Craigie on Main (brunch)

It's probably the most famous and sought-after burger in Boston, and maybe even the nation. (!)

It's got bone marrow and dehydrated miso mixed into the grass-fed meat. The homemade ketchup is laced with nutmeg. And the entire patty is cooked to a precise temperature with a C-vap oven before being seared a la plancha.

It's one heck of a burger.

In fact, there was a time not too long ago when the burger became so popular that it "disappeared" from the regular menu at Craigie on Main. Food and Wine Magazine had just named it one of the best 25 burgers in the U.S. Other media outlets were praising it left and right. Diners poured into Craigie on Main, all hoping to try a bite of that ethereal burger.

It became crazy. Chef Tony Maws just could not keep up with the demand. He sources his meat from two very small farms and he was unwilling to sacrifice quality for the sake of meeting the demand.

So instead, it quietly disappeared from the menu. Diners could still order it at the bar, but there were only a limited amount of burgers available per day.

We had friends that went at 6:00 PM once only to find out the burgers were already gone. It was so discouraging, I decided not to even try to fight the crowds for that elusive burger.

Instead, I took another, possibly lesser known route.

I went during Sunday brunch, the one day it's a guaranteed menu item.

Bryan and I stopped by Craigie on Main for brunch a couple Sundays ago. It had been a few years since I had tried the burger, and I was curious what the brunch version was like.

The burger ($17) itself is just as delicious as I remembered it. The patty is gorgeously juicy and flavorful - all around perfect, really. At brunch you have the option of adding a fried egg on top, which we did. It makes the burger horrendously messy to eat (see top photo, where the egg yolk just oozes all over the place), but it's totally worth it.

Additionally, the fries during brunch look more like thick home fries instead of the shoestring fries that normally come with the burger.

Finally, the brunch burger is a bit smaller in size than the normal bar version, which is totally fine with me. We had no trouble finishing it.

Though the burger is famous and an obvious dish to try, I must say everything we had at Craigie on Main was excellent. The side of Smoked Pork Belly ($8) was juicy, smoky, and beautifully charred.

I absolutely loved the Grass-Fed Beef Cheek, Brisket, and Smoked Beef Tongue Hash ($18), which came with crispy onion strings and a farm fresh fried egg on top. I was extremely impressed with the attention to detail of every single component of this dish. Each small cube of potato seemed to be cut the exact same size. The texture of the waxy potatoes was perfect (perhaps made using sous vide? It was almost eerily perfect), and the melt-in-your-mouth beef was flavorful and super soft. I loved this dish, maybe even more than the burger!

Bryan ordered a Bloody Mary and I seriously think it's the best Bloody Mary I've ever tasted (yes, significantly better than the one Bryan made at East Coast Grill a few weeks back, which was already very good). I just couldn't get over the intense and real tomato flavor in the base, which added so much deep complexity to the drink. Unlike most Bloody Mary drinks, this one did not need to be that salty. The other strong components provided plenty of depth and flavor to the drink.

Overall, Tony Maws did not disappoint at all. He seeks perfection in everything he does, and it really shows.

I can't wait to come back.

Craigie on Main

853 Main St
Cambridge, MA 02139

Baraka Cafe

I love hidden gems.

I love small, family-owned, little finds that serve fantastic, authentic food in a warm and cozy environment.

I discovered Baraka Cafe, an Algerian-Tunisian and North African restaurant, years ago when I started my current job in Central Square. Just a little off the beaten path (you have to walk down Pearl Street a bit), this family-owned restaurant churns out flavorful, unusual dishes at prices that look like they haven't changed in decades.

Chef-owners Alia Radjeb Meddeb and Krimo Dahim, who grew up in Tunisia and Algeria, run this small, cozy restaurant. The kitchen is crazy small (I'm amazed at what they can churn out there), and seating is limited.

The moment you walk in, you feel like you are visiting someone's home.
The atmosphere is very relaxed, and everything is made to order in the back. The woman in front (perhaps the owner?) is super friendly and treats you like you're family. I usually find the pace of service to be a bit - how shall I say it? - "relaxed"? Don't come here on a workday if you have a strict one hour lunch break. You just never know exactly how long the service might take. Some days it's totally fine, but other days you'd be in trouble if you had a meeting back at the office within an hour.

If you go, you must get their signature drink, the Cherbat. It's an Algerian style homemade lemonade with rose petals and North African spices.  Get a glass for $2.00, or share a carafe ($5.95) or a pitcher ($7.50) with friends. It's gorgeously refreshing in the summer, and is pretty different from most lemonade you could get elsewhere.

I absolutely love their bread, which comes loaded with really interesting spices. It's not spicy hot or even salty, just very, very flavorful. We ordered the bread with h'rissa ($3), a homemade North African spicy red pepper pesto made with parsley, olives, and garlic. It's bold, deeply flavorful, and quite addictive.

Their lunch menu has several very reasonably priced open faced sandwiches, which are served on a hand-stretched, homemade flat Berber bread with salad greens tossed in a black caraway and mustard vinaigrette. These come alongside their house-made fries and h'rissa.

Pictured above is the Homemade Grilled Merguez, a lamb & beef North African sausage seasoned with ras-el-hanout, a Moroccan blend of spices used commonly in North Africa.  I love the interesting and unusual spices in the sausage.

We also ordered Mahdjouba Djazairia, a grilled Algerian crepe stuffed with a tchektchouka (like an omelet with poached eggs) of bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and farm cheese. This comes with a mixed green salad. I opted for the vegetarian version ($7.00), although you can add grilled chicken or merguez (lamb/beef sausage shown above) for an extra $1.50. The salad was fresh, the crepe was perfectly executed, and I just absolutely loved the exotic flavors.

Though I generally love everything I've tried here, there is one thing I once tried that I absolutely hated. It's definitely due to personal preference and not a reflection on their execution of it. I ordered the Turkish coffee, which was filled with a huge amount of ground cardamon. I really, really don't like the smell of cardamon - it reminded me of gasoline. I had trouble finishing it.

So, if you're not a huge fan of cardamon either, you probably don't want to order the Turkish coffee.

Overall, however, I love coming here.  The food is fantastic, the prices are really reasonable, and the overall experience is very, very authentic. Better yet, this type of cuisine is so different from what I usually eat, it makes every dish a really fun adventure.

I don't come too often because it's hard to get out during the middle of a work day to take a 1-2 hour lunch. When I do come, however, it's always a huge treat.

Useful Tips
This restaurant is not open on Mondays, and doesn't open until 12PM for lunch (Tues-Sat only).  I learned this the hard way as I tried to come here twice (once on a Monday, once at 11:30AM), only to be sadly greeted by a closed door. It's cash only, and there's no alcohol.

I have yet to try this place for dinner, but I'm confident that the food is fantastic. The dinner menu has a much larger variety of interesting items to try. One of the most famous ones? The Classical Bastilla Torte, a crazy complicated dish that requires 36-hour advanced notice. It's a filo pastry layered with squab or chicken and a plethora of other interesting ingredients (almonds, cinnamon, saffron, parsley, figs, mint, parsley, and orange blossom infusion!!).

Don't forget to order the signature rose infused lemonade - it's so good, you may not even miss the fact that there's no alcohol.

Baraka Cafe
80 1/2 Pearl St
Cambridge, MA 02139

Moksa

Edamame potstickers

It's been hyped. And continually delayed. For months.

I walk down Mass Ave in Central Square every day on my way to work. Ever since early summer last year, I've passed by a sign in front of Moksa that says, "opening late, late, late summer."

People have wondered for awhile now what Chef Patricia's Yeo's new project would look like.  After Ginger Park (her first Boston venture) closed, she joined Om as their executive chef. Meanwhile, in the background, she's been planning an Asian fusion izakaya which features small plates inspired by street foods from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

Edamame potstickers

In Japan, an izakaya is a drinking establishment that serves casual, small plates meant to go really well with the drinks.  Here, Chef Yeo has taken that concept and melded it with the street food idea. Moksa serves appetizer sized portions of a variety of dishes, many of which are inspired by street dishes from Asia.

It's only been a few weeks since the restaurant has opened, so I'm sure the kitchen is still trying to figure things out. Nevertheless, here's a recap of my first visit there. We got the unusual opportunity of sitting outside on their patio (in the middle of March!!) due to unseasonably warm weather.

Kimchi fried rice with a poached egg and gochujang 

Dishes here are meant to be shared, and the portion sizes are a bit smaller so that people can try more than one dish. We ordered about two dishes per person and it turned out to be just about right. Some of the dishes, such as the rice and noodle ones, are a bit larger while the items from the grill are much smaller. Order a mix of everything and you should be fine.

Chef Yeo liberally borrows ideas from all sorts of Asian cuisines. The kimchi fried rice, for example, resembles a bi bim bop because it is served with a perfectly poached egg and gochujang (Korean sweet chili sauce) on top.

I love the homemade edamame potstickers (pictured above). The skins have a nice chewy texture, and the mashed edamame filling tastes just like you expect. If you love the flavor of Japanese edamame, you'll enjoy these dumplings.

Beef tartare and oyster "roti"

The roti (commonly seen in Malaysian and Indian cuisine), is more like a small taco.  Don't expect the "roti" part of the dish to be fluffy, light, and slightly chewy like traditional roti. Instead, the texture of the roti is really more like the skin of a Mexican soft taco shell (more dense, less fat). Yeo veers quite a bit from traditional Asian fare by topping the "roti" with beef tartare and a fresh, raw oyster. This dish turns out to be one of my favorites of the evening. It's nicely seasoned, uses very fresh ingredients, and tastes delicious.

Duck bacon (I think? I can't remember) is one of the smaller "grill" items, coming on just two skewers.

Kurobota pork belly ramen with 5-minute egg 

The "kurabota [sic] ramen" (called such presumably because it uses Berkshire pork, known as kurobuta in Japanese), gets its twist from being served with a 5-minute egg and high quality pork belly. I am disappointed that the noodles resemble packaged ramen noodles (curly and quite mushy), and the broth is very, very salty. This is not the first time I've found Chef Yeo's food to be too salty, so perhaps that first time was not a fluke after all? The pork is reasonably tasty, but the overwhelming salt levels make it hard for me to enjoy the soup.

The menu offers a variety of shaobings. Unlike the traditional Chinese shaobing, which is delicate, flaky, and nicely toasted, this "shaobing" more resembled a dense English muffin. It's thick, dense, and a bit dry. Frankly, I think I would have preferred a traditional shaobing.

Shao Bing: spicy beef short ribs

The flavors of the fillings for the shaobings are decent. The saltiness of the short ribs is tempered by the thick and dense shaobing bread.

Saigon Fried Rice

I am woefully uneducated when it comes to Vietnamese food, so I have no idea how authentic this "Saigon" fried rice is. I do know that Chef Yeo traveled to Southeast Asia in 2007 to study the cuisine, and I'm sure some of these dishes were inspired by that trip. This fried rice reminds me a bit of ketchup fried rice, but a bit sweeter with the addition of the pineapples. It is OK, but not something that I love.

Chicken Pad Thai

The chicken pad thai is not bad, nicely augmented with a colorful assortment of vegetables not typically seen in pad thai. The flavor is decent, and it's one of the few dishes that isn't too spicy for our spice-fearing guests.

Twenty vegetable fried rice 

The twenty-vegetable fried rice is balanced in flavor and reasonably light. It's a nice, healthy alternative to ordering normal white rice.

Dan Dan Mien

The dan dan mien is a very polarizing dish. Although it's deeply full of flavor (strong umami generated by the pork, mushrooms, various aromatics, and chili spices), I (again) find the dish to be too salty. I yearn for a larger portion of baby bok choy to counter the saltiness in the meal. The noodles themselves are unremarkable, a bit too soft and mushy for my tastes.

First Thoughts
I have to be honest. I was disappointed after my first visit. I had been really, really excited about a cool izakaya serving high quality "street food" at reasonable prices. Although some of the dishes were quite promising,  several were oversalted and lacked the finesse in flavor I was looking for. Perhaps it's too much to ask, but I yearned for fresh, chewy handmade noodles.

Our lunch came out to be about $25 a person, not exactly cheap considering we only drank water (it was lunchtime) and we were mostly eating street food. Granted, Moksa does source high quality, often local ingredients, and the rent in the area is not cheap (plus there's that liquor license!).  It's natural that prices will be a bit higher.

I've read that Moksa has a fantastic mixologist on board, so maybe you won't notice that the small bites are a tad salty if you're enjoying them with a fantastic cocktail. After all, an izakaya's foremost purpose is to be a place to drink.

Perhaps Moksa will turn out to be that cool, trendy place in Central Square where you can get a fantastic cocktail, a tasty small plate, and enjoy a really cool vibe. The ambiance is pretty nice, with lots of bamboo, clean lines, and modern simplicity.

Moksa
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139