I just tried it tonight and really enjoyed it. I lived in Lower Mills for 7 years and I would have killed for a place like this when I was in the neighborhood. The space itself is pretty stunning - spacious but not too cavernous, with several distinct seating areas (as well as a private dining area that apparently can open up to add capacity to the main restaurant when needed).

We started with two excellent cocktails - a Maritime Out for her (rhum agricole, fresh lime juice, sugar, bonal gentiane-quina) and a Blinker for me (whiskey, fresh grapefruit, house-made pomegranate grenadine) - mine looked pinker but tasted drier, hers was more sweet/sour but still nicely balanced.

Nice anadama bread and butter on the table. We split a half dozen RI oysters - very cleanly shucked - and the special "snack" of salmon rillettes. This was slow-cooked salmon mixed with smoked salmon, "a lot of butter," olive oil, and served slightly chunky and sprinkled with some chili pepper and herbs. The waitress (who was excellent throughout) wasn't kidding about the butter - very rich but then they are rillettes. Delicious on the "homemade bagel chips" - not something I've ever imagined with rillettes but they made an excellent cracker.

For mains she had the roasted chicken with spring vegetables and I had the "giuntatelli" with confit chicken, oyster mushrooms, pancetta, arugula pesto. Giuntatelli turn out to be a fresh pasta about the width of fettucine but with slightly ruffly edges. Very tasty, with good resilient texture. The confit chicken was excellent - very rich and moist. Her roast chicken was a juicy breast with very crisp skin. The vegetables alongside were chard, tiny potatoes, a poached tomato, artichoke, and some fiddleheads. I snagged a fiddlehead and it was fresh and green, especially with some of the garlic cream that came alongside.

We managed to save room for dessert and tried the forbidden rice pudding and the chocolate-hazelnut dacquoise. We both really liked the rice pudding - which came with mango sorbet (whose tartness complemented the pudding although it was a little icy), vanishingly tiny diced mango, some guava puree, and a confounding drizzle of curry oil. For some reason neither of us could place the curry until the waitress identified it for us - it's odd but we both liked the way it complemented the mango flavor. Probably they should mention it on the menu (I see that sallyt hated the flavor) just so people know there will be a rather assertively non-dessert flavor in the mix, but I did enjoy it.

I'm no expert on dacqoise, and this seemed more like a rich multi-layered chocolate dessert with a crunchy middle section, but that was fine by me. The candied lemon bits in the cake and the sliced candied lemon on top were delicious and a nice respite from the chocolate onslaught.

Total was about 115 before tip - not cheap but we both felt the food, service, and overall experience justified the price. We had no problem parking in a space out front but it was a monday night - I can see how it would be tighter on weekends. I'd absolutely go back to try more of the menu.

How about Abigail's in Kendall Square? I had a nice dinner there a few weeks ago - excellent oysters, bone marrow, very good cocktails (can't remember which ones); I had the excellent fried pork chop sandwich, my dc had the steak salad which she liked a lot. Dinner entrees are mostly over $20 but everything else - sandwiches, burgers, pastas, appetizers - is well below. Owners and staff have links to East Coast Grill and B-side, both apparent in the food and drink menus. And it's just a few blocks from the Kendall T. It was completely off my radar until I noticed it searching for new Kendall places, but I'd definitely go again.

You mentioned the honeydew - their cut melons (honeydew and cantaloupe) are almost always great regardless of season, and much better than the ones at Whole Foods, Russo's, etc. In general I find that their out-of-season fruits are better than the ones elsewhere. I got some blueberries there recently that were more than passable for something shipped 4000 miles.

Their fresh-squeezed juices are great as well - actually squeezed on the premises and they taste like it. I like their cider donuts -- I usually get them in the fall when they're frying them fresh outside, but they're not bad even in the packages they sell inside.

Holy woolly hog heaven! This stuff is amazing. It's on the wall with the prosciutto, serrano ham, etc. Each slice is about 1/3 fat and 2/3 meat. The fat is tender and gently smoky; the meat is dark, intensely salty, smoky and nearly crisp. 34 bucks a pound for a peak pork experience. (They'll slice any amount you like.)

Try Marty's Liquors in Newton. They usually have a wide selection of Callebaut - both blocks and chips. Not sure specifically about the mini-chips but it's worth giving them a call.

En route from Boston to Wisconsin, we planned on spending a day in Chicago a few days before Christmas. Due to the end-of-semester academic crush and general holiday madness, I didn't have much time for advance research or to post queries on the board, but thanks to the many helpful posts already here, we had a great time, with some fantastic and memorable food, so I want to report back in some detail.

Portillo's:
We arrived at our hotel (the Burnham, in the Loop) late morning and headed out to Portillo's on West Ontario. This was my first time in Chicago and while I'm generally a mustard and relish-only purist I really wanted to have the full chicago dog experience. Tomato slices on a hot dog - who knew??Turns out I've been missing out! Less unwieldy to eat than I had expected - that steamy-soft bun makes a nice handle for the dog and all the toppings. I don't know if Portillo's is the apex of the standard chicago-style hot dog experience, and I was a little worried when I saw the kitschy decor and multiple food stations but I thought it was great. She had an Italian beef sandwich with sweet peppers, dry. Pretty tasty but I think (and confirmed at a later visit to Johnnies) that it kinda needs to be dipped otherwise it is, well, a little dry. I considered a second dog but wisely decided to save stomach space for later.

Intelligentsia:
I was a little sleep-deprived due to our early-ish flight, so I was super-happy to discover that there was a branch of Intelligentsia a few blocks from the hotel, right near Millennium Park. I don't drink a lot of coffee (mostly avoid caffeine) but when I do I really do like super-serious 3rd wave coffee geek places with intense baristas. So Intelligentsia was perfect! She had a very nice earl grey tea; I got an espresso and a canele. The canele was very dark, almost burnt, but that was right to my taste. There was some mixup with the espresso (they called someone else's name for mine so it sat for a while until I checked on it), so the barista tossed the cold one and very nicely pulled a shot of the extra-fancy single-origin (I think) espresso they were serving. It was a very good shot, maybe not quite as amazing as Gimme Coffee in New York (my favorite), but still very very good.

Yusho:
After walking around Millennium Park (and taking a zillion pictures at the Bean - you have so much excellent public art there, makes me jealous!) we warmed back up at the hotel and then took the blue line El train to Logan Square and walked up to Yusho. What a fantastic meal! We're both still talking about it. Our initial welcome was pretty friendly, and the service was a nice mix of informal, polished, and - especially once we started asking questions about the food and drink menus - enthusiastic. We shared: Chicken Skin; Chicken Wings; Grilled Tofu; Pickles; Tuna; Beef Tongue; Steam Bun.

Roughly in the order they appeared:
Chicken Skin = chicken bacon!: the skin was stretched flat with some garlic slivers pressed in and roasted until the fat was fully rendered and it was basically a chicken chip, with a drizzle of japanese mustard and a sprinkle of togarashi. Addictive and delicious.

Chicken Wings - deboned wings, cooked until quite soft and rich, seasoned with bonito salt, lime and thai chili. This was an interesting prep - it really brought out the unctuousness of the wing, without quite crossing over into gross fattiness. In truth I wouldn't want more than a few bites of these because of how rich they were, but when balanced with all the other dishes it worked well.

Pickles - cucumber, lotus root, carrot. I am obligated to order pickles wherever I find them. Memory is fuzzy on the flavor details but they were excellent and a nice foil to the richer/fattier dishes.

Tuna - sort of a poke-esque prep with soy dressing, long shreds of taro root chips, pine nuts, and radish. YUM. When tuna is this good it really doesn't need anything else. By the time this dish was half-finished I started to panic and seriously considered placing another order just to make sure there was enough. I wouldn't think to pair radish and pine nuts with soy sauce but it all worked together as if it's been done forever. Just delicious.

Beef Tongue - Skewers of tender, thinly sliced tongue, showered with grated horseradish, over yukon gold potato puree, with (I think?) pickled ginger. Texturally perfect, with rich deep flavors. I wish I could describe it more precisely but all I remember was that it was smack-the-table delicious.

Steam Bun - my recollection was that this was tasty, with a filling of pork shoulder (vaguely char siu-ish?), kimchi, and crushed peanuts. It didn't make a huge impact on me, though that may be because it sat on the table for a bit while we ate the tongue, tuna, etc. One tip: this is not a great plate to share - once you cut it in half it falls apart and you end up using a fork and not getting all the components in each bite. I think it's probably better to eat (as a sandwich) right when it arrives. The steamed bun waits for no one.

Grilled tofu - I like tofu but this was not my favorite. I respect the straightforward slab of grill-marked tofu and I genuinely liked the sweet-pickly pineapple chunks that came with it (along with chrysanthemum - I think this was a green sauce - and walnuts) but this one never really came together for me. The grilling toughened the outer skin of the tofu without adding a whole lot of flavor, and the combination of flavors was okay, but not particularly special.

Drinks:
I haven't even mentioned the cocktails yet! Fantastic and creative bartending. I started with a Negroni, which tweaked the standard recipe: voyager gin, cardamaro, gran classico, and toasted soybean bitters. I gather that the cardamaro stood in for sweet vermouth and the gran classico was the Campari equivalent. Honestly it tasted like a well-made negroni, with a little extra in the finish from the bitters. She had the draft cocktail, which the waiter described as "summer in a glass" - which was exactly what she wanted on a cold night. It was citrusy, light, a bit fizzy - tasty enough that she got two. For my second drink I had the Sujeonggwa - they reeled me in with the note "served warm" on the menu. This was an interpretation of a Korean ginger/cinnamon/persimmon tea - I think some of those elements were part of this drink, along with some whiskey and vermouth, cherry, and some pine nuts floating on top. It basically tasted like the best mulled wine ever. I would drink these all winter long.

As the meal progressed and it became clear how great the food and drink was, we were enthusiastically telling the waiter how much we were enjoying it. By the time we finished the savory courses, we were pretty well stuffed and turned down dessert, but when the waiter found out we were from Boston (and therefore couldn't come back for dessert anytime soon) he said "you guys aren't getting out of here without dessert!" and came back with a (large!) dish - on the house - of their latest soft-serve creation: eggnog ice cream with fernet caramel and white chocolate-nori crunch. Whoah! This was ridiculously good. Fernet caramel! Nori crunch! it all worked. the nori just added sort of a salty bite to the white chocolate, the bitter medicinal notes of the fernet played really well in a caramel, and it all complemented the rich eggnog custard amazingly well. I'm not usually one for odd savory flavors in dessert but this was just delicious.

I think the total bill for everything - including tax and tip - was just under 100 dollars. Just an amazingly good value for a great experience. Tremendously confident, creative, and precise cooking - no obvious/familiar dishes (well, maybe the steam bun) - just a ton of enthusiasm and skill. If I lived nearby I would go all the time.

As it happened, we were planning to drive up to Wisconsin at exactly the same time that "Winter Storm Draco" hit, so we ended up spending an extra day in Chicago. I seem to be writing a novel here so I'll add another post to this thread soon on the places we visited on day two. Hope these reviews are helpful!

Tasty Burger in Harvard Square is looking pretty close to opening - sign is up, interior (based on some peeking through the glass) is nearly finished. Excited!

Sure - the recipe is from Maggie Glezer's book Artisan Baking. Very detailed description of the steps required to make the pandoro sold at Bruno Bakery in Brooklyn. (Which was the bakery's name at publication - the baker's empire seems to have expanded since then - I just googled quickly and Pasticceria Bruno in Staten Island and Manhattan and Settepani in Brooklyn all seem to have the same owner.)

Sourdough starter, dough built over multiple long mixings and enrichments, a 12 hour rise, special pans. It sounds fantastic - like the best brioche ever - but it is a project. Looking at the recipe, I now see that *this* is where I got the information that cocoa butter from the cosmetic department is fine to use "as long as it contains no perfumes or preservatives." Post if you make it!!

That book is excellent by the way - and to add a little local relevance, it has a recipe for Hi-Rise's corn bread - one of my favorite local breads. I've made it and the results were very good.

I don't know if this will satisfy the "food-grade" part of your query, but last year I bought some cocoa butter in the Whole Body section of the Whole Foods on Cambridge Street in Beacon Hill. I was planning to use it for a recipe - it didn't specify "food-grade," but it was 100% cocoa butter, and it smelled delightful, so I wasn't particularly worried about baking with it. (I'd had the same problem finding it via more conventional routes.) In the end I didn't use it but only because the recipe (pandoro) had about a million steps and I didn't have the time to tackle it properly.

Back in the day when Boston Chicken was 1) still called Boston Chicken and 2) had reasonably good food, their logo was a chicken that was right on the verge of being too cute to eat.

1369 Coffeehouse in Central Square has had an excellent Gobbler for the last few weeks. I always seem to go there on wednesdays so I'm not sure if they have it every day but I've really enjoyed it. (Their sandwiches in general are reliably good.) Good french loaf bread (probably Nashoba or maybe Pain D'Avignon), well-seasoned stuffing, moist (but not slimy) turkey, a bit of mayo, and - the only flaw - not quite enough cranberry sauce. If they added a little more cranberry sauce it would be perfect. I haven't tried the one at All Star - sounds a little more cheffy (and delicious) - this one is basic but very satisfying.

This thread, and especially 9lives recommendation, nudged me towards Curley's for dinner last night -- definitely a great place. It was hopping at around 6; we put our names in for a table but ended up getting seats at the end of the bar and staying there for food as well as drinks. Cocktails were good (a Jack Rose for me and a "Seasonal Collins" - made with concord grapes I think - for her). We ate the baby octopus appetizer, the little cornbread skillet, and burgers - the sloppy joe burger for her (apparently the special theme this week was "Betty Crocker Cookbook" - hence the Chicken a la King sliders) and the regular burger for me.

The octopus (more toddler-sized than baby, I'd say) was tasty and pretty tender, though quite aggressively salted. Granted, it is bar food; of course it's salty. I might have wanted something a little green/pickled/tart to go along with it but that's just fussing; I'd get it again.

The cornbread was delicious - I was trying to tell where the cornbread ended and the melting honey/butter topping began to see if it was the authentic southern skillet cornbread so many hounds crave, but I couldn't say. But the crust was beautifully browned, the bread was pudding-y moist, and I was raised on sweet northern cornbread so I'm not a very good judge of authenticity. I think I'd actually order it for dessert next time, but I would definitely order it. Every time.

The burgers were as good as everyone says. Thick and very juicy, on a thankfully non-brioche toasted sesame-seed bun, with cheddar, grilled onions, pickles and sauce. The sloppy joe burger added seasoned beef and coleslaw (and maybe took away the other toppings? I was concentrating on mine so I'm not sure.). Between the sauce and the onions and the burger itself it was a little over the top in richness: next time I might customize it a little to make it more balanced, but the beef itself was fantastic. Oh, the fries that came with it were good - they seemed mostly crispy to me (to reference the other current JM Curley thread) and well-seasoned.

Our service at the bar was great: friendly and attentive. I agree with all the praise for this place - definitely hitting all its marks; really a paragon of a great neighborhood restaurant. Probably my new favorite place in that area.

I've ordered occasionally from Foodler and it works well as others have said. I got a delivery recently where the restaurant forgot part of the order (a small salad). When I pointed it out to the driver he apologized and said he'd report it back and I'd get a refund. I kind of anticipated a minor hassle - having to call or report it myself - but I got an email that night from Foodler saying they'd refunded the cost of the item to my card. Credit goes to the driver and the restaurant for acknowledging and rectifying the mistake, but I was also pleased that Foodler took care of it so quickly.

You coulda had a chowdah and made it the full fake-beantown experience!

I've found the same thing with Lobsta Love - fine roll, really well-cooked meat, but they definitely are of the more-is-more school of seasoning. Too much salt and something else - lemon pepper? Would probably be great for tuna salad but totally drowns out the flavor of the lobster. Same problem with the "asian fusion" style roll - basically a sriracha mayonnaise if I recall correctly.

Bumping this to say that i got some at Russo's yesterday - $5.99/quart. The ones I got are in pretty good shape but the supply is dwindling fast (unless they have more in back). I also saw some quarts at Formaggio for 7.99 - but not many so call first before making a special trip.

The Star Market on Mt. Auburn street at the Cambridge/Watertown/Belmont border has it. On sale right now, actually.

Hah - the thread lives! Posto's pig is definitely delicious but most definitely not suckling pig. Good reminder though - worth another trip!

I had a very nice CT-style lobster roll in Salem at the Lobster Shanty last week. 19 bucks, moderate size, came with fries (which could have used an extra minute in the fryer). The lobster meat itself was great, though - tender and sweet. Not really heavily buttered at all - the roll actually held up until the end. I wouldn't make a special trip for it but if you're in Salem it's a good option. Very friendly people as well and a tasty grilled romaine salad made for a place I'd definitely go back to.

+1 on Pho2000 - one of my favorites when I lived (relatively) nearby. I think the one place that *doesn't* have it is Anh Hong - which is too bad since everything I've ever tried there has been pretty great. But Pho2000's is definitely worth a trip.

I've seen it at several Whole Foods - definitely at Fresh Pond, but others as well. Cardullo's in Harvard Square may have it as well - they used to carry it but I haven't looked there in a while. It's really great chocolate for the price - I'm partial to the 65% but it's all very good.

I've noticed droughts in the Amish butter supply at Russo's in the past and it's always come back. I like to think it's because the cows are taking a winter break but I don't really know. In any case I wouldn't panic just yet.

I agree - that is a seriously delicious drink, though I also agree with DoubleMan above that it packs quite a punch, especially for something that goes down so easy. But those chocolate notes are fantastic. I went there with some friends last week and really liked the place overall. The fried brussels sprouts were tasty, as were two crostini we tried: eggplant with fried capers and a white anchovy/"burnt" tomato/goat cheese combo. (Tasty but rather boutique-priced at $9 for an order of two crostini.)

Very solicitous service and the crowd, at least on a friday right after work, was pretty low-key, although it was picking up as we left sometime after 8. I'd certainly go back for drinks and also to see if the duck hash on the menu is as delicious as I hope it could be.

I've seen large sections of pork belly at some Whole Foods locations - it's from a farm in New York that supplies their fancier pork. I haven't tried the belly but I have had other cuts from that farm and it is better than the standard WF pork. I just saw some at the Fresh Pond store but it's worth calling in advance since availability may vary.

Another vote for the meatballs - they're just about perfect. To my mind the slice of lardo on top is superfluous but it certainly doesn't hurt. The cauliflower app is also excellent, as are the arugula salad and the chestnut pasta. The one dud I've had was the "Sicilian fisherman's pizza". It's basically fried calamari with cherry peppers baked on top of a pizza, which to be fair is exactly what the menu says it is, but I figured there might be some hidden magic there. Not so, and the calamari ended up tough after all that time in the fryer and the oven. Everything else has been great though, drinks included.

I noticed it last week as I was walking towards the Square intent on a late-lunch slice at Otto's. I decided to put the slice on hold and try the lobster. They had three sizes of lobster roll: a "bite" ($2.50: miniscule, about the size of a golf ball), a slider ($6 or 7: small roll) and a regular roll (maybe $15?). I'm pretty sure all the rolls were Iggy's brioche rolls, though I could be wrong; in any case they're pretty good - not too sweet or heavy. I ordered a "bite" but somehow the order got confused between the owner outside and the guy working in the truck and I received a slider (for the bite price, so I wasn't complaining).

It's quite good! REALLY tender meat, very lightly dressed with lemon mayo (they also have a vaguely asian version which I didn't try) - though in truth I didn't really detect any lemon flavor. The one problem was that it was oversalted - maybe from an overenthusiastic shake of celery salt on top. It's certainly not a heaping helping but the price seemed reasonable given the quality. I'd definitely go again if I had a craving but not a huge appetite.

The owner (who also co-owns the Grilled Cheese Nation truck) said that Harvard is trying to get more trucks into that spot; I hope it happens. It was located in front of the Science Center at Harvard, right near Memorial Hall. Not sure if that's permanent or if they'll be moving around.

That's too bad about the Canary Square trout pate; when I was there last week it was creamy, smoky, trout-y, studded with capers and definitely non-drywall-ish -- tasty enough that we requested extra bread to polish it off.

But more on point, I'm psyched to hear the good report on Salty Pig. I know it's a trend but there really cannot be enough places around town serving delicious cured meats and pickles.

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Canary Square
435 S Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02130

I've found the exact same thing with Nashoba Brook breads - they mold super-fast.

Re the OP's question, I like the big sliced loaves from Pain D'Avignon. Whole Foods carries them, although availability varies from store to store. I do usually find it at the Central Square store. WF is also starting to carry more breads from Seven Stars bakery in Providence; their Durum Round is quite fantastic. I've only found that one at the Fresh Pond store but their other breads (durum sticks, olive bread, etc.) are more widely available. Also, Hi-Rise has several loaves that are great for sandwiches - corn bread, semolina, etc.

Bumping this to see if anyone has tried it yet. I haven't been but liked Suarez's cooking when he was chef at the Ledge (in Dot) and much more recently on a visit to Canary Square (great room, GREAT smoked trout pate!). Any reports?

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Canary Square
435 S Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02130

I've found essentially the same thing with the ones I've bought recently from Whole Foods and Wilson's Farms - a bit wet and past their prime. I would guess that they were picked at least a week or so before they hit the store, so they've started to get mushy and lose some flavor.

I find that they're best cooked in a mass to capture their distinctive taste - like in a pie or a cobbler - rather than in muffins or pancakes, where their flavor kind of gets lost.

Totally agree with this - some farms are way better than others. I agree with the recommendation for Nicewicz Orchards - always high quality - and for Dick's Market Garden. I also like Lanni Orchards, who show up at several markets. Keown's regular peaches (white and yellow) have been good but not great, but their saturn peaches are excellent. I've been a little underwhelmed with Kimball in general, and their prices are on the high side.

But the very BEST peaches and nectarines I've had around here come from E.L. Silva farms - I used to see them at the Milton market on thursdays, and this season they started coming to the Harvard University market (outside the Science Center). In addition to great peaches they have these fantastic nectarines for a few weeks late every summer - they're kind of bumpy and ugly-looking, but they are absolutely delicious - sweet but also very intensely-flavored. They also have regular nectarines throughout the season which are very good but it's the fugly ones that are worth looking out for.