Tatte : chos eat boston finale

hazelnut rose

fig almond biscotti and two animal cookies

the best brioche i have ever had

Recently Sergio Hernandez asked me if I ever get excited, like physically-gesturing-12- exclamation-points excited. I thought about this carefully. I thought about it for a day afterwards actually. I can't recall a time...

I asked Saeyoung, and she also couldn't recall a time, she says I'm much more likely to verbalize in a semi-intonated voice the I'm excited with statements like, "that's exciting."

Well, I found myself pretty enthralled the other day when Saeyoung and I came upon Tatte Bakery right outside of Saeyoung new apartment on Audubon Circle. Look, this is my enthralled face:

It was such a fortuitous find. We passed by it while heading towards the T and I thought the signage was cute so we decided we should stop by.

Tatte specializes in everything that I love: French style tarts, buttery breads, figs, gallons of nuts of every kind, beautiful combinations like sesame and honey. Oh, and the brioches! Buttery and almost velvet in texture.

So so good. I feel like Tatte is The Sprout and The Bean's Boston counterpart.

Tatte

1003 Beacon St

Brookline, MA 02246

617.232.2200

http://tattecookies.com/

Zaftigs : chos eat boston part 5

Breakfast is a meal I frequently skip but for the convenience of time Saeyoung and I were super into breakfast/brunch meals during this trip. For my last meal in Boston we went to Zaftigs in Brookline. We've actually eaten here before, but that was for dinner. We were somewhat unimpressed by the dinner but apparently what Zaftigs is really known for is their breakfast so we gave it another chance.

And you know what? It was good, it was really good. Lots of options and we left glowing of roundness. Saeyoung ordered the banana walnut pancakes with date butter. Ohmigod, date butter. I think I will try and make date butter. I can't be that hard. I had the lox and red onion scramble with marbled rye. Nothing fancy, very satisfying. A funny thing: my dish was advertised as coming with fresh seasonal fruit, which apparently means a very sad slice of watermelon and single graying strawberry. haha. saeyoung warned me about the lack of good fruit in New England.

Zaftigs

335 Harvard st

Brookline, MA

617.975.0775

http://www.zaftigs.com/

The Hungry Mother : chos eat boston part 4

roasted chicken with grits

grilled blue fish with tomato jam

squid with hominy

fried green tomatoes with arugula, red remoulade, and bacon

ciabatta with olive tapenade and green tomato preserves

The more I recall this meal, the more fondly I'm feeling about it. My experience with southern foods is pretty limited and I suppose there something strange about having the best southern meal I've ever had in Boston.

Now that the initial laudatory comment is over with, I have to say that Saeyoung and I were basically scolded for being 20 minutes late. I promise we were there on time! Believe me, I understand the value of timeliness. We just had a hell of a time trying to find parking. Upon arrival, a very sour man told us that he was expecting us at 7 and that they had another party of two coming in at 9, "but they'd try to move a few things around." I definitely got the sense that he was trying to make us feel guilty. The whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth. But, to be fair, The Hungry Mother was very busy, fully packed on a Tuesday night, which I suppose says a lot about the popularity of this restaurant. Later I think the same sour man felt bad and made several stops to see how our meal was going. But I'm not one to get upset about quality of service. Whatever, as long as my food is good, much is permissible. And also, our server was very nice.

We started off the meal with a starter of 3-olive tapenade and green tomato preserve on grilled ciabatta. I lurve olive tapenade. The tomato preserve was very sweet and was pretty fantastic with the saltiness of the tapenade. I have a thing for the combination of salty and sweet.

For our starters Saeyoung and I shared a grilled squid dish and fried green tomatoes. I think my favorite was the grilled squid and Saeyoung's favorite was the green tomatoes. The fried green tomatoes were alarmingly ungreasy and they smelled amazing. I was almost happy to just smell the dish.

I've never had bluefish. It was very mild and they grilled it so that it was almost blackened on one side and really melty in the center. Very delicious. Nice and clean.

Saeyoung ordered the roasted chicken, which was similarly nice and clean.

It was nice to have clean flavors since the appetizers had so much kick.

Also, pretty much everything came with bacon. Really delicious thick cut bacon. Is this typical in Southern food?

The Hungry Mother

233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave

Cambridge, MA 02141

617.499.0090

http://www.hungrymothercambridge.com/

Christina's Ice Cream and Toascanini's: chos eat boston part 3

I love love Scoops in Los Angeles, but I have to admit, Cambridge might be a better ice cream city. Why? Because there are two amazing ice cream shops within walking distance from each other with equally exciting flavors.

Toscanini's is a bit hipster-y, filled to the brim with 20-somethings on their macs and lots of skinny jeand. At Christina's, I get the sense that it is a family-run business. Both have their merits. When compared, Saeyoung and I decided that we liked the texture of Toscanini's ice cream better but the flavors of Christina's ice cream better.

At Christina's I had the carrot cake ice cream--amazing! Scoops should make a version of this. Saeyoung had the burnt sugar ice cream that tasted exactly like Bbop gi--a Korean candy that vendors make on the street. They melt sugar with baking soda in a metal ladle until it is browned and then pour it onto a flat surface and use a cookie cutter to partially perforate a shape (usually a star). If you can manage to eat the candy in such a way that you preserve the shape of the star the street vendor gives you another for free.

That was a tangent, but my point is that the burnt sugar ice cream was really exciting for us and we wished so much that we could bring our mom some because she has such vivid memories of eating bbop gi in Korea when she was a kid.

At Toscanini's we were able to get two flavors in one scoop. I had chocolate spanish chiles and lemon meringue. Saeyoung had strawberry cream cheese and hazelnut. The flavors I chose were really strong and you probably couldn't eat a whole bowl of them but they were really exciting for the first few bites.

Now I have my Scoops and Saeyoung has her Boston equivalents.

Toscanini's

899 Main st

Cambridge, MA 02139-3512

617.491.5877

http://www.tosci.com

Christina's Ice Cream

1255 Cambridge St

Cambridge, MA 02139-1338

617.492.1338

http://christinasicecream.com/

Amelia's Trattoria : chos eat Boston part 2

goat cheese and beet ravioli

homemade spaghetti with plum tomato ragu

goat cheese salad

calamari with preserved lemon risotto

polenta with wild braised mushrooms and crispy sage

Family friends, the Rolniks took Saeyoung and I out for an amazing dinner at Amelia's Trattoria. It was so nice seeing them again. They are incredible foodies and I've pretty much never not enjoyed dining with them. I have fond memories of Zac making us a simple appetizer of crusty french bread with grilled porcini mushrooms and garlic chips.

Amelia's Trattoria was a very small intimate restaurant right next to MIT. There was only server and service was understandable and forgivably slow. They had an open window into the kitchen where we could see the food being prepared, which was nice. This was definitely meatless. Regardless the sauce was very refreshing, pretty classic basil and tomato--you can't really go wrong there.

I think more than the entrees, we were impressed with the appetizers. Saeyoung doesn't really like earthy tasting mushrooms but even she liked the polenta with braised mushrooms. Zac, who does not like sage, even liked the crispy sage, because let's be honest, anything fried in butter can't help but be good. The calamari was my favorite. Though I love balsamic vinegar I was a little weary of the balsamic reduction liberally drizzled on the plate because it seemed like such a strong flavor to go with preserved lemon, but oddly it all worked out. Ohmigod, I love risotto. I've never had a citrus based risotto and am eager to try it.

Zac ordered the chicken milanese, Diana ordered a goat cheese salad, and Olivia ordered the spaghetti carbonara (though she switched to the chicken milanese half way through).

I'd imagine this would be a nice date spot, but a special date, like an anniversary date or something celebratory like that.

Amelia's Trattoria

111 Harvard St,

Cambridge, MA

617.868.7600

The Friendly Toast : chos eat boston pt.1

breakfast sandwich with home fries

egg white omelette with corn salsa, lime avocado sauce, marinated red onions and yellow peppers

hansel and gretel waffle

I flew back with Saeyoung to Boston to help her move in to her first apartment. I think we knew that this wasn't going to be a leisurely trip-moving is always something of an obstacle course. But for all our hard work we agreed on eating enormously well. I mean, I think we do that anyway but we sort of made a point of it in Boston. You know how heavy full-table breakfasts are a rare treat? How usually breakfast is a cup of coffee and a piece of toast or a bowl of yogurt? No, in Boston we ate every morning like that was all we were going to eat the entire day, which obviously was not the case.

We arrived in Boston at 5 am, really haggard from not sleeping on the plane and knowing that we had a whole day of the business of moving. After checking into our hotel and putting our heads down for a miniature nap we went to the Friendly Toast, which was within walking distance from our hotel. I had found THIS article about the Friendly Toast and we especially interested in the anadama bread.

The restaurant reminded me a lot of North Park in San Diego actually. It had that feeling, kind of aware of its unpolished hipness. Apparently this ambiance is very typical of Cambridge.

Saeyoung ordered the breakfast sandwich. I ordered an egg white omelette with fillings of my choosing (lime avocado, corn, roasted yellow peppers, marinated red onions). And we also shared a hansel and gretel waffle which is a gingerbread waffle with pomegranate molasses. Saeyoung's sandwich, while good, was nothing exciting. It's a basic breakfast sandwich. My omelette was quite delicious. I was a fan of the marinated red onions. I think the best part was the waffle. Where does one even get pomegranate molasses. It wasn't as sweet as you'd expect, actually it had a very nice sour bite to it. Oh, and the anadama bread was only okay. They slathered it with too much butter and I felt like all I could taste was butter.

A very nice start to our Boston trip.

The Friendly Toast

Ste. B3101

1 Kendall Sq

Cambridge, MA 02139-1595

617.621.1200

thefriendlytoast.net

Taking The Necessary Knocks

Baking comes with its hazards. I'm okay with that. An oven burn here. A bruise there. Swollen fingertips. The worst though is that the constant washing of my hands is giving me old lady hands! If you know me, you already know that I can be obsessive about washing my hands and when I'm cooking it feels like my hands are constantly under a stream of water. I should be more diligent about lotion. My hands feel very raw. My sister and mother recommended that I slather on the thickest hand cream I could find and then put on sleeping with gloves on to lock in the moisture. Well I didn't have gloves and the closest thing I could think of was a sock (pictured above). I'm pretty sure this was ridiculous, me and my sock mitts. I couldn't keep them on for too long, they came off unknowingly in my sleep. Pathetic.