Our Favorite Foods from the 2015 Boston Local Food Festival
Al’s is closing.
By Adam Wong ’17
We repeat, Al’s, that beautiful little gem of a sandwich shop who has served us faithfully with fresh baked Italian loaves stuffed with high-quality meats cheeses and sometimes vegetables, is closing.
As a part of Harvard’s plan to convert the The Holyoke Center into a shiny new building to match the shiny new name, the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center, all the restaurants are being evicted into the storm that is The Square business climate.
Before you make a mad dash to Al’s to stockpile sandwiches, put away your cleats and hold up. According to Carlos, the part owner and manager of Al’s Cambridge location, the shop will still be in business until the end of the school year. Until then, Al’s will be looking hard for a new place to reopen up shop in the square. Easier said than done, finding a new lot will prove a difficult challenge to the Harvard institution.
Al’s Cafe, bless its soul, keeps cost down by depending on selling a high volume to make a profit. However, this strategy is risky; by dealing with low margins, the shop is extremely sensitive to any rise in cost, including rent. Whereas the Holyoke Center had some of the lowest rent in the square, the new Smith Center will do away with restaurant lots, and consequently, the low rent that Al’s has previously survived on. The high rent in other lots in and around the square act as a barrier to smaller restaurants that serve cheap eats for a college budget. Instead, the rent encourages the type of restaurant we see everywhere in the square: expensive American restaurant bars. In this climate, there is a good chance that Al’s will not be able to find a location in The Square that can fit its needs.
We still have hope that Al’s Cafe will have a future home in Harvard Square. The community, in love with Al’s huge, flavorful, and cheap sandwiches, are pulling hard to keep the institution around and its sandwiches in close proximity. Recognizing its popularity among its employees and students alike, Harvard had offered initial help in relocating Al’s to a different Harvard-owned lot. Yet, since the eviction notice was passed down in the beginning of this summer, no news of progress has passed down. “We haven’t heard from them in a while. Honestly, we’re worried,” said Carlos. Harvard owns much of the land along Mass Ave, and they could potentially give any one of those spots to Al’s for a manageable rent. The lots currently inhabited by Gnomon Copy and potentially even Yenching have been discussed, and for Carlos, are the best locations for the new Al’s shop.
The renovation of the old Holyoke center has sent shockwaves through the very bricks of Harvard square. The new campus center will have a permanent effect on the face of the square and the collection of restaurants that populate it. It is our sincere hope that, among that collection, Al’s will be right there chugging along, slingin’ those bad boy subs just the way we like.
Photo courtesy of the Harvard Crimson.
Toll House’s best kept secret: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
By Victoria Piccione ’16
When it comes to baked goods, there are two kinds of people in this world: cookie people and cake people. I’ve always been infuriated when people ask me what camp I fall into because I don’t discriminate against any baked goods. And they’re so completely different that I don’t think it’s a fair question anyway. Cakes are for celebrations; cookies are for everyday consumption. But when asked if I’m a cookie or cookie bar person, I can confidently state that I fall into the latter camp.
For your sake, I really hope that you’ve consumed a chocolate chip cookie bar at least once in your lifetime. If you haven’t, you need to put down the computer, print out this recipe, and go whip up a batch right now because they are (1) so easy and (2) absolutely delicious. They pack the chewy interior and slightly crunchy exterior of a regular cookie, along with the buttery, vanilla-y, slightly salty goodness that we all love about a Toll House cookie, but then they do it better. They’re thicker, kind of like blondies, but chock full of chocolate and the consistency is more like a cookie.
This recipe is an old standby in my house, and for many reasons. It’s versatile: you can throw in M&Ms, coconut, toasted hazelnuts, or swirl in some peanut butter, Nutella, or salted caramel. They’re also the perfect base for a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of hot fudge. It’s too easy: rather than spending as much time rolling out balls of cookie dough as you spent mixing up the dough itself, this dough you just spread in a pan and throw in the oven. I’m all about immediate gratification. And there’s just something about biting into a thick bar that’s intensely satisfying.
Chocolate chip cookies have done a good job of keeping their younger, more attractive sister hidden, but I think it’s time that she finally make her debut!
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups unsifted flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 12-oz package (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375°F, and grease a 15” x 10” x 1” baking pan.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl fitted for an electric mixer, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract; beat until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
- Gradually add flour mixture, scraping down the bowl between additions. Mix until completely incorporated.
- Stir in chocolate chips, then spread into greased baking pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
- Let cool, then cut into 2” squares.
Recipe adapted from Toll House
The Crimson Crave’s Guide to Food Festivals
By Caroline Gentile ’17
As summer draws to a close at the end of September, so too does the season of food festivals. The month of September boasts at least one food festival in Boston every weekend in an effort to make the most of the nice weather while it lasts. In fact, there are two this coming weekend: the Phantom Gourmet Food Festival will be held this Saturday, September 19th, and the 6th annual Boston Local Food Festival (our personal favorite) will be Sunday, September 20th.
While food festivals can be a great way to spend the afternoon and sample lots of great food from a variety of different vendors, there are definitely some tricks to the trade that will make your food festival experience that much more enjoyable! Here are our tips for making the most of this month’s local food events:
- Purchase your tickets ahead of the event. Not only is purchasing tickets ahead of time sometimes cheaper, but it also guarantees that you will be able to get into the festival whenever you decide to arrive without having to worry about tickets selling out.
- Show up on time, at the latest. The events can run out of food if you get there too late! Also, the crowds can get pretty big,. If you get there early, you won’t have to wait in the long line for entrance AND you’ll get first dibs on all the food you want to try.
- Bring a bag for pamphlets and free swag. Many of the vendors will have freebies, and you want to keep your hands free so that you can take as many samples of food as you can.
- Bring water. Eating all those samples can make you thirsty, and nothing is more thirst-quenching than water! Also, while some festivals will have vendors that offer beverages, don’t count it.
- Walk through the whole food festival first to see what’s out there, then get food. It’s good to have an idea of what the festival has to offer so that you can prioritize going to the vendors that have the yummiest-looking food.
- Don’t show up starving; eat something small before you go. Then, you won’t ravenously descend upon the first vendor you see, and fill up on food that may not have been your first priority. Which brings us to our last point..
- Pace yourself!! There is seemingly unlimited food at these events, but trust us, your stomach does in fact have a limit as to how much food it can hold. To ensure that you get to eat everything you want without getting too full, limit yourself to one sample from each vendor. If you’re still hungry after making your rounds, though, then definitely go back for seconds!
Behind The Scenes at Dragonfly Granola
By Basia Rosenbaum ’18
Summers always hold the possibility of the unexpected. Bucket lists, vacations to new destinations, spontaneity. My summer was filled with such unexpected activities and outings to places I’ve never been, but of a different variety.
My mom, a recent empty nester since I came to college, had an idea. She was going to turn the granola she and her mother had been making since she was a kid into a company. She was going to account for all those now trendy dietary restrictions that mark the products lining Whole Foods’ shelves—gluten-free, vegan, low glycemic. She was going to live that ‘Shark Tank’ dream and make a hit product.
And she did. Well…she’s on her way.
Last winter, Dragonfly Granola was just an idea. By the spring, she was baking in a commercial kitchen and starting to sell at a Farmers’ Market on Sundays. This summer, one shift at the commercial kitchen turned into two and that one Farmers’ Market turned into four.
In a few weeks, I will be going home for the weekend to help fulfill an order for 250 bags of Fig Hazelnut granola for one of the biggest artisanal grocery stores in New York.
The first time my mom and I went to that commercial kitchen, she dropped a tray of granola and I sliced my finger on a knife. Over the weeks, we’ve learned how to use the industrial dishwasher and operate the walk-in oven. We’ve graduated from making batches 5 times the original recipe size to making 20 times. We’ve developed new flavors (our Chocolate Espresso with Almonds is a personal favorite) and had barcodes made for the products.
This summer put my basic economics to a test as I struggled to determine wholesale vs. retail pricing, and how to account for all costs to determine profit. It taught me the New York State code for food sanitation and just what coconut sugar is.
At Farmers’ Markets I got to know Dragonfly Granola customers—the regulars and the first-time buyers. As they tried our samples and responded with smiles (or on occasion a remark of ‘that is the best granola I’ve ever had!’), I couldn’t help but be proud. And then there were remarks on the calorie count or “this is too sweet » or, quite often, “$12 for a bag of granola?! »
It is true. This is expensive granola. And if I were one of those samplers, I might have considered buying a bag of Dragonfly Granola and then decided I would get dinner out one night instead.
But when you have contributed to every bag, watching ingredients become a product, $12 seems like not much to pay. I’ve learned that buying pistachios in bulk is shockingly expensive, and getting every bag to weigh exactly 14 ounces is hard.
Owning a small business is a dream, but it’s incredibly difficult in the age of Walmart and comparable bags of granola that cost $5. The difference is that Dragonfly Granola is made by hand (literally.) Those oats from Maine were measured by me, and mixed by my mom. The labels were affixed to the bags as an excuse to watch some bad reality TV. This granola has become my mom’s second child and she treats it with as much care, love, and affection as she would a baby.
The parting gift from my mom as I left for school this fall was a bag of granola. As I use it to top my d-hall oatmeal, I can’t help but think ahead to a day when HUDS provides Dragonfly Granola. Or maybe that’s just much too wishful thinking. Instead, I imagine a day when Dragonfly Granola doesn’t come in a care package from home, but from a Cambridge Whole Foods. To a day when a factory seals the bags and the oven accommodates hundreds of trays. And being able to remember what it was like at the very beginning.
Be sure to check out dragonflygranola.com to shop online for delicious granola!
BonChon Chicken: A Decent Introduction to Korean Food
by Angela Yi ’19
As a Korean from Orange County, California, I have frequent cravings for my Korean-style chicken wings. When I heard good things about BonChon Chicken, “excited” doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. I made plans to eat dinner there with my fellow Korean friends who were also originally from Orange County, and we were all anticipating a night to finally satisfy our longing for some food from back home.
The place was pretty full when we arrived, which I took as a positive sign. The wait wasn’t unreasonable for a party of three, although the waitress couldn’t give us the approximate wait time. After about 15 minutes, we were seated, and I took in the surroundings as we were given our menus.
I could see that BonChon obviously wanted to create an “oriental” atmosphere with its red seats and overhead lamps. There was also a grill in the table for Korean barbecue – something that I’m looking forward to using soon.
About five minutes later, the waitress returned to take our orders. We had Edamame as our appetizer, and a medium-sized Half-and-Half Soy Garlic and Spicy Chicken Platter (10 pcs) as our main dish, which the waitress had recommended for our party of three. The prices were reasonable, although they weren’t on the cheap side ($5.95 for Edamame, $20.95 for the platter).
What I found interesting was that our main dish actually arrived earlier than our appetizer, but the wait times for both were normal. We were also given radishes and a salad as sides for the main dish.
I first had the salad, which – as you can probably see from the picture – had too much mayo. It also had too many spices, which made a very strange combination that did not impress me. The edamame was better, but it was a bit overcooked. But, I really liked the radishes. They were crisp and refreshing, just as radishes should be.
I then tried the Soy Garlic chicken. The outside was crunchy, and the inside had a nice texture. The garlic was thankfully not overpowering at all, but instead complimented the chicken well. The Spicy chicken was very, very spicy. People who really love spicy food will definitely enjoy this dish – as for me, a person who can’t handle super spicy food, I couldn’t finish the chicken wing after one bite.
Overall, I felt underwhelmed. This might be because Orange County offers so many mouthwatering Korean-style chicken wings (if you ever come down to Orange County, you MUST try out Flying Chicken Pa-Dak), but BonChon was just “meh.” It wasn’t bad, but not particularly amazing, either. I’ll come here again to check out the Korean BBQ, and maybe once in a while to satisfy future Korean-style chicken cravings. For those of you who have never had Korean-style chickens, I’d recommend you to try this place out, only on one condition: Think of BonChon as an introduction to the amazing world of Korean food, but remember that it can get so much better.
Toasted Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich
by Emily Brother ’19
Everyone knows that dining hall meal: the one where the only dessert available is a chocolate chip cookie. Well, hope is not lost! In fact, you’ve just been presented with an opportunity to create a warm chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. This sandwich balances the cool, creamy sweetness of vanilla soft-serve with the warm, chewy, gooey goodness of a chocolate chip cookie. And, if you’re feeling extra adventurous, add a pinch of salt to the cookie to make it just a bit more savory!
Ingredients:
- 2 chocolate chip cookies
- Vanilla soft-serve (or ice cream, if it’s Sunday!)
- Salt (optional)
Steps:
- Put two chocolate chip cookies in one of the dining hall conveyor toasters. Remove when chocolate chips are somewhat melted.
- Take a generous dollop of the vanilla soft-serve and, using a knife, smear it on one of the warm chocolate chip cookies.
- Complete the sandwich by placing the other chocolate chip cookie on top of the cookie that is already covered with ice cream. If you’d like, sprinkle some salt on top of the whole sandwich. Enjoy!
Gluten- Free Puppy Chow
By Danielle Leavitt’ 17
This summer I welcomed a new brother into my home. Adorable, furry, curious, and smart, my new puppy won my affection instantly. Always on the go, he made me think of a quick and easy gluten-free snack that I could make at school. “Puppy Chow” is usually a staple, eaten at holiday parties and snacked on anytime and anywhere. This easy treat can be made entirely in a microwave with very simple ingredients. The ingredients can all be found at Broadway Market and at Whole Foods. Sweet, crunchy, gooey, chocolaty, and delicious, “Puppy Chow” is an easy-to-make, satisfying snack that even my new puppy would love to try.
Ingredients:
3 tbsp. butter
10oz marshmallows
5 tbsp. Peanut Butter
Chocolate chips to taste (Enjoy Life brand are gluten, soy, and dairy free)
4 cups Chex cereal (all flavors are Gluten free, but this was made with Rice Chex, which you could totally poach from the d-hall…)
Powdered sugar (optional)
Directions:
Microwave butter, marshmallows, peanut butter, and chocolate chips. Stir every 2-3 minutes. Add Chex cereal. Mix together.
Additions: you can put some powdered sugar on top, and mix thoroughly
Enjoy!
Which Brazilian Food Would You Want to Try Most?
Adam Wong ’17 is currently eating his way through Brazil. Below are his favorite delicacies (some of which are various organ meats!) from Rio and Porto Alegre. Which would you want to try most? Vote in the poll!
Liquiteria: Difficult to Say, Easy to Sip
By Dana Ferrante ’17
One week ago today, Liquiteria opened its doors to the public for the first time, its bright blue and yellow interior the only beacon of hope on the otherwise dismally cold June day. While the New England weather may not always show it, Liquiteria radiates the tastes and smells of summer, offering an extensive variety of smoothies, cold pressed juices, cleanse kits, and to-go food items.
Sitting on the corner of Mass Ave and Church St. (translation: right near the once 24-hour CVS, or 20 steps from Johnston Gate), this outpost is the first to open in Massachusetts. The original three locations reside in New York City where Liquiteria began as cold pressed juice shop. Cold pressed juices became very popular a few years ago, as big names such as Starbucks and ‘the west coast’ caught on to the trend, and Liquiteria seems to have benefitted from the juices’ widespread success.
So what’s the difference between cold pressed juice, and well, regular old juice? Chances are the apple juice your mom used to buy at Walmart is ‘hot pressed juice,’ made by heating, boiling, or steaming the fruit so that its skin and pulp will separate. The pulp then becomes very easy to press, making for a smooth, skinless juice. However, with the benefit of easy-pressing comes the risk of losing flavor and nutrients. When juice is heated, volatile flavor compounds are the first to go. (If you are familiar with the use of what are called glass, or cellophane, noodles in Asian cuisines, these noodles absorb the volatile compounds released while stir-frying vegetables, retaining the flavors that would otherwise be lost in the cooking process. This is conceptually similar to what happens when making a hot pressed juice, except these compounds are lost.)
Cold pressed juices are a different story. To eliminate the negative effects of heating, thousands of pounds of pressure go into squeezing all the juice possible from the fruit or vegetable, a method known as high pressure processing. Furthermore, as compared to hot pressed juices, much more produce goes into a single bottle of juice. For example, some companies claim that up to 6 lbs of produce can go into one 16 oz bottle of cold pressed juice, whereas Tropicana orange juice (a hot pressed juice) has less than 2 lbs of oranges per 16 oz bottle. Thus, cold pressed emerges as the nutritionally, and most likely flavorfully, superior choice.
Liquiteria offers twelve different juice flavors daily, ranging from the obligatory All Greens (Kale, Spinach, Romaine, Parsley, Celery, Cucumber) to some funkier blends, such as Turmeric Tonic (Turmeric, probiotic, lemon, maple syrup), the unfortunately-colored Skin Trip (Parsley, Spinach, Cucumber, Carrots), and my personal favorite, the refreshing, much-needed-wakeup-call-to -your-taste-buds, the Killer XX (Apple, Lemon, Ginger, Cayenne). As a seasonal extra, they are currently offering Watermelon juice, which essentially is like drinking the 4th of July from a plastic bottle. Each juice flavor comes in a 16 oz bottle, and is always available in the grab and go section.
A particularly intriguing set of options on Liquiteria’s menu are the fruit juice cleanses, sold in either 1 or 3 day packs. Four cleanses are available, ranging from the introductory/beginner level in which one is still allowed to snack intermittently throughout the day, to the final level which is described simply as “aggressive.” If you’re interested in giving your body a boost, or just want to see if you can “drink your body weight in ounces of spring or purified water per day”, check out Liquiteria’s website for more information.
While I was only able to try one smoothie flavor during my visit, the smoothie options seemed on the whole very promising. Whether you’re feeling fruity, craving peanut butter, dreaming of açaí, or still can’t get enough of kale, there’s a smoothie for you. Even if you’re not sold on the pre-made combinations, you can customize any of the smoothies to your liking, as well as substitute almond butter for peanut butter if you have an allergy. There is also the option to add boosters to your smoothie—chia, vitamin c, aloe vera, spirulina (a blue-green algae purported as a “superfood”), bee pollen, and flax seed oil, to name a few—and many of these ingredients are also featured in the 1 oz juice shots in the grab-and-go section.
Sure to be a campus-wide favorite, during my visit I decided to try the too-good-to-be-true Hangover Cure smoothie. While I admittedly did not have the proper qualifications to participate in a controlled study of its efficacy, I can attest to its perfectly blended texture, and mild, satisfying taste. I would say this smoothie as a whole lacked any sort of “wow” factor in terms of taste, but this may be mainly the fault of the typically milky taste of its main ingredients: papaya, peaches, and bananas.
[But then again, no one who actually needs this smoothie would want anymore surprises after hearing from their blockmates what happened last night…]
The service at the newly opened location is the perfect blend of excited and sassy. Having gone through an extensive training before the opening, the staff have memorized the ingredients of each item and are also capable of speaking to their health benefits. They also have had time to pick favorites. One staff member raved about the PB&J Parfait, as well as the Blue Velvet smoothie, which she said tastes like you’re sipping blueberry cake. Sounds good to me.
Besides the great staff recommendations, Liquiteria is notably staffed with enough people, and also enough blenders, to get the orders out quickly. This cannot be said of all smoothie places— I know I have waited considerable amounts of time for blended drinks, as most places only have one or two blenders, and not always enough staff on hand.
So… what’s the catch? As you might have already suspected, Liquiteria is not exactly a bargain like our beloved Noch’s or Felipe’s. While theoretically we should all invest in our general wellbeing (remember, there could be up to 6 lbs of produce in one 16 oz bottle of juice), up to $9 for a juice or smoothie seems outrageous for the average college kid on a budget. With that being said, the staff were quick to mention that many of the smoothies contain whey protein, meaning they can serve as a meal substitute in terms of the nutritional content. In that sense, $8-9 does not seem too terrible, especially if you are in a rush between classes and don’t have time to chew.
Only time will tell if Liquiteria lives up to all its pulp and circumstance.
To give you a better idea of how Liquiteria fits into the current smoothie-scene on and around campus, check out the chart below!
*Walking distance with Harvard Yard as the starting point.
Sources:
http://www.quora.com/What-is-cold-pressed-juice)
http://www.livescience.com/48853-spirulina-supplement-facts.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/cold-pressed-juice_n_4911492.html
http://www.liquiteria.com/smoothies/
Click to access LifeAlive%20Poster%20Menu%202-23-15.pdf
http://www.o2yoga.com/o2-vegan-cafe/cafe-menu/
http://franchise.bgood.com/ourmenu.php
http://www.allmenus.com/ma/cambridgre/353082-boston-tea-stop/menu/
crimsoncrave.com 