couldn't go on after just one sip, and now we reside on Poe's Ghost Chili wall of shame.

Want to join us? Just be 21+, register here, and you'll get an email with the details on how to get your seat.

Remember: just because you register here DOES NOT guarantee you an invite - so keep an eye on your inbox for how to get yours!

Tomorrow night, Friday, February 10th, stop by Stoddard's on Temple St. from 7-10pm and enjoy $3 drafts courtesy of Narragansett. In celebration of the release of their award-winning seasonal craft beer, Bock, the ‘Gansett Girls join mascots Clammy & Tallboy for the Boston launch party. The perfect pick for your post-work happy hour, the first 50 people in the door will get limited-edition Narragansett Bock t-shirts. You can bet I'll be one of them ;)

(image via The Barley Blog)

My favorite thing about the Somerville Winter Farmer's Market is the colorful carrots from the Carrot Man. If you check it out, you are sure to notice the massive line of people waiting patiently for root vegetables from Winter Moon Farm. The guy passing out samples of watermelon radishes and refilling his table with golden beets is (as my friends and I refer to him) the Carrot Man. He has the best carrots ever, or at least the best carrots I've had the pleasure of eating. They're not the most normal looking bunch, but trust me when I say that they put those bagged baby carrots from Stop N Stop to shame.

The best thing to do with the great seasonal ingredients is to prepare them as simply as possible, highlighting the ingredient itself. This recipe, which is slightly adapted from Food52, does just that! To julienne the carrots I used my food processor, you could also use a mandoline, or just slice 'em really thin with a knife.

Balsamic Carrot Salad (adapted from Food52)

Ingredients:

The Downtown Crossing work crowd officially has a new nom-spot to be excited about; replacing what once was a Dr. Scholls storefront, locales are happily welcoming JM Curley as the newest addition to the handful of bars and eateries inhabiting the area. Satisfying the cravings of both foodies and beer-hungry cronies alike, their menu's filling and fun with a healthy variety of reasonably priced beers to go with it.

Lunch will likely run you $11 or less, with fan favorites like the burger topped with griddled onions and russian dressing or the pastrami sandwich stuffed with french fries, which has already started making quite the name for itself.

Open for a little over a month now, it's also becoming a regular stop on the after-work circuit. With $5 beers and a nice list of craft cocktails, you'll usually find it buzzing after 5pm. Sides like cast iron cornbread and brussel sprouts topped in duck confit and gruyere are perfect for sharing, and you'll never find yourself without a complimentary basket of popcorn nearby (ask about the bacon chipotle flavored kind -- you won't regret it).

But what's even better than what these guys are serving up, are the people who are actually serving it! Waitstaff are attentive and ridiculously nice. Quality food and caring employees definitely set these guys apart from some of their neighbors, and you'll likely find yourself thinking about your next visit before you've even left. They'll even serve you food well into the wee-hours with a late-night menu that's available until 1:30am. But if you're out drinking that late, just keep one thing in mind, they don't take kindly to rude and disorderly behavior so just make sure you keep yourself in line. ;)

JM Curley
21 Temple Place
Boston, MA
617-338-5333

When a co-worker of mine, a proud Watertown resident, mentioned to me that his new favorite restaurant was called Strip-T's, I laughed in his face and called him a pervert. Then he gave me a bite of his roast duck leftovers from the night before and suddenly...he had my full attention. Wait, there's a past Momofuku chef serving up bizarre foods in a Watertown diner? Yes, and you should probably check it out.

My Strip-T's experience was unexpectedly charming. The new chef, who is the original owner's son, just took over after a five year run as the Chef de Cuisine at David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar in New York. He merged Strip-T's quirky diner food menu with haute cuisine, using original flavors and ingredients--which makes for some pretty ridiculous dishes. From the first appetizer to the finishing touches, there was never a dull moment.