Sunday Night Suppers via Formaggio Kitchen

I love Sunday suppers.

Sunday is the day when you can spend a little extra time preparing for that fun, relaxing dinner. Instead of quickly trying to churn out a dinner in 30 minutes after a long, hard day at work, you have the whole afternoon to shop, prep, and cook that elaborate (or just time consuming) meal.

Oddly enough, I find that the type of dinner I enjoy most on a Sunday evening is actually not that complicated.

Instead, it involves visiting one of my favorite neighborhood markets, Formaggio Kitchen, and just buying whatever catches my eye. Formaggio Kitchen offers tons of fun eye candy for food lovers, but be forewarned! You could easily spend hours (and many, many dollars if you're not careful!) perusing their aisles filled with all sorts of carefully curated, artisanal products.

A few Sundays ago, we noticed that the salumi counter had a really interesting assortment of cured meats. Not only did they have the famous Jamon Iberico from Spain, they also had the most coveted Jamon Iberico Bellota, the richest, (fattiest), and most luxurious cured pork in all of Spain (and possibly the whole world).

Spanish Iberian cured ham is prized for its rich savory flavor. The pigs roam freely in oak forests and are fed a diet of only acorns at the last stage of their lives. Because of this diet, the fat in these pigs is mostly monounsaturated, "healthy" fat (oleic acid). The Bellota breed is the finest because it eats purely acorns during this last stage (as opposed to a mixture of acorns and grain, or grain only).

Jamon Iberico leg from Fernandez & Wells in London

Up to this point, I had only tried the Iberico pork at restaurants, once as cured meat at  a lovely Spanish cafe in London, and (if you can believe this) once as a breaded fried pork cutlet at a specialty tonkatsu restaurant in Tokyo.

Iberico Pork Tonkatsu from Butagami in Tokyo

It's unusual (and typically pretty difficult) to find this type of pig at the market in the US.

The price for the bellota was pretty insane ($189/lb!!!), but ended up only being about $20 for the four slices that we bought.

 For fun, we decided to pit the normal famous Jamon Iberico (still a whopping $99/lb) against the Jamon Iberico Bellota ($189/lb).  We also bought some "ordinary" (I'm sure it was still pretty nice) prosciutto from Italy, and rounded it off with a local Soppressata Picante from New York.

You can't go to Formaggio without getting some cheese, so of course we sampled several at the counter (one of my favorite things to do) before settling on a few different pieces.  

Some of my favorites right now? Hooligan from Cato Corner Farm from Connecticut. It's a washed rind cow's milk cheese that's creamy yet salty and strong. It's classified as "stinky", although I find it more approachable than, say, a blue cheese (which I'm still learning to like).

I also love their buratta and mozzarella, which I believe comes locally from Everett, Massachusetts.

And to top off the simple Sunday supper? Local greens (my favorite is arugula, which is my default), paired with whatever cheese I fancy that day. Here, I've purchased some lovely halloumi, another one of my favorite cheeses (and one that tastes fantastic grilled!).

Wait, what about the meat?
Of course, how could I forget?

I loved the normal jamon iberico. It's got a deep and complex richness that can only come from quality pork that's been aged for quite a while. There's just a bit of fat on the edge to round out the meatiness.

The Bellota is really, really fatty. It's sort of like eating a blend of cured meat and pure lardon (just the fat). The fat, of course, is extremely flavorful. And remember, it's mostly monounsaturated fat, so if you're going to eat animal fat, this is about as healthy as it gets.

For me, however, it was too much. I don't love munching on pure fat, and I couldn't get over that gag reflex that I usually get when eating really fatty pieces of meat (e.g. on steaks or certain Chinese dishes). It was worth trying, but at least for me, I'll gladly pay half the price and enjoy the (still) wonderfully deep and rich flavors from the normal jamon iberico.

The prosciutto was solid, and we actually used it to make a fun "copy" of a dish we so often enjoy in the North End (will post about that soon!).

If you like a bit of "kick" in your salami, you'll love Soppressata Picante. It seems like every cheesemonger (or whatever you call those people behind the cheese counter at Formaggio), recommends this one when we say we want something spicy. We've tried some of the others, but we almost always go back to this one. It's really good, and has become a standby for us every time on our Sunday supper "salumi" plates.

Anyway, if you love fun, gourmet markets full of stuff you didn't even know you wanted, you have to stop by Formaggio Kitchen. They have an excellent selection of cheese, cured meats, and all sort of other things. My most recent "find" there? truffle salt and incredible dried pasta from Italy - yum. It's definitely one of my favorite places in my new "hood."

Uni Sashimi Bar

Just a little over a month ago I celebrated my 11th wedding anniversary.

I guess I never really wrote about our celebratory dinner.

As you can see, I'm just a tad back-logged on my posts. That's what happens when you travel over the summer, I guess. You eat out more when you're on a trip (like every meal), and you have less time to blog.

So the posts (or, more accurately, the photos) pile up.

And then there are the weeks, like this past week, where I was inundated with work (my other job, as a lawyer). I almost never do this, but last week I worked into the wee hours of the morning multiple nights in a row. I was exhausted, severely sleep-deprived, and really unaware of anything else that was going on around me. Thankfully, my mom was in town and cooked me lots of yummy home-cooked Chinese food to sustain me that week.

 I'm finally back.

Back to share with you about a really, really great meal I had last month.  Perhaps it was because it was our anniversary and I was more relaxed. Or perhaps it was because of the excellent service we got at Uni. Or perhaps (more likely), the food is just exceptional here, and that really makes a difference.

Whatever it was, I really enjoyed our special (yet low-key) omakase ("Chef's Choice tasting menu) dinner at Uni Sashimi Bar.

Right at the beginning of the meal, the server handed us a little snack to curb our hunger - one of my favorites - blanched edamame with sea salt. I love it when a restaurant has food ready for you to nibble on as soon as you enter the restaurant. It's a really nice touch, especially when you're really hungry.

 They have a bunch of really cool sounding cocktails. Bryan tried the Flaming Paco, which was described as "illegal Mezcal (smoky tequila) torched lime, and seared hot peppers." I love spicy cocktails, and this fiery cocktail totally hit the spot. I loved the strong, smoky flavors and the crisp lime - it worked together really well. It was so good, in fact, I almost ordered one for myself (even though I hardly ever order cocktails).

Tomato Water Martini
basil oil, jicama tomato squares, tomato Popsicle,

Soon after we ordered, the most intriguing amuse bouche arrived. This "Tomato Water Martini" is served at both Clio and Uni and is one of  Ken Oringer's signature dishes. The tomato water is painstakingly made by gravity dripping mashed up tomatoes through a cheesecloth. Drip, drip, drip, drip. The "tomato water" is then mixed with basil oil, tiny tomato and jicama cubes (the knifework is astounding), and finished with a refreshing tomato popsicle on the side.

You have to try it to get it. It's absolutely incredible.

Next, we had the Winter Point Oysters from Mill Cove, Maine, which were served with pickled cherry, house made yuzu kosho, and birch pepper. These oysters were clean, sweet, and balanced. Although I could not really pick out the individual flavor ingredients, I thought overall the entire dish worked very well.
 As you may know, I did not really like uni until I tried it in Japan. That is because I tend to find a majority of the uni here in Boston to be a bit "stinky." I was happy to discover that I actually really enjoyed our next course, the Uni Sashimi, at Uni. This uni (sea urchin) is from Santa Barbara and was served with pickled mustard seed, ume (plum) vinegar, and citrus rice.

The uni itself was nice, fresh, and creamy. I loved the touch of citrus, though I did find the mustard to be just a tad bitter.

Next up we tried the Suzuki Ceviche, gorgeous slices of striped bass from Rhode Island were served with Sudachi lime, thin slivers of golden beets and coconut green curry. I thought the presentation was whimsical and cute. The beet slivers were clearly made to look like ginger, and the coconut cream resembled wasabi dollops.

This course was also excellent. The overall dish had a lovely clean flavor from the citrus and the cilantro flavors that permeated the dish. The fish was just slightly "cooked", as ceviche should be.

I absolutely loved the next dish, Hirame, which consisted of fluke from Rhode Island topped with preserved lemon, tonburi, roast garlic and crispy potato. The quality of the fish was outstanding - the fish appeared to melt in my mouth and was definitely softer and smoother than most fluke I've had. I loved the crunchy potato strings, and the roasted garlic definitely gave the dish a strong, forward flavor which worked well.

I don't think I have seen Shima Aji, or horse mackerel, much outside of Japan, so I was surprised to see it as part of this tasting menu. Here, the shima aji is dressed with olives, ponzu sauce, and shiso as garnish. Although I've never had cured olives with raw fish before, here the salty olive actually cuts the richness of the stronger fish quite nicely. It surprisingly works.

Next, we had the Amber Jack, which came with a gorgeous slice of uni on top.  I felt the uni flavor was almost a bit too strong here, and I longed for some sake to "offset" the strong Uni flavor (which we had ordered, thankfully!).

The next dish, the Branzino, was gorgeous presented and came topped with mini crispy rice, ginger, and "negi" (chopped scallions).

The Tako (octopus) came all the way from Japan and was served with hot sesame oil, yuzu, soy, cilantro, and ginger. I found the cooked octopus to be just a tad tough but acceptable. Bryan really liked the flavors of the dish a lot (he does love cilantro and anything spicy), and it paired really well with the Riesling  which offset some of the spice.

For our first hot course, we had Lobster Tempura (from Maine), which was served with a Singaporean black pepper chili sauce. This course surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly, since it's Singaporean?) delivered a pretty substantial kick. The deep, rich, spicy sauce offset the rich, fried lobster in a balanced way.

We ended the hot courses with a Barbecued Unagi (freshwater eel from Japan), which was served with seasoned rice, sesame and pickled burdock, and a pickled ramp. I found the pickled "ginger" (or that's what I thought) to be really really strong - a bit too strong! However, the unagi was fantastic - perfectly charred, sweet, and crispy. The rice is on the sweet side, but very good.
For our first dessert, we sampled the Sour Cream Ice Cream, which was served with tri-colored raspberries (red, orange, yellow), cookie, lychees, hazelnuts, and a "snow" of sorts (yes, Ken Oringer most definitely dabbles in a bit of molecular gastronomy!).  I liked the overall tartness of the dish. It felt sort of like a palate cleanser, yet much more sophisticated.

I don't typically love chocolate desserts (they often bore me a bit), but this Raspberry Chocolate Cremoux, which was served with a smorgasbord of molecular gastronomy products, was actually fantastic. I loved the deep, deep rich flavor of the chocolate and rasperry sphere, which went well with all the other crazy textures and flavors on the plate (e.g., other flavor "blobs", powder, crunchy cookies, and the bright red raspberry sauce.  This was served with fragrant jasmine ice cream.

It was really an excellent dessert.

Since we were celebrating a special occasion, Bryan treated himself to a shot of MaCallan 30 (yes, Uni/Clio has a nice selection of various whiskeys, among many other types of drinks). He slowly sat and sipped it, slowly savoring each precious drop.

Cheers!

It was a fabulous 11th low-key anniversary, filled with kayaking along the Charles River, shopping for rain jackets (which I've used a lot since that date!), and just generally hanging around at home. Boston is such a gorgeous place this time of year; I was really thrilled to be able to savor so many parts of this beautiful city we live in.

As for Uni, I would most definitely go back. The menu is pretty vast, and I was surprised how flexible it was. You can spend over a hundred dollars on a fancy omakase, or just mix and match various small to medium sized plates, most of which are under $20. You can even get some of the cheaper items that I thought were only available on the late night menu, such as pork belly buns and fried shishito peppers.

All in all, I was very impressed with the food at Uni. Being a seafood person, I loved how every single course was seafood (yay! No heavy red meats to end the meal). I left the meal feeling satisfied, yet not overly full. It's really my favorite way to end a meal, and a near perfect way to end our 11th anniversary evening.

Uni Sashimi Bar
The Eliot Hotel
 370a Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02215


The Eliot Hotel is located in one of the classiest neighborhoods in Boston - Back Bay. One of my favorite things to do is to walk along Newbury Street from Back Bay all the way down to Beacon Hill, another quaint part of Boston which is full of old historic buildings, such as Hampshire House, a mansion that houses the original pub from the iconic TV show, Cheers.

Summer in the Pacific Northwest

Stanley Park, Vancouver

The Pacific Northwest is a gorgeous place to visit in the summer. The rain that they get all throughout the rest of the year produces gorgeous, verdant hills that are absolutely breathtaking.

From a food perspective, they have access to some of the freshest produce around.

Last summer, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit this unique region with Bryan’s family. We spent a few days in Seattle (to attend a wedding), before heading up north to Vancouver and Victoria.

Here’s a sneak peak at some of the food we enjoyed on this trip, some of which overlaps with the Oh Canada series. Stay tuned for more detailed posts on some of these places!

A hip brunch spot near the University of Washington famous for its massive fruit toppings bar for pancakes and waffles.

One of the most famous outdoor markets in America, where they throw fish around.

This Vancouver restaurant’s roasted quail is allegedly so famous, people will fly in from Hong Kong to taste this signature dish.

One of the best restaurants in Victoria Island, North of Vancouver.
Only the second of this world famous Taiwanese dumpling shop to open in the U.S.
Jen being caught "on film" taking pictures of Bryan's food . . . .

"Fake" Ding Tai Fung (Toronto)

This is the fifth post in the Oh Canada series, summarizing some of the great eats I had when visiting various Canadian cities this past year. We're moving from Montreal onto Toronto now! Other posts in this series (Montreal posts) include St. Viateur Bagels, Le Bremner, Schartz's Smoked Meats, and Joe Beef.

I was most definitely totally fooled.

I mean, I'd vaguely heard about this happening. My mom has told me anecdotal stories about my Taiwanese relatives popping into Din Tai Fung in other countries (was it Macau, or maybe some small city in China?), only to be turned off by the clear subpar quality of the food - an obvious knock-off.

But for some reason, I didn't think it would happen in North America, a place where trademarks are typically enforced rather strongly.

I had heard there was a Din Tai Fung in Toronto, so it was actually my idea to get everyone to go there. You know me, trying to hit as many Din Tai Fungs as possible.

It wasn't until after I came back to the US, and after some online research, that I confirmed that I had indeed eaten at a fake Ding Tai Fung.

It's actually a pretty authentic-looking copy. When you enter the restaurant, you see the signature window displaying chefs making the dumplings. This is something you see at every Din Tai Fung, and it affirmed to me even more strongly that this restaurant must be the real thing.

The menu looks the same and the dishes look pretty similar. I didn't even notice that the English name is technically off by one letter. You see, it's confusing because when you pronounce "Din Tai Fung" in Mandarin, the proper phonetic spelling using pin yin (the official method) is actually "Ding Tai Fung." So the spelling with the letter "g" in the title (the way this fake restaurant spells it) actually sounds more correct in Mandarin.

The dishes look identical, and many tasted pretty good. 
Pan fried rice cakes with mustard greens, bamboo shoots, and pork were decent - not too gummy and pretty good flavor. The tofu sheets with mustard greens was OK, and I actually quite enjoyed the spicy wontons and I took several helping - there's something about that addictive hot & spicy oil!.

But the dumplings were definitely sub par. They weren't made with quite the same finesse as the real ones. The flavors were OK, but the texture of the skin was not nearly as good. Still, though, it was objectively a decent dumpling, and still better than many dumplings I've had in the US.

Thoughts
I guess it's an interesting question - would you visit a restaurant that you knew was blatantly copying another restaurant (down to the name, trade dress, menu, etc) yet still produced reasonably solid Shanghai-style dim sum?

This Ding Tai Fung has been in Toronto for years, so clearly it's been able to survive in one of the most competitive Chinese restaurant markets in North America. By this point, I'm sure a lot of people know that it's not the real Din Tai Fung, yet they are happy to eat there because it's still a decent imitation and offers them a workable copy of something they wouldn't otherwise get (at all).

It kind of reminds me of all the Pinkberry inspired places ("insert-name"-berry) that started opening in various cities where the real Pinkberry was not available. People still swarmed to these places because they offered something that people couldn't otherwise get in their hometowns. Maybe this is something like that.

I had heard from a friend that this Ding Tai Fung has "gone downhill" in the past few years. Perhaps there was a time when it was really close to the real ones, and maybe no one knew? I don't know the history, but I find it interesting that the real Din Tai Fung hasn't really tried to go after these fake ones. Maybe there are too many? Or is that difference of one letter enough that it doesn't constitute copying? (I would highly doubt that, but who knows!) Or was there some sort of "break up" where before, there was a time when it was "real"?

I find it peculiar that the real Din Tai Fung did not say anything about it until July 2010, when they posted a statement on their website calling the restaurants in Toronto and Macau "imposters."

Nevertheless, most of the guests who were with me that night still enjoyed the food. To this group of out-of-towners (virtually none were local to Toronto), this was still better Chinese food than anything they had in their hometowns. Maybe it's because I've visited too many better Din Tai Fungs that I could quickly tell that it wasn't as good.

However, like I said, it's still reasonably enjoyable. If it had a totally different name and opened in Boston, I'd probably eat there because it competes reasonably favorably with many of Boston's Chinese restaurants. However, the fact that they are blatantly copying sort of puts a bad taste in my mouth, and for that reason alone, I'm not certain I'll return.

Ding Tai Fung
3255 Highway 7 East, Unit 18B
Markham, ON L3R3P9

Worlds of Flavor: Persian Saffron Rice

One thing I like about having this blog is that it forces me to constantly think about creating new content. Don't continue cooking the same old tried-and-true recipes. Otherwise, I'll have nothing to write about here.

Of course, when times get busy (as they have been lately), it's easy to get lazy and rely upon those tried-and-true favorites. I cannot tell you how many times I've made Baja fish tacos, Taiwanese grilled corn, or the simple roasted beet salad this past summer. One of Bryan's recent favorites that we've made numerous times? Pasta Carbonara.

I must confess I was hoping for an "easy" project when I got an offer from Dailybuzz Food to sample a product from RiceSelect and write a "Worlds of Flavor" blog post about the dinner.

I thought, "rice will be easy! There will be so many different kinds of Chinese things I can make."

The catch? They wouldn't tell us what kind of rice we'd get.

As luck would have it, they sent me brown basmati rice - so very, very, un-Chinese. Completely unfamiliar with this type of rice (I don't think I've ever cooked basmati rice before), I had to do a bit of research.

I finally settled upon trying to make Chelow Ba Polow Paz, or Persian Saffron Rice, an intensely fragrant rice with a gorgeous crispy crust.

Prep: The key ingredients are, of course, basmati rice and saffron. I used brown basmati rice because that's what RiceSelect sent me, but normal white basmati works fine. Ideally, soak the rice in salted water for 1-3 hours, or even overnight!Try to get whole saffron threads, not any sort of ground up powder. You want to finely grind the saffron threads before letting them steep in hot water (clearly something I forgot to do!)  for preferably about 30 minutes.

Bring a pot of nicely salted water to a rolling boil, and add the basmati rice. Cook for about 7-10 minutes, or until the rice is al dente but not mushy.

Now we will make the "crust" part (known as tahdig in Persian cooking) separately. Mix about 5-6 tablespoons of the parboiled rice and stir together with a portion of the saffron water, a small individual-sized carton (about 1/2 cup) of plain yogurt (I used Greek yogurt), and optionally 1 egg.

After adding some water and oil (or butter) to the pot, Line the bottom of the pot with the yogurt-mixed rice. Add the rest of the parboiled rice on top (forming sort of a pyramid), and poke some holes to allow the water from below to steam up.

Cook on high heat for 7-10 minutes (you're forming the crust here!).

Then lower the heat to a simmer and cook, covered with a towel-covered lid,  for about 30-60 minutes  until the rice is done.

The crust may be a bit stuck to the edge, so I got my trusty flexible spatula (seriously, a life saver here!), which did a beautiful job of separating the rice "cake" from the pot.

Carefully flip . . .

And voila! Isn't that a gorgeous crust?

It was very crispy, and had lovely saffron notes. I sort of wished it were a bit more salty, which of course is easily remedied after the fact. I also wonder how this would have tasted had I boiled the rice in chicken stock instead, which is how I usually make my easy saffron rice in a rice cooker (which is actually quite tasty!).

Nevertheless, I couldn't stop eating that addictive crust. It's really fun to crunch on!

Persian Saffron Rice
2 cups basmati rice
1 6-oz individual sized cup of plain yogurt (or about 3-4 tablespoons)
1 egg (optional)
1 tsp saffron threads
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or butter
salt

Prep
Soak the rice in ~ 6 cups of water for at least 1 hour, but preferably 3 hours. Grind up saffron threads into a fine powder (you can use a mortar and pestle, or just use your fingers and try to crush it as much as possible). Let the powder steep in about 1/4 cup hot water for at least 30 minutes.

Cook
Parboil the rice for about 10 minutes, drain water and set aside. Take about 5-6 tablespoons of the parboiled rice and mix it with the yogurt, egg, and half of the saffron water.

Using a heavy pot (I used my Le Creuset cast iron Dutch oven), dd enough water just to coat the bottom of the pot. Add about an equal amount of vegetable oil. Line the bottom of the pot with the yogurt mixed rice. Without disturbing anything, pile the rest of the cooked rice on top. Using the back of a wooden spoon, poke several holes into the rice pile in order to allow water to steam through.

Cover and heat on high for 5-8 minutes. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about an hour (or until the rice is done) with the cover of the pot wrapped in a towel.

When finished, add remaining saffron water to the pot, cover, and let cool for 10 minutes. Use a flexible spatula to try to loosen the crust from the pot. Flip around onto a plate, and serve!

Enjoy!



This post is brought to you by Rice Select.