Tour de New England: A Photo Essay

As kind of a last hurrah before I head off to Europe James and I traveled to my family's house (aka Camp) in Maine for a few days. It turned into a little tour of New England since we then made our way to Boston and Rhode Island, managing to hit every New England state except Vermont. I swear it was an unintentional slight! 

After hitting the road late, we stopped for lunch in Portsmouth, NH which has become something of a tradition for us. If you've never been, Portsmouth is a wonderful seaside town with a ton of delicious restaurants. It reminds me of a smaller Portland. After walking around we decided to hit up an old favorite, The Friendly Toast. It kind of reminds me of the description of Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag because there's a bunch of crazy retro stuff everywhere. James was particularly enamored of a KFC bucket table light. Funnily enough, they have a location in Cambridge that I've never been to. That will be a question on Emily Jepordy.

That sign says Beer and Lunch, btw.

The Gentleman Scramble with cheddar-cayenne toast. When I see avocado as an ingredient, 9 times out of ten I order it. A week later and I am still dreaming of that toast. No, really. 

Finally made it to Maine! 

This is what adults do without cable or internet.

When I was a teenager I went to a giant barn of books somewhere in Maine. It was awesome. I couldn't remember where it was, so when I googled "Book Barn Maine" this place came up. It wasn't the same one, but just as good. 

I mean, come on.

Guess which ones are mine and which ones are James'! That's sexist! My love of Larry Bird rivals Leslie Knope's! (Just kidding about the sexist part. You were totally right.)

Even as I was taking this photo this song was running through my head. I am a walking cliche on so many levels. 

Shore dinner from The Portland Lobster Co.

Next stop: Beantown for a Sox game!

On the way home our cab driver talked about how our hotel was haunted. Subsequently, I woke up in the middle of the night convinced that a ghost was looking at me. It turned out to be the giant mirror in our room. 

I couldn't come to the city without stopping by to say hello!

On to Charlestown, Rhode Island for the 4th!

 My uncle roasted a whole pig, which was delicious but even still....I think I'm off meat for a while.

Aaaaand because I am the best house guest ever I brought Flour's famous sticky buns for breakfast!

Boston, I Love You

At first, I had no desire to write about the Boston bombing here. I felt like there wasn't anything I could say that other people haven't already said, and far better at that.  But then I realized that Boston was the star of this blog for a long time and at the very least, I should honor that.

When I started this blog in 2010 I was living in the South End, more specifically, I was crashing on my cousin's couch. After two intense years I had earned my Master's but had no clue about what to do next. So I wrote about my life with Boston as my inspiration. The blog itself forced me to go out and explore, even if I was tired or cranky or alone.

When I first came to Boston I lived in Dorchester, then Cambridge, the South End, and finally Brookline. I left two years ago but Boston will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the city where I was truly on my own for the first time.  It's the city where I became an "adult." And, given the thousands of college students that spend their formative years there, I'm sure I'm not alone. Because of this and so many other reasons, it's a very loved city, yet it can still feel like a town. Big enough to never run out of things to do, but small enough to never feel lost. It was common to bump into people you knew just walking down the street. It has a charm all its own and a fierce pride, which some may call obnoxious, but is it really so bad to love where you're from? The fact that the Red Sox still had the most loyal fans in sports after an 86 year losing streak tells me all I need to know about this town.

Apparently, the older of the two suspects wrote that he didn't understand Americans. He couldn't have been more right. He understood nothing and that was his downfall. But I understand. I understand that this city will get through this because people care about their city and each other. I'll be the first to admit that historically, I haven't been the most "patriotic" person, at least in the sense of having a blind belief that everything the U.S. does is right. I question things, just as we all should. But I certainly believe in the value of a democratic community made up of people from all walks of life. Is it always perfect? No. Do we argue? Of course. And we should. But there is nothing that words can't settle. Violence is the language of cowards.

Stay safe, Boston. We're all rooting for you. 

Forever Brunch

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to a wedding in good old Boston last weekend. After a wonderful night spent celebrating the happy couple, I woke up feeling...well...not so great. Luckily, I was in walking distance of Central Square and the friend I was staying with mentioned that ZuZu's   (best known here for hipster dance parties) now offered a pretty great weekend brunch. We lumbered on over to ZuZu's looking somewhat worse for wear, but I for one soon perked up after glancing at the menu: interesting ingredients (green tomatoes), unique vegetarian options (crispy tofu), fun twists on breakfast standards (thyme waffles)? I'm in!

 

I started out with some freshly squeezed OJ while my dining companions raved about their Bloody Marys. 

Then it was on to The Kathy Bates: an oat waffle topped with fried green tomatoes (get it??), poached eggs, avocado, and their awesome Hollandaise. A menu item both clever and delicious? What more could I ask for? (answer: nothing.) While we waited for our food (an admittedly long time, but hey, it's Central Square) we quizzed each other with the Trivial Pursuit cards provided on the table. 

Wait. This place combines brunch with punny names, great ingredients, and the opportunity to capitalize on my vast knowledge of useless trivia? 

...

Why did I move back to CT?

Oh. Right. 

But the best part was on Sunday when worlds collided and James accompanied me to ZuZu for brunch. Again.

Then, I may have gone to Flour's newish Cambridge location and may have gotten a basket of treats:

Maybe.

Summer Fun: Boston Ramblings and Homemade Ice Cream

Recently I had a whirlwind weekend in Boston that involved Redbones bbq, a little too much PBR, a night game at Fenway and a helmet full of soft serve.

But before that I made 'no machine' chocolate ice cream courtesy of America's Test Kitchen.

I suppose I've always liked the idea of owning an ice cream machine, but in reality it seems like one of those things best left to the professionals--like making sushi or playing the accordion. So when I read over the recipe I was intrigued by the promise of homemade ice cream with only ten minutes of work. This is achieved by the use of condensed milk and a nod to Italian semifreddo desserts:

America's Test Kitchen Chocolate Ice Cream

Makes 1 quart

If you plan to store the ice cream for more than a few days, place plastic wrap directly on its surface before freezing.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch salt
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, cold

Instructions

• 1. MELT CHOCOLATE BASE Combine coffee (or espresso) powder and hot water in small bowl. Let stand until coffee dissolves, about 5 minutes. Microwave chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and coffee mixture in bowl, stirring every 10 seconds, until chocolate is melted, about 1 minute. Stir in vanilla and salt. Let cool.

• 2. MIX AND FREEZE With electric mixer on medium-high speed, whip cream to soft peaks, about 2 minutes. Whisk one-third of whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Fold remaining whipped cream into chocolate mixture until incorporated. Freeze in airtight container until firm, at least 6 hours or up to 2 weeks. Serve.

Tips and Tricks:

*I used German-imported dark chocolate from Aldi which I would recommend because it is good quality and cheap.

*I also added a few grinds of sea salt in a bid to make it like the Salted Fudge ice cream I had in Portland last month (hint: It didn't). I guess what I liked best about this recipe was that it provides a good base to work from and seems pretty conducive to add-ons.

*I don't think I'd add the espresso next time just because the flavor was quite strong. I've been told it helps to 'bring out the chocolate flavor' but all it seemed to do was make it taste like coffee. But hey, if that's what you're in to go for it.

*I would also try it with unsweetened condensed milk since it was a little sweeter than I'd like.

All in all though it was a fun recipe to make and resulted in some pretty tasty and surprisingly rich ice cream, though not as good as Red Sox helmet soft serve. Just kidding.

Bye Bye Boston. It's Been Real.

Well, I didn't get through the bucket list but I did manage to make some headway. Plus, I'll be back in Beantown for various reasons over the next few months anyways. Can't stay away. Boston gets in your bloooood.

On Saturday I had a pretty epic last night out in Cambridge with some friends. We hit up ZuZu and recreated this scene from Animal House with a bunch of hipsters, but sadly no togas. Consequently, the walk home looked something like this:


When I eventually woke up on Sunday James and I went to Zaftig's in Coolidge Corner, since he's never been. Normally going there on a weekend automatically means a 2 hour wait. But it was past 3 pm so we were seated right away. Magic! I had some Gravlax to celebrate:



After lunch we drove over to lovely Jamaica Pond:



James and I had a baseball catch (I won) and then we headed up to Cambridge for ice cream at Toscanini's, which has the best ice cream I've ever had ever. Then we walked back to Boston via the Harvard bridge, which I would recommend both for the lovely views and the calorie-burning potential.

The next day I loaded a bunch of stuff into my dad's van and drove back to CT, which wasn't very interesting.

Anyways, I'm going to be traveling quite a bit over the next couple of weeks. First we're heading up to Portland on Saturday to hang out with some friends and then we're going even deeper into the wilds of Maine to spend some time at my family's camp (or vacation home for you non-Mainers.) I'm then going to go to Rhode Island because apparently my life is all about New England-based travel right now. Tough, I know. But I'll be back sometime next month with more posts about food I like to eat, restaurants I like to visit, and things I need to complain about.

Working Through The Bucket List: Grendel's, a Greek festival, and Cutty's

Ever have one of those days (weeks, months, whatever) where you can't get motivated to do anything? Sadly, I have lots of things to do and very little drive to actually do any of them. For instance: it's taken me three days just to write up to this sentence.

Anyways, I'm still working through the bucket list while simultaneously trying to savor what's left of my time in Boston.

Sure, it's fun to go to the Fenway or ride on the Duck tour boats but it's the little things, the ones that come with living in a place for a while, that I'll miss the most--like a moment of unexpected beauty during an afternoon walk to the T stop:

I'll also miss hanging out at a bar where everybody knows my name. Well, most of them. Ok, maybe just a couple of the bartenders. And maybe they don't actually remember my name. But, they know I've been there before. And that's what counts.

Where was I going with this? Oh, Grendel's brunch. Right.


I've written about Grendel's Den in Harvard Square several times before. I mean, it should really have it's own label at this point. When I lived in Cambridge I'd go in at least weekly with my friend Elizabeth. But once I moved across the river and she moved to NYC my visits became fewer and far between. When I found out Elizabeth was coming to town last weekend we decided we had to go to Grendel's and we had to go for brunch. I'm proud to say that we accomplished both those goals with flying colors.

Note: If you're going to spend a Saturday night at a bar and then go back there for brunch the next morning, make sure you don't sit on the same stool the whole time. Try a booth or a chair. Mix it up a bit. Your back will thank you.

As you can see above, I got eggs Florentine. I was told the hollandaise was 'banging' and indeed it was. Also 'banging'? This epic side of bacon for $2:

James ended up joining us for brunch but he forbade me from posting the photo of him enjoying a Reuben. He did allow me to say that it is 'James Approved.'

Later that day, after emerging from the dark confines of Grendel's, we got wind of a Greek festival being held in Central Square. I had missed Hartford's Greek festival while I was in NYC and had been jonesing for a gyro ever since (yes, that can happen.) Luckily these guys were on hand to help me get my fix:

'Hello young lady. You want gyro?'

Just give James a tray of gyros and hang the Greek flag in his eye line and he is one happy camper:

Me on the other hand? A bowl of warm loukoumades, please:


The next day we stopped by Cutty's, a little sandwich shop in Brookline.

I got the eggplant spukie topped with hand-pulled mozzarella and their olive-carrot salad.


While James got a turkey sandwich. Boooring.

Come on. If you'd rather text than eat your food, you've ordered the wrong thing. James.

Working Through The Bucket List: Chihuly and Toro

Can I just say that I am probably the laziest person you will ever meet? Really. Don't let the Masters degree or the semi-regular blogging fool you.

Yesterday I told myself I was going to go to Chihuly because the MFA is free (or rather, they ask for a donation) on Wednesdays. But, my day was long. And it was getting hot outside. And the MFA just seemed so far. Ugh. However, even though I can be incredibly lazy, I am also really good at guilting myself:

'You'll regret it if you don't go,' I said.
'But, I'm tired....And maybe it's lame,' I replied.
'However bad you feel now, you'll feel worse in the end if you don't do it,' I countered.
'But it's a far walk and I'm not really sure how to get there and th--'
'Dammit, Emily! Just go!'
'Alright. Jeez.'

So, I went. I walked over from work and though it was long and kind of hot it was, yes, worth it in the end.

First off, I got to see these ducks while walking through the park:

So cute! That alone made the trip worth it. Besides, it's always nice to walk around parts of the Emerald Necklace, even if it did make my walk longer.


When I finally got to the MFA I was happy to learn that photography was allowed. Sadly, I only had my camera phone on me. I apologize in advance. Also, as you can see it was pretty crowded. Everyone is as cheap as me.


Obviously my camera phone pictures don't do the exhibit justice and while you really need to be in person to get the full experience, I just wanted to share a few things:


While I was staring at this giant boat filled with blown glass I realized I had seen it before. When I was in D.C. babysitting for my cousin Maeve the apartment we stayed in had a poster of this. Note: babies loooove Chihuly.

This is one of his famous 'chandeliers'. I've definitely seen a few of these around. I'm pretty sure he did the one in the Bushnell (remember Kimmy?) and maybe even the one at Mohegan Sun. Now you can tell your friends 'It's a Chihuly' and they'll be impressed.

This room was cool. I loved that there were people just chilling out.

This made me lol. Does that make me a bad person? I don't care. Someone get this for me.


Afterwards, I met up with my cousin Katie and her fiance Keith at Toro, a tapas place in the South End. Katie wanted me to mention that she was FIRST to do something with me off the bucket list. She'll probably be second too. Maybe even third.

Toro was too dark for me to take even moderately good camera phone photos. However, a quick image search reveals all you need to see. The corn, my God. The corn! Who knew that grilling it and dousing it with aioli, cheese, and lime would be so delicious? Actually, I'm pretty sure Toro's motto is 'just put some aioli on it'. I mean, it's good stuff but I definitely woke up smelling like aioli this morning. Anyways...yeah, get the corn. Everything we had was pretty good but the corn made it a 'must visit' for me.

A Boston Bucket List (Of Sorts)

Farewell, partial view of The Prudential Center...

I feel like I've been in a funk for the past couple of weeks. Granted, I've spent a large chunk of that time traveling between Boston, CT, and NYC. (It's a well-known fact that for every hour you spend on a Peter Pan bus, you lose one week of your life.) Then, when I actually have been home, I'm either exhausted from doing other peoples' chores all day or it's a furnace outside. So much so that the only thing I've felt like doing lately is watching succeeding episodes of Party Down on Netflix. But, I need to snap out of it because it's getting down to the wire re: my last day in Boston. In fact, I'm roughly two weeks away from moving day.

So, in honor of my departure from Beantown (and as a way to get me out of the house) I've compiled a Bucket List of sorts. No, I'm not dying, but I do believe that living in a city is a far different experience from visiting one. Hence, this isn't a 'Best of Boston' list, but more of a 'Things I never got around to doing over the past three years/Revisiting Old Favorites' list.

Cultural

The Chihuly exhibit at the MFA (They had me at glass-blown flowers)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (preferrably on a First Thursday)
The ICA

Outdoors/Historical

Arnold Arboretum
Mt. Auburn Cemetery
JFK Library /Birthplace (Probably would have made sense to go to the library at some point during the two years I went to UMB. But, I was too preoccupied with thinking about my thinking)
Jamaica Pond

Food & Bev

Trina's Starlite Lounge (Any home of the High Life is a home to me!)
Grendel's for brunch
Sullivan's Tap (or really, any place on this list)
Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe
Oleana or Sofra
Dali or Toro
New Paris Bakery
Cutty's

Crap that's a long list. I better get moving. Check out my twitter to see where I go!

Enjoy Your Government Sanctioned Holiday Weekend

Ah Memorial Day, the unofficial start to summer. Perhaps you're getting ready for a family bbq or heading out to the shore or the mountains or some other bucolic setting. Me? I'm hanging out in my super hot apartment in Boston doing laundry and watching stuff on Netflix Instant. Maybe I'll get a burrito later.

The Cape 2010....ah memories

This weekend is kind of a bust for me since tomorrow morning I'm taking a bus to NYC. Apparently, it's supposed to be 90 degrees on Monday. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Big Apple action. But, there's a reason super rich people escape to The Hamptons in the summer. As my friend Elizabeth described it: "New York smells like garbage. In the winter, you don't really notice it. But in the summer? Oh man..." It's ok though because there will be a couple of cute little kids excited to see me when I get there. I'm helping my aunt out for a week while my uncle is out of town on a job. I'm not sure how much posting I'll be able to do, but I definitely have a list of places I'd like to eat at/visit if I get the chance:

Crack Pie at Milk Bar
Anything at Babycakes
Pork Products at Fette Sau

Meanwhile, a couple of days ago James and I saw The Cars at the House of Blues. We were definitely among the youngest people there, which was fine 'cause the show rocked and I saw some pretty awesome baby boomer dance moves. Tip: If you get mezzinine seats, get there early unless you like watching the backs of dudes all night.

This was my view:

Really, really tiny Ric Ocasek and some guy's shoulder.

After the show we were pretty hungry, but the Fenway area isn't exactly known for good eats. I suggested we try to find Tasty Burger, this little retro-inspired burger joint that we had gone to the last time we saw a game. Thankfully, it was still open. Apologies for the blurry camera phone pics...


They serve food until 2 am, which is a rarity in this town and the whole restaurant is housed in a really cool converted garage:

Not pictured: The grown man wearing a dog hat (yes) and a tie-dyed shirt. Best part? I think he was on a date.

You know this is a burger joint that means business when you're told everything is cooked to 'medium', like it should be. I had a jalapeno cheeseburger while James had a chili cheeseburger. We enjoyed our food under the comforting gaze of The Fonz, like it should be.

In Search of...Falafel

I know, I know. Lately, between my job, The Book, and my busy social calendar I've taken to posting just once a week. Hopefully this will be remedied soon. In the meantime, here's a post on falafel:

When I first graduated from college I was employed as the stereotypical former-English-major-turned-waitress (don't even get me started on my current status as Master of English nanny...) I was living at home, nursing a broken heart, waxing about the previous summer I had spent in London and generally feeling, well, damn sorry for myself. I was working at a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurant in West Hartford Center, where I served up lunch specials to very rich and very jobless women. It was hell. The only bright spot was the fact that the food was awesome. Especially the falafel sandwich.

The owner was from Israel, the unofficial falafel capital of the world (or maybe it's official now...) and took his chickpeas very seriously. Pita and hummus (or houmous, as he spelled it) were made in-house daily since he declared everything else to be shit. Or, as he pronounced it: Sheeet. This seems to be the key to a great falafel sandwich. It was so good I had to limit myself to just one a week, so my pants would still fit.

The restaurant and I ended up having a mutual break-up (long story) and it closed a year or so later. At first, I felt victorious. Then I realized I would never get to have their falafel again. Since then, I have searched for a falafel sandwich that measures up. But, after years of getting burned I had become bitter and suspicious. Then, on a rainy Sunday last week James and I visited Rami's in Coolidge Corner. I had heard good things and went in figuring I'd get a gyro or something. NOT falafel. But, I changed my mind as soon as I read the menu (Falafel sandwich with Houmous) and heard the familiar cadence of an Israeli accent. I knew we were in good hands.

Delicious falafel sandwich of my dreams? Is that really you?

From the first bite of that freshly baked pita, it was everything I had been looking for all these years. Was it as good as the other falafel sandwich? Not quite. But, perhaps thats the thing about food memories: Nothing is really as good as it was. Even still, I think I've found myself a new falafel joint. Pants, you're on notice.

The Epic Cambridge Post

When I started this blog I was crashing at my cousin's place in the South End, having formerly lived in Cambridge for about two years. I ended up moving to Brookline because of work which has been fine, but it doesn't measure up to The 'Bridge, at least for me.

This weekend turned into 'Cambridge Nostalgia Tour 2011', which is fitting as it looks like I'll be bidding adieu to the fair city of Boston within the next month or so. My bffl Elizabeth was up from NYC for a visit and we spent Friday evening in the cozy, familiar bosom of Grendel's Den in Harvard Square. Many a night during graduate school was wasted away over pints of Original Sin cider and their half price dinner menu. I hear they also have a delightful Sunday brunch, but I haven't made the trek yet.

After waking up with 'Grendel's Fever' (also maybe known as a hangover) I threw together a lovely breakfast of bagels, crumpets, smoked salmon and cream cheese spread, jam, and various fruits:

We then met up with some friends in Central Square at The Tavern, which is sort of a pub-meets-sports bar-meets-upscale pirate restaurant. It doesn't know what it wants to be, so it just lumps everything together. For instance, I could have had anything from eggs and toast (ok) to Italian inspired egg rolls (why?)--luckily for all involved, I went with the risotto fritters also known as arancini.

It was actually really good.

Later on we visited my old apartment in Cambridge where my former roomies were throwing a party, hence a lot of this happened:

After indulging for a while we walked over to Redbones in Davis Square, my favorite southern-style bbq restaurant that I never go to any more. At first I was just going to get something small, but it was really busy and the waitress took forever so I ended up ordering a bbq chicken sandwich.

I usually get this when I'm trying not to eat pork. But, if you're not like me, go for the pulled pork. I also hear the bbq beef is great.


After all that, I'm pretty sure my stomach exploded during the night. Luckily it was fully healed by the time James showed up the next morning. After a fun-filled afternoon spent driving around Brookline we ended up at The Druid in Inman Square because I couldn't find Trina's Starlite Lounge. (I did find it, much later.)

The Druid is about as 'Authenic Irish pub' as you're going to get on this side of the pond, which is saying a lot if you're in the Boston area. They also boast the best fish and chips in Boston. I don't know if that's true, since I'm not much of a fish and chips connoisseur, however I will say that theirs was lovely.



I love unwrapping things, even if I know what's inside...


Fish n' Chips: Better than Christmas morning.