Zoe Cuisine

Beach Dog

If you ever find yourself on a boat off of Wingaersheek beach in Gloucester, you must make a pit stop at Dirt's Dogs. This is the equivalent of the Boston sausage guy cart on a floating barge. Is this not the best idea ever? So after you have worked up an appetite from a day of sunbathing, swimming and strolling on the beach, you can pull up your boat and get a freshly grilled sausage or hot dog, candy bar, slush or cold drink. If you forgot your sunscreen or the all important koozie, no fear - they have those too. This essential summer pit stop will only be open for about another month, so check it out if you can. No shirt or shoes required.

Tacos and Fenway? Yes Indeed.

I recently tried another one of the great chef Ken Oringer's restaurants, La Verdad. This restaurant is located in a most unlikely area, Landsdowne Street directly in the shadow of Fenway Park. This is an area I tend to avoid at all costs unless I have somehow snagged some really great seats to the Sox (which is a pretty rare occurence). Landsdowne Street is known for two things in Boston, rowdy Red Sox fans and a rowdy club scene. The area directly around Fenway has never been known for having any cuisine other than burgers, buffalo wings and the famous sausages from the street vendors. So it was surprising to many when a Boston celebrity chef decided to open a restaurant right in the thick of a sea of sports pubs. Unlike his high end restaurant concepts KO Prime, Clio, and Toro, La Verdad is a very casual Taqueria with all items on the menu priced under $19. The focus is on tequila and tacos, always a good combination if you ask me. The atmosphere definitely has a Fenway vibe, with a huge bar and multiple TVs for the sports obsessed. The interior looks a little rough and worn around the edges (especially the bathrooms), which I'm sure is a result of over a year of supporting throngs of Sox fans, but it also fits the whole authentic Mexican taqueria theme so I won't hold it against them. Luckily it was not only sunny and 70 degrees but there was also no game in session the day we dined at La Verdad so we were able to sit outside on the spacious patio in relative peace and quiet.

We each had the "La Verdad" margarita and guacamole for one to start. If you are dining with just two people definitely just order the guacamole for one and not two as it is huge as an appetizer. It comes with tons of homemade salty tortilla chips topped with crumbled queso fresco cheese which I thought was a nice touch. I order guacamole almost every time I see it on a menu so I can attest that this is great (not the best ever, but great) guacamole. For our entrees we turned to the extensive taco menu instead of trying one of the few large plates or tortas (traditional Mexican sandwiches). Tacos come in threes, so you can order all of one kind or opt for the "Loco Mundo" option which allows you to pick three different tacos for $12 including a side of beans and yucatan slaw. Since I love to try a variety of flavors I immediately went for the Loco Mundo and chose the battered fish taco, the pork adobo taco and the shrimp in governor sauce (which I didn't have a clue what it was!). Jay tried the duck, carne asada and the fish taco as well. The verdict of the tacos was excellent overall. The portions were perfect and the beans and slaw were very tasty with great flavor. I loved the pork taco which was shredded and served with a pineapple salsa. The shrimp taco was my favorite though. The small shrimp were served in a spicy sauce that tasted like a Mexican version of buffalo sauce with some jack cheese. We both thought the fish taco was good, but that the contents made it a little on the mushy and watery side. I am sure we just caught this taco on an off day as I have read many reviews where people rave about it. Good Mexican is tough to find outside of one or two places in the Boston area, so I am glad to have tried La Verdad. I will definitely be back to sample more tacos and enjoy a margarita and guacamole on the patio, just as long as it isn't a game day!

Tantalizing Tapas at Toro

Monday night I dined with friends at Toro, Ken Oringer's acclaimed tapas restaurant in the South End. I had eaten there a few times after it first opened and had very good experiences, but was reluctant to go back because of the no reservations policy which always results in a long wait for a table. I have no problem waiting for tables, but my significant other has a very short fuse when it comes to standing at a crowded bar being bumped into by people for any longer than twenty minutes. Since it was a cloudy, cool Monday night, I thought our party of five would have no issue getting seated promptly. I mean who really goes out on Mondays except when celebrating the fact that a friend passed a really difficult Human Resources exam (Yay Julie!!)? To my surprise, the answer is a lot of people! The place was jammed.  Chef Jamie Bissonette attributes the restaurant's success to the menu's wide array of small bites for $5-$10. I actually had the pleasure of working with Jamie at an event put on by BU recently in which we made an assortment of items from the menu, such as tortilla espagnola (potato and onion frittata) and datiles con jamon (dates stuffed with blue cheese and marcona almonds wrapped in ham). Most dishes are extremely simple and rustic, making use of only a few very fresh and very high quality traditional Spanish ingredients.

When we were finally seated my party was pretty ravenous and excited to try and share many of the unique offerings on the menu. Ordering at tapas restaraunts can get out of hand quickly if you do not have a game plan and that is exactly what happened with our group. The low prices are deceiving as each plate is typically only a few bites, so over ordering can happen very easily. The three females picked out 4 dishes, a chopped salad with manchego and olives, a massive paella for the entire table, chorizo and chickpeas with hard boiled egg and the famous grilled corn (more on that in a minute), which we ordered with our server. We did not pay attention when the two male members of our party placed their orders. Lets just say that they went completely overboard, ordering over 10 different dishes that included pork belly, beef heart, bone marrow, kobe beef mini burgers and foie gras (do you sense a carnivorous theme?). Since we were in the spirit of celebration we tried not to chastise them too much and submitted ourselves to sampling the massive quantities of food that kept arriving at our table. My favorite dishes included a salad of grilled asparagus and morel mushrooms in a divine vinaigrette, griddled garlic shrimp in spicy aioli, the paella valencia and the grilled corn. The paella comes in a traditional dual handled pan straight from the stove to the table. It was chock full of shrimp, mussels, clams and spicy chorizo which two huge bone in chicken thighs as a centerpiece amidst the mounds of savory rice. We all agreed that the seafood and sausage were the stars of the dish. The grilled corn (pictured above) is a dish that has nearly started a cult following in Boston. It is one of the most delicious flavor combinations I have ever tasted. An order of corn consists of 3 halved corn ears that have been grilled until crispy and then slathered with garlic aioli and topped with a generous heap of crumbled cojita cheese. The aoili and cheese are gooey and melty from the heat of the corn and it is a given that you will end up with it smeared all over your face, but you will not care because you will be in such a state of culinary bliss. The corn is one of the larger portions on the menu with 3 servings for $6(I recommend bringing some floss in your purse if you plan on ordering this treat.)

I was yet again very impressed with the quality and presentation of food at Toro. The menu is so large and varied that you could dine there often and always experience something new and different. It is possible to go to Toro and get a very affordable dinner if you are very good at self control. Unfortunately that has never been one of my strong suits, and definitely is not one of my husband's, so I think we will be forced to make the pilgrimage to Toro less regularly than we would like. If you are looking for a restaurant that is great for groups and adventurous eaters, this is definitely the place to go as long as you can handle a lengthy wait. I don't see Toro becoming any less popular any time soon.

Good Eats in Charleston, SC

(My lovely hostess enjoying some guac and a cerveza on the patio at Taco Boy)

I just got back from a weekend in Charleston, SC where I was visiting one of my oldest friends. It was my first time in the city and I loved it! The downtown area feels more like a quaint seaside resort town than a big city. The cobblestone streets are lined with flowers and palm trees and amazing courtyards open up behind beautiful wrought iron fenced townhouses. I could have spent days wandering around taking pictures, but alas my time was limited.

Of course I managed to eat a few good meals while I was in town and I thought I would share some of the places in case you are ever in the area. On Folly Beach on James Island we ate at Taco Boy, a super casual and fun Mexican eatery with an outside patio and garden courtyard. We had a huge stone bowl of simple, fresh and delicious guac with homemade chips. The best part of the menu is the a la carte taco section that features everything from fried fish tacos to seared ahi tuna, pork and tempura shrimp. I can never decide what I want on a menu, so this was a great way to try a variety of different flavors at only $4 a taco.

While we were downtown, we dined at Social on East Bay Street. This restaurant is a trendy wine bar with an eclectic shared plates menus that features everything from asian apps to brick oven pizzas. I especially loved the super thin crust mushroom pizza with truffle oil, goat cheese and caramelized onions. To drink I tried "The Socialite" which was the smoothest dirty martini I have ever had. The secret ingredient was tomato vodka (these southerners think of everything!). My only complaint about this place was that they have a DJ churning out tunes that are a little too loud for a restaurant atmosphere after 10pm. You know you are getting old when you have to ask the waitress to turn the music down! Dine here before 9 and you should have no problems.

Our last meal was an elegant brunch at Magnolias, also on East Bay Street. This restaurant is known for upscale American cuisine with a southern flair. We started the meal with the classic southern snack, pimento cheese spread. This addictive dip is a mixture of smoky roasted red peppers, spices, assorted cheeses and often mayo or cream cheese. It is decadent and delicious slathered on anything from bread to vegetables, chips, meat - you name it! I have no idea why this phenomenon has not taken hold north of the Mason Dixon line! For my brunch entree I had crab cakes topped with tasso ham, poached eggs and chive hollandaise with a side of corn relish and potato hash. This meal was exactly what the doctor ordered after our late night of drinking "Socialites". 

(Fancy Pimento Cheese Spread at Magnolias)

I will definitely be back to Charleston to try all the other restaurants whose menus I longingly looked at as we walked by. This is a town that takes eating and drinking very seriously. I can't wait to return for more good times and good food with great friends.

Kitchen Confidential

Last night I had the unique experience of spending a night in the kitchen of one of the most prestigious restaurants in Boston, L'Espalier. How did a very recent graduate of a 14 week culinary program with no previous professional cooking experience find herself in this position? The answer is called a "stage" (pronounced "stahge"). I had never heard this term until a few weeks back when a visiting chef had invited the students to do a stage in his restaurant. A stage is a very typical occurrence in the fine dining world where culinary professionals and students will be allowed to come work for free for a night in a kitchen. You might stage at a restaurant you want a job at so they can see your skills first hand. A cook or pastry chef might even stage at a competitor's restaurant just to see what other folks in the field are up to, a learning experience you could say. So when Frank McLelland, chef/owner of L'Espalier, came to do a demonstration at BU and worked with my class for the day, he also mentioned the opportunity of a stage. Even though I went into my culinary program with the firm belief that I would not end up in a restaurant kitchen, I felt compelled to take him up on the offer. So after just a few emails to his very nice office manager, there I was in the midst of a scene of complete organized chaos in the kitchen that turns out some of the most avant-garde (and expensive) cuisine in all of New England.

Now I am not going to lie, I was ridiculously nervous for days before my stage. I even considered canceling a few times. My first panic came because I was told to wear chef's pants. Chef's pants are the most hideous, unflattering article of clothing known to man. They are baggy and are often tapered at the ankle, similar to the style of pants MC Hammer made famous. Personally, I would be much happier wearing a burlap sack. Now I have a hard time finding normal pants that fit me well, so the search for a pair of balloon like chef's pants was not going to be easy. Instead of driving all over the Boston area going to uniform stores, I found the least repulsive pair possible online and ordered them with express shipping to arrive the day before my stage. They didn't show up. So now I was not only going to be the jerk in the kitchen that didn't know anything, but I wasn't going to be wearing the right outfit. Jeesh. Well my panic over the pants was thankfully unnecessary (just as my husband assured me, damn I hate when he is right!). I think the chef wearing the cowboy hat and birkenstocks definitely looked more interesting than me in my plain black corduroys.

My other worry was that I was going to be asked to actually do a task for someone and totally screw it up so badly that they would have to remove it from the menu that night. In the back of my head on the way to the restaurant I kept telling myself that there was no way I would be asked to do anything significant, I mean this is L'Espalier and they need everything to be perfect so why would they let some random girl start messing with things? I convinced myself that I would only be observing and probably asked to fetch a few ingredients and maybe watch a pot or stir a batter. This made me feel better.

I was wrong. Within 5 minutes of meeting pastry chef Jiho Kim, my boss for the night, I was handed a recipe for lemon curd and told to get to work (in the nicest possible way). Thank my lucky stars I had actually made lemon curd a few times successfully and knew what the finished product should look and taste like. But trying to navigate a kitchen teaming with about thirty cooks all bustling about at a very fast pace trying to get there tasks completed before the first dinner customers arrived was pretty daunting. I needed a pot, bowls, whisk, all my ingredients and a stove and I had no idea where anything was. A few nice people suffered through my endless questions before they could get back to work and I could get started. Unlike culinary school where we each had multiple stove top burners available to us, I had to fight for a burner on a stove that three prep cooks had huge pots and pans bubbling with every thing from chicken stock to sautéed onions and the start of mashed potatoes. Let's just say that I felt a teensy bit in the way. Bottom line is that I successfully made the lemon curd even though my fingers were a bit shaky cracking the eggs and whisking the yolks and sugar together. It even tasted really good! I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I had only been there for an hour and had about seven more to go...

Well I won't bore you with a play by play of the rest of the night, but lets just say that I saw, tasted and experienced a lot of new things. Jiho is not only an accomplished pastry chef, but he is also a little bit of a mad scientist. His desserts completely push the envelope of the very definition of dessert. There is no standard slice of chocolate cake on this menu. Every menu item is a careful composition of multiple flavors, textures and elements and each dish includes a unique foam and ice cream. The finished presentation is nothing short of architectural. He uses crazy chemicals and liquid nitrogen. He molds crème brulee in a pvc pipe so it comes out looking like a long thick noodle. He offers white asparagus ice cream as well as black pepper soufflé with cumin gelato. Jiho puts any of the concoctions that I have watched being prepared on Iron Chef to shame. I have to say that the most cliché expression really summed up my experience at L'Espalier after my short stint at school - "you aint seen nothing yet kid".

Authentic Mexican in Back Bay

Last night my culinary school comrades and I ventured out of the industrial BU kitchen for the first time together. We chose to have dinner at Casa Romero on the corner of Newbury and Gloucester streets in Back Bay. Leo Romero, the owner and chef, had come in to do a demonstration for us a few weeks ago and we all fell in love with him and vowed to visit the restaurant. I had been to Casa Romero years ago and remembered it being very good. The restaurant had a terrible misfortune this past Christmas when it was completely flooded due to a burst pipe. The entire place had to be renovated and it just reopened on February 15th. One of the major improvements is the addition of a bar by the entrance so you can have a margarita while waiting for your table.

Leo educated us on what authentic Mexican cuisine is all about when he came to teach us. It is a far cry from chimichangas and quesadillas drenched in cheese and sour cream. In fact, most true Mexican food uses very little dairy at all. The coastal area of Veracruz, actually has cuisine that is very similar to Italian with lots of tomatoes and olives. Casa Romero does have a few of the stereotypical dishes you would expect to find on any Mexican menu - enchiladas, soft tacos etc. But if you are going to make the trip, you should try some of the more unique regional items.

We started by sharing a few orders of guacamole, ceviche and stuffed chile rellenos. The ceviche was the star with bright and tangy citrus flavor and super fresh fish. It was the perfect way to perk up your palate at the beginning of the meal. For an entree, I chose the Medallones de Pollo Rellenos de Nopalito en Mole Poblano, a dish of chicken medallions stuffed with cactus and cheese over a poblano mole sauce. The cactus was very interesting, quite mild and reminiscent of a green pepper. The mole sauce was divine, both spicy from the peppers and sweet from the hint of chocolate. The portion was a perfect size which is nice to see these days. So often in Mexican restaurants you are presented with an entree that is actually a platter with three times as much food as you really should be eating. My friends tried the Shrimp in Tomatillo Cilantro sauce (which Leo prepared for us at school) which looked excellent. 

While we all started with margaritas, I had to switch to something that wouldn't put so much hair on my chest. They use only top shelf tequila in their "Perfect Margarita" and it was a little too strong for my taste. I imagine it would be a margarita lovers dream since it was not drowned in a syrupy sweet mix like most are. I tried a drink on the menu called a "Paloma" and it was unbelievable. It was made with a Mexican grapefruit soda called Jarrito, lime juice and tequila. It was so refreshing and complemented the tequila beautifully. I will definitely be returning to sit at the new bar and drink a Paloma soon! 

Although Casa Romero is on Newbury Street, it doesn't have the prices to match, most entrees are in the $15-20 range and appetizers run around $5-7. The ambience is cozy, rustic and authentically Mexican in decor in a tasteful way. Where as many Mexican restaurants are loud and informal, Casa Romero is much more refined and quiet. It is a perfect date night restaurant. I felt sorry for all the couples sharing a romantic dinner next to our boisterous table! I hope you try Casa Romero next time you are in the mood for great Mexican fare. 

Visit Casa Romero online

Soul Food in Yankee Country

 

One of the great parts of my culinary program at BU is that we often have chefs from area restaurants come in to teach us for the day. This keeps things interesting by allowing us to experience many different styles of cuisine, as well as the personalities of the chefs that are behind them. Today we had chef Barry Maiden of Cambridge's Hungry Mother restaurant, located in Kendall Square. I was skeptical at first, because southern food always makes me think of vegetables that have been cooked until there are absolutely no nutrients left, and lots of fried food and butter. Not that this kind of food can't be absolutely delicious going down, it just tends to leave me groaning about half hour after the meal. Barry's food totally changed my mind about how this regional cuisine can be prepared. His small 50 seat eatery focuses on "real southern cooking", as in no fried chicken or mac and cheese on the menu. He also is completely committed to using local and sustainable foods whenever possible, supplemented by ordering key ingredients such as ground to order grits straight from South Carolina. In order to illustrate the divers flavors that are innate in southern food, we made the following items of the Hungry Mother menu:

To Start - Spicy Pimiento Cheese Dip

First Course - Maine Shrimp & Grits with Tasso Ham and New Orleans BBQ sauce

Main Course - Cornmeal Crusted Catfish with Collard Greens

On the Side - Skillet Cornbread with Sorghum Butter

Dessert - Chocolate Peanut Pie

Each course was more delicious than the next, packed full of intense flavor, yet not as heavy as you would expect. The unexpected details, such as a hint of cayenne in the peanut pie and the sweet taste of sorghum (slightly like molasses) melting on the cornbread, make these dishes truly unforgettable. The pimiento cheese dip, a real southern classic I am told, was love at first bite. I will absolutely be bringing that to my next potluck. My only wish at the end of class was that I could empty my stomach and start eating it all over again. I highly recommend making a trip to visit this little jewel of a restaurant. It is definitely top of my list now!