Homemade Marshmallows

After hearing on NPR just how easy it is to make homemade marshmallows, I decided to give it a go. I went with one of Alton Brown's recipes on FoodNetwork, but most recipes are about the same - heat up some sugar and corn syrup to 240-300 degrees, add to gelatin and water along with some flavorings (salt, vanilla extract...) and beat in a stand mixer until the whole thing turns white and puffy. Then pour the entire thing onto a silpat or sprayed non stick pan and let it cool for a few hours. The marshmallows can be easily cut into squares with a pizza cutter then rolled in powdered sugar. The result?

Delicious. Fresh. Marshmallows.

They taste just like regular marshmallows, but maybe a little creamier. In any case, I'd call this recipe an easy win - great in hot chocolate or for making s'mores. Imagine if you made your own graham crackers and THEN made s'mores...amazing...

~flutterbyblue

Food Stamp Challenge

In total, I managed to follow the Food Stamp Challenge rules about 2/7 days. Not the greatest track record. It's hard when you work long hours and don't have extra money for snacks. It's also hard to stay on track when working at a job where they all but throw free food in your face. Even so, the exercise was an interesting one. On $31/week one can either eat very unhealthily (ramen every meal) or spend all of your time planning ahead with a slow cooker (rice and beans every meal). In order to have a well-balanced diet it helps to have more than one family member to pool resources (allows the flexibility to buy fresh fruits or vegetables).

At the very least, I have a better appreciation for just how well I can eat. I love being able to walk downstairs to the cafeteria in order to buy a bag of swedish fish or a latte now and then. I love going out to dinners with friends and family and not having to worry (too much) about my budget. Most of the world does not eat the kind of variety of foods we enjoy in the U.S. As someone who likes to eat something different every meal, I'm definitely spoiled when it comes to food.

And now, about that latte...

~f

Food Stamp Challenge: Day 3

So I'm going to go ahead and say that today's attempt at adhering to the Food Stamp Challenge rules was a total bust. We met family at the Tabard Inn in Dupont circle for brunch. The Tabard Inn, by the way, is a fantastic place - adorable, in an old-fashioned-slightly-off-kilter kind of way. The food is fantastic (the homemade donuts are killer).

Day 3:
Brunch - Basket of baked goods (muffins, banana bread etc...) Poached eggs, fried oysters, cheese grits, pork belly confit. Lots of hot coffee.

Lunch - Grilled cheese sandwich.

Dinner - Tomato and butternut squash sauce with poached egg on spaghetti.

Dessert - TBD.

So far my batting average isn't that great. We'll see how things go tomorrow...

Cheers,
flutterbyblue

Food Stamp Challenge: Day 2

Today was tough. There were pastries at a morning seminar, munchkins in the break room, and cookies at a going away party. I'll admit, I had a scone during the seminar (they were homemade...) Otherwise, I stuck to the plan.

Day 2:
Breakfast - Oatmeal with milk and brown sugar, spiced with cinnamon and ginger. Hot tea.

Lunch - PB&J (all store brand items).

Snack - banana and second PB&J.

Dinner - Tomato sauce with poached egg on spaghetti.

Dessert - Bananas foster on yogurt.

I have to say, the pasta dish was particularly good...

Food Stamp Challenge: Day 1

This week, my husband and I agreed to enroll in the Food Stamp Challenge:

The SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge gives participants a view of what life can be like for millions of low-income Americans. Most participants take the Challenge for one week, living on about $4 per day worth of food – the average food stamp benefit. Challenge participants are forced to make difficult food shopping choices, and often realize how difficult it is to avoid hunger, afford nutritious foods, and stay healthy.

We started our week with a shopping trip and $30 each. Our goal was to stay within the rules (~$1.50/meal) while still eating healthy.

Day 1:
Breakfast - Oatmeal with milk and brown sugar. Hot tea (Lipton was cheapest).

Lunch - PB&J (all store brand items).

Snack - banana and second PB&J. Hot tea (I brought a thermos of the stuff to work).

Dinner - Lentil soup (blended with sweet potato and a little apple).

In the end, my first day of the Food Stamp Challenge was a fail. I succumbed to a bacon wrapped date stuffed with blue cheese at a reception event (the rules specifically say no free food at receptions!) Ah well. Tomorrow is another day (of oatmeal and PB&J).

Wish me luck!

~flutterbyblue

Baked and Wired

Having just moved house, my first order of business was to stake out some good espresso. After two years of Java House glory I wasn't sure that DC coffee shops would be up to snuff. Fortunately for me, a fantastic shop can be found right in Georgetown.

Baked and Wired is pure delectable heaven. Walk into this hippie/hipster style coffee/bake shop and look to your left - gorgeous baked goods abound - from enormous and creatively flavored cupcakes (I had the "Tessita", a vanilla cake with dulce de leche filling and chocolate hazelnut satin icing) to an impressive assortment of bars and hand pies (the Bee Sting is a perfectly crisp shortbread topped with just the right amount of honey caramel and sliced almonds). As if that weren't enough, look to your right and you'll find a fully equipped coffee and espresso bar. Baked and Wired takes coffee seriously, sourcing their beans via Direct Trade from Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia Coffee. Their organic milk comes from Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg, PA. I love a place that tells me exactly where they source their food, don't you?

I ordered an iced latte to go with my pastry treats - it was fantastic. The true test, of course, will be the quality of their cappuccino. Is it up to Java House standards? I'll just have to go back again to find out.

Until next time,
~flutterbyblue

Baked and Wired
1052 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007

Image from yelp.com.

Sprüngli: I want to go to there

If you haven't already seen 30 Rock, just know that it's brilliant. One of my favorite lines was coined by Tina Fey's three-year old daughter. It sums up a lot of my thoughts (about food) perfectly:

"I want to go to there."

Sprüngli is a fantastic-looking Swiss pastry shop located in Zurich. They serve Luxemburgerli (aka French style macaroons, one of my all time favorite sweets) along with some **amazing** looking Swiss chocolates. Sprüngli may be one of Switzerland's best (or so I hear). It must be heaven if the website displays raining Luxemburgerli. Any doubt and just check out the shop images on the Passionate Eater. Oh my.

"I want to go to there."

~flutterbyblue

Confiserie Sprüngli AG
Bahnhofstrasse 21
CH-8022 Zürich

Tel. +41 44 224 46 46
Fax.+41 44 224 47 35

Kohlrabi

While at the Farmer's Market the other day, I noticed a strange looking vegetable at several of the produce stalls. It came in both green and purple and seemed somewhat like a fennel bulb with multiple branching leaves. Seeing as it (whatever "it" might be) was in season, I decided to give it a try.

Kohlrabi, as it turns out, is a cultivar of the cabbage. The name comes from the German Kohl ("cabbage") plus Rübe ~ Rabi (Swiss German variant) ("turnip") (according to Wikipedia). Interesting.

I first sliced it and tasted it raw (recommended by a friend). It had a distinctive turnip-like bitterness, the texture of a crisp apple, and the flavor of a watered down broccoli stem. Hm. Not my favorite.

When it comes to recipes for strange vegetables I turn to Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love cookbook, a veritable encyclopedia of random non-meat foods. Only one recipe was devoted to the kohlrabi (Kafka states her husband hates it and she can only "abide" it.) Apprehensive, but curious, I read on.

The recipe called for a little water, a simple stuffing, and then microwave.

Microwave.

Given that I couldn't see myself eating the rest of the bulb raw, I figured, what the heck. I peeled off the tough outer layer, added a little water and into the microwave it went. Minutes later the kohlrabi came out a pleasant pale jade green, steamy and smelling surprisingly mild and fresh. I added a little olive oil, salt and pepper then gave it a taste.

Delish.

Steamed kohlrabi has a delicate flavor, somewhere between a cauliflower and a turnip. If you like those two things (I happen to love cauliflower and will occasionally enjoy turnip if cooked properly), then kohlrabi is a worthy early summer vegetable to add to your plate. Who knew that microwaved food could turn out so well?

So the next time you are at the Farmers Market and see something strange, why not give it a try? You never know what you're going to get.

~flutterbyblue

Julia Child's Chicken Fricassee

Despite being a foodie and lover of chicken dishes, I have never made a fricassee. In fact, until I read Julia Child's detailed description in one of her cookbooks I wasn't too sure what a fricassee involved exactly (it's basically chicken in a mushroom cream sauce.)

I had picked up some Kalona chicken at the New Pi the other day and figured this would be a good starting point. The recipe itself was fairly straightforward - a little pan saute with butter and olive oil, then poaching in white wine and chicken broth. I added onions, mushrooms then half-and-half just as Julia suggested. Sadly, my chicken came out on the stringy side (but it was flavorful!) I'm not sure if this was due to my lack of chicken cooking talent (I can roast an entire chicken fairly well, but maybe fricassee takes more finesse?) or to the fact that Kalona chickens probably spend their days roaming the Iowan hillsides rather than cooped up in cramped quarters with the rest of their mass-produced brethren. My guess is that in my efforts to avoid any risk of Salmonella I probably over-cooked the meat. The sauce also had a few gliches. Julia claims one simply cooks the mushrooms a few minutes before stirring in the cream. This resulted in a very thin, but high volume cooking liquid that wasn't very saucy at all. I ended up simmering the sauce down to thicken it up (the end product was very good.)

The upside to this dish is that it reheats very nicely (unlike the shrimp pasta dish I had made the night before). The chicken flavor was intensified and the sauce was a bit thicker - perfect for a quick lunch (or in my case, a second dinner.) I recommend putting the sauce on some pasta (ravioli works really well!)

Yum!

~flutterbyblue

Marcella Hazan's Pink Shrimp Sauce with Cream

Seeing as the Vegetarian is out of town for the next two weeks, I decided to take this opportunity to cook up some of the many meat, fish, and poultry dishes I've always wanted to try. I had just seen Food, Inc, so mass-produced food was out, and organic, humanely raised, or wild caught was in. Fortunately there is a New Pi in town.

I picked up some frozen wild caught Gulf shrimp for my first meal of the week. In retrospect, "Gulf" shrimp may not have been the way to go, but trace amounts of petroleum never hurt anyone, right? And maybe these shrimp were frozen before the last 3 months...

...in any case, the shrimp were bought and all I had to do was find the right recipe . One of my favorite dishes is Marcella Hazan's Pink Shrimp Sauce with Cream. This is a heavenly dish made with surprisingly few ingredients: olive oil, garlic, shrimp, tomato paste, white wine, cream, and some parsley garnish. You basically just cook up the first few items in a pan (2 minutes), blend up 2/3 of the cooked shrimp, add that back to the pan along with the rest of the sauce and you're good to go. SO easy. SO delicious. I could probably eat this dish every night this week.

Of course, cooking for one isn't always the best thing in the world. As it turns out, Pink Shrimp Sauce with Cream doesn't reheat so well. The once creamy, luscious sauce starts to separate when microwaved. Le sigh...I suppose it's still better than cafeteria food so I really shouldn't complain.

Tomorrow's menu: Julia Child's Chicken Fricassee!

~flutterbyblue

Cheese or Font

Cheese or Font - this is no easy task!

Burrowing Owl Bakery

My favorite bakery in all of Iowa City isn't exactly a bakery in the traditional sense. There's no shop that you can visit; no glass case filled with pastries. Instead, the Burrowing Owl Bakery is a little wooden stand at the Saturday Farmers Market manned by Allie Gnade (the baker) and her boyfriend. I had heard about the amazing baking talents of Allie from a friend of mine who used to work at Grinnell (Allie is a former Grinnellian). And after tasting one of her delectable lemon tarts, I was an immediate convert.

The Lemon Tart consists of a bright, flavorful lemon filling inside a crisp, buttery shortbread pastry shell. Shortbread doesn't really do this crust justice - more than a shortbread, this pastry shell is light, flaky and absolutely delicious. The filling is also something I can't even begin to describe. It's got an intense lemon flavor and a smooth, creamy texture. Amazing. I have also tried Allie's Chocolate Caramel Tart. This is seriously heavenly. The chocolate is rich, with a wonderful sweetness (but like the lemon tart, not too overly-sweet). It pairs well with the fantastic shortbread crust. While the sweets are my favorite, the onion rosemary tart was also delicious (more of a quiche-type filling) - I basically inhaled one of these for lunch the other day.

Allie bakes all of her pastries and breads in her mother's oven the night before the Farmers Market (so supplies are often limited). Get to the market early if you want the best selection!

~flutterbyblue

Burrowing Owl Bakery
Allie Gnade
Iowa City, IA

Java House

On my first ever trip to Iowa City one of the first orders of business was to check out the local coffee shops. Java House was recommended by nearly everyone I talked to - and no wonder - there are more than half a dozen of these spots all over the town and University. While some have complained of the time lag on the individual drip coffee - I am a HUGE fan. If one is not in a hurry (and why would you be in a hurry in Iowa?) freshly brewed, good coffee is a serious benefit of living in a small college town.

The atmosphere at the downtown Java House is nice - cozy despite the enormous space. It seems like a good place to do some work (free WiFi) although it is a bit dark for my taste. The Java House at the Hospital is more of a take-out type of coffee spot. I tried the "iced chai" which was more of a rich flavored iced cream than anything else. The Mate Latte was likewise overly sugar and creamed. Ah well, you can't have it all.

I have been to Java Houses too many times to count. The coffee and tea selection is excellent and it's a fantastic place to sit and read.

FYI: For those of you who are local, tomorrow, Wednesday March 10, the Java House downtown is serving $1 brewed coffees, caffe lattes and hot teas ALL DAY LONG.

~flutterbyblue

Java House
211 E. Washington Street
Iowa City, IA 52240
(319) 341-0012

Tragedy strikes twice...

Despite it's popularity and excellent reputation, small town restaurant, Taste on Melrose, has closed it's doors as of February 14th, 2010. Had I known the place was shutting down I would have made every effort to stop in for lunch and/or dinner. How sad! I reviewed this adorable place back in November. Not only was Taste on Melrose the closest neighborhood restaurant to our home in Iowa City, it was also one of my favorites in town. :^(


As if that tragedy were not enough, my one and only favorite chocolate shop in Iowa City has ALSO shut down with hardly any notice. Chocolate Block is no more.

Now the only option for high quality chocolates is Bochner. The chocolates at Bochner are certainly very pretty to look at. The chocolate covered nuts are tasty, but also quite expensive. Likewise, the perfectly formed shiny mounds of chocolates behind the glass case taste very nice. The chocolates are smooth and chocolate-y, the fillings are smooth and creamy. Some flavors are more potent than others. The Sea Salt Caramel is excellent as is the Frangelico and Amaretto. However, the more subtle flavors such as Lavender and Pistachio leave much to be desired. I am not sure these pretty treats are worth the steep price. ESPECIALLY given that Chocolate Block sold the same chocolate for a fraction of the price! Yes, Chocolate Block and Bochner were one and the same. So I suppose it makes perfect sense why Bochner would close its low-priced bulk sales shop. Sad to say, I'm not sure I can bring myself to spend the cash on chocolates I could once buy for $5 per pound...

R.I.P. Taste on Melrose and Chocolate Block. You will be sorely missed...

~flutterbyblue

Midnight munchies

Well, it isn't midnight here in Iowa, but when it gets cold and dark by 7pm, I get a craving for midnight munchies no matter what the time. I wanted something fast, easy and preferably toasted. After a little thought I decided to grab the graham crackers sitting in my cabinet, smeared on some peanut butter and topped them with mini marshmallows. The concoction went under the broiler for a minute or two (until the marshmallows got nice and toasty brown!) A glass of milk and I was ready to munch! SUCH a great combo - why haven't I thought of this before?

I suppose if you were going the more traditional route you could make this snack with regular hershey's chocolate (I didn't happen to have any in the cupboard.) Peanut butter was a fantastic substitute (dare I say, I hardly missed the chocolate!)

Happy munching!

~flutterbyblue

Lincoln Cafe

In a surprising show of romantic inclination this weekend, my husband took me out on a date at a restaurant that I had been eying ever since we first moved to Iowa. Lincoln Café (and the nearby Lincoln Wine Bar) are run by chef and owner Matt Steigerwald. His charming description on his website reads as follows,

"chef/owner matt steigerwald opened lincoln café in july 2001, after arriving in iowa from north carolina. before that fateful move, he cooked and/or ran the show at several restaurants, including helen's in richmond, va; vertigo in raleigh, nc; and magnolia grill in durham, nc. he lives with his sweetie michelle, a professor and belletrist, in mount vernon, where he is finally adjusting to the weather."

That pretty much says it all. I also have a sweetie professor who moved to Iowa, so I understand weather thing.

In any case, I was super excited to try out the food. I had heard many good things from a variety of sources, all saying that Lincoln Café is one of the best restaurants in the state of Iowa. Having been to a number of good places in Iowa City, we were eager to branch out to neighboring towns. The restaurant does not take reservations, but if you call ahead they'll put you on their waiting list to try and get you a seat. Of course, if you find there is a wait, the wine bar down the street looks like the perfect place to kill some time (with a glass of wine and some bar snacks). We got lucky and ended up at two counter seats (a perfect spot to watch the action in the kitchen.) Lincoln Café is small, but the high ceilings make the place feel more spacious. The combination of old brick walls, featured local artists, and diner style booths and tables, made the place feel comfortable and unpretentious. The specials (3) were on the board along with the list of desserts. I love a place that has only a few offerings because it means they are probably done quite well (like in many Iowan restaurants, the emphasis here is on fresh, local ingredients.) After much debate, I opted for the steak with sunchoke puree, fried lime, and some sort of mushroom confit with cubes of parsnip or potatoes, octopus and grilled baby lettuce. This dish was fantastic. The steak was perfectly cooked (medium rare) and very tender. There were some grisly bits I wasn't a fan of, but I am fairly picky when it comes to steak. The puree perfectly complemented the steak, the mushrooms were wonderfully seasoned, and the octopus was perfectly cooked. I've never had octopus before and worried that it would be tough and rubbery. Instead, the octopus was tender and delicious. I could have eaten a bowl of the stuff.

For dessert we opted for the bread pudding with cranberry ice cream and some sort of crunchy caramel topping. This was also fantastic. The bread pudding was moist, and not cloying, the ice cream was smooth, creamy, and surprisingly not overtly tart. The sauce was also delicious. If I had room, I would have tried the other desserts as well (the apple pot pie looked divine.)

Overall, I was very impressed with the food. We were close to the kitchen so I got to see all of the dishes that went out. The prawns with grits looked amazing, as did the stuffed quail. If only I had a stomach for three people. The restaurant is quite small so they do not have a liquor license. Fortunately, the wine bar is just a few steps away and they encourage you to bring bottles or glasses of wine over to have with your meal (the nominal cork fee is waved if you buy wine from their wine bar.) The only downside to the place is that vegetarians are not well accommodated. Every entree had meat, poultry or fish so my sweetie professor opted for a soup/salad combo, which was quite good, but not the same as an entree. The chef/owner was in the kitchen at the time and offered to adjust one of the main courses for us, but many of the components contained seafood or chicken broth.

Still, for those of us who do eat meat, Lincoln Cafe might be one of the best in Iowa.

Happy dining!

~flutterbyblue

Lincoln Cafe
117 First Street West
Mt. Vernon, IA 52314
(319) 895-4041

Ricotta (from scratch)

On a whim, I decided to try a hand at making homemade ricotta this weekend. I had heard that it is uber-easy to make. I have had it at one of my favorite restaurants in Boston, La Morra, where they serve it soft, in a pool of nice olive oil and topped with freshly grated black pepper (perfect for spreading on homemade bread!) Seeing as my trips to Boston are few and far between I figured I should try and replicate this yummy appetizer at home.

A few items are required to make ricotta-making easy:

1. a cheesecloth
2. a colander
3. a meat/candy thermometer
4. a large pot

I basically took a gallon of whole milk, heated it to 200 degrees (whisking to keep the milk from burning on the bottom of the pot), then added a little salt, and about a 1/4 cup of white vinegar (you can use lemon juice as well). The curds formed immediately and all I had to do was pour the mixture through a cheesecloth covered colander to separate the curds and whey. You can actually keep the whey and use it to make biscuits.

The ricotta was soft and delicious just as is, but I happen to like it with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. I've heard you can freeze the cheese (although it will not be as good as fresh), but my plan is to make some ricotta gnocchi with the bulk of it and to eat the remainder on toast.

Authentic ricotta cheese is made from whey left over from the cheese making process, but this takes several gallons. Using whole milk is a faster, easier way to make a good substitute. A gallon of milk produces a large hunk of ricotta - maybe about a pound. Be sure to have a recipe or two lined up because it won't last in your fridge for long!

Enjoy!

~flutterbyblue

Sportello vs Grezzo

After a lunch at the one raw/vegan restaurant in town (see previous post), it seemed only right to try a place that does not have such stringent cooking restrictions. I had a chance to visit Sportello, one of Barbara Lynch's creations. Remarkably enough, a highly recommended dish on the Sportello menu is very similar (sounding) to the "gnocchi" I had at Grezzo. Here is my direct comparison of the two dishes:

1. Grezzo's home-made "gnocchi." So long as you are not expecting these to taste like anything too familiar, they are quite good. The nut paste "gnocchi" were soft and a little bit gooey in texture and tasted like creamy nuts and sesame. The "rawmesan" sauce made with coconut milk was creamy and cool (food at Grezzo is not heated above 112 degrees), and the very crisp English peas and pea shoots were a good counterpart to the creaminess of the sauce and the soft texture of the "gnocchi". Because this dish lacks just about any kind of starch, I ended up feeling full but not quite satisfied.

2. Sportello's potato gnocchi with porcini, peas and cream. This was heaven in a bowl. The gnocchi were light, perfectly shaped dumplings with a bit of chew, the peas were fresh, crisp and delicious in the creamy, yet surprisingly light cream sauce drizzled with a bit of truffle oil and sprinkled with teeny bits of sliced chives. The food was served steaming hot in a warmed shallow bowl. If I had not just eaten a large basket of bread with whipped ricotta I would have snarfed this up even quicker than I did.

On it's own, Grezzo is certainly a worthwhile foodie experience (but only for the open-minded). Sportello, on the other hand, is much more accessible - especially for anyone who appreciates freshly made pasta. Given the choice, I would almost always choose the Sportello gnocchi dish over the one at Grezzo, but mainly because during the winter I like my food steaming hot and starch-laden. Maybe in the dead of summer I would make an alternative choice, but I doubt it.

~flutterbyblue

Sportello
348 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210-1236
(617) 737-1234

Image lifted from www.yelp.com

Grezzo

Always up for a foodie adventure, my friend and I met for lunch at Grezzo. We started with the Green Drink and a house tea. Both were quite interestingly flavored. The tea had lemon, goji berries, mint, ginger and probably some other fresh ingredients as well. The only drawback was that I had trouble drinking the liquid with all of the seeping items filling my mug. The green drink was a nice mix of vegetables topped with some delicious spicy edible flowers.

I had the home-made "gnocchi" made with ground nuts and possibly tahini. These were artistically enveloped in a delicious "rawmesan" sauce made with coconut milk. The sauce was creamy and flavorful, going quite well with the crisp English peas and pea shoots. I don't remember the crispy eggplant being on the plate (although it appears to be on the menu). My friend had the BLTA wrap, which had a tasty, but slightly salty tortilla made from flax seeds and sundried tomato. The filling was quite good - fresh lettuce, tomato, avocado, creamy "cheese" spread, and a salty olive (or maybe eggplant?) paste. The ultra-light dehydrated chips on the side were delicious.

Our wonderful server suggested the iced "eggnog" which was a delicious blend of nuts, coconut milk, topped with a fabulous vanilla "ice cream" and shaved Brazil nuts. That was dessert in of itself. We also opted for the Apple Pave which consisted of paper thin slices of apple stacked and topped with a citrus marinade and a caramel-like sauce served with clove ice cream. I found the clove flavor of the ice cream to be a bit overpowering and the apples to be too sweet for my taste. However, combining the flavors of each item was still quite good (I'm just not sure I would order this again.) The Chocolate Super Cookie with Chocolate Frosting was similar to a homemade Luna bar - somewhat dense and chewy (made with chocolate and dates). Not my thing, but maybe others would appreciate it. The frosting was delicious.

Grezzo is a *tiny* little place with chairs that barely fit people with a slim stature. Squeezing into seats was a bit uncomfortable and difficult when the restaurant began to fill up. The kitchen is equally tiny and the one bathroom is oddly located right next to a prep station. So close, in fact, that I could hear the chef discussing her falafal recipe with a patron just on the other side of the bathroom door.

Not sure if I would go back, but this place is definitely a fun and interesting experience. I wouldn't say I'm a convert to the raw food/vegan movement, but I did appreciate the creative use of fresh ingredients. I would recommend the place to any vegan/vegetarian looking for something fun and upscale. My personal opinion is to stick with the appetizers and main courses and pass on dessert.

~flutterbyblue

Grezzo
69 Prince Street
Boston MA 02113

Image lifted from www.yelp.com

Oishii Boston

One of the places I've always wanted to try in the South End, is Oishii Boston. I've been to the one in Chestnut Hill many times, but heard that the Boston restaurant serves some intriguing upscale items.

Seeing as I was home for the holidays, we tried the place out for lunch. I *highly* recommend the New Kaiseki Lunch #1. It was fantastic considering the price ($30 fixed). The green salad with sesame dressing was good - nothing special, but the dressing was delicious. Then the platter of small plates arrived. OMG. The lobster wild mushroom risotto was fantastic - a nice chunk of claw artistically arranged in the middle of creamy, delicious (sushi rice?) risotto. The seared salmon with sweet soy was also really well done - not overcooked and perfectly flavored. My personal favorites were the crispy rock shrimp lemon aioli (perfectly fried teeny shrimp with a ton of flavor) and the grilled miso black cod (perfectly cooked luscious fish in a light fantastic broth sauce.) The crab cake was a little bite of yummy crab crispiness, and the sushi/sashimi were fresh and well prepared. The spicy tuna salad handroll was a large cone of flavorful well-seasoned tuna salad.

We also ordered a small selection of sushi a la carte. The foie gras with truffle was melt-in-your-mouth delicious (although quite expensive at $15/piece.) The rest of our random sushi selections were excellent, but again, very expensive.

Oishii Boston is set a little out of the way in the South End. When we were there for lunch on a Tuesday the place was pretty empty. The space is dark, swank and modern. Certainly a classy place and a good option for a business luncheon. Given that Oishii in Chestnut Hill also has a fantastic selection of unique and delicious sushi, I would probably opt for take-out there rather than splurging on the very expensive Oishii Boston menu. That being said, the lunch special was entirely worth it.

~flutterbyblue

Oishii Boston
1166 Washington St
Boston, MA 02118 - 4113

Image lifted from www. yelp.com