Boston
Food porn of the day: Ten Tables Cambridge
I had some photos knocking around on my ever-trendy (and broken) Macbook, unshared, so here they are – the remnants of a meal from several months ago at Ten Tables, on the fringes of Harvard Square. I already posted the dessert portion – chocolate terrine with thai basil ice cream – which was my favorite course of the night. It combined the silkiness and unexpected flavor of the ice cream with the edifying crunch of sea salt sprinkled on the terrine. I found the grilled octopus too heavy on the vinegar, but the housemade sausages were juicily gratifying. I didn’t see stars (after all, this post is coming way too late), but was glad I gave it a try.
Find it!
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5 Craigie Circle
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 576-5444
A love letter to poached eggs – brunch at Zaftig’s Delicatessen
I’m a sucker for poached eggs. Piercing the yolks with your knife. Sliding down the plate like the ooze of a lazy, ruptured sun. Top it with even more yolk in the form of Hollandaise, slide a velvety slice of smoked salmon underneath. Cut, and at the bottom is a fried potato pancake. A bit of green from spinach leaves, a side of good hash browns, prettified by a round of pale orange cantaloupe. The menu calls its Empire Eggs.
It’s even better if you split the chocolate french toast with your friend, so you have something sweet at the same time. The raspberry sauce clings to the skin in fuchsia strips. Drown it in syrup. It’s good.
The most important meal of the day
One of the nicest breakfasts I’ve had recently. Note the robin egg’s blue cup of espresso.
What does America taste like? [Burger King $1 Jr. Whopper]
I used to lust after the compartmentalization and brutal efficiency of a fast food meal. I’d calculate a kind of formula to maximize my pleasure in consuming a set meal: this had more sides than that, this had chicken (which I really liked), extra points for apple turnovers or coleslaw. There was a certain American-ness still foreign to my childhood that placed fast food in a special nook of my heart. Especially when my parents would always pick the closest Panda Express over a Wendy’s.
Now that I have complete control over where I dine out, I usually would opt for something cool and ethnic, or if I’m going to burgers, it’d be cult-hit family joint adored by the Yelping masses. But I saw the Burger King by Fenway on Bolyston Street was doing $1 Junior Whoppers, so I knew that I couldn’t resist a low risk, high return on feeling American.
It came wrapped in wax paper and placed in a printed brown paper bag. The roll was slightly sweet and soft, yielding to iceberg lettuce crunch, a tangy bite of pickle, and thin patty that played second fiddle to its toppings. The ketchup/mayo flavor was key in maximizing the pretty unremarkable ingredients, including a pale, anemic tomato slice.
Amazingly, they added up to more than the sum of its parts. One flavor never overpowered the other, and I happily finished the last bite in a Whopper-induced haze. Not bad for one dollar.
unhinged.
Adventures in Raw Food – Boston’s Grezzo, part 2 of 2
If you didn’t know any better, the pamphlet on the tables at Grezzo in the North End might scare you off. It lists 40 reasons to eat raw, ranging from something like “It makes your skin GLOW!” to somewhat dubious ones like, “Cooking kills off 50% of essential enzymes in food.”
Nothing is heated above 112 degrees, so if you order tea, the water is warmed, not boiled.
Health claims aside, the creativity required to make conventional dishes is mind-boggling. Pasta becomes ribbons of squash. Bread becomes dehydrated sheets of vegetable pulp. Brownies are made out of mashed dates. Dairy is redone (surprisingly successfully) as macadamia or cashew pulp.
After tasting some raw home cooking in Mary’s kitchen, I’d been itching to try a restaurant version. Grezzo, as far as I know, is the only all-raw, easily accessible place in the Boston area. Prices are reasonable – in the low 20′s for entrees, 10-12 for appetizers, but definitely a splurge for a college student. The nice thing is that their portion sizes are large, plus eating a lot of creamy nut paste is not a joke. You’ll definitely feel filled up.
I was introduced to Grezzo originally from my friend Mark, who insisted on renting a ZipCar to transport us there. We ended up getting really lost several times and arriving an hour late. The space is pretty small – about 20 seats altogether – and I got seated next the door which blew in gusts of arctic air.
I left my camera at work, and had a mini panic attack as I contemplated eating a meal without photographing it. The horror!!
California Maki Roll - quinoa "krab" salad, cucumber, avocado, spicy mayo
We decided to get two appetizers each rather than entrees. I sampled the California maki (“krab” salad, quinoa, avocado), which was stunning – creamy, intensely flavored, and far preferable to run-of-the-mill avocado roll. There’s no way that soy sauce was raw, however. The spaghetti carbonara was dense, rich, and creamy, with uncooked peas adding a pleasant crunch. One of the interesting things about raw food, I’ve found, is that raw food flavors are much more intense than their cooked counterparts. Particularly for things like onions, garlic, and greens, they’re actually naturally spicy.
Mark, during the course of dinner, convinced me not to run for a position on the Crimson.
Then they massively messed up.