fauren

Starve A Fever. Then Get Better and Stuff Your Face.

After being laid up last week with the flu and then having my parents in town for the weekend, I have lots of catching up to do. First up: restaurants.

This was a weekend of trying new (or new to me) places. After my parents' arrival on Friday night, I planned to take them to dinner at my neighborhood favorite, Bar Toto (411 11th Street, Brooklyn). When the host informed us of the 30-minute wait, he suggested checking out Bar Tano (457 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn), a new place that the creators of Bar Toto opened in Gowanus at the beginning of February.

I'd been by Bar Tano's space several times over the course of its renovation but never knew what it was going to be. Once I saw the beautiful pressed tin ceiling (a surefire way to my heart), I set my hopes high for a new place in what is pretty much a dead zone for eateries. Learning that it was related to Bar Toto was even better.

The menu is lighter than Bar Toto's, evidently to focus less on food and more on drink. We shared some antipasti, and because I'd already gorged on a delicious triple-creme cheese that had ridden down from MA with my folks, I kept it light for dinner. The lentils and sausage appetizer was great; the saltiness of the sausage could have been overpowering, but the lentils were full of fresh herbs and so lightly salted that they cut it perfectly. The roasted cauliflower, despite being very tasty, was much too oily. Tastes of my mom's salad with herbed chicken and my dad's house-made potato chips were both quite good, though.

I don't know that I'd go out of my way just to eat here again, but the ambiance is great and my experience definitely speaks to its focus - this would be a great place to go for a glass of wine and perhaps a bite to eat, rather than the other way around.

Saturday was farm day, with brunch at The Farm on Adderley and dinner at Flatbush Farm.

38 Reasons It Would Be Wrong Not to Cook More in 2007

Well, 2006 went out with a whimper here at Fauren, but happy belated holidays, everyone.

My last entry marked the beginning of finals period, which carried me right through to my trip home for the holidays.  My parents somehow live with dial-up internet access (I really don't know how they do it), so it's taken me until now to catch up.

Christmas break was a wonderful end to a stressful couple of weeks.  I baked apple pie with my best friend, made Christmas eve dinner for my family, and picked up a healthy handful of kitchen gadgets.  Behold my mediocre Photoshop skills:

I'm a geek for cooking utensils.  The spoils:

01. Crate and Barrel cookbook stand
02. The New England Clam Shack Cookbook
03. Fox Run Craftsmen salad bowl
04. Two Fox Run Craftsmen serving bowls
05. Crate and Barrel Chop and Scoop cutting board
06. KitchenArt adjustable teaspoon and tablespoon measures
07. Culinary Tech mini spatula and spoon
08. Mario Batali garlic slicer
09. Joyce Chen "My Handy Little Knife"
10. Orka all-silicone spatula
11. Zyliss can opener
12. Best Standard french whip and 8-inch mini-whip
13. Dexter Russell pancake turner
14. Chef'n Tongo tongs
15. Joyce Chen unlimited seafood scissors
16. OXO 2-cup liquid measuring cup
17. La Tourangelle grapeseed oil
18. La Tourangelle roasted almond oil
19. Stonewall Kitchen peach salsa
20. Schokinag Moroccan spice drinking chocolate
21. Stonewall Kitchen country ketchup
22. Ateco mini-spatula
23. Mario Batali flexible turner
24. Microplane grater/zester
25. Chicago Metallic GourmetWare 12-cup mini-popover pan
26. Mario Batali 5-piece measuring prep bowl set
27. Morton & Bassett bay leaves
28. Trader Joe's lemon pepper
29. Blaze balsamic glaze
30. Sahale Snacks Ksar blend
31. Pinch Plus Garam Masala, Curry, and Turmeric
32. Mas Portell saffron
33. More Than Gourmet Demi-Glace Gold and Jus de Poulet Lié Gold
34. Pan scraper
35. Chef'n palm peeler
36. Chef'n palm brush

Not pictured: An Oggi microtorch and Cuisinox egg wedger.  I can't wait to put all these to use in the new year.

So I hadn't exactly planned to make Christmas Eve dinner for my family, but when my mom unexpectedly headed out that afternoon to collect my Grammie for a visit, suddenly I was in charge.  The meal -- standing rib roast, roasted butternut squash and green beans in sherry butter, and wild rice Yorkshire pudding -- came together pretty well, but I am positive that's got less to do with me and more to do with my mom's amazing kitchen.  Even my decent-for-Brooklyn kitchen leaves a lot to be desired, and being able to cook in a place with plenty of counter space, an oven with an accurate temperature, and pots with matching lids made it just a little bit harder to come back to the city and attempt to find storage for all those new toys.

But anyway, on to limited storage space but lots of yummy food in 2007 and a resolution to blog better and often.  Happy new year.

Turkey Day

It says a lot that "Turkey Day" is synonymous with Thanksgiving at this point.  I have never met a person who had much interest in the history of the holiday, but I think just about everyone I know agrees it's not Thanksgiving if you don't stuff your face.

Thanksgiving in my family happens at my parents' house with my dad's side of the family and occasionally an aunt or my grammie on my mom's side.  Regardless, there are always at least 16 people and enough food to feed each of them for about five days.

There was the requisite bird, weighing in at almost 20 pounds.

Our one attempt at raw, healthy vegetables -- a salad my mom concocted of red leaf lettuce, clementines, cranberry Wensleydale, and spiced pecans, with a dressing of almond oil and ginger vinegar.

And everything else.

The two staples we have at every Thanksgiving are thanks to my dad's Portuguese roots: simple Portuguese rolls, which aren't terribly different from other rolls except that they are inexplicably superior, and my aunt Winnie's stuffing, which is spicy with chourico.  This year, I was thankful for the fact that she made a double recipe.

Dinner was topped off with four pies -- pumpkin, squash, orange-pecan, and apple -- and a plate of cupcakes, since two of the kids in our family have birthdays right around the holiday.  A vanilla cupcake with sprinkles and chocolate frosting may not be traditional, but dear god it tasted good.

The rest of my weekend was spent at the Scrabble board, eating leftovers, and/or visiting with friends from home.  It was lovely.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was peaceful, delicious, and lazy.  Enjoy those leftovers.

Gravy Wishes and Cranberry Dreams

The car is packed and ready to hit the road when I finish my three-hour work day tomorrow.  I'm off to my parents' house for my favorite holiday.  I've been slow to update around here, thanks mostly to school, but these next few days will be a welcome break from all that.  It'll give me a chance to catch you all up on a few things, not the least of which is the conference, which was amazing.  I also indulged in some homemade pear, plum, and fig pie with hazelnut crust at a friend's house last night.  What a way to kick off the most gluttonous week of the year...

More soon.  Happy almost Thanksgiving, everyone.

Birthday Outing #1: The Family

Henrietta's Table is one of two restaurants located in the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square.  I had never been there before and wasn't sure what to expect, given that Rialto (the other restaurant) is a very fancypants affair.  I chose Henrietta's Table for dinner with my family after looking through the list of Massachusetts member restaurants of the Chefs Collaborative; I wanted to find a place that would serve up some quality seasonal and local foods.

To my relief, Henrietta's Table is a jeans sort of place.  We ate a relatively early dinner (7pm), and the place was already packed, probably owing to the very family-friendly vibe.  Aside from a small area with tables and stools by the bar, the dining area is one large, open room, furnished with rustic wooden tables and chairs.  Even in that space, though, the noise was not so overwhelming that we couldn't hear across our table, which is nice when one hasn't seen her family in a month or two.

The entrance to the restaurant has a little store selling stuffed farm animals and local produce (right now they're primarily selling a variety of apples), among other things.  There is a section of the kitchen that opens into the dining area, so you can see cooks preparing some of your food.  I'm always a fan of the open kitchen; that sort of transparency conveys a very reassuring confidence in the restaurant's food and the people who prepare it.

Between the six of us, we sampled almost 40% of the menu for the evening.  Yes, I calculated it.  Henrietta's Table has a staple seasonal menu and then offers a good number of specials on top of that.  Autumn is one of my favorite eating seasons, and Henrietta's Table did not disappoint.  The menu for the six of us:

Appetizers

• Pumpkin and German Russet apple soup
• Three cheese plate: Woodcock Farm's Summer Snow and Weston Wheel, and Lakes End Misty Cove
• Red Oak lettuce, local organic beets, watermelon radish, Valley View (278 High Street, Topsfield, MA) chèvre, and sherry-champagne vinaigrette
• Iceberg lettuce with creamy Massachusetts blue cheese dressing
• Native heirloom tomatoes, basil, Maine sea salt, and extra virgin olive oil

Entrees

• Seared King salmon with raspberry gastric
• Bell and Evans herb-crusted rotisserie roasted chicken
• Rotisserie free-range duck, roast heirloom apple, and natural port reduction
• Niman Ranch grilled smoked pork chop with fresh McIntosh apple sauce
• Wild striped bass, organic pumpkin, roasted corn, native arugula, and butternut-sage butter

Sides

• Yellow waxed and green beans
• Mashed potatoes

Dessert

• Henrietta's pie of the day: heirloom apples and cranberry
• Chocolate bread pudding, caramelized bananas, and vanilla bean ice cream

Beverages

• Stephen Vincent Crimson (a Cabernet-Syrah blend), Sonoma County, 2004
• Henrietta's Cellars Chardonnay, Sonoma County, NV
• Cambridge Brewing Company Pumpkin Ale
• Big Pig Brew

I think it's safe to say we enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday to ME

Yes, it's true.  On this day, 26 years ago, a Fauren was born. 

It hasn't quite sunk in that today is the day, probably because I somehow managed to con all of my loved ones into making the celebration span nine days.  It began with three days in Boston this past weekend, part of which was spent boring my boyfriend with tales of my youth, and most of which was spent with food in my face.  It will end this coming Sunday after brunch with friends.

I had so many exquisite eating experiences in one short weekend that I can't possibly contain them in one post, so I'm just showing my face today to give you all a bit of a teaser.

Coming attractions:

• Dinner on Friday at Henrietta's Table
• Dinner on Saturday at Mamma Maria
• The food of my homeland, including croissants from Quebrada, sandwiches from The Linden Store, and brunch at Joan and Ed's

But right now?  It's time for birthday cake.

In the Beginning...

Dear Friends,

I have decided to revamp Fauren in favor of something more productive than a vanity blog.

The seeds were planted (so to speak) for this idea over a year ago, when I read Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer and Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire back to back.  The books sparked two things in me that had been latent since moving away from home, which are the influences of my parents' green thumbs and my mom's magic in the kitchen.   And actually, the two really go hand in hand.

Ever since I can remember, 9 months of weekends at our home in Massachusetts were spent with my mom and dad in the yard, weeding, watering, turning soil, raking, mowing, composting, planting, and replanting.  During the other three, my mom's "plant babies" germinated and grew up from their little discs of soil under grow lights in the basement laundry room.  So many delicious things came out of those gardens; we always had fresh herbs (African Blue basil was my favorite), and one summer my mom grew so many tomatoes that she was giving them away as gifts for even the most trivial occasions.  We savored the rest in green salads, in fresh panzanella, or just on their own.

I didn't learn to appreciate my mother's cooking until much later than I ought to have, and I certainly didn't understand the lengths to which she went to cook for us from the most elemental ingredients, instead of taking any number of Hamburger Helper shortcuts.  Now, of course, I am a destitute graduate student without the luxury of a mother to cook for her any longer, so I think back on these meals as nothing short of masterpieces.

But what use is it, really, to long for those salad days? (genius!)

I may not be able to do much about the urge to garden, seeing as I live in Brooklyn with no outdoor space to call my own,  but just the opposite is true of cooking.  Not only do I finally have an apartment with a room large and well-equipped enough to actually be called a kitchen (none of this galley stuff they've got going on in Manhattan), I also happen to live in Park Slope, where the options for a foodie are nearly endless.  There are exceptions, of course, but the restaurants, farmer's markets, and even bodegas offer a lot of options and ideas you won't find in many other places.

On top of all this, I can thank my mother for giving me a palate.  My cooking skills might need some work, but at least I'll be able to taste when I've finally done something right, and aren't the best victories often the tiniest?

So it is with all of this in mind (and thensome) that I embark on this new blog of mine, in which I plan on running the gamut of food experiences: recipes, tips, restaurant reviews, innovations, successes, failures, and all things in between.  There are a lot of things informing the way I order, shop for, cook, and/or eat my food these days that maybe you'll find helpful and interesting too, but there is time for all of that. 

For now, I just want to welcome you to the new Fauren, and I hope you'll stick around.