maxim0512's Profile
Romantic Wedding Venue with Outstanding Food?
Like a few others who responded, we found that it best to choose a venue and bring in an outside caterer. Specifically, we used the American Textile History Museum in Lowell and Two Chefs Are Better Than One catering, also based in Lowell. The latter are probably expensive nowadays, but we got them when they were first getting started.
Party Favors in Brookline makes a great wedding cake (if, like us, you like a moist, flavorful cake and sugary buttercream frosting).
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Party Favors
1356 Beacon St, Brookline, MA
where is there good pad thai?
I'm a big fan of Erawan of Siam in Waltham. Very good pad thai, even better country style pad thai, which adds some spice without losing the basic flavor. Similarly, Sugar & Spice in Porter Square, Cambridge, has good pad thai and country style pad thai.
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Erawan of Siam
469 Moody St, Waltham, MA 02453
Sugar & Spice Restaurant
1933 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140
Medford restaurants?
Tom Yum Koong has decent, though not great, Thai food. The service is excellent, and the people who run it are very friendly.
Raso's is a terrific mid-priced Italian/American restaurant down on Mystic Ave. Parking is a pain (you often have to find a street spot nearby), but it's a great place.
Although a chain, the Not Your Average Joe's in Station Landing has very good American food (and terrific homemade butterscotch pudding!), and like the places mentioned above, has very good service.
Wonder Taste has some very authentic Chinese food (a little too authentic for my taste), as well as decent Americanized dishes like General Gao's Chicken.
Another user mentioned Moulton's. I think it's only okay as a restaurant, but it's a great fish/shellfish market, with very fresh product (warning: closed on Sundays).
If you're in the mood for pizza, there's a Pizzeria Regina in Station Landing (also a Kelly's Roast Beef). I'm also a fan of Espresso Pizza in Medford Hillside (try a pizza with double dough and onion - not for everyone, but I love it).
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Raso's
209 Mystic Ave, Medford, MA 02155
Wonder Taste
38 Salem St, Medford, MA
Tom Yum Koong Restaurant
11 Forest St, Medford, MA 02155
Crisper skin on roast chicken?
As an update for anyone who was following this thread, last night I needed to roast some split (skin-on, bone-on) chicken breasts, and I adapted the Cook's Illustrated recipe for roasting whole chicken breasts, which was consistent with many of the suggestions in this thread. It came out great - flavorful, moist, and with nice crisp skin. Here's how I made it:
Preheat oven to 425.
Line the bottom of a broiler pan (yes, a broiler pan) with foil and place the rack on top.
Pat chicken breasts dry.
Mash up a couple tablespoons of butter with some kosher salt.
Partially separate the chicken skin from the breast and rub the meat with the butter/salt mixture.
Oil (I used cooking spray), salt, and pepper the outside of the chicken (I left off the salt on the skin side, since there was already salt under the skin)
Place chicken on the broiler pan rack and roast until 160 degrees F and skin is golden brown. (Took maybe 40 minutes or so for the split breasts.)
Favorite savory butternut squash/pumpkin/winter squash recipe?
I don't recall the details, but Cook's Illustrated has a great recipe that first microwaves halved or similarly sectioned squash to steam it, then adds a simmered butter/brown sugar mixture to the "bowl" of the squash, broiling to caramelize the mixture and brown the squash. Yum.
I've had Kaddo at an Afghan restaurant called the Helmand (there's one in Cambridge, MA, and I think another one or two in DC and/or Baltimore). Yum.
Seeking Sesame Cookie Recipe
Check out the benne wafer recipe in Nancy Baggett's All-American Cookie Book. Excellent!
Crisper skin on roast chicken?
I've recently tried twice to roast chicken following the basic recipe in Tom Colicchio's _Think Like a Chef_. The basic gist is that you rinse and thoroughly dry the chicken, season with salt and pepper (plus some sage and rosemary in the cavity), brown the sides in a skillet, turn it breast up, and continue roasting in a 375 degree oven, adding butter partway through and then basting periodically until cooked through.
The recipe is great, in that the chicken comes out flavorful, moist, and nicely browned all the way around. However, I find that the skin tends to come out a bit floppy. I don't need the skin to be super-crisp, as if it were fried, but having a little crispness instead of that somewhat unpleasant rubberiness would be nice.
Any thoughts?
whats your fave mac and cheese recipe
We're big fans of the Cook's Illustrated stovetop recipe.
What to make for new parents?
We've made baked ziti or lasagna for new parents, as it's pretty universally liked (esp. if you do just pasta, sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella and leave out the meat). It also freezes well and is easy to reheat in the microwave.
Food for the debates?
How about doing foods in red and blue? A nice tomato and mozzarella salad or a meatloaf or anything in a marinara sauce for McCain. Blueberry crisp, blue cheese, blue MY&M's or Skittles for Obama.
And, for a "unity dish," blue corn chips with a tomato-based salsa!
Best Chipotle Sauce Recipes
I've been very happy with this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/114413
Cinnamon Dilemma
I was thinking the same thing. Cinnamon toast, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, cinnamon buns, etc., are all made with sugar-cinnamon blends that tend to be much higher in sugar than in cinnamon. Add in a lighter flavored cinnamon like Ceylon (available at Penzey's, among other places), and you might be happier with it.
standard cooking tasks that you just won't do......
Lame as it is to have a single-use tool for something like this, I find the (I believe Oxo-brand) mango slicer to be a very useful tool, for exactly this reason. Once the seed is removed, you can do the old invert-the-halves-and-slice trick.
Best Apples for Apple Pie?
Yep. I second (or, uh, fourth) the Cortland. Cook's Illustrated suggests using a combination of apples that tend to disintegrate into sauce (like MacIntosh) and tart, crisp apples that keep their shape (like Cortlands, Granny Smiths, etc.).
What's your "secret ingredient?"
Lime. A little squeeze in a pot full of chili, a grilled chicken marinade, a sugar cookie batter, or a cold beverage brightens everything up.
Good Fish Market in Somerville Area?
I second the nomination for Moulton's. I've never bought fish there that wasn't super-fresh and delicious, and reasonably-priced, too.
Dessert Help
If it were me, I'd probably go with carrot ginger and peanut butter chocolate. Both are familiar flavors for people who may not be as adventurous an eater as you are, but done right, they would still have the "wow" factor.
Simple, Impressive, Quick Desserts
I love this super-easy recipe that I got from Williams-Sonoma for a fruit sauce/dip:
Heat a pint of heavy cream on a stove until small bubbles start appearing around the edge, but before it reaches a full boil. Pour into a (glass) blender, over a 12 oz. package of white chocolate chips. Blend until smooth. Add a couple teaspoons of lime zest and blend until zest is evenly distributed. Allow to cool or (better) refrigerate until needed and then allow to return completely to room temperature. Serve with peaches, bananas, grapes, strawberries, and other fresh fruit.
husband doesn't like salmon, and therefore thinks he doesn't like fish... but willing to try--ideas?
I'd keep it really simple, so that he can learn that not all fish tastes like salmon. Maybe code or haddock baked with butter and bread crumbs (throw it under the broiler for 30 secs. to a minute to brown it up at the end). My wife, who isn't a seafood person generally and doesn't like salmon at all really likes baked cod/haddock prepared this way.
Perfect slice
I don't think anyone in Boston can beat Pizzeria Regina for straight-up, New York style cheese pizza. Some of my other favorites include the genuine Chicago-style baked stuffed pizza at Sicilia's near BU. (I prefer the "original" stuffed with spinach.) Out in Medford, I'm a big fan of Espresso Pizza, which gratefully delivers to my house. :)
Artu, N. End -- an unfortunate (and HUGE) disappointment
Bummer about your experience at Artu! I've found that 5 North Square is a great place for a mid-priced, casual ambiance North End restaurant with really good food. Maybe worth a try next time.
Cambridge bakeries
If you're looking for something that's sweet and brings back memory of childhood birthday cakes, I'd suggest either Lyndell's bakery in Somerville (Ball Square) or the Shaw's/Star Market in Central Square or Porter Square. I've found Rosie's cakes to be a bit disappointing, with the frosting (esp. the white frosting) a bit too greasy and not sweet enough. If you want something totally non-traditional (and expensive), there's always Finale in Harvard Square.
Seven Basic Cookie Questions
4) As mentioned by some others, parchment paper is invaluable. Cookies don't stick, they continue to bake great, and it makes clean-up easy. I recommend the Reynolds brand over the natural brand I've seen at some stores--the latter doesn't come with a cutting blade on the box, so it's harder to tear off.
Best Popcorn
I've tried a number of "better" popcorns, but so far, I haven't found anything that's really substantially better than Orville Redenbacher's. That said, Wabash Valley Farms sells a wide variety of popcorns in different colors and sizes, so it may be worth taking a look there. http://www.popcornpopper.com
I've found that I get the best results when I cook popcorn in Wabash's Whirley Pop (stovetop cooker with a crank) and use peanut oil or their special "popcorn oil," which is a coconut oil-corn oil blend. (Messy, but delicious.) I also usually add butter-flavored popcorn salt (Flavacol). It comes out tasting almost exactly like movie theater popcorn when I use the special blend oil. I think they also sell essentially the same thing in little packets with just enough popcorn, oil, and salt to make a batch.
ISO Healthy snack recipe
It doesn't count as cooking, but various forms of trail mix can make a nice, nutritious snack. Roasted (or raw) peanuts, other types of nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, chocolate or peanut butter chips... the possibilities are endless. I would advise, though, that if you prepare trail mix that you put it in individual serving size packets (maybe using Ziploc snack-size bags or something similar), as trail mix tends to be very calorie-dense and very addictive. If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, they sell a number of great trail mixes, including a couple already packaged in individual servings.
Sticky Rice
It might include sweetened condensed milk in addition to coconut milk, or it could also use something like cream of coconut, which is a sweetened coconut milk. I've add this in Thai restaurants served with fresh mango, which is a great addition.
Help! Dinner for one
A few of my favorites include simple stir fries (e.g., beef/chicken & broccoli), fresh pasta with a nice sauce (homemade or store-bought, but not just the usual marinara; I like vodka sauce, pesto, etc.), omelettes or other egg dishes, and what I call "sandwich plus," which is a sandwich plus a yogurt, some raw or cooked vegetables, and some fruit.
Dessert Cookbook of May & June: PURE DESSERT AND CHOCOLATE AND THE ART OF LOW FAT DESSERTS
I was at a used book sale yesterday at my local library and found a gently used copy of Chocolate & the Art of Low Fat Desserts for $8, so I snatched it up without a second thought. I'm looking forward to trying some of the recipes!
Who has the Best peanut Sauce?
The best Thai peanut sauce I've ever had is at Erawan of Siam in Waltham. If they sold it by the bottle, I think I would end up finish eating it with a spoon before I ever got around to cooking with it.
High quality nonstick?
The "best buy" for a 12" non-stick, according to Cook's Illustrated, is the Farberware Millenium Edition. We bought one awhile back, and it's great. Nice, heat-resistant handle (not for oven use, but great for handling on the stove), nice solid aluminum design, good non-stick coating.
