I Can't Wait to Be Done

The list of things I want to do once I am done with this defense business is growing longer. I can't wait.

An update

Living Vicariously

If I didn't have my dissertation lodged half way up my, ahem, yea... If that wasn't the case, I would likely be attending this festival at Northeastern University. The good causes are mutilayered and all rewarding. The official cause and the reason for the fundraiser is ALS Therapy Development Institute, an organization right here, in Cambridge, MA.

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From the organizer:

One week from today (oops, I was slow in posting this), on March 14, from 6-10pm, we will be hosting an International Food Festival at Northeastern University's Alumni Center in Boston to raise money to support the ALS Therapy Development Institutea Cambridge MA based organization that is dedicated to developing treatments and ultimately, a cure, for ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease). The event is a "Running a Business" component of our full time MBA program at Northeastern, and we will feature a live jazz band, food donations from many restaurants in the community, a cash bar, and a silent auction with items that include a $1300 brand new treadmill donated by Reebok and delivered to the winner's home, $500 Red Sox tickets, a chartered boat for the day, ski gear, hundreds of dollars in gift certificates to local restaurants, and more! 100% of the profits will be donated to the ALS TDI, and as many of you know, it is a research group that I have supported since a good friend of mine, Steve Saling, was diagnosed with ALS in the past few years.

We are asking for a $30 donation from non-students and a $15 donation from students to be a part of the event, and please take the chance to follow the link below to learn more about the event and purchase tickets online. We will also accept cash and checks at the door of the event if that is easier for you - please do let me know if you plan to attend and will be making your donation at the door so that we can get a good idea of the number of guests. *** Please note: this event is 21+. ***

INFORMATION AND TO PURCHASE TICKETS: http://geocities.com/food.festival/

To learn more about my friend Steve and perhaps understand how I have found his attitude to be very inspiring these past few years, I invite you to spend some time exploring his MySpace site - http://www.myspace.com/smoothsaling

I hope you choose to support our event, and even if you can not attend or might not be able to make it, purchasing a ticket (or a few tickets) to show your support would help us to make this event a success. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have.


Best regards,

--
Chuck McNamee
Northeastern College of Business Administration
MBA Class of 2009
781.248.5834 (cell)
mcnamee.c@neu.edu

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The second reason to go to this event, and the one most relevant to the theme of this here food blog, is to celebrate the international restaurants of Boston (please don't call them "ethnic". That word makes me twitch). Cuban, Indian, Mexican, they will all be represented at the event.

Help ALS, help Boston area restaurant, it's a win-win. If you go, tell me about it so that I can live vicariously through you.

Now if I could just get rid of this stupid dissertation...

Under Ground

I am completely buried. I defend my dissertation (...I think I just threw up a little) on May 6. This means that my dissertation is due to my executioners, ahem, examiners, on April 22. That gives me about 6 weeks to write a 200 page document that technically, is supposed to make sense and make me sound all smart and PhD-like. I don't know how this is going to happen.

I just want to play, eat, and post on the blog! Alas, that is going to slow down for the next month. Suck. Wish me luck. Also wish for someone (you know who you are) to keep me from eating myself sick with Cheetos and other crappy studying food.

All Over the Place

My thesis work has received yet another blow, slipped one more click past my attention and leaped three steps past my caring. I have one more happy thing to distract myself - I am now a guest columnist for the Fletcher Ledger, the newspaper of the Fletcher School of International Affairs at Tufts University. I am all kinds of cultured like that. Take a look at my inaugural article, if time permits.

P.S. I make no claims on the stock photographs. No clue on those.

Short of Breath

I am hyperventilating. I really am. Hands are shaking a bit.

Hello Anna,

The Hungry City publishers are looking for writers for their website. I have recommended you as a candidate for this paying gig. One of the editors may be contacting you about this opportunity.

Best,

M.

Could this actually happen? Could I support myself with food writing? Am I even allowed to think about it? I am not sure. I do know that I am lucky, exceedingly lucky to do what I love for a large part of my week.

Hasn't Gotten Old Yet

Not for me, anyway. New set of restaurant reviews are up on Nature Network Boston. I am really happy with this set, although I have to say I wish they would let me leave a couple of jokes in. Sheesh. You would think dining out is a very serious matter. It's not. It's fun.

Fabulousness

My reviews of restaurants around MIT for Nature Network Boston are up! This set was more extensively tweaked by the editor than the previous ones... I don't know why. I don't think I was particularly rambunctious in my write-ups, but perhaps she wanted them to sound more grown up. I am not terribly good at sounding grown up.

Celebrating Boxes

Since it looks like I have celebrated myself out of yet another night of sleep, I may as well fess up. I have been doing some heavy celebrating (read: drinking). I have waited for this for six long years and now I get to celebrate. The reason for my newly acquired perma-hangover? Box checking. Yep. I got my box checked.

Snicker away, I’ll wait…. Done? Ok.

At my school, to getting one’s box checked means, among other things, receiving an actual check in an actual little box on a form that says that the student may begin writing his or her dissertation. This means that... drumroll please! I am going to graduate as early as this fall, depending on when I manage to stop drinking, finish whatever experiments I have left, and begin writing. So that’s my news! In another month I will likely begin writing full time, leaving way more opportunity for eating, cooking, and writing about eating and cooking, which I am absolutely thrilled about. That, and getting a PhD ain’t so bad either. (as a future PhD I feel it acceptable to use ain’t… hope they can’t strip my title from me).

The most recent form of celebration was kindly thrown my Melissa, who grilled on her porch (hot commodity, that, in Boston – not only a porch, but one with a grill on it. Grills are illegal most everywhere). Melissa made the most unbelievable southwest marinated chicken breast – after marinating for an entire day, it was just about the most tender and moist chicken breast imaginablet. There was also plain old grilled chicken breast, doused in a barbeque sauce I have been meaning to try for over a year. It may be the best barbeque sauce I have had to date – it was thin, vinegary, spicy, and not at all sweet. I need to find other uses for the gallon of it I now have sitting in my fridge. Suggestions? I have no grill, illegal or otherwise.

Melissa also made grilled asparagus dressed with an herby vinaigrette and the most genius baked potato I have ever had. This put all other baked potatoes to shame (I hope they are hanging their heads low as I type this). The potato was sliced and layered with onions, pepper, salt, and butter, wrapped in foil and plopped on the grill. The potato steamed till it was done but the best part… oh the best part was on the bottom, where the potato got a really crisp and chewy crust. I may be ruined for all other baked potatoes forever.

Thank you, Melissa!

I should also mention that this celebration involved copious amounts of wine. I don’t feel so good. Again. I have given myself the rest of the weekend to bop around, but then it’s back to lab… for a little while longer.




P.S. I expound on the box checking experience in greater detail here, if anyone is interested.

Little Fish, Big Fish

You are never going to believe who I met tonight. You will be jealous forever. Ok, maybe not forever but for a totally long time. I can't go into real detail at the moment because I am about two weeks behind schedule with this whole sleeping business, but soon!

I will say that it's not just bands I deify.




P.S. Just for the record, that word is "few," not "Jew". It threw me for a second.

Woo!

The second round of restaurant reviews I wrote for Nature Network Boston is up! Although seeing my name in print has lost its new car smell, it still gives me a thrill.

Again, opinions, judgements, criticisms, and other points of view regarding the reviews are most welcome.

In other news, the restaurant critic for the Boston Globe is stepping down. I am very excited about this because I never liked her very much (and neither did the people on Chowhound) for the following reasons (I have given this much thought): 1) I don't think she liked food - she said that she works by eating only two bites off everyone's plates, including her own. She routinely sent full plates of food back. That's a travesty. 2) She constantly complained about her job (of all the crap jobs in the world she complains about hers??). Finally, 3) She gave only $$$$ restaurants more than two stars. I hope that the next reviewer hired by the Globe (pick me! pick me!) is a little less crotchety, a lot more light hearted, and a much better eater!

Jump For Joy!!

Yipee!! All my glimmering has not been in vain! My first round of restaurant reviews for Nature Network Boston is up. The editing process was somewhat painful, but the eating and writing were all pleasure. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated (congratulations might not be so bad either).

Glimmers and Twinkies

Every once in a while, the drudgery and regular disillusionment that are adulthood step aside. Every once in a while you get a glimmer, a little sparkle of something so completely awesome and uplifting that for a while, all the angry noise subsides. I, ladies and gentlemen, am experiencing a glimmer. I am, at this very moment, glimmering.

Let me start at the beginning. First off, a confession. I have been leading a double life for the past month or so. I have been cheating on Sunday Night Dinner… with another blog. Gasp! Yes, I have another blog. It’s a science-y blog on a Nature Publishing Group website. I write mostly about lab life and lab dynamics, sometimes I throw in a post on an interesting paper that I happened to come across.

The editor of the website, the infinitely cool (and ridiculously well-spoken) Corie, asked me to write an article for the website, in addition to my blog. The article would be a monthly feature on a freelance basis, and the subject? Aaah yes, the subject. The article is to be a review of restaurants in the areas immediately surrounding major convention areas in Boston. Five restaurants per area, per month. Yes, you heard right. I am now an official, full-fledged restaurant critic and food writer, with all the inherent bragging rights, pride, and occasional food stains.


This may be the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. I am not exaggerating. Food writing is a dream and I am afraid to wake up. I plan on drinking, gulping, and chugging this glimmer for as long as I can.

I wasted no time in beginning my assignment. This did not involve me going out of my way or modifying my routine in any way, since I eat out at least three times a week as it is. Today, I went to the Linwood Grill for lunch. I have been there a number of times before, but never with the goal of writing it up. I took careful notes, multiple pictures, all while trying to hide what I was doing the best I could – reviewer bragging rights are to be exercised on friends only. There is no point in irritating the wait staff.


The food (barbeque) was good as always, but the best bit came at the end. The meal was large but so was the dessert menu. I kept staring at it. My friend jokingly asked if I would like a deep-fried Twinkie for dessert. Silly girl. I think she was seriously expecting me to say no. So, obviously, we ordered a deep-fried Twinkie.

So here’s the thing – I don’t think Twinkies are food. They are the cockroaches of the food world – they never go bad, you can’t kill them, and they all look the same. They are not made out of food. They don’t even taste like food. This turned out to be empty talk once I tasted a deep-fried Twinkie. It was warm and melty, almost custard-like. The fried shell was a bit salty and crunchy and, well, fried. It was a Twinkie transformed, a reverse metamorphosis from miserable cockroach to the sublime.


I had about a spoonful of fried Twinkie before my body reacted with a “what the hell are you doing to me??” I told it to shut up and had another bite. And then I had to admit defeat. That stuff is potent. I would recommend having an angioplasty scheduled prior to ordering a fried Twinkie. You will be sure to enjoy it all the way to the hospital.


More adventures in semi-professional food writing to come! I am holding on to my glimmer (and my breath).

Welcome Back, Chilean Sea Bass!

Have you heard the news? Chilean Sea Bass is back! It's had a difficult few years but now appears to be on the road to recovery. So. There is much excitement in my life. Get ready for it… Whole Foods has a podcast! Yes, I am that big of a dork that I listen to the Whole Foods podcast while in lab. I now know all kinds of things about Chilean Sea Bass (or CSB, as it will now be known). I shall now proceed to share these things with you. If you find me too big a dork in my discussion of a fish, please feel free to scroll down and read something else… Eh, on second thought, don’t bother. It will be dorky down there as well.

CSB is also known as Patagonian toothfish. The fish-seller-dealer people decided that “toothfish” could not possibly start anyone salivating and changed the name to Chilean Sea Bass in 1977. This was a rather bizarre choice of name for a fish that is neither a member of the bass species nor fished anywhere near Chile. The Chilean part of the name comes from the fact that Chileans were the first to market the fish in the US. The bass part… Not a clue.

Whole Foods stopped selling CSB in 1999 because the methods used to fish for CSB were non-sustainable, poaching was rampant, and the fish was at risk of becoming endangered. Most restaurant chefs supported the informal ban on the sale of CSB. If between the years of 1999 and 2006 you were served CSB in a restaurant it was likely a) not CSB and/or b) smuggled into the country, although some legal CSB was still being imported.

The development of new and sustainable methods of fishing along with the application of highly rigorous standards and control measures have permitted Whole Foods to begin selling CSB once again. Yaaay! The sea bass in Whole Foods stores has been caught off the coast of South Georgia Island, near Antarctica, using eco-friendly methods. The fish is traceable from the boat on which it was caught to store in which it is sold. The fact that CSB has better supervision than half the children in this world may explain why it costs an arm and a leg. But man, is it worth it.

After assuring the fish guy at my Whole Foods that I did indeed intend to purchase the coveted fish and was not just jerking him around (he was looking at me all suspicious-like. I guess I look suspicious), I sped home to try it out. It only got more exciting from there. A small aside: I am now the proud owner of a giant cast iron skillet. Since I apparently have absolutely no sense of dimension, I bought a 12” pre-seasoned cast iron skillet and was surprised to find out that it hardly fits on my stove. It’s giant and not a little intimidating. So, I did what any self respecting cook would do at this juncture – I opened a bottle of wine and set the burner on high.

Once the skillet was almost smoking hot I poured in a bit of olive oil and threw in a piece of salted butter. I say threw because I was trying not to get close to the skillet – it was sputtering everywhere. This is where I became extremely glad that I took the battery out of my smoke detector. Don’t tell anyone. The butter browned right away, I put the salted and peppered fish in the skillet and let it sear and sear and sear on one side until there was a thick brown crust – my very favorite way of preparing fish. A couple more minutes under the broiler and it was done!


And let me tell you, it was perfect. The thick crust was crunchy and salty, giving way to creamy creamy fish. CSB is very fatty, which explains not only its spectacular texture but also its intensely sweet taste. It really is one of the most flavorful fish I have ever had.


I highly advise everyone to go get CSB from whoever will sell it to you. It’s ok now! The fishing methods are eco-friendly, and earth conscious and all that. You will be doing the planet, the long-suffering (and now, eco-friendly) fishermen, and yourself a favor.