July 2011 – FoodNerd!

aw, HELL YEAH – Vietnamese in Waltham FTW

Remember that Vietnamese place down the street from my house? It is awesome, and I am very happy.

The pho is really good. Delicious broth, supersoft tendon, tender steak, fresh toppings. Even comes with the wee little Viet chilies, which is awesome even though I never put them in my pho.

The Vietnamese style fried rice is also excellent, with tender shrimp bits and lots of wok hay. They have some homemade chili oil and some chili garlic sauce that are very good on it. Ask for the condiment tray if they don’t bring it automatically.

The banh mi is good too, though the bread is a bit bland and dry — easily remedied with a drizzle of the green chili vinegar from the condiment tray. Our friends got a bowl of bun and a wonton noodle soup, both excellent.

And they deliver within a 5 mile radius. I can now have someone bring me pho ga on a cold winter night when I am sick. THAT, my friends, is quality of life.

Pho & Spice
457 Moody St
Waltham, MA
(781) 788-8899
http://www.yelp.com/biz/pho-and-spice-waltham
I will not link to their actual website at phoandspice.com because it plays music. SINFUL. But I will make a special exception in their case and continue to patronize them anyway, because did I mention? Pho within walking distance. Noms.

UPDATE: The Bun Bo Hue is really good too. 🙂

why I love living in Waltham

Today I woke up, walked down the street to Antojitos Cafe and had a delicious homemade gordita and an iced coffee, then I went to the farmer’s market. On the way home we stopped to check out the new food court in the basement of the Indian market, and bought a refrigerated coconut and a straw from the nice man with the machete. Cold coconut juice straight from the nut is pretty great on a hot day. And for dinner we are going to check out the — wait for it — new Vietnamese place on Moody St. Yes, my prayers have been answered and if it pans out I will be able to buy pho and banh mi without getting in my car.

I swing both ways

Yesterday I derived equal pleasure from eating an immoderate quantity of Fritos with lunch and from a 7-course tasting at No. 9 Park. A good, good day.

dill mustard potato salad

also, last week I made some hellaciously good potato salad. I have been eating the leftovers all week with a bit of cheddar for lunch.

5 lbs potatoes, cut up and boiled, sprinkled with 1/4 cup white wine vinegar once drained
12 hardboiled eggs, cut up
about 2 plants worth of dill
various mustards & mayo & miracle whip
a minced vidalia onion
salt & pepper

kale salad

This kale salad with feta and avocado and hummus dressing sounds really good and I might try to make it next time I get some kale from the parental homestead.

UPDATE: I made this with shredded kale (maybe 8 leaves), half a small tub of hummus, a slab of feta, half a yellow pepper, 8 olives and some quick-pickled cucumbers and their brine. Remarkably tasty, and astonishingly filling and sustaining. It also keeps just fine overnight, which is kind of miraculous for a salad.

Chicago Italian Beef

The Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches that I made for Mixed Signals this year were a rampaging success. Making allowances for differences in giardiniera and breads, this stuff tasted just the way it should, the way it tastes at Al’s or one of the other stands in Chicago. Beefy, salty, lightly fatty, fragrant with garlic and oregano, vinegary and spicy from the pickles, and just barely holding its structural integrity due to immersion in the delicious broth.

I used this recipe because there were lots of comments from born-and-raised South Siders who swore it was the genuine article. I followed it closely, though I did double it and make two 5+ pound rump roasts, I studded the roasts with garlic, and I doubled the gravy for each batch to end up with a quadruple recipe of juice.

That juice reeked in a terrifying manner of oregano, to the extent that I was worried I’d overdone it, but after an hour or less of simmering, I sieved out the oregano and the garlic, and added in 4 more bouillon cubes and 6 cups more water. I was worried that canned beef broth would taste of the can, so I used all bouillon cubes, and I’d do the same next time. This wound up just perfect, not too strong of oregano, not too spicy from the hot sauce, not too salty.

The roasts smelled absolutely dreamy, and honestly they would have been delicious just as they were, sliced and served. But I put them through the meat slicer — home meat slicer FTW, again! — and then into the cooled broth to soak. Due to logistical pressures, they were only in for a few hours the day of the party, but I think that was plenty. I didn’t notice any lack of flavor in the meat itself, and it didn’t overcook due to too long a stay in hot broth.

I put the broth and meat into the crockpot to serve it, which worked out well. A quick 4 minute trip in the microwave got it up to temp, and then I left it on low, which kept things hot without toughening the beef.

Giardiniera and hefty rolls were handcarried from Chicago last week, and we augmented with some other sub rolls from Costco that we left out for a day to stale up. Everyone seemed to like it, but the best compliment was from another former Chicago dweller who made a point to thank me for making something just like he used to eat when he lived there, something he missed pretty bad. I know the feeling.