Lingbo Li
1am at IHOP in Harvard Square
The crowds at IHOP at 1am are slicked in glitter and glisten with booze. There’s an overlit garishness to the place, from the orange neon chrome of the coffeepot to the candy hues of flavored syrups. Diners congregate over sugar-sogged pancakes and chicken tenders while waiters dance anxiously around them – the picture of well-meaning inefficiency.
You order the harvest grain ‘n nut pancakes with apple compote topping. When the waiter leaves, you spot a girl. She’s crammed into an opposite booth, her arms spilling out of a denim vest and day-glo green tank top. Her calves are shoved into black wedge boots whose tops skim her knees, yearning to kiss the hem of her skirt which lies an ocean of thigh away. It’s hard to tear your eyes away. She gets up, there’s a spring in her step, her chin is lifted; she is proud. You sort of admire her.
The pancakes come. The apple compote is as sweet as a toothache, sweeter than apple pie filling, and so sugary it almost burns you. The cream on top is a relief. You search out the bits of crunch in the dough and for once, you do not reach for the syrup. You think about chain restaurant food and the lowest common denominator that it must appeal to.
There is nothing accidental or personal about this food. It has passed through thousands of other lives and Friday nights, every bit as overbearingly sweet.
Grocery shopping like it’s window shopping in Cambridge
I fully believe in walking into grocery stores just to lustfully pine after that cheese you can’t afford (or don’t have a place to store, in my case). The vicarious thrill of handling boxes of exotic imported snack foods is almost as fun as eating them. In some cases, it’s more fun than eating them. Especially if they’re licorice-flavored. Ew.
So my newest list for Citysearch is five places which are fun (and cheap!) to browse around. If I could extend the list, I’d also add Wine and Cheese Cask in Somerville which has a great cheese, cracker, and chocolate section along with their wines. Since I’m not a big drinker, I prefer to stare at the cheese section…
Grocery Shopping like its Window Shopping on Boston Citysearch
Buying groceries shouldn’t be drudgery – think of it as an adventure, a way to explore aisle six like the anthropologist you are. I offer you five places to stock not only your pantry but your heart as well, stores that will fill your cart and warm your stomach, tingle your olfactory glands and numb your lips. Don’t forget to pick up some frozen dumplings. >> Read the list
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are
It was really cold when we took this photo. They also refused to let me airbrush it.
I was on a date at a Scandinavian-themed restaurant. I pored over every inch of the menu, thrilled that reindeer was an entrée. My dining partner, on the other hand, zeroed in immediately on his dinner.
“I’ll have the sirloin,” he told the waiter.
After the waiter took the order, he explained, “I always order the equivalent of steak and potatoes.”
I winced. The contrast between our attitudes couldn’t have been greater.
Though some might chalk it up to an isolated quirk, I’ve found that our dining choices and table manners are a little too revealing.
The unconscious seems to surface at the dinner table, somewhere between the bread basket and the main course. Sharing food with people has a way of exposing our desires, our insecurities, and our aspirations.
Food, for some, expresses a need for comfort. “I had one girlfriend who only ate at chain restaurants,” a friend of mine confided. “She liked how she always knew exactly what to expect.” Yet another girlfriend of his judged restaurants solely by how clean the bathrooms were, which pretty much ruled out cheap Asian eateries.
I remember one group vacation where one guy refused to eat anywhere except McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or IHOP. Even the most inoffensive of Chinese dim sum items—donuts dusted in sugar, egg tarts—were about as appetizing as baby seal blubber. He eventually had to excuse himself to order a burger.
For others, dining is an expression of who they’d like to be, rather than an assertion of who they are.
13 Idiot-Proof Honey Recipes
Little critters I caught on camera last year when I visited an apiary.
These micro-recipes I penned were originally published on GoodEater.org (which has since undergone a facelift).
They’re the kind of recipes that are most useful for kitchen-retarded, time-strapped people like me – minimal equipment, dining-hall-able ingredients – more conceptual starting points than formulas.
If you’re a Bostonian looking for a local variety of honey to try, I highly recommend Mike Graney’s Eat Local Honey. I went through an entire jar in a week. Once you taste this stuff, it’s like the difference between Megan Fox on a magazine page and Megan Fox across the dinner table.
On second thought, maybe keep her on the magazine page.
Sweet deal - Mike Graney's Eat Local Honey
Local honey boasts flavors unique to the region it was produced in. Complexity like this deserves the simplest of treatments. Here are a few options.
1. Stir into yogurt. Add granola. Inhale.
2. Peanut butter and banana, on toast. Drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with sea salt.
3. From the bottom up: bread, sliced apples, paper-thin sweet potato, aged cheddar, drizzle of honey, bread. Put in sandwich press. Consume.
4. Alternatively: bread, sliced pear, toasted pine nut, gorgonzola dolce, drizzle of honey, bread. Press.
5. Or: bread, cream cheese, toasted walnut, sliced apple, drizzle of honey. Press.
6. Stir a teaspoon into two tablespoons of good, softened butter. Spread on toast. Or muffin. Or pancakes.
7. Thick slice of gruyere on crusty sourdough, under the broiler until melted. Drizzle with honey. Eat with napkins
8. Straight up, with cut fruit and croutons.
9. Mix with equal parts water and a good squeeze of lemon juice, freeze into ice cubes. Suck.
10. Gratuitously on top of breakfast cereal.
11. Equal parts with dijon mustard. Serve with everything grilled. Or fried.
12. In your tea and lemonade (or margaritas).
13. Sesame honey dressing: one part cider vinegar, one part honey, sesame seeds, slowly whisk in three parts oil. Add a touch of some sesame oil. Serve with spring greens.
What do you like to do with your honey?
Free Let’s Go: Boston travel guide giveaway!
Once upon a time, I researched for Let’s Go: Boston, which is also repackaged into The Unofficial Guide to Life at Harvard. I spent many hours of my life running from shop to salon to hardware store, checking on opening hours and other minutiae.
So now I have an enormous stack of books in my dorm room – they’re all essentially the same book with different covers. Let’s Go: Boston is repackaged as a guide to BU, guide to Lesley, etc. So if you want a free Boston guide, are a Harvard affiliate (so I can pass it off to you without dealing with the postal office), or if you live/work around Harvard Square and can pick it up, leave me a comment or drop me an email (lingboli at fas.harvard.edu).
I have a lot of books, so chances are good you’ll get one. If you’re my friend or a regular commenter, you have first preference. After that, I’ll just draw names randomly.
Lana Lingbo Li
I'm a world traveler / enthusiastic eater who's now blogging and producing videos over at HelloLana.com. Visit me there!
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