Posts Tagged “somerville”

Right on the heels of the terrible cheese/chocolate choice, I find that somebody has made an important cheese choice for me. I went to Diesel Cafe for lunch as I often do and ordered the Branch Trio as I often do - in fact, it was the winner of the Davis Square cheese-off back in May - but found that they had dropped it from the menu as part of a general refresh done this month. The nice lady offered to cobble together a “Branch Duo” since they had only two kinds of cheese - cheddar and jack.

Only two kinds of cheese? There are a dozen sandwiches on the menu and only two kinds of cheese in the whole shop? This is starting to sound dangerously like that Monty Python sketch. To be fair, there is also fresh mozzarella and cream cheese, but those never really belonged on the Branch Trio.

Interestingly, the improvised Branch Duo, while lacking one cheese and some sprouts, featured toasted bread and for some reason cost $2 less than any of the official sandwiches on the menu.

I understand the need for a business to control food costs, and how this can lead to the elimination of a favorite item or ingredient.  (If you don’t, you might need to hire a restaurant consultant.) We’ve all seen sandwich prices rise on account of the price of tomatoes, for example. I guess this is how its going to be. Unless the next president can muster the guts to open the national cheese reserves, it might be a good idea to begin hoarding cheese and maybe also buying cheese futures as a hedge against future cheese inflation.

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.

I’ve been talking about it for a good month. Julia was pushing for it. People thought I wouldn’t do it, or couldn’t do it, even shouldn’t do it. I wasn’t all that sure myself, but this July 4th, with the help and indulgence of some good people and their Independence day backyard party, we lined up five white wines and a sixteen piece family meal of mild Popeye’s fried chicken in a blind tasting for the title of “this wine goes well with fried chicken.”

Where do you even begin to determine what wine goes best with fried chicken? (For the record, we decided by fiat that Popeyes is the best fried chicken commercially available, thus avoiding a much more complex and arduous tasting process.) The guys working in liquor stores had vague answers, sometimes recommending beer instead or subtly suggesting the whole project was insane. The internets, usually a font of complete (and completely unreliable) information, came up on the short side, with just one helpful review from wine review online. The twitterati came through with some ideas, @gracepiper suggesting, “I’d go for a crisp acidic white to cut through the fat,” and @popeyeschicken shilling ,”Cakebread Chardonnay goes great with mild! A South African Shiraz really works well with the spicy. Bon-appe-fide!” @garyvee was silent on the matter, claiming to be on a plane en route to Bordeaux. What-ever. Searching on cork’d was similarly unhelpful. I can’t help thinking the info is in there, but somehow trapped behind a lousy search system

I picked up five wines, some from recommendations, some from guesswork, and bagged them in random order. Here are the notes, in the order tasted with white meat or dark, but remember that nobody knew what they were tasting at the time.

#1: Vernaccia di San Gimignano Tenuta le Calcinaie 2007
We were crushed when the bag came off. We really like Vernaccia. We love Tuscany. And it’s DOCG and biodynamic, too! But this one was just blah. Maybe too young, maybe not quite cold enough, it just wasn’t crisp or bright enough for Popeyes salty crispy gamy greasy goodness. The fact that it had a slight nose of grass was ironic, since that’s where much of it ended up. A bummer at $16.

#2: La Vieille Ferme Cotes du Luberon 2007
Generally acknowledged to be superior to #1, this Rhone white called “the old farm” had a not one but two chickens on the label but still didn’t cut the grease enough to make it a happy match. There was some evidence of oak amongst the generally fruity flavors, but we were wishing for more crispness. Not too shabby for $9 but save it for more delicately prepared chickens.

#3: Casal Garcia Vinho Verde (NV)
One guest identified this one immediately, citing the slight fizz and bright citrusy nature. We agreed at once that the necessary acid was present to put up with popeyes grease and salt. Some even opined that this wine might have applications outside the fried chicken world. Grapefruit, lime, and slight mineral notes made some wonder if this was a Sauvignon Blanc. Halfway through the flight, this Portuguese $5 bottle was in the lead.

#4: Oyster Bay 2007 Sauvignon Blanc
I think if the wines were known in advance, the smart money would have been on this Marlborough NZ white. And maybe if it didn’t have to follow the Portuguese it would have fared better. A typical (which is very good) but unexceptional example of its kind, Oyster Bay delivered a dry and fruity experience that was firmly ok with the chicken, especially the white meat. A solid performer at $12.

#5: Cakebread Cellars 2005 Chardonnay
It was obvious from the first sip that this wine was not like the others. “Napa chardonnay!” some cried. “It’s like licking a barrel” said others. Oak, vanilla, butter and all the hallmarks of a mature California Chardonnay were nicely balanced. Even guests who were disgusted at the very idea of tasting wine with fried chicken grudgingly sampled this one. It was Popeyes own recommendation, but did it match up with the chicken? The majority said no, not so much, the buttery nature didn’t jibe with the fried chicken. A few dissenters preferred it, though. At $46, you’d better be sure.

At least for this round, we declare Casal Garcia Vinho Verde Branco the best wine partner for Popeyes mild fried chicken. There’s plenty of room at our summer table for humble tasty treats.

So, what have we learned here? Well, first and foremost, we learned that further testing will be necessary. Without even expanding our research to spicy chicken or red or rose wines, we notably omitted Champagne, Pinot Grigio, and Gruner Veltliner, three very likely candidates for good fried chicken matches.

We also learned that price and conventional measures of wine quality don’t always mean as much as they’re cracked up to, especially when making non-traditional pairings. In terms of all the various advice we received, I have to hand it to @gracepiper of Fearless Cooking for being most prescient even without recommending a particular wine.

Humble thanks also to the Josephine ave crew for putting up with this affront to their gourmet sensibilities. Several more blog posts could - and should - be written to celebrate the lamb burgers, hummus, smoked chicken salad, trifle and cupcakes and other amazing treats on offer.

Not too long ago, I was craving a good savory scone, and when I couldn’t find any in local shops, a good friend went ahead and made some, which were most excellent. Yesterday, I was at the Wine & Cheese Cask, possibly Somerville’s best wine shop, looking for some crisp whites the fried chicken wine pairing. As it turns out, I purchased the winning wine at the cask. But before I did that, I went across the street to The Biscuit (formerly Toscanini, formerly Panini cafe) for a snack, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a savory scone, three cheese scallion to be precise.

It’s dangerous business to compare a purchased scone, even one from a neighborhood bakery, to one made pretty much on demand by a friend. But since some of you might not be lucky enough to have such a friend, I offer these observations on The Biscuit’s scone.

There’s lots of cheese.  This is a good thing.  You can even see some rivers of molten cheese oozing out of the scone on the right.  On the other hand, there’s no bacon.  A split decision, but vegetarians win.  Take note, A, J and L.

The shape of these scones is blobular, not the more traditional scone wedge.  No real opinion on that, but at $2 a pop, I’m happy to report that they are good-sized without being unpleasantly huge.

They are moist, perhaps moister than I’d expect from a scone.  Perhaps there’s extra egg in the mix, resulting in a shiny exterior and a generally brioche-y demeanor.  Not a bad thing at all, just not quite the same as other scones I’ve seen and sampled.

I’m happy there’s at least one more savory scone out there, and I recommend you check them out.