"What's a Grit?"*

Back in the summer of 2010, my book club read Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, and we held our discussion meeting at Tupelo in Cambridge. At that meeting, I had my first taste of grits (along with some amazing chicken and waffles and Southern sweet tea!) Someone ordered grits for the table, and I felt obligated to try them in an attempt at Southern authenticity. (The only thing I really knew about grits was that Flo on TV's "Alice" used to tell people off by telling them to kiss hers!) 

Paula Deen's version of shrimp and grits

Uneasily putting that first spoonful into my mouth, the taste was surprising and delightful. Where I had expected something bland and grainy, there was heavenly, mushy, buttery goodness.  With my second spoonful greedily in my mouth I asked, "What are grits again?" To the amusement of my fellow book clubbers, I ended up finishing off the bowl. Turns out, grits are a corn meal porridge. What's not to love about that, right? Right.


This year, I drove back north from Florida, and, for the first time in my life, I got to visit a number of towns in the South (as opposed to having layovers in the Charlotte or Atlanta airports). Stops were made in: Jekyll Island, GA; Savannah, GA; Beaufort, SC; Charleston, SC; and Williamsburg, VA. I ordered shrimp and grits (a popular combination) at a number of restaurants along the way; some places served it traditionally (more soupy), while other places served it more firm, so that it was almost like a polenta.  My favorite version of the dish was at 82 Queen in Charleston. I had the seared shrimp and scallops over stone ground grits with sauce Newburg, which was positively AMAZING. (I highly recommend dining out at 82 Queen if you are in Charleston. They also have really wonderful she-crab soup.) I don't know if I would ever try cooking grits myself, but I can guarantee that I will be ordering them at Southern style restaurants in the future!!(But if you do make grits regularly and want to make a suggestion for a brand to try at home and/or a recipe in the comments, I would be glad to have that info.)



*the classic line from My Cousin Vinny

Counting down to the big day!

I met my friend DM out for dinner in Harvard Square last night. (I always forget how much fun Harvard Square is! It isn't just for tourists.) Afterwards, we were walking around and passed by Cardullo's. There is a great display case in the window for the royal wedding.


I need to start planning what I am going to serve at my Royal Wedding viewing party! (Something that is easy to deal with at 5:00 a.m.!)

400, 75, 26, North

This post marks my 400th blog entry! And my 75th post of the year, which is the most I have ever posted in a calendar year in my six years of blogging (and probably why I am only at 400 posts after six years.)

To mark the occasion, I have decided to do my first ever blog give-away! Yay!!

So last Tuesday, my family was visiting Boston, and we went out to dinner at North 26 in Government Center. It was a really fun time, and we had a delicious meal. The restaurant is American cuisine with French influences, although I happened to have a more Asian style meal. It is fairly casual and relaxed, and it seemed to be a quiet night in the restaurant, which was a nice change from our dinner the previous evening at Eastern Standard (also fun and delicious, but LOUD.)

Everything we had to eat was just really fresh. My parents both got the sweet pea and spinach soup to start, and it looked, smelled and tasted like it had been made just for them. Sister K dived into the kettle of muscles, while Sister B sampled the veal sweetbreads. I had an amazing dish of seared scallops over a fresh carrot puree with coconut rice. Again, it was like someone had made everything on my plate just for me. My parents and Sister B had fish entrées, while Sister K had the lamb. I enjoyed the skillet seared natural raised duck with pineapple tamarind ponzu, duck fried rice, and bok choy. This was even more delicious than the scallops. The duck was really moist, and there was a lot of flavor in the ponzu, but it didn't overpower the meat. I don't normally even LIKE bok choy, but I really liked everything on my plate. There were a lot of clean plates at our table.

I was, of course, excited that the restaurant had my beloved St. Germain cocktail on the drink menu, Mom had a G&T, and the sisters enjoyed some wine. The drinks were pretty much in line with most other Boston restaurants (although I usually try to stick to places with $10 cocktails), but the entrées were all priced under $30, which is a bonus. Our server was nice without being overly attentive and made good recommendations (both of my courses were ones he recommended). When we realized that we had been seated right next to the air conditioning vent, the manager was nice to turn it down before Sister B froze!

So we all really like the restaurant, and I hope to go there again soon with my friends. The folks at the restaurant must have liked us too because our server gave each of us a coupon good for 15% off of the entire check for either lunch or dinner! (This is where the blog give away comes in.) Now my family gave me all of their coupons in addition to the one I received so I have FOUR of these discount coupons to give away. SO, the first four people who say they want one by posting a comment on this blog entry will get one of these fancy coupons to North 26. (I have hidden the comments by turning on the moderation so that no one can tell which number commenter they are, because I am tricks-y like that. MWAHAHAHA!) If you have been there before, you know what a great deal you are getting, and, if you are yet to try it, I think that you will be pleased with your experience there.

Thanks to all my friends and readers who have been following along with me on this blog. What started out merely as a way to pass the time really has become an enjoyable part of my life!

"O Oysters come and walk with us!"

So one of my goals for the new year (as I don't make "resolutions" per se) is to spend more time with friends. Another goal is to try new things. Last night, I was able to do both when I went out to The Independent in Union Square with PunkRockMom and the Niblet, and we all tried oysters on the half shell.

Even though I grew up in a family of oyster eaters, I cannot recall previously eating them. So when I saw that they had Connecticut bluepoint oysters as a special on the menu, I boldly ordered up some to try and persuaded PRM and N to join me. Shortly after I placed the order, I had a moment of doubt and considered canceling it.

When they were served, on ice with cocktail sauce and lemon, I put aside that squeamish feeling as I realized that it was too late to back out on this now. So I sucked up my courage and sucked down those oysters. And they were surprisingly good. They definitely weren't "fishy", which is what I was expecting. My mom says that they taste like the sea; I can see that, even though I added both lemon and cocktail sauce before my tasting. One thing that I didn't care for is the sand. There definitely was some grit in there.

N took his time before trying his, and I don't think that he will have another oyster anytime soon. I told him that I was impressed because I was having my first oyster at the same time he was and I am 25 years older than he is. He's a brave little trooper, even if he was making faces the whole time. :)

Clean plates all around!


Next up: steamers!

Yummy in my Tummy

On Friday night, my friend "Miss Post" and I went out to Trina's Starlight Lounge in Somerville after work. I had read about it (and the ladies of LUPEC) in an article that PunkRockMom sent me from Boston.com. And as Miss Post and I are up for trying new cocktails (and she already had been to Trina's and liked it), we ventured forth into Somerville to try it out.

While appearing rather humble from the outside, Trina's Starlight Lounge is a hip, happenin' place with cocktails and food that are super tasty. When we arrived, which was just after 6pm, there wasn't a big crowd yet so we were able to grab seats right at the bar. I was drinking a "Shaddock" (Bols genever, Aperol, Saint Germain, lemon juice) from the drinks menu while Miss Post was drinking "Dirty Shirleys".

After the second round, we ordered some food. The menu is mostly retro Southern comfort food, which is a delicious thing. We shared chili cheese fries, and Miss Post had the "dog of the day" while I had a crab cake. We also shared the most out of this world corn bread. Now I love corn bread, and this one was definitely up there in the ranks of the best corn bread. It was moist with a good crust and had kernels of corn in it and was topped with honey and came with a huge hunk of butter. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. So did my blood pressure. (Kidding, sort of.)

The night started to pick up around 7:30pm, and I was pleased to see that it was totally my kind of scene. Mostly laid back crowd, closer to 30 than 20, of people who were there to enjoy a libation without making a scene. Retro without being pretentious, which I totally appreciate. (Note to self: "Retro sans Pretention" would be a cool name for a band.)

I had a feeling that I was going to be right at home there just based on the music playing when Miss Post and I arrived. It was the first album by Nouvelle Vague, a band I wasn't familiar with, but one that I now love. They take new wave (hence the "nouvelle vague") songs from the 1980s and cover them in a bossa nova style. After hearing "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division in sultry bossa nova, it was true love.

I ended up heading home around 10pm (after a series of Diet Cokes and waters), and, despite my persistent mental block navigating Somerville, I didn't get lost going home. I was really proud of myself until PunkRockMom told me that Inman was too easy and I needed to work on Davis or Union Squares...DOH!

I do hear that the Highland Kitchen makes a pretty sweet cocktail too. Finally learning my way around Somerville will be worth it!!

With JR in JP

Last Thursday, JR and I went down to the Forest Hills Cemetery Lantern Festival after grabbing some supper at the Dogwood Cafe, where I had a fantastic French dip sandwich from the specials' menu. (Props to the Dogwood for toasting the roll; everything tastes better on toast.) Because we got to the cemetery on the later side, we missed taking pictures in the twilight, but I was able to capture a couple before my point and shoot camera's battery died.

Note to self: if you attend an event with the purpose of taking some cool photos (and trust me, JR and I were not the only ones. In fact some girl was asking JR questions about her camera because they had the same one, and she wasn't sure how to use it. Ah, youth.) double check that you have charged the battery. OOPS!

While I was a disappointed that I didn't get some better snaps, at least we didn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes. AND we had a really fun time catching up at dinner, which really was the more important part of the evening.

Take Your Mama Out Tonight

Last night, JR and I got together and had dinner at Hungry Mother in Kendall Square. I must have gone by the restaurant a number of times without noticing it before last night. Fortunately, I recognized the sign with the small cardinal logo from the website as I was driving past. Hungry Mother is subtly tucked away in a converted house, just down the street from the Kendall Square Cinema. When I heard the menu was Southern, I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't sure if it was going to be like Famous Dave's or Redbones or what. The atmosphere was perfectly suited to my taste, hip while being comfortable and unpretentious, and, even though the restaurant was crowded, it didn't get terribly loud. The tables are a little bit cosy, and we did end up asking the people at the table next to us what they were eating as we eyeballed their entrees. (They had eaten there a number of times and gave some high praise to the catfish.)

We started with an order of the Southern-style cornbread with Sorghum butter, which I had never had before and tastes like a delicious blend of butter and maple syrup. So tasty. For our entrees, JR got the grilled rainbow trout in the almond butter vinaigrette, while I had the French-style gnocchi with pancetta. We ended up sharing our entrees, and that was SUCH a good idea. The trout was delicious, crispy on the outside, flaky on the inside, with lots of flavor. The gnocchi was a lot smaller than I am used to, but was still a light, puffy pillow, and the sauce was fantastic! JR asked for more bread so that the sauce wouldn't go to waste. Our waitress was attentive without being overbearing, and we weren't rushed out the door as we lingered talking over our respective tea and coffee.

While the menu isn't really expansive, there is variety in the selection, and the quality was very, very good. Prices are what you would expect at a nicer restaurant in Cambridge, reasonable, but not cheap (~$22 entree). The restaurant uses sustainable foods, and they recycle and compost. (It says so on their menu.) The drink and wine menu is diverse. I definitely want to go back soon. I wonder if they have outdoor space for the summer?

Kicking it old skool

Last night was a trip down memory lane, and it was excellent, but I woke up this morning feeling rather nostalgic and heavy of heart. It started with dinner with two of my friends from my first job in Boston at Gargoyles on the Square in Davis Square in Somerville. The ambience of this restaurant is really interesting. The bar area was packed, but the restaurant only had a third of the tables filled. And the decor and lighting almost makes you think that the dining experience is going to be rather snooty, but they were playing 1970s disco and Barry White over the sound system!

Once we got over the fact that the menu was a bit intimidating (sometimes less is more in terms of the description of meals, I have learned,) we had a delicious meal, full of flavors. I had the hoisin & honey glazed duck confit with sweet stickly rice, mango,cashews, young coconut milk. I can highly recommend that; I cleaned my plate. I kind of felt a little bit like a pig, actually, but I didn't have an appetizer, and I was on my second glass of prosecco by the time the food was served. So it was probably better that I cleaned my plate. I had really fallen out of touch with these friends, and it was only at the beginning of this year that we started hanging out again, so it was nice that we ended the year together as well.

After that, I headed over to the Kirkland Cafe. That was after calling PunkRockMom to say "I am lost in Somerville after dark again. Get me out of here!!" It turned out that I was lost in the exact same area that I was lost the LAST time I called PRM when I was lost in Somerville. I think that I am actually finally getting the lay of the land now because I realized that I was lost in the same place; it only took ten years.

ANYHOW, the point of going to the Kirkland was to see the reunited Allstonians play their first gig in ages. Back in the heyday of ska, when bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Big D and the Kids Table and Skavoovie and the Epitones were bringing the dancehall beat around the country, before bands like Reel Big Fish, No Doubt and Save Ferris began the trend of watering down the sound, these guys from Allston really did Boston proud. Last night, their set was fantastic, and it was cool to see some of the old school supporters there, many of whom I haven't seen in four or five years. When the Allstonians first started playing , there were only a couple of us on the dance floor. (JR and I were actually dancing in the bar area, which was verboten by the regulars at the Common Ground, back in the day.) But by the third song, there were people full out skanking on the floor in between the tables. It was old school, and it was fun. JR's boyfriend got called up to help D-Train sing "Allston Beat," and the encore was "Allston, Mass," an anthem for not only the neighborhood, but an anthem for our youth.

As it was getting pretty late and I had to work today, I headed out right after the encore, but not before remarking to keyboardist Nigel Knucklehead that I felt ten years younger. The music is so intimately connected to a particular period of my life, and it brought a whole slew of feelings of youth and hope and promise to the surface that I haven't felt in ages. I could have stayed up all night riding that high.