Boston Restaurant and Food Blog » American

How to Make Apple Pie For the First Time

Lingbo Li — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:36:58 +0000

When I do something for the first time, I usually do a bit of research to make sure I’m doing it right. My first foray in pie-making – hell, baking in general – was great because I realized that baking isn’t some scary, landmine-ridden challenge. Somehow, people build it up to be a lot more intimidating than it actually is.

Making a pie is fairly involved (a lot of letting things chill in the fridge), but if you follow a few basic tricks and rules of thumb, the end product ends up totally agreeable. The most important is to keep the butter and/or shortening cold, and to not overwork the dough. This is to preserve those little lumps of fat streaked throughout, which will melt in the oven and result in that coveted tender/flaky pie crust.

I left California earlier this week, and am cooking in my friend’s mom’s kitchen out in the ‘burbs of Buffalo, NY. It is a somewhat improbable place to go on my year off, but has done wonders for skills cooking American classics (my friend Nick is wary of Asian dishes) and maintaining my San Francisco time difference. I just took a pie out of the oven at 2:30am and am blogging this at 3:15 am.

I had dinner at Nick’s friend’s house tonight. She served us a lovely California Cabernet and beef bourguignon over egg white noodles with freshly baked popovers. Her mother was a whippersnapper of an 81 year old who still ran her own business and gave many tips on baking the perfect pie.

I used a vodka pie crust recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, using a pastry cutter rather than a food processor. (Check out their new blog, America’s Test Kitchen Feed!) I precooked the filling (recipe) based on the pie expert’s advice, since the apples were a bit tart, but wished I had cooked them a few minutes less. I threw in brown sugar and extra cinnamon, just because. The filling ended up very soft while the crust browned too fast on top and remained a tad undercooked.

Still, I’m pretty proud of the finished product. The kitchen smells delicious, my friend Jason gave it his programmer’s grunt of approval from behind his setup of monitors, and it’s not bad for Pie Numero Uno.

Deuxave opening in Boston’s Back Bay’s menu, hours

Lingbo Li — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:43:08 +0000

Photo courtesy of CBH Communications

I have been observing Deuxave’s construction on Mass Ave and Commonwealth for months now. I’m frequently found traipsing around Back Bay these days, so an ambitious new neighborhood restaurant is much welcomed.

The food is seasonally inspired new American, with emphasis on sourcing local ingredients, and priced at around $26 an entree. The whole shebang is set to open “around” Labor Day (September 6th) and is the foodbaby of exec chef Chris Coombs (formerly of Ming Tsai’s Blue Ginger; Aujourd’hui; Troquet; and the Food Network’s Chopped) and owner Brian Piccini (of Aquitaine and dbar).

I instinctively kind of like Coombs – he knows to spin his youthfulness to his advantage. How’s that for a PR lesson, college kids?

One thing that perplexes me is their pronunciation. It’s explained as “doo-ave” in their press release. But I remember that in French class, there’d normally be a “z” sound to transition between vowel sounds. So I’d been thinking of it as “duhz-ave.” Any French speaker input?

To see their sample menu, click for the jump.

Deuxave Menu

DEUXAVE APPETIZERS

A Duet of Prime Beef Tartare and Wagyū Carpaccio

herb encrusted wagyū beef, hanley style prime tartare, quail egg yolk, petite arugula, escabèche of chanterelles, potato gaufrettes, cornichons, rosemary-mustard aioli

“Night Moves” Scituate Lobster Gnocchi

with mushrooms, corn, green grapes, potato gnocchi, curried walnuts, & pearl onions with fresh herbs in a citrus fricassee

Crispy Crescent Farms Duck Confit

with petit heirloom tomato & frisee salad with bacon sherry vinaigrette, bing cherry sauce.

DEUXAVE ENTREES

Pan Roasted Atlantic Line Caught Halibut

with sweet corn succotash, chanterelles, peppers, herbs, Okinawa yams, laughing bird shrimp in ginger, espelette, tomato, and burgundy butter sauce

Seared Hawaiian Ahi Tuna

with pink peppercorns crusted big eye, pork belly, pineapple “aigre-doux”, sea beans, summer radish, cucumber, Asian flavors, lobster red curry emulsion and petit flowers

A Vegetarian Celebration of Summer

ragoût of wards farm corn & hand made gnocchi, porcinis, tempura celeries, fried blue aracuna egg, pousse pied & tomato salad, radish, saffron-heirloom tomato coulis and aged balsamic

Moroccan Spiced Colorado Lamb Saddle Pistachio

persillade crusted, persian style tabbouleh, a baby carrots, beets and turnips “en cocotte” minted cucumber raita & roasted red pepper vinaigrette, natural jus

A Duet of Giannone Farms Organic Chicken

crispy skinned roasted breast, and a crépenette of thigh, sautéed chanterelles, Ward’s Farm Silver queen corn, soft polenta, fresh herbs and sauce périgeux.

Deux ave opening hours, address

Deuxave

371 Commonwealth Ave
Open for dinner Sunday-Wednesday 5-10pm, Thursday-Saturday 5-11pm

Russell House Tavern in Harvard Square is here to stay.

Lingbo Li — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:07:57 +0000

Harvard was built in 1636. As another transient moving through these classrooms and dorms – every spring, boxing my pathetic belongings and thinking towards a shrinking timeline – it’s easy to forget that the Square is transient as well.

After all, it seems that Spare Change man has been hawking his newspapers in front of Au Bon Pain forever, and ever, calling, “Young lady! Young lady! Won’t you have a heart?” And the Asian tourists spill eternal over the Yard, clutching their cameras like stunned mice and groping John Harvard’s storied foot. I remember freshman year, dodging and weaving through the tourists to breakfast, I’d feel superior to them. I lived here; I was real. But now, I think that I’m just as much a tourist as they are.

As an admitted high school senior, a freshman introduced me to the area. I remember one venue: Z Square, where the newly opened Russell House Tavern now stands. “This is where you take someone when you’re getting serious,” he explained, and it seemed like an institution to me. The unholy trinity of the Kong, ‘Noch’s, and Felipe’s seemed cast in stone. It was only years later that I found out Felipe’s had only been around for a few years, as had Z Square.

I’ve long stopped talking to that freshman after a mysterious tiff my first semester, and I never visited Z Square while it was open. So when I heard a new restaurant was opening, I was curious.

I’ve now visited Russell House Tavern three times in the past few weeks, more than any other restaurant. This has been purely by mistake. But I can see why I keep getting drawn back. They’re not perfect, but they are very good, and more ambitious than I would have expected, or need be.

Russell House is owned by the Grafton Group, which also runs Grafton Street, Redline, and Temple Bar, where chef Michael Scelfo still works.* Their promo blurb of “seasonally changing, classic American fare” did not excite me. But I eventually got dragged along anyway after a viewing of Top Chef Masters at Rialto, where I somehow sat at a table with Christine of Citysearch and Leighann F. of Yelp. (They’re friends!)

The space is heavy on dark wood, a kind of polished masculinity that’s not too old boy’s club. The dining room proper is downstairs – a sea of high tables and stools, a few padded banquets, a long U of a bar.

Crispy Soft Poached Chip-In Farm Egg 7 Pecorino Aioli, Toasted Brioche, House Pancetta

Danielle of Eastern Standard with the pizzas of the night

I wasn’t particularly hungry, but tried the fried poached farm egg, which was an oozy, bacon-laden, plate licking appetizer. It is a bit pricey considering a full pizza is only a few bucks more, but worth it in inspiration. It led me to attempt my own fried poached eggs, to little success. I also sampled a lamb tartare – a bit too raw/gamey for my tastes – and a cured and smoked lamb belly pizza, with fontina cheese and mushroom, although the intensity and saltiness of the lamb overpowered the rest. The chef clearly has a fondness for the bleating little creatures, and wasn’t afraid to show it.

lamb tartare

I came back again, on a whim, on a busy Friday night to catch up with a friend. I had the crispy poached egg again, and savored every last crumb of the brioche and smudge of the aioli. Unfortunately, service was pretty slow – it seemed that they were short staffed – and my egg was already cooling down. I tweeted my dissatisfaction, and the chef tweeted back: “so sorry!! please let me make it up to u next timer ur in…”

Semolina-yogurt cake with basil

Finally, about a week ago, I dropped by again after one of the worst meals in the past year at Shabu Ya. (Avoid at all costs.) My friends had ordered up chicken liver crostinis – richly satisfying bites, rounded out with a dab of prune-honey jam. The short rib wellington was fine, as was the caesar salad. The centerpiece ended up being a lamb shank, cooked to a melting, falling-off-the-bone tenderness, presented in a black lentil stew. I didn’t get to talk to Chef Scelfo, but the manager sent out a few desserts – a semolina cake (tasting akin to a more complex corn muffin), sorbet (a trio including a nice icy grapefruit), and carrot cake – served in a round pot, with gooey layers. The waiter, coincidentally, happened to read my blog.

Not everything is perfect, but I give the chef points for taking risks with the menu. And even when there were hiccups in service – a forgotten order, say – the staff immediately corrected it and removed the dish off the bill. The prices are about right, with pizzas $10-13, and entrees $10-28. This is not a restaurant that will change dining, but it’s one I could see becoming an institution. Then again, in Harvard Square, that doesn’t take so long.

*Correction appended: Chef Michael Scelfo still works at Temple Bar, in addition to Russell House Tavern.

Russell House Tavern to open in Harvard Square

Lingbo Li — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:02:40 +0000

Chef Michael Scelfo

Update: Check out my Russell House review.

Word on the Internet is that Harvard Square will soon have another restaurant to add to its roster – Russell House Tavern, headed by Chef Michael Scelfo from Temple Bar. Its opening is set for late March or early April.

Their Twitter account is currently silent, although following and being followed by well over a 1,000 tweeps. What kind of food will it serve? According to a Craiglist ad calling for service staff, the eatery will have “seasonally-changing, classic American fare with contemporary influences, carefully-designed cocktails and a resolute selection of American wines and local craft beers.” Expect a focus on local, seasonal ingredients.

Scelfo’s Twitter chronicles a bit of the excitement: “confirmed on 1st equipment delivery for this thurs -my highlights: double hearth oven, large cabinet (cold/hot) smoker, immersion circulator,” he wrote yesterday.

It looks like he’s got some good people helping out with his new baby as well: “solid 1st impression from new crew at RH, everyone on board showed up to clean & organize. 3 weeks of cleaning ahead, always rule number 1″ says a tweet from February 25th.

A recent blog post really gives away nothing about the restaurants menu, except that it won’t veer too wildly far from Temple Bar’s spirit – “I followed was to be mindful and respectful of Temple Bar’s style,” he writes, trying to balance competing interests.

Well, I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s got in store!

A Blowout Boston Burger Bash, hosted by Ken Oringer at KO Prime

Lingbo Li — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:50:59 +0000

Bristol Lounge Brooke Vosika's winning burger

Check out my slideshow for Boston Grubstreet on last night’s Burger Bash!

I’m not sure if I’m able to offer any actual input on how the burgers tasted. This was really a work night – I spent two hours scrambling to get decent photos, then realized I should go take notes on ingredients, so I looped back around through the masses of people. By the time I got around to eating the burgers, I would only have a bite, and by then they were cold. The winning burger, however, was indeed extremely tasty (and photogenic, thank god) – I stole an extra fried potato ring on my second go-round.

Me and Blue Ginger's Ming Tsai

The night was probably more notable for my run-in with Blue Ginger’s Ming Tsai. We spoke in some accented Mandarin, then he handed me a cranberry cocktail and made fun of my Asian glow. He, apparently, has the special enzyme that digest alcohol. I asked for some recommendations: he usually goes to China Pearl for dim sum (ok, but nothing special, he admitted) and he’s a fan and friend of Ken Oringer (who was manning the facing table).

Kenji Alt, of GoodEater and SeriousEats, was on hand for judging. He seemed to be a fan of the more purist, traditionalist approach, and was enthusiastic about Andy Husbands‘ grass fed burger with special sauce (plus the classic accoutrements of pickle, onion, tomato, lettuce).

And I thought the table of PBRs was a nice touch.

Food porn of the day: Ten Tables Cambridge

Lingbo Li — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:57:50 +0000

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!

————-——–

Ten Tables

5 Craigie Circle
Cambridge, MA 02138

(617) 576-5444

www.tentables.net

What does America taste like? [Burger King $1 Jr. Whopper]

Lingbo Li — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:29:02 +0000

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.

Charlie’s Kitchen, Quincy DHall, Cambridge Snow

Lingbo Li — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:36:18 +0000

Listen up, young Padawans: if you want free food, you gotta have game. And by game, I mean some really clever A-game up your Juicy Couture sleeve. There are a couple of ways, but I’ll reveal one way to get meals for next to nothing (and it doesn’t even involve standing on a street corner).

Check out Restaurant.com, where you can buy gift certificates to places for less than face value, plus usually a bunch of minimum purchase strings attached. Still, it saves you a good amount.

That’s how I ended up at this Harvard Square institution known as Charlie’s Kitchen – known for their burgers and ungodly combinations of seafood slathered in oozing cheese. Anyway, here are some pics, plus a few extra on my camera for good measure.

By the way, I am GOING TO ICELAND next week! I am looking forward to eating hakarl, their national dish of rotten shark. And puffin.

Oh dedicated readers of my blog, I promise you pictures of the aurora borealis (hopefully), geothermal springs, and whatever culinary adventures I go on. I hope I will not become extremely depressed from the 2 hours of sunlight a day.

And the reportedly ammonia aftertaste of rotten shark.

Be-tee-dubs, I edited the Iceland chapter of Let’s Go: Europe 2009, so it will be hilarious finally pronouncing those crazy Icelandic names to Icelandic people and having them laugh at me. Cross cultural exchanges!

Charlie's Kitchen, sort of like a divier version of your traditional neighborhood diner. They play too-loud indie rock music and the condiments come in a cardboard six pack container on each table, which looks, at first and second glance, a lot like they left a pile of trash and forgot to clean it up. Would be an attractive option if inebriated, or want to skip the pseudo-good-for-you-ness of B.Good and just want an unapologetically greasy plate of food.

Charlie's Kitchen: I thought I had ordered a platter of cheesy lobster goodness, but it turned out to be a more mild lobster salad stuffed with shredded iceberg into hot dog rolls, served up with decent fries. Not too much flavor to be found here, but hey, it's free lobster...?

Charlie's Kitchen: A Guinness-soaked double cheeseburger for my devoutly sober, Catholic friend. "It gives it an interesting taste," he said. I couldn't really detect much of a difference, and definitely no beer flavor, although I only had a tiny bite and made off with a bunch of his french fries.

Charlie's Kitchen: A salmon salad, fish a bit overcooked, mostly to assuage my guilt about sharing a lobster roll with my friend. Look, green things!

I love Crema Cafe's quiche... a light-as-air leek quiche, with creamy bits of goat cheese embedded.

An unfortunate thing that I witnessed being eaten. That's onion dip on wonderbread.

Snoow!

Walking out of Mather House.

Excess, Delicious Excess: 5 Course Meal at Crabtree’s Kittle House Inn, Chappaqua, NY

Lingbo Li — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:39:39 +0000

I arrive a half-hour early for my interview with Glenn Vogt, who manages Crabtree’s Kittle House Inn, a high end restaurant in Chappaqua. (Bill Clinton and his family dine here on a regular basis, including this past Christmas. His secret service team usually stands in the lobby, but this Christmas, they dined along the Clintons.)

Glenn arrives at the bar as I was taking some notes in my moleskine on the decor. He is tall and gray haired, one of those rare people who immediately puts you at ease, so much so that you forget this very fact. He has that rare brand of immediate affability and unassuming friendliness that condenses the usual ten minutes of finding a conversational rhythm into no time at all. I reveal my secret ambition to try lamb brains, and he tells me about an old dish involving eating the brains of a live, restrained monkey. He shares a story about alcohol infused with cobra snake. After asking him the usual questions about local foods, I ask if I can have a tour of their famed wine cellar, rated as one of the best in the world. “I was going to suggest it,” he says, and leads me downstairs, through the banquet hall and unlocks a glass door. (Along the way, he says he doesn’t believe in reading online reviews from diners. He is oblivious to Yelp.com. When I tell him the reviews are good, he is congenially indifferent.)

It’s kept at a chilly 50 F. I hug my bare arms as he leads me through wines arranged by region and grape. He points out wines from Alsace, the Rhone, wines from Spain, Australia, and California. The entire cellar is maybe the size of two master bedrooms. And then there’s the famous wine rack, full of bottles signed by their makers.

In the middle is the holy grail of wine: a bottle of 1988 Romanée Conti, in a black glass container perhaps the side of a toddler.

“One guy offered us 75 thousand for that,” he says, with a bit of a laugh. It’s not for sale. “There are only five bottles in the entire world. This is number 4,” he says, pointing to a serial number on the label.

All the wines are arranged in wooden partitions, each labeled with a number. They have a computer program to locate wines, thankfully, since the wine list is the size of two phonebooks. He points out a few more bottles of Romanée Conti. 1990 was an even better year – he approximates the price of this normal size bottle of wine, perhaps 4 glasses, at $5,000.

We chat a bit about restaurant reviewing. He’s also read former NY Times restaurant reviewer Ruth Reichl‘s biographies (“Tender at the Bone!” he exclaims, laughing again) and remarks that she was very generous in her reviews. We debate her double review of Le Cirque, one incognito, the other as herself. He’s met Gael Greene, former critic for New York magazine, and notes one time she dined at a restaurant he was working for with the manager from a competing establishment.

He used to be a wine purveyor, and he tells me about his trips across the world in search of great wines – a good Pinot Grigio was in particularly high demand. Now, Kittle House Inn focuses on buying from winemakers around the world who really know their product, their grape, and who are environmentally conscious.

After escaping the chilly wine cellar, I end up staying for dinner and inviting my long-suffering father along. My mom had already gone home and turned down the offer.

I could not have anticipated what happened next.

Glenn hands us the menus. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you try what you should,” he tells us. I pick out two appetizers and a salad that uses local eggs and greens. My dad picks out the Chilean sea bass.

We sit back. The food arrives, and arrives, and arrives, and arrives. We stay for over two hours.

FIRST COURSE

After he puts down our dishes, “I don’t know if Ruth included this in the review of Le Cirque or not,” Glenn muses, “but…”

I know exactly what he referring to – the line in the review that goes, “The King of Spain is waiting in the bar, but your table is ready.”

Oysters on the half shell, with salt and pepper granite, beet and horseradish, and tabasco jelly accompaniments

Really nice oysters, very fresh.

Seared sashimi and spicy tartare of yellowfin tuna, served in a block of sea salt

The tuna tartare and sashimi are presented on a block pink sea salt, which they take and shave down after each presentation. Those are taro chips and a lovely citrus salsa on the size.

SECOND COURSE

“We’re calling this the pork course,” Glenn says, putting down the pork belly in front of my dad and the salad I ordered in front of me. He helps me figure out to construct the salad.

“We’re feeding you a lot of food, so don’t feel like you have to eat it all,” he adds as he leaves.

Bacon and egg, baby arugula and fresh herbs, panko cursted farm egg and prosciutto

The idea here was that you’re supposed to cut the egg open, which oozes warm, yellow yoke into the avocado underneath. Then you mix it all into the salad with the lemon dressing and it makes a kind of super dressing. I’m still not really sure that the freshness and locally produced egg makes all that much of a difference – it was a fine egg, to be sure.

Braised Hudson Valley Berkshire pork belly, anjou pear puree, caramelized onions

My first time having proper pork belly – the top is deliciously crisped, the meat on the bottom falls into hefty strips, moist with fat. I particularly like the pear puree, which had a silky, unplaceable sweetness.

THIRD COURSE

The pasta course.

Not on the menu - braised oxtail and handmade pasta, if I recall correctly

Potato parmesan gnocchi, oven dried cherry tomatoes, nicoise olives, pea shoots

Superb gnocchi, your teeth bite into it and it just slides right through the velvety smooth texture. The thing with gnocchi, a potato pasta, is that you have to get the proportion of ingredients just right – too much potato and it falls apart, too much flour and it’s hard to chew.

FOURTH COURSE

Trio of Hudson Valley Foie gras, three ways: torchon of vanilla scented pear, brulee and green apple, brochette and grilled stone fruit

Oh my god, how do I even explain this… For the uninitiated, foie gras is made by force feeding a duck or goose until its liver becomes engorged. So it’s essentially a big of hunk of decadent, PETA-hated fat.

At the bottom right, we have the brochette (skewer) of foie gras. It comes a delicate, slippery, and piping hot. When you put it in your mouth, it immediately melts and commands every last taste bud’s attention: umistakeabley fatty, rich, and mouth-filling flavor.

The creme brulee was also made with foie gras, lending it the same, though muted, flavor, suspended in a creamy texture with a burnt sugar crust. The torchon (foie gras poached in a towel, then refrigerated) had the hardness of swiss cheese, and was incredible on the bread with the pear – a complexity of pleasure.

I found it impossible to eat the creme brulee and torchon purely on their own, however. The flavor was just too strong.

Chilean sea bass, roasted pumpkin, spaghetti squash, bacon apple cider sauce

A perfectly cooked fish, with a nice brown on top. The pumpkin was great.

DESSERT

The waitress brought us dessert menus. I was hideously full by this time. Glenn comes over and asks us what we want, or should he surprise us? I decide on surprise. I figure he’ll choose two signature desserts.

Lo and behold, the grand finale is a sampling of four their most popular desserts. My dad and I look at each other in shock. And awe.

Warm valrhona chocolate ‘gift’, crème anglaise

Their signature dessert, open it up and out pours a lava of valrhona chocolate. We packed it up and brought it home to mom. (I am actually not the biggest fan of chocolate. I am a vanilla girl.)

Pecan pie, caramel sauce, crème chantilly

A dense, rich pecan pie, on their menu since the early 80′s.

Classic crème brûlee

A nice version of this classic – a lighter flavor in the creme, which I liked.

Alsatian style cheesecake

My favorite of the bunch! A truly outstanding cheesecake, the best I’ve ever had, with an airy, creamy texture, and lighter flavor. The sauce was an incredible accompaniment. What every cheesecake should aspire to.

And that, my friends, that is how one winter afternoon somehow morphed into a magical culinary journey. My father and I walked out of there, dazed, full, and deeply at ease with the world.