Archive for April, 2008

Chianti that’s kosher for passover.  It’s down with both DOCG and OUP.  Too bad ashkenazim can’t have fava beans at passover.  I think we’ll leave the Manischewitz to Elijah.

In other news, the New York Times finds kosher wines from Israel superior to those from more traditional (although certainly not older) European wine regions.  Who knew?

Although its grand opening might have been obscured by nearby Chipotle’s free burrito day promotion on Thursday, Snappy Sushi is a welcome addition to the Davis Square dining scene.  Especially the lunch scene.  The intrepid FG marketing group set out to investigate.

Nice clean space, sage green and blond wood.  Unusually, there is just one big table and a small sushi bar.  It’s a nicer table than we have in the big conference room at the office, and might even seat more.   I forsee many meetings here.  The menu is compact and more or less all sushi; no hot food to speak of.

Left:  cucumber roll, saba, yellowtail and salmon. Center: california roll and something I forgot.  Right: lunch box special - eel roll, avocado roll, shrimp, white fish, salmon and tuna.  Note that all of the above are prepared on brown rice.  If you’re the sort of person who gets excited about brown rice kappa maki (and you know who you are), you should check out the closeup:

Everything was carefully prepared and tasty.  The staff were extraordinarily pleasant and polite, a big step up from the general run of Davis square service.  Prices were good, even a little low.  I hope they make a good go of it.  Next time we’ll have to try the fancy rolls.  I can’t find a website for this place, but it’s on Highland Ave a couple of doors past Blue Shirt.  Here’s another good review.

Photo credit: me.

You know how sometimes it seems you can’t do anything without causing some kind of fuss? First it was the Lake Champlain Chocolate Kerfuffle, and now this:

Last week I went to lunch with A at a Diva, an Indian restaurant near my office and was pleasantly surprised to find mini-dosas on the buffet table. I snapped a photo and sent it to a friend to make him jealous that I’d had such a treat for lunch. (Before anybody starts in, there is absolutely nothing abnormal about photographing your food. Just ask this guy or this one. Some lucky people make a living doing it!) This was my second plate at the buffet and the tandoori chicken leg was included for scale. (I ate it, of course.)

Apparently it was a slow news day, since he turned around and posted my photo on his blog under “Honey, who shrunk the dosa?” and racked up 200+ often heated comments. Here are a few:

khoofia: the violently oblique trajectory - but in many parts of the world, street vendors [from thailand to the philippines] are reducing portion sizes in response to rising grain prices. the picture actually represents one of the presumed root causes - the dosai, or the grain product, is increasingly a smaller portion of the diet as more people are adding non-vegetarian products to their meal.

Tamasha: Mini dosas are crisper, just the way I like ‘em. Plus, it’s the buffet. Get over it. :P

RC: The rise of commodity prices is largely due to the STUPID ethenol policy put in by Dubya. I mean is that anything that this government can do right? They have completely messed up the agricultural market of the whole world by this stupid ethenol idea.

Neale: Where is India’s Mason-Dixie line and what is it called?

Portmanteau: gee, that was so meta. a dosa is a dosa is a dosa. well done! to think that i missed the subtle gertrude stein reference.

Manju: I’m opposed to this burritozation of the dosa. dosa’s should be ripped and dipped (btw, notice no sambar in the pic?) and the inner fillings scooped up to control chutney or potato distribution.

…and a whole lot of stuff that was way over my head about the history and culture of different parts of India. I spent some time trying to figure out if any of these people were angry at me for eating the wrong dosa the wrong way, but gave up in confusion.

Behold, the power of lunch.

I really like the idea of Etsy, which describes itself as “Your place to buy and sell all things handmade,” although I haven’t yet found something there I actually want to buy. That doesn’t stop people bringing certain kinds of Etsy items to my attention. I’m not sure what to make of this one.

Not as cuddly as the felt chocolate limeduck I found earlier, but they have a certain attitude to them. If you can carry this look off, I give you credit.

A while ago, I blogged about a comment I heard at a Photographic Resource Center lecture. Either Max Becher or Andrea Robbins said, “In order not to go blind, you have to travel.” Oddly enough, that post got picked up by Radio Barachois, which might or might not be a radio station in St. Pierre & Miquelon. Go figure.

But I digress. My point is that I did travel recently, to London. While there, I ate Chinese food, Cantonese style dim sum at New World in London’s Chinatown, to be specific. I felt more at home during that meal than I had all week. Perhaps it was the charming company, perhaps because the dining was more unhurried than most of my week, perhaps because the decor was nearly identical to that of big dim sum houses all around the world. The cool thing about diaspora is that if you’re comfortable there, you can find a bit of home almost anywhere. Even if its not your diaspora. Robbins & Becher, right again.

It reminded me that I hadn’t had dim sum at home nearly often enough. So this weekend, I was one of eight adults and three toddlers who descended upon Empire (or perhaps Emperor) Garden and utterly laid waste to everything that came within reach for $12 per adult.

I think it’s safe to say that a grand time was had by all. Spilled tea, clashing dietary restrictions, screaming children. Hot and noisy (热闹), just how life should be.