Gilfeather and Parsnip Soup!

So i found a gilfeather (top round vegetable) at the farmers market last weekend and decided to buy it because i didn't know what it was. Doing a little research I found the gilfeather to be a root vegetable indigenous to vermont! (it must have been fate) It was named for John Gilfeather of Wardsboro - a town on the southern border of Vermont who grew the rutabaga (although he called it a turnip) in the early 1900's. Each frost it undergoes in the ground only increases the sweet yet mild flavor, which makes this root veggie particularly well suited to grow in vermont. In fact it is one of the few vegetable actually indigenous to vermont and is a heirloom variety.

So inspired by the creamy turnip soup that the chef at my restaurant makes I did a little improvising and made a spicy gilfeather and parsnip soup. I started by sauteing a diced onion in butter, then adding vegetable broth and the root vegetables (i threw in 1 random potato for texture) and simmering for about 45 minutes, or until soft. Next adding in some heavy cream and blending it with my handheld kitchen aid (which since my butter making incident I am very careful with). Once everything is pureed, I simmered a few dried chili pepper in the soup for about ten minutes. This adds a nice smokey flavor. Overall I couldn't believe the sweet flavor of the gilfeather, balanced with the parsnip unique flavor. I loved the creamy texture with the smokey flavor too. Watch the video I took when i made my roommates taste it!

Franklin Cafe, South End Buttery, Central Kitchen and Green Street Cafe

Some other places I've checked out lately:

I stopped in to Franklin Cafe for a bite of eat after going to a Bordeaux tasting at the Boston Harbor hotel. I had a tasty Seared Tuna with scallion potatoes and a small side salad - $17. It was perfect, and to go with I had a Cucumber Gin martini. I liked Franklin Cafe, located on Shawmut in the South End, just down the street from my favorite, Formaggio's. It's a dark little restaurant know as an industry hang out of the area as they serve dessert until 1:30am. The only downfall was they don't serve dessert. From a business stand point this makes sense in a way, you don't make a lot of profit from dessert and its going to keep the customers there another 20 minutes when you could be turning the table and getting more people in and out. Never the less, I live for dessert and was a little put off.

It did however give me the opportunity to walk a block down to the South End Buttery. From first appearance it looks just like a bakery, but a few years ago they opened up a restaurant and bar in the back and it was super cute. Downstairs is a restaurant and upstairs a tiny little bar. I had a hot chai cocktail and creme brulee and a little limoncello. Fun little place, I'd recommend!

Another night I started out at Central Kitchen in Central Square with a cocktail and Mussels. It was a dark, rustic decor. Yummy bread from Iggy's (does anyone bake their own bread anymore?) served on a little cutting board. Small menu, but I liked what they had going on their. Unfortunately the couple next me at the bar was being obnoxious so I left after that. Also they have really little wine glasses (fail). I headed over to green street grill to meet friends. we had some cocktails, and enjoyed a tasty Mac n Cheese with tomato. For dessert we shared a rosemary ice cream and pumpkin ice cream. While it looks from the outside like a dive bar, the inside is clean and sleek without being pretentious. I'd check it out!

Bergamot!

So I've been doing a bit of wining and dining the last few weeks! I've been rather into going out to eat solo. I've found eating at the bar is a fun way to check out a lot of the restaurants around town, and i usually end up chatting with rather interesting people. Who says you need someone else to go with you to go have a fabulous meal! So here's some of the places I've checked out Recently.

One of my new favorites is Bergamot on the edge of somerville and cambridge. I've probably driven past it a ton of time and never noticed it, but its on the corner its on the corner of Beacon and Washington Street sort of behind Inman Square. Its super cute. I liked the atmosphere of the bar (casual, fun, classy) and found the dining room (while cute and slick) a little stuffy. The kitchen is open to the dining room and you can see the chef's cooking. I got to chatting and it turned out the old general manager and bartender from my restaurant Pigalle worked there and so I ended up with soo much food. All the staff was very kind :-)

They had a very decently price Bar Menu around 10-12$ and even the dinner menu was decently priced with entrees around 20-25$.

I started with a momisette sour to start which has Genever, Pastis (french anis flavored liquor), Orgeat (syrup made from almond, sugar and rosewater), and Classic Eggwhite sour. I had never heard of Genever, but Paul the bartender explained to me if gin and whiskey had a baby, this is what it would be. Its the herbs and flavors of gin, but its distilled like whiskey and is actually what gin evolved from. It was absolutely delicious. Its interesting, I've been seeing a trend around the city of bringing back classic prohibition era inspired cocktails. Very interesting....

They sent out a little amuse from the chef but i forgot to take a picture (with my crappy iphone camera) and I can't really remember what it was but it was yummy :)

Next I had fried oysters crusted with potato napa cabbage slaw,

carrot-raisin emulsion and fried capers. $11

Grilled Griggstown Quail chickpea-manchego puree, chorizo dust, napa cabbage, piquillo pepper vinaigrette. I went CRAZY for the chickpea manchego, sooo good. I can't wait to try making it. I've definitely been in love with beans lately. $12

The best of the night was the lobster melt. Cheese and seafood are usually such a culinary fopaux, but this was the most amazing thing I've ever had. Lobster grilled cheese. At 11$ its so worth going for. The bartender said before he worked there, he worked at craige on main, and came every monday on his day off for the lobster melt. I will definitely be back for that!

They were kind enough to send out a side of brussels sprouts tossed with ham and roasted. So delicious. My favorite veggie find of the winter for sure. I had never really had it until it showed up on the crispy duck dish on the menu at my restaurant. What and under valued vegetable! I don't really understand why its always had such a bad rap i my mind, but they were definitely super tasty. I guess its a generational thing about how its cooked and if you've never had any how would you know!

Next I was fed some sort of small almond tart as a dessert amuse. yum!

White Chocolate Lime Mousse dark chocolate teardrop, lime filaments, white chocolate powder. This was heaven. $10

Stop in for a bite at the bar at Bergamot!

Recover Green Roofs!

I had a great experience yesterday meeting the very cool dudes of Recover Green Roofs. I heard about co-founders Mark Winterer and Brandon Shea via a video a friend posted on my facebook of a project they worked on in Dorchester, building a rooftop garden for the restaurant The Ledge.

Recover Green Roofs from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

I went to check out Recover Green Roofs yesterday in their office based in olive square in somerville. For those of you who haven't had a chance to make it over to The Fringe Movement, you should really check it out. Its an artist collective of workspaces tucked right behind union square. There were so many cool things going on in addition to Recover, I was struck by amazing energy. Check out a little of what's going on.

Fringe from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

Mark showed me some of the project they have worked on and the process they go through to build and design the gardens.

They told me about a potential upcoming project. They are having discussions with downtown tapas restaurant Toro about a food roof, but it is still in the preliminary stages. Its super exciting to think about a premiere downtown restaurant having a rooftop garden to grow its vegetables! So you know I will be following this project and photographing the building of the garden! Mark and Brandon were really excited about having the project documented as well.

Mark showed me a company they grows designs in plants starting in a green house and then eventually can be hung vertically on a wall!

Plus they had some really cool terrariums. Have I just found the coolest thing going on in Somerville? I think maybe.....

Wine Expo Food Demo

I had the pleasure to assist Chef Marc Orfaly of Pigalle at a food demo at the Boston Wine Expo. I've been thinking about the passing of knowledge and food traditions (or the lack there of!) Gone are the days of passing knowledge generation to generation and chef's are celebrities. The knowledge of a chef seems to be more a novelty than a tradition. I watched a couple other chefs demonstrate dishes from their prestigious restaurants in Boston, and it got me thinking. Cooking is very much about prestige. The prestige of one person cooking food to present to another. I realize I do it myself when cooking dinner for friends. There are so many dynamics when it comes to people and food. I was watching a NASA show about space missions to Mars tonight and they were discussing the space packaged dehydrated food that astronauts would have to eat for up to three years on a mission. More interestingly they talked about how important it was to the astronauts to share meals together even though they were coming from little dehydrated packages and how this social dynamic plays such a large role in how humans relate together. So what is it exactly that bonds us together over food when its not communal preparation or lusciously tasty food? What are the factors? What is it about people and food that creates such a dynamic relationship past sustenance. The astronauts said the control of pleaure....something to think about....

Vegetable Butcher!!!!

Jennifer Rubell - An Artist Who Uses Food as Her Canvas from Gestalten on Vimeo.

Check this artist out Im so obsessed with it!!!

From her Bio on her website

"Jennifer Rubell creates participatory artwork that is a hybrid of performance art, installation, and happenings. The pieces are often staggering in scale and sensually arresting, frequently employing food and drink as media: one ton of ribs with honey dripping on them from the ceiling; 2,000 hard-boiled eggs with a pile of latex gloves nearby to pick them up; 1,521 doughnuts hanging on a free-standing wall; a room-sized cell padded with 1,800 cones of pink cotton candy.

Viewers are encouraged to partake in the work, violating the traditional boundaries of art institutions and engaging senses usually forbidden in or absent from museum and gallery contexts. Rubell’s work explores the intersection of the monumental and the ephemeral, and serves as a counterpoint to the virtual nature of much of contemporary life.

Some of Rubell’s notable previous projects include Old-Fashioned, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The de Pury Diptych at the Saatchi Gallery, London; Icons, at the Brooklyn Museum; Creation, for Performa, the New York performance-art festival; and, since 2001, a yearly breakfast project in the courtyard of the Rubell Family Collection in Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach.

Rubell, 40, received a B.A. from Harvard University in Fine Arts, and subsequently attended the Culinary Institute of America. She wrote about food for over a decade prior to beginning her artistic practice, including columns in the Miami Herald and Domino magazine, and the book Real Life Entertaining (Harper Collins). Rubell lives in New York City. "

She sorta annoys me when we she says shes not into performance art after she talks about marina abromovic, but the pieces look reall amazing. There's something there.....

The performing continues even when I don't realize...

So my strictly local eating experiment of a senior thesis ended last spring but its effects have not been lost. In fact my whole life pretty much revolves around food. I manage (and mostly feed my self) a french restaurant, make work about food, eat food, search for local food, visit farmers markets, purvey the top restaurants in town, host dinner parties and feed others, and read about food. It all has to fit in, the performing really couldn't have ended...I think I constantly perform my food choices, perhaps its just a bit more fluid.

I've been doing a lot of thinking of how to proceed after my local eating challenge. So much about that project was about informing my perspective and experience. And so I've learned so much, and realized the complications and complexity of local eating, its not so cut and dry. While i still champion a nutritious and locally grown piece of food, I find myself thinking less about activism and more about knowledge.

Yes I want you to want to eat local food, and everything has come so far to help you do that, but I also realize its a whole cultural phenomena working against that impulse. Its a food system that is working against you. First of all its not very accessible but i think more interestingly its a lack of knowledge.

Our food system has evolved in a way that we have lost most of our food traditions that are tied to seasonal eating and eating for our climate. You don't have to know how to cook food to eat it and you don't need to know whats in season. In fact most of us would probably just equate being in season as when something tastes better. I never even knew asparagus is only meant to be eaten for two week in the spring. How would you when its in the grocery store year round. I remember seeing a long stalk of brussels sprouts at the farmers market this summer and being shocked by its form. And then finding it so ironic we don't know what most of our food looks like when its in growing form. I mean kind of hilarious?

(funny looking right?)

Which brings me to my next thought. One of the biggest gain of my local project? I tried root vegetables and discovered they aren't disgusting, if not sorta yummy. Too bad I didn't try them until the end or know what to do with them.

Like I mentioned, I work at a french restaurant. All you really need to know about french food is that everything is doused in butter and its delicious no matter what. While I'm not entire sure if its a seasonal thing or a gourmet thing (maybe both..) the chef (marc orfaly) uses a lot of what I would say kinda out there vegetables. Really they aren't out there vegetables at all merely ones the everyday person doesn't encounter. Needless to say I've gotten to try and fall in love with a ton of new vegetables. Go figure, its all in how you cook them ;-) Here we are back to the knowledge thing, knowing how to cook them! I've had an amazing opportunity to taste and learn how to cook a lot of new dishes from one of the most knowledge Chefs in the city.

So after being dumbfounded at the stalks of brussels sprouts this summer, I was very curious to try them when I saw them go onto the menu. The dish is crispy duck confit over bacony brussel sprouts and potato puree topped with a cherry glaze. How could it not be good right!?!

My ultimate favorite I've discovered is braised purple Cabbage. I had tried some cabbage in a soup i made during my local project and thought it was just alright. I had never had cabbage cooked like this though. Diced cabbage slow cooked in butter, then honey, sugar, and balsamic vinegar until it all sort of carmelizes. AMAZING. I fell in love with it on the pork weinershcnitzel. I got so obsessed with it that I would make every time anymore came over for dinner to the point where my friends now ask me, are you making that awesome cabbage?!?! (a small step for cabbage propaganda!) I even made it for my roommate, who made it for his dad, who then wanted to learn how to make it!

So I keep coming back to this idea of knowledge and the passing of knowledge. I guess I have conflicting feelings. I mourn the loss of tradition that makes food knowledge so important. I also realize it probably means a lot to have such a food security that we don't need it. But at the same time I want to honor those who practice a knowledge and craft. I don't need to know how to butcher a cow to eat a steak, but i really appreciate those who do. It may seem obvious but I never considered that each cow comes with a small number of each cut of meat. After reading and article in the new york times food issue about buying into a cow, i looked at the stacks of meat in shaws much differently. I'm looking to make a trip to savenors in cambridge or catch a butchering demonstration at the butcher shop.

So I suppose you could say I'm on a search to meet and find the people of knowledge. To engage a more primal understand of how my food is made and how to make it myself. Stay tuned... cheese cave.....mushroom growers....chefs....