Hey, Presto!

For someone who likes (okay, looooooooves) sugar so much, I am surprisingly lukewarm when it comes to other starchy carbs. I basically avoid potatoes (unless they're mashed), rice (unless it's in rice pudding), and I am not that crazy about pasta, probably due to too much pasta salad growing up and then in college. I like Asian noodles (for some reason, when you make pasta out of rice, I am okay with it), regular Italian food? Take it or leave it. Give me a good steak (minus the frites) and veggies any day.

So when we ended up trying Basta Pasta in Cambridgeport (maybe a 15 minute walk from the Central Square T stop) a few months ago, I wasn't looking forward to it. We were supposed to go to The Similans by Cambridgeside Galleria, but they're closed on Sunday. We ended up at Basta Pasta instead, at the suggestion of our chicken parm aficionado friends.

Surprise! Pasta I actually like! Apparently it is run by Albanians, and if you know anything about that part of the mediterranean, you know that when Albanians leave for a better life, they often end up in Italy (sadly, not always of their own volition; there is a serious problem with human trafficking, and the coast of Italy is only a speedboat ride away, but that's not the case with the owner of Basta Pasta), where he perfected the art of cheap, high quality Italian food. You have to go with the homemade pasta, though- usually the gemelli, and the cheese ravioli. I got the puttanesca sauce with the gemelli, and it was just okay. Let's just say I was set to scare away any vampires that wanted to come cuddle in bed with me that night. Not enough anchovies, and just overwhelming with garlic and spiciness. However, the first time we went, I got the cheese ravioli, and my husband got the bolognese sauce. both of them are great, as is the garlic bread. We haven't tried their pizza, but supposedly it is good. Also, this place is cheap for the quality. It's not exactly a unicorn, but it's not as common as Whole Foods or Dunkin Donuts, either.

You know this place is good b/c it is usually full of cops getting their eat on. If that's not a good recommendation, I don't know what is.

Fried everything!

Yesterday we made the hour-long trip out to Ipswich to eat at the Ipswich Clam Box, which was just featured in Gourmet Magazine as one of the best farm-to-table restaurants in the US (along with Henrietta's Table and Rendezvous, both in Cambridge). I had also read about it somewhere very recently, maybe the New York Times, as the only place in the area that changes their oil once a day (no matter how long the line is!).

It was great! The Clam Box is not for the health-conscious. Almost everything on the menu is fried, and what isn't has mayonnaise in it (lobster roll, cole slaw). They do have hamburgers and hot dogs, presumably so you can convince your seafood-hating friends to accompany you there.

It is fall, and the leaves are turning, so the drive there was beautiful and very easy. Coming from California, it seems so strange that you only have to drive for an hour to get into a rural-ish area with lots of trees, big house lots, and not that much development.

We met my seafood-hating sister-in-law and her boyfriend there. My SIL and I teamed up to order, and neither one of us were happy, we decided to order a mini-meal of clams and a mini-meal of oysters, when originally I was going to get a mini-meal of clams and she was going to get the haddock plate. While the clams were DELICIOUS, the oysters were terrible. They were bland and flavorless, while the clams had that briny bite that I so love about shellfish. Then my SIL wasn't so crazy about the clams, so she ate the fries, and I ate the clams and some of the oysters, and we probably both wished that we had gone with our original impulses. My husband got the haddock, which he pronounced "not as good as the Anstruther (the little Scottish town where his grandfather lives that has the best fish-and-chips shop in all of Scotland), but just as good as any random place in London," which is high praise, coming from my husband. It would have been perfect if the fries had been thicker wedges like you get at fish-and-chips shops, but this wasn't a fish-and-chips shop, it was the Clam Box!

So skip the oysters, get the clams or fish, and most of all, don't fear the fry!

East Coast Grill and Raw Bar

We had dinner at East Coast Grill and Raw Bar in Inman Square last night. We went primarily for the oysters; my husband and I have great memories of slurping down a dozen oysters artfully arranged on styrofoam plates by the oyster-mongers at the Washington DC fish market (we learned later that people had actually died of food poisoning from eating oysters there!) and barbecuing probably a hundred oysters (seriously- there were about seven of us, but still) at Tomales Bay in Northern California. My husband doesn't like seafood in general, but he loves him some oysters!

The oysters at East Coast Grill were okay. I am not sure what kind we got because the place was so loud we had a hard time hearing our server. We determined that there were 2 kinds of oysters, though, so we had half a dozen of each kind. One was "brinier" than the other, and we didn't care for that one- it had this metallic aftertaste that was not very pleasant.

Where the place really shines is the entrees. I had the bluefish and my husband had the... striped bass? Monkfish? I can't remember, but both were very good, and the sides were also very good. I got these huge fried sweet potato wedges and balsamic flavored greens that unfortunately were swimming in oil or butter, so I didn't want to eat too much of them. My husband's fish came with a really great side of heirloom tomato salad and really tasty fried artichoke hearts. The artichoke hearts appeared to come from a can because they didn't have much flavor, but the batter was really good, and they weren't greasy but tasty and crispy. I kept picking them off his plate!

We skipped dessert because if we wanted dessert, we would have just gone to Christina's, which is right next door. However, we were too full, so skipped the sweet stuff. Alas, because Christina's is really good!

Full tummies, high spirits

Today was a day of exploration. First stop was at Hi-Rise Bread Company on Brattle St. in Cambridge to pick up a loaf of bread. I decided on the potato bread, and decided to get a mini sandwich cookie and a lemonade. The lemonade was fantastic! Much better than the lemonade I had last weekend at a farmer's market in my husband's hometown, which tasted like chemicals, not real lemons. The Hi-Rise lemonade was lemony fresh, tart and had just enough sweetness. The sandwich cookie was also really good. The chocolate cookies had a tiny hint of coffee flavor. So good. I will definitely go back.

Then we decided to go walk around Boston Common and the Public Garden. I fed the ducks, which I wasn't supposed to do, but I didn't see the signs that said not to feed the duck until AFTER I had already finished feeding them. Oops. I quit when one goose started slowly advancing on me. Geese are scary!

We decided to try to have dinner on/around Newbury Street, but one of the problems with this plan is that you end up paying for the rent on Newbury Street rather than your food. We looked at a few different places; Parish Cafe (not on Newbury, but on Boylston), Stephanie's on Newbury, and Upper Crust. We rejected Parish because we weren't in the mood for sandwiches and weren't excited about the other food on the menu, Stephanie's for being too expensive and not really inspiring enough for us to forgo eating at Central Kitchen, which was our backup plan, and Upper Crust because I wasn't in the mood for pizza. We decided to head back to Cambridge to Central Kitchen, but not before we got some ice cream. We went to Emack & Bolio's, because we hit that before we got to J.P. Licks. I have to say.... not as good as Christina's in Inman Square. Not nearly. It was too sweet, the texture was a little gritty, and it didn't have the rich flavor that Christina's ice cream has. I also missed the unusual flavors that Christina's has- flavors like Burnt Sugar and Mexican Chocolate. I am going to stick to Christina's, I think. I will still give J.P. Licks a try if I come across another one.

We then took the #1 bus back down Mass Ave to Cambridge, and had dinner at Central Kitchen. Central Kitchen is remarkable for its casual upscale environment in a sea of dumpy-looking, gritty retail. We split a half-dozen oysters, and I got the mussels and my husband got the rib-eye steak. All of it was amazing. It's a little on the pricey side, but the food is really good and the portions are reasonably sized, so overall, a good deal.

Chacarero

A few weeks ago, I took the T to Downtown Crossing to check out that famous non-food-related Boston institution, Filene's Basement. Well, it was everything that I had been promised. Too bad it is closing down, although I understand the closing is temporary.

I took the opportunity to grab a sandwich at Chacarero. Chacarero started as a food truck, which is automatically endearing in my book! I am not a huge sandwich fan, but these are pretty good. How can you not love something with avocados, green beans, and beef? The small sandwich was still too enormous to eat in one go, so I just kept eating it whenever I was hungry for the rest of the day. The sandwich bread doesn't really hold up that well for more than a few hours, but it was still fine. Great food, and a great food story of an immigrant who gained success by hard work and a good product.