complexities…

After writing up Cambridge, I realized it’d be impossible to do Boston in one post, so I’m breaking it up into regions. My B-town geography knowledge isn’t perfect so these will be sort of…nebulous…regions. Back Bay is up first:

Despina’s. I’m pretty pissed they replaced it with that new bullshit cafe place, but I’m still going to pay my respeks. Despina’s is the Hi-Fi equivalent on the Boston side of the river, except with amazing pizza. But still greasy and sketchy as a pair of Italian balls. Despina’s, you will not be forgotten.

Sweet. Let me be clear: this cupcake fad is stupid. Really stupid. 4 bucks for a cupcake? Seriously? I wasn’t a fan of Magnolia’s in NYC or Sprinkles in LA. And Sweet is worse than both, in terms of quality, ambiance…pretty much everything. BUT for whatever reason, I really dig their key lime pie cupcake. And I do, more often than I’d like to admit, pay four bucks for one.

Otherside Cafe. The food here can be subpar, if you’re not familiar with what’s good and what’s bad on the menu. But I love a) that you can get breakfast food and dessert/bakery treats at any hour, and b) once again, the cute hipster waitstaff. I miss the huevos rancheros, and oddly enough, their bagel/salmon/caper dish, even though it’s overpriced. I want capers on everything, all the time. What I miss the more though, are old-school Tuesday night movies there (like the Wizard, Breakfast Club) while I have cheesecake and coffee on the mezzanine floor.

Atlantic Fish Co. Shooters, Bailey’s and cream, and their giant sangrias. They have delicious sangria, which is a little surprising, as it’s a seafood place with no Spanish influence whatsoever. Must be the wasp-y influence.

Sonsie. I could do without their food, but I miss sitting in the cafe area facing Newbury and people-watching. Their martinis are, however, the perfect bitch drink with just-right sweetness:strength ratio. Chilled white grape martinis are lush-ous in the summer breeze.

Trident Booksellers and Cafe. I hate how unjustifiably popular this place is (means lots of waiting), and honestly, I don’t crave any of their food. But I seriously want their gigantic lattes. They are superior to Tosci’s, and it hurts me to say that, but it’s true.

Charley’s Saloon. Their brunch menu isn’t that inventive, but Charley’s has become a staple brunch place for me over the years, first recommended to me by Mo(jito), who had an intense obsession with their freshly-squeezed orange juice. I’m not a fan of pulp, so I stick to the complimentary Bloody Marys and the mini muffin basket, which is probably 1000 calories per muffin (esp accounting for the butter spread), but sometimes you have to sacrifice. The main draw here is that the service is great, and brunch is cheap considering the extras. I’ve never had lunch or dinner here, but the food always looks fantastic when I peep other people’s plates.

Tealuxe. I enjoy the bubble tea, but often wish it were milk tea instead of just…tea with tapioca pearls. Still, faced with no other choice (waiting for a Lollicup to open near Cambridge…c’mon guys, there are so many Asian people at MIT), I would take their bubble tea over no bubble tea. Their food is surprisingly acceptable; I dig the Exeter sandwich. Russian dressing on anything works. Mmmmm…can you imagine Russian dressing and capers mixed together…

Men Tei. A little-known noodle house off of Newbury, this is my go-to place if I’ve already spent way too much shopping and need food pronto. Eel over rice or tonkatsu are classics. The napkins are paper, the water comes served in little Styrofoam cups, and a plastic container holding wooden chopsticks sits on every table…all touches that I recall fondly. But the BEST part is the music. They always play a full album from a pop star that came out several years ago. CDs you’ll likely hear: Heavier Things by John Mayer, Back to Bedlam by James Blunt, Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani. They only accept cash, so leave the plastic at home.

Cafe L’Aroma. A Euro-style cafe tucked away in the lower levels of Newbury St, L’Aroma Overpriced considering their food is pre-prepped (though they will toast the sandwiches for you), but oddly enough, their assortment of quiches, sandwiches, and salads still taste made-to-order. I first fell in love with their Casablanca sandwich and sour cream coffee cake but I’ve branched out since and have yet to be disappointed.

carried over…

simple mathematics…

love in the morning…

ecstatic…

carried away…

secret ingredients…

bearing gifts…

oyster mushrooms…

Well, this has most definitely proven to be the best Thanksgiving I’ve spent with my family in my “adult” life. I made everything but the turkey (boooo turkey) and nothing was overcooked or “not quite right,” in fact, it was all pretty spectacular. I even made my first pie and it was GOOD! I know, right? Look at me, look at ME. After stuffing our faces and napping through a Barbie movie, my sister, niece, mother and I  went to see “A Christmas Carol.” If you ever, for whatever reason, end up watching this movie please let me know so we can discuss how WEIRD the Christmas past ghost was. I couldn’t handle it. My sister gave me a raised eyebrow/grin several times throughout his part.

Now, the fam is gone and I have nothing to do. I halfheartedly attempted to round up some folks to go see Fantastic Mr. Fox with me post-family hang, but noooo, everyone is familying still! I haven’t been this excited to see a movie in a long time. Wes Anderson’s take on a Roald Dahl book? Yes please. Mr. Fox’s whistle click click thing is something I am going to try very hard to not reference and abuse to the point of annoyance. I am bad with those kinds of things.

Ugh, maybe I WILL go by myself. I just got so excited about it!

We’ll see what happens when 10:10 DOES roll around. I’ve got a thermos of hot apple cider/cap’n morgan to sneak in. Things may get W I L D.

My mom is always sending me funny little forwards … well this has to be my favorite

Source: http://www.kingscourtrestaurant.com/

I have been trying to find some new lunch locations lately; I think I have exhausted all of my options on Allen.  And the number of restaurants on Delaware that I haven’t tried is even starting to decrease slowly.  So when my co worker Matt and I tried to figure out a new restaurant to eat at (that wasn’t too exotic) I thought of King’s Court.

While I was driving into the City of Buffalo every , my recent move to Allentown, I would always pass by King’s Court and try to tell myself to “remember this place for lunch”.  I honestly have no real reason why I wanted to try it, I’ve only heard that its a great karaoke bar and I remember having a beer there once after a Thursday in the Square.  But maybe if you drive past something enough times it will just inevitably stick in your brain.

Walking inside I realized that I remembered very little about this place, the dining room (as seen above) totally surprised me by how nice it was.  The table settings, the filled water glasses, and our courteous and attentive server were all nice surprises.  As for the food options, I knew what to expect thanks to the internet, but the menu was very well priced.  You could easily get a lovely lunch for under 7 dollars and for Matt and myself the grand total (after tax) was just $18.  By far this is one of the cheapest lunches I’ve had in a while, at least one where I actually sat down and ate and didn’t order items by a number.

Matt ordered himself the cheeseburger and a basket of fries, both of which he thought were fantastic.  The burger was juicy and the fries were actually really good.

After looking over the menu, I decided to try out one of their Panini’s and ordered their Cobb Salad Panini (see above), which was basically Turkey, Bacon, Bleu Cheese, and Tomatoes.  While the ingredients were simple, the execution was great.  Instead of some pre-sliced deli meat turkey, these were some thick slices cut right off a whole cooked breast.  This may surprise some of you, but I really am not the biggest bacon fan and I was happy that they didn’t “over load” this sandwich with it.  The same could be said for the Tomato, except that I would have preferred maybe an extra slice or two.  The blue cheese had a strong presence, but I’m a big fan of that and when melted over meat and tomato, the sandwich really reaches an entirely new level of awesome.

As awesome as the Panini was, what really stole both Matt’s heart and mine was their home made Ribbon-style Potato Chips (see above).   I thought that type of food was reserved for the Erie County Fair.  They were fantastic and generously covered in salt and seasoning, I could have ordered and entire meal of just their chips.

I’ve driven by King’s Court over and over and never once thought it would have been a great lunch location, but I still am finding out there are still many surprises in Buffalo.  So if you work downtown and you’d like to try a new lunch location, I can now highly recommend King’s Court as a great little spot with really reasonable prices.

By Kay Steiger

by Flickr user eejones (Creative Commons license)

I hope each of you are spending the day with family and/or friends. Happy eating! This photo, as usual, comes from the IFA Food Porn photo pool.

playing with…

In order these are my top three favorite crabs:

1. KONA CRAB
2. DUNGENESS CRAB
3. ROCK CRAB

But whatever crab it is, I will enjoy every single piece of sweet meat it has to offer!  I actually was allergic to crab as a young girl.  I used to sit at the table with a bottle of Benadryl and ate all the crab and shrimp I could while my mom stood back and watched in horror.  I eventually grew out of my allergy of both iodine-filled crustaceans and now I only have allergic reactions to Blue crab, which obviously did not make it to my top three!

I remember watching an old school episode of Martha Stewart as a teen on crabs.  She shucked them like a pro and I often fantasized about being able to shuck the perfect crab with all of its meat intact.  I know right?  Big Culinary Dreams for a 15 year old!  Rather than daydreaming about boys, I was daydreaming about shucking crab! My mom loved to cook for us, and she never complained about buying two fresh dungeness crabs for us whenever we asked for fresh crab sandwiches or crab cakes.  Mom was always glad to take some time out and de-meat the crab; and I guess that’s a huge reason why I love to do it too.

It’s crab season again and our home has been blessed with fresh, sweet, thick crab meat… and I am back at my crab shucking fantasy at least once or twice a week.. I am still perfecting my craft… My choice tool is my kitchen mallet… The technique and amount of pressure I am applying with every whack! is ALMOST perfect!

Today it took me 30 minutes to shuck all of these crab legs… I was aiming for 15… but I will try again next week… I am actually planning to do a Crab Boil for the next Beats Rhymes and Life meeting along with Crawfish if there are fresh ones at the market next Thursday!

This was today’s mission:

and by the way… if you’ve never had Kona Crab… get some because you are missing out… at least ONCE in this lifetime!

…. and here’s some other hardcore shots of other crab conquests!

By Kay Steiger

by Flickr user J.W. Hamner (Creative Commons license)

J.W. Hammer made this kimchi from scratch. This photo, as usual, comes from the IFA Food Porn photo pool.

By Kay Steiger

by Flickr user megan.chromik (Creative Commons license)

Megan over at Delicious Dishings made this herb-crusted beef tenderloin from Cook’s Illustrated on a random Sunday afternoon. This photo, as usual, comes from the IFA Food Porn photo pool.

enso…

healthy decadence…

omnivore…

By Kay Steiger

by Flickr user the.bnut (Creative Commons license)

This photo comes from the Troy Farmer’s Market last weekend. Very pretty! The photo, as usual, comes from the IFA Food Porn photo pool.

giving and receiving…

hot pot…