Tonight’s full moon found me at Somerville fave EVOO (that’s foodie talk for Extra Virgin Olive Oil) by random chance. J brought a batch of peachy mamas for chef owner Peter McCarthy and we crunched on a couple before sitting down to dinner. Don’t listen to her when she says they’re not hot. They are hot. Not in a terrible running for cover apocalyptic way, but they are hot. I’m just saying.
EVOO is probably the first really good restaurant I discovered about ten years ago when I lived in Somerville, just a few blocks away on Calvin Street. They do a great job of using local and seasonal ingredients and the space always feels soothing. I’m also a big sucker for the occasionally punny names for dishes, such as the Fried Green Monsters (softshell crabs with wasabi crust) and Duck Duck Goose, which I’ll describe shortly.
We started off with (note all the names of local providers) Verrill Farm’s Sweet Corn Bisque with Cilantro, Scallions and Lydia’s Pig Pancetta and Smoked Rabbit Confit, Eva’s Organic Wild Greens, Port Soaked Cherries and Toasted Pecan Salad with Shaved Vermont Cheddar and Grain Mustard - Rosemary Vinaigrette. Peter had indicated that he still had a bushel of excellent sweet corn and he wasn’t blowing smoke. The bisque was thick but not so finely milled as to be too smooth, and the pancetta and scallions added smoke and crunch in excellent proportion to the sweetness of the corn.
The Smoked Rabbit Confit salad - nuts on the side, thank you - was a blend of so many flavors and textures it’s hard to describe except to say that it was excellent. We had barely made a dent in those starters when we received one more from the kitchen, a sort of antipasto with prosciutto, “special secret stash pickles” and super-creamy Hannahbells cheeses.
Note the EVOO on the cheese. Nice touch! But really, we all know I was there for one thing above all others. Duck Duck Goose: Duck Confit, Seared Hudson Valley Duck Foie Gras, Slices of Goose Breast, Lentils, Local Farmer’s Summer Beans, Verrill Farm’s Wilted Greens and Sherry - Ginger Sauce.
The photo obscures the lentils, crunchy yellow beans and greens, without which it would be unbearably rich. Not that I wouldn’t bear it anyway, but still. We also had a side of warm red beets, The duck foie gras was delicate and expertly seared - I spread my part on some crusty house-made bread. The goose breast was tender and rare, soaking up the sherry ginger sauce admirably. The duck confit was arguably the best part, with crispy skin and almost flaky salty meat inside.
It’s good to see that EVOO stil has it and still innovates while supporting locavorism in all its glory.
Holiday weeks can be longer and shorter at the same time. I spent a couple of days in New York City with family and returned to full-bore autumn and a brief but intense two-day work week. Celebrating exceptional September results, half the company headed off to Sabur for drinks and apps. We enjoyed a bottle of Macedonian Vranec and the chef’s whim of appetizers, notably grape leaves, pickles, hummus and polenta. I can’t believe that I haven’t been to Sabur since July, but I got the text from J that she was 30 minutes from a table at Toro, so I had to split.
Entertaining former Bostonian K and his new wife L, J had managed to hold down some seats at the packed bar until we all arrived and eventually got seated at the communal long table. Toro is dark beyond trendiness so I couldn’t get the photos that I might have wanted, but I agreed to use the flash just once to capture one of J’s favorite dishes, which I’m sure will be written up on her blog soon enough.
We enjoyed a fine bottle of Albariño (they have several, we got the cheap one and didn’t mind a bit), borquerones (anchovies!), erizos en suquet (sea urchin, lobster and crab meat stew in tomato sauce), smoked beef tongue with lentils, grilled cauliflower, brussels sprouts with sea salt, and maiz asado con aioli y queso cojita (the house special, grilled corn with aoili, lime, and cheese - messy and delicious). Small without being stingy, none of these dishes cost more than $13, and we did not leave hungry.
And then we got one more dish, the one that I had been thinking about since I started my fall game kick, the conejo cocido, cava braised rabbit with carrot marmelade and burgundy snails.
Honestly I could take or leave the snails. Maybe they were there as a play on the tortoise and the hare, but they orbited the main part of the dish without really participating. The rabbit and carrots (another cheeky combo, but one that works here as it did at Rino’s) were perfectly done. The mildly gamy rabbit fell apart under the fork and the carrots were prepared with an offsetting sweetness, like a slightly crunchy tzimmes. The official start to rabbit season is still a week away, but so far, the signs are very positive.
What the Fluff? was postponed due to rain, so naturally we headed off to East Boston to a red sauce joint we’d never visited before, Rino’s place. Wouldn’t you? The party was joined by several members of the Josephine crew, Chef J (whose issues with red sauce are well documented), professor J and probably somebody I’m neglecting, for which I apologize. If you don’t have a limeduck epithet, contact me right away to get one.
I’m not really sure how we selected Rino’s, but it certainly wasn’t the website, which claims, among other things, “RINO’S IS KNOWN FOR IT’S WONDERFUL RED SAUCE, THIN CUT OF VEAL AND FISTS SIZE RAVIOLIS MADE TO ORDER.” yowza. They do a swift business in carryout as well as dine in. We upped our party from six to seven at the last minute and had to wait in the rain another hour for it.
Foolishly, we ordered appetizers (and some underwhelming red wine), including a monstrous but super-fresh caprese salad and some delicious and tender baby octopus in a deep red sauce. When ordering the apps, we were asked to confirm if we wanted app or entree size. God help us if we had ordered entree size. I needed a wide-angle adapter just to get the plate all in the frame.
For mains, just about everybody had pasta, most of it red, from the bolognese to the (pictured left) rabbit ragu with papardelle. (That was me of course, since I’m on a rabbit and duck kick these days. The rabbit was tender and complemented by some diced carrots, celery and onion for an autumnal feeling, and the papardelle were al dente.) Also exceptional were the fusili with chicken and broccoli and the eggplant wrapped around ricotta. Brave C ordered the much-bragged-about fist-sized ravioli, pictured right. I wish I had a ruler to add to the picture for scale. Each one must have been more than a quarter pound. Report is that they were delicious.
Only one of our party actually finished the main - clean plate clubber and gracious chauffeur M. We left with six clamshell takeaway boxes, each filled with at least one more meal. In retrospect, we have to question the economics of a restaurant that can serve up such enormous portions - including some with meats and seafood - for $16 or less, and have a wine list that tops out at $50 with most bottles at $18. Go figure. But as long as they do, and as long as you can find your way there (and back), I can think of few better places for giant plates of quality red sauce.
“Muffaletta FTW” summed up lunch well enough for a tweet, but I wanted to take a moment to expound and illustrate the deliciousness that is Dave’s Fresh Pasta in Davis Square. On a near-perfect early autumn day, I met J for lunch at Dave’s. I had recently visited with agile marketer tangyslice and we kvelled about the cuban there, so this time, with J, we decided to change it up a bit.
We spotted a muffaletta in the specials case, near the cubanos. How often do you get something like that around here? Muffaletta is a sandwich (actually, strictly speaking it’s a bread, but the name has come to stand for the sandwich in yet another example of culinary synecdoche) identified with New Orleans and apparently created by some Sicilian immigrants there. It’s a foccacia-like bread (the actual muffaletta) filled with an olive salad and layers of salami, mortadella, capicola (fill in as many cold cuts as you can handle) and cheese(s). Like most sandwiches, it’s best grilled. Plus, that flattens it out to size more likely to fit in your mouth. Dave sells muffaletta by the pound rather than by the sandwich or the slice, which seems like a pretty good idea to me for most sandwiches. Too often you get stuck with a lunch the size of your head and spend the afternoon fighting off a sleep coma. Anyway, here’s the delicious Dave’s fresh muffaletta:
Not to be upstaged by its spicier meatier neighbor, the artichoke sandwich with lemon basil pesto and fresh mozzarella was also on special. Priced and sized more traditionally, this sandwich felt healthier than the muffaletta but was no less enjoyable. The mushrooms and greens stole the show from the artichoke.
The cafe tables outside of Dave’s fill up quickly at lunchtime and are especially coveted in this gorgeous season.
Last week I had a pleasant meal at Rendezvous in Central Square, a place that has reliably seasonal menus and art on the walls. I was feeling a bit less than 100% so I chose the vegetable bollito misto (a Piedmontese boiled dinner, this one featuring polenta, fava beans, cheese and mushrooms) even though I was craving the Gascon duck three ways (grilled breast, confit leg and garlic sausage). I won’t regale you with all the details of the meal, but we also enjoyed grilled sardines with lemon and fried parsley, roast chicken with chanterelles, corn and green beans, and an impressive warm chocolate cake with cinnamon cream.
I was still thinking about the duck that got away - three ways, actually - when I stumbled upon an article in The Weekly Dig about the Fall game hunting seasons, complete with dates and recommended local dishes.
Duck season: Wed 10.15.08–Sat 11.29.08 and Fri 12.12.08–Sat 1.03.09 (Berkshire); Tue 10.14.08–Sat 11.29.08 and Mon 12.15.08–Mon 1.05.09 (Central); Fri 10.17.08–Sat 10.25.08 and Wed 11.26.08–Sat 1.24.09 (Coastal)
Rabbit season: Sat 10.18.08–Sat 2.28.09 (cottontail); Sat 11.15.08–Wed 12.31.08 (jackrabbit); Sat 10.18.08–Thu 2.05.09 (snowshoe hare)
From this we can deduce that here in Eastern Massachusetts, from October 18 through 25 and November 26 through January 24, it’s both duck season and rabbit season, a time period during which it’s entirely possible to have a spirited argument about whether it’s rabbit season or duck season. Have you figured out where this is leading yet? Well, here it is.
It’s not even officially duck season or rabbit season, but I keep ordering up delicious gamy dishes.
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