Mango Lime Ghost Chili Tofu Bites at Peace o' Pie

After lobster rolling around Harvard Square on Sunday, I had an extra hour to kill before a friend's birthday festivities at Deep Ellum. Earlier that day, I had seen an intriguing Facebook post from Peace o' Pie, the vegan pizza place right by Deep Ellum. They had a special: tofu bites in a mango, lime, ghost chili sauce. Serendipity. Always on the lookout for ways to bring my taste buds' hatred of me to fiery new levels, I knew how to kill the hour.

I walked to the counter and ordered my tofu bites, eliciting a slight eyebrow raise from the cashier. "They're very spicy," she warned. I was excited.

There were no open tables, so upon receiving my food, I wandered outside and crossed over to the mostly-concrete "park" in front of the fire station. Sitting alone and surrounded by construction and traffic, I gingerly picked up the first battered, bited-sized piece, making sure to keep one hand absolutely clean for the inevitable nose and eye-wiping that would soon take place.

The first bite: exceptionally light, tasty batter. Perfect tofu texture. A slight hint of mango. Then, the familiar caustic burn of the pepper, not too bad at first, but lingering, then building. After a few deep breaths, trying to cycle some non-existent cold air into my mouth, I moved on to a second bite, and then I grabbed for my iced tea. Liquid, of course, actually makes spicy pain worse as it spreads the heat around, but the cool temperature of the tea provided some relief, albeit brief.

As I slowly made my way through several more bites, I waited for the familiar euphoria to set in, the light-headed high and feverish chills that make ultra-spicy food worth it for those who crave it. It didn't happen. The bites were strong enough to burn, but not so strong that they brought about the euphoric relief. They were trapped somewhere in the frustrating middle ground, somewhat painfully spicy with very little payoff. That's when I realized that I was sitting alone in a sad-looking park, torturing myself for no good reason. Extreme spiciness requires three things for an optimal experience: good flavor behind the burn, the aforementioned euphoria, and people with whom to share the challenge. These were pretty tasty (and I'd definitely recommend trying them if you're into ghost chili), but since I stupidly grabbed these alone and on-the-go, the experience lacked the fun of trying East Coast Grill's Pasta from Hell with a table of friends or serving my super spicy dark chocolate peanut butter cookies to (willing) victims.

Then it was time for drinks at Deep Ellum, and all was good. The only lingering memory of the ghost chili bites was a slight persisting tingle on my lips. No signs of pain.

...until 3 AM, at which point I woke up feeling like this:

If you do happen to venture to Peace o' Pie to try these out, I highly recommend also ordering the cheesy bread (not real cheese - everything there is vegan). I didn't get it this time (although I should have), but from a previous visit, I remember loving it.

Roast Beast (2 Dine For Boston)

When I was a kid, my parents and I would often go out for delicious roast beef sandwiches at the now-defunct Mur-Mac’s Roast Beef, a dark and grungy yet beloved institution in Stoughton, MA that also featured fries and soft-serve ice cream. (It was even one of my first drives after getting my learner’s permit.) Somewhere along the way, we started calling roast beef “roast beast.” I’m not sure where we picked up the phrase, although apparently a “roast beast” makes an appearance in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, so maybe we read it there.

When a new restaurant called Roast Beast opened in Allston, it triggered immediate nostalgia, and I knew I had to try it out. One strangely warm afternoon in January – warm enough that Joel biked over from Somerville – we met our editor, Kevin, at Roast Beast for a roast beef feast. Turns out we’d just missed dynamic blogging and catering duo The Skinny Beet, made up of Katie (The Small Boston Kitchen) and Richard (Boston Burger Blog). It was a bloggerific day at the Beast!

Read my full "she said" review, along with Joel's "he said" review, at 2 Dine For Boston.

Rock 'n' Roll Social: Networking for Artists and Musicians (CBS Boston)

Being a musician isn’t just about playing music. A huge component — oftentimes harder and more time-consuming than the music itself — is the endless self-promotion. Especially if your band is unsigned, you may find yourself playing the roles of booking agent, publicist, and manager simultaneously. Some musicians find this truth to be unpleasant: networking is just as important in the arts as it is in other industries. You have to become your own salesman.

Boston’s vibrant musical community touches on virtually every genre imaginable, and networking is relatively easy within a given genre, but many musicians never interact with others outside of their own small circles. This puts a damper on the infinite strange and wonderful collaborations that could arise from inter-genre networking. Fortunately, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Social, founded in 2003, exists to help bridge these gaps, connecting musicians to each other and to others in the industry that could help launch an unknown band into the spotlight, at least locally.

Read the rest of my article over on CBS Boston.

More photos:

YoMa: Burmese in Boston

Nearly a month ago, I said goodbye to Cleveland Circle, 99% content to never set foot in Allston/Brighton again. A birthday party at Common Ground necessitated my return this week, though, so I took the opportunity to check out one of Allston's many cheap amazing ethnic restaurants that I had been meaning to try for the past two years, YoMa. (Common Ground, by the way, is actually a decent bar. It's clean, it has a good selection of beers, and it has an adorable patio hidden out back.)

Apparently the only place to get Burmese food in Boston (although Yelp inexplicably categorizes Somerville's Peruvian restaurant Macchu Picchu as Burmese as well), YoMa sits on the same block as Allston's popular vegan spots, Grasshopper and Peace o' Pie.

Burmese food incorporates elements of the more familiar cuisines of Burma's (Myanmar's) neighbors, particularly China, Thailand, and India, although we encountered some unique dishes and flavors we'd never experienced before.

We started with LaPhetThot (Tea Leaf Salad): Burmese pickled tea with sesame seeds, peanut, crispy peas & garlic, tomato, cabbage, canola oil, chili, lime & fresh garlic. This dish was unlike anything I'd seen before. Each ingredient was piled separately on the plate, surrounding a center pile of wet pickled tea leaves. There were so many different flavors and textures - crispy, spicy, crunchy, salty, fresh. It was a perfect way to start the meal: light, refreshing, and a bit intriguing. Joel also got a tamarind juice, which was sweeter and less sour than the Caribbean versions we've had.

For the main course, I got PaePyarHin: pan-fried tofu and potato cooked with tomato puree, garlic, onion, spices, and tamarind juice. While it had the appearance of a curry dish, it was thinner and milder, with lots of subtle flavors. It was served with steamed rice, although there was an optional upgrade to tasty-sounding coconut rice which I meant to order but forgot. Next time!

Joel perused the special section of the menu that contained fun-sounding items like Joyful Eggplant, Happy Chicken, and the very appealing Super Pumpkin, which, in addition to pumpkin, contained chicken and pork cooked with lemongrass, onion, cilantro, and ginger. He ended up opting for a dish similar to Super Pumpkin that had shrimp instead of chicken and pork (ShwePaYonTheeHin - Pumpkin Shrimp). It looked a lot like my dish, but the pumpkin flavor was different and wonderful.

The ambiance of the small restaurant is pleasant: giant paintings of Burma that are a bit tacky but also pretty, large colorful letters spelling out "Welcome to YoMa!" on the wall, and a little gift shop in the corner near the register. Our waitress was very friendly, and the food came out quickly.

Now that I'm in Somerville, getting out to Allston is a huge pain...but YoMa definitely merits a return trip. 

Brown Sugar Cafe: First Sidewalk Dining of the Season!

Yesterday, an out-of-state friend was in town, staying in a Back Bay hostel. Joel and I were in Cleveland Circle. Brown Sugar Cafe seemed like a logical halfway point to meet for lunch. Plus, on the first gorgeous day of the season, it was the perfect time to start dining outside!

Brown Sugar Cafe - 1033 Commonwealth Ave, Boston

I've heard lots of rave reviews of Brown Sugar Cafe, and I went a few times over the last year or so, but I was never overly impressed. It was always solidly good, but I was never quite sure why so many of my friends were obsessed with it. This time, though, I was amazed. Maybe it had something to do with eating outside (and avoiding the extraordinarily tacky birthday songs that go on inside, complete with flashing lights and awkward singing). Or, it could have been that we all ordered off of the Thai-style part of the menu. I don't know how authentic it is, but I bet it's at least a step above the Americanized dishes on the rest of the extensive menu.

I got Gaprow Noodles, which was pretty similar to one of my standard favorites, drunken noodles, but with minced chicken instead of larger pieces. It was also a lot more flavorful: more hot peppers and a whole lot more basil than usual. (Basil's the best part. In this dish, it was slightly crispy. Awesome!)

Gaprow Noodles - so much basil! YES!

Mike got the Angel Hair Kee-Mow, another spicy, basil-full noodle dish. His had a bit more of a kick than mine, and it had a nice sweet chili flavor as well.

Angel Hair Kee-Mow

Joel got the Duck Choo Chee, boneless roasted duck sauteed with vegetables in a choo chee curry sauce and topped with kaffir lime leaves. He found that the basil was a great flavor without overpowering everything else, and the duck was nice and juicy. It was a bit spicy, but definitely not the "extra spicy" that he had ordered. We're Hell Night veterans - when we order spicy, we want spicy. He and I both got Thai iced tea, and it balanced the other flavors well. Actually, I thought it was the best Thai iced tea I'd ever had! Sweet but not too sweet, creamy but not too creamy...you get the idea.

Joel with Duck Choo Chee and Thai iced tea

The prices were reasonable; our dishes ranged from $9-11, and I had more than enough leftovers for a second meal. The dinner versions of the dishes cost about $3-5 more than the lunch dishes.

I would definitely return, but I think I prefer a quiet outdoor lunch to a more expensive indoor dinner surrounded by loud birthday celebrations.

MiniBite: A Pumpkin-y Post

...just in time for Halloween!  Or, early for Thanksgiving!

Pumpkins, pumpkins.  I've tried to acquire a taste for them, but I'm just not there yet.  Once, I did have a pretty good pumpkin soup - served in a pumpkin! - on a Rochester dinner cruise along the lovely Genesee River.  (I'm using the term "lovely" loosely here.  When I rowed on the crew team at the University of Rochester, rumor had it that if you dipped any limbs in the water, they'd come out infected or mutated.  A giant mutant fish did jump in the boat once, right behind my seat, flopping against my back.  I had to stop rowing to toss it overboard.)

Anyway, back to pumpkins.  I wanted to give them another chance this year, so I gladly accepted an offer of a sample* of Pumpkin Pie Fudge from Phillips Candy House, "Boston's Oldest Chocolatier."  Phillips also sent me some chocolate-dipped jack-o'-lantern-shaped Peeps. YES! I'm a big fan of Peeps in moderation, but if you eat too many in a row, they start tasting pretty gross.  I had never tried chocolate-dipped Peeps, so this was an exciting sample to receive!

First, the fudge:

Look, it's in the shape of a pie slice!  Cute :)  And I liked it!  Made of pumpkin puree, it actually tasted like real pumpkin, and it was very nicely spiced.  The chocolate crumb crust balances out the pumpkin nicely.  Pumpkin alone probably would have been too much for my taste, but I'm still on the fence about pumpkin flavor in general.  I'm sure all you pumpkin lovers out there will really enjoy this fudge.

Next, the Peeps!

I shared these with my bandmates before a rehearsal a few nights ago.  "Peeps suck, but these don't suck so bad," said Andy.  So there you have it!  The chocolate is an improvement over regular Peeps.  It was a very mild milk chocolate, so it seemed to tone down the obnoxious sugary Peep flavor that so many people dislike.

According to the Phillips Candy House website, they "continue to make artisan chocolates and other confections by hand and in small batches, using only the finest and freshest ingredients," which is pretty awesome, so I'm happy to report that I really enjoyed these samples.  If you buy anything from Phillips, I'd encourage you to consider a Yoouukk! Bar as part of your order.  Phillips is donating 100% of the net proceeds from this chocolate bar to Kevin Youkilis' "Hits for Kids" charitable organization, which supports charities and organizations focused on kids' health and well-being.

In other pumpkin-y news, I just picked up some bottles of Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, "a full-bodied brown ale with smooth hints of pumpkin and brown sugar," to bring to a Halloween party.  I've never had it, so I'll update this post once I've actually tasted it, but I'm a big fan of several other Dogfish Head beers (60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA, and Raison d'Etre) so I have high hopes for this one.

Some other local pumpkin finds (Except for the last one, I have not tasted these; I've just heard about them or found them online):

-Cinna Punk vegan cupcake at Kickass Cupcakes (Davis Square, Somerville) - "sassy pumpkin spice cupcake with cinnamon frosting"

-Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino at all Starbucks locations (Sorry, I know Starbucks hardly counts as local.) - "a delicious blend of pumpkin and traditional fall spice flavors combined with the finest coffees, blended with ice and topped with whipped crème and pumpkin spice spices."

-Pumpkin and pumpkin pie cupcakes at Sweet (Harvard Square and Back Bay) - Pumpkin: "Sweet's fall classic, fresh moist pumpkin cake topped with traditional cream cheese frosting and topped with a cinnamon sugared pumpkin seed" and pumpkin pie: "Graham cracker crust, rich pumpkin cake and a dollop of homemade whipped cream topping sprinkled with nutmeg complete the Sweet cupcake version of this favorite autumn pie."

-Kaddo at The Helmand near Kendall Square - "Pan-fried then baked baby pumpkin seasoned with sugar and served on yogurt garlic sauce, topped with ground beef sauce."  I've had great food at The Helmand before, but I've never tried this dish.

-Pharsi Ko Tarkari at Mt. Everest Kitchen in Allston - I went to this restaurant with a bunch of friends back in January, and it had just re-opened under new management, so our server kept bringing us delicious free stuff to try in addition to our meals, including a wonderful pumpkin dish that sort of looked like baby food but tasted really good.  "Pumpkin sauteed in veg. oil, ginger, garlic, spices & coriander."

Happy Halloween!


*I accepted a free sample from Phillips: a slice of fudge and some Peeps.  On occasion, I do receive free stuff, and I will always disclose when I'm writing about something I received for free.  I am in no way obligated to write about free stuff I receive, and if I do write about it, I'm not obligated to write a positive review.  This review, along with everything else in my blog, is my completely honest opinion.

A Slice o' Vegan at a Peace o' Pie

Ed. note: This article originally appeared on Boston24.com, which no longer exists. I'll migrate the slideshow here soon, but for now, here's the text and one photo:

Allston's Union Square, already home to a vegan Asian restaurant called Grasshopper, welcomed a new vegan restaurant this month: Peace o' Pie, a pizzeria. Since October is Vegetarian Awareness Month, I decided to put my meat-eating ways aside for an evening and give vegan pizza a try. I brought along my friend Julia, a pescetarian, to get an opinion from someone more used to eating meat substitutes.

Despite the fact that we accidentally arrived a few minutes before opening, excitedly grabbed menus, and sat down, the staff was very friendly and let us stay. We scoured the menu for awhile, eventually settling on a medium pizza with an organic whole wheat crust, half topped with pineapple and half topped with vegan apple sage sausage, which is made from seitan. Peace o' Pie's standard crust is made from unbleached wheat flour, but the whole wheat substitute is available for medium pies. On Thursdays, a gluten-free substitute is also available. The standard cheese is Vegan Gourmet. In addition to pizza, we ordered cheesy breadsticks made with Daiya, a soy-free cheese made with tapioca flour. Daiya can also be ordered on the pizzas instead of Vegan Gourmet.

Peace o' Pie's pastel walls and shiny silver tables reminded us of a diner, although the service was at a much more relaxed pace than that of a diner. We waited nearly a half hour for our pizza, somewhat understandable since it was being made from scratch, but hopefully the pace will pick up a bit when it becomes busier. At 5:30 on a Tuesday night, it was already getting fairly full.

At last, our breadsticks arrived: hot, soft, garlicky, and wonderful. The Daiya was melted across the top. "You can barely tell it's not cheese," said Julia between bites. I was tempted to forget about the pizza and order more breadsticks. Soon after, we got our pizza. Visually, it looked just like non-vegan pizza. The cheese and sausage gave nothing away about their non-dairy, non-meat origins. The soft whole wheat crust was satisfying and neither too thick nor too thin. We both started with the sausage half of the pizza, the ultimate test. The texture was slightly different than meat sausage - a little bit more even and processed, missing those tiny globules of fat that make meat sausage so meaty. The flavor was very close, although rather mild. Julia found the sausage to be excellent compared to other meat substitutes that she has tried. The Vegan Gourmet cheese looked just like dairy cheese, and the taste was fairly similar at first, but as I moved on to my second and third slices, my stomach realized it was being tricked and the cheese became less satisfying. The sauce was tasty throughout, though. "It's a sauce made with a lot of love," remarked Julia. We both agreed that the pizza could use a little bit more seasoning. The ingredients all tasted fresh and healthy, but they lacked a kick. Also absent: grease. If you're used to pizza dripping with grease, Peace o' Pie's pizza might be unsettling at first, but your arteries will probably thank you.

Although as a non-vegan, I prefer the taste of dairy cheese and meat on my pizza, I would definitely return to Peace o' Pie just for those breadsticks. For those that don't eat dairy and meat, Julia found this pizza to be a good substitute for the "real" thing.

Peace o' Pie also offers salads, calzones, and delicious-looking home-made vegan desserts (that we were unfortunately too full to try.) And in addition to using 100% vegan ingredients, most of which are organic, Peace o' Pie makes an effort to recycle or compost as much as possible. They also used eco-friendly materials when remodeling the space, including a sustainably-produced bamboo counterfront and a countertop made from recycled office paper.

Visit Peace o' Pie's website, become a fan on Facebook, and follow on Twitter.

Color

It's impossible not to smile when entering Color, a Korean restaurant on Harvard Ave. in Allston. The exterior "looks like an old TV shop," says my trusty dining companion, Ben. The interior is an explosion of bright colors, and the waitresses wear ruffly pink aprons that bring to mind I Love Lucy, except that our waitress had an apron that said "miao" with a picture of a cat on it. Lucy would be jealous...maybe.

We appeared to be the only non-Koreans in there - a hopeful indicator of the quality of the food. A large birthday party was taking place, filling up about half of the restaurant, and the rest of the tables were also occupied.

The menu was pretty large (and perhaps unsurprisingly, colorful) with "Korean-style" next to every item, just in case you didn't know it was a Korean restaurant. On the dessert section, whoever typed up the menu forgot to add "Korean-style," so it was handwritten in. The bottom of the menu reminds customers that Color is never open on Sundays because "it is the Lord's Day!"

While waiting for our food, we drank tea in glasses and shared a green apple bubble tea. I have an irrational love of tea served in a glass. It makes me giddy, and I don't know why. The bubble tea was also great - very refreshing. Grain bubble tea was also listed on the menu, and out of curiosity, I might order that one next time.

We ordered spicy fried dumplings as an appetizer, and I'm happy to report that they were, in fact, spicy. They were drenched in a thick, BBQ-ish sauce that burned long after each bite. They were served with a pile of what I think was coleslaw.

We were also given a flavorful soup and four banchan, including kimchi, bean sprouts, and an omelette-y thing. (If you know the Korean names of any of these items, feel free to leave a comment. I know next to nothing about Korean food, but I'd like to learn.)



Ben ordered fried chicken with a chili-garlic sauce and he barely made it through half of the mountain of chicken. It was delicious, but it was a huge portion. The sauce was nice - a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet.

I ordered what I order nine times out of ten at Korean restaurants - bulgogi. This one was nice and light (well, as light as a plate full of beef can be). My only complaint is that they mixed in mushrooms, and as you may have read in my Bangkok Bistro post, I am an extreme mushroom hater. The good news is that I probably accidentally ate a few and didn't notice because the dish was so well-made.

Although my lunchtime loyalties lie with Damoah due to the amazing bento boxes, next time I need a dinnertime Korean food fix, I'll definitely be returning to Color. It seemed like everyone else was a regular there, because our waitress asked as we were leaving if we had been there before. When we said no, she responded "I didn't think so...I didn't recognize you."

Oooh, I almost forgot the best part - they gave us Dumdums with the bill :) If the bright colors, ruffly aprons, and delicious, filling food don't cheer you up, a lollipop will!

Address: 166 Harvard Ave, Allston (near Harvard Ave stop on the Green Line B)

Phone: (617) 787-5656

What do other bloggers think? Check out:

Boston Chomps: Color Restaurant Review - Korean Food and Fun Decor

Mt. Everest Kitchen

You should really just skip this whole blog post and head over to Mt. Everest Kitchen immediately because it's awesome. It's also under new management, so if you've been there in the past, now would be a good time to give it another try. I hadn't been there before, but our server, who just took the restaurant over from his uncle, said that he had redone the interior and was in the middle of revamping the menu.

Not only did my friends and I get to try tasty Nepali food, we also got to learn about the culture. Our server (and the new owner) - I think his name is Amrit - kept bringing out complimentary dishes for us to try as he taught us all about the food, how it is made, how it differs from other similar cuisine, etc.

We started out the meal with Mo-mo (dumplings) - one order of meat dumplings, one veggie. Each order came with one soup. There were four of us and only two soups that were supposed to come with the dumplings, but our server generously threw in a couple extra soups so we could all have one.

We also got several orders of rooti, which we thought was like a "croissant-y naan." It looked and tasted like naan but with an extra flavor, sort of buttery.

While we were filling up on tea, bread, soup, and dumplings, Amrit also brought out some veggies in an orange sauce for us to try. I think the dish is called "achar" and it was a flavor I've never encountered anywhere else. If I'm looking at the correct dish on the menu, the sauce is a roasted sesame seed paste with cilantro, chili, and turmeric.

Finally, we moved on to the main dish, even though I think we were all pretty full already. Ben had a flavorful goat stew. He enjoyed it, but would have liked it to be a little more tender. Meredith had a chicken curry described as "typical Nepalese style" on the menu. It was similar to Indian food, but the Himalayan spices lent a unique flavor. Julia had a vegetarian dish of bamboo shoots and potatoes cooked with Himalayan spices, and I had a delicious lamb and potato curry.

Just when we thought we could not eat another bite, Amrit gave us yet another dish to try - a pumpkin dish. Did you know pumpkins grew in the Himalayas?? I'm not normally a pumpkin fan, but I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised. It had the consistency of baby food, but we all found ourselves enjoying it immensely. "It would be a travesty if the baby food went to waste," said Julia as we were all on the verge of giving up on finishing everything.

The ambience was very cozy, featuring nice music and a mouthwatering smell. It was sadly empty the night we were there - no one else came or went throughout our entire meal. Please go check this place out! I really hope it succeeds.

There is a weekend buffet - I'm not sure if it's lunch, dinner, or both - so try a weekend if you're not sure you like Himalayan food. If you like Indian or Pakistani food, though, you'll almost definitely like this too.

Here's a fun fact - I was too busy stuffing my face to pay attention, but Julia recalls Amrit saying that in Nepal, they churn butter using bamboo stalks.

On our way out the door, Amrit gave us some sinus-clearing cloves which we chewed (and some of us spit out) as we walked down the street to the White Horse Tavern for pub trivia.

Address: 182 Brighton Ave in Allston (a pretty short walk from the Harvard Ave stop or the Packard's Corner/Brighton Ave stop on the Green Line B)
Phone: 617-254-4912

What do other bloggers think? Check out:
Les Gourmands du South End: At the peak of good eats at Mt. Everest Kitchen!