Image from Eater National “Blinded by the Light” article

Eater National just published a great article that is made up of various interviews of multiple chefs and a food blogger regarding their thoughts on the recent trend of patrons taking pictures of dishes that they order when they arrive to the table.

I always find myself apologizing to my dining companions that I am snapping quick iPhone shots of my food (and theirs a lot of the time) just as it leaves the servers hand. Most of the time no one cares, but I know that it is somewhat odd for those who haven’t eaten out with me very often.

As a result of taking these shots, sometimes the server will ask me questions and they sometimes find out that l blog. I’m never one to outwardly announce “Hey I’m a blogger, look at me” because honestly, I feel like that has a very good chance of coming off obnoxious.

If you take a look at my photo gallery on my iPhone you’ll see about 90% of the images are food of some sort and the one thing that amazes me is that most of the time I can remember the details of the dish that were documented on the menu. I wish my memory was this vivid about everything else in life, if only I could translate my passion for food into passion for Microsoft Excel or SharePoint!

Anyway, I want to know what you think! How do you feel when someone around you is taking pictures of their food at a restaurant? Does it bother you?

Do you take pictures of your food? Have you had any reactions or noteworthy experiences?

This closure and reopening was the kick in the butt I needed to get there. I went as soon as it was open. My two friends, Meredith and Lauren, joined me for drinks and food after work on the Friday evening reopening.

We hopped up on three bar stools at the very small bar and started with beverages as we surveyed their new menu.

Though I’d never been to Mare before the renovation, I looked up some images and there was not a bar there before Friday’s reopening. It was evident that they were newbies to the bartending scene in that location.

One of the bartenders was very nice and personable, not to mention absolutely beautiful and sporting a massive rock of an engagement ring. We got along with her swimmingly. The other woman who I guess was a bartender was a bit cold and rude. I have a feeling she wasn’t really a bartender and perhaps she was part of the ownership of the spot.

We started out with beverages. I went with an espresso martini because I was feeling a bit tuckered out. It came with the classic touch of three espresso beans that you get when you order from most places in Boston’s Little Italy to represent the trinity. My friends went with other cocktails on the menu.

Then we went with some items from the raw bar. I got two each of three different types of oysters which ranged nicely in taste, salinity, creaminess and overall texture.

Lauren went with two jumbo shrimps for a nice shrimp cocktail starter. The shrimps were definitely jumbo.

I tried one and the taste was amazing. I don’t think I’ve had shrimp cocktail at that quality ever. The fact that they were as big as they were made it feel more like they were worth the $4/shrimp pricing.

Meredith and I then shared the caprese salad that was gorgeous.

The heirloom grape-sized tomatoes were so colorful and full of flavor and the larger tomatoes that were the vessel the mozzarella was served on were beefy and flavorful as well. The mozz had a very burrataesque consistency, but I don’t think it was marketed as such.

The basil oil, salt, pepper and drizzled balsamic were the perfect accompaniment to the fresh flavors on the plate. My mouth is watering profusely thinking about this dish.

Lauren then went with the seared scallops atop a butternut squash puree with Brussel sprouts, pine nuts and rosemary brittle. The scallops were cooked perfectly and the flavors were great. She was extremely generous and let me try some. What a pal huh?

Meredith also went with the gnocchi dish. The Yukon Gold Potato Gnocchi was topped with leeks, chanterelle mushrooms and pecorino cheese. It was light and tasty.

The only thing is I wish it was more attractive. The colors were very muted overall. Even a little addition of microgreens would have made a big difference.

All in all, Mare was a great stop to start off our Friday night. We enjoyed our food and were pleased enough to come back in the summer time. Now that it is coming closer to summertime weather, I can see myself heading back to the North End for a half-dozen oysters and perhaps a new item from the raw bar!

If you’ve been since the first week of its opening, let me know what you thought of it? Have they gotten better, worse, are they the same?

Davis Square has always been a place beloved by those who have gone to Tufts or lived on the Medford/Somerville line, but I’ve never heard of it as much of a foodie spot until recently. There have been a few new places over the last two years that have popped up, but in the past 6 months or so I’ve heard more and more about the great things that the Davis Square area has to offer.

I’ve been to a few spots like The Burren for drinks, Alfresco’s for brunch, Diesel Cafe for a latte and an intense round of Bananagrams with friends, Orleans after a girls movie night, Joshua Tree for a dinner date, etc. Most of these places were just your normal run-of-the-mill restaurant and/or bar spots. Nothing too too special. But The Painted Burro was a different story.

When I arrived the other ladies had already been seated. They were at a table towards to back of the restaurant. They had only ordered margaritas when I arrived, which were very tasty looking. I went with the hibiscus margarita. Since it was a new place, Mackenzie and I opted to share a bunch of new and recommended items from our waitress so we could get a chance to try more things.

We started with apps. The other girls went with the house guacamole with poblano peppers and onions. This combo was a hit. I think the next time I go I’ll try the pork belly and grape tomato guacamole, but you will see later in the post, I got my pork belly fix later on in the evening.

Mackenzie and I went with two refreshing options to start off the evening. We went with the “chignon” cucumbers (watermelon radish, pickled grapes, cilantro, lemon, chile, sea salt) and the chilled octopus and shrimp salad (with charro beans, epazote dressing).

The cucumber salad was such a wonderful treat. I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly, but I make a cucumber “salad” of my own that has cucumbers, lemon juice, fennel, tomato and feta so I knew that the lemon and cucumber combo would have a juicy and refreshing outcome. The watermelon radish added an additional level of texture complexity, but the most surprising element to me was the grapes. I’m usually averse to fruit in my salad. No strawberries, orange slices or diced apple for me. But the pickling of the grapes took away the cloying sweetness that fruit usually brings to the table and had a glorious balance of sour and sweet.

The octopus and shrimp salad was a completely different kind of enjoyment. It was refreshing in its own right, but it wasn’t juicy or even light. The salad itself was cold. The beans added a certain weight to the overall salad, and made it more substantial/filling. The octopus was cooked to perfection, which is not usually the case. So many times, octopus and squid come with a very rubbery texture, but this tentacle treat was tender and easy to chew with the other elements of the salad. The smoothness of the beans, the texture of the seafood and dressing was a nice contrast to the acidity and bite of the cucumber treat.

I would most definitely order those two menu items again.

We finished up the meal with pork “cochinita” tacos. The description on the menu reads “Heritage Acres, VT pork, pineapple & serrano salsa, spicy citrus achiote”. Can’t go wrong there. The homemade corn tortillas doubled up around the filling of shredded marinated pork, fruit and bold flavors were perfection. One of the things I hate about eating tacos is when you have a taco that looks oh-so-tasty but when you go to pick it up and take that first delectable bite, the taco tears and all of the yummy contents fall either on your plate, your lap or down your arm depending on how far along in the shoveling motion you are. The addition of greens atop the taco added a nice color contrast because the browns and yellows aren’t nearly as appetizing without the green accent.

We were full but had another stop in mind, so we opted to stop while we were ahead at The Painted Burro. Our beautiful Brazilian waitress got us our check with a smile and we were on our way.

We lost two members of our party to the attraction of PJs and the need to wake up to teach classes (they were teachers) after dinner and Patti, Mackenzie and I went towards the center of Davis Square to a bar that you wouldn’t find unless you knew exactly where it was. This bar is called Saloon. It has the most subtle signage (an oddly shaped street light) because it is supposed to reflect a speakeasy/prohibition era feel. We went in a small, dark entry way that felt more like finding a friend’s apartment in the city than a bar entrance.

After a few steps we came upon a stairwell and at the bottom of the stairwell the life of the bar shone brightly. Since it was a Monday night, the bar itself wasn’t crowded, but there were more patrons than I expected.

The interior of the watering hole is intentionally decorated to bring you back in time. The bar itself was the main attraction. It takes up the most substantial portion of the room in a long rectangle that comes down the center of the wall.

The back of the bar is a mirror and the bartenders are dressed in suspenders and our guy rocked a solid mustache and long hair with a ponytail. He played the part perfectly! Needless to say his appearance was just the beginning, he was all about the drinks and the food. His flirtatious personality kept us laughing through most of our visit.

He provided us with various drink recommendations and lucky for him his main recommendation was what I had had my eye on. Any guesses?

Welllll it was the only drink that featured some bacony goodness of course! It was called the Ward 44 made of pork belly whiskey, lemon, sugar and house grenadine. And to my surprise, it came with a wonderful morsel of pork belly as a garnish along side a black cherry.

Mackenzie and Patti went with other drinks. One got the Corpse Reviver no. 2 and the other got the Journey to Ixtlan.

The Corpse Reviver was gin, combier, cocchi, lemon and absinthe.

The preparation of the beverage was almost more fun than trying them. He artfully crafted each cocktail and for this particular one used a special strainer to ensure it was as smooth as possible after all of the elements were combined.

Little touches like that made us feel VIP and also made us feel like we were in another era because as most of you know, bartenders usually just slosh the ingredients that make up your drink together as quickly as possible not caring about proportions, appearance and a lot of the time taste. This was completely different, there was such care taken to perfect all of these aspects.

The Journey to Ixtlan was a recommendation from the bartender because he invented it and named it after his favorite book. The Journey to Ixtlan was born in the wild times of the 70s with psychotropic plants and beyond. The drink itself was made of mezcal tequila, lime, sugar, and angostura bitters.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our beverages, our bartenders stories and each other’s company.

One of the other, non-drink related recommendations our bartender provided was to come by for food next time. This was then followed by the distribution of the menu and it was so much fun to read. The names of the dishes and really more so the unfamiliar offerings like cottage pie, bubble & squeak (which I learned about a few weeks before in London – post to come), winter vegetable bread pudding and more! It doesn’t take too much to get me to try new food locations, but when you add things I’ve never heard of or tried before, my desire to chow down amplifies exponentially.

I haven’t made my way back to Davis to sample Saloon’s cuisine, but that is going to be added to my to-go list and I hope I get this under my belt before the summer is out.

When I was growing up, at my family get-togethers my mom was named Bloody Mary making master. It was known that she would be concocting a great tasting tomato, horseradish and celery salt treat for the adults. As any kid who was itching to be older would do, I begged and begged and begged to be able to have one too – obviously unaware that the reason it was a no-no was because it is not ok to have an 8-year-old sipping on vodka. Being a persistent little bugger, I would usually get to have a virgin version of the adult beverage and I would call that in itself a victory for the day.

Fast forward almost 20 years and my love for a good Bloody lives on. As you’ve seen in past posts (Barlow’s bloody mary bar, Blue Inc.’s Angry Tomato, etc) I’m always searching for the next best version of a Bloody Mary across the fine establishments of Boston and beyond. I have recently come across two unique renditions of the Bloody Mary at two Boylston Street restaurants.

The first is at Abe & Louie’s, an upscale steakhouse right in the center of the Boylston Street strip in the Back Bay. I’ve heard for years that they have “the best burger in town” so obviously that is a reason to go try the place out (additional post to come on this experience). It was a Saturday afternoon, so to start the brunch/lunch, my mom and I went for their Bloody Mary. Since I’ve experienced less than pleasing Bloody Mary’s recently (ahem, Atlantic Beer Garden’s version that comes from a pre-made purchased mix) that have lacked flavor, mainly in the horseradish department, I have started to request a side of horseradish to accompany my drink to allow me to salvage even the most meagerly flavored beverage.

So when I requested extra horseradish on the side at Abe & Louie’s I was surprised when, not only did the waiter bring over a nice sided portion in a little glass bowl, but he also brought along their own house blend of Bloody Mary spices in a little white ramekin. Let me tell you, they should bottle that stuff up and sell it. It was a unidentifiable combo of salts, peppers, horseradish and spices that make me drool just thinking about it now. They include this concoction in their drinks to take them to the next level and also coat the rim of the glass with the heavenly mixture. Needless to say, I put more in my drink as the meal went on. It even got so out of hand that I was sampling the treat directly from fork to mouth. No one said I was classy.

To top off this offering with the miracle spice blend, they include big-boy-sized veggies as garnishes. The cucumber slice that comes with the drink is almost half the height of the glass itself and the celery stalk is not one of those skinny, malnourished yellow stalks that some places give you, it was a healthy green substantially-sized celery canoe that could support even the most hefty of ants-on-a-log. And of course, a nice slice of lemon if you’d like to add more citrus. Now to think, after this app, we had lunch too!

The second Boylston Street Bloody featured in today’s post is….wait for it…the Pickled Bloody at the Back Bay Social Club. Yes my friends, you read that right, PICKLED! As some of you know, I have an odd obsession with pickles. Don’t think Snooki, think little kids that are obsessed with anything on the kids menu that is a vehicle for them to get a heaping pile of french fries as their meal disguised as a paltry sampling of skinny chicken fingers or a sad-looking hot dog. Needless to say, when I go to a restaurant and see that sandwiches or the like come with pickles, I’m never hesitant to ask for extra. “So,” you say, “that’s no big deal.” Well, that is just be beginning, if I’m at a restaurant and I see pickles on someone else’s plate, I will, somewhat shyly (to come off as cute rather than crazy), request a plate full of pickles for my own personal consumption – yes, even if I’m having a bowl of soup that has no place being paired with the sour flavors of a pickled cucumber. I just can’t resist.

All this to say, I was excited to see the words pickle and Bloody Mary combined. It was like I had been wishing for it for years without even knowing it and my wish had been granted. This drink is made of half tomato juice and half pickle juice. When the waitress explained this to me my eyes all but bugged out and she knew she had sucked me in. The drink came over in a mason jar glass (extra points) and man oh man did the garnishes look good. There was a green olive with a pimento center (yum), a stalk of celery (double yum), lemon (standard fare) and (drumroll please) a pickle!! The color of the drink itself was more pink that the usual Bloody, but that just meant I was about to guzzle down two of my favorite flavors tomato juice and pickle juice – without the judgement from others if I were to take a swig from the pickle jar after I’ve finished all of the cukes inside. Those of you who share a love for pickles know that you are tempted to savor the pickle flavor via the juice in the empty jar, but better judgement and your mother’s voice in your ear usually deters you from taking the plunge.

So, I hope this entry has made you crave a good Bloody Mary and that as a result you will go out and try a new place, find (in a British accent) a Bloody gem and report back on where it is so I can go try it too!

I’m off to start a weekend that I hope will include a new Bloody Mary experience in its midst.

Cheers!

Comment below to let me know if there are other types of images that you’d like to see to showcase the food experiences I have or if you have any feedback on my Tumblr page itself.

I’ve been to the Top of the Hub in the past for lunch with my little sister when she came for a girls weekend in the city. The lunch itself was good, but let’s be serious you go there for the views. I’ve also gone for drinks and was pleasantly surprised by the three-man band that was in the lounge area.

View of Fenway Park from Top of the Hub

As many people already know, the costs up at the top of the Prudential Center are high. But from what I’ve experienced in the past, the food was enjoyable and it made the cost hit me less than in another spot.

This time my company was wonderful, but the food was NOT. I understand that Restaurant Week is a different beast, but I don’t think it should be a downgrade to the extent that I could make better in my own little kitchen in my apartment. The salad was fine, it was arugula, with grapes, almonds and goat cheese. The almonds were the best part. Then we got the bolognese. This was the MOST disappointing element of the meal. The pasta itself came to us and was “wiggly.” It was extremely overcooked and it wasn’t salted enough (or at all) when it was cooked. The sauce was fine, but the pasta itself was so flimsy that it didn’t hold the sauce as it should have. I didn’t even take any pictures on this visit because I was underwhelmed.

The desserts were ok, but at that point, we wrote off the culinary experience as a loss. I had the maple creme brulee, but the texture wasn’t as creamy as it should have been. Shawna got the lime cheesecake, but it lacked flavor and oomph.

All in all, I’ll go back to the Top of the Hub for drinks and maybe for lunch, since it’s mere steps from my apartment, but definitely not during the lackluster Restaurant Week service.

Boston’s Restaurant Week Winter 2012 event begins on Sunday and goes until March 30th. 

There are many different feelings about Restaurant Week across the city. Some people feel like it is THE GREATEST THING EVER and use these two weeks as a challenge to try to stuff as many high-priced restaurants into their plans as possible. Others feel as though it is a marketing ploy and you are actually getting ripped off by the whole charade. You end up spending more in the end with drinks and those sneaky additional costs for the foie gras or the like. Many claim the restaurants aren’t serving items worth that money and the quality of the food itself isn’t reflective of the normal quality of the restaurants.

Personally, I don’t mind Restaurant Week. I think it is a great thing to get my friends that are usually sticking around their apartments/houses on weeknights to come into the city for a nice night out. I mean c’mon what is wrong with that? Though the food may not be the best quality the restaurant has ever served, I’ve found some gems during my Restaurant Week jaunts. One of those places was Grotto in Beacon Hill. The best part of that is Grotto offers a prix fixe menu every day, but back in 2007 when I went I was not aware that the place even existed.

And that brings me to my next thought about Restaurant Week, I think though many foodies, etc don’t like the “event” I believe it opens people up to trying restaurants they wouldn’t normally try. Whether the spots are too expensive, in a place they’ve never been before or just completely unknown, this list of participating restaurants makes it so easy to explore new spots in the city.

As I wrote back in the end of summer 2011, my trips to Smith and Wollensky and Bond during RW were extremely disappointing, so do know that I understand where people are coming from when they poo poo the two-week city binge. But, my optimism still holds strong that my experience will be different at other RW locations this winter (if we can even call it winter when it’s 70 degrees outside of March 13th).

Here is my list of restaurants that caught my eye on the list this RW go round:

• Flemings
• Uni
• The Butcher Shop
• KO Prime
• No. 9 Park
• East Coast Grill
• Harvest
• Rialto
• Russell House Tavern
• UpStairs on the Square
• Taranta
• Pigalle
• Capital Grille

This list may very well change around, but after a quick review of the RW website that’s what I came up with. Where are you thinking of going?

What is GERD you say? Well, it stands for Gastroesophageal reflux disease. I hope none of you need to learn too much about this because that means you will be in the same situation I find myself in right now where my diet is limited.

There is still a sliver of a chance that I am in the wrong line and I can hop out before getting on the bland GERD roller coaster ride, but in the meantime, here are the great restrictions I’m facing with this new diet of mine.

No caffeine (which is fine since I don’t drink coffee anyways), no fried/fatty foods, no minty flavored items, no chocolate. Now those four rules aren’t the greatest for someone who likes to go around to the restaurants in Boston and sample the specialties on their menus. But they are nothing compared to these other restrictions that round out the list – no tomatoes, no onions, no garlic, and no alcohol.

Like seriously, are you trying to send me into a deep depression? NO TOMATOES?!

Whenever someone asks me if there was only one thing I could eat for the rest of my life what would it be, my immediate answer is tomato, mozzarella and basil without batting an eye.

Now I’ve got doctors telling me I need to wean tomatoes out of the old diet and that is too much to handle.

As I type I’m sitting in the waiting room for yet another test that involves chugging a gross flavored “smoothie” so they can see how wonderfully I digest the concoction that reminds me of what cardboard would taste like. Yes, I know you are jealous. And of all of my blog posts the image of this tasty treat is making you drool most of all!

Fingers crossed that they figure out that there is indeed no issue with the absurd GERD and it’s something that can be fixed with a simple antibiotic regimen.

All this to apologize ahead of time for the possibility of lame meal selections in my upcoming posts. Blame this damn esophagus of mine!

In my honor please snack on a tomato today with a little sprinkle of salt. Man, in torturing myself because that I just a heavenly treat!

I’m off to Blandville. Population: Me

Well this post is not one of those gushing posts. I went back to Forum for the first time since my birthday celebration back in October. It was a Saturday night and it was pretty bare inside. Each time I’ve been to Forum the number of diners is usually on the low end, so when my friend and I walked in, I wasn’t too shocked.

We were able to sit immediately and it was my first time eating on the first floor. This option allowed for the choice between two menus – the first floor menu is more towards the bar food scene and the upstairs menu is more fancy. Some items live on both menus.

The best element of the trip was the steak tartare appetizer. It was flavorful and very enjoyable. I love capers (which there were many of) and the texture was a very smooth with the broken egg yolk.

Our drinks were good. I went with one that I’ve had in the past, the Vine Bite. It was so clean and refreshing.

For my meal, I went with the steak frites because I wanted the brussel sprout side and to top it off it was our waiter’s favorite. The brussel sprouts were probably the best part of the dish.

I ordered the steak medium rare, but when it came out it was purple and on the verge of mooing. I tried to politely ask for them to cook it a little more, our waiter grabbed it and said “So how do you want it cooked?” and so I told him medium rare for a second time. My answer induced a bit of a look from the waiter, but he took the plate back and the meat was cooked a bit longer. Unfortunately, when it was finally cooked more, the sauce was overbearing on the plate so it was more the sauce than the steak that I experienced.

To bring it back to the positive, the brussel sprouts were prepared in a way that some of them were crisped up like potato chips and others were more like the familiar brussel sprout treatment. The big bad brussel sprout has become a new cool thing on the Boston food scene and I love it!

I’ve loved brussel sprouts since I was probably 5 years old and all of my friends thought I was a weirdo. So I guess I can say I discovered these little gems before they were trendy! Does that make me a trendsetter? I hope so!

My friend went with the salmon dish with bulger wheat, pomelo (the name of one of my favorite wines), mushrooms, and winter fruit mostarda (made up of white wine, grapes, watermelon and other fruits). He enjoyed his dish, though he wasn’t blown away like I told him I had been in the past with Forum.

One thing I was surprised by was the winter fruit mostarda. Who knew watermelon was a winter fruit? My understanding of watermelon very specifically related summer activities, but perhaps that is incorrect. Another thing I was pleasantly surprised by was the appearance of the pomelo on a plate. I’ve never seen one in real life and I was excited to put an actual fruit to the wine.

This not so wonderful experience won’t trump my past experiences, but I am concerned that because this particular restaurant hasn’t gained as much attention as it has potential to the quality of the experience (food and service) are starting to decline. I hope so much this was a one time thing, I will be back to try and rectify things.

The party was at Tresca, so we decided to eat next door at Bricco. It was my second time having dinner at this Hanover St. hot spot. The first time was with my friend Mackenzie and we were seated upstairs in the most romantic table in the restaurant, which we both thought was hilarious. This time, me and my three friends were upstairs as well. We were in the main dining area upstairs, and just as I had remembered the area was extremely crowded.

During my first visit, my waitress was very sweet, friendly and very helpful with all of our questions. She was also very understanding of the fact that we were two girls chatting so we weren’t always ready for our drink or meal orders because we had gone off on a tangent. This most recent visit brought a very different wait staff experience.

Our waiter was abrupt, aggressive and condescending. He was all over us for our drink orders upon being seated, and when we actually needed to place our food/drink orders we were neglected almost completely. When he brought our drinks, he came uncomfortably close to each of us. When he brought our meals he mocked our requests for salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. As we were eating, he came by and asked to take our food away though we weren’t done. And when we were done, he made a rude comment about the fact that my friend cleaned her plate. And on my way out, he awkwardly called me beautiful and caressed my arm. All-in-all we were very disgusted by his behavior.

Thankfully, outside of his behavior, the experience was great!

The food was amazing. We started with a mushroom appetizer seasonal funghi timbale, organic baby spinach and imported fontina with truffle oil. We gobbled it up almost immediately.

For our meals, we ran the gamut:

• Heidi went with the ravioli special. They were cheese filled ravioli with grilled vegetables, sausage and arugula.
• Cristy went with the GNOCCHETTI SORRENTINA Eugenio’s gnocchi, baked with bufala mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. I had this dish when I went to dinner with Mackenzie and I LOVED it! Cristy was a big fan as well. The gnocchi pillows are the perfect texture and somehow, someway, I describe them as light.
• Meredith went with the “BIG NIGHT” TIMPANO which was drum-shaped stuffed pasta, organic meatballs, slow braised meat ragú. It looked so interesting. The treatment of the pasta rolled in the center of the plate made it look like a present you wanted to unwrap.
• I went with the risotto special. It was a seafood risotto with scallops, calamari, shrimp, asparagus, and tomatoes. I’ve never had calamari that tender before. I was expecting the toothy, chewy texture that usually comes with calamari in a seafood medley dish, but the calamari was smooth and buttery.

By the end of the meal, we were full and ready for a few celebratory glasses next door to honor our amazing friend.

Though our waiter was awful, I’ll go back and probably go for the PAPPARDELLE AL CINGHIALE wild boar braised in red wine with porcini mushrooms. Of course, if Mr. Waiter from Hell pops around the corner to greet me, I will be sure to move my table because there is no need to go through that experience again.