Second Helpings: Two Restaurant Reviews

After not eating out for (almost) a month, I have unfortunately(?) been to quite a few restaurants since the beginning of May. Working at the bakery has me there for about 10 - 12 hours each day and when I get home I do not want to cook or even look at food unless I'm about to eat it, so I have been digging around to places I've seen on other blogs and on my bike rides around town.

Franks N Dawgs, despite its corny name and perhaps cornier catch phrase (Five Star Dining on a Bun) was quite surprisingly delicious. I first read about them on Elizabites and noticed one day riding to work that it's much closer than I imagined. I went one night after work with J, and we were pretty much the only people in there. I discovered later that they close at 730 and it was at this point 7 pm. The man behind the counter was extremely friendly and could not stop talking about how amazing the hot dogs were. I got a hot dog of the month, made by a celebrity chef I don't know, but it was incredible. It had a fried egg on top and maple mayo on the side. Yes, that's right people, maple. mayo. I had to use a fork and knife to eat it and it was so totally worth it. J had the Andoiulle N'Awlins Dawg and I didn't even get a taste because it was apparently too delicious to share. Bonus points: we got free fries because I asked nicely :) Double bonus points: the bread they use for buns is the best I have ever eaten (and I work at a bakery).

Up next: Old Town Social. This place has always been on my list of hip new places to check out, and after reading about it in pretty much every magazine and newspaper around, I figured it was way out of my price range and probably pretentious. So I would walk by, sigh to myself, and head to other culinary delights like Boston Market or Dunkin' Donuts. Or Marcello's, which isn't really that bad, after all. But I was finally able to go a few weeks ago and it was delicious. I ordered a pork belly sandwich because I was feeling adventurous, and oh em geezilla was it amazing. Pork belly is just like a gigantic slab of bacon and even more tender and scrumptious than I could even imagine. I know a lot of people have a problem eating meat, but I have yet to have those qualms. Also, I'm pretty sure Old Town Social is hip enough to use locally raised, humanely treated meat. They are part charcuterie, after all.

Stay hungry, my friends :) We'll see you soon.

Dinner for One*

I hate cooking for myself. It feels like such a chore. I spend so much time preparing and chopping and stirring and cooking, and then I inhale the entire meal in about three minutes in front of the TV. Then it's time to return to the kitchen to a sink full of pots and pans and dishes and spoons and forks (how a meal for one can produce seven dirty forks, I will never figure out), not to mention the pasta sauce splattered across the cabinets and crusted onto the stovetop. The rest of my night turns into OCD dishwashing and scrubbing away at cooked-on leftovers and turning my hands into toxic prunes. I suppose this is what frozen dinners and the like are for, but eating neon orange macaroni or flakey mashed potatoes from the microwave is even more depressing than spending $20 and one hour preparing a single meal for one.

The problem here is not a hatred for cooking, and it most definitely is not a hatred of food. In fact, I love both cooking and food, but there's one missing ingredient: people. I feel a need to center all of my human interactions around food. I love going to dinner, hosting potlucks, attending family dinners, and cooking with my boyfriend. I love cooking for a meal, a meal that lasts an hour or two and involves conversation, laughter, and stories. Oh, I love the stories. No matter how many times I’ve heard them, I love hearing old family stories (especially those involving me).

I was on a family vacation this spring with my parents and aunts and uncles and my boyfriend. During our last dinner before the end of the trip, we had a huge meal that took what seemed like hours to prepare, but it wasn't a chore. We shared the responsibilities and cooked while telling and listening to stories. I barely remember what we even ate. I know someone made steak, and I think there were some veggies and pasta. I do know there was white wine. There was definitely wine. It was Aunt Ellen's job to pour the wine (this helps get the stories rolling). It was during this preparation that I heard all kinds of stories, like the time Uncle Bill had too much to drink and my cousin and I painted his toenails red and he thought his feet were bleeding when he woke up. Or how when my parents met at the newspaper, another employee was in love with my mom and stalked her at the gym. Or Aunt Ellen's stories of being a hospice nurse and the crazy things that old people say to her. It's hard to replicate the hilarity or nostalgia of any of these stories, but I think we all understand what I mean here. These are the meals that I truly enjoy preparing, because the emphasis isn't on making something half-way nutritious just to keep my tummy from rumbling all night; it's about togetherness, a communal effort to create a delicious and savory meal that accompanies friends, family, and conversation.

*I'm taking a [free!] 5-week writing workshop (actually called a wordshop) at Open Books. At our first meeting last Tuesday, the prompt was "Write about your most memorable meal." After surveying all the delicious, exotic, expensive, etc. meals in my head, I came to the realization that people, not taste, make my meals most memorable, and that is how this post came along.

I did it! (Kinda)

Despite every intention to blog regularly while I was not eating out, I had a hard time blogging about what was happening mostly because I was (too lazy) too busy being awesome to really comment on it. Okay, so we all know that's not true. I did manage to eat okay while not going out and I saved a TON of money, though, so that's good! I discovered a few things about myself along the way as well. First of all, my food routines are pretty established. I have a hard time thinking outside of the box when it comes to making new meals. I yell at J a lot for eating these narsty processed bagel dogs he buys from Dominick's but when I make food for myself it is usually a variation on chicken or pasta. And damn can I pack away the pasta...

I also simultaneously challenged myself to eat on 30, which is something I learned from Bell'Alimento who I just love love love to read (see http://www.bellalimento.com/2009/10/11/eat-on-30-project/ for more details) and I did do well on this side of things also! I went to Whole Foods one Sunday with only $25 and got lots of meat and some kick-butt asparagus, which I ate for about 4 days.

On the negative (?) side, I only went grocery shopping twice the whole month during the challenge. This is why although I managed to make it almost the entire month without eating out (I slipped up maybe twice), I didn't eat nearly as much as I did when I did eat out. I started working more regular (longer) hours at the bakery (another reason I didn't need to buy as much food because I am constantly surrounded by bread) and just lost my appetite for about two weeks straight.

I also (I know, it never stops, and probably no one is even reading at this point but! I will continue) started being super conscious about serving sizes and I realized that one serving of pasta is 2/3 of a cup. That makes my one box of Prince rigatoni last for 10 meals instead of 3, and at $1 a box, it's hard to spend over $30 a week on groceries. Like M mentioned, she's looking to start eating more responsibly, and I discovered the things I most worry about eating, especially after watching Food Inc, is meat, and I can buy it for myself at Whole Foods and not break the bank, and that is exciting.

SO

If you've made it this far, you get a cookie, if you skipped everything, here's a summary:

*I went almost a whole month without eating out (Give or take two or three meals)
*I ate a lot less
--due to increase in bakery hours
--due to self-imposed budgetary restraints
--due to watching my serving sizes like woah
*I had a hard time breaking out of my rut of the usual stuff I prepare, because despite the fact that I read a ton of recipe books and blogs, I sometimes just don't have the energy to be creative in the kitchen or even blog (shocker).

Regardless, I am glad I did this challenge, it definitely made me eat with a conscience (thanks Cathy! :) ) and even though I ate less and didn't grow much in the way of new recipes and experimenting, I am hoping that with summer farmer's markets, I'll be able to improvise a little more. My other wish is to one day wake up after falling asleep reading a cookbook and have all the information in my head like osmosis and diffusion or something. Never mind that it didn't work when I tried to stick my pre-calc books under my pillow in high school...

Ps.
Props to M for being featured on Whole Living! Our first shot at the big times!!!