It's Sometimes Sunny in Cambridge

It's been really gray this last week and I'm so happy to report that it is SUNNY today and warm.

Diva Lounge $1 Tapas

We checked out the $1 Tapas this afternoon and they were all pretty good and a very good deal. We tried eight different ones, we would go back for the lamb slider, Tangeri Kebab and the Mini Cheese Dosa. The others were good, but I liked these three better. The Naanwich was weird, I would recommend against that one. Overall, I can't wait to go back and check out the other 9 items we didn't try.

Sampling

We took our bikes out for the first time yesterday and rode up to Arlington Center. We went to dinner at Sweet Chili and for dessert, I had to have some frozen custard at Chilly Cow. The following is reconstructed conversation while waiting in line at Chilly Cow:

Adam: OK, when you ask for your sample, ask for Lemon. I don't want to ask for more than two samples.
plasticann: So what sample are you going to ask for?
Adam: Peppermint stick and smores.
plasticann: [confused] That's two samples. I thought you didn't want to ask for more than two?
Adam: I'm asking for two. You're asking for one. I feel bad asking for three samples so I need you to ask for the Lemon.
plasticann: So you want three samples total not two samples total.
Adam: You got it!

Of course we ended up buying a kiddie peppermint stick to share and we didn't have any change or small bills to leave a tip since Adam put the $2.35 purchase on his credit card. We felt kinda lame.

Maine Good Eats

Adam did an awesome job planning our meals for our trip this weekend and we enjoyed many good eats. We started off on Friday morning with a Gracie Bar donut at Donuts with a Difference in Medford. Then we drove up to York, ME to Stonewall Kitchen for lunch. I had some clam chowder and Adam had a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. We hopped back in the car and drove up to Portland stopping by a lighthouse on the way which was beautiful. We checked into our hotel in Portland, it was an old converted armory which was pretty cool. Suited up and went for a walk around the old part of town. Our first stop was an awesome kitchen store right on Commercial Street Leroux. This place is incredible. They have everything by every kitchen tool maker. They also had all these oils and vinegars you could taste and buy, all from Italy. For dinner, we were able to get a table at Fore Street and the food was really awesome. It's an open kitchen with a wood fire oven and we got a table where we could watch all the action. On Saturday it was cold, wet and windy all day, but we still did lots. We started with breakfast at the Standard Baking Company, just downstairs from Fore Street. I wanted to move into this bakery. We got croissants and sticky buns and bread to go. Then we drove up to Freeport, ME, home of LL Bean and the outlets. Adam had never been so it was pretty cool. We watched a beefy guy shoot arrows in the archery range. It was glass enclosed. For lunch, we shared a lobster roll at The Lobster Cooker for a first lunch. Then we drove back to Portland for second lunch at DuckFat where they fry their french fries in duck fat. Yeah you heard that right. The frites were amazing and the beignets we had for dessert were also delicious. A perfect culinary end to a very fun trip.

The Maine Event

We're taking Friday off and going on an adventure with our zipcar to Maine this weekend. We're going to check out Portland, Freeport and Kittery and possibly buy lots of candy and eat french fries cooked in duck fat. I'm looking forward it.

Burren...thwarted by hunger

We tried to go the Burren on thursday night for dinner. I was all excited for fish and chips, but we a bit thwarted since we were super hungry and we hadn't seen our waitress for 15 minutes. We thought maybe the service would be super slow even after we ordered so we cut our losses and went to Anna's instead. We did discover that Diva Lounge is serving $1 Indian tapas. I'm not sure how big these tapas are, but I'm excited to check it out sometime really soon.

Julie and Julia

A group of us went and saw the movie last weekend and it was so much fun. The reviews warned not to go see the movie on an empty stomach so we chowed down on some Vietnamese sandwiches in Boston Common before the movie. I really enjoyed Meryl Streep as Julia and frankly what's not to love about Julia Childs and her enthusiasm for food. What struck me was Julia was middle aged when she embarked on her career in food which gives hope to the rest of us for finding our way in life.

66 out of 71 restaurants

Adam recently created a restaurant map/packet for a church gathering of 71 restaurants within a 1/2 mile radius of our church. Since we live really close to church, this 1/2 mile radius is pretty much our neighborhood.

I was initially surprised that there were so many places to eat in Porter, Davis, Alewife and on Mass Ave. It seemed like an excessive amount of restaurants, but turns out it's not quite enough restaurants for the Zakuns.

Super methodical Adam went through the list and checked every restaurant he'd been to on the list. He's been to 66 out 71 or 93%. Of course, I had to go through the list myself and I scored 65 our 71 or 92% at 6pm, but bumped up to 66 after dinner at Singabella Cafe tonight.

Adam is now determined to complete his list by going to the last 5 restaurants even the ones that we know are bad. We do agree that we need to go to the Burren sometime soon for some Guinness stew and fish and chips, neither of us shockingly have ever been.

Tupelo

Summer is finally here and we went very quickly from cool/rainy to hot/humid. We went on a long walk over to the Kendall Square Theatre this weekend to see "Away We Go." I liked it and it made me laugh when John Krasinski tries to scare pregnant Maya Rudolph to get their baby's heart rate up. After the movie, we checked out Tupelo, the new Southern restaurant by the makers of Petsi's Pies. Overall the food was pretty good, but we like Hungry Mother better. However, Tupelo has much better desserts, the Pecan Pie with Bourbon Ice Cream was really good.

Junk-Food-Palooza

Adam and I celebrated our anniversary in style last week. We even chanted a celebratory [with fists pumping] "Four Years...Four More Years." For dinner, Adam ordered lots of delivery from my favorite places. Since one major point of contention/negotiation in our marriage is the amount of food we order, I was super happy about the abundance of dinner options and the quantity of food.

On the menu:

Wings (Buffalo + BBQ) and Breaded Mushrooms from Wingworks

Pepperoni + Carmelized Onion Pizza from City Slickers

Tofu Yellow Curry and Chicken Pad Thai from Thai Hut

Strawberry Cake from Lyndells

What more could a girl want than an abundance of delicious food for dinner except maybe a sock monkey? Oh wait, I got a sock monkey to boot! Booyah!

Newtowne Grille

I've walked by this dive bar for years and I've never walked in, but we heard they actually had goo pizza so Adam and I checked it out for dinner tonight. It's right in Porter Square, definitely a dive bar with keno and the TVs and the quirky locals. We ordered the "bar" sized pepperoni pizza which was the size of a dinner plate and cost $4.50. It was tasty and hit the spot. The crust was crispy. The sleeper hit was the twin lobster roll special. Two lobster rolls with delicious cole slaw and crispy french fries all for $13.95. The lobster rolls were refreshing and featured big chunks of lobster lightly dressed in mayo with some celery, salt and pepper. There's even a take out counter so you could even pick up some lobster rolls for a fun summer picnic.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

The following is a reconstructed conversation with enthusiastic cookie lover:

Man: Did you bake those chocolate chip cookies?

plasticann: Yes, did you like them?

Man: I ate like 7 of them. I was trying to make chocolate chip cookie bars, but yours are so much better than mine. 

plasticann: Oh, well would you like the recipe?

Man: [slightly befuddled] No! Why? It's just a chocolate chip cookie recipe baked as bars

plasticann: [bemused] Yes, I guess that's true, they are just chocolate chip cookies baked as bars.

Hah! Just chocolate chip cookies...we'll see about that. Fortunes have been made and lost over just chocolate chip cookies.

Spaahhhcee!

We walked over to Tip Top Thai last night for dinner. We hadn't been there in years so we decided to check it out since I was in the mood for some soup. I ordered a small Tom Yum soup + Summer Rolls and Adam got the Pad Thai. Service was super slow and the dining room was empty. All was going along reasonably well until I started chewing on a "green bean" in my soup. Blistering heat started after a few seconds...it was a small super spicy pepper with seeds. I spent the next 10 minutes bathing my mouth in milk to control the burn. My lips were blistering hot so I had to pour milk in my plate and put my head into it to cool down my lips. When we tried explaining to the waitress that they should warn people about the peppers in the soup, she was pretty unsympathetic. She gestured that "Duh" you're not supposed to eat the peppers, they're for flavor. Point taken, but it was in the soup looking like a green vegetable mixed in with all the other ingredients. Not a great end to a meal, but now I know not to chew on "green beans" and be more careful.  

Bottega Fiorentina

Adam and I were out on Newbury Street a few weeks ago when we decided to check out Bottega Fiorentina for lunch. It was gorgeous out so we split a Italiano sandwich in the Public Garden. It was wonderful. They thinly sliced the "salame, Soppressata, Mortadella, Provolone, Onions, Lettuce, Tomatoes" fresh to order and added just the right amount of "Pickles, Hot Peppers, Vinegar, Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Seasoning." There aren't really many good places to grab a cheap meal in Back Bay and at $7.95 for a massive sandwich it's a really good and delicious deal. Seven Thumbs Up!

SOFRA

One of my favorite restaurants is Oleanas in Cambridge, it's really wonderful, but more of a special occasion place at least for us. The owners of Oleanas opened up Sofra, their bakery/cafe outpost last year and I've been super excited to check it ever since. The bakery is located toward Watertown and accessible by bus or car so we finally made it over there on Sunday with our friends, the Zoritys. All of it was great. We shared the mezze platter where you can pick up to 5 different spreads to enjoy. I loved the whipped feta and bean and walnut pate. I got the falafel flatbread wrap which is exactly like the falafel appetizer at Oleanas only cheaper and bigger. Adam enjoyed his sausage flatbread. Kris had the Turkish Breakfast which was very interesting. It had greek yogurt and a soft boiled egg wrapped in crispy fried phyllo. Even the bacon/egg breakfast sandwich was yummy, according to Dave. It was unexpectedly small, but that was the only quibble. Oh and the mezze platter could have had a much higher bread to spread ratio. We shared the baklava and the kunefe, both yummy. We also shared the croissant with zatar and the fennel tart. Adam got the sesame cashew bar as a little extra and I got the last bite of it yesterday...it was incredible yummy. The verdict, Sofra is awesome. I love it and if you'd like to drive me over there sometime, I'll buy you lunch.

Holy Moly

Adam and I went to Macy's last night and I was admiring this Martha Stewart drink dispenser until I looked at the price tag...$100. It was cute and I wanted one, but it was made of plastic. I couldn't believe it so I took it over to the cash register and inquired: 

plasticann: Excuse me, how much is this?

Saleslady: Oh, it should be on sale, let me check....It's $59.

plasticann: You mean the price tag of $100 regular price is real?

Saleslady: That's Martha Stewart.

plasticann: Are you sure? That seems outrageous.

Saleslady: That's what we thought when we put them out. We even had our manager call and double check and it's a real price.

Wow! Whoever made that pricing decision should be canned. My strategy is to wait until they discount it to twenty bucks. Afterall, who's actually crazy enough to pay $100.

April 28, 2009

plasticann: [looking in the fridge] Wow, you bought Ricotta.
Adam: Yeah, it was half off and I thought we could make pizza or something.
plasticann: Very cool. I wonder why it was half off?
Adam: I don't know, sell by date says it lasts until April 28 so that's pretty far off.
plasticann: [pause] It's the end of April now.
Adam: What's the date today?
plasticann: April 27!
Adam: Oh! Well, it's the sell by date, I'm sure it won't go bad for a while

Note: I've taken to calling it rancit cheese, but Adam doesn't appreciate that.

Adventureland

Adam and I went and saw Adventureland at the Somerville Theatre last night and it was really fun. Kinda sad coming of age story and not super laugh out loud funny, but I really liked it and the main character was really endearing. Reminded me of Almost Famous.

Sweet Cupcakes Coming to Harvard Square

My friend Zayne (male) kindly informed me that Sweet is opening up in Harvard Square. I've been to their location in Back Bay and I very much enjoy their cupcakes. In fact, I've sampled the red velvet cupcake pictured here and it is delicious. The current location is kind of a trek and not really close to any T stop so I'm very excited that they're coming to Harvard Square.

RIP - WSJ Print Edition

After over fifteen years of subscribing to the WSJ, I cancelled my subscription on Monday and switched to the digital Kindle version of the WSJ. I've been having frustrating paper delivery problems over the last 3-4 weeks and I was gradually becoming an "angry" person since my complaints to customer service was falling on deaf ears. Apparently we live in a newspaper Bermuda triangle and the delivery person just keeps "forgetting" to deliver. However, I learned one very valuable lessons:

Even the most loyal customer will give up...eventually: The morning paper has been non-negotiable for me. I never thought I'd give up print papers. However, living without a paper for a few weeks taught me that I can live without it and I can find other ways to get the news that are more reliable and cheaper. Customer service lesson, don't let your customers learn to live without your product.

Customer service lessons aside, I did encounter two hilarious incidents stemming from this irritating saga. Last Thursday was a rare day when I actually received my paper. Stuffed inside my paper was a note that I'm sure was not intended for me, but for my delivery person. It read, "Complaints Cost Money...$20...Address: xxxx...Instructions: Just Deliver the Paper...Fix it now!!!" Incredible! I think my delivery person might actually be a doofus.

Then yesterday I get a phone call from the field supervisor. "Hi Ann, I saw that you had another missed delivery. I thought we had fixed the problem, but I guess he forgot to delivery the paper again. I yelled at him about it today since I thought we'd fixed the problem. I don't know what's going on, but please give me a call." My delivery person FORGOT to deliver my paper. I have nothing to say in response. Now that I get it automatically delivered on my Kindle...I'm a happy camper and no longer angry.

plasticann in the big apple

Last weekend, I took the bus down to NYC to see MGDub and Corinna. I had an awesome time hanging out, enjoying good food and shopping. Here are some highlights:

Friday:

Doughnut Plant - MGDub and I bought four doughnuts to share: vanilla bean glazed with strawberry filling, chocolate cake, meyer lemon glazed and coconut cream filled. Very yummy!

Muji - I remember Muji in Japan from when I was a kid. Back before Muji was the essense of minimalist chic, Muji in Japan was your basic no brand type brand sold in little sections of the grocery store and little department stores. Very cool even back then, I remember buying a cylinder of colored pencils when I was about 10. I still have those pencils and I saw they were still selling them when we went to the Muji in NYC

Fish & Eddys - I was coveting MGDub's cool dishware so I had to spend some quality time at this store. I went back the next day with Corinna since she also loves the store.

Ippudo - MGDub and I enjoyed some delicious bowls of ramen. The food was great, but it was really loud and happening at the restaurant so not the easiest place to have a conversation

Saturday:

Union Square Greenmarket - I bought Adam some garlic jelly from the jam lady at the farmer's market

Gramercy Tavern - Fancy lunch out with friends Corinnna and Ian, food was delicious...I enjoyed the Mushroom Lasagna

ABC Carpet - We spent a few hours getting lost in this store, I couldn't believe how much stuff they had

Magnolia's - This time I got the banana pudding and it was wonderful. A bit rich, but hard to put down so I had to pitch my cup of unfinished pudding to avoid eating it all

Chelsea Market - More food, more window shopping than eating, but we checked out all the cool shops

Steak & Blue

Adam and I stopped by Dave's Pasta last night for sandwiches and we tried the Steak & Blue which was very delicious. It's a bit pricey at $8.95 since it's a takeout place, but the flank steak is perfectly cooked and the sandwich is well balanced with the carmelized onions, blue cheese and greens. Be sure to get it pressed!

Tropicana Outcry

Adam has been pretty upset and outraged recently about Tropicana's new package design. Not only does he mention it everytime he buys orange juice at the supermarket, he voices his disappointment everytime he sees the Tropicana packaging or advertising. This has been happening a lot lately. Even though the new packaging doesn't bother me as much as it bothers Adam, I absolutely agree with his opinion. The new packaging is terrible, terrible enough to annoy my husband constantly, but not terrible enough for us to stop drinking orange juice. The good news is, lots of other people are upset about the new packaging and the uproar is so big that Tropicana is reverting back to their old packaging. I had to send Adam this article, "Tropicana discovers some buyers are passionate about packaging," from the nytimes. The following are Adam's reactions to the article:

Article: resembling "a generic bargain brand" or a "store brand."
Adam: Agree!

Article: Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana
Adam: Absolutely!

Article: The symbol, meant to evoke fresh taste, had been supplanted on the new packages by a glass of orange juice.
Adam: Shows i didn't look closely. I had no idea that was glass of juice.

The New Kindle

I went to Amazon this morning to order a book for plasticmom when I noticed the announcement for the new Kindle on the front page. It looks really cool and it's shipping end of this month. MGDub has one of the first generation Kindles and she really loves it. This one is thinner, has more memory, a longer battery life and you can switch it to audio so it reads to you in an electronic book. How cool is that. I've always wanted one of these devices, but I have a hard time overcoming the psychological barrier of buying books. I haven't bought a book in a while because Adam gets them for me from the library. However, the new Kindle does look mighty tempting.

Potty Training

Our friends are potty training their adorable 2 year old these days and her reward is...coffee ice cream. Holy Smokes! I shouldn't be surprised that the kid has refined tastes, her parents are foodies.