Rants – Globe South Dish

Readers write

Joan Wilder — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:52:00 +0000

A couple weeks back, quite a few readers wrote to me about one of my columns, so I thought it would be interesting to post some of their comments here.

The particular “Dish” they were referring to was written a few days after I’d gotten home from a trip to Italy. It was a plea mostly to Starbucks — as our main café option on the South Shore. I asked that they start offering small, low-cost, locally made, simple sandwiches with fresh ingredients — and to serve them on napkins (the way a donut or cookie can be offered) from platters without heavy-duty plastic packaging.

It was also a rallying call to everyone who cares to help us create a more beautiful everyday life experience for ourselves through simple local pleasures.

Most of the comments I got were from people who agreed with my sentiments, but one was from someone who thought I was such a pretentious snob that my editor should be fired for letting me go on about such trivia!

Here are some (slightly edited) excerpts from some of those who wrote in:??”I LOVE A PANINI TOO, but I like even better what you’re really saying here, which is that community is stronger when we can gather together casually and eat good stuff. Europe really does know how to do this in a way that the States hasn’t quite embraced fully. And the thing is, it’s not that difficult, like you illustrate with your homemade sandwiches. As you say, making our everyday lives better in even the smallest ways makes a big difference in our enjoyment of life in general. Thanks for pointing that out.”

“OMG. How pretentious is this woman? Poor thing…how difficult it must be for her to return to little ole USA after one of ‘her ten trips to Italy’. Pleeaasse, spare us all of your ‘troubles’. What a snob. Her editor should fired for allowing such a trivial matter to be printed….A Plea For A Good Panini? I think I’m going to be sick.” ?

“I didn’t get the snob… I got the love. It’s the joy, the taking time, the fresh stuff, the making it yourself….. It’s Slow Food, without the pretension of calling it that: It’s about pace, and food as part of the fabric of what we’re doing.”

“Ah yes, great memories of stopping in at Café Bonari in the heart of Paganico (Tuscany) — a sandwich with fresh, local bread, ham, gorgonzola, and arugula along with an outstanding cappuccino… take me back.”

“Yes, I too wish there were more cafes serving delicious paninis around here. It’s definitely harder for these smaller, lesser known places to compete with Starbucks… Even though I CAN think of some good sandwich places in the Boston area, I definitely prefer the culture in Europe of sitting outside at a cafe relaxing at lunch and enjoying a bite.”

“I think your article carries a lot of merit…. Europeans have the finesse to provide an environment whereby eating becomes an art and relaxation goes along with their plan….I abhor food placed in styrofoam or plastic containers. I am leaving for Europe next month and I fully anticipate enjoying my food in Italy, France & Switzerland so much more than here !!! They know how to do it right!!!!”

“I’m glad that you’re giving a plug to my dear ‘ol Starbucks. For all the bashing we hear about the corporate giants, I feel that they know how to do it right. They create a great balance of community and commerce, and I for one love them. Would I prefer to have a family-run shop on every corner, with cafe tables and chairs, umbrellas and waiters with aprons whisking in and out — sure. But until that happens, every time I step into a Starbucks I feel at home. Students feverishly studying, a couple on a “coffee date” and me. “Decaf Iced Grande Americano please…”??

“I just finished reading your article on the lack of good cafes here on the South Shore. I enjoyed it very much! I agree with you that we need a more European approach to our way of ‘dining.’?I do have a suggestion, though, regarding good cafes. While they are probably incorrect in labeling a single sandwich a ‘panini,’ I think you would like the offerings at Circe’s Grotto in North Scituate. All fresh ingredients and simply delicious…..Their gorgonzola is the best I’ve ever had!?I have dreamed of owning my own Italian pastry café in Scituate Harbor for many years. A place worthy of a walk down Hanover Street in the North End. A place to get an expertly made expresso (in real porcelain cups, of course) to enjoy with a homemade Italian pastry. I am a former cake decorator who had to change career paths, but hope to return to my first love of baking. Ah, someday….”?Good luck on your quest to find a little Rome/Venice in our neck of the woods!”

A Plea for Good Panini

Joan Wilder — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:11:00 +0000

I’ve just returned from ten days in Italy and reentry is a little rough. We’re taking the first couple days slowly and easing the longing for that beautiful place by eating the foods we had there.

Cappuccino is required – and I can simulate a decent cup with my stovetop espresso pot and a great little device that makes amazingly terrific foam although you’d never believe it looking at the thing. It’s a small rechargeable wand with a circular whisk at the end (here’s a link to it bonjourproducts.com/53451.html). But I digress.

What I really want to talk about is the state of our cafes.

After eating proper meals in about 15 restaurants in Rome and Venice I can happily — and with great respect — report that some of our South Shore restaurants are turning out fare as good as many Italian eateries.

But our cafés are another story.

What cafes you may ask. Well. Starbucks mainly and Thank God for them (corporate giant that they are and all that) or we’d have almost nowhere to serve as the public meeting places that make Italian life so sweet.

Every city and tiny village I’ve visited in about 10 trips to that country has its cafes. They’re called bars or cafes and they serve delicious espresso drinks as well as alcohol, sodas, and juices from early morning until late night. In glasses and porcelain cups they serve them. You can even order sparkling mineral water by the glass – for 80 cents or so – you don’t have to buy a whole plastic bottle of it. They all also serve some food (God forbid you should go hungry for a minute in Italy) and depending on the place, your choices always include a platter of homemade sandwiches or half sandwiches that go for a couple-few bucks.

You look at the selection through a glass case and get your choice served to you on a thin napkin. They’re not required by local health departments or the American hysteria for hyper-packaging to individually wrap everything. So, you can stop in just about anywhere any time of day and grab a good protein-packed snack for small money. And you can do it without adding to the continent of plastic that’s sadly floating in the Pacific somewhere.

And here we are, the United Bloody Fabulous States of America, and the majority of our café options for on-the-go nourishment are packed in solid plastic boxes somewhere far away, cost about $6, and taste like airplane food.

Just somebody, hear my plea: Can you make some good simple sandwiches – with some terrific fresh bread and a slice or two of protein — and sell them from a platter? Do we really have to package simple snacks so heavily? (Can we afford to?)

The photos here are from an unusually great selection of sandwiches from Alda Menoghi’s fabulous family-run eatery Pietro Panizzolo Osteria Da Carla in Venice. (Fyi — panini is the Italian word for sandwiches – plural – any sandwichs, grilled or not. The singular is panino.) I admit, Menoghi’s panini are exceptional, but shoot, why not? The majority of panini in even a backwater Italian bar are cheaper and better than what we have here. They can be as simple as a good roll with procuitto; cheese and arugula on a ciabatta; tuna fish on fresh bread with slices of hard-boiled egg on top; ham and cheese.

Or they can be fancier like those pictured here. Again, why not? Why can’t we people of this the most magnificent country create a more beautiful daily experience of life for ourselves? We need meeting places to build our communities, we need simple pleasures in everyday life, and we don’t need to fear the homemade and simple or be a slave to plastic. We have enough health codes and town departments in place to protect ourselves.

(To be fair, I know Brewed Awakenings and Gunther Tooties — the only two family-run cafes in these parts that I can think of — offer hot drinks and sandwiches on porcelain. But what about take-away?)

So how about it Starbucks? Can you make a change? Why can’t we have simple, homemade sandwiches like the ones pictured here? Why can’t you organize something on the local level and give some good home cooks or caterers a job?

For now, I’m making my own. Open-faced tuna with arugula, cherry tomatoes and olives on top; buffalo mozzarella, basil, and tomato with a drizzle of olive oil. Applegate Farms soppressata and bread — period.

You don’t have to be a great cook to make a wonderful sandwich – anyone with construction skills can do it, it’s an assembly job. All you need are good fresh ingredients.

Come on somebody, help me out.

Order in the Kitchen

Joan Wilder — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:58:00 +0000

One day last summer I’d had it with my refrigerator – totally had it. The crisper drawers were broken and although I’d put a wire rack in there to replace them, it wasn’t working.

So even though our plan was to wait on buying a new refrigerator until we could renovate the kitchen to accommodate the larger model we wanted, I grabbed a measuring tape, pulled the behemoth out from the wall, and began shopping online.

Then I checked to make sure we still had the extra kitchen floor tiles I was going to need to patch things up after I sledge hammered the small cabinet I needed to remove to make room for the new appliance.

Luckily, my sister was visiting. And rather than trying to talk me down from the bright conviction that I could get rid of the cabinet (and live with the results) she quietly began cleaning the refrigerator.

By the time she’d finished taking everything out, wiping down all the surfaces, throwing out a bunch of stale foodstuff, and installing two bowls to hold various items, I brought the tiles back to the basement. Then I happily went off to Whole Foods (instead of Sears) to fill up my now sparkling refrigerator.

All of which is to say that when the kitchen is in good order I want to cook and when it isn’t I tend to want to lie down on the couch.

For me, wanting to cook starts with a clean refrigerator that isn’t confusingly filled with old leftovers and possibly moldy stuff. If it’s messy enough, I don’t even want to food shop, never mind cook. But if things are clean and orderly – in the fridge and the kitchen at large – I can cook like a TV chef.

“If it’s not convenient, cooking becomes a real hassle,” said professional organizer Laine Dougherty (laineslogic.com) in Norwell.

Most tips for keeping a refrigerator clean also work for the kitchen cabinets. The basic idea is to keep things moving: out with the old and in with the new.

“Every week before recycling day pull out any old leftovers like uneaten strawberries, recycle the container, and wipe off the shelves,” said Dougherty. She also uses wire baskets — in the refrigerator to contain similar items, like fruit or snacks, and in the freezer to keep frozen vegetables in one place.

“It’s all about zones,” said Dougherty, referring to the principal of storing similar things together.

Dougherty recommends putting fresh food items in the rear of the refrigerator so the older ones get eaten first. Same thing for the pantry shelves: get rid of old canned or boxed goods and store new items behind the older.

I apply the same principals to keep all the kitchen cabinets organized. If I’m not using an item, I give it away or recycle it. I don’t need four corkscrews, three sets of measuring cups, or more than a half dozen food storage containers. Out! Same thing with specialty gadgets designed to make cooking easier: keeping things simple is what makes it easy for me.

Once you’ve culled your stuff down to a collection of items you either love or find beautiful or useful (as the conventional wisdom goes) you need to figure out where to keep everything.

If I have to squat and risk skinning my knuckles to get a particular pan, my little mind knows this and keeps me on the couch.

The fundamentals here are simple: Store the most frequently used items in the most easily accessible cabinet spaces, remember the spot you’ve assigned to them, and always put them there. (Dougherty suggests using labels if you want to prompt kids to help with cooking or cleanup.) Professional organizers refer to these easy-to-reach cabinet areas as prime real estate.

Countertops should be largely clear so you can use them to work. The only items that should live on them are things you use every single day, like a toaster, coffee maker, knives, and a fruit bowl. If you have a very large fabulous kitchen, you’ll have room for lots of things – like a food processor and mixer (if you use them), while still having plenty of uncluttered counter space.

Rarely used items like platters, machines, or your enormous lobster pot should be stored out of the way. Again, depending on how large your kitchen is, you may end up putting these items in the rear of cabinets, in out of the way cabinets, or in another room altogether.

That’s it: We still haven’t renovated and but I’m fine with the refrigerator as long as I keep it clean.