Breakfast Soup

With an often hectic schedule compounded by all this snow we sometimes don't get to the food shopping as often as we like. I love going through the cupboards every once in a while just to remind me what I have tucked away. I did that this weekend trying to find something for a nice breakfast. I am creative and can always come up with something, like this ... Breakfast Soup!


I had chicken broth, a tiny can of boiled quail eggs from the local Asian market, some fresh chive and dry Abruzzese sausage. I decided to throw it all together and enjoy it with some whole wheat toast. It was light and flavorful with all of the protein and fiber you need to start the day.

Boston Wine Expo 2011 Part I

Last weekend was the Boston Wine Expo 2011, an extremely popular event that draws thousands. This year it was actually not quite as mobbed as last year, making it much more navigable. We tasted some great wines, ran into lots of food friends and met with lots of food product vendors. Most of the two days were spent in the two Culinary Theaters that had been set up for Chef demonstrations and tastings. Here is Part I of our recap.


We kicked off the day with this Spiced Winter Orange, Avocado and Lobster Salad prepared by Chef Jeremy Sewall of Island Creek Oyster Bar. Lobster is always a nice way to start a full day of tasting!


Chef Scott Robertson of Grafton Street preparing his dish.


The Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs and Polenta served up by Chef Roberston.


Puerta Bonita red was served with the braised ribs. This is from one of the many rejuvenated, small family wineries in Spain that are producing exciting and interesting new vintages and mostly run by a younger generation of vintners in their 20s and 30s.


Brix Chocolates was one of the products we sampled. These are made especially for pairing with wines.


Chef Dante DeMagistris of Dante and Il Casale on stage with Billy Costa, who hosted the cooking demonstrations.


The incredible home-made meatballs (his Grandmother's recipe) served up by Chef Dante.


Chef Ming Tsai, another crowd favorite.


Ming served Asian Sloppy Joes made with ground beef and pork.


The students at Le Cordon Bleu provided all the prep work and assistance at the Expo, including pouring this sparkling rose we enjoyed with Ming's taste.


The crowds at the Culinary Theaters were overflow all afternoon.


The ever-popular Todd English prepared Drunken Shrimp, cooked with plenty of tequila. The crowd absolutely loved it (and the tequila shots). Unfortunately, we somehow missed a picture of this plate.

In Italy

After a nice dinner, a little entertainment is cool. In Italy, the food is, of course, legendary but what is not so well known is the plethora of small musical groups and concert halls. Some tour guides will tell you that people have always come together to form small, local musical groups that are amazingly talented. It's almost a holdover from the tradition of the troubadours and travelling minstrel shows. Musicians of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to join and sometimes the groups practice every, single night. Creating the perfect Mozart Divertimenti is not easy. It's all about the strings and timing. This video snippet of one such group shows the technical detail and excellence that can be achieved. So relaxing and precise. The Divertimenti were compositions meant to be played at social gatherings and other important events. They were meant to be background music for society gatherings and I think are some of the most beautiful compositions Mozart achieved. Next time you are in Italy find a local resident and ask about the local musical organization. You will be happily surprised.

Eating Raw Pig Brains

We thought it might be a fun idea to kick off our coverage of the Boston Wine Expo 2011 with a video of a famous Boston Chef discussing the joys of eating raw pig brains. As usual, you don't see this anywhere else. I swear, all we do is show up and write about the food!

Redemption Through Food

This is Nathanial (Nate) Awan. When I first met Nate he was constantly smiling, happy, upbeat and soft-spoken. He gets up very early each morning on these cold days to report to work at a Bakery/Cafe in Boston by 7:30 AM and works until 4:30 PM five days a week, sometimes six, and he loves it. No complaints at all here. What I was very surprised to learn was that Nate is an ex-convict.

Nate grew up in Dorchester, a troubled child, kicked out of four different grammar schools for his bad behavior. When I ask about his family life he simply says: "DSS was involved." He dropped out of High School and took to the streets. He was sent to DYS for three years. After that, he became involved in neighborhood violence and, before long, found himself in front of a judge who sentenced him to three years in State Prison. Once there, he started working in the kitchen, joining the culinary group. "It was definitely a good experience," he says. I asked what he liked about it and he said the magic words I have heard so often: "Food brings people together." I am always amazed at how food gives young people a sense of pride and accomplishment. It shows them, maybe for the first time, that they can be really good at something. Something that other people really like and admire.


Today, Nate speaks eloquently to High School students about his experience and how he did not know what would happen when he left prison. Who would want him? Who would hire anyone like him? He knew he had used up two of his three strikes and was determined to do better. Enter Haley House, a godsend of an organization in Boston that offers a chance to people like Nate to change their lives through food. I ask him if I can share his story and he enthusiastically agrees.


I watch as the students lean in to really hear his words. He advises them to listen to their parents and older mentors. He speaks openly and honestly in words that they can relate to. "You may think they are old and don't know what they are talking about at all but they do," he says. "And they really do care about you." When I speak with Nate later he says today that his tag is simply: "Own it." The advice he gives to young people is: "No excuses." He says what is different now is that he is fully aware that he is responsible for his own actions. He knows that days filled with idle time, without purpose or aim, inevitably lead kids to trouble and he quietly shares that important message with all of these kids. When I speak with Carol Kong, Operations Director at Haley House, she tells me that it is filled with people who have stories similar to Nate's and I am very proud to have brought to this blog at least one of them. Thank you, Nate, and thank you Carol Kong.

HALEY HOUSE BAKERY CAFÉ
12 Dade Street
Dudley Square, Roxbury
Telephone: 617.445.0900

Food And Fun At Boston Wine Expo 2011

We spent some quality time chatting with Mary Ann Esposito of Ciao Italia at the Boston Wine Expo today. We'll have a full post with Chefs Dante DeMagistris, Todd English, Ming Tsai and more this week. In the meantime, we'll be tweeting live from the two-day event all weekend long @TheBostonFoodie on Twitter.

Boston Food Bloggers Launch Party

There was a line out the door at The Gallows in Boston's South End on Monday night but the difference was that all of the people were local food bloggers! It was the launch of the Boston Food Bloggers web site, a new place to check out all of the things going on with some of Boston's best food blogs. Being a veteran blogger (that's how we get all those scoops) it was fun to see just how much the blogosphere has grown over the past year or so. In fact, bloggers often get stories that the mainstream media do not. I was joking with people that only two years ago a Boston food blogger event would have been about six people. And many of those veterans were there to meet and mingle with all of the newbies. I am so proud to say that in May of this year we will celebrate our Fourth Anniversary of food blogging! A huge congratulations to Rachel of Fork It Over Boston (@blumie on Twitter) for starting the site and organizing this really fun event.


The Pretty Things Jack D'Or brew (made in Somerville).


One of the hits of the night was the poutine: fries with gravy and cheese curd. Food Bloggers know their comfort food on a cold night.


Peter from Petey Pumpkin deciding on which cheddar cheeseburger to indulge in.


Our old friend Christine Liu of Urbanspoon and Megan of Delicious Dishings.


A delicious double dip cone from SoCo Creamery Ice Cream. We went with the vanilla and dirty chocolate. Extremely creamy and locally made in small batches.


The very nice basket of gourmet goodies and kitchenware we won in the blogger's raffle.

The Gallows
1395 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02118
Telephone: 617.425.0200

Fairmont Copley's Celebrity Chef Program

So, after all the social media hoopla that followed yesterday's post, today we actually get to talk about the food. Chef José Duarte of Taranta kicked off the 16th annual Celebrity Chefs Culinary Program at the Fairmont Copley Plaza last weekend by preparing and presenting three great dishes for the crowd. The program benefits the Boston Center for Adult Education and has long been one of the most elegant settings for a cooking class one can experience in Boston. It's a great way to meet some of Boston's great Chefs up close while enjoying a delicious lunch.


I have to admit the Fairmont Copley Plaza sets out one of the most beautiful tables in Boston with a level of service you'd expect to go with it.


The first course was a Maine Lobster Causa. Riced potatoes with amarillo paste, lime juice, lightly salted, are layered with a mayonnaise including chopped onions and shallots then a layer of avocado, chopped eggs and olives. Topped with a generous chunk of lobster meat, it was a delicate, balanced flavor.


The first course was paired with a Martin Codax Albarino, a Spanish wine stored in stainless steel. Did you know that it leaves less of a carbon footprint to ship a wine to Boston from Spain by boat than to ship a Californian wine by truck? Wines were provided by the Martignetti Company.


The second course was Pan Roasted Cultured Blue Mussels. This was my particular favorite. The mussels were perfumed with a Sicilian Marsala and tossed with diced pancetta and balsamic roasted shallots. Cultured Blue Mussels are rope grown, requiring much less work cleaning the beards, etc. Simple and delicious.


The second course was paired with Cliff Edge Shiraz. The oak aged, Australian wine sells in the $20-$25 range but can be difficult to find.


The third course was a Yucca Gnocchi with Peruvian Style Lamb Ragu. The Yucca Gnocchi was hand made and handled as little as possible to maintain a light, fluffy texture. It definitely was a lot lighter than many potato gnocchi dishes I have had.


The third course wine pairing was Frei Brothers Russian River Valley (Sonoma)Chardonnay.


After the presentation attendees are encouraged to ask further questions of the Chef.

A First For Boston?

Over the past few weeks Chef José Duarte of Taranta in Boston's North End has been keeping us regularly updated on his experimentation with QR codes. When he first explained to us that he was attempting to place a QR code on a diner's plate at the restaurant we, of course, were very intrigued.


A QR (which stands for Quick Response) code is sort of a bar code. You have probably seen them in ads or magazines. When you scan the code with your smart phone it immediately takes you to a website that offers detailed information on whatever it is that you are looking at. The possibilities are endless. The code could offer a list of sources for all the ingredients on the plate. "Imagine a code that tells you where the seafood on your plate was caught and when," José enthused. Heck, it could even take you to a video interview with the very fisherman who caught it!


The problem was: how to get it on the plate? His first attempt was with a rubber stamp, using edible squid ink. The squid ink proved a bit oily with traces of sandy grit that clogged the stamp. He then decided to actually screen print the code onto the plate using a more refined squid ink. This worked better. He presented the idea at a food demo last weekend at the Fairmont Copley much to the amazement of the audience. An edible, scannable QR code! Now for the moment of truth.....


I pulled out my iphone and scanned the plate and voilá, it worked. The scan took me to his web page that listed all of the ingredients for the three dishes prepared and served at the demo, as well as the recipes for making them. Fantastic.


As Chef José experiments more with this cutting-edge technology, which we believe is the very first time it was used in Boston, we will continue to give you a front row seat at all of the developments. We are calling it: Food Ink. In our next post we'll review the cooking class demo, the delicious three courses we enjoyed and take a look at Taranta, which is a certified green establishment, producing no trash whatsoever.

Food Ink

The image above is known as a QR (Quick Response) code. It was originally designed by Toyota as a sort of bar code to quickly relay the location and inventory of automobile parts. If you scan it with your smart phone it will immediately take you to a site that provides further detailed information on whatever you are reading or looking at. Last weekend I was working with Chef José Duarte of Taranta and he asked me what I knew about QR codes. I said not much but we should find out more about them. As a result, we have begun to play with these codes and dream up innovative, exciting and maybe even crazy ideas on how to use them in restaurants. Later today we will be at the Fairmont Copley Plaza where José is going to try and embed a QR code on a plate using squid ink. It's an experiment. The vision is to use the code to tell the diner exactly where the food they are consuming was sourced, and when. It may even introduce you to the fisherman who caught that seafood on the plate.

Welcome to Food Ink.

Future Chefs Boloco Burrito Challenge

In Part Two of our Future Chefs story, we head into the kitchen and watch the students prepare for a culinary challenge to create a unique inspired burrito. The four High School teams worked to create their own signature burrito.


The Future Chefs Inspired Burrito Challenge was sponsored by boloco, the local burrito chain that sponsors lots of community outreach projects. Did you know that boloco stands for Boston Local?


The kitchen was incredibly busy, yet all of the students were focused and enjoying themselves. The recipes ranged from sweet to savory and included such unusual ingredients as marshmallow Fluff, used by the Somerville team because Fluff was invented in Somerville. There was also a really great seafood burrito on the board presented by the Quincy High School team.


Let the food fun begin. All of the students had a great time at the competition.


A few of the FC students at their prep work.


Future Chef Alumni were on hand in the kitchen to help assist and organize the teams. They also operated the machine used to heat all of the wraps the students used to roll their burritos. I am always impressed at how graduates of Future Chefs are always so eager to come back and help out the younger students. They are easily recognized by their tan Chef Jackets at all Future Chefs events.


The amazing fried leeks used by Quincy High School in their seafood burrito, with breaded flounder and creme fraiche. I loved this one and attendees were all munching on the leeks before they could even get into the burritos!.


Students were hard at work whipping up all sorts of new flavors.


The Steak City burrito by Madison Park High School was beefy and spicy served with some cooling sour cream and a lemon guacamole. This was another one of my faves.


Just one of the many creative burritos served that really impressed the boloco representatives.


And the winners are ...... Everett High School! The team of Josue Henriquez, Francisco Hernandez and Josue Panameno, along with their instructors, are presented with their boloco/Future Chefs jackets (created especially for winners of the challenge) by boloco representatives Jason Hutchinson, Co-Founder, and Sara Steele-Rogers, boloco marketing.

Named The Crimson, the winning burrito combined ingredients that showcased the sophistication of these young Chefs. Including roasted eggplant, baba ganoush,tzatziki, tabouleh, zucchini, sauteed portabella mushrooms, tomatoes, marinated artichoke, rice pilav and red onion, the complex flavors worked well together. A vegetarian and chicken version offered delicious options for everyone.


Group photo courtesy of Amy Braga Photography.