December 21, 2015 Turtle Alley
When we were in Salem for lunch at Turner’s Seafood, I had the chance to walk around a bit before heading over the the restaurant. I was craving something sweet so I stopped into Turtle Alley. The flagship store is located in Gloucester, the Salem location is their second store.
The space is quite large. Even though there is a fair amount of product, the store feels a little sparse. They have all kinds of barks, chocolate covered everything and hand dipped truffles.
All the chocolates are hand made. Of course I had to get some turtles, the cashew ones are my favorite! I picked up milk and white chocolate. In addition to cashew they also have pecan, macadamia, almond, cherry apricot, cranberry pecan, chipotle and macadamia with coconut. They were delicious, you can taste the quality – I highly recommend stopping in.
Turtle Alley
177 Essex Street, Salem, MA
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December 20, 2015 Nordstrom ebar
The ebar is located on the first floor of the mall, attached to the entrance of Nordstrom’s. It’s a specialty coffee shop (similar to Starbucks) where you can grab a cold drink and a snack. There are tables in the mall area, just outside the restaurant, where you can sit and enjoy your coffee.
Not feeling like coffee, I ordered a strawberry lemonade, that was both sweet and tart and hit the spot after a day of shopping. Note that this restaurant is different than the cafe that is upstairs in the store on the 2nd floor.
Nordstrom ebar
290 Speen Street, Natick MA (located in the Natick Collection)
http://restaurants.nordstrom.com
Monday – Saturday 8:30am – 9pm
Sunday 10am-6pm
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December 19, 2015 Stephanie’s on Newbury
Dianne and I met over at Stephanie’s on Newbury a while back. It was a great chance for us to catch up since it had been such a long time. The restaurant has gotten a facelift since I was last here, how ever many years ago. The color palette has changed to gray with splashes of accent colors of red and orange. There are tons of new textures here as well, trying to modernize the space. The restaurant was crowded with people on business lunches, tourists, and moms with their kids. I had the Cobb salad ($20) that was grilled chicken, corn, tomatoes, egg, cheese, red onion, bacon, avocado and romaine lettuce, tossed with blue cheese dressing in a crispy flour tortilla shell. The presentation was lovely. I would have liked to have seen the chicken cut into a little smaller pieces, but the salad was full of all the things I love!
Stephanie’s on Newbury
190 Newbury Street, Boston, MA
Click here for their website.
Tags: back bay, casual dining, outdoor seating, restaurant
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December 18, 2015 Live Noodles
I’m a sucker for noodles and dumplings, so when Live Noodles came in right down the street, I was dying to try them out. They serve traditional hand pulled noodles with authentic soup. From their website:
Lanzhou beef lamian, or Lanzhou beef hand-pulled noodle, is a type of Chinese noodle dish originated in Lanzhou, China, and generally popular in China. It is referred to as “beef noodle” or “beef big bowl” in Lanzhou. It is sometimes simply called lamian , which means hand-pulled noodle in Chinese, or “beef lamian” elsewhere in China.
Like most places on this block, the decor leaves something to be desired. While you can get some recognizable things here, they also serve authentic dishes like squid tentacles, chicken hearts and pig ears.
We were glad that we decided to get take out, as the place was packed! The place is small, with mainly two tops, so if you are going with a group, make sure to call for a reservation.
The home made dumplings ($9) came a dozen to an order. They were steamed and the filling was super tasty.
I love soup dumplings. These pork dumplings ($8), that came 6 to an order, were so good.
Here’s a close up of the hand pulled thin noodles.
The beef hand pulled thin noodles were a hit in our house, they came with corn, cucumbers, carrots and other vegetables to balance out the dish. Dishes are generally prices around $8-$15, but there are a few “big pot” dishes that can cost you up to $28.
Live Noodles
1026 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA
Tags: allston, asian, casual dining, dumplings, restaurant, takeout
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December 17, 2015 Clear Flour Bread
Long story short, my car got a flat tire and I had to wait 2 hours to get it fixed. Instead of sitting in the Sullivan Tire waiting area watching horrible daytime tv, I decided to take a walk down to Clear Flour Bread. Located at the edge of a residential neighborhood, this tiny shop puts out some of the best breads and pastries I’ve had. I had been waiting to try one of their pretzels and it was so worth the wait. Their soft, German style pretzels are great warm and they are available after 10:30am the day they are baked! They are soft and chewy, a little bit of a crusty outside – so good!
I dream about their clafoutis. They are just the right amount of sweetness and I love when the outsides have a little crunch to them.
The classic croissants are hand rolled every morning and are crispy outside and buttery delicious on the inside. I love the almond ones. They offer plain, chocolate and gruyere daily and pretzel, breakfast croissants, apricot or raspberry on weekends and holidays.
If you’re looking for authentic Italian and French breads, look no further. Get there early though, the lines on the weekend go around the block!
Clear Flour Bread
178 Thorndike St., Brookline, MA
http://www.clearflourbread.com
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December 16, 2015 The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap
This year was the 5th annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Here’s how it worked – you had to have a food blog and sign up for the cookie swap. You make 3 dozen cookies and send a dozen to 3 bloggers. In return, 3 bloggers will send you a dozen cookies – so you end up with 3 dozen cookies!!! I ended up with some seriously delicious cookies that vanished before I knew what happened!
This year the organization as a whole partnered with COOKIES FOR KIDS’ CANCER, a national non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against pediatric cancer, which claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease.
Here’s the recipe, adapted from Quaker’s vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies:
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons of butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 cups of Quaker Oats
1 cup cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
Preparation
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed in an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mix well. Add oats, cranberries and white chocolate chips, mix well. Press dough into uncreased 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely on wire rack.
I made these plain, but these would be great with a little extra white chocolate drizzled over top.
Tags: recipes
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December 15, 2015 Beta Burger
Just after Thanksgiving, when I couldn’t bear another turkey leftover anything, I headed over to Mission Hill to Beta Burger. I met up with owner Adrian Wong who gave me the lay of the land. They have seating upstairs with great lighting from the floor to ceiling window (a food blogger’s dream!). The parking can be a little dicey here if you’re looking to run in and pick up a burger, but there is a whole block of 30 minute parking in front of the Roxbury Crossing T station on the next block. And if that’s still too much, don’t worry, they deliver. With prices starting at $5.50, you can treat yourself!
The burgers are cooked sous vide and finished off on the grill with a quick sear. The sous vide style allows the burger to lock in all the juices, making it a really flavorful patty. TV screens on the wall give you tons of options to customize your burger: beef or chicken patties, potato roll, wheat roll or a skinny bun (almost like those Pepperidge Farms sandwich thins), American or cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, jalapeño, relish and their “not so special sauce”. (I love the name, because so many places have special sauce which really just ends up being Russian dressing!) They even have premium toppings like caramelized onions, sauteed oyster mushrooms, coleslaw, and smoked bacon.
Of course I chose the potato bun with the beef patty, relish, bacon and cheddar cheese. Look at how pretty that looks!
Let’s talk fries. They are pretty delicious on their own, but if you want to kick it up a notch, Beta Burger offers seasoning packs in flavors like garlic parmesan, salt & vinegar, sour cream & onion, or Buffalo. Check out the video of us shaking up our fries here.
Is your mouth watering yet? Stop in to Beta Burger and see what I’m talking about!
Disclaimer: I was invited as a guest to preview Beta Burger. My meal was provided complimentary. All opinions are my own.
Beta Burger
1437 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
Tags: burgers, casual dining, mission hill, take out
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December 15, 2015 Park
These days it’s hard for me to keep up. It was only 3 months late in taking my friend Julia out for her birthday when we headed over to Park in Harvard Square. Note that this was a few months ago, the weather was nice enough that they opened the windows and we sat just inside of them. I have more drafts in my queue than I know what to do with and am running so behind with posts, I guess that’s a good thing though, so many meals to share with you!
We started off with the trio of toasts ($10). I loved all of the different textures and flavors here, it was nice to get a little bite of everything. The trio changes seasonally, so these ones aren’t on the menu now. Currently, this is the selection:
They offer a local cheese board ($12), the types of cheese change daily. I love the presentation here, simple and rustic. I’m not generally a fan of blue cheese but this one was pretty mild.
I had the hand torn pasta ($19). I usually go for the meat pies, but thought I would mix it up a little. I liked the pasta, the texture was perfectly al dente. There was a little too much sauce that really overpowered the dish. They’ve since rotated this item off the current menu.
Park
59 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA
Park offers free parking with your meal, Sunday after 10am, Monday through Wednesday after 5pm, and $2 off on Thursday through Sunday at the Harvard Square parking garage attached to the building.
Tags: casual dining, harvard square, outdoor seating, restaurant
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December 14, 2015 Doretta Taverna
Doretta Taverna is Michael Schlow’s newest restaurant that is in the former Via Matta space. The restaurant is a complete 180 from what Via Matta was, complete with a new entrance!
The restaurant is open and airy – the large bar is the focal point in the center of the restaurant. The fresh fish are put on ice in the back for guests to see (you can kind of see it on the back left). Doretta comes from the Greek word, Doro, meaning gift.
Michael and his wife were in the house the evening that we dined at the restaurant. We had a fantastic server, Alex, who took us on a tour of the space, and he even brought us down to the kitchen to take a look at the chef’s table. I’d love to dine down here one night!
Michael’s wife Adrienne did all the artwork in the restaurant. There is a 60ft hand painted wall on the left side of the restaurant and these figures that were created with paint from a syringe.
Her artwork is visually stunning and makes the restaurant feel very homelike. You can see more of Adrienne’s art on her website. This piece, “Like This” is a 40×60 piece, I loved the bold colors.
The menu is broken down into sections: raw bar, small plates and main dishes. We want to try a little bit of everything. Meredith and I started with the cauliflower spread ($7) that is topped with caviar – I love the saltiness that the caviar brought to this spread. We also tried the roasted eggplant spread ($6) with walnuts and red pepper. Both spreads came with warm flatbreads. This was a great way to start our meal.
Next up, we had the spinach pie ($9) that has a limited availability. The dough is light and flaky – this is one of my favorite dishes!
Of course when you eat Greek food, you have to try the lamb. So we had the lamb meatballs ($12) served with cumin, tomato, yogurt and lemon zest. The dish was lighter that I thought and really not as gamey as I expected.
They have fried calamari on the menu, but we opted for the grilled octopus ($16) that tasted so fresh. It was served with sweet onions, capers and Greek olive oil. This is a great menu option in contrast to the fried calamari.
For our main dinner we HAD to try the 15 hour lamb shoulder ($28 per person). The meat was so tender and flavorful, I highly recommend trying this dish.
We also had the shrimp ($34 per person) that you are supposed to use your hands and suck out the meat, but I just can’t bring myself to do that in public, so I used a knife and fork…
Cauliflower is my thing these days. The roasted cauliflower side dish ($9) comes wth jalapeños and pistachios. This definitely could have been my main meal – I could eat this for days!
Why choose one dessert when you can order 3? We ordered the galaktoboureko, a custard, that is kind of the consistency of a firm bread pudding, with a layer or light flaky filo dough on top. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this after our server described it, but it was one of my favorite desserts of the night. I would come back and just eat dessert at the bar!
The baklava was delicious, topped with honey and pistachios. A family friend used to make this sweet treat for us, so I have a special place in my heart for this dessert!
The almond cake with smoked apple gelato was a close second to the galaktoboureko. I didn’t want this dish to end – I loved the flavor of the cake and the consistency was just right. I highly recommend visiting Doretta Taverna for dinner!
Doretta Taverna
79 Park Plaza, Boston, MA
Tags: back bay, casual dining, celebrity chef, greek, restaurant
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December 13, 2015 Kilwins
Kilwins is an amazing sweet shop in Cary with other locations across the country. They have a variety of sweets to choose from, check out these caramel apples, I feel a cavity coming on just looking at them!
I was so impressed when my niece said she was only going to get one scoop of ice cream…until I saw it. it was a softball sized scoop in an enormous waffle cone…that was covered in candy. Oy!
The chocolate selection is impressive from their hand paddled Mackinac island style fudge, to their rich and buttery caramel to their fresh nut brittles and truffles.
We restrained ourselves and only got a few things – milk cashew turtles (one of my favorites), a milk chocolate peanut butter oreo, a milk chocolate rice krispy bar, a milk chocolate toffee and white chocolate pretzels. Every piece was delicious, you chocolate snobs out there won’t be disappointed.
Kilwins
2004 Boulderstone Way, Cary, NC
Tags: chocolate, desserts, ice cream, north carolina, trips
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