fauren

Dinner at Blue Hill, or: How I Learned What It Must Be Like To Be A Famous Person

It used to be I was just a glutton and that was that, but now I'm a glutton with a web site. Writing a food blog is a funny thing... all is well and good when I've got my foodie hat on, but when I'm wearing my "it's 10pm, I haven't eaten dinner, and all I have in my kitchen is some coffee ice cream, a packet of garam masala spices, and that jar of sugar-free candies my dentist gave me for my birthday" hat, I can't help but feel like a bit of a fraud when I get on the phone to the local Chinese place and order up some of those pork dumplings drenched in sesame sauce. Especially because that sesame sauce is probably just melted Skippy peanut butter.

Blogging about food also breeds the compulsion to photograph whatever I eat - if people can't taste what I'm talking about, they should at least be able to look at it, right? But this can be problematic, too. For one, most of my family and friends think it's weird. Also, there's no way to be subtle about taking photographs of my plate in the middle of a restaurant (and consequently, strangers also think it's weird).

Deciding to leave the camera at home can be hard sometimes, especially when it means that it'll take me more than a week to find just the right words to describe a particularly stellar meal, but that's exactly what's happened since Dan and I were lucky enough to enjoy a seven-course tasting menu at Blue Hill last Tuesday night.

Birthday Outing #2: Boy Feeds Girl

I've had a very long love-hate relationship with the North End of Boston.  While its narrow side streets and historic buildings give it a certain Old World charm, I've made the mistake too many times of trying to drive (and therefore park) in this neighborhood.  Every Bostonian save for the ones who actually live in the North End will attest to the area's innate ability to enrage even the calmest driver, thanks to throngs of pedestrians trying to navigate said narrow streets (most of which are one-way, often in the direction opposite from the one you need) and an unreasonable amount of exclusively residential parking.

Luckily, Mamma Maria has valet parking.  After a little sitcom moment in which we could see the restaurant down a one-way side street but had to drive for another ten minutes before we could actually pull up in front of it, Zak and I left my wheels at the mercy of the valet and stepped inside for dinner.

Mamma Maria is a two-story restaurant in a converted townhouse in North Square, an area that feels particularly historical thanks to its cobblestoned streets and most significant site, Paul Revere's house.  The steep staircase at the entrance ends inside the door with a narrow hallway that leads to the first-floor dining area and a set of stairs going up the the second floor, which has a number of dining areas (from a private alcove to a 50-person dining room).

Part of the appeal of Mamma Maria is that, though it serves Italian food, the restaurant still believes in focusing on local and seasonal ingredients.  From their website:

We focus strongly on the local foods of New England and find authentic Italian dishes through which to showcase them. In the fall and winter, our menu features more northern Italian and mountain dishes. In the summer, our menu veers to the south - allowing us to highlight local produce and the abundant and diverse summer seafood market. Mamma Maria believes that an Italian restaurant can only be "authentic" when it exploits its own regional specialties. As any real Italian will tell you, the best food comes from his very own village.

We sat on the second floor in the main dining room, which has a dark painted ceiling that makes it feel very cozy despite its relatively large size.  I could barely contain my excitement when I opened my menu.  How on Earth is a person supposed to choose between things like pan-seared pork tenderloin with Gorgonzola Dolce, grilled loin of Vermont lamb with corn polenta-filled grape leaves and caramelized Maine Chantenay carrots, and pan-seared local Halibut with salsa verde, Oregon morel mushrooms, and English peas?!

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.

Not Blogging, Still Eating

I'm not dead or otherwise incapacitated.  I'm just a graduate student.  As such, I have been feeding myself quite poorly for the last two weeks, because I've been consumed by new classes, new homework, a new babysitting gig, and no sleep. 

There have been a handful of shining culinary moments, however.  As soon as I can secure the official menu from the evening, I'll be posting in detail about my friend Will's 30th birthday dinner, which was held at the new Park Slope restaurant Palo Santo, thanks to the generosity of chef/owner (and Will's friend) Jacques Gautier.

I also enjoyed a delicious dinner at 12th Street Bar and Grill this past Saturday.  12th Street (1123 8th Avenue, Brooklyn) has been a favorite of mine for brunch since moving to the neighborhood (their Sunday Eggs and chicken-apple breakfast sausage are mouth-watering), but it's taken me three years to finally get there for dinner. 

I was tempted by their burger, which comes highly recommended from various sources.  At $8, I am guessing that means it's worth it.  But I decided instead to go with the appetizer special of goat cheese croquettes with caramelized onions, daikon radish sprouts, and tomato coulis, and then a medium-rare hanger steak au poivre with seasonal greens and pommes frites.

The croquettes were delicious, but there were far too many onions than were necessary for the three of them.  Never one to want food to go to waste, I piled the rest on a slice of 12th Street's house bread (flavored with anise seeds) and polished it off.  Not bad.

The hanger steak was very good and cooked just right.  I'd remarked on the way into the restaurant that the place across the street (Johnny Mack's) has delicious french fries, but little did I know that the pommes frites at 12th Street are pretty spectacular themselves.  My only beef with them (ha ha) was that they were salted too heavily, which made them a little less desirable on their own. Combined with the steak and the greens, though, they were just right.  So perhaps the salt was strategic.

One of the things I've always enjoyed about 12th Street is the decor.  It has high tin ceilings that are painted a dark pewter color, nice ambient lighting, and an ever-changing selection of artwork on the white walls.  Al Green playing in the background was a smooth touch. 

My dinner experience was proof positive that 12th Street isn't a one trick brunch pony; their food is the real deal.  When all was said and done, though, I had positively no room for dessert, so a square from my stash of Green and Black's Maya Gold organic chocolate bar did the trick at the end of the night.

Lots of Manhattanites refuse to make the trip to Brooklyn just to eat out (don't even get me started), but regardless, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, 12th Street is definitely a safe bet for a good and affordable meal (brunch will run you about $15, and entrées range from $16 to $22).