Shiki: Japanese Restaurant

Hidden on Babcock Street in Coolidge Corner in Brookline is one of my favorite restaurants to dine at in the Boston area: the Japanese restaurant, Shiki.

I have been going to Shiki since it opened in 2007, and I have returned many times since. Shiki offers authentic Japanese cuisine (confirmed by my Japanese friends, and you will often find Japanese people dining in the restaurant). Shiki is a great place to go if you love seafood like I do. However, there are many non-seafood options if seafood is not your thing! Check out their menu.

I typically order the Take Kaiseki lunch set.

Take (Bamboo) Kaiseki Lunch Set

"A combination of sashimi, broiled fish, tempura, and cooked vegetables. Served with miso soup, salad, and rice (white or the day's mixed rice)."

Although if I am particularly hungry, I sometimes order the Matsu Kaiseki lunch set instead. Mmmmm.

Matsu (Pine) Kaiseki Lunch Set

"Combination of mini appetizers, sashimi, oshizushi (pressed sushi), mini chawanmushi (egg custard), broiled fish, and tempura. Served with salad and a small udon noodle soup."

Shiki is open for lunch and dinner, six days a week (it is closed in-between meals, and closed on Mondays). For lunch, you can choose from a variety of lunch sets and sushi a la carte. Small plates are offered for dinner a la carte. I have been to Shiki for both lunch and dinner, although I typically go for lunch, because the prices are so reasonable. Whenever you go and whatever you order, though, is sure to be beautiful and delicious.

Hokkai Donburi Lunch Set

 "Assortment of seafood - crab meat, salmon roe, scallop, and sea urchin [served over rice]. Served with miso soup and salad."

Shiki is located at 9 Babcock Street, Brookline, MA 02446. T: (617) 738-0200. Go to the website to take a look at their hours, their menu, and for more information. Visit today! You won't regret it.

A Weekend in Chicago

This past weekend, I visited Chicago with my brother and sister. We were only there for less than forty-eight hours, but it was fun exploring the city for the first time!

Because the three of us are foodies, we pretty much arranged our schedule according to where we dined. And while I will not cover everything that we did throughout our trip, I will highlight some of the places that we visited!

Friday I arrived in Chicago before my siblings, so while I was waiting for them, I set out for the Chicago French Market. Along the way I passed by Kramer's Health Foods.

Kramer's Health Foods

In the front of Kramer's, there is a health food store with prepared foods, beverages, produce, supplements, and more. Meanwhile, upstairs there is a healthy vegetarian cafe and juice bar. Unfortunately the cafe was closed when I stopped by, but I still purchased a prepared tuna sandwich from the front of the store, which was made with (real) tongol tuna, mayonnaise, Ezekiel Bread, tomatoes, green onions, celery, and barrel pickels. For only less than $6 it was a great, delicious, and healthy purchase!

After walking a little over a mile I arrived at the Chicago French Market- a year-round, indoor marketplace with local artisans and purveyors.

At the Chicago French Market, I stopped at Raw, which offers 100% raw and plant-based foods. While I am not raw nor vegan, I love trying new and different healthy foods! 

Raw

Signature Muffin (Carrot and Raisin, left) and Kale Chips (right)

I purchased the carrot and raisin signature muffin and the dehydrated kale chips. Although dense, the muffin was very tasty! The kale chips were alright, although I was not a big fan of the seasonings. These kale chips were made with kale, tahini, lemon juice, HSS, garlic, agave, spirulina, nutritional yeast, and cayenne. However, when I make kale chips, I usually season them more simply: a little olive oil, salt, sesame seeds, and optional garlic powder. Raw also had some delicious looking and sounding salads, other prepared foods, beverages, and more. Check out the menu here. If you are looking for healthy food in Chicago, I'd recommend to stop by Raw!

After the Chicago French Market, I took a train to Green Grocer Chicago. Green Grocer Chicago is a small, neighborhood market featuring locally grown and produced produce and specialty food items. The store is small, but a neat place to check out if you are interested in local and organic food items! At the store, I picked up a copy of Edible Chicago. And of course, my visit to Chicago would not have been complete without a tasting of a local kombucha brew. Green Grocer Chicago offers NessAlla Kombucha as a local brand option, which is produced in Madison, Wisconsin. I tried the raspberry kombucha. It was slighty sweet and had nice effervescence!

Green Grocer Chicago (left) and NessAlla Kombucha (right)

Saturday morning, my brother, sister, and I had lunch at the Mexican restaurant, Xoco. My favorite item that we got were the churros. They were light, crunchy, and delicious!

Churros with a chocolate shot (left) and Aztec hot chocolate (right)

Afterwards, we visited The Art Institute of Chicago. I enjoyed the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism exhibit the most, which features works of Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, and more.

Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877

American Gothic by Grant Wood

Next, we went to Mana Food Bar, a vegetarian/vegan food bar that also offers smoothies and freshly squeezed juices. Everything that we ordered was beautifully prepared and delicious! Some of the items we ordered included the mana slider made with a brown rice and mushroom burger with spicy mayo, chilled yellow wheat noodles tossed in a spicy sesame peanut sauce with shredded peapods and carrots, and spicy tomato braised okra over blue-cheese grits.

Mana Food Bar's outdoor patio

Spicy tomato braised okra over blue-cheese grits

On the next day, Sunday, we had Easter Brunch at Nana. Nana is a family-owned restaurant that sources from organic, local, and sustainable food producers. We enjoyed the food here, and ordered the sweet potato doughnuts made with dark chocolate, cherry gastrique, and sweet potato chips as an appetizer. For entrees, we shared the nanadict (made with pupusas, chorizo, poached eggs, poblano cream, and home fries) and the "biscuits and duck gravy" (made with two eggs, biscuits, duck confit gravy, cipollini onions, and seasonal veggies). The biscuits in the "biscuits and duck gravy" dish were huge, but other than that, the dish was perfect!

Nana

"biscuits and duck gravy" at Nana

After Nana, we visited Millenium Park, and we were lucky that we had such nice weather over the weekend! Of course, we also stopped by Cloud Gate at Millenium Park, also known as "The Bean."

Millenium Park

Cloud Gate

Overall, we had a great time in Chicago. The city is more spread out than other cities, such as compared to New York City, and to get around we made use of the city's public transportation and Zipcar. Other noteworthy places that we dined at in Chicago included Avec and Urbanbelly. In addition, we had deep-dish pizza at Gino's East, but were not impressed. Places that I would have liked to stop at if we had had the time includes the Dill Pickle Food Co-op, a farmers market such as the Green City Market, and other cultural attractions. I will just have to visit those the next time I am in Chicago!

My Experience Through Hell: Dante's Inferno in 10 Courses

Having aided JJ Gonson from Cuisine En Locale in the past, when I heard about JJ's next O.N.C.E. one month ago, I knew I had to take part. JJ's O.N.C.E.'s, or One Night Culinary Events, are multi-course meals held on short notice sporadically throughout the year, and include as much locally sourced food as possible.

However, this was not like any other O.N.C.E. It was not going to be just once. Three nights, 10-courses, full with actors, dancers, music, and script: a culinary, theatrical, and musical interpretation of Dante's Inferno. Welcome to

O.N.C.E. in Hell

Venue: Club Oberon, home of the American Repetory Theater's The Donkey Show.

Dante's Inferno is the first of three parts of Dante Alighieri's allegorical work, The Divine Comedy. This poem describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso). The great Roman poet Virgil is Dante's first guide, and it would be he who would lead guests through Inferno and the 9 Circles of Hell, in what would be a magnificent production.

Weeks of work were put into the event, from all aspects of production and people of all talents. As a part of the kitchen crew last Tuesday, I was led by the three chefs of the show: JJ Gonson, Trevor Smith, and also Jennifer Ede, who did an amazing job communicating between the kitchen crew and the servers. The kitchen work involved some very intense chopping, cooking, dishwashing, and plating to serve approximately sixty people, and the work could not have been done without the contribution of many other Cuisine En Locale volunteers. Because of the intensity of the work, the time flew by. And before I knew it, we were already plating the tenth course, Heaven.



Luckily, in addition to being a part of the kitchen crew on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend the event on Wednesday. And it was wonderful to be able to see the hard work put into the kitchens become a part of this:



Virgil, our guide for the night, led us through the 9 Circles of Hell, each with its own culinary, theatrical, and musical interpretation, for the evening.

The night began in "Limbo," with a Clear Flour bread roll and water. Next, the two lovers Paolo and Francesca tangoed in "Lust," while we were served a Duxbury oyster shooter with a Keown Orchards Green Apple mignonette sauce. Guests were subsequently brought to the third course, Gluttony, where the servers, who were essential to creating the feel for the evening, carelessly tossed baked beans and Stillman's apple cider-glazed pork ribs in our plastic bowls with extremely large spoons. As we were served, Virgil led Cerberus, 3-headed dog and guardian of the Gluttons, engage in an eating contest with himself and a large bowl of beans. "Wrath" presented irritated and impatient waiters. So if you had been too busy enjoying the show rather than eating, you had best be prepared to wolf down the Jasmine kale salad with Grapes of Wrath Vinaigrette. "Heresy" was next, with a lobster salad enclosed in a delicate and flakey tomb-shaped puff pastry, adorned in a chili pumpkin sauce.

We were then taken to the seventh course, "Violence," where the Minotaur, part man, part beast, tore beets and smeared the "blood" all over his body, as we were served Jen's dark-red, sauerkraut cold beet soup, topped with white creme fraiche. "Fraud" followed as the eighth course, where guests received, suprise: Tofu Wellington, not the anticipated Beef Wellington that was written on the menu. In "Treachery," we were given Beelzebub's Beelzeburger, as the servers rocked out to a song about fast food. And then Lucifer came forth, Prince of Hell.

Lucifer, Virgil, and the servers

After the nine circles of Hell (and bypassing Purgatory), we found ourselves in Heaven, guided by Dante's dead and beloved Beatrice (who did some amazing acrobatics), and where Dante comes face to face with God (Anthony Saffery), who strummed some lovely tunes on the guitar.

It was a wonderful, entertaining night, and enjoyable in more ways than one.

Many thanks to Clear Flour, Keown Orchards, Stillman's Farm, Verril Farms, and Sherman Market, who provided much of the locally sourced food for the night. And a big thank you to everyone else who made these nights possible, including the servers, actors, dancers and Oberon staff, the sound, production, and tech staff, the Cuisine En Locale crew, volunteers, and many others!

For another take on the event, a more detailed course-by-course description of the night, and some links to the musical components of the evening, I encourage you to read this review on LimeyG bends yer lughole.

It was wonderful to not only be a part of the kitchen crew one night, but also to be able to enjoy and appreciate the show on another evening as well. I am already looking forward to the next O.N.C.E.

Flour Bakery + Café

So I feel a little hypocritical about having my first food post on dessert- but who can live without it?

When my family and I were in the South End, we knew we needed to stop by Flour Bakery + Café. With two locations, this bakery is now green certified at Washington St., with its Farnsworth St. location soon to follow suit. Flour has high quality desserts, with their sticky buns so popular that it's recommended to order them in advance! Or you can order them online- but there is a hefty $50-$70 overnight shipping fee.
When we went inside I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had vegan muffins! However, my family opted for Flour's acclaimed oreo, which had two crunchy, chocolate cookies sandwiching a cloud of creamy filling. We also ordered a slice of Boston Cream Pie- the light cake was interspersed with layers of whipped cream and covered with a chocolate ganache, which had a slight but pleasant tinge of coffee. And the sugar was caramelized to perfection in the creamy crème brulée , providing a crunchy contrast to the soft and creamy custard.

I will definitely be stopping by Flour Bakery again! I hear their cookies are amazing, and I need to give their sandwiches a try! Check out Flour's menu here.