Hot, buttered and toasted

Price of rice? Not so nice.

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Tofu
Filed Under Food frustrations, That's news | Leave a Comment

Restaurants in Somerville are taking hits to the wallet on rice. They’re talking about trying to buy in bulk to keep costs down, but fear a 300 percent increase by the end of the summer.

Don’t tell me there’s no food shortage!

South End smites Garden of Eden

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Italian Sausage
Filed Under restaurants | Leave a Comment

South End restaurant Garden of Eden is no more. The owners confirmed that the doors were officially closed for good around 4PM on Sunday after 12 years in business. The Tremont Street establishment served almost-solely New England-raised or grown food and was a popular lunch and brunch spot. However, Garden of Eden owed approximately $200,000 in back meal taxes and was a self-proclaimed victim of changing tastes in South End dining.

Personally, I was always a fan of their outdoor patio… but certainly not a fan of their food. Unfortunately, though, the loss of Garden of Eden also means the loss of the last South End restaurant that does not serve steak frites.

Hey caffeine addicts! I got your fix.

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Dame of Dim Sum
Filed Under Food event | Leave a Comment

Dunkin’ Donuts is giving away free iced coffee (yes, free!) May 15 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

That means you can walk into any Dunkin’ Donuts shop and pick up a free 16 oz. cup of Dunkin’ Donuts’ original or flavored iced coffee. Or you can try their new “Berry Berry Iced Coffee,” an iced coffee flavored with blueberry and raspberry.

It’s early. I require some basics of my bagel

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Cake Mommy
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I want a standards and practices-type ruling set up for bagels.

Honestly, if you are cutting a bagel in half to toast it, you need to cut it so there is a circle on both sides — and not at an angle. Otherwise you get one side too thick and shiny to eat/apply a schmear, and one side is burned at the ends.

Goodbye Guinness?!

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Italian Sausage
Filed Under drink up | Leave a Comment

OK, so Guinness isn’t going away any time soon, God-willing ::crosses fingers, prays real hard::

This gave me a pretty good scare though. I’ll still be able to get a pint of the good stuff, but the legendary Irish brewer is laying off over half of its staff and closing two breweries by 2013. Most production will be at a new plant in the Dublin burbs while the old plant will only produce for British and Irish consumption.

The move is due to “diversifying tastes” among British and Irish beer drinkers. This makes me sad.

Three fine words

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Cake Mommy
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The Albanian Orthodox Church of the Annunciation allowed those of all stripes to flock to its doors this past weekend for its annual bake sale.

Which started Cake Daddy asking the question: What are the three most delectable words in the English language? Church Bake Sale? Japanese Seafood Buffet?

Chocolate is to moms, as ? is to dads.

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Tofu
Filed Under Food event | 1 Comment

OK. Mother’s Day (this Sunday, May 11; don’t forget!) is all about flowers and chocolate, according to advertisers. Logically, according to Johnnie’s Foodmaster, Father’s Day (June 15) is all about steak!

The grocery chain has an essay contest for kids 8 to 18. Topic? Why their dad, stepdad or legal male guardian deserves a box of steak and a grill to cook it on, in 100 words or less. The winning essayist will receive a box of steak and a grill to cook it on. And some tools to use to move the steak around.

Interested kids should include their name, age, complete address, name of parent/guardian and their daytime phone number, with “Johnnie’s Father’s Day Essay” and drop off at any Johnnie’s Foodmaster store.

Deadline for the essay is June 7.

Eat a pickle. These marketing people say so.

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Dame of Dim Sum
Filed Under Food event, food-wise, smorgasbord of strange | 1 Comment

May 16-26 is International Pickle Week. (Did no one tell them that a week is 7 days, not 10?)

Anyway, according to a press release from the pickle people, the holiday was started in 1948 by the Pickle Packers International, Inc. trade association to coincide with cucumber planting season.

To celebrate the holiday, there will be new trivia, activities and recipes each day on the group’s Web site. I think I’ll log on May 16, when these gems are promised: Are pickles a fruit or vegetable? Find out what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, and test your knowledge of other pickled particulars. Also get a recipe to make a Pickletini (that’s a pickle martini for those playing along at home.

Weird pickle fact of the day: The U.S. produces 20 billion pickles each year – representing an average of nine pounds of pickles per person annually.

Thank you, cucumber trumpet man

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Vanilla Iced
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment

A guy made a trumpet out of a cucumber, pepper and carrot. And now you can watch his magnificence courtesy of YouTube:

Things to know about all-you-can-eat seafood

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Cake Mommy
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Cake Daddy and I went to Minado in Natick for our May date night. The prawns were massive (above), the soybeans undercooked and the spicy octopus was truly divine.

Our problem was we just couldn’t eat the amount of food we actually put on our plates. And that’s a problem if there are more than 30 options of salads and then there’s sushi and crab legs and oysters. So, if you go…

Only take one of anything. There are so many options, you’ll overload your plate.
Drink tea. It will settle your stomach.
Don’t add rice to your plate. You’re going to eat plenty of rice with the sushi. In fact, they’ll have sashimi (no rice) most nights.
Don’t grab something, thinking the folks you’re dining with will eat it. If they wanted it they’d get it themselves.

It seems a shame to leave sushi on the table, but that’s what we ended up doing.