Thelonious Monkfish

I'm so ignorant when it comes to my knowledge of jazz musicians. That's exactly why when I first saw that the new restaurant in Central Square was going to be called Thelonious Monkfish, I thought the founders were out of their minds.

Then I found out that Thelonious Monk was actually a really famous jazz musician.

Ahhh! - the fish symbol with the musical staff makes sooo much more sense now!

I've felt for a long time that there's been a dearth of good Asian restaurants in Cambridge, especially Central and Harvard Square. So, when Thelonious Monkfish opened with the promise of reasonably priced sushi and Southeast Asian food, I definitely wanted to check it out right away.

Satchmo Roll
spicy tuna, poached shrimp, yellowtail in cucumber wrap with ponzu sauce ($13.95)

I stopped by for lunch with a friend a couple weeks after the restaurant had opened. By that point, positive Yelp reviews had made the place quite popular, and it was packed right at noon on a Tuesday. I had to wait about 10-15 minutes before I could be seated. You could tell the staff was a bit harried, still not accustomed to dealing with such heavy crowds.

Temper Tantrum Maki
tuna, cucumber, scallions & chili sauce $6.50

We decided to try the sushi, since that's something that's really hard to find in Central Square. I ordered the chirashi while my friend got the Temper Tantrum Maki. We shared the Satchmo Roll, since that looked interesting as well.

Chirashi
assorted sashimi on a bed of seasoned rice $12.95

Honestly, the sushi was rather underwhelming. The Satchmo Roll was bland (the fish itself didn't have much flavor), and the workmanship in the maki was a bit sloppy. The chirashi was average - I guess for only $12.95 I shouldn't expect something amazing, but I didn't really enjoy my meal that much. My friend enjoyed her Temper Tantrum Maki, so I'm guessing at least the chili sauce added some flavor to the otherwise bland fish.

Drunken Noodles $10.95
flat rice noodles, onions, green beans, basil leaves, and hot peppers stir-fried with your choice of chicken, beef, pork, tofu or shrimp

On a more positive note, I ordered a bunch of their Southeast Asian dishes for take out another evening. The menu had a wide variety of choices, so I tried several curries as well as classics such as Pad Thai, Drunken Noodles, and Rad Na.


Chicken Green Curry $10.95
I was actually quite pleased with our food. The delivery came right on time (I ordered using Seamlessweb), and the food was pretty enjoyable. The dishes were well-seasoned and flavorful yet not too salty nor greasy.

Glass Noodle Pad Thai
cellophane noodles stir-fried with egg, chicken, shrimp, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, lime juice, & tamarind juice

I had invited a group of 5 people over, and everyone seemed to really enjoy the food. The curry coconut-based sauce was so good that one of my guests asked to take it home to eat with rice, even though all the meat and veggies were essentially gone!


Beef Red Curry $12.95
The prices are quite reasonable, and a pretty good value considering the ambiance of the restaurant, the location, and the type of food.

Clover Honey Pork Rad Na
wide flat noodles are pan-fried till lightly caramelized with clover honey marinated pork, carrot, egg, chinese kale & served in a mild gravy 
This dish intrigued me because it sounded interesting. Check out that super wide noodle!


Overall Initial Thoughts
I'm pretty happy about this new Asian fusion addition to Central Square. The area definitely could use more Asian food, and Thelonious Monkfish fits the bill as a pleasant sit-down restaurant with reasonably-priced food. Based on my initial experiences, I'd probably skip the sushi and instead opt for one of the Thai dishes. Having said that, I think my opinion is still premature. I've had other friends visit the restaurant and speak rather positively about the sushi. I'll probably go back and give the sushi one more try before making just drastic decisions. :)

Thelonious Monkfish
524 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139

Machu Picchu Charcoal Chicken & Grill

Fried plantains

Same food, half the price?
Years ago my family visited San Francisco as tourists for the first time. We did all the classic touristy things: walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, ride the famous trolley, and marvel at the sheer size of the biggest Chinatown in the US.

We found a fantastic hole-in-the-wall restaurant with simple formica tables, super bright fluorescent lights, and incredible food. The best part? It was super cheap.

One our second day there, the waiter told us that a much fancier Chinese restaurant upstairs served exactly same food but charged twice as much. Of course, the decor and service upstairs were much nicer, but the food was identical. In fact, it came out of the same kitchen.

We chuckled, feeling like we had found some amazing secret about which the clueless, duped tourists upstairs had no clue.

In reality, we never did confirm or validate the waiter's statement. He played to our instinctive values - the desire to get a good deal.

Whenever a successful (and expensive) restaurant opens a more casual joint with the same trade name, people tend to get excited (think Jean George or Daniel Boulud), thinking that they can get something amazing for much cheaper.


Yucca Fries

The owners of Macchu Picchu Charcoal Chicken & Grill began with a highly successful Peruvian restaurant in Union Square (also called Macchu Picchu). After moving that restaurant to a bigger space, they opened up a simple, casual rotisserie at the old location.

Peruvian Chicken

Their namesake dish, of course, is the Peruvian chicken, which costs $15.99 for a whole chicken. It's marinated for 24 hours in their secret blend of spices and then cooked over charcoal. It's juicy, flavorful, and definitely quite enjoyable.

We only got take-out, so I can't comment much on the ambiance of the restaurant or the service. Nevertheless, the chicken is definitely very good, as well as the classic fried plantains and the yucca fries.

Classic Peruvian cookies called Alfajores - these were filled with caramel and were absolutely delicious.

I hope to someday return to try the larger, sit-down restaurant, which has a much bigger menu, full bar, and takes reservations. Until then, I'm perfectly happy relishing in the memories of the simple yet delicious menu items at the more casual counterpart down the street.

Machu Picchu
307 Somerville Ave
Somerville, MA 02143

Erbaluce

Every couple months, I check out a new restaurant with a small group of food-loving women from my church. We kicked off our first meeting by dining at Henrietta's Table (good old New England style cuisine). We then moved onto ethnic places, such as authentic Mexican cuisine at Angela's Cafe and  the more adventurous Senegalese food at Teranga in the South End.

And then it was time to decide where to go next.

We were intrigued by stories we had heard of a little, cozy Italian restaurant that focused on fresh, local ingredients. It was a restaurant in a tiny corner in Bay Village, the area between Back Bay and the South End. The menu changed daily.

It had received rave reviews from critics and diners alike.

Why, oh why did we choose Restaurant Week, of all weeks, to try this place first?

The food's excellent here. But I would definitely order outside of the Restaurant Week menu, which was a minor disaster.


Duxbury razor claims steamed Trieste style green peppercorns, fennel, and white wine beets

We absolutely loved the razor clams (which, by the way, were not part of the Restaurant Week menu). They had a rich, yet clean flavor, and worked beautifully with the accompanying vegetables. Almost everyone at the table agreed this was a favorite.

The Restaurant Week 3-course menu began with a simple salad starter, which was fine, but nothing particularly exciting.

Vellutata of organic parsnips with house smoked cod 12

We decided to order the "vellutata," a rich soup that was also off the regular menu. We were shocked at how LARGE the bowl was. This soup was the least popular of the bunch, probably because the sweetness of the parsnips overpowered the entire soup. There didn't seem to be enough salt nor umami to balance the sweetness.

Homemade fusilli with housemade burrata cheese, tomatoes, and basil
We all concluded that the pastas, which were all homemade, were excellent. I loved the chewy texture of the fusilli, and naturally I absolutely loved the beautiful combination of burrata, tomatoes, and basil.

Homemade gnocchi with veal ragu
Similarly, the housemade gnocchi was also delicious. The meat ragu was rich and flavorful.


Risotto stuffed jumbo Maine crab
The biggest failure of the night was the dramatically presented crab entree. It was part of the Restaurant Week menu, and essentially was quite undercooked. The risotto was still hard (almost crunchy) inside, hardly acceptable from a textural perspective. I wonder if the kitchen was just overwhelmed and thus undercooked this entree.

Eggplant dessert

Thanksfully, we were partially redeemed with the dessert.

Have you ever heard of eggplant being served as part of a dessert? We sure hadn't so were intrigued by this item. Besides, the waiter told us that eggplant has more nicotine than the tobacco plant. Although his exaggeration was inaccurate (it's actually second after the nicotine plant), the fact that eggplants had nicotine was new to us, so it was still an interesting fact.

This layered dessert was actually pretty good. It was definitely a new way to enjoy eggplant!

The other dark chocolate dessert, which reminded us a bit of brownies, was pretty good - nicely dark and chocolate-y.

Though we had no room, we enjoyed a dew mignardises. I preferred the simple chocolate dusted truffles to the interesting chewy sesame balls.

Overall, I can definitely see that Erbaluce is able to make some fantastic dishes. We all loved their pasta dishes, and some of the appetizers, like the razor clams, were absolutely phenomenal. I like how the menu changes every day, which means you never know what to expect if you return.

The ambiance is romantic, the menu is good, and overall, the cooking is excellent. I would definitely consider returning . . . just not during Restaurant Week.

Erbaluce
69 Church St
Boston, MA 02116

Chinese Wok Starter Kit Winners!

Hi everyone!

Happy Friday! I'm thrilled to announce the winners of the Chinese Wok Starter Giveaway, sponsored by Nina Simonds, author of the popular cookbook Spoonful of Ginger.

Congrats to the following!

Lillie_Amelia who said "Hunanese spicy fish!  And any form of lotus root."

The Culinary Lens who said "I guess my favorite is not a dish but rather a Dim Sum brunch"

Alexis, who said "Xi hong shi chow ji dan!  Stir fried egg and tomato.  I ate it nearly everyday when I lived in China and I really ought to learn how to prepare it!"

Chris Yang, who said "Chinese red braised fatty pork belly!"

The Nervous Cook, who said "Pan-fried noodles! Oh my goodness, I haven't had pan-fried noodles in so long, and I love them so, so much. This looks heavenly -- I would NEVER have thought to broil the noodles to make them crunchy! Thanks for introducing me to Nina's work: I am looking forward to following her & trying out some of her other dishes. I bet she's covered my favorite go-to Chinese comfort food: Egg-drop soup!

Please email me at jen{at}tinyurbankitchen{dot}com to get your prize!

Thanks for playing!

For those of you who didn't win, you can still pick up Nina's book Spoonful of Ginger for some great accessible Chinese recipes and feel like a winner when you cook cool dishes like the one below. :)

Have a great weekend!

Homemade Gravlax (Copper River Sockeye Salmon)

It's all about the quality of the fish.

I received my second shipment of Copper River Salmon this week. If you missed my first post explaining the background of this beautiful, luxurious salmon from Alaska, check it out here.

Last month I got Copper River King salmon, which is prized for its fatty, succulent flavor. It was seriously the best salmon I'd ever had in my entire life. This month I got a shipment of Copper River Sockeye salmon, a fish known for its naturally deep red hues and intense flavors.

I had two fillets, so I decided to try something a little different this month.

Why not try making my own house-cured salmon? 

Wow. So easy to make, yet so elegant and fancy at the same time. This dish presents beautifully and takes only about 15 minutes of active work to prepare. It's simple, popular with guests, and super enjoyable to eat.


First thing's first - make sure your salmon is really really FRESH! I cured mine the day I got it. Just remember, you won't be cooking this at all! Treat it as you would any other raw fish.

There are countless ways you can make cured salmon. At a minimum, you need salt and sugar. The rest is just flavoring agents. This particular version uses citrus zest alongside a 1:1 mixture of coarse salt (e.g., sea salt or kosher salt) and sugar.

Remove the skin on a 2 lb filet and cover both sides with the zest/sugar/salt mixture. Cover up with foil and weigh down the salmon with something heavy (e.g., jars, cans) for at least 8 hours.

When you open it, you'll notice that the salmon lost a lot of water! Osmosis!

Rinse the salmon well and dry. The curing process deepens the already unusually red hue of the Sockeye salmon. The filet itself becomes much denser.

Take your sharpest knife and slice thinly at a diagonal against the grain.

Serve with your favorite toppings. We tried a mixture of either a dill sour cream mix or creme fraiche and caviar. Both were absolutely fantastic. For even more detailed step-by-step pictures of this entire process, check our my original post on this recipe.

Citrus Gravlax
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
1/2 cup coarse salt (I used sea salt)
1/4 tsp freshly-ground white pepper
1/2 cup sugar
1 salmon filet, skin removed - (around 2 lbs)
1 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp grated orange zest
1 1/2 tsp grated lime zest
1 1/2 tsp grated grapefruit zest

Remove skin from the filet. Set aside this skin for another purpose. Combine salt, pepper, sugar, and zest in a bowl and mix well. Line a large tray with foil. Spread out half of the mixture onto the foil. Place the salmon on salt mixture. Cover the other side of the filet with the remaining mixture. Wrap tightly and put weigh down with another tray, preferably filled with heavy jars or cans. Let marinade overnight (or at least 8 hours).

Remove salmon from marinade (a lot of liquid will have come out). Rinse under cold water and pat dry. Thinly slice and serve with crackers, creme fraiche, and (optionally), caviar. Alternatively, serve with a sour cream/dill dip.

Enjoy!

Salmon with Prunier caviar and Cloumage creamy cheese curds

House cured gravlax with sour cream and dill


Disclaimer:
I received the salmon filet for free from the Copper River Salmon Association.

Papa Galos - Oceanview Dining in Santorini

It was our last day on the gorgeous island of Santorini in Greece.

Up until this point, we had dined on pretty simple food: delicious chicken gyros for lunch and grilled seafood for dinner.

For this last day, we wanted something a bit more special. We asked the inn owner, "can you recommend a place with really good food and a great view?"

He paused and then chuckled.

"The places with the best views do not have good food, and the places with the best food do not have the best views."

We decided we could forgo the best views in exchange for really good food. He recommended a lovely place in Oia called "Papagalos." Only a five minute walk from where we were staying, Papagalos was the perfect place to enjoy our last meal out in Greece.


Though the restaurant is not right on the ocean, it still has a lovely view. Honestly, I think there are very few places in Oia with a bad view.  After all, most of the buildings in the entire town are perched off of a high cliff overlooking the ocean. Sure, we were set a bit back, but you can still see the water quite clearly.

Frst thing's first - fresh bread accompanied by olive oil and olive tapenade!

We then enjoyed house made meat balls in a tomato-based sauce served with freshly baked pita bread, rice, and a fresh yogurt sauce.

Here's another stewed lamb dish served with a beautiful side of hummus.

These creamy sauteed oyster mushrooms were simple yet delicious.

My favorite! Halloumi cheese (I'd never tried it fried!) served over beautifully grilled vegetables. This was one of my favorite dishes.

We spent our final day just walking around the peaceful island.

The scenery is stunning in Santorini, to the point of seeming unreal sometimes . . .

I woke up super early before my 9AM flight my last morning to catch the sunrise.

Good by Santorini. I'll surely miss you . . .

This is the last post in the larger Greece series.
Greetings from Greece! 
Sweets in Greece 
Gyros, Souvlakis, and Pitas, Oh My!
Tavernas - Everyday Dining in Greece
Eating in the Greek Isles - Santorini