Food food food food....it is basically all I think about, along with kitty cats and buying stuff on the internet.
(And also science, I suppose. But that is mostly just when I'm at work.) Here are some of the things I have been really wanting to eat lately.
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| Coconut frozen yogurt |
As it is sort-of-maybe-possibly getting warmer (or, rather, as Boston taunts us with warm, sunny weather for a few days before reverting back to cold and overcast), I think more and more about tasty frozen treats like frozen yogurt. Coconut is, obviously, the best flavor of frozen yogurt. And
Pinkberry may be way overpriced, but they have the best-tasting mochi - which is, obviously, the best topping for frozen yogurt.
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| Beef banh mi |
I need to get down to Chinatown more often so I can get my banh mi on~!
Banh mi are super delicious (and super cheap!) Vietnamese sandwiches with meat, cucumber, cilantro, and pickled carrots + daikon on a baguette. I prefer beef banh mi, as the pork/cold-cut variety usually includes
pâté and various mystery meats that I am too chicken to try. My favorite place for banh mi is Mei Sum Bakery - more than slightly sketchy-looking and rather hard to find, but their banh mi (and baked goods) are so tasty!
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Lai wong bao
(Egg custard buns) |
Speaking of Chinatown-based foodstuffs... Within the last year or two, I was able to try
egg custard tarts (daan taat) for the first time and found that they are
amazing. Then, within the last month, I got to go to a
dim sum restaurant for the first time
(I can't help it, I've spend most of my life in super rural areas!) - so just imagine how thrilled I was with
egg custard BUNS (lai wong bao). The yummy, creamy, egg-y custard of egg tarts combined with the delightfully fluffy bread casing of my beloved
cha siu bao (pork buns) - fantabulous! I have been thinking about them all the time ever since I tried them...droooool. I think a banh mi + egg custard bun Chinatown sojourn must occur in the near future.
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| Pignoli cookies |
Hopping now to another part of Boston, to the North End for tasty Italian treats like these! Pignoli cookies, aka pine nut cookies, aka almond macaroons, aka amaretti - they have many names, but these cookies are always amazing. The particular cookie I'm referring to is chewy and made with egg whites, almond paste, and sugar (plus pine nuts, of course). I first tried them at
Modern Pastry (which sells, imo, the yummiest cannolis in Boston - better than Mike's or Maria's for sure), and when I recently had extra pine nuts on hand I tried making them from scratch using
this recipe. Mine were not as pretty looking as the bakery variety, and they stuck really bad because I didn't have any parchment paper, but they were still really good!
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| Jiro-style ramen |
I was actually not aware of this type of ramen (which originates from a chain of ramen shops called
Ramen Jiro in Tokyo) until recently, when I heard about a relatively new ramen shop in Cambridge called
Yume wo Katare that specializes in this style. Seeing as ramen (the legit, fresh Japanese kind in a big bowl with toppings) is probably my favorite food ever, and also seeing as how I especially love fatty tonkotsu ramen with chashuu on top, this place seems right up my alley. Now I just need to plan to go try it at a time when there isn't a ridiculously long line to get in....
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| Chocolate croissant |
For some horrible and unknown reason, I had never eaten a
chocolate croissant until just a couple of months ago. And boy, have I been missing out. So freaking delicious. And now that I've discovered that they sell excellent chocolate croissants at
Au Bon Pain - which is absolutely
everywhere in Boston - I might have to start eating them more often....and also probably start exercising more often. Lol.
Worth it.
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| Chicken salad sub |
Lately, I have not been very good about making legitimate dinners in the evening, so I relatively frequently grab some food on the way home. One of the most convenient and cost-effective meals for me to get is a sub from
Al's Cafe - the chicken salad sub, in particular, is my favorite. (Chicken salad anything is almost always my favorite, actually.) Al's subs are filling, very reasonably-priced, made super quickly, and located right on my commute home from work. I wonder if the people who work at the Harvard location are starting to recognize me....I go there all the time. Also, the above photo is from a totally random sub shop chain with stores all over the country (but not in Boston, haha). But you get the idea. The idea being that chicken salad sandwiches are delicious.
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| Peanut butter cookie |
Another convenient place for me to pick up tasty foodstuffs on my way home, helpfully located right past Al's, is
Insomnia Cookies. Despite my strong hatred of peanut butter, peanut butter
cookies actually happen to be my absolute favorite cookies ever. And the peanut butter cookies from Insomnia Cookies are amaaaaaaazing. What could be better than a soft, warm, gooey peanut butter cookie during a cold walk home after a long day of work? Not much, my friend. Not much.
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| Almond milk tea bubble tea |
Another place in Harvard Square that I patronize frequently is
Boston Tea Stop.
Bubble tea is freaking awesome and I am therefore always craving it, so BTS ends up getting a lot of business from me. As in, a week rarely goes by where I don't drop by at least once. I get good use out of their frequent customer stamp cards! After trying numerous flavors, I have concluded that the almond milk tea with boba is the best. I want some right now.
SO WOW that was a way longer and more rambley post about food than I had intended! But whatever....I do what I want. And what I want is to eat all the foods, all the time. Om nom nom and such.
photos via the websites noted on each respective photo
