Posts Tagged “davis square”

No, I don’t mean the trouble all those college kids are getting into, I mean Charity Muggers, or “chuggers” as the limeys call them.  I was at lunch with @tangyslice in Davis square today and observed him live-blogging the local charity panhandlers.  Being who I am, I couldn’t help but geolocate Tangy’s observed data.

Perhaps you can use this to plot a nag-free course through the square.  Good luck, and watch where you step.  If you really want to make a difference, perhaps you’ll make a donation to Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, which is the featured charity of Social Media for Social Change.

Last week, that master of marketing mayhem tangyslice and I headed over to one of our lunch haunts, Dragon Garden, to strategerize. The place doesn’t look like much, but it’s reliably decent and pretty cheap. My usual dish is the Ma Po Tofu lunch special with hot & sour soup and a can of soda for just $5.

That will surely get its own feature at some point, but this time we opted for that militaristic classic, General Gau’s Chicken.

Julia has been working in the lab to get the crust just right, but for some reason she’s not available to cater lunch for $5, so we stick with Dragon Garden. It’s pretty ok, and whatever mysterious chemical they use to get the crust crunchy seems to work.

But what continues to blow my mind is that there was a real General Gau. Or Tso. Or maybe even Zuǒ. It’s not likely he (or his wife) invented or discovered any chickens, or any secret wet cornstarch techniques, but it’s nice to know at least some part of the American Chinese food canon has a basis in fact, however tenuous.

And if you can find a copy of that cartoon (Far Side?) in which the general returns for his chicken, I’d be very grateful.

Lunch is one of my three favorite meals of the day. Taking a break from the usual grind of burritopalooza or wolf-at-your-desk, I sought out that Davis Square oasis of calm, Snappy Sushi. While some people are off in Japan nom-nomming their way across the island, I still find Snappy to be above average in the lunch sushi game. Turns out they have at least one interesting surprise on the menu, the mamemaki roll. While the $1 a piece nigiri feel a little stingy, this $9 roll had a lot going on: brown rice, tuna, salmon, avocado, cucumber and lettuce, all wrapped in a white soy sheet studded with black and white sesame seeds and drizzled with a nice edamame-yuzu sauce.

The whole effect is very summery, with crunchy cucumber and mushy avocado adding a salad-like vibe to the sweet and melty salmon. The sharp citrusy sauce (I can taste the yuzu, not so sure about the edamame) and bland, slightly chewy soy wrapper really made this roll stand out.

Not quite ready to return to work, I wondered, what next? Ordering another roll was tempting. Picking up another couple of shots of caffeine also seemed sensible. But who needs sensible when you can get ice cream? I made a bee-line for JP Licks. In the interest of keeping it light - and simple - I looked only at the soft-serve frozen yogurt selections. Lo and behold, they had both coffee and oreo flavors in one machine, allowing me to order the rare fro-yo swirl version of one of my favorite ice cream varieties, coffee oreo.

I opted for the kiddie size - smaller than small - which apparently comes in an espresso to go cup (take that, Murky Coffee!) for $3.14. I like that it says “HOT” all along the bottom of the cup. Honestly, it didn’t hold a candle to the ice cream version which has actual chunks of oreo cookie, but it was cool and most definitely hit the spot.

If you’re a big frozen yogurt fan and a bit obsessive, you will get a big kick out of JP Licks’ frozen yogurt schedule, where you can learn which flavors will be on offer at which stores during which weeks, no doubt avoiding much calamitous disappointment.

On Wednesday, as is my habit, I visited the Davis Square farm market at lunchtime, bringing along two of the office interns. After all, we have an obligation to educate them, don’t we? T picked up a potted basil plant and L some banana bread from Breadsong bakery. I grabbed a pint of strawberries from Kimball Fruit Farm, even though I don’t really like strawberries, but they looked so nice and I figured the office would appreciate some healthier snacks. Also at Kimball, I snagged a bundle of asparagus, one of my favorite vegetables.

Some people like to roast or grill asparagus, and some people like to boil or sautée them. I’m a boiler, but a very very particular one. I dread overcooked asparagus and watch mine like a hawk, tongs and colander at the ready, to ensure only the most medium rare of asparagus, al dente if you will. (and yes, I snap the ends off rather than cutting them - it’s easier)

I’m similarly minimal in dressing them. No cheese or creamy sauces for me. A drizzle of olive oil, fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Can’t beat it.

And the next day, the leftover asparagus joined some canned tuna, jicama and snap peas for an impromptu approximation of a Niçoise salad. Very approximate, but still tasty, and Nice is nice.

In what is starting to become a Wednesday ritual, I visited the Davis Square Farmers Market today. It was much more lively than last week (and sunnier, too) and there was an impressive array of produce available, as the “menu” board proudly stated:

I was in a bit of a hurry since my traditional manager of a directive boss had the temerity to call me on my cell phone at lunchtime, delaying my plan by a good 30 minutes. So I made a quick survey and zeroed in on the first local heirloom tomatoes of the season, at least the first ones I’d seen. In my haste, I didn’t note the name of the farm, so I hope somebody will comment in and help me out.

The closeup is a little misleading in scale, the red one is (was) no more than two inches across, and the smaller ones grape-sized at best.

As soon as I got home, I grabbed the wrap that I had intended to bring for lunch but forgot in the fridge this morning (smoked salmon, goat cheese and greens) and cut into the juicy green mini-watermelon-looking tomato. Yum.

As I ate the wrap and the tomatoes (with some sea salt and a pomegranate spritzer) it occurred to me that this sandwich would be even better with the tomatoes inside, so I went back to the kitchen to make another, and while I assembled it, I realized that once again I had formulated an excellent Locavore Sandwich. Here’s the lowdown:

• Greens from Julia’s garden: 1 food mile, tops
• Tomatoes mentioned above, from Framingham if I remember right: 19 food miles
• Smoked salmon from Ducktrap River in Belfast, Maine: 209 food miles (plus the nautical miles, but hey, cut me some slack here)
• Goat cheese from the Davis Sq market last week, from Sterling, MA: 45 food miles
• Whole wheat lavash from Boghosian Valley Bread in Lawrence: 35 food miles

At least in the summer, this locavore thing is fun. I don’t see going all the way all the time, but especially with the awful news of contaminated tomatoes out there, eating a little closer to home is working out well for me.