What's After Breakfast? Breakfast Dessert.

Sarah's Market and Cafe- Cambridge, MA
http://www.sarahscambridge.com/

Egg white and avocado bagel sandwich

     One thing I wish we did more of as a team is get breakfast on Saturdays. Breakfast is the best. Especially after a 6 hour workout. I was thrilled this past weekend (perhaps more than I should've been) when Molly suggested we go get breakfast at a little cafe down the street from her apartment. Mary and I drove over, into a part of Cambridge I didn't know existed. It was more like the suburbs. Less city. We felt a little lost. Anyway, Sarah's is a decent sized convenience store with a small cafe in the back. However, the size of the place was no indication of how well known it was. The entire time we were there, there was always a line of people waiting for food. They have an awesome breakfast menu with tons of sandwiches, in addition to a incredible looking lunch menu with even more. I saw one woman eating the steak tip wrap (yes ... I know it was the steak tip wrap because I asked. Sorry to interrupt). It was all pretty cheap too! I was drawn to the egg white and avocado breakfast sandwich, partially because that's what Lauren and Joan had, and it looked awesome. I was admittedly a little hesitant because of the egg whites. I'm not sure I've ever had a breakfast dish with egg whites instead of the whole egg. Either way, it wasn't half bad. I definitely like yolks in my eggs better, but these were still good. They cooked the eggs in a flat sheet and folded them up like deli meat to put them on the sandwich. I normally make sandwiches like this with scrambled eggs and then they're falling all over the place, and it's just chaos. This is a much better idea. I got the sandwich on a soft sesame bagel and it came with tomato, warm avocado, and cheese. The sandwich was perfect, simple and exactly what I wanted. The melted cheese with the avocado stole the show.

----------

Mike's City Diner - Boston, MA

http://www.mikescitydiner.com/

Corned beef hash omelette, part of Jimmy's malt waffle and my linguica

     Jake used to rave about Mike's all the time when he lived here. The Pilgrim sandwich (turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce) was his favorite. Ever since then, I've been dying to go and get it. However, I had heard they had a great breakfast menu too. After scoping out the menu, Mike's landed on top of my suggestions list for Jimmy for places to get breakfast on his birthday. Mike's is a neighborhood staple in the South End, but also draws a lot of celebrity attention, including Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. They pride themselves on serving "huge portions of great food." Well... you've won me over (not that it's all that hard). Sunday morning Jimmy, Karl, Dave, Meagan and I all piled in my car and headed to the south end. When we got to Mike's, there was a line of people waiting for tables that only grew and grew the longer we were there. We were able to snag 5 seats up at the counter and got a first hand look at the food prep (this was a huge plus for me). 

Like dangling candy in front of a baby...

     I was in the mood for something sweet, so I got the cinnamon walnut waffle and loved it! I loved the waffle batter. The cinnamon made it taste so much .... fuller. There was just more to it than your standard waffle batter. Maybe it was whole wheat flour... hmm. Anyway, and the addition of the walnuts was great. I loved the change in texture. One thing that Mike's did that I've never seen before is they served you a small plastic cup of butter that was pinched on the end so that you could just flip the cup over and spread the butter as you continued pinching the cup. Ok ok... that sounds silly and really like I shouldn't be writing about it, but it was great. It was so much easier than spreading with a knife, and the butter was room temp, so it went on evenly. Genius. That nutty waffle soaked with butter and syrup was heavenly. Definitely one of the best waffles I've ever had at a restaurant. You can't compare with Zinneken's because those are just on a completely different gourmet level. Not as good as my grandma's homemade waffles though. Nothing will ever beat those. 

 

Linguica and the Cinnamon Walnut Waffle

     I also got a side of their linguica, which is a portuguese sausage. I had this same sausage at The Neighborhood Restaurant in Somerville once, but I liked Mike's better. I think the sausage at The Neighborhood was more cooked and therefore a little bit more dry. At Mike's instead of slicing the sausage on an angle and in smaller pieces, they took one link and sliced it straight down the middle. I think this helped the sausage hold on to some of the juices. 

     Thanks to generous friends, I got to try a few other dishes. The one that stood out the most was Jimmy's Southender omelette, which is Mike's homemade corned beef hash (I LOVE CORNED BEEF) and cheese. That's it. That's all it was, and it was amazing. The hash wasn't overly greasy like it can be sometimes. It sat all nestled up with the warm cheese, wrapped in an egg blanket and was savory and satisfying. That was the best thing I think I ate while there. Waffle was #2.

This was a complete accident, but I thought it was too good to not share.

----------

Sofra Bakery and Cafe - Cambridge, MA

http://sofrabakery.com/

How could you even choose?!

     What comes after breakfast? Breakfast dessert. Duh. Jimmy and I were on the hunt for donuts. I had heard of a place called Stacked in the south end that I wanted to try, but it proved to be invisible. No luck. SO... instead, we headed back to Cambridge to Sofra Bakery and Cafe. This is another place that's long been on my list. I've just wanted an excuse to go. This was perfect. Sofra is a Middle Eastern bakery that dishes out their own unique twists on traditional Turkish, Lebanese and Greek cuisines. When you step into the cafe, you're taken across the Atlantic, surrounded by beautiful middle eastern tapestries, art and furniture, and packed into a tiny little line. They were busy, busy, busy and my brain was busy, busy, busy trying to decide what to get. I must’ve let at least 4 people go in front of me in line as I debated what to get. So… we got everything (not really), but it was more than 2 or 3 people need. Key word: need. But we wanted it all. Here goes…  

Our treats, courtesy of Meagan.

     I was getting the baklava for sure. No questions asked. It was a chocolate hazelnut baklava and was much different than any baklava I’ve ever had. It only had a subtle chocolate flavor, which was nice because it left room for the traditional baklava flavors and textures. Instead of pecans, this one had hazelnuts instead of pistachios or walnuts. Hazelnuts and chocolate are always a good idea. This baklava was also much more liquidy than most baklava I’ve had. Normally honey is used and it's thick enough that it doesn’t drip out when you’re eating. But as I ate this baklava, the sweet syrup came dribbling out. I’m curious as to what they used instead of honey because it was much thinner. Regardless, it was delicious.
     Jimmy had been to Sofra before, and he highly recommended the chocolate chip cookies. I think it was probably one of the best bakery chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. It had very large chunks of chocolate chips in it and was the perfect balance of chewy and crispy around the edges. It was beautiful and so very rich. Jimmy also recommended I try the molasses cookie even though he likes his better. I agree with him that these were more cake-y than I would’ve liked. I like my molasses cookies a bit chewier, considering the consistency of molasses. It just feels right. This cookie was definitely still tasty, but I’ve had better as far as texture goes.

Pretty lady!

    Meagan ordered a berry crumble croissant to share as well. It was good, but I don’t think there was anything special about it. What I like about croissants is their light and flaky texture. Adding the berries and the crumbles made it heavier and took away some of the appeal of a croissant, but that’s just my opinion. It also had a very unique flavor to it, almost sourdough-y. Jimmy agreed but neither of us could place it. Maybe a light citrus flavor was mixed into the dough? Jimmy shared his meyer lemon tart too, which was delicious. I think lemon treats are starting to grow on me. It’s weird. It was a light lemon curd resting in a really crumbly crust with 3 currants on top. Very pretty to look at.
     Lastly, I wanted to try a donut that looked like a birds nest. It was a big fat donut with no real resemblance of a hole in the middle, and the outside was covered in some sort of thin, crispy strings (dough maybe?) and shredded coconut. In comparison to a normal donut, it was much more dense and less cake like (but not as dense as the potato donuts from The Holy Donut in Portland). I really enjoyed how moist, soft and sweet it was inside in contrast to the crispy toppings that were stuck to the light glaze on the outside.
     Since I was there, I had to get one grape leaf. Whenever I’m around any sort of Mediterranean and middle eastern food I always aim to try the grape leaves to compare them to my great grandmas. She was from Lebanon, so she knew what was up. They’re often way too oily, or don’t have meat. Lamb is key. The grape leaves at Sofra were way different than anything I’ve ever had before and I’m not sure if I liked them. They had no meat, no oil, but were choked full of dill and topped with saffron (the saffron is a complete guess). It was super herb-y. It tasted good, don’t get me wrong, but it was just so far from what I’m used to and what I grew up on that I was slightly put off by it.
      All we had room for that day was pastries, but they’ve got a bunch of other amazing sounding menu options like the Turkish breakfast, a couple different shawarmas, shakshuka, and a wide variety of spreads and cheeses. Check out the menu!

Heaven on Earth

Bagel Sandwich on Roids – 578 Washington #3, Brighton, MA

“Heaven on earth.” Generally an overused phrase. I guarantee you that the idea of heaven on earth you just created in your brain is different than mine. There’s no shame in that though. Let me give you a glimpse into the simplicity of my morning heaven. Step 1: Cut a hole the box… just kidding. Unrelated completely.

            Once again, it was Saturday morning. Time for a treat. I knew uncalcified fetus was on the menu, but wasn’t sure how to dress it up. I had a poppy seed bagel that was nearing the end of its life, so that needed to be included. Simply put, I fried up a few pieces of bacon, fried an egg in the thin coat of extra bacon grease and toasted and buttered the poppy seed bagel. Get this… bagel, egg, bacon, crumbled feta cheese, chopped green onion, bagel. I left planet earth. I’m sure of it.

Everything but the____ cookies - 578 Washington St #3, Brighton, MA

           How often do you get invited to a cookie swap? I'd say not often. At least, I've never been invited to one. I always seem to end up with tons of carrots, and I don't eat them fast enough. Plus, I LOVE carrot cake and I LOVE cookies. There had to be some way to mix the two together. I found a recipe online that did just that....plus chocolate. These cookies were amazing. I have no idea how they were supposed to turn out, but they were very fluffy. Almost cakey. Delicious. And they were very mountainous. They didn't spread out much, perhaps due to the lack of butter. There were so many different flavors in each bite. Raisins, carrots, chocolate, oats. Yumm :]

1 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup oil
1/4 cup light brown sugar
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
¾ cup finely grated carrots
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

Add 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips if you're feeling rebellious!

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2) Combine the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

3) Mix together the oil with the sugar, honey or syrup, and carrots until the sugar is dissolved.

4) Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Add the raisins and nuts and mix until they’re distributed throughout.

Drop tablespoons of the dough on to a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Notes: I didn't use the walnuts, simply because I didn't have them. I used soybean oil. The good thing about these cookies is that they're not so bad for you. They have less sugar and fat that most cookies, and they're filling. Perhaps due to the oats. Speaking of oats, I accidentally bought the steel cut oats that are more like oat bits rather than flattened oats. They still turned out well though, in case you happen to make the same mistake. 

Windsor Café – Boston, MA

            Unfortunately, I had been to China Town before but had never eaten there. Supposedly you’ve got to be real careful though because some places will make you blow the bowl. I read in the Boston Improper about this place called Windsor Café that supposedly had the best Dim Sum in Boston. I still didn’t really know what dim sum was other than something with dumplings and asian type things. People rave about it all the time though, and I think it’s what all the real Asians get at restaurants when us whiteys get General Tso’s Chicken. Who is General Tso anyway? And what did he do to get a delicious chicken dish named after him? New life goal. Please bear with me as I attempt to explain what I think I ate and how I think it tasted. Truthfully, there was a lot of uncertainty involved in this meal. Pleasant uncertainty, of course.

            So I met Brian downtown, and we headed to Windsor Café. It was a tiny little restaurant nestled between 3 or 4 other asian restaurants. The street was tiny and smelled like garbage. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It’s all part of the experience, right? The whole place was full of Asians. Just what I hoped. They had “communal tables” in which you sit down and other people you don’t know sit with you. It was actually kind of cool. Two Asians sat next to us, and they ate like kings. I was jealous of their superior chopsticks skills.

            As I came to learn, dim sum is the asian version of tapas. Tapas and I get along great, so my relationship with dim sum would probably be similar. The staff was relatively on the ball, even though we could never understand what they were saying when they asked us questions. You just gotta go with it.

Naturally I wanted to get the weirdest things on the menu. My first choice was beef stomach. Which stomach? Not sure. Some of the chunks of stomach had a different texture than others. I assume maybe that’s because the chunks were from different stomachs. Either way, the stomach came in a very light and mildly spicy broth. I say broth because it wasn’t the consistency of what I would consider a sauce. It looked like a mix between a fungus, seaweed, and a sea sponge. Seemed to taste like all three too. It was very chewy, but not to the point of frustration. The spice came from some red chilies that they added. Overall, pleasantly surprised with the stomach to stomach interaction.

            Another dish we got was a lotus seed dumpling. Yes, lotus the flower. I definitely didn’t know you could eat a lotus. But this was delicious! A lotus seed paste sat in the middle of a super fluffy bun like dumpling. The dumpling itself was a little sweet and had been steamed. The lotus seed paste was relatively smooth with a little bit of grit was it had a light, sweet taste. No overwhelming flavor punch. It was just simple and sweet.

            I also chose a stuffed eggplant dish. A couple chunks of thick eggplant came sitting in a brown liquid/oil. I have no idea what the liquid was, but it complimented the eggplant well. The eggplant was stuffed with shrimp and something else that I couldn’t pinpoint. I think they must have baked or roasted the eggplant because the outside was lightly crisp and the inside was super soft. It didn’t seem fried though. It was different than any other eggplant I’d eaten before.

            Another one of my choices was a pork sausage dumpling. Each little dumpling had a tiny pork sausage (I think it was pork… who really knows though) in it. It was a little spicy but tasted great tucked inside a sweeter dumpling.

            Beef balls. Not beef testicles. Just beef balls. Literally they were balls of beef sitting in a shallow pool of broth with some…. Seaweed? Leeks? Green onions? Not a clue. They were pleasantly salty. Pardon my comparison, but they looked like the ball of seagull vomit that came hurling at my chest nine years ago at the Arts Beats and Eats festival. Except this time I didn’t cry when I took it to the face.

            You’d think a turnip cake might be similar to a carrot cake. Nope. Not even. So the turnip cake came in two square patties. The outside was moderately crisp and the inside was hot. I want to say it had a consistency similar to that of a crab meat/tofu mixture. Weird, I know. But you could cut it with a fork. There wasn’t too much going on in each patty, but there were small slivers of turnip hidden throughout the cake. It had a slight rooty flavor, but I think most of the flavor came from the crisped edges. Mmm!

            The last dish we got is a mystery. Brian says chicken something, but I thought it was something with vegetables. Either way, I wasn’t disappointed with anything we got, so this must’ve been good.

Great Taste Bakery – Boston, MA
http://www.bostongreattastebakery.com/

            After lunch we went to this pastry shop called Great Taste. I got some huge puffy custard pastry that I waited to eat until I got to the Prudential Center mall (I needed to go do a workout right after lunch, but I HAD to work off some of the food first. I figured a stroll around the mall might do the trick). I popped it out of the bag once I got into the mall, but quickly realized this bun of glory was not something that deserved to be slighted. It deserved my full attention. Walking and eating it was too much to think about, so I sat down on a bench, braving all the jealous stares. The pastry itself was so light and was flaking all over me. Another reason I had to sit down. There was no way I was going to let all those flakes go to waste if I was walking. This way I could catch them all in my lap and still get to eat them. The pastry wasn’t jammed full of custard. I wasn’t sure if it would be like a custard doughnut or not, so this was a surprise. In the middle of the pastry was a huge air pocket. A custard layer lined the bottom of this pocket. Sneaky. At first I thought they forgot to add the custard. Silly. Shows how much I know. The thing had to be 500 calories. Worth it.

Patrick’s Special Guac – 578 Washington #3

            Cottage cheese is totally underestimated. Generally, I eat cottage cheese by itself. Don’t get me wrong; it’s delicious, but I don’t know what else I would pair it with. I don’t know of any dishes that require it. It’s kind of a weird food. My recent realization of how underestimated it is stemmed from a guacamole experiment I took part in thanks to Patrick. He says, “I’ve got a pretty great guacamole recipe.” I think, “Guac is rather simple and straightforward. How crazy could his recipe be?” Ready for it? Cottage cheese. Is this common? Do other people know about this mystery ingredient? I had no idea. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about it until the complexities of the whole guacamole ensemble caressed my tongue. It was amazing! Something about the subtle cheesiness of the cottage cheese mixed with the freshness of the avocado and cilantro, sourness of the lime, and spice of the peppers just made the whole thing complete. Oh and the garlic. I had never used so much garlic in guac before, and it really made a difference. I think letting the guac cool in the fridge for a while helped the garlic flavor penetrate throughout. The best bites were those that had a huge chunk of garlic in them. I totally and definitely recommend using cottage cheese next time your ready to overhaul your guacamole recipe. Here’s the full “recipe.” Just spitball it.

2 avocados

2 chopped red chilis

Diced tomatoes

Diced onions

Tablespoon of minced garlic

Salt and pepper

2 cups cottage cheese

Lime juice

Cayenne pepper

Cilantro

A couple notes: I used a little yellow onion because that’s what I had. I’d suggest a red onion. That’d be killer. I also added cilantro to his original recipe because I think it’s a critical ingredient in guac. I searched 5 different stores and couldn’t find red chilis. Come on. Instead, I chopped up some dried jalapenos that I had and added a little chili powder. I’m sure it’s not nearly the same, but sometimes you just have to improvise. Also, I’d suggest fresh lime juice. Squeeze it yourself. It’s so much better. I found that this guacamole was best tucked inside a pita. Super filling too. I love when friends share good recipes.

Hoy Hing - Brighton, MA

             It was a Sunday, and I was working late. My month long craving for mediocre asian food still had not been satisfied... and it had been a rough weekend. But Karl came through for me when I got out of work. Ellen had been talking about how Hoy Hing was hoppin'. Some chinese place right down the street. The general and I had been separated for far too long, and it was time for a reunion. You can get a "Special Meal Dish" for 6.75 that comes with General Tso's Chicken, white or pork fried rice, and an appetizer. Amazing deal, right? I still don't understand how the special meal dish differed from the specialities, chef's specialities or the combination platters, but it was irrelevant. This was going to be beyond satisfying. I got crab rangoons as my appetizer and pork fried rice. The crab rangoons could've been a little more crisp and crabby. Not as good as Golden Wok, but completely acceptable. I'm not so sure what it is with asian food and dying pork bright red, but there were little red chunks of pork in my rice in addition to some onions and other random things. It was simple, but great. Now the general tso's chicken wasn't no Golden Wok General or Rice Kitchen General on a Saturday night, but it seriously hit the spot. Whatever that goo is that he's so famous for was great. The chicken was mildly meaty, yet provided a satisfying fried flavor and crispness. Ellen said their portions fed her for three days. I finished mine in 15 minutes... tops.