My Boston Trip--Chapter 2: Lunch at Brasserie JO

My appointment with the Jeopardy! people was at 3, and I wanted to be well-nourished going into the audition room. We had slept in, and breakfast was a granola bar and a juice box, so a generous lunch was in order to keep me going until evening.

When we checked into our hotel on Monday night (The Midtown Hotel, a simple, cozy, place to stay for about half what any other hotels in Back Bay charge) , the bellhop gave us a coupon for Brasserie JO, located in the nearby Colonnade Hotel. We were in the mood to try something new, and the coupon gave us the incentive to try Brasserie JO, which is a sister restaurant to an establishment of the same name in Chicago. Based on the Chicago restaurant's success, Chef Jean Joho was asked to come to Boston and establish a second Brasserie JO.
The cuisine is French casual. The ambience is polished but not fussy, with a little art deco, dark-finished wood, and a large window onto Huntington Ave. It's just casual enough to have a TV over the bar, but the lunchtime ambience is perhaps best described as a place for a business lunch where men would wear ties. It also helps if you remember some high school French. (I can read it, not speak it.)
To start, we were given carrot sticks marinated in an herb dressing--a nice "amuse-bouche"--and a thin, very crusty baguette about a foot long and uncut. The bread was delicious, but the crumbs from breaking the crust made a bit of a mess. That was okay, because, for lunch, the tables were set with white tablecloths over which was laid white paper like what is used as wrapping at fish counters (but much wider). This made for quick and easy cleanup and turnaround, and took nothing away from the charm of the place.

I had The Omelette Du Jour, filled with smoked salmon, spinach, and cheese (Swiss?). Personally, I think I would have liked the omelette better without the salmon. I do like smoked salmon, but I had never had so much at once (usually I've had it as an hors d'oeuvre), and the saltiness was a bit much for my taste. Also, the salmon was significantly cooler than the rest of the omelette, which struck me as a little odd. Was it supposed to be that way? I decided not to over think it and finished the whole generously-sized thing because I had a long afternoon of being smart (or trying to) ahead of me.

Chris had the Classic Parisian Ham Grilled Petit Pain: a ham and cheese sandwich that was grilled like a panini but made on bread that was more like a wide baguette. The bread was firm but not tough, and the inside was moist and tender but not gooey or drippy. I liked it better than my omelette, and if we visit Brasserie Jo again, I think I might get that instead.

Both meals came with frites--skinny "French fries" that were sprinkled with just the right amount of pepper, and firm, not floppy, with some potato skin on the ends, and not greasy.

Even without the coupon, our two entrees came to less than $30. (We had water to drink, seeing that Boston has excellent tap water. They flooded a bunch of western Mass. towns to get it, so for all that trouble, it had better be good.)

This luncheon kept me satisfied for several hours, until about 9, when we had dinner, which will be the next chapter.

My Boston Trip--Chapter 1: Sushi in Natick

photos from Chris' cell phone


It was Patriots' Day (click here if you're not from Massachusetts and/or do not know about this state holiday), perhaps better known as the day of the Boston Marathon. Since I had business in Boston on Tuesday (called to audition for Jeopardy! after doing well on the online test), I thought I'd stay over Monday night, which made sense on that level. Since Western MA does not receive Boston channels (at least not without cable or satellite service, which I don't have), I didn't have the big hype from those channels to remind me that the marathon was upcoming, and it only occurred to me the day before. So I spent Sunday night looking up the travel delays and road closings. Lucky me, most of the streets surrounding my hotel were going to be closed until 6 PM on Monday. Then traffic was bound to go nuts, Boston traffic being crazy enough as is.

So we changed plans, got off the Mass Pike in Framingham instead of Boston, and followed Route 9 east into Natick. (Route 9 becomes Huntington Ave. in Boston, which is where we were staying.) Across Route 9 from the Natick Mall is Minado Japanese Seafood Buffet Restaurant, which bills itself as "The Ultimate Sushi Buffet". Yes it is, indeed. Not only were there numerous varieties of sushi, but there was plenty for the non-sushi person, in this case, my husband Chris. There were pot stickers, shu mai, teriyaki beef, skewers of meat and vegetables, salads, and little cakes (which Chris piled onto a plate and made the majority of his meal).

When the motorcoach pulled up and unloaded a swarm of Korean visitors, some who had just run the marathon, I was worried. Would I get any food any time soon with this many people crowding the buffet? My fear was unfounded. The buffet is so well designed that the line naturally moves quickly. Because it's not a straight line but multiple segments perpendicular to each other, it's easy to skip over stretches of the buffet that may not interest you, or politely cut in (saying "excuse me"), get what you want, and get out.

I came to eat a lot of sushi, but because there was so much else to try, I didn't have quite as much as I had expected. I will admit that I don't know much about sushi. I think that, since my introduction to sushi in college, I developed my tastes and preferences based mostly on what's likely to be available in a cafeteria or grocery store, ie. California rolls, Philadelphia Rolls, and Salmon both in rolls or draped over rice. I should probably have been braver and sampled more of the buffet, but I gravitated toward my favorites and anything with avocado in it. I did try the sea urchin, which I had heard described as apricot-y, but tasted like cheap diet vanilla pudding to me. (To be fair, I have been fighting allergies lately, so maybe someday, if by some miracle my head finally clears up, I might discover that I like the stuff.) One of my favorite rolls was the "galaxy roll", which included grated carrots, cucumber, avocado, and rice dyed purple with beet juice. For dessert, I had various avocado and salmon sushis(?) with fresh pineapple and honeydew melon, which was a delightful combination. (Those cakes Chris had looked great, but I had no room for them.)


The cost of the buffet for each of us was about $30. (Lunch is $16 weekdays and $20 weekends and holidays--kids' pricing goes by height. <5' is half adult price, <4' is 1/5 adult price, <3' free.) Drinks sold separately.

Maybe it was the time of year, but the crab shells (snow crab legs, blue crabs halved) were very difficult to crack, especially since they don't provide mallets or crackers. It wasn't worth the effort and was a very messy endeavor to try and get to the crab meat.

Soft serve ice cream is usually included on the buffet, but they had technical difficulties with that the day we were there.

This buffet would be dangerous for those with food allergies. Especially at the sushi end of the buffet, utensils are shared between dishes, so those tongs would have touched anything within two feet of them.

But, overall, now I know where I want Chris to take me for my birthday (though maybe for lunch to save money).
www.minado.com

Reading Material: Bachelor Chow

While trying to find the perfect yams-and-marshmallows recipe, I found a cooking website called CDKitchen.com. Immediately, "Bachelor Chow" by Josh Gunn became my favorite column on the site.

In an easy, conversational tone, Josh writes about such pragmatic topics as dishes and roommates, grocery shopping for one, gender roles as they relate to cooking, neighborly relations, and good dinner conversation.

Of course, he also has his recipes for jambalaya, gumbo (and a vegetarian version thereof), and signature cocktails Josmos and Joshritas.
"Bachelor Chow" is definitely worth a taste-test.

Jimmy's Farm--why am I writing about pork in times like these?

Last night, I decided to find out if there are guinea pig fanciers' groups on Facebook, The good news is, I found some, and there are hundreds. As I clicked through the search results, I found pictures of a guinea pig village. Now that I am looking to buy a house, I am also thinking about what I want in my new yard, and now--in addition to the clothesline, fruit trees, and picnic table--I want a miniature village for Paco and his successors to run around in.
Where was this beautiful cavy community in the pictures? I searched, and I found Jimmy's Farm. (OK, just his website. The farm is too far away.) Jimmy's Farm is in Suffolk, UK. Jimmy himself is a childhood friend of "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver, who loaned some of the money to start the farm. Jimmy's Farm was the subject of three BBC documentary series. The farm raises rare breeds of pigs, cows, and sheep, much like one would raise "heirloom" varieties of plants. If it weren't for farms like this actively working to continue these varieties of animals, these breeds would be extinct, because industrialized "factory farming" favors animals that fatten up faster, more weight meaning more money, and in the case of the cow breeds, give more milk. Industrialized farming is all about quantity, but, as Jimmy's Farm and others would assert, the superior quality of the meat and milk from these rare breeds makes them worth perpetuating.
The method of raising pigs also makes a difference.

Last summer, my cousins raised three pigs from piglets to 200+ pounds. The last few family potlucks, their contributions have been their home-grown pork, and the hams prepared by the local butcher who was paid in part with the smallest pig. It was the best pork I have ever had. The kids live on the extended family homestead where Mom's cousin still grows vegetables, but it is nothing like the farm was in its heyday in Mom's childhood. The pig's pen was set up out back, far enough away from the house that the smell wouldn't go that far. The pen was about the size of a small bedroom, but the pigs were happy in it. Factory farming confines animals to tiny quarters, so they're not happy, and cramming animals is not conducive to good health.
That was the best pork I have ever had in my life and most likely the healthiest. It will be a long time before I can have any like it again, since free-range pork is not what is available in a regular non-Whole Foods supermarket. Maybe swine flu wouldn't be such an issue if the pigs lived in conditions that let their bodies thrive and fight off infections. I'm not a veterinarian or an epidemiologist, but I have a hunch.




Jimmy's Recipes


Meat Cookery Tips from Jimmy

Yams and marshmallows and pineapple...yay.

Jumbo yams were 3 pounds for $1 last week at Price Rite. So I bought three enormous yams that together were almost four pounds. There was just one thing I wanted to do with them: bake them with marshmallows on top.
I searched the web for hours for a recipe that used fresh (not canned) yams, didn't mash them, was baked not made in a skillet, and didn't load on gratuitous sugar. I was not fully satisfied with any recipes I found, so I did it my way (ie. clumsily) but it came out well. I was inspired by some recipes to add pineapple, which I had never seen in this type of dish before.

I used all the yams and made the dish in a glass pan, 8"x11".

Ingredients: yams, margarine, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, a can of pineapple chunks, a bag of mini marshmallows.

1. Wash the yams and boil them until tender, which was about 15 minutes for these huge yams. (If you can stick a fork in them without resistance, that's about right.)
2. Let the yams cool to touchable temperature, and using your fingers, slip the skin off.
3. Cut yams into chunks, about twice the size of the pineapple chunks works well.
4. Drain the pineapple. (The juice doesn't go into the casserole, but is nice to drink or mix into cocktails.)
5. Put the yams and pineapple chunks in the pan.
6.Scatter dollops of margarine on top. I used about 1/3 cup of soft spreadable margarine in small dots about 1 1/2" apart, but whatever you would like is fine.
7. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, to taste.
8. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. (I covered it with foil for this step, but foil is optional.)
9. Remove pan from oven, add marshmallows to cover the top of the dish.
10. Bake for up to 10 more minutes to brown the marshmallows.

Being a small household of two people, we ate it for three days, and didn't mind that; it was still delicious. It does well in the fridge and a couple subsequent reheatings. It is even OK cold.