July 26, 2015 Margaritas
We were invited to Margaritas on Thursday for a preview event for #NationalTequilaDay on Friday. We were treated to a guacamole demonstration, given a tour of the restaurant and Matt from Sauza gave us a little lesson on tequila! They don’t make the guacamole table side, but as I mentioned, we were given a special demonstration. They do make the guacamole in small batches, so every batch is super fresh! You can add things like bacon, corn salsa, jalapeños, shrimp and/or pineapple salsa. The bottom right hand photo is of the carnitas enchilada in tomatillo sauce: slow roasted carnitas (pork) that has been cooked for 3 hours, roasted garlic, cilantro and lime. It’s served in a corn tortilla and topped with cheese and finished off with their house made tomatillo sauce. It was served tonight with a side of black and refried beans.
That delicious looking drink is the Beehive Paloma. I love Jarritos grapefruit soda so this was right up my alley – light and fresh, perfect for summer! Here’s the recipe if you want to make it at home:
2oz of Hornitos Spiced Honey Tequila
1/2 a lime
4oz Jarritos Grapefruit Soda
Fill pint class with ice, pour in tequila, freshly juice half a lime and add in, top with Jarritos and garnish with a lime wheel.
One of my favorite dishes of the night was the Mexican Grilled Corn. Grilled corn on the cob topped with chipotle aioli and quest fresco.
Chef Patrick was kind enough to come out and talk to us about each of the dishes we were trying.
The coconut shrimp salad is fried shrimp, with fajita spices, topped with coconut sauce over lettuce, salsa fresca, roasted (house made) corn salsa, cucumbers and quest fresco. The tequila lime dressing was perfect!
Bryant, our bartender for the evening, was amazing! Such a great personality and he even taught everyone how to make their own margaritas.
The Fish Tacos Del Mar are baja style tacos with beer battered fish, onion, cilantro, orange slaw, mild three pepper sauce and avocado on corn tortillas. Rumor has it that they are working on a grilled fish taco…
Margaritas has authentic Mexican decor. They frequently host school field trips and once a year they have a visiting artist demonstration. Margaritas educates and engages students about Mexican culture through artwork. They offer restaurant tours, food demonstrations and a DVD presentation on Mexican artists, markets, street scenes and mariachis.
The mask on the left is carved out of wood and the bird on the right is made from paper mache.
For dessert we had the churros (left), which were amazing and the fried ice cream (right) that satisfies your sweet and salty cravings with vanilla ice cream covered in a crushed pretzel shell and covered with either chocolate sauce or honey (or both!).
Margaritas offers a “Circle of Friends” rewards program where you receive one point for every dollar spent. You get $10 for every 150 points, 25% off welcome reward and a gift on your birthday plus you earn double points at lunch! In addition they have great after work specials at the bar and in the lounge (3-6, Monday – Friday). $5 Margaritas, $2 beef tacos, $1 taquitos, $1.50 baby chimes and $5 appetizers (guacamole, quest, jack crisps, tomato garlic nachos, and Hector’s Quesadilla).
To celebrate #NationalTequilaDay I made my own margaritas at home with the help of Margaritas. I won the bottle of tequila from Sauza and we all got to bring home Margaritas signature mix. Here’s their recipe to make the perfect margarita:
2oz Tequila
1oz Triple Sec
3oz Margaritas Fresh Squeeze
Filla pint glass to rim with ice. Add tequila, triple sec and squeeze. Cover and shake, shake, shake. Pour into margarita class with salted rim and add a lime for garnish.
Disclaimer: I was invited to be a guest at Margaritas for the evening. I was provided a complimentary meal and I won a bottle of tequila. All opinions are my own.
Margaritas
75 Station Landing, Medford, MA
Tags: casual dining, medford, mexican, restaurant
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July 23, 2015 Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie
I had seen a friend pose in front of this sign on Instagram and thought, “I need to check that place out!” So I looked it up and tried to figure out a way to get myself over to Brooklyn from the city. I decided to get there by way of the New York Water Taxi. Such a great idea – the all day pas is $31 and boats run every 45 minutes. I picked up the boat at Pier 11 in lower Manhattan and took it two stops to Red Hook. They drop you off by Fairway Market and Steve’s is just a few short blocks away. The shop is in an industrial area but has a cute little picnic area out front with tables to enjoy your pie right on the spot!
Steve’s makes everything in house, using premium ingredients. They hand form the crust and squeeze fresh key limes (they even have a special regional dairy who routinely produces sweetened and condensed milk. You really can taste the difference when the pies are made fresh – the pie was sweet and a bit tart – it was just perfect.I had the single serve 4″ pies, but they also come in 8″ and 10″. I wish I had tried a “swingle”, a key lime tart dipped in chocolate, but it was early in the morning…and I thought I should wait until at least after eating lunch before I started on dessert. They come in a few flavors, there’s the La Victoria, topped with a layer of Chipotle puree then dipped in dark chocolate, the Raspberry Blonde is topped with raspberry puree and then dipped in Belcolade white chocolate, and the Raspberry Classic, our chocolate dipped Swingle topped with raspberry puree.
From the website: “Our location IS your best bet for purchasing a pie (in terms of freshness). We’re out of our “ff season” hours, so we try and stay open on Friday till 6-ish, Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 AM until sundown. Check the link for the setting of the sun which best determines our closing hour during the summer. We are semi-closed on Monday and Tuesday, semi-open Tuesday thru Thursday although the hours are random. You can call and make an inquiry, or just take a drive-by and see if the roll-up gate is up. I’d say if you arrived after 11:00 AM and before 3~4:00 PM, there’s a good chance you’ll catch us with the door open. Hint; if the roll-up door is completely down, we are closed. Banging, yelling or tapping on the glass will not help. This is typical of many businesses (gate down, closed for business.)”
Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie
85 Van Dyke St, Brooklyn, NY
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July 22, 2015 Prohibition Pig
I had met the guys from Prohibition Pig at the Taste of WGBH event a while back. I was excited to head up to Vermont to try the regular menu.
The restaurant was packed! Be prepared to wait when you come (grab a delicious drink at the bar) and know that space is tight.
I love the bar set up with the sliding library ladder and the chalkboard art.
With so many delicious things on the menu, it’s hard to choose just one thing!
The table has 4 different kinds of sauces – ask your server for details on each one!
Pulled pork sandwich ($10.50) with a side of cheddar grits. Cooked North Carolina style with coleslaw and bbq sauce.
“Just a burger” ($8.50) with a fried egg. All the burgers are 1/4 lb., made of all beef and come from local, grass fed cows. I can’t even describe how delicious the bun is. It literally makes the burger. Once you try it, you’ll know exactly what I mean…
Lunch is presented on trays with stamped paper – no nonsense.
Raspberry mousse pie special ($8). it was a little weird for me, I wasn’t in love with it.
Prohibition Pig
23 South Main Street, Waterbury, VT
Tags: bbq, burger, casual dining, gluten free, vermont
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July 21, 2015 Pomodoro
My sister in law was in town on business so we popped over to Pomodoro in Brookline Village. The restaurant is small, very intimate (it feels like a dinner party at your friend’s house) and the place is packed. The bar is the focal point of the restaurant, taking up a lot of real estate – we sit at a quiet table on the right in the back.
We start with the arancini, crispy risotto fritters, which were delicious. Light and crispy, we wished there were more of them on the plate – we gobbled them up so quickly!
The bolognese was tasty – without the cream in the sauce it felt quite light. Service was excellent – looking forward to going back again and trying other things!
Pomodoro
24 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA
Tags: bolognese, brookline, cash only, italian, restaurant
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July 21, 2015 Piecasso
I had totally forgotten that we had eaten here before. Just goes to show you what lack of sleep can do to you. We headed to Piecasso for dinner with my parents. While the restaurant has been open since 2000, it has been in this new location since 2006.
We start out with the garlic knots ($4.75) fresh baked dough wrapped with garlic, basil and spices, mozzarella and parmesan cheese with a side of red sauce. This could have been my meal!
I was a little disappointed with this salad, the spinach salad ($7), prepared with toasted walnuts, sliced local apple, sun dried cranberries, Vermont Butter and Cheese chèvre and tossed with a maple balsamic vinaigrette. The apples were brown and there weren’t a lot of the toppings mentioned in the description. In my opinion, this shouldn’t have ever made it out of the kitchen.
Piecasso serves New York style pizza. Owner Eduardo Rovetto learned how to make pizza from his parents – in fact, it’s a whole family business. There are 10 Rovetta family pizzerias on the East Coast.
The eggplant parmigiana ($14.50) was lightly breaded grilled eggplant over a bed of spaghetti and marinara sauce. The portion was enormous and there were thick slices of eggplant! Nice flavor in the dish, wondering if the chicken parmigiana is as good.
Piecasso
1899 Mountain Road, Stowe, VT
Tags: casual dining, pizza, restaurant, stowe, take out, vermont
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July 20, 2015 Taste of Cambridge
Taste of Cambridge was this past Thursday evening. My new friend Kayte invited me to tag along with her! The doors opened at 5:30pm and the VIP line rivaled the regular admission line. Once we were inside, there was a special VIP area, where we quickly headed for some much needed drinks. Then we walked around and scoped out what was what. The Dirty Water Brass Band provided the entertainment and were pretty awesome.
Check out this short clip (above), complete with dancing rooster.
There were tons of delicious things to eat at the event – we tried hard to pace ourselves. Some places that we really enjoyed were Art Bar (top row, far left) with their shrimp and corn tacos, Veggie Galaxy (bottom row, far right) with their vegan coconut lemon passionfruit cake, Formaggio Kitchen (bottom row, middle) serving up Pagliernino cheese, Bisq, Moksa (middle row, far left), Patty Chen’s Dumpling Room, and Tavern in the Square (middle row, far right) with their chorizo beef sliders.
There were a good number of vendors at the event. Lines were long, but moved quickly and were worth the wait. Tickets were $50 and $75 for VIP. VIP included access to a private lawn area that stayed open 30 minutes later than the general admission area.
Kayte might be one the coolest chicks I know. We met a few weeks back – she works for Zomato, who just bought UrbanSpoon. The sarcasm and witty banter was at an all time high – added bonus that she is willing to take ridiculous photos for my amusement. #goodsport
Kate with the Rex Goliath rooster.
Don’t ask…
St. Elder, an Elderflower liquor, was mixing up cocktails, just perfect for a warm summer evening. It’s light and sweet, fresh and citrus flavored with a hint of floral. Try mixing it with champagne, so delicious!
Harpoon was at the event, pouring Harpoon IPA (floral and hoppy) and Harpoon Leviathan IPA (hit me up with that 10% ABV!).
In addition to delicious chorizo beef sliders and mozzarella risotto fritters, Tavern in the Square hooked us up with s’mores!
Cafe Barada made “falafil” with a wedge of pickle and turnip, drizzled with tahini.
Sophia from Patty Chen’s let us pose with the car!
Because…. isn’t this what you do on a Thursday night?
Kayte is an amazing blogger – check her out here.
Kayte with Diana Janec, her blog, Miss Prints, is coming soon!
Tags: cambridge, casual dining, events, restaurants
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July 16, 2015 La Cucina Sul Mare
We finally got the chance to head over to Main Street and try La Cucina Sul Mare, an Italian restaurant in town. The restaurant is separated into two rooms, the front room being a little noisier than the back room. It was before Memorial Day weekend, so we go it without a wait and the place was full, but not crazy.
Of course I ordered the bolognese ($20). The traditional sauce made with veal, pork, and beef also had sweet Italian sausage in it. I found the sauce to be on the sweet side and missed the cream in the sauce.
We ordered the linguine alle vongole ($24) with white sauce. The dish was presented beautifully, but we wished the sauce had a little more garlic flavor.
The sweet Italian sausage and rapini ($23): sauteed in aglio e olio sauce and served over orecchiette pasta, this dish was tasty.
The chicken parm was lightly breaded and served over a bed of linguine ($22). Overall, the meals were good, but the sauces were on the watery side (see above). The service was decent, par for the course.
For dessert we had a chocolate crunch cake, which was rich but fell a little flat – we were hoping for more crunch 🙁
La Cucina Sul Mare
237 Main Street, Falmouth, MA
http://www.lacucinasulmare.com/
Tags: bolognese, cape, casual dining, italian, restaurant
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July 15, 2015 Shanghai Jade
Shanghai Jade opened up in the old Zenna Noodle Bar space. While we ordered take out, we picked it up and we noticed that the space doesn’t seem like it is finished being decorated – like the college dorm room of restaurants. We ordered the pan friend raviolis (6 for $6.50) which were just average.
The spring rolls (2 for $3.95) were crispy but lacked flavor.
The chicken and broccoli ($10.95) was pretty tasty.
Shanghai Jade, which opened last year, has two chefs, both Chinese, one is trained in stir-fry technique and the other an expert in dim sum and noodles. The menu features Shanghai style dim sum and a dish called “strange flavored chicken”. While there are some authentic dishes on the menu you can still find favorite standby options like lo-mein and General Gau’s chicken.
Shanghai Jade
1374 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA
http://www.shanghaijadebrookline.com
Tags: brookline, casual dining, chinese, restaurant, take out
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July 14, 2015 Fiorella’s
Blog and Tweet Boston organized a #SundaySupper at Fiorella’s in Newton. Other bloggers in attendance were: Gourmet Pigs, Kerrie Urban, Dave and Emily Dudek, Janelle Suckley, Kristin Amico, Lei Ann and Erica Thomas to name a few. The Italian restaurant was opened by Remon Karian over a decade ago when he was just 23 years old! (Remon was the former co-owner of The Breakfast Club in Allston.) The space has been newly renovated with a great addition in the front room.
We were greeted at the door with a Blueberry Smash (Blueberry simple syrup mixed with bourbon, over ice and garnished with mint). General Manager John Gallagher has been working on ways to introduce bourbon to the menu in an accessible way.
The breadsticks here are amazing, and paper thin…so you can have double right? They are served with Fiorella’s signature marinara dipping sauce. (Watch out Olive Garden 😉 )
Our server brought out apps for the table to share. Antipasto Board Salami, pepperoni, parmacotto~ham, imported prosciutto, provolone cheese, marinated long stem artichoke hearts & mixed kalamata olives ($13). The parmacotto ham is a hybrid word…let me just tell you that it was like butter melting in your mouth.
Arancini A large crisp risotto ball stuffed with mozzarella cheese & served with their signature marinara sauce ($7). Ok, large is the understatement of the year – enormous is more like it – it was the largest arancini I’ve ever seen.
Misto A sampling of three appetizers ~ Toasted Ravioli, Stuffed Peppers Parmigiana & Calamari Fritti, served with a side of their signature marinara sauce ($13). While this was a plate of salty goodness (who can turn anything fried down?), I preferred the other appetizers.
I could probably have stopped there, but then the server brought out pizza and flatbreads to share. Arugula Pizza Delicious pizza crust with garlic & olive~oil, caramelized onions & mozzarella cheese, topped with fresh arugula & diced tomatoes tossed in a lemon vinaigrette dressing, sprinkled with pecorino romano cheese. How fresh does this pizza look? If you don’t dine in, you can get one to go!
Fiorella Imported prosciutto & fresh mushrooms over our pizza sauce & mozzarella cheese ($8). Probably my favorite pizza of the bunch – prosciutto and mushrooms are such a great flavor combination.
Fiorella’s Neopolitan style pizza is cooked in a 700˚F wood burning brick pizza oven. The dough can make or break a pizza (all pizzas are not created equal) and this is delicious – thin and light but still chewy.
Bolognese Braised ground beef, veal & pork simmered with diced carrots, onions & crushed tomatoes in a red wine tomato sauce, tossed with fresh fusilli pasta ($11). Really quite good, I loved the fresh pasta. I was so full at this point that I took the majority of the dish home – and let me tell you, just like meatballs, it was even better on day 2!
Short Rib Milanese Boneless short ribs braised slowly to perfection with pearl onions, carrots & celery, served with mashed potatoes & seasonal vegetables ($23). I had just a bite of this and it was delicious. The meat was tender and flavorful – definitely going to get this next time!
Meatball Calzone Homemade meatballs, mozzarella cheese & our pizza sauce ($11). This was delicious, the meatballs were really flavorful, maybe they will tell me their secret? Or I can just head over to one of their express locations (Belmont, Brighton or Cambridge) and pick up some and pass them off as home made 😉
Tiramisu Soft sponge cake soaked with vanilla & espresso coffee, layered with sweet mascarpone & dusted with cocoa powder ($7). At this point I was so stuffed I could barely get up from my chair!
Cannoli
Disclaimer: I was invited as a guest to Fiorella’s Sunday Supper. My meal was complimentary. All opinions are my own.
Fiorella’s
187 North Main Street, Newtonville, MA
http://www.fiorellasnewton.com
Tags: bolognese, casual dining, italian, newton, restaurant
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July 13, 2015 Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium
The best part about Cape Cod and the summer is ice cream (obviously!). Enter Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium. Located on Main Street, the line here in the summer can wrap around the store and out the door. While you wait in line to order, you are surrounded by a glass wall of house made chocolates and other sweet treats. You’re salivating before you even get to order your ice cream! Behind the counter, young college kids home for the summer scoop your ice cream – the small is enormous (see above). My favorite, the butter crunch.
This is the kiddie size (in strawberry), and it is still pretty large – probably a small at most other places. They have since added a smaller size than kiddie, but you have to be under 5 to order it! So if you’re in the area, stop in for some ice cream or chocolates – I personally recommend the fudge!
Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium
209 Main Street, Falmouth, MA
Tags: cape cod. ice cream
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