Calling all chocoholics!!!

The Sebastians restaurant at the World Trade Center is having the following class on Thursday February 5, 2009 from 6 to 9 pm:

Make Your Own Chocolate Box

"This event will also feature chocolaty treats like chocolate martinis, the ultimate hot chocolate and a flourless chocolate cake! But the best part is, at the end of the class, you can take
home your very own custom box of chocolates."

George

A new lunch place in the 'hood!

Just opened: Sportello (348 Congress Street). Rumor has it that there is some delectable looking snack-and-go, as well as a nice counter where you can snack on things like chicken soup with cumin gnocchi, house-made rosemary raisin bread, and even a nice little glass of wine.

Yada Yada

Doug, peter and I walked over to the Yada Yada Bakery Cafe today for takeout lunch. I ordered Lentil soup, a BLT, and lemonade. Both were quite tasty. The price was about the same as at the Metro deli.

Next visit, I'll try some of their pastries.

Benefit at the Barking Crab

Received in an email from Zagat...

Getting Crabby for a Cause

Photo: Sam Blackman On October 13th, The Barking Crab will donate 20% of the day's proceeds to the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. Live music will be playing from 6:30–9:30 PM, and gift certificates to local breweries, salons and wineries will be raffled off. Diners will also have the chance to participate in the restaurant's first ever “Crab-Off,” which will award a $100 gift certificate to the person who can eat 4½ lbs. of crab in the shortest amount of time (11:30 AM–10 PM; free admission, $85 to participate in the Crab-Off; 617-426-2722).

Kona Bistro

I'm going to go out on a limb and write a review about a really good lunch spot in Oxford, Ohio: the Kona Bistro. We ate there on Monday in between client meetings.

I had this great pasta dish with chicken, spinach, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, ziti, and bacon bits in a light cream sauce. It was great! It wasn't until I visited the restaurant's web site that I knew they have two locations; one in Oxford and a second in Cincinnati.

Where do you get a gourmet salad in FPC?

You don't. You have to make it yourself. Unless of course you want to schlep over to the place across the street and wait for 20 minutes to get your 8 pieces of lettuce, two tomato slices, a cucumber slice, a sliver of salmon, etc. But don't worry it comes topped with a heaping piece of attitude.

Better off making it yourself. Luckily, we have some nice new plates in the kitchen. Otherwise it might not look so... gourmet.

Lunch at Sebastian's

Today was my third visit to Sebastian's. I had the Salmon fillet with veggies and steamed rice. It was tasty. On prior trips, I had the chicken parmegiana (over-heated and tough), and a cold deli sandwich (turkey, lettuce, and tomato on whole wheat, which was very good). Prices are still too high, though.

Chicken Biscuit Sandwich

I know... this isn't about lunch. This morning, I tried the Chicken Biscuit Sandwich at McDonald's, since it was their "2 for $3" special.

It sucked.

Big time sucked. The sandwich was dry. The chicken deep-fried. No egg or anything on the sandwich. Just a piece of fried chicken and the biscuit.

Now you know... avoid this McDonald's sandwich, whether it is served at breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Lunch Inspiration: Tatooine Bento Box

View other Bento Boxes at Bento Box Challenge

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sanitation Improvements at BigBad

The laborious bilateral task of pre and post lunch hand-washing has been greatly eased by the brilliant lo-fi engineering solution of Jason Lombardo, inventor of the Faucet Genie 9000. Users will no longer be tasked with the previous inefficiencies of uni-hand washing; long are the days of soapy faucets, wet counters and unscrubbed hands. This simple device with instructions clearly displayed, is placed on the faucet knob and allows user access to a dependable, steady stream of water. The Faucet Genie 9000 does come without concern of elevated water consumption, a possible patent infringement of the Sam's Faucet Brick and a facilities inequality; a concern expressed by female employees of BigBad. Walmart, building management and Sarah Buck were unavailable for comment.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Friends of Fort Point Channel Summer Music Series

Noon on Fridays

All preformances are free of charge and happen outside Boston Children's Museum on Children's Wharf Park. FREE ICE CREAM


July 18
Arabic Drumming with Karim Nagi Mohammed

August 1
Jeff Robinson Jazz Trio

August 8
Celtic Music & Stepdance with Laura Cortese

August 22
Singer Songwriter Mark Erelli

August 29
Children's Preformance with Sarah Hickman

Dining in Downtown Crossing

So close, yet so far. Here are a few options worth checking out.

Lambert's Fruit Stand
55 Summer Street
fruit, produce and flowers.... CHEAP

Herrera's Burrito Inc. aka 'Boston's Best Burritos'
294 Washington Street
or Summer Street
Burritos and Fajitas- don't skimp on the hot sauce.



Karo's BBQ
Summer Street
Chicken Kabobs. This place must be good with lines this long.

Chacarero
101 Arch Street
The perennial favorite -Homemade bread, your choice of meat, green beens (for the Chilean touch), avocado spread and don't forget the hot sauce.

Getting to know my coworkers

Yeah, I know this isn't about lunch, but I am glad that I had my Flip with me Friday evening. Enjoy!

Interview of Michael Levitron, owner of Persephone

Since I joined BigBad in early June, my new coworkers have introduced me to Persephone for after-work drinks. I thought that you might be interested in reading this interview by the Boston Food & Whine blog of Michael Levitron, the owner of Persephone. The mantra: "local, sustainable food."

Cupcake Perlustration II

Blecch. Rosie's. If I'd wanted a brownie I'd have gotten one. I may file a law suit against them for daring to even call this abomination a cupcake. The cake was almost gummy, flavorless, and dry. The frosting looked really exciting but ended up adhering my tongue to the roof of my mouth for a good three hours until I could gargle with industrial use epoxy debonder. After that I was left with what I can only describe as the taste of some sort of chocolate polymer in my mouth. No good. My husband, whose opinion I did not disregard this time purely because it was the same as mine, also was anti-this-cupcake. Neither of us finished our half, which is pretty shocking. Rosie's = Grossie's.

The Great Cupcake Perlustration of 2008

OCD is defined as "characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts and conscious, ritualized, seemingly purposeless acts."

I have chocolate cupcake OCD. Probably medication-worthy. It's intense.

It all stemmed from the impending 30th birthday party of my husband, Dr. Handsome. I innocently asked "what kind of cake would you like?" and he innocently replied "I like chocolate cake with chocolate icing." Fine. Simple enough.

Now, were we back in NY where I have my grown-up kitchen, I would have produced a lovely chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. It would have been tasty. It would have been eaten. I am quite cocky about my baking skills, so of this proclamation I am certain. However, being that we are out in Waltham in a pre-furnished short-term-stay apartment, I have no mixer. No wooden spoon. No salt. OK, I have salt, but no cocoa powder. And I'm just not going to stock another kitchen for one cake.

So on the cake I choose to fixate. I must acquire the ultimate chocolate cake with chocolate icing. This requires taste testing, many layers of analysis, and likely at least one Gant Chart and one Ven Diagram.

The other day I worked to define my methodological approach. After extensive deliberation, I decided on a cupcake-based trial system by which I try 1/2 of one chocolate cupcake from each of the top bakeries. I take the other half home to my husband, whose opinion I then disregard.

This week I tried Lulu's. I will fill you in on my cupcakular experience then update with any further cupcake experiences I may have.

I read several reviews before making my jaunt to the North End, Django in tow, to try this miracle cupcake of which everyone speaks so strongly. People love it or hate it. "Greasy" was a word that came up a lot, which needless to say made me a little nervous. How could a cupcake be greasy? Eeew! Wouldn't "greasy" equate to "buttery" and hence "deliciousy?" Unless they were using suet or tallow and this was not actually a human bakery but rather a bird bakery or perhaps a soap-making shop. Whatever the case, there were enough raves about the place that I decided to give it a shot.

Whoever wrote "greasy" needs to be punished. Punished severely. Are there still stocks somewhere in downtown? If so, that's where s/he needs to go. The reason s/he thought the cupcake was greasy was that the buttercream frosting is actually made with *gasp* butter! No crisco, no stinkin' Wesson. Butter. B-U-T-T-E-R. Yeah, you heard me.

While insanely rich (I couldn't have eaten more than my half) it is absolutely wildly delicious. Wildly, I say! So what they do with the chocolate frosting is that they make the standard buttercream (BUTTER) and then add in some chocolate ganache. No joke. So you get that buttery deliciousness of a buttercream frosting with that bittersweet seductiveness of the chocolate ganache. (I have never written the word "butter" so many times in my life.) Mmmm. It's a tiny bit grown-up, but not so grown-up that you can't get a little frosting stuck to the bottom of your nose.

I've been waxing poetic about the frosting, but the cake was jsut as good. Totally moist as all heck. Crumbly, and so flavorful that you will want to pick the crumbs off your shirt and yes, eat them. It holds together quite well for a hand-food, as I'm sure we've all had cupcake-gone-wrong moments where half of the confection tumbles from our paw to the ground while we try to choke back tears and figure if the cupcake is worth the potential progeria or rickets we could pick up if we eat the dropped piece anyway.

So if you want a cupcake, for now I strongly recommend LuLu's. The staff is also wicked nice and gave me water for the pooch (who then ate the cupcake paper... ick) and explained their "baking philosophy."

I'll keep you updated on what else I find....

Lunch at Flour

As a new BB employee, one goal I have is to sample all of the nearby restaurants. Today I met a former co-worker for lunch and she suggested the Flour Bakery and Cafe.

As we approached the restaurant, I could tell that Flour was my kind of restaurant. The aroma of freshly baked pastries filled the air near Congress Street. The broccoli-bacon quiche special on the menu caught my attention, but I went with a BLT and a chocolate-filled croissant.

Mmmmmmmm, good.

Need I say more? While a little pricey, the food was tasty. I expect that the bakery and I will soon become best friends. Any place that serves several chocolate pastries is on my list. And, I want to return to sample that quiche.

We sat on the waterfront benches and ate outdoors near Children's Museum. This time, I was not blessed by any of the seagulls.

Chocolate Chip Cookies... You Complete Me.

My will has been broken. I had to make a mid-afternoon cookie dash. Channel Cafe, you have a great chocolate chip cookie and an even better chocolate chocolate chip. Mmmmmm... Delicious.

Sebastians

My lunch excursions are typically limited to Summer Street...Mini Metro to be specific. Occasionally my work mates offer to bring me back food from Sebastians, where I get a hearty and very tasty salad.

I have heard that Sebastians is great but the lines are long and they occasionally like to throw in the occasional worm with the salads? I won't walk over there myself (I don't even know how to get there) but will always piggyback on the kindness of coworkers.

~Deanna

The Anti-Climactic Lunch

We've all been there... Waking up with an insatiable hunger, a hunger so consuming that the normal breakfast won't suffice. There's no time for something elaborate like an omelet, or breakfast potatoes or some other fatty and starchy plate full of comfort food. So we settle for a bowl of... oh, I don't know Cocoa Krispies with soy milk? Normally this is plenty to get from 9 – Lunchtime. But then there are those days, those days where we spend all morning with our stomach grumbling mid-meeting, you know at that exact time when everyone decides to shut their traps... thats when the awkward grumble comes out. "Sorry, that was my stomach... I'm staaarrrrving!"

Finally, lunch time rolls around. 12:01 and people are contemplating "Where should we go? What should we eat? Who wants this, who wants that?" If you people don't make up your mind, I am going to tear the limbs from your body and start gnawing on them.

Now comes the big decision. "What do I order," you ask yourself, "what is going to hold me over? Better yet WHAT is going to justify the suffering of being hungry ALL MORNING?"

That's when it happens, in a blind fury you select that menu item that has tantalized you for months... going away from your standards, the menu items you know will fill you up and leave you satisfied. For some insane reason you select that panini, at bottom of the list, the one that has all the ingredients to be a home run. You trust your decision, you think to yourself, "this is gonna be great."

Then you get back to the office, unwrap that panini... only to see it sitting there in the middle of the wax paper like some sort of enigma. "Why is this the smallest sandwich I have ever seen in my life?" Trying to stay positive, you pick up the tiny little wedge of sandwich—almost hordouvers-like in size—and bite into it, assuming small sandwich must mean better ingredients. If its not quantity, it must be quality... right?

Wrong.

Shit.

This is a nightmare. You've waited all day for lunch and now you are stuck with this tiny, tasteless, generic excuse for a sandwich... all you can think about is how hungry you will be once its gone. "Where will I be getting my 3 PM snack from... because this isn't going to cut it!"

Yes, this is the emotional roller coaster I like to refer to as an anti-climactic lunch. I'd like to thank the Sleeper Street Deli for inspiring this entry, specifically the Tuscan Panini. Blech.

Google Restaurant Search

Let the Soft Serve Begin

i love the ice cream!
ice cream is very awesome!
everyone loves it

The Lunchtime "Sleeper"

BigBad employees seem to frequent the same places at lunchtime, however it never seems to fail that every couple of months I find another co-worker that is up to the opportunity to try something new. The most under-appreciate lunchtime spot in our neighborhood in my opinion thus far has to be the Sleeper Street Deli. Not only do they feature one of the best, if not THE best, wraps in the neighborhood with the Cuban Pork Wrap... they also have the best jumbo chocolate chip cookie in the 'hood too.

This past week I was able to convince Costa to give Sleeper Street a chance. I believe he order some sort of chicken wrap. Me? I went with the Cuban Pork Wrap. But here's the thing about the Cuban... you've got to ask the guys behind the counter if they have the fried plantain (or banana, as it is listed on the menu board). Without the plantain it is a completely different wrap. This wrap features an awesome blend of sweet and spicy. The pork is excellent and lean, the plantains sweeten each bite, and the jalopeno peppers add heat. All in all it's easily my favorite wrap at lunchtime. Try to get the short guy with the bald head and pirate hoop earrings to make it for you, he is the man.

When you go to pay, you will want to grab one of those over-sized chocolate chunk, chip and kiss cookies. They taste home made, they that great combination of crunch on the initial bite and then gooey insides. A much better cookie than those at Au Bon Pain, Flour and even Channel... which is saying quite a bit, because none of those other establishments are slouches when it comes to cookies.

The Shiny Chicken, in all of it's infamous glory!

Since day one @ BigBad, I have frequented the "big" Metro... which is the one with the salad bar. Early in my strained relationship with Metro I was obsessed with the hot meals and the Mandarin Chicken Wrap. However, in my efforts to eat healthy I began eating from the salad bar, like 90% of all the other people that work in the Fort Point neighborhood.

Months back I made myself a salad, and as you make the loop around the salad bar you come to 3 "troughs" of meat. It's usually ham chunks (yum), canned tuna, and some sort of chicken. The chicken is sometimes freshly grilled, however this is a rare thing, should you see fresh chicken pounce on it. The rest of the chicken options you will see at the salad bar all fall under the category of "shiny chicken."

Essentially the shiny chicken is the leftovers. Every day Metro makes chicken kabobs as one of their hot meal options. And the following day you will see chunks of chicken at the salad bar with little holes in it from being cooked on the kabob. Other times you will see a shredded chicken with what looks like taco seasoning on it, I think this is usually left over from the fajita wraps they make over by the pizza counter. Either way, both of those chicken options, when presented at the salad bar, are leftovers and they intrinsically share one scary attribute no matter the day of the week... the shiny.

Something happens between when the chicken is grilled, and when it is put out on the salad bar that makes it a virtual laxative. Make no mistakes, there are recent college grads working with us at BigBad who have steel plated stomach who cringe at the mere idea of eating the shiny chicken again... because their first encounter was so horrific. Myself, I ate it once about 9 months ago. It took about 45 minutes for it to happen, but when it did... cold sweats, flushed face, stomach cramps and complete gastro-disaster. This is the same reaction many of our constituents have had to the chicken.

Yesterday, for some reason, I decided I would brave the proverbial rapids again. I figured the law of averages and 9 months since the last time I ate it, it couldn't possibly make me sick again... could it? Much to my dismay, I ate the shiny chicken, I even got paranoid before eating it and re-heated it in the microwave to kill any of the whatever it is that gets us all sick. I ate my chicken, and within 45 minutes I was contemplating going home for the day. My stomach no longer wanted to be inside of my body. I was drenched with sweat, I was green, I was in fact suffering the wrath of the shiny chicken.

Lesson learned. NEVER AGAIN.

Consider yourselves warned. I take medicine daily to control my stomach and in about 45 mintues the shiny chicken completely broke me...

The King of Awesome on Fish from the Metro

Since embarking on my low carb venture, lunch and pretty much every other meal has been a stream of salads. I figured I could trust the Metro hot bar to provide a reprieve. I decided to try Hot Honey Salmon. According to Jack, King of Awesome, the Metro has pretty good fish. He's favorites are

• Potato encrusted Pollack


• Tortilla encrusted Tilapia


• Baked Haddok

These all seem to have some sort of carb crusting and unfortunately today, my fish was a little overdone for my taste.

Sushi, Bubble Tea and Terikayi Rice Bowls

Finding new places to eat when you start a new gig is either a thrilling adventure or in our case in Fort Point, a major challenge. Lunch spots seemed like slim pickings when I first started but I've slowly started finding more and more options. Today I found an awesome place, the Teriyaki House. I called in 3 orders to be delivered. The delivery arrived in less than 30 minutes with no minimum order or delivery charge. Seems someone else in the office has ordered from the Teriyaki House since they had our address and phone number on file. If you have any other lunch gems out there, spill the beans!

Teriyaki House
32 W. Broadway
South Boston, MA 02127
617 269 200

So how much DOES extra pollo cost?

So, for the 3rd time in about 2 weeks I ordered the Cucumber Hummus Wrap from Metro... with one dramatic twist! I asked them to add grilled CHICKEN!

I have found, in my new healthy eating kick that I prefer hummus on my wrap, instead of bacon, cheese and mayo. The thing is, I am a "meat with every meal" kind of guy. I like a good piece of grilled chicken in my hippie wrap. It makes me feel like the true carnivore that I am. In case you are wondering I am intentionally trying to sound like a tool.

Joking aside, I have paid 3 different prices for my Cucumber Hummus Wrap with Chicken each time I have ordered it. First I actually paid less than the wrap was listed at normally, then I was charged like $4 for chicken, then today I was charged an extra $2. So while this has become my new favorite wrap at Metro, I am afraid to recommend it to anyone else — because I don't want to be held responsible for their strange pricing. Which, by the way, is clearly based upon the level of grouchiness of the respective sandwich maker you might have the misfortune of having your lunch touched by when they call out "NEXT" when you are indeed next in line.

Why do I continue to eat it? By my calculations its only about 7-9 Weight Watchers points. Can you blame me?

Interview with Deanna, Art Director, Health Nut and Simple Sandwich Lover

I recent sat down to talk about lunch with Deanna.

What are you having for lunch today?

I have no idea. I’ll probably pick up something at Metro? Has to be healthy.

How often do you bring your lunch?

I was doing pretty well for a while but I am out of a routine...trying to get back to bringing lunch 3x a week. You?

I’m shooting for 4 x a week brown bagging it. You got a favorite lunch take out or are you a creature of habit and follow the other Metro zombies?

I typically go where I can get in and out quickly. I don’t really care. I went to the Channel one day last week but it took FOREVER to get my order. I also went to Cosi...I’m definitely no creature of habit.

What’s your favorite thing to bring from home?

Well...today I was supposed to bring a PBJ and I totally forgot. I love simple sandwiches...tuna salad is good too. Or...spinach salad with chick peas. What do you bring? You have more meal-like lunches, I think.

I’m not a sandwich person so much. Usually leftovers or salads.

You ready to go get lunch?

What did I just eat?

Well if you really want to know you can actually trace my turkey sandwich to its source by visiting the Applegate Farms Website. Applegate farms is dedicated to humanely raising antibiotic and growth hormone free animals and producing organic and nitrate free products.

Today, I had turkey on whole wheat with wasabi mayo, lettuce and tomato, a side of veggie crisp and a navel orange.

DSL with Food

Orange you glad?
Originally uploaded by hthaiwon

I forgot my lunch today

Let's see what I can find.