June 2011
5 posts
aviary.
4 tags
enter the cheese cave.
A friend and I got a chance to go on a tour of the cheese cave at Formaggio Kitchen a few weeks ago. Formaggio’s is well-known gourmet food shop in Cambridge that I’ve wanted to visit for ages, but it’s a bit of a trek over, and I just never made it there. Pretty surprising that I let the long-ish walk stop me since they are known for their interesting, high-quality cheeses...
7 tags
turkey.
A huge pot of homemade turkey broth and a super quick and healthy turkey salad today, using just 2 hefty and cheap turkey drumsticks (3 bucks for both) from the supermarket + veggies and a couple other fridge & pantry ingredients.
This chicken stock recipe is a simple and easy go-to recipe, basically just toss everything together in a pot and simmer for several hours. I used turkey today...
8 tags
[guilt-free!] mini carrot cakes
Carrot cake is probably my all-time favorite dessert. My theory is that this preference is actually an adaptation I developed at school after realizing that carrot cake is one of the very few desserts/foods in general that HUDS (our dining service) seems to actually do right…some of my favorite dinner conversations at college have been enjoyed with a side of carrot cake, eaten leisurely...
5 tags
destihl.
Delicious dinner at newly-opened gastrobrewery Destihl in Champaign, IL last night. A hip and nice but not-too-fancy place featuring a remarkably large and varied selection of all house-brewed beers on tap (offered in 4 oz. tasting sizes so you can try a bunch guilt-free) as well as an equally varied, full-flavored food menu, offering well-prepared and presented comfort food as well as more...
May 2011
1 post
commencement.
Finalllllly graduated!! Bring out the H ice cream (thank god for commencement week food » senior week food)!
Celebratory dinner at Sandrine’s, now one of my favorite Boston area restaurants after this lovely meal (filet mignon, lobster risotto, and rack of lamb above) and a recent RW one.
Beautiful. I don’t like lamb, but I can still admire and enjoy this beaut.
...
April 2011
5 posts
growth spurt.
Growing up so fast, I can barely keep up. This photo was actually taken several days ago. - baby eddie has sprouted leaves and is now about 12 inches tall!
3 days later - another height check-in:
Wowee Eddie, you iz tall!!
pamplona
“Cambridge’s oldest cafe” (and also the first place I ever ate at at Harvard/Cambridge!) - Cafe Pamplona is quirky, kinda dank, a bit pricey, but very delicious (and has its own wiki page). The turkey, provolone, roasted red peppers, and garlic mayo panini special is AMAZING. Tried the weirdly satisfying guava & muenster too - surprisingly complex and complementary flavors!...
3 tags
Lisboa
Finally getting a chance to catch up and write this long post about my recent spring break trip to Lisbon. The city was old yet modern, beautiful, welcoming, and VERY hilly. And plenty of good local eats, of course. We hit up most of the touristy sights and also ticked off quite a few recommended activities by the NYTimes “36 Hours in Lisbon” article.
Food was quite pricey by my...
4 tags
lookee!
My edamame plant is growing, my edamame plant is growing!
Get your own here!
rustic folkiness.
(Photo credit: WXM aka moesha)
Ciabatta roll, sliced salami, and truffle pecorino bathing in sunshine (at last!) atop Mt. Auburn cemetary’s Washington Tower
March 2011
5 posts
chicken & waffle.
brilliantly scrumptious brunch at Tupelo
sweet lisbon.
Quick preview of what will surely be a massive series of posts on Lisbon eats:
Amazing chocolate cake (the only thing on the menu) at Landeau bakery, newly opened in the LX factory in Alcantara. Warm and gooey, rich yet light and not too sweet, melt-in-your-mouth delicious perfection. Wowed even the non-chocolate lovers in our group! Not in plain sight so we had to look hard for the place, but...
sandrine's
spontaneous RW dinner at Sandrine’s in the square:
Soup of the day was creamy clam chowder
Pan seared duck in brandied cherry sauce for Hua Szu
Pan seared scallops in tomato beurre blanc for me
Caramelized warm apple cake w/ice cream + vanilla bean cheesecake w/berry sauce to share >.<
Sandrine’s Bistro 8 Holyoke St Cambridge, Mass
4 tags
taza chocolate tour.
So many free samples = chocolate overload (yes, it’s possible) at the Taza Chocolate Factory in Somerville: 100% stone ground, organic, direct trade chocolate
Cacao nibs
Machine that crushes the beans into nibs and gets rid of the shells
Custom made grinding stones
Salt and pepper chocolate, anyone?
More samples and goodies to take home :)
Tempting, no? Book your own factory tour!
baby macarons.
(photo courtesy of Will’s beloved Moesha)
January 2011
11 posts
tory row.
Spanish cheese plate: manchego, serrano ham, fig jam, marcona almonds; + riesling and chardonnay
snow day.
Too bad we still had to go to class -__-
Footsteps along the frozen Charles.
Iciclezz
8 tags
Lamington, meet Meringue. (and please try to play...
Sooo a few days ago I tried to replicate this beautiful, fluffy meringue lamington with a more traditional, chocolate lamington inside.
Started off by baking and assembling some cute little ‘lamingtons’ - really just chocolate-covered mini sponge cakes since I don’t like coconut and coated the bites in cocoa powder instead. (Recipe after the jump!)
Next, I whipped up a...
8 tags
lavender shortbread.
Tonight, Lisa and I whipped up a batch of perfect buttery little shortbread cookies with a hint of lavender, so tasty and yummy-smelling! Probably the easiest and quickest cookies I’ve ever made, and also now one of my absolute favorites! Perfect with tea on a cold wintery night…or any time really ^.^
Inspired by a lovely bag of lavender sugar and beautiful canister...
9 tags
asparagus & aioli.
In Science & Cooking class, we made a delicious aioli - garlic and olive oil sauce - during our Emulsions unit that I got a sudden craving for today…super garlicky and creamy, it goes with just about everything and is perfect any time for a garlic lover like myself.
The kind we made and that I made today is not considered traditional because it uses egg yolk as a stabilizing agent....
paint chip art
New art for my room, thanks to this brilliant tutorial from Aunt Peaches!
Yes, I shamelessly and speedily grabbed one of every single paint swatch in the hardware section at Walmart and shoved the huge stack into my pocket. Yes, the act of doing so made me giddy like a small child. Yes, I realize you’re technically allowed to do that so it really wasn’t as bold or daring as I...
9 tags
polenta palooza
Inspired by this and this and this, I ate polenta for every meal today (and also cooked poached eggs for the first time!). Yes, I went a bit overboard, but this stuff is just so versatile and delicious - all the dishes I made were totally different, each utilizing a different polenta texture and different flavors, and all were super tasty and tied together via the satisfying creaminess...
8 tags
truffles & spices.
Trader Joe’s has, among many glorious goodies, an incredible selection of chocolate covered things - chocolate covered blueberries, raisins, cranberries, powerberries, pretzels, espresso beans, you name it. A few months ago, I even spotted a box of dark chocolate covered ginger and picked one up just to try it - I really love the flavor of ginger but would never have thought to pair it...
7 tags
ra-ra-ravioli.
Making ramen noodles by hand for my Science & Cooking project made me realize that pasta making, though time consuming, is really not that hard or painful, well worth the effort for fresh, chewy deliciousness. Ravioli has always been on the top of my sounds-hard-so-not-even-going-to-attempt-it list since it involves not only making pasta dough but also preparing the filling, sealing it...
1 tag
hot potato.
So, the idea was to bake my own potato chips, but I should’ve known from the beginning that my terrible cutting technique would never allow for such a feat. Instead, I ended up with thicker but equally tasty baked potato slices, seasoned with plenty of herbs and spices, kinda like hasselback potatoes peeled apart - delightfully crunchy on the outside, satisfyingly tender in the middle....
6 tags
MKE NYE
Ringing in 2011 in Milwaukee with family, friends, and great food & drink! And extreme weather - crazily warm, in the 50s, on NYE; back down to the teens on NY day, brrr.
(apologies for the crappy camera phone photos - this weekend was about chillin’, which means I refrained from my overenthusiastic-foodie habit of annoying hungry people - making them wait precious seconds (ok, usually...
December 2010
2 posts
mewwy chwistmas.
Un-gingerbread house and cookies - decided ground ginger at the grocery store was too expensive so left it out and upped the cinnamon and all-spice. Turned out pretty well, like a lightly spiced sugar cookie :)
Also pretty proud of my first successful batch of royal icing - 2 egg whites + about 3 cups confectioner’s sugar + dash of lemon juice, beaten for a long time, until soft peaks...
basta freakin pasta
So good - well-portioned, delicious, and cheap (even more so with a groupon wheee!). The bolognese with amazingly garlicky garlic bread really hit the spot on a blustery Cambridge evening, and the bright yellow and red walls provided the perfect cheery backdrop for a finals week study break.
Basta Pasta Trattoria 319 Western Ave Cambridge, MA 02139
November 2010
1 post
100 cooking blogs for students. →
christina EATS featured under ‘Student bloggers’, along with friend, classmate and foodie extraordinaire Lingbo Li
:) Check out the list for tons of great food for thought, including many of my favorite food blogs and fellow student bloggers.
October 2010
11 posts
tupelo.
Super satisfying Southern comfort food with my favorite Southern gal AL
Soooo good - the best biscuits and gravy ever + fried grits, perfect little pillows of happiness.
Mmm Cajun gumbo, well seasoned and hearty.
Juicy ribs + pulled pork, plus crunchy housemade pickles!
The perfect finale - brown butter pecan pie + vanilla ice cream and coffee.
PS love the mason jar drinking glasses.
2 tags
craigie on main.
6-course chef’s whim with good friends. Photos now, details to follow!
Amuse bouche: squid noodles w/nuoc cham & crispy garlic. Great texture, unanimously voted best course. Sadly no photo (too busy chowing).
Sea scallop w/summer squash, red onion & cilantro slaw and tomatillo sauce. Delicious flavor and texture.
Goat w/ porage of carrot. JF liked the goat, we all loved the...
ricotta and grant achatz. {science & cooking}
Homemade ricotta cheese lab and Grant Achatz from Alinea in S&C class last week, yum.
Who knew how easy ricotta is to make? Or how different Mr. Achatz looks in person compared to his celeb glam shot shown during the first day of lecture. Like almost all of our guest lecturers, he was very funny and engaging and showed lots of pretty food photos. And unlike many of the other guests, he also...
apple picking (again).
JH and I went on the annual apple picking trip again!
Key differences from last time:
1. Bus got lost, took 2 hours to get there instead of 45 min…so only 1.5 hrs to pick and eat. Turned out to be enough time :)
2. End of season so much more active apple picking, i.e. precarious ladder climbing, tossing and catching of (very hard!) Empire and Spencer apples
3. Much more goal-driven -...
clover.
Mmm, egg and eggplant sandwich from the Clover Food Truck, which is normally stationed around MIT and South Station but fortunately made it out to the Harvard Community Garden a few weeks ago for the first ever Harvest Festival! I’ve been fascinated with Clover’s vegetarian/vegan, cheap, local & fresh menu offerings - mostly sandwiches, rosemary fries, soups and drinks - and...
sunny side up.
Pork cutlet curry, a classic Cafe Mami favorite :D
chocolatey present from enric rovira. {science &...
meat.
Mmm pork belly with mei cai at Jo Jo Tapei with Joan Joan and MeowMeow.
Mmm noodles
Xiao long bao
Meat wrapped inside scallion pancake. Delicious.
2 tags
adventures in science & cooking {cameraphone pic...
Molten chocolate cake, super easy and delicious even at 10 a.m., especially with homemade coffee and vanilla ice cream on the side (the TFs made the ice cream using the traditional salt and ice freezing method and also demonstrated how to freeze ice cream with super cold liquid nitrogen, which reduced “cooking” time from 1.5 hrs to just 10 minutes!)
One of the tastier experiments on...
7 tags
french breakfast.
Lovely breakfast on a refreshingly chilly day - Cafe Vanille in Beacon Hill with Ivy
Hearty sausage, egg & cheese on a croissant (I added lettuce and tomato)
Chocolate croissant, my favorite
Sticky bun with pecans
Chai latte
All the other delicious offerings we very reluctantly forced ourselves to pass by:
Cafe Vanille 70 Charles Street Boston, MA 02108
3 tags
tea time! {cameraphone pic of the day}
Afternoon tea at Boston Public Library, Courtyard restaurant, with Joan Joan!
Highlights
tea sandwiches: apricot chicken salad, cucumber and herb cream cheese, tomato with crumbled bacon.
currant scones with four fruit marmalade & clotted cream. champagne peach with vanilla tartlet. teas: bangkok, peach & ginger
September 2010
4 posts
5 tags
lunch special {cameraphone pic of the day}
Thursday lunch special at Yenching in the Square last week - massive amounts of chicken slices with mushrooms, boneless ribs, home style bean curd, soup, fried rice, and a spring roll, all for only about $8.50 including tax and tip! Yummy cheap eats >.<
Yenching Restaurant 1326 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA 02138
goodbye summer.
Fall is coming! It’s already getting chilly outside and leaves are starting to turn colors :) I’m excited because fall is probably my favorite season but always passes by way too quickly here on the East coast. I will miss summer a lot though, especially all the yummy and fresh summer fruit and veggies from our garden at home!
Goodbye home grown strawberries (mostly eaten by birds,...
9 tags
[ouch] no more! {science & cooking}
Very good news below (and I was sure it would never happen)!
Rejection hurts! I’ve been looking forward to the new Science and Cooking class offered this semester, featuring Ferran Adrià (El Bulli) , Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca), Grant Achatz (Alinea), and all the other culinary superstars you can think of, since last year (proof). Sadly, I was brutally (ok, not really brutally)...
transitions.
Bak2skool again, for the last time! New room made all spiffy with lots of parental help:
Yes, that’s a burger on my floor! A BURGER PILLOW to be exact, cleverly sewn by my crafty mom. All materials recycled from old clothing so it didn’t cost a cent :D Very impressive, no? A close up:
(I’m sure pink tomatoes do exist in real life, not just my mother’s imagination :P)
...
August 2010
3 posts
9 tags
toothless.
My liquid/semi-liquid diet following wisdom teeth extraction on Thursday was very sad the first day but has become surprisingly tolerable after stocking up on the tastiest baby food I could find at Meijer. Having an unusually strong preference for relatively bland and mushy food also helps…
Day 1: No water or food allowed before and 3 hrs after extraction = severe thirst and hunger. Miso...
3 tags
brunch brunch brunch
More details on my terrific brunch at Locanda Verde in NYC!
From left to right:
1) Soft, cheesy, salty, oily (in a good way) focaccia and an incredible pastry platter to start: moist olive oil coffee cake, savory zucchini bread, and a warm and gooey blueberry buttermilk doughnut demolished within seconds. Apricot jam and honey butter on the side to add even more flavor, sugar, and fatty...
11 tags
(another) nyc weekend
» Heads up - long post full of yummy goodness ahead!
Although I can’t imagine ever living in New York City for an extended period of time - it smells bad, is too crowded, buildings are too tall, instills constant fear of being mugged, etc. - it’s one of my favorite cities to visit because friends are always there, it’s just a bus ride from Boston, and there’s just so...
July 2010
1 post
11 tags
summer of two cities.
Food and non-food highlights from Boston and Naperville, my two homes this wonderful summer:
BOSTON
Brunch at Steph’s on Newbury - light and satisfying ahi tuna tartare + spiked blueberry lemonade
Sailing lessons and races at Courageous Sailing, Charlestown Navy Yard
Yummy post-sailing lunch at Tavern on the Water - salad of spinach, dried cranberry, blue cheese, candied walnuts, and...
June 2010
2 posts
12 tags
Empire state of mind.
Delicious food overload in NYC this weekend:
Momofuku Noodle Bar!
Amuse bouche:
Fried oyster bun:
Ginger scallion noodles:
Pork bun - SO UNBELIEVABLY GOOD MMM:
Momofuku ramen:
Chicken soup:
Cherry/olive oil ice cream:
Kanoyama
Beautiful octopus and some sort of baby fish:
Cute fishy (can something dead be cute?):
Birthday girl’s colorful sushi platter:
...