Monday, June 11, 2012
Trucks, Food and Fat
I got an invitation from some friends to join them on Sunday to a Food Truck Festival. I thought about it all weekend thinking weather or not I should join them and I figured (after some chatting with Joanne and some very persuasive convincing) I'll just go and see what it is all about.
As I leave church on Sunday afternoon with a couple of friends. I thought nothing of the event, not sure what to expect. Upon arriving at Umass, my friend makes a remark about "Christ the Rock" church I thought it was because he saw a giant rock on the side of the road, but no it was because the church's reserved parking spaces was backing up traffic a bit. Good for them. Christians are still here and here to stay! YAY!
As I walk into the giant space in the middle of the field of Umass Boston. I see a giant line and thought "Oh thats a long line" but I immediately saw a credit card and cash only line and NO ONE was there. Although I was not really worried I was relieved that I didn't have to wait. As we went into our first line for Fried Clams strips. We bumped into some church friends who helped us come up with this divisive plan to split up and conquer more food trucks TOGETHER. This helped. One girl was a floater, she made sure if a person was alone and about to pick up say 12 separate plates, then she would send someone to help while the other waited in line to do the same. It all worked out in the end and we got to try some delicious treats.
Some of the food was ok. Overall I wasn't to impress except for the taco's which everyone else was "meh" about. In the end it was definitely an adventure that had to be experienced at least once. Some of the places that I did want to try out, sold out of their major product (...Lobster sandwiches..droool)
We tried some fire cooked Pizza which was slightly BURNED and (shrugging) ok. nothing I will go out of my way to try again. The clam strips where bland and needed condiments to have flavor,
it was more like"would you like som e clam strips with your condiments"
I also went to a place called <a href="http://www.olerestaurantgroup.com/">Olecito's</a>
It was great, I went with a friend(Becky). This was definitely a hidden jewel in Inman Sq. I had a Sonora sandwich and a Baja taco.
Unfortunately I didn't take pictures. Shruggs....
Friday, March 30, 2012
New revelation or just random insights?
Random things come in and out of my life(like right now I would like to have a burger in front of me or a nice breakfast sandwich that has been made with Love and care...what ?! I haven't had breakfast yet)
Within the last few weeks I have been looking at my surroundings with a new approach. Its almost seems insightful but at time it is just an empty bag of gold. I made some home fries the other day to go along with my well done beef stew chunks. I cut up the Yukon potatoes into nice hearty chunks and wait until the water boiled.
Once it did I toss them in and wait 5 minutes(typically I do it for 3 minutes but on this day I had an inkling feeling about this batch, I felt that they needed to be there LONGER) As I wait for the stove alarm to go off, I stir the beef and add some seasonings and I smell the wonderful aroma that was seeping out the pot. 5 minutes have passed and I cut the fire and pull the pot out of the stove and drop them into the colander, I then turn on the cold water and rinse the potatoes to stop the cooking process, I then get my pan ready with some E.V.O.O.
I continue to paint the beef chunks(btw I got them from Whole Foods, yeah they were good) with some garlic spread (more garlic by the way) salt and pepper, I then toss in the cooled potato pieces in with the beef.
A couple of minutes later once everything has "infused". I put it on my bowl and go to my room. Now in front of me was a bowl of beef with potatoes very simple dinner.
And as I drive my fork down to the bowl to prick a potato and taste its savory goodness, I was shocked to know that I just pierced an uncooked potato. Well it was slightly cooked but not all the way. I ate it anyhow, biting down into its starchy filling(haha) I go in again and to my great luck I get a cooked one. The next 20 minutes or so went just like that, I ate a couple of uncooked potatoes and then I take a couple of cooked ones. Back and forth cooked and uncooked. I then had an epitome How can I tell the difference between an uncooked potato from a cooked one?.. And that was it, I felt n overwhelming sense of insight as if I had reached the peak of some sort of life long knowledge yet I wasn't sure what it was. so
"How can I tell a cooked potato apart from an uncooked one after they have both been through the fire.?" i
s the real question and how could I have applied this to other areas in my life. How would I share this random knowledge when I am surrounded by a group of people eager to hear the wisdom fall from my lips and eat at the very crumbs I utter? Well the reality is that that won't happen although I am laughing as I am typing it .. even imagining it.. I think I found a story to write and I should start writing that story soon.About a..... well..... let me type it up first, then I'll share.
I also enjoyed seeing Joanne a few weeks ago I was very happy to share with her back here in Boston.
here is the best highlight
Within the last few weeks I have been looking at my surroundings with a new approach. Its almost seems insightful but at time it is just an empty bag of gold. I made some home fries the other day to go along with my well done beef stew chunks. I cut up the Yukon potatoes into nice hearty chunks and wait until the water boiled.
Once it did I toss them in and wait 5 minutes(typically I do it for 3 minutes but on this day I had an inkling feeling about this batch, I felt that they needed to be there LONGER) As I wait for the stove alarm to go off, I stir the beef and add some seasonings and I smell the wonderful aroma that was seeping out the pot. 5 minutes have passed and I cut the fire and pull the pot out of the stove and drop them into the colander, I then turn on the cold water and rinse the potatoes to stop the cooking process, I then get my pan ready with some E.V.O.O.
I continue to paint the beef chunks(btw I got them from Whole Foods, yeah they were good) with some garlic spread (more garlic by the way) salt and pepper, I then toss in the cooled potato pieces in with the beef.
A couple of minutes later once everything has "infused". I put it on my bowl and go to my room. Now in front of me was a bowl of beef with potatoes very simple dinner.
And as I drive my fork down to the bowl to prick a potato and taste its savory goodness, I was shocked to know that I just pierced an uncooked potato. Well it was slightly cooked but not all the way. I ate it anyhow, biting down into its starchy filling(haha) I go in again and to my great luck I get a cooked one. The next 20 minutes or so went just like that, I ate a couple of uncooked potatoes and then I take a couple of cooked ones. Back and forth cooked and uncooked. I then had an epitome How can I tell the difference between an uncooked potato from a cooked one?.. And that was it, I felt n overwhelming sense of insight as if I had reached the peak of some sort of life long knowledge yet I wasn't sure what it was. so
"How can I tell a cooked potato apart from an uncooked one after they have both been through the fire.?" i
s the real question and how could I have applied this to other areas in my life. How would I share this random knowledge when I am surrounded by a group of people eager to hear the wisdom fall from my lips and eat at the very crumbs I utter? Well the reality is that that won't happen although I am laughing as I am typing it .. even imagining it.. I think I found a story to write and I should start writing that story soon.About a..... well..... let me type it up first, then I'll share.
I also enjoyed seeing Joanne a few weeks ago I was very happy to share with her back here in Boston.
here is the best highlight
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The Zrant confused me
I was glad to come back and see for myself what this place really had to offer. The interior was not as welcoming as Its neighbor "the Middle East" Is. It did hoever had some great artwork on the wall by one of MA local artist Tak Toyoshimas
http://secretasianmancomics.blogspot.com/
I didn't mind the wait to get a table, it was packed, but I did mind that the wait for the menu and toast. I ordered the
The Kathy Bates which was
2 crispy oat waffles / fried green tomatoes / poached eggs / hollandaise / avocado smash.
I immediately thought" OAT WAFFLES?!! Hmmmm SWEEETNESS" but when I get it.. the wafles was under Everything else, making it a savory dish. So my palette was definitely confused and totally tripping.
Either way it was a nice novelty treat, but I was not sure what was I suppose to taste. What was this going for? In the end as good as it may have been I felt that most of the flavors had I not separated them to enjoy them as individual things would have tasted as a giant savory mush. The potatoes where too salty even for my Puerto Ricaness. But overall they where still good and well done. The crumb covered tomato was good and quite crispy by itself or with the eggIt was an enjoyable mix of crunchy and squishy and last but not least the Waffles.. I still have no idea what to say, the avacado smash as good as it was distracted me from tasting the waffles and I was disappointed by the distraction. So yes come visit this place check out their menu. There are some downsides but not enough to keep me away. I would come back, but not running. Even if I waited they were good at getting me coffee(which I won't even talk about since I was not satisfied by it
I do intend to try their breakfast sandwiches later on when I go on a breakfast sandwich run.
)Here's a link to their brunch menu
http://www.zrant.com/HTML/menu.html
Stay Tuned.
--
Juan
http://secretasianmancomics.blogspot.com/
I didn't mind the wait to get a table, it was packed, but I did mind that the wait for the menu and toast. I ordered the
The Kathy Bates which was
2 crispy oat waffles / fried green tomatoes / poached eggs / hollandaise / avocado smash.
I immediately thought" OAT WAFFLES?!! Hmmmm SWEEETNESS" but when I get it.. the wafles was under Everything else, making it a savory dish. So my palette was definitely confused and totally tripping.
Either way it was a nice novelty treat, but I was not sure what was I suppose to taste. What was this going for? In the end as good as it may have been I felt that most of the flavors had I not separated them to enjoy them as individual things would have tasted as a giant savory mush. The potatoes where too salty even for my Puerto Ricaness. But overall they where still good and well done. The crumb covered tomato was good and quite crispy by itself or with the eggIt was an enjoyable mix of crunchy and squishy and last but not least the Waffles.. I still have no idea what to say, the avacado smash as good as it was distracted me from tasting the waffles and I was disappointed by the distraction. So yes come visit this place check out their menu. There are some downsides but not enough to keep me away. I would come back, but not running. Even if I waited they were good at getting me coffee(which I won't even talk about since I was not satisfied by it
I do intend to try their breakfast sandwiches later on when I go on a breakfast sandwich run.
)Here's a link to their brunch menu
http://www.zrant.com/HTML/menu.html
Stay Tuned.
--
Juan
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