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Local Eats

Home Cooking & Takeout in Roslindale, West Roxbury and Beyond

Friday, April 29, 2005

Pop A Wheelie


Phatboy
Originally uploaded by Candlemaker.
on a pizza? A chopped out pizza cutter from George Sugarman Foundation award winner Frankie Flood. There are 5 or 6 of these at the web site. I don't think they're are for sale but they should be.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

The Finished Product


muffuletta
Originally uploaded by Candlemaker.
Needs more work.

Home Made Muffuletta Only So So


Olive Salad
Originally uploaded by Candlemaker.
Looks like it's back to the drawing board on our Muffuletta project. The olive salad was good and seemed like what we had in New Orleans but we need to work on building the sandwich. One problem was the bread, the rolls we had planned to use were sold out and the substitute was way too big and the texture and flavor weren'™t right. Also, we used too much olive salad. A little bit of that goes a long way. A drizzle of olive oil would have helped too. The cold cuts were great. We got them over at Tutto Italiano on River St. in Hyde Park. I haven'€™t been there yet but J loves them and is always bringing nice stuff home. They don'€™t have a web site but a Google search brings up several results including one from The Phantom Gourmet.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

I'd Rather Eat a Biscuit Than Cultivate Orchids

The groaning board. I'd Rather Eat a Biscuit Than Cultivate Orchids

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Trailing The Wild Muffuletta

J and I split a muffuletta from The Central Grocery when we were in New Orleans and it was so good that she decided to try making them at home. I had the impression that the olive salad wasn't much more than olives and oil with a little seasoning so I thought that part would be easy. But the results of my googling for a recipe say different. Depending on the source carrots, cauliflower, capers, cocktail onions and olives, oddly enough, are just a few of the things that are either in or out of the mix. And the site with the claim to the original doesn't seem at all like what we had. So while making it may be easy finding the correct recipe has turned out to be difficult.

Anyway we chose a the following recipe and we've got a batch of it sitting in the fridge for an overnight stay. We're going to try it tomorrow, pictures and an update to follow.

Olive oil salad
¼ cup roasted red pepper sliced
¼ cup red onion sliced
¾ cup finely chopped celery, with leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 teaspoons Oregano
2 cloves garlic minced
½ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¾ cup black brine cured olives - kalamatas
½ cup green olives


1 Make the Giardiniera - Italian pickled vegetables - by adding everything but olives. Add those at the end.
2 Stir and marinate overnight.
3 Use a flat Italian roll preferably hardened or baked so that the olive oil will not melt it.
4 Build sandwich of meat, cheese and olive oil salad.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

We Ate The Town


Acme Oyster House Oysters
Originally uploaded by Candlemaker.
I'€™ve only made one post about our dining experiences in New Orleans because we had so much great food it'€™s difficult to find enough time to do it justice. On top of that I am a slooow writer and that makes the job time consuming as well. Anyway, almost all of it was terrific. From Cafe Du Monde to Commander'€™s Palace to Tujague'€™s to Mother'€™s, Central Grocery, Bayona and the Acme Oyster House our taste buds were just bowled over. Muffaletta sandwiches, warm banana pudding with caramel sauce, fried oysters, etoufe, sweet breads, and beignets were just a few of the treats we enjoyed. More on all of this, including a place more terrifying than terrific, as time goes on.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Craving Satisfied


Mussels cu
Originally uploaded by Candlemaker.
These were really good if I do say so myself. Big and meaty which is a little unusual and probably farm raised as opposed to wild. We got them at Roche Brothers which has reliably good seafood.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Greenbeans


greenbeans
Originally uploaded by Candlemaker.
Pickled in vinegar for a few hours and then last night made part of a so called Chef's Salad. Leftover chicken, boiled egg, red pepper, cucumber, avocado and the green beans were the main ingredients.

Cockroach Bomb Levels Restaurant

Scratch this place off the fine dining list.

"The restaurant owner has used the principle that if you use twice the soap, you get your hands twice as clean. He's just overdone it," McMillan said.


Yahoo! News - Overzealous Owner Blows Eatery Apart

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Mussels Zeitgeist

I just saw a picture of some mussels in the Flickr Daily Zeitgeist, see the top right of this page, and they looked so good and I've been having a craving for them lately so here's the way I like to make them.

To a hot pan add olive oil and enough chopped onions to cover
the bottom of the pan. Season the onions with several grinds of
black pepper and a couple good shakes of red pepper flakes.
When onions are almost translucent mash a clove or two of garlic
and add to pot. Cook two or three minutes longer, flavor
mixture with fresh or dried basil. Immediately add a third of a
bottle of white wine and up to 2 1/2 lbs. of fresh, cleaned and
debearded mussels. Cover and cook until the mussels open.
The time will depend on how much is in the pan.
Six minutes should do it, maybe eight if you’ve got a lot.
Give the pan several good shakes so they
all open nicely. Serve with crusty bread and salad and a
bowl of hot broth for dipping the mussels and the bread. As
long as you don't burn the garlic or basil it will be good.

Warning: Never eat mussels or clams that don’t open. They’re bad. Throw them away.