Boston
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
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.
Eating Toro’s beef hearts; Ken Oringer
My snapshot of Toro's sliced beef heart
Thinly sliced beef heart at Ken Oringer’s Toro. My dining partner was a little apprehensive at first, but pronounced the finished product akin to roast beef – I’d say it’s more fine grained. I love how offal can look so innocuous but surprise you with a certain intensity of flavor or texture. Like their sweetbreads – my first, actually. I’ll post pictures of those later.
I got into an interesting debate with a Facebook commenter. See our exchange:
Lingbo Li Ran into tweep @simonepress who was sitting next to me at @tororestaurant – how cool and random! Had the corn, beef hearts, short rib – yum!
Wed at 11:18am via Unnamed App Custom: loading… · Comment · LikeUnlike · View Feedback (11)Hide Feedback (11)Commenter
My stomach just turned upside down.
Wed at 11:36am ·Lingbo Li
It was sliced very thin and put on a slice of bread – it tasted more like roast beef than anything else.
Wed at 11:39am ·
Commenter
Try endangered sea turtle eggs. Not bad.
Wed at 12:11pm ·Lingbo Li
Beef hearts are not endangered… the ethics are completely different.
Wed at 12:31pm ·
Commenter
Well…..it depends the country ur at where the “When in rome” qoute applies. I still get skeeved from the idea of consuming hearts of animals…i can imagine it was once beating.
Wed at 12:33pm ·Lingbo Li
Thinking something is “gross” is not the same as thinking it is unethical – you can think brussel sprouts are gross, but that’s a personal preference, not a ethical or necessarily cultural one. A piece of beef was once moving as well – it’s muscle, just like the heart is muscle. The ethical argument for eating hearts would be that it’s making use of something that would normally be thrown away, meaning less waste and respecting every part of the animal.
Wed at 1:08pm ·
Commenter
Lemme just think ….what would Hannibal Lector do?
So I’ve gotten comments before on the ethics of what I eat. One person criticized me for eating whale steak (it was from the mink whale, which is not endangered), while some of the stuff I eat is just kind of gross. I mean, I don’t expect everyone to spring for calves brains. I do happen to think that eating offal is one the most ethical and delicious things you can do to reduce waste, but the knee-jerk grossout reaction from some people is saddening.
And if you’re curious who this Ken Oringer is, photographer Andy Ryan took a bunch of photos of the Burger Bash and happened to capture some of me. (I’m not BFFs with Ken! I talked to him for about five minutes. And ragged on his Red Sox chefs whites.)
Photos with celebs are interesting – I always feel like they only exist to simulate a relationship that doesn’t exist, a fleeting fame-by-association.
Me with Boston restaurateur Ken Oringer, photo by Andy Ryan, courtesy of Chris Lyons
Chocolate cake at Troquet
My gay best friend and I rushed in 20 minutes late to a cake and wine tasting at Troquet, so I missed the cake making demonstration. But hey, I did get to do the important part: eat it all. Twice.
Troquet chocolate cake and port wine
The space is a cozy. It’s narrow, with a line of black lacquered two tops in warmly painted room, perfect date material. And the best part? Over on the counter were over a dozen small plates of chocolate cake kissed with confectioner’s sugar, a duo of raspberries nestled on the corner.
I recounted my horrifying lost iPhone story to Christine Liu, editor of Boston Citysearch, and the host of the shindig.
Me: So I get back to my room. And my roommate says, “Lingbo, your friend D is looking for you, he’s really worried.” So I head over to his room. 5 gay guys open the door saying, “You’re alive! The guy who stole your phone told D that you were at this address in Roxbury.”
Christine: Woah.
Me: So the police officers come up and said they sent squad cars out to Roxbury to look for my body. And had filed affidavits for my cell phone carrier. Then they yelled at me: “Next time you go out, you have to leave contact information!” Later, my roommate hugged me and said she was glad I wasn’t dead.
Oh, and they booty texted all my recent contacts.
True story.
I also met the great Michelle-Kim of Fun and Fearless in Beantown, along with assorted other bloggers and industry folks.
Chocolate and booze? How could it be a bad night?
Exactly.
If only no one had stolen my iPhone.
Food porn of the day: Hungry Mother’s braised pork shoulder
Braised Berkshire pork shoulder, sweet potato puree, apple, bourbon-cider jus