looks like a muffin, but really it’s a nicely flaky crust shaped like a muffin that contains a mixture of pork, beef, onions, carrots, peas, and other sundry things. and baked together for close to an hour, it definitely hits the spot. if we consider […]
sometime (again, my memory is pretty much shot) after my final review, carrie wanted to make coq au vin from the latest issue of cook’s illustrated. i offered to make dessert, and then cast about thinking of a winter dessert that would be suitable. i […]
also several weeks ago, i had enough time (!!!) to go with carrie to the chocolate lounge at mariposa. on thursdays at 7pm, a mini-enterprise takes over the space at mariposa and it becomes a short ode to chocolate. because who wouldn’t be excited by a chocolate lounge? yeah, that’s what i’m talking about.
the chocolate lounge is fun, but is a little limited. there are some different types of hot chocolate, then a series of desserts and chocolate flights. the desserts are pretty standard: a chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, etc. i had the milk cake with chocolate sauce; the edges were really quite delectable, with the sugar-crunchy crust, but the cake was a bit dry for the amount of chocolate sauce (which was perfectly fine) that was poured on top of it. i may have also been expecting something different despite the accurate description by our waitress, since long ago at lmf, luis used to make a tres leches cake that was essentially a vanilla cake soaked with a mixture of milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk. god that was good. (more…)
restaurant pava / 1229 centre street / newton ma / 617-965-0905 / m-sat 11:30-2:30 + 5:30-10pm, sun 11-2:30 + 5:30-10pm / reservations accepted (and recommended, by me) / entrees moderately expensive ($18-25) yes yes, i know i’ve been remiss in updating foodlust. but in repentance, i […]
in the world of restaurant eaters, “leftovers” is a dirty word. it’s the moldy mac and cheese festering in a tupperware in the back of your fridge, pushed out of the way by pudding cups and beer. it’s the smell of mold spreading throughout your […]
what i have realized as i’ve gotten older is that i am, in fact, like my mother. every time she cooks for large groups of people (ie family), she spends almost the entire time in the kitchen. no level of exhortation gets her to stop jumping up every ten minutes to tend to whatever is cooking on the stove.
i am not quite the same, but when i surmise about why i like dinner parties as much as i do, certain similarities suddenly reveal themselves. i like dinner parties for two reasons: i like to feed people, and i like to mix my friends (to varying levels of success). but…i don’t particularly like to join in the festivities myself, because the high point for me is really the cooking part. is that strange? perhaps. but no matter how well i plan, no matter how done i am with cooking when people arrive, i’m somewhat distracted at the end of the cooking, and all i really want to do is watch everyone else have fun. in fact, since i’ve already had my fun, i’d go as far to say that i’d cook for everyone and then go to sleep while they eat. (more…)
take a moment to ponder the following phrase: “sausages with sherry caramel glazed pears.” have you ever heard anything more wonderful in your life? it was even better than i could have expected. sausage? glorious. sherry? sure. caramel glazed pears? oh yeah. then, i was […]
i’ve been remiss in updating my beloved blog (which is two years old!!!), and have a few restaurant reviews to offer you: caffe umbra and om for restaurant week, plus pomodoro. om: 8/18, 1p.m. 92 winthrop street / cambridge ma / 617-576-2800 / m-sat 5pm-1am, […]
looking at my favorite food blogs, i’m starting to realize that half (ok, maybe a third) of having a successful food blog is having a really fabulous variety of dishware and silverware. porcelain, stoneware, metal, glass, different colors and shapes, and the like. i have my bowl collection, but it sits in the cabinets, loved only by pasta and ice cream; apparently i need to make better use of all of these things i have acquired. these are the times when i wish i had a couple of people to cook for every night, and then i could plate everything individually and it would be wonderful. i think the most successful dishware use i’ve had in the past year or so was the chocolate party celina and i had, where i got to break out all of my ramekins for the panna cotta, plus sundry tiny glasses that i own (like those fabulous amber glass ones that i bought for 25 cents at the mit furniture exchange). it reminds me of the times in high school when i would go to yard sales in concord with jessy and nicola, trolling for cheap glass in pretty colors that i could use in my pottery (for your information, crushed glass settled in the bottom of a piece of pottery destined for the glaze kiln melts into a crackled pattern). i’ve thought about yard sales a few times since i’ve moved to cutcat, but i don’t really want cambridge yard sales – students’ yard sales, young people’s yard sales, containing random ikea furniture and other bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. i don’t want another “lack” style table, i want cool random crap – something more readily available in yard sales in the wealthy suburbs. i dream of a kitchen full of mismatched yet beautiful dishware that holds the possibility of infinite permutations.
tonight v and i made dinner. i was feeling too lazy to go out to the supermarket (also, i had gone out a couple times already so i didn’t want to spend more money, and i felt the need to be near my computer to at least feign doing work), so we worked with what i had in the fridge. and in the end, it was quite respectable. there is always a very specific type of satisfaction that comes from using up the leftovers in your fridge. i had some roast turkey that my mother had made and given me last week, along with some snow peas, grape tomatoes, and broccoli. then there were the staple onions, some shallots i found in a cupboard, and v’s yen for biscuit (or starch of some kind). we decided on a casserole, so i sauteed the onions, then the shallots with the snow peas and tomatoes, then the broccoli, and tossed it all into a bowl. i thought some eggs might be nice, but instead of adding them raw, i scrambled them and tossed them in as well. we found some cheese in the fridge and grated that in, then baked it covered with the biscuit topping. it was actually rather like a patchwork pot pie, which is entirely wonderful when you’re still subconsciously missing american food. (more…)
they don’t! at least, the idea of a soft, chewy cookie seems to be a particularly american thing. i guess they’d be less attractive in china because they don’t keep well – although cookies nowadays have so many preservatives in them that they would probably […]