adamsulliwong

Author: adamsulliwong

Adam doesn't afraid of anything. He laughs in the face of society trying to sass him into being normal and drinks the tap water anyways. Adam hates candle lit dinners and long walks on the beach. He prefers dinners in alleyways and thinks beaches are for skinny-dipping. Adam pretty much does what he wants, which can be boiled down to eating excellent food, not using shampoo, and lovin’ his momma an awful-lot. Adam does these things in hopes of finding a purpose to his life because the existential crisis is ever present in the back of Adam's mind. He has found catharsis, however temporary, as a writer for Crimson Crave

by Adam Wong ’17 and Caroline Gentile ‘17

Before Thanksgiving break, the owners of Follow the Honey kindly hosted Crimson Crave for a honey-tasting extravaganza and information session. As we entered the basement of 1132 Massachusetts Avenue, with our cold toes poking out of our flip-flops, we were embraced by warm lighting, warm air, and warm, flowery smells.

We started off at the raw bar, where people can come in and sample tons of honey for free. A lot of the honey sold there was from small local beekeepers, but we had a variety of different honeys from around the world, paired with local French-style cheddar and French bread.

How local is local, you ask? In fact, surprisingly, there are many beekeepers in the urban setting of Cambridge. Follow the Honey even has their own bees and makes their own honey. However, we also tried honeys from places as far away and remote as Colombia and Tanzania. The owner, Mary Canning, and her daughter, Caneen, take trips to visit the beekeepers all over the world to get a better sense of where the product is coming from. They hope to encourage beekeepers, from all over, but especially developing countries, to take advantage of the resources at hand to make delicious honey.

Follow the Honey tends to bees in their very own backyard!

What was most striking was the pure variety of honey, and the variety of flavors, textures, and colors it could take on. Honey is made from and takes its flavor from the nectar of the flowers that bees pollinate. It is the extraction of flavor of these otherwise inaccessible flavors inside flowers. What makes these flavors so inaccessible? The tiny amounts of nectar per flower. Bees must extract it all and concentrate it into honey! Honey made from melon honey does not necessarily taste like melons, and a wild flower honey does not taste like a wild flower.

There is an unbelievable amount of flavors honey can take on, which is dependent on the bee that makes it, but also the flower from which the bee extracts the nectar. There are hard honeys, which have a degree of granularity due to the crystallization of sugar. One type of honey we tasted from Hawaii was pure white and dissolved in your mouth, like white sand being washed away by a wave. Other honeys took on ridiculous flavors like chocolate, cinnamon, turmeric, and we swear to god, marshmallows. Some honeys were made from oak flowers, tasted like caramel, and looked like amber.

Although the honey they sell is certainly reason enough to stop by Follow the Honey, the store itself is simply adorable. The interior is warm and inviting, and in the warmer months, their terrace offers a burst of nature in an otherwise urban environment.

Among the growing number of chains that seem to be popping up in Harvard Square, the uniqueness of Follow the Honey is striking. Not only do they sell honey in the usual glass jar, but they also sell honeycomb, honey on tap, and other bee-themed products.

If you are looking to buy a unique gift, taste some honey, or want to show off a cool place in Harvard Square to your parents, Follow the Honey is definitely the place to bee.

by Adam Wong ’17

There’s a new contender in the late night food game. El Jefe’s, the new restaurant on Mt. Auburn Street, seeks to get in on the market of the late night drunchies game, taking up the same hours as Tasty Burger, the hegemon of 3AM post party sustenance. We were hungry, so we went to check it out.

When we went in late one Wednesday night (Thursday morning for you damn literalists) we were greeted by a warm atmosphere, a busy kitchen, and decor that suggested Havana or Tijuana. Painted exposed concrete, old finished tables and decorative flor Cholula tiles relaxed us, and got us in the mood for some casual Mexican food.

We ordered ourselves the 3 taco package and a burrito, ringing in at $6.50 and $7.00, respectively. In the tacos we got Carne Molida Picante (a kind of spicy ground beef), Chorizo, and shrimp. In the burrito, you know we had to load it up with our old standby, Carnitas. We did get served out of Pyrex glass dishes that your mom uses to make meatloaf, but we were told it was interim stuff until their new equipment arrives. Regardless, the stuff waiting for us in the Pyrex was quality. The options are quickly refreshed from the stove and grill just behind the line, which is impressive, considering the amount of goodies you could slam down on your tortilla. Perfectly (and we do mean perfectly) cooked Mexican or lime rice, pork pinto beans, roasted veggies, plantains, and some bangin’ guac can be added to any one of your creations at no extra cost. Forever the arbiters of thrift, we could never consider getting every extra possible, until we found this place. You’d have to be crazy to put plantains AND guac in your burrito, but that doesn’t mean you can’t. You do you, man.

Its as big as our heads, and we have fat heads.

Some taco action for our views back home.

We sat down and got eating. The carnitas was fatty and sweet, reminiscent of some of the Mexican food closer to the border back home in California. The shrimp taco, with simple lettuce, cheese, and pico de gallo toppings, was awesome. The shrimp was al dente, and was deliciously shrimpy. The chorizo, instead of being served as ground spiced meat, was fried, slightly crispy slices. I could get more of the spicy fatty pork into my mouth and really taste the red chiles that gives the sausage its distinctive red color. We were surprised when we found the spicy ground beef taco to be our favorite. Though visually reminiscent of elementary school lunch, the taste is on a whole other tier, and strong enough to hit your taste buds through the deepest inebriation.

One of our top discoveries was the salsa verde. A common sight in Mexican restaurants across the country, the thinnish, forest green sauce found here is anything but common. It is peppery, hot, flavorful, and so good, we would name our kid after it. Looking for an excuse to eat more of it, we ordered a steak quesadilla (only 5 buccaroonies) where another pleasant surprise jumped out at us. The steak… was GOOOOD. Peppery and tender, the steak was right at home in the extra cheesy quesadilla, and just peachy in the salsa verde.

We can't count that high. — We can’t count that high.

Being a new and small establishment, El Jefe’s seriously takes in community input. In fact, community input is built into the organization of the restaurant in the Picante bar. A huge wall of dozens of different sauces to spice up your night, the Picante bar can be expanded with hot sauces of your own choosing. With this kind of responsibility, El Jefe’s gives us at Harvard the opportunity to make it a real home of ours.

El Jefe’s in the square is a huge move. Though its grub was not as good as Felipe’s, it is a different genre of Mexican food, and brings with it different benefits to the table. El Jefe’s has got yummy food, lots of it, and late. While fools be standing in line at Tasty Burger for an hour while waiting for 2 small burgers costing them an exorbitant ten dollars, I at least will be skipping round the corner and getting my money’s worth at el Jefe’s, the new boss of “why am I awake” dining.

Author: adamsulliwong

Follow the Honey: The Place to Bee

El Jefe’s: A New Contender