Joys of Japanese Food – Cream & Azuki Buns, Unagi Nigiri, Salmon Terayaki, Spicy Eel Roll
Porter Square Exchange Mall is a veritable heaven of cheap Japanese food, with everything from that strangely sweet, addictive Japanese curry, octopus dumplings (takoyaki), giant bowls of ramen, and of course, sushi. My friend David, a fan of Japanese food, had never been here, so I knew it was ripe time to introduce him to all that is delicious in Porter Square.
Spicy eel roll
Salmon teriyaki - the vegetables were pretty atrocious
He insisted on Blue Fin, the classiest establishment here. (I wrote an entry on my visit back in February.) He had salmon terayaki and unagi nigiri and I had spicy eel roll along with two of the nigiri (delicious). I had a bite of his salmon (excellent), although I found the spicy eel roll tasty but not too remarkable.
UNAAGIIII
The unagi was where it was at. As I wrote on 3 Buck Bites:
Glistening, wrapped in a belt of seaweed, lying seductively on a snowy white bed of sushi rice. Then pop one in your mouth and ahhhh, heaven! Cherubs! Harajuku girls! So reliable. Blue Fin’s unagi come generously portioned and warm, so make sure to eat them quickly for maximum pleasure. (Not like that’s a real challenge.)
Afterwards, I couldn’t resist the siren call of dessert: a cream and azuki stuffed bun.
Cream and azuki bun
action shot
David struggles with the awesome feat
How to be a foodie, and look good in your underwear too
not actually my stomach
I feel like this entry will be of interest to some people.
Basically:
1) Exercise everyday. Every. Single. Day. (Ok, so I actually exercise 5-6 times a week. 4, if it’s a really bad week.)
2) Be blessed with good genes.
3) See number 1 again.
If you’re curious, I usually run about 30-40 min on the treadmill at 6.5ish these days. The best motivation for me to keep going is a new episode of Millionaire Matchmaker, my favorite reality show. I also do some light strength training – squats, lunges, situps, bicep curls. Plus I’m young, my parents are both still in shape, and I drink maybe 2-3 times a month, if that, and even then, relatively little.
I eat dessert, I snack at night, I eat simple carbs. I eat stuff like fried oysters and calves brains and homemade bacon. But then I hit the gym. The catch, if there is one, is that I actually really like working out – I get depressed/tired/icky if I skip one too many workouts.
Sometimes, I wonder what I would look like if I kept up my fitness sched along with eating like normal paranoid girls, but then life would be so much emptier… so I’m happy, though I have similar hangups like everyone else.
I’m also not a very good gym guilt trip. I will not keep my promise to text you everytime I pull on my running shoes – or should I set up a Twitter account to send notices to peoples’ phones? That would be silly.
Next stop: Tupelo in Inman Square
So my latest Chowhound digest informs me that Tupelo is the more student-friendly (read: cheaper) Hungry Mother. And that it’s hipper. Harvard students aren’t really know for their hipness (unless endless parades of Longchamp bags, Tory Burch flats, and rugby striped ties paired with navy blazers can REALLY be described as hip…) but they’re definitely not as willing to drop 20+ on an entree as their grown up, consulting brethren.
So students, by which I mean myself, I’d recommend checking out Tupelo. It’s a short walk from Annenberg, or you can take the #69 bus. Next time I want fried oysters or New Orleans gumbo, this is where my meager bank account is heading, yo.
For the semi-techfunctioning amongst you, here’s their Twitter.
Hungry Mother, Kendall Square
very pleased, check out the cool jar-as-water-glass to the left
Ah Hungry Mother, you have won my heart with your soulful Southern cooking. You charmed me with the mini-pins emblazoned with your cardinal logo on the host’s desk, then courted me some more with the jars-as-water-glasses ploy. Sourdough bread and super fresh butter was when I began to fall in love.
Thanks so much, 3 Buck Bites, for providing the gift certificate that made it all possible. By the way, if you say you’re from 3BB, they’ll knock a penny of the price of their 4 dollar starters to make it fit into the price range. A penny off warm beef tongue canape is totally worth it.
pork boudin balls
fried oysters!
Then came the pork boudin balls and the outrageous fried oysters, better than I could have imagined (and how I did imagine), and that was when I knew it was meant to be. The oysters were crunchy and golden on the outside, dredged in cornmeal and fried until crispy-creamy-hot, insides oozing with tastes that spoke faintly of sea and more strongly of bliss. The pork boudin balls were a perfect balance of pig and carb, with a remoulade sauce that jazzed up every bite like a spicy, grown up Thousand Island dressing. Also unforgiveably delicious. My friend and I assiduously ate every last bite of boudin ball and fried oyster, every last delightful cornmeal crumb, even cleaning out the lightly lemony sauce that came with the oysters.
cornmeal catfish
potato-less gnocchi
Then came the cornmeal catfish, a thick slab fried golden brown on top of red beans rice. Also fantastic comfort food. Being Chinese, this was not the kind of food I would associate with home, but generated a similar kind of swaddled, sheltered feeling. The waitstaff was charming and loved food blogs. (Yay!) Marco and I split the catfish and gnocchi, a litle less exciting but also delicious, with a fantastic homemade pancetta thrown in amidst the peas, shoots, and mushrooms. I was not aware, however, that gnocchi could be made without potato – as such, it had no element of chewiness.
For dessert, Marco decided on the honey and buttermilk panna cotta with cornmeal shortbread (that’s three courses with cornmeal of some kind) and elderflower infused caramel sauce. It was stiffer than I was used to in a panna cotta, also didn’t love the shortbread, but did love the caramel sauce and its unexpected floral notes.
It was also not very photogenic, which is why I’ll skip you the pain of looks like a white hockey puck bathed in candlelight.
Overall, a really wonderful experience, and a nice send off to my friend who’s about to ship himself off to Brazil.
While I wouldn’t say the prices are student friendly, with entrees ranging from 18-26, it is definitely within special occasion budget for most students, only a few dollars more expensive than the average Uno’s entree. Totally worth the trek if you’re looking to get out of Harvard Square. That’s my plea for Harvard students to finally leave their dining hall/burrito chain confines. And who doesn’t love fried oysters? They probably don’t like sex, or ice cream, or life.
