Craigie on Main – 8 Course Tasting Menu

The one and only Woo Bear, my favorite NYPD PoPo/Detective/Bodyguard/Bestie came to visit me in Boston and being so busy with work lately we FINALLY got a chance to meet up, rant, chat, laugh and just have a jolly awesome time.  I picked him up from his hotel and even though we got there early they had a table for us already set for us.

Woo Bear & Peep Peep unite!!!!!

AKA

He’s the Gru to my Agnes

I told him we had to go to Craigie on Main.. it’s farm to table and seasonal and just one of my favorite places MUST GO TO EAT AT places in Boston… well it’s in Cambridge but same difference. I adore their open kitchen. And everyone there is SO friendly and awesome. PLUS every time you get the tasting menu you get different and new things it’s NEVER the same.

After careful, not so careful thinking we decided to order the everything 8 course tasting menu.  We started off with a champagne for me and a “manly” scotch drink for him. I think the waitress said it was a scotch rimmed with absinthe?!… I thought it was delicious!!!!

We also ordered a bomb ass bottle of French Burgundy Pinot Noir – mad $$ but soooo worth it

I asked for them to write out the menu for us so I could have it when I went home… obviously so I could blog!!!

And then it began….. as we sipped our yummy drinks, the food started flowing….

Trio of Amuse Bouche

Citrus Cured Striped Bass, Avocado, Red Onion, Pickled Pine Nuts

This was Woo Bear’s favorite… mainly cuz of the avocado he said.  It was good and reminded me of tuna tartare, I think mainly cuz of the color, would’ve never thought it was striped bass – but I guess it was cuz of the citrus cure.  You couldn’t really taste the citrus but it was a good bite.

Razor Clams, Uni Vinaigrette

Texturally wise, this was my favorite of the three. It was obviously clams… and I LOOOOOVE razor clams.. I’ve never had it sliced before and it was amazing.  Need to start taking my razor clams not whole on a shell… hehe…

Smoked Bluefish Rillettes, Hackleback Roe

Taste-wise this was y favorite. It was a beautifully soaked fish… and with the caviar and everything it was pretty divine.

The waitress loved that I had a champagne glass tattooed on me haha..

Sea Trout Pastrami
Winter Chicories, Blood Orange, Pistachio Vinaigrette

I actually expected a smokier tasting salmon, from the looks of it, but the taste was impeccable.  The texture of the salmon was of smoked salmon but it definitely had that “pastrami” kick to it.  With the added crunch of the chicory and pistachio it was heaven in each bite.  It actually would’ve been an amazing salad with more chicory and pistachios but deeeeeelish!!!!!!!

Roasted Sturgeon à la Poêle
Camargue Red Rice, Red Onion Soubise, Beurre Rouge

When the last dish came out we finally finished our first drinks and got to get into the the wine, which paired PERFECTLY, as waitress said it would, with the food… It was salty was soooooo gooooood.  Not sure what the greens were but the rice was just barely el dente and chewy and amazing, I almost thought it was wheat berries…the surgeon [this was the first time Woo Bear ever had it, but I have] was soooo buttery and beautifully cooked.  Like I said, it was salty but it still tasted awesome….

Delicious wine with an amazing friend!!!

Spice-Crusted Striped Bass Kama

Wait. What? KAMA? UM, I LOVE YOU CRAIGIE.   I love Fish Collar Bone [aka Kama]

Even the waitress told me to make sure to take a pic – I think she saw me taking pictures before… and probably assumed since I was asian HAHA

It’s all about this:
the Tuscan Olive Oil, Citrus Vinaigrette

And cuz we were “her friends” she poured it on for us. AWWWWW I felt so loved….!!!! She even said “Of course Tiff, you’re my friend” hahahaha… maybe she remembers me from my past eatings there…. LOLOLOL… I always eat SO much here

This was my piece… Woo Bear and me both picked our pieces CLEAN!!!!!… We ASIAN YO.  We waste NOTHING!!!

House-Made Red Beet Conchiglie Pasta
Boudin Noir Ragoût, Fava Leaves

This was beautiful. Fucking beautiful. BEET PASTA? It’s like taking a veggie I love with a pasta I love and combining the two.  When I first looked at it, I was like UHHH.. meat? blah? WHAT? But it was delicious.   The sauce didn’t overwhelm the beet taste in the pasta and the lava leaves added a nice green freshness to it.   Will definitely try to make a beet pasta in the future… altho I’ll probably make pappardelle or gnocchi.

Slow-Roasted Veal Sweetbreads
Wild Mushrooms, Farm-Fresh Egg, Chorizo Sauce

This may have been my favorite dish of the night, minus the bone marrow later, but I can never not LOVEEEEEEEEEE and orgasm with bone marrow.  But the poached egg was SOOOO beautiful.  The sauce, the mushrooms and of course SWEETBREADS.  I really need to find a place that sells sweetbreads so I can start cooking them.  They’re one of my favorite delicacies.. even more than bone marrow and foie gras cuz I can never find them to cook them myself… and because of that, I ALWAYS ALWAYS have to order sweetbreads when it’s on the menu.. well I guess the same with the other two but still….

And then when we thought it was all over….

Axis Venison Two Ways: Spice-Crusted Leg, Crepinette
Mustard Spaetzle, Hakurei Turnips, Red Cabbage Purée

And obviously we got it with the BONE MARROW!!!!

Can you believe they asked us if we would rather have duck fat roasted carrots OR bone marrow? UMMM… we didn’t even look at each other and Woo Bear and I both screamed BONE MARROW!!!

It was all so freaking delicious….  the crepinette was SOOOOOOOO delicious. It was a yummy venison meatball!!!… and the venison leg, sliced and cooked rare was just SOOO tender and delicious.  I ended up eating the marrow on toast and then the rest of the marrow all over my veal dish and licking it up. The spaetzle was crunchy and divine and while it was from “mustard” it had almost a delicate “cheese” taste to it.  Definitely some of the yummiest spaetzle I’ve had.  The turnips were great.. I thought it was daikon – which I guess is basically a turnip/carrot – and just all of the items combined was ORGASMIC. We had SOOOOOO much bone marrow it could feed a family of 10.

Palate Cleanser
House-made Lime Frozen Yogurt
Basil Seeds

Delicious. Refreshing. YUM.

We got this amazing Bourbon:
Michter’s 20yr Cask Strength Single Barrel 114.2°

At 67$ a glass it better be fucking amazing and it was… smelled like caramel and was soooooo tasty. Yeah disgustingly expensive but also disgustingly delicious.

Dessssert time.. so it was definitely more than just 8 courses….

Moroccan ‘Upside Down’ Carrot Cake
Goat Cheese Sorbet, Dates, Caramelized Almonds

I told them no goat cheese but they gave me some anyways.  I ate it anyways.  But the cake was super dry, even though I loved the look/concept of the cake.  Next time I make carrot cake I’ll have a beautiful slice of carrot on top.  It didn’t go with the goat cheese even tho I tried it together to make it “wetter” and neither did the sauce.  It was kinda sad to see such a fantastic meal end so badly.

Chocolate-Fernet Branca Crémeux
Roasted Lemon Puree, Tarragon Ice Cream

I don’t really think that was what we got… it tasted like mint ice cream on chocolate mousse and crunchy sticks hahahaha…. it was good but didn’t feel like a FULL dessert, like a side to a dessert…

BUT AT LEAST THIS SAVED THE NIGHT

We had a special complimentary Hot Cocoa to warm us up… there was definitely some chilies and cardamum in it <3

Everything was talked about, we definitely spent a good few hours there… and in the end we realized:

Love you Woo Bear. Can’t wait to play again soon!!!!! Miss you dearly already!!!!

Mellow Mushroom…. for pizzzzaaaaaa

Decided I wanted pizza so me W and L headed down to the Mellow Mushroom for some pizza….

A delicious salad. I LOVEEEE Alfalfa

All wee delicious except for my weird hawaiian pizza on the bottom right that made me sad and we didn’t eat it.  The top was the best.. L’s gluten-free pizza YUM

A delicious beer, DUH

And for dessert we got from froyo — Thanks L for the yogurt <3

I love MAC & CHEESE… and visiting W’s parents

I headed into DC early the other day, W was back for a few days so obviously I was gonna visit.  Squish face. Why? Freaking HANGRY. I woke up super early, got into the airport early and had the most LONG WAIT in the “more speed” line and “bag drop” line ever. I barely had time to pee… but then PLANE WAS DELAYED. PER USUAL.  Nothing in my belly and no sense of how long the delay was – I was cranky… and hangry…

Thankfully I ended up having time to buy a salad…. which reminded me of Detroit. RIP Wolfgang Puck resto at the MGM in Detroit HA HA.

Soon after we got there, W and his mama picked me up and after debating over where to eat lunch we headed to Costco to buy some things and to get food…

I found a shed and ME being ME I opened it and found bears.  I wanna take them home and cuddle with them, they’re huge.  I also ended up inside the shed, closed, and staring at people outside the window holding a giant bear. I RULE.  Poor bf thinks I’m CRAJEEEE…

We got Berry Froyos and Pepperoni Pizza. YUM!

And when we got back to W’s parents’ house we swapped bday gifts!!!

MINE

W got me Gold Snakeprint Alexander McQueen heels with a heart cut out and a beautiful gold ring!

I got baby a SEXY Burberry watch… no pic of it here, just him opening the box :] TEEHEE

SHOES <3
LOVE! I can’t wear them til my Birthday trip in Vegas tho.. I promised him.

:D Pretty Furbabies

Chigga what?

And after some QT with his mama at the grocery store we came home with groceries and we popped open some delicious Chilean wine and made spaghetti.

CARB OVERLOAD, I passed out EASILY that night watching MasterChef with W….

Next morning…

Mac & Cheese MAC MAC MAC & Cheese… I already inhaled W’s mama’s homemade fresh Fried Chicken Thighs HAHAHA.. OOPS

The Morning After… at Wagamama & SAVORY FROYO at PINKBERRY!!!

Okay, fine. It was the AFTERNOON after.  We didn’t really drink close to enough to be hungover but WHY NOT eat for it? W and I slept in, obviously, but A worked so she met up with us for lunch….. we were gonna head to Cafeteria [MMM Mac&Cheese]… but it was kinda crappy out and W wasn’t feeling well [and had to buy pants!] so we went to Wagamama. MMMM, always a tasty noodly treat.

After going back and forth between a lot of items… we chose.

A got the  Veggie Itame – rice noodles in a spicy green coconut and lemongrass soup topped with stir-fried chicken breast or fried tofu, beansprouts, chillies, red onions, scallions, bok choy, peppers and mushrooms. garnished with cilantro and lime

She let me have a slurp and it was tasty!!!!  I find coconut broths to be heavy but this was pretty good.  Altho fav one would still have to be from Urban Belly. Anyways.  You dont miss the meat at all.

ONE COMPLAINT: They served A’s dish to someone else… next to us.. apparently they always eff up orders here.. it’s good but srsly?! And then “rushed” the re-order but she got hers sooooo long after ours. UGH. Annoying.

I got the Chicken Chili Ramen – spicy broth and ramen noodles topped with fresh chilies, red onion, bean sprouts, cilantro, scallion and a wedge of lime

And W got the same as me but with grilled steak. I should’ve gotten steak :[ My chicken SUCKED and I only had like 1.5 pieces.  But I added a lot of shichimi 七味唐辛子, “seven flavor chili pepper”  in it and made it even spicier.  My nose got sweaty.  They also have soy sauce and chili oil for condiments.

After our bellies were full… A and I hurried over to Pinkberry, right next to Wagamama.. at first W resisted but he gave in and got a cup of froyo too.  BUT, OMG, they have SAVORY toppings now?!?!?!

Yep, those are diced peppers, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers and basil….

Since we’re curious we got given samples.  I tried the cucumber, pepper, EVOO and a tasty spice.. maybe paprika?!  And a salty sunflower cracker.  A had the one with olives, pesto, tomato and another cracker :]  It’s actually served with their Greek Yogurt and was surprisingly really tasty.  *cue W’s face squishing in disgust* hahaha…

I ended up with this tho, sweet for me !!!
Half strawberry, half salted caramel with mangoes and raspberries!

DEEEEEEEEEELISH!

After shopping around a bit and relaxing W went to prep for the dinner and I did a little work.. and by little I mean little… cuz soon I was dressed and ready to head out for drinks and dinner with the chefs.

When I finally got to shake Ken Oringer’s hand, I may have a giggled one too many times. OOPS. These may have been to blame.  I had a champagne cocktail, some of W’s drink and this tequila/jalapeno smokey drink [with mango ice cube YUM].

We ended up not eating dinner with the chefs, just had a few drinks and then W and I went to O Sushi for a delicious sushi/sashimi dinner.

It was the first time I had their Hamachi Kama – only disappointment was this Tako [octopus] dish that was just salmon and octopus chopped in cubes with cubed tomatoes and cuc and etc… meh.  But Hamachi Kama had crispy skin and juicy moist meat. YUM – I had a delicious Lychee Saketini along with the meal as well :] NOM!  They give you a shaker full so you get about two martini glasses!!!

Oysters at Old Ebbitt Grill and a trip to the Spy Museum…

I had another relaxing weekend in DC… After watching The Ant Bully and Ramona & Beezus and half napping from bad allergies, we grabbed some yummy chicken… but I got horribly sick so we stayed in with me curled up in a ball for the longest time.  I woke up feeling SO SO much better on Saturday and we both were craving oysters… so we headed over to Old Ebbitt Grill for some raw oysters and other yummies… I had my first bus ride in DC woooo!!!

Of course as soon as we sat down at the bar – the place was PACKED – we ordered some of what we came for.  A glass of bubbly for me and a lick of the lips, we were ready

A dozen delicious Oysters

Starting Left and Clockwise…
Barcats, Battle Creek, Blue Island, Quonset Pio, Sewansecott, Wellfleets

These were delicious. Each one had some shell stuck in it but they were deliciousssss!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Fried Calamari

Ancho Chili Pepper Dipping Sauce

They were good, it’s hard to mess up fried calamari… but NO TENTACLES :[ So that made me a little sad. Didn’t try the dipping sauce since I’m not really into mayo-based sauces usually teehee…  PLUS I was busy with my choices…

Avocado Citrus Salad

Mixed Spring Greens, Clementines, Avocado, Scallions, Toasted Almonds, Gorgonzola Cheese and Citrus Vinaigrette

Totally lacking in avocado… and not sure if I saw scallions.. but the cheese was delicious and creamy, I loved the crisp fresh greens and crunchy almonds, NOM!  Sweet and slightly tart clementines MMMMMM… I asked for the vinaigrette on the sad but I guess they forgot – THANKFULLY it wasn’t too overly dressed… a bit goopy, but still good.  Definitely needed more avocado, I think I only got like 3 or 4 pieces and only one big chunk, I think only a quarter of a avocado :[ Sad.  If it’s the first thing in the name, it should be showcased atop of the salad!

Steamed Canadian Cove Mussels

PEI Mussels, Tomatoes, Fresh Herbs and a Garlic-White Wine Sauce

These were really really good :D A nice garlicky buttery wine sauce, nice fresh tomatoes and super yummy juicy mussels. NOM!  I had this as basically my main… well this and the salad.  It was a nice light fluffy meal, SOOOO delicious… I also had a nibble of W’s lunch….

He got a yummy Reuben

First Cut Corned Beef, Sauerkraut, Swiss Cheese and Thousand Island Dressing on Rye Bread

It was big and tasty. MMM fries.

Yay for LUNCH!

Afterwards, the weather was beautiful and we walked over to the Spy Museum to play!!!

We didn’t take pictures cuz we’re not supposed to, but W couldn’t stop himself from taking pics of me being silly and being a ninja spy crawling thru the shaft.

PEEEEKABOOBOO

I passed the quiet test :D I was wicked hush hush :D

We were already hungry by the end of the museum trip.. so after thinking of possibilities, from ramen to pizza to etc etc, we decided to opt for something sweet and cold first before dinner.

Caliyogurt

W’s mandarin orange commited suicide on the way back to the apt :[

We came back to Curly :D The cutie L was babysitting for the weekend. SUCH A CUTIE!

And the three of us decided to get pho for dinner!  Lots of TEEVEE, playing with Curly and just REEEE-LAXING!!!!!

Large, extra broth, extra sprouts, basil, jalapenos, with EVERYTHING – tendon, tripe, raw beef, etc… AND meat balls <3 OH HAPPY DAY!

I also had a Code Red, the first one I’ve had since Freshman year in college… like what?!… 2001 or 2002?! HAHAHAH.. it’s been awhile… W was scared I’d be off the wall, and I was….

We stayed in…. and played Uno til 4 in the morning :D BEST LIFE EVER!

it used to be “Big Buns & Pita” (all this food lately IS making MY buns big ;])

…but now it’s Sahara Kabob.

I’m sorry but the former name is so much more badussy (in the words of Onch ;])

BUT THE WEBSITE is still: www.bigbunsandpita.com :D woot!

So I like Greek/Med food but it’s been awhile… I used to eat it all the time when I worked at Directory M since a ton of my coworkers were from that region… and there was an amazing Med place right by work… but I’m lame and always got the Chicken Shwarma.. (so loves it) since it came with amazing rice with tiny pieces of noodles, the sauce.. and just delicious chicken. I’ve had a falafel ONCE in my life and it was there and I wasn’t impressed.. it made me hesitant to ever eat it again.. until now…

Boyfriend LOVES this place.. and I trust him. So I go along with it. He used to come here all the time.. trekking thru rain and snow… and he has good stories about the place and people there. So I enjoy listening as we walk and eat there :]

To start… we had the Baba Ghanouj, Boorek, & Medames, as appetizers…. I LOVE the rice with sweet carrots and raisins that the dishes come with. YUM! They also give you soup or salad (we got the delicious lentil soup) and pickled jalapeno, beets, onions, etc… to munch on… and of course pita!!!

Memorial Weekend ’09

This weekend, I got a special visitor early Friday morning :] And so began our amazing food journey for the entire weekend… enjoy :D

Friday

First stop was one of my favorite sushi places. It’s also really close to my house… so Oishii Too we go.

Yaki Ika (Grilled squid)

Toro Tata: minced Fatty Tuna in wasabi and ponzu sauce topped with Sterling Caivar

Guy Tataki: seared beef with mesculin green

His hand roll cherry got popped today :D He had his first hand roll.. mmm unagi!!! ♥ … Haha I even had to show him how to take a bite first.. lol… or maybe he just wanted to see me chomp….

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