Bostonist: Chefs Collaborative dinner. Want.

Nom-inducing name-drop-a-ganza post from last weekend. I balked at paying $100 for this event (though it's worthy and seemed like a good value), but I did get some small measure of satisfaction from getting the scoop on the ridiculous menu before the attendees did:

[Jamie] Bissonnette will be breaking out some Thai-style ceviche and some of his signature charcuterie, and Kelly will be making "Honey Smoked Hiramasa with Pumpkin Seed Cracker, Pickled Local Squash, and Bloody Mary Tomato Salad with Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, Rain Organic Vodka Gelee, Horseradish Cream" (yum!). Gilson will be cooking up some venison, and may try to use some chocolate nibs from Taza Chocolate (the local chocolatier is a sponsor of the event). Gilson is also one of four New England chefs who have agreed to include some endangered, hard-to-find food items from Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste, so you may find some of those limited-edition goodies popping up in his dishes.



I loathe horseradish and have no desire to eat venison, but I still feel as though I missed the ball. Where was my organic local rouge vif d'temps carriage?

(Photo credit: Darwin Bell via Flikr Creative Commons)

Bostonist: T-Rex Taqueria takes a bite out of Brookline

I have to give my man (dog) McGruff some props here for the title of my post about tacos, mole, crazy potatoes (!), wrestlers and reptilian action figures.

Bostonist: Ciao Bella says bon giorno to Boston with free ice cream

Yum! This free-ness was a while back, but the gelato is here to stay. Here's where you can get it in our 'hood:

Boston

Whole Foods Market
181 Cambridge Street
Boston, MA 02114
617-723-0004

Brighton

Whole Foods Market
15 Washington St.
Brighton, MA 02135
617-738-8187

Cambridge

Whole Foods Market
340 River Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-876-6990

Harvest Supermarkets
581 Massachusetts Av
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-661-1580

Boston

Whole Foods Market
15 Westland Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
617-375-1010

Cambridge

Whole Foods Market
115 Prospect St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-492-0070

Boston, Jamaica Plain

Harvest Market
57 South St
Boston, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-524-1667

Cambridge

Whole Foods Market
200 Alewife Brook Parkway
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-491-0040

Pemberton Farms
2225 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-2244

(Photo credit: Ciao Bella)

Bostonist: The Roadhouse is finally open

Kind of fun: this is the "most recommended story" on Bostonist right now. (I'd say that's like being the tallest person at a midget convention, but as a short person I hate midget jokes.) It's popularity is probably due to the fact that everyone and their mom has been waiting for this spot to open, and it's been delayed for weeks. As I noted in my review, Boston doesn't need more beer bars in any aesthetic or cultural sense, but it needs more simply to balance out the supply of craft beer spots and the demand for "good beer", which suddenly everyone and their mom thinks they need.

Don't get me wrong - I love me some Allagash White as much as the next goateed grad student (note: I neither have a goatee nor attend grad school). But I also enjoy drinking crappy Molson Canadian out of a keg while partying in a Buffalo basement, and 3 percent Utah Bud Lights at eight in the morning while reclining in a canoe. It's all about context and havin' a good time.

Anyway, many a Bostonian now fancies him or herself a "beer snob", and all these newly anointed "snobs" need somewhere properly snobbish to drink. And the Publick House has been giving the people what they want - a long-ass beer list with many unpronounceable names and a slightly sadomasochistic staff -- for a while, so the Roadhouse I'm sure will follow suit. Fortunately our bartender on opening night wasn't at all curmudgeonly (probably because he comes from a bar in Cambridge instead of the Publick House, where acting like a jerk seems to be the required schtick), and he allowed us to try several of their American beers on tap before we chose our fancy beers, Baskin-Robbins style. Good times. It's all here on Bostonist, so give it a click if you want a little more of the scoop.

Bostonist: South End Buttery - How does it stack up?

As far as new openings go, the yuppie-tastic dinner menu at the Buttery was not high on my "must try" list (which is getting far too long), but we ended up there after we stumbled away from Final Friday at Space 242 in search of eats, and my beloved Franklin told us we'd have to wait an hour for a table. We had a fun group of five for the dinner, though, so it ended up being quite fun (albeit expensive), and I was able to get a fairly decent photo with the iPhone, so I put the results on Bostonist.

Bostonist: Tomato, Tomahto: Boston's Best Heirlooms

At last night's Slow Food event at the Nonprofit Center, we were privileged enough to taste several very rare fruits and vegetables, some prepared by awesome personal chefs. We also learned a great deal about heirloom products, seed-saving and cooking. I considered it $22 well spent, although the vibe in the small, over-lit room felt a little church-basement to me. It seems to me that SF Boston is still finding its feet as an organization. So I penned this Bostonist post on where to find and buy some of the rare fruits they were serving to help spread the important message they are trying to send about the importance of buying quality strains of fruits and vegetables -- not only because they taste better, but they support better farming practices and biodiversity.

I also recently purchased an iPhone (I have been wanting one for a LONG time), and this was my first opportunity to use it to support a blog post. I think the result turned out fairly well...

Bostonist: get on the Slow Food ARK of Taste

I plugged this event last week, then I attended it last night. Considering I'm missing the Slow Food Nation fest in SF this weekend (by choice, sort of, since I had an invitation to stay in SF with the bff, but decided an NYC getaway would be cheaper and easier), this Slow Food event came as sort of a consolation prize. The premise was to try some foods on the SF "ARK of Taste", a seed preservation project, and to learn more about why it's important to preserve these items and America's biodiversity overall. The result: I learned that I have been miserably deprived in the produce department, and that now that I'm hooked on some of the fruits and cheeses I tried, I've found that they are hard to find or prohibitive in cost. But hopefully, it won't always be this way, and hopefully, some foodies who happen upon my post will be willing to seek them out and support their growth in Mass. (And I just finished watching Obama's speech at the DNC, so I am full of hope-iness.)

In da club

I am officially "on staff" at Bostonist. Pretty fun. I post this link because I've had to write a few bios before for this or that, and the process is always interesting and difficult, considering I maintain equal loyalty to Utah, Buffalo and Boston as "homes" and I feel the need to explain how I got from there to here. I like this one because I felt I was able to meld these aspects of myself somewhat gracefully, when I am so rarely able to do this in real life.


Also, I am serious about the tofu at Rod Dee, the profiteroles at Eastern Standard, and the cold beer that must be imbibed before any proper brumble in the Utah desert. I can comfortably say that those three food items define me as a person.

Something else I'd like to mention: despite the fact that Bostonist does not pay for their copy, I have really enjoyed the sense of camaraderie that the staff seems to share -- and this extends to my friends who write for the 'ist in Chicago and Austin. Rob Christopher, Tom Thornton, and Josh Huck were kind enough to send me welcome notes when they found out that I had joined the club in Boston. I only hope I can live up to Tom's food coverage and build up enough chops to write an essay for Austin's Soup Peddler -- and perhaps to post as a guest commentator on Josh's soon-to-be-a-zeitgeist soup blog. (Oh no, I have not forgotten about the soup blog.)

Bostonist: InSeason makes getting local food in Boston less annoying

Apparently -- surprise -- I had more to say about local food in Boston after the Dig "Greenland" piece. I also had additional quotes from Chris Crandall of Inseason (some of which I mentioned in my previous post) that I thought were interesting and incisive. He also wrote a few new notes about Whole Foods in his blog that I thought deserved wider exposure, considering his unique proximity to actual farmers who deal with Whole Foods' "buy local" system.

Luckily, in the age of new media, a freelancer can sometimes find a home for these "bits of string too short to use" (to quote Didion once again) within the same news cycle as...er...the original ball of yarn. So I did a bit about InSeason's debut in Boston for the 'ist as well and added some additional commentary from Crandall.

Full story - and a lovely photo from Crandall's blog -- right here.