Can you grasp how much 32 billion of anything is? A million I can picture: that’s a thousand groups of 1,000 of something, say water bottles. Got it. But a billion is a thousand million, which would be, with water bottles, a thousand of those groups of a thousand groups of … [Read more...]
Making hot sauce the Portuguese way
Once a year, in September, Maria Rodrigues makes enough fantastically delicious hot sauce to last her family a year. It takes a lot of peppers. “I get four bushels – the long red ones,” said Rodrigues, who’s been making the sauce since she was girl in the Azores. Having … [Read more...]
Microplaning garlic: What took me so long?
For the last week, since attending the East Bridgewater Library Foodies group, I’ve been microplaning garlic like crazy and loving how the little, razor sharp grater nearly purees the garlic, allowing me to add a subtle yet raw garlic flavor to (truth be told) almost every savory … [Read more...]
One fabulous food truck
Before biting into an amazing egg and eggplant sandwich from Clover Food Labs in Boston’s Dewey Square a few days ago, I hadn’t truly understood the growing phenomenon of food trucks. But this was the most wonderfully flavor-packed, unusual, and satisfying sandwich I’ve had in … [Read more...]
Two Lovers
At the tip of Hull the other day, Boston skyline in the distance, a gust of cold wind blew and I got a flash of longing for deep winter and beef stew. Don’t ask. I can’t believe it either. All winter, I long so for the warm months that it seems crazy to miss it when summer … [Read more...]
Calling all Food Lovers: new chef on the block
We've got a new chef on the South Shore. A great chef, actually: one who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, cooked at Boston’s L’Espalier, and comes to us directly from 12 years as executive chef of the enormous, celebrity restaurant empire of Todd English. And … [Read more...]
Grassroots revolution: Sourcing local meats
Joe Beaulieu is a tall, lanky man who wears a steer’s head brass belt buckle that makes him look like a Texan. But Beaulieu is a local man -- from Fairhaven -- a livestock and produce farmer who calls his cattle by name and says that when he does, they come. And I believe … [Read more...]
Part CSF, part seafood buying club
It's a given that people who live on the ocean have easy access to a treasure trove of fresh fish. Or it should be.....but most area catches get hauled to Boston’s big wholesale markets before we get a chance to buy any. So, flounder caught in Scituate, say, ends up in … [Read more...]
Nordstrom Cafe Bistro surprisingly good
Even though a friend had been raving to me about Café Bistro in the new Nordstrom at the South Shore Plaza for a few weeks, I wasn’t hearing her. An unconscious notion -- that a restaurant in a department store couldn’t be a good restaurant -- was so lodged in my mind that I … [Read more...]
Sophisticated, yet casual spot: Oro
A small restaurant, a small menu: seven starters, eight mains, four sides, six desserts, and a few daily specials. This is a smart strategy for a business that can plow under newcomers mercilessly, and the one that husband-and-wife partners Robin and Jill King have chosen for … [Read more...]
