Snappy Sushi

Snappy Sushi is a relative newcomer to the Boston scene. It has several locations in the greater metro area and an outpost in Davis Square opened a few months ago. Today, I sampled its fare for the first time.Snappy has an unusual spin: all of its dishes are made with high-quality Koshihikari brown rice. This partially-milled whole grain brown rice is rich in vitamins and minerals and serves as a natural digestive aid. I love sushi (and I've even made it myself), but I had never before encountered brown rice sushi. I was hesitant: would its nutty flavor and somewhat crunchy texture overpower the other ingredients? Would it render an unpalatable flax seed granola aftertaste?

True to its name, the Spicy Salmon-Avo Roll was an inside-out roll with salmon and avocado. The brown rice differs in mouth-feel and taste from white rice, but it didn't discernibly clash with rest of the ingredients. However, it lacked the heat of most spicy sushi sauces:The "fancy" Crispy Eel Roll consisted of eel, avocado, cucumber, and flying fish roe rolled together and topped with crunchy tempura bits and eel sauce. I would've appreciated more eel and less eel mayonnaise and weird cereal-esque topping, but, on the whole, it was still tasty:I had heard mixed opinions about Snappy Sushi. To its credit, it's decidedly cheaper than most other sushi bars and restaurants in the area. My grade? It's somewhere between a B and a B+. In no way is this as tasty as "regular" sushi. However, it's a little easier on your wallet and a little better for your body, so I welcome its attempt to broaden the spectrum of sushi options.

Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie

According to The New York Times, Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side is home to "the largest, most divisive chocolate chip cookies in Manhattan."

Levain's cookies were featured on a Food Network episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay;" true to form, the chocolate chip walnut bested Flay's offering. My friend Emily and my sister have raved about them for quite some time, so I figured it was my turn to sample the massive, ooey-gooey treat.

Recently, I swung by the basement bakery and picked up 8 of their famed cookies:

This year's Zagat Survey ranked Levain as the #1 destination for cookies. Bakers weigh the dough on a scale before hand-forming each cookie. Each cookie clocks in at a massive 6 ounces--that's nearly half a pound apiece!I was not disappointed. These cookies are crunchy on the outside with a molten chocolate center. Hail the nearest cab and head to Levain to join in on the cookie craze!

Dave's Fresh Pasta

Today, I had lunch with Chloe, one of my friends from college. We met up at Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square, a beloved off-campus wine bar/specialty food store/lunch counter. In addition to churning out multiple types of fresh pasta and sauce every day, Dave's offers a wide variety of interntationally-sourced cheeses, wines, olives, dips, appetizers, breads, sauces, and chocolates for the discerning gourmand. The store provides catering services and occasional wine and culinary classes. We love their sandwiches and salads!

I ordered one of the paninis of the day, The Bresaola. According to Wikipedia (that pantheon of accurate information!), "Bresaola is air-dried salted beef that has been aged about 2-3 months until it becomes hard and a dark red, almost purple colour. It is made from eye of round and is lean and tender with a sweet, musty smell. It originated in Valtellina, a valley in the Alps of northern Italy's Lombardy region."To combat the saltiness of the beef, the panini was outfitted with green apple slices, Fontina cheese, extra virgin olive oil, greens, and a balsamic vinegar reduction. I washed it down with a Sparkling Blackberry Izze. Perfection!

La Bergamote

In New York, my sister lives down the street from an adorable and authentic French patisserie, La Bergamote. I spent two summers in France, so I know a good French bakery when I see one. This is the real deal.Its offerings are basic--ceci n'est pas Starbucks, mon ami--with perhaps 5 or 6 hot and cold drink options and freshly baked baguettes, croissants, brioches every morning. La Bergamote also serves up traditional baguette sandwiches and mini quiches. Its main draw, however, are its pastries.

Over the years, I've sampled many of the patisserie's tarts, tartlets, chocolate mice, pate de fruits, and mousses. This week, I ordered a mini tiramisu:This photo is a little fuzzy, but "La Bergamote" has been repeatedly transferred on the thin squares of white chocolate that constitute the border:C'est magnifique!

Faidley's Crab Cakes

My dad grew up in Baltimore County, so he's very persnickety and discerning when it comes to crabcakes. It's his opinion that there isn't a decent crab cake to be found north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Geographically, this rules out every restaurant in my home state, so we often drive to Lexington Market in Baltimore to sate our crab cake cravings.

The destination? Faidley's Seafood, a family-owned and operated business since 1886. It is home to award-winning crab cakes acclaimed the world over. According to the Faidley's website, the restaurant was commissioned to develop crab cakes for the US Space Shuttle crew.

The tables are standing room-only. You'd think that this would detract from the culinary experience--you're quite literally rubbing elbows with the stranger beside you--but one bite of a Faidley's crab cake will melt your inner Scrooge. Each crab cake is made to order by hand.
The crabcake has a perfect golden brown crust, but you should never judge a 'cake by its cover: the true test lies in its composition. All too often, you bite into a mediocre crab cake that is mostly filler. There may be a few streaky patches of crabmeat, but it tends to be flaky and not-so-fresh, a disc-shaped patty that was defrosted and fried.

Behold the Colossus of crab cakes: a softball-sized, densely-packed orb of fresh jumbo lump crab meat.

Veggie Planet

Last night, my friend Emily and I ventured to Veggie Planet in Harvard Square for the first time. It's located in alley and underground...but you can just look for the giant carrot sign!Veggie Planet is a renowned vegan/vegetarian restaurant, and it's located in Club Passim, a music venue that has been around for 50 years. Joan Baez played her first gig here, and, over the years, many prominent folk singers and musicians have graced its stage. While we ate in the cramped, colorful, dive-like dining space, a band set up their sound system next door.

Emily ordered the vegan Hot Tomato Artichoke soup, which, true to its name, arrived piping hot. Note the billowing steam:For her entree, she ordered the Roasted Vegetables and Rice: butternut squash, spinach, tomatoes, caramelized onions, and portabello mushrooms atop brown rice.I had the vegan Spicy Tomato Gazpacho. Surpisingly, this enormous portion was deemed a "small." I found it to be tasty but a bit too chunky for my palate. This would be best served as salsa alongside a sizable bowl of tortilla chips: I also ordered a small Safe 'n' Sound pizza: fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, asiago cheese, basil, spinach, and fried garlic. Veggie Planet's organic pizza dough is made by Haley House, a non-profit bakery in the South End. (Whenever possible, Veggie Planet purchases local organic ingredients.) Emily and I both cleaned our plates, and, given the generous portions, that says a lot about the food at Veggie Planet!As you've probably surmised by now, Veggie Planet is quirky, bold, crunchy, and eco-conscious. You could totally envision it in California. The restaurant uses an ecological oven to cook all of its food. The establishment also supports a noble social cause: proudly, the restaurant donates 2% of its food profits and 100% of its t-shirt profits to Food For Free, a non-profit organization that helps feed the hungry in Cambridge.

BerryLine

Tonight, my friends and I went to BerryLine in Harvard Square for frozen yogurt. Although this fro-yo/smoothie/coffee purveyor has been open for several months, it was my first time inside the tiny, brightly-decorated establishment.

We don't have a Pinkberry or a Red Mango in Boston, but BerryLine's low-fat, low-calorie frozen yogurt is a close replication of the trendy Korean imports. And, in typical Cambridge fashion, the dessert is a result of whiz-kid scientific research: Matt Wallace and Eric Yang, post-doctoral researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School, spent two years perfecting the molecular structure of BerryLine's frozen yogurt. The result? A dense, creamy, low-calorie treat. Who knew that a microscope could yield such delectable results?!

Indeed, I even prefer BerryLine to Pinkberry's formula, which has an oddly fluffy consistency, in my opinion. BerryLine's original flavor actually tastes like plain yogurt--or Fage Greek yogurt, another one of my favorite snacks. I added chocolate and peanut butter chips to mine. I also sampled the banana flavor, one of tonight's three fruit-infused specials.

Wagamama

This summer, I've formed a weekly dinner club of sorts with my friends Brendan and Kyle. Really, it's more of an "eating club:" we go out to restaurants in the greater Boston area instead of actually preparing our meals!

Tonight, we ventured to Wagamama in Harvard Square. The cuisine is a fusion of Japanese, Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes. It's kind of an upscale ramen noodle bar. As noted above, the Wagamama chain has spread across the globe. The interior of the restaurant is that of a sleek noodle bar/canteen-style restaurant--somewhere between a pho noodle dive and David Chang's Momofuku in New York. All of the dishes are made-to-order, so entrees often arrive to the table at different times. Servers write on your paper placement to keep track of your order.Brendan had Yaki udon, or teppan-fried udon noodles with curry oil, shiitake mushrooms, egg, leeks , shrimp, chicken, yaki chikuwa, bean sprouts, green and red peppers, black and white sesame seeds, fried shallots, pickled red ginger, and a spicy cilantro vinaigrette.Kyle had the Yasai Katsu curry, which consisted of deep-fried slices of sweet potato, eggplant and butternut squash coated in panko breadcrumbs. The dish was served with a light curry sauce, rice, mixed leaves, and red pickles.For a starter, I had duck gyoza, which I have ordered in the past. They were filled with duck and leeks, deep-fried, and served with cherry hoisin sauce. Basically, some of my all-time favorite ingredients...deep-fried!I also had teriyaki salmon. It was grilled and served with rice and steamed baby bok choy. The dish was garnished with mixed sesame seeds, nori, and teriyaki sauce.

Ode to Dough

It's hot, it's summer, and I like unhealthy food. For no particular reason, here are some of my all-time favorite pizza photos:

My friends Adriana and Christina brace themselves for a slice from Papa's in Cambridge, MA:My friend Eva goes bananas over a slab of mozzarella in Rehoboth Beach, DE:And, my all-time favorite pizza, Mack & Manco's in Ocean City, NJ:

The Great Cobb Debate

My friend Emily--who, like me, is more than a little bit food-obsessed--is moving to another city soon, so we spent a long afternoon in Boston yesterday. (See yesterday's post about our visit to Flour Bakery + Cafe.) Or, as she so succinctly put it, "We basically spent the day walking to a restaurant, eating, walking to another restaurant, eating, and walking to a bookstore to read cookbooks."For lunch, we ate at Francesca's Cafe in the South End. It started off promising: Emily had Quiche Lorraine with a side salad:And I had a Raspberry Lime Rickey in a pretty shade:...but then, in my estimation, things went downhill. I had this Cobb salad:It was perfectly delicious--thanks in large part to the copious amounts of Gorgonzola, bacon, and turkey--but I always feel a little weird whenever the ingredients in a Cobb are jumbled all together. I mean, my Cobb looks essentially the same as Emily's side salad, albeit with more stuff thrown on the plate.

Indeed, the last three or four Cobb salads I've ordered in restaurants have arrived this way. I suppose it's the modern/avant-garde/deconstructed take on a traditionally structured salad. Or maybe the chefs just get tired of making the time-consuming traditional presentation. But I"m starting a one-person revolution: Bring back the true Cobb!

Flour Bakery + Cafe

For quite some time, I've been salivating over a particular episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on the Food Network: the one in which Joanne from Flour Bakery + Cafe bests Flay in the battle for the nation's best sticky bun. According to the Flour website, they contain "dark, sticky caramel and toasted pecans."Luckily for me, I attended college in the greater Boston area, where Flour Bakery is located. Unluckily, the massive $2.75 sticky buns sell out bright and early each morning, and I've never woken up early enough to commute to one of the bakery's two locations. But, judging from the photo above, I can easily understand why they're so popular!

Today, my friend Emily and I went to the Flour Bakery location in the South End for an afternoon snack: Emily opted for a decaf iced coffee with soy milk and the "Chunky Lola" cookie. If I recall correctly, the giant cookie was full of chocolate chunks, pecans, oats, and coconut:Hovering over the glass display case, I immediately honed in on the gargantuan Boston Cream Pie/Cake hybrid......because, when you're in Boston, if you can't have an enormous award-winning sticky bun, a slab of a Boston dessert classic is a welcome stand-in: