Girl Gone Globetrotting

Monday was rough, so I left it up to tots, pretzels, cheesey sauce, and beer to cheer me up. It worked.

Photography by me. April 2013.

This little juice bar in Back Bay is the most “LA” I’ve felt since leaving the west coast. Fresh squeezed juices, smoothies, and healthy snacks abound at Juice. I can’t wait to try their seasonal specialties that include pineapple and watermelon.

Photography by me. April 2013.

Word was going around my office that Cutty’s sandwich shop in Brookline has the best sandwich in Boston, so I had to go check it out.

J and I arrived at Cutty’s on a brisk spring day at around 2 p.m., well after the lunch rush. We found Cutty’s still hopping with people ready for delicious sandwiches. I took this as a good sign, and boy was I right.

Cutty’s is the kind of hip, exclusive place that only serves certain dishes on certain days. So J and I got the Saturday sandwiches, the pork rabe and the pork fennel.

My sandy, the sweeter of the two, had slow-roasted pork, pickled fennel and roasted garlic on a sesame seed roll. The roll was amazing—crunchy, but moist. And I love me some sesame seeds. Bread is my weakness. So if I think the bread is good, it’s (in my humble opinion) de-lish.

J’s sandwich was the saltier, more savory of the two. His was comprised of the same slow-roasted pork and sesame seed roll but paired with sauteed broccoli rabe and provolone cheese. Yum!

While Cutty’s is definitely a trendy place, it has a homemade, mom-and-pop feel. They hang giant signs made of white butcher paper with blue painter’s tape detailing their fried chicken Sunday and for sale pork fat. The restaurant can seat at most 15 people and yet it’s people of all walks of life, not just the “cool” people.

I can’t wait to go back to Cutty’s to try their famous fried chicken, but until then, I’ll always have the memory of that amazing pork fennel sandwich.

Photography by me. April 2013.

Where to find it:
284 Washington St.
Brookline, Mass. 02445
(617) 505-1844

I’ll give you a second to grab a tissue to wipe off the drool that’s inevitably dripping down the side of your face after that barrage of delicious baked goods. Okay, you’re back? Great.

J and I took a Sunday Funday adventure to Kupel’s Bakery in Brookline (it’s pronounced “couples,” as they let you know in multiple places around the store).

Kupel’s was packed at 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Several regulars ordering their bagels for the week, as well as newbies like us, created a line that snaked through the tiny restaurant.

Most of their bagel sandwiches are named after Boston sports heroes/figures from The Belichick (margarine and jelly) to The Truth, aka Paul Pierce (garlic and herb cream cheese, lox, tomatoes and capers). I got The Tom Brady: chive cream cheese, smoked salmon, onion, salt and tomatoes). YUM!

I also had to get a chocolate pretzel. After all, those are two of my main food groups.

Needless to say, we grabbed two punch cards that will allow us to get our 10th sandwich free. I’m looking forward to a free Tom Brady.

Where to find it:
421 Harvard St
Brookline, MA 02446
(617) 566-9528

Photography by me. April 2013.

This post is a month (and a half) in the making mostly because I am lazy, but also because I wanted to make it as awesome as the restaurant I’m writing about. I decided to just bite the bullet and put finger to keyboard. (That’s the 21st century version of “put pen to paper,” in case you were wondering.) Here goes nothing…

While I was in NYC for work, my friends took me to Mission Chinese Food in the Lower East Side. The wait was an hour and a half (or two) long, so we popped around the corner for a beer and pork fat popcorn. Luckily the wait wasn’t that long. But during our short wait, we enjoyed some free beer from the keg in the entryway while we stood waiting for our table.

When we were escorted back to the restaurant, I came to understand why  it takes two hours to get a table at Mission Chinese Food. The dining room was tiny, only seating about 20 people maximum.

Having sat down at the corner table, with a perfect view of the restaurant and the giant red dragon that winds itself around the ceiling, we got down to business—the food.

Our order consisted of the Chongqing Chicken Wings (which had two spicy flame warnings), spicy pickles, and a rice porridge bowl that I didn’t much care for. The pickles barely prepped our palates for the barrage of heat that was to come with the chicken wings. I believe there were more chilis on the plate than chicken wings.

The porridge did nothing to combat the firey wings. By the end of the meal, the three of us had downed three carafes of water and could still light a match with our tongues.

Even though it took nearly a week for my tastebuds to regrow, it was awesomely delicious food that I’d go back and have again. Though I might only order menu items that are lacking the flames in front of the name.

After posting the dragon face on Instagram, a few of my friends who live in San Francisco alerted me to the restaurant’s west coast sister. Pretty cool that no matter which coast, you can get amazingly hot chinese food and free keg beer while you wait.

Photography by me. January 2013.

Where to find it:
154 Orchard St.
New York City, NY 10002
between Rivington & Stanton St.
(212) 529-8800

This Arizona girl gives the fish tacos, chips and guacamole at Boston’s Lone Star Taco Bar her official ”Delicious Mexican Food” seal of approval. Far and away the best take on Mexican food I’ve had in this snowy, New England city!

J loves Lone Star (and its sister bar Deep Ellum) and had been raving about it for months, and I of course was being skeptical about the quality of Mexican food this far from the border. We finally made the trip, and it was totally worth it.

The fish tacos were the perfect balance of sweet and spicy. I’ve noticed that the “Mexican” food in Boston tends to be too spicy, Lone Star hit the spot. (Yes, I used quotes there for a reason!) The guac was some of the best I’ve ever had; the chips perfectly salty and fried.

I ordered a Chelada—beer and lime over ice with a salted rim—as a light brunch alternative to a heavy beer.

Next time I’m trying the jalapeño pancakes and grilled street corn.

Photography by me. February 2013.

Where to find it:
479 Cambridge St.
Boston, Mass. 02134
617.782.8226

J and I spent the weekend in a little town called Goshen, Conn., and since there’s not a lot to do in tiny Northeastern towns, we drank.

A lover of the spirits, J took me along on his journey to find local Connecticut beer to bring back to Boston. On one of our stops, an incredibly friendly booze-aficionado/liquor store proprietor told us we had to go to family-owned Sunset Meadow Vineyards & Winery. Or rather he said, “That’s where I’d take my lady.” Enough said.

When we arrived at Sunset Meadow, we were told that the parking lot was full and we should park up the driveway. J wanted to turn back and find a quieter winery—yes there are that many in close proximity—but I said we should soldier on. It would be more fun if it was busy anyway.

And busy it was. The tasting bar was packed, so we perched ourselves next to an old cast iron stove and peered out onto the snowy vineyard. Okay, okay, maybe we were actually making dagger-eyes at the people at the tasting bar in a subliminal effort to get them to leave. Either way, I was warm, so therefore, I was happy.

Finally a spot opened up and we hopped up to the counter. The tasting was inexplicably cheap, $6 for tasting 5 wines of our choosing and the wines were phenomenal. 

(Disclaimer: I know NOTHING about wine, except that I like some, and I don’t like others—Chardonnay is a no no. All this talk about notes or hints of certain flavors totally goes over my head. But, I shall put it in here in case some of you out there do understand it and find it important. If you are like me, just nod your head and pretend you understand.)

After tasting the first wine, the vineyard’s Cayuga White with notes of melon, peach and grapefruit, J and I looked at each other with delight and surprise. It was de-lish! But I still didn’t taste any melon, just sayin’. J doesn’t like white wines at all, and he could easily say he’d buy a bottle of the Cayuga White. 

The Sunset Blush was also awesome, with hints of peach, apricot and plum. Sweet and yummy.

The red wines we tried (the New Dawn and Twisted Red) were equally tasty, not a bad grape in sight.

To top the amazing experience off, the vineyard offered a rather generous tasting of their hot mulled wine free of charge. Being a Southwestern gal, I’ve never had mulled wine in my life, so I reached for my glass with equal amounts of excitement and hesitation.

I hope you’re sensing a theme here, because the mulled wine was ba-na-nas. So rich and warm that I decided to buy a bag of the mulling spices right there on the spot.

It looks like that was a great purchase because it’s supposed to snow buckets again this weekend in Boston, no shock there, so I’ll definitely be brewing up a batch in memory of a wonderful vineyard visit.

Photography by me. February 2013.

Where to find it:
599 Old Middle Street
Goshen, CT 06756
(860) 201-4654