Caffe Graffiti: Lunch with the Wandering Foodie

I've spent the last couple days lounging around my apartment uselessly.  (Well, I haven't been entirely useless - I did some grocery shopping and cleaned up the apartment.)  But one job just ended and I start a new one Monday, so this has been a pseudo-relaxing week.  I was wasting time on Twitter this morning when I saw that Hagan Blount, the Wandering Foodie, was offering free lunch to someone in Boston who would dine with him at Caffe Graffiti in the North End.  I had been disappointingly planning on eating leftovers from yesterday's not-so-wonderful stir fry - and of course, it's hard to pass up free food - so I said yes.  And as a relatively new journalist who is still battling a good deal of shyness, I've been pushing myself to take any opportunities possible to meet new people, network, and push myself outside my comfort zone, so this seemed like a good plan.  And yeah...free food.  (As it turns out, I may be getting too comfortable interacting with strangers, because it seems I've turned into a magnet for creeps.  Waiting for the T at Government Square after lunch, I was approached by a guy who actually winked at me, asked where I was going - "Uh...on the T" - and then asked if he could come with me.  When I said no, he asked if I had a boyfriend.  "Yes."  "Not bad, not bad" and another wink.  Huh?)

I bundled up, expecting it to be cold and icy from yesterday's "snowpocalypse/snowmageddon/(and my personal favorite) snOMG."  I was inside all day and didn't realize that the storm pretty much missed Boston.  Off went the hat and gloves.  It's beautiful out there today!  After about 45 minutes on the Green Line, I arrived at Haymarket, and Caffe Graffiti was just a short walk away, right on the Greenway and near the corner of Hanover.  I found Hagan outside, taking photos of the restaurant.  After initially trying the wrong door, which led to a disappointing "guess they're closed" moment, we found the right door and headed inside.

I had read some of Hagan's 93 Plates blog posts, as well as some posts - including a few pretty negative ones - by other bloggers who participated in it, but I decided to go in ignoring my preconceived notions as much as possible and just enjoy the opportunity to meet someone new and eat some (hopefully good) food.  Since I live all the way out in Brighton, I don't get out to the North End as often as I'd like, so this was a good excuse.  93 Plates is done, and this meal was part of Hagan's audition for Groupon's "Live Off Groupon" contest where the winner will have to spend a year quite literally living off of groupons.

Caffe Graffiti's lunch menu consists of salads (a Caesar and a house) and a variety of pizzas.  We split a Caesar salad with grilled chicken ($9) and a Sulmona sausage pizza with roasted red peppers ($11).  Sulmona is a city in the Abruzzo region of Italy and also a meat market in the North End, which is where Caffe Graffiti gets the sausage for the pizza.  Hagan described the sausage as "porky."  It had a different texture than other pork sausage that I've had - not as soft and squishy - but I enjoyed it and thought it worked pretty well on the pizza.  Let's back up a second to the salad.  We were both happy with it.  It was a little better than the average restaurant appetizer salad: the Caesar dressing was creamy and flavorful without being overwhelming, and the chicken was cut thinly and not overdone.  It seems like most places that serve salads with grilled chicken totally overdo the chicken; I'm not sure why.  Ok, back to the pizza.  We agreed that the crust was the best part.  It had that delightfully doughy scent that some pizza has, but it didn't taste too doughy or chewy.  The cheese and sauce were unobtrusive, and I liked the peppers.  (FYI: I'm a pizza purist and will very rarely order pizza with multiple toppings.  One meat and that's it.  I generally find that adding a veggie topping to a meat pizza is a grave sin.)  Yes, I actually liked the peppers.  I've been on kind of a veggie kick lately, and you may hear about last night's odd bok choy craving when Hagan posts his video.  Hagan wasn't as into the peppers.

We ended with cannoli.  I'm hardly a cannoli aficionado; I've had maybe two or three in my life since I'm not really a fan of ricotta.  But the filling in this one had a nice liqueur flavor that made the ricotta much more tolerable for me.  The chocolate-covered shell was tricky to cut into; it required some careful maneuvering so as not to send shards of cannoli shell over to the neighboring tables.  Once we broke up the shell a bit, I found it quite tasty.  Our waiter also brought us a couple free cappuccinos - the pride of Caffe Graffiti.  I'm also not much of a cappuccino drinker (sorry, I guess this paragraph is pretty useless) but I really enjoyed this one.  It was topped with a nice cocoa powder that cut the bitterness a bit.  Also, it was very strong caffeine-wise.  If only you could see how quickly I'm typing right now!    

Some 93 Plates participants have accused Hagan of being a media whore, only being in this for the website traffic and publicity, but since he openly admits that these are his motivations, I didn't have much of a problem with it.  Hypocrisy would have been a bigger problem, but he wasn't pretending that food blogging was part of some nobler goal - he was very straightforward about what he wants from this.  As such, I feel inspired to share my motivations for going to this particular meal: (1) free lunch, (2) fun adventure on a lazy day/an excuse to get out of the apartment, (3) content for a blog post.  As far as this blog goes, I'm still not really sure what my motivation is.  I love to eat and I love to write, so there's that.  But on some level, I guess it's also been about wanting some attention, finding a way of connecting with people, marketing myself as a writer and photographer, and yes, occasionally accepting free food.  That last one troubles me a lot, but one thing I learned in journalism school was that you can do anything you want as long as you tell the reader what you're doing.  I feel justified in accepting free food as long as I tell the reader I'm doing it and provide an interesting story that people will enjoy reading.  I've been invited to some food blogger dinners at restaurants where they wine and dine you and hope you'll write nice things about them, and though these experiences do seem kind of dirty somehow, it's given me a chance to discover new restaurants that I may not have checked out otherwise, and I've met some interesting people.  But the exploration of the ethics and motivations of food blogging is an ongoing and complicated process, so for now, I'll just end by saying that Caffe Graffiti is worth checking out, especially once they have their 40-seat sidewalk area set up in the summer.  Prime people-watching!

Check out Hagan's post here.

Full disclosure: Hagan paid for our meal, I left the tip, and the cappuccinos were comped.

Boston Gets a Taste of Clementines from Spain

The Trade Commission of Spain in New York wants the United States to eat more clementines.  Boston's own Deborah Hansen, chef and owner of Taberna de Haro in Brookline, was one of three chefs selected nationwide to take part in promoting the juicy fruit.  Along with three local food bloggers, Richard Auffrey of The Passionate Foodie and Susie Anderson and Chelsee Adams of We Are Not Martha, I got a chance to sample Chef Hansen's clementine creations.

Read more and view a slideshow here...

Edit: Sorry for the dead link. Boston24.com no longer exists, so I'll migrate the full text here soon. For now, you can view the slideshow here.

Hell Night: A Culinary Adventure That Will Make You Cry Like a Baby

[This article originally appeared on Boston24.com, a local news site which no longer exists.]

At 9pm, I downed a preemptive shot of Pepto-Bismol.  At 9:30pm, I arrived at East Coast Grill in Inman Square with five adventurous friends.  We were there for Hell Night, a celebration of spiciness that occurs a few times a year.  Reservations fill up nearly two months in advance; Massachusetts is apparently full of masochists.

It was the first Hell Night experience for everyone in my group, and we entered the restaurant with a mix of sheer excitement and a bit of trepidation.  Decked out in caution tape, skulls and crossbones, and other threatening decorations, East Coast Grill was full of adrenaline, sweat, and the near-toxic smoke of chili peppers sizzling in the open kitchen.  As we waited for our table, a siren went off: one diner couldn't handle the heat and ordered "the antidote" - a glass of milk and a creamsicle.  The sound of the siren triggered the kitchen staff to gleefully chant "Wimp! Wimp! Wimp!" as the diner swallowed his pride in an attempt to salvage his digestive system.

Hell Night is not for the faint of heart (or stomach).  Sure, you can order from the aptly named Wimp Menu, but if that's your plan, there's really no reason to take up a table when so many chili addicts are dying to attend.  The Hell Night menu does feature some relatively mild (and delicious) entrees - look for the choices rated at two or three bombs.  But the star of the menu, the challenge that we just couldn't resist, is the Pasta from Hell, rated at nine bombs, made with the infamous Bhut Naga Jolokia, the "ghost chili."  It's the hottest pepper in the world.  The menu advises you not to order this nightmare-on-a-plate.  The host of the evening, Dr. Pepper, advises you not to order it, and then gives you a frightening consent form to sign.  He also waves a wand with flashing neon lights over your head.  We weren't sure why.

The task of signing the consent form regrettably fell to me, even though 5/6 of our table planned on trying the pasta.  I almost lost my nerve when I reached the last paragraph:

"...Imagine an angry Goliath Birdeater crawling down your throat, the irritating sting of its barbed urticating hairs penetrating the membranes of your tongue and esophagus.  The large hairy spider reaches your stomach and sinks its fangs into your intestines...Hours later it tears out the other end, alive."

Stupidity prevailed and we ordered the pasta.  Five of us vowed to try at least five bites.  Roxanne, the wise one, opted out with the excuse that she would like her colon to remain intact.  Fair enough.

Some other dishes arrived first, like the Russian Roulette Deviled Eggs, each one flavored differently - anywhere from two to eight bombs.  Roxanne ended up with a seven- or eight-bomber, spicy karmic revenge for not trying the Pasta from Hell.  The five-bomb peel 'n' eat New Orleans-style BBQ shrimp was delicious, although one must be careful to remember to wash hands thoroughly before using the bathroom if one has been handling spicy foods.

The pasta arrived completely saturated in orange and yellow sauces, topped with a huge pile of what appeared to be finely chopped ghost chili.  It sat on the table mocking us as we tentatively smelled it and decided to wait for our cornbread to arrive.  A scowling busboy came to our table several times while the pasta was untouched, and he glared in disapproval, thinking that we were too wimpy to even try a bite.  Finally, Joel decided he couldn't wait anymore, and Chaz and I followed suit.  "Please don't die," begged Roxanne.  Geoff and Michael wisely decided to enjoy some more food before destroying their taste buds.

Imagine being pepper-sprayed in the mouth for about ten minutes straight.  Everything that touches your lips tastes spicy; you can't find relief in bread, and don't even think about trying water - it'll just make it worse.  Finally, the pain dies down...until you realize that it is traveling through your digestive system, and you can still feel it every step of the way.  It comes in waves: a few minutes of near-comfort followed by torture.  Sweat dripping, tears pouring.  And even when you feel halfway decent, you realize that tonight or tomorrow, there will be hell to pay.

Joel, who used to work at a Thai restaurant, somehow downed eight bites and even dipped the bread in the sauce a couple times.  (He paid for it later.)  Chaz and I stopped at five.  "You keep not eating it, and it gets hotter!" exclaimed Chaz, several minutes after his last bite.  Michael and Geoff were done after one.  After Geoff's first - and last - bite, all he could utter was a pitiful "no."  A biology teacher, he had been informing us of some interesting capsaicin facts before our food arrived.  For example, if ghost chili were in liquid form, it'd have a pH level of one.  Other acids with a pH of one include hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid.  In a more dilute form, sulfuric acid is found in batteries.

Cornbread was a welcome relief, especially once we realized that just eating the accompanying butter helped a lot, and we didn't have to order milk and get berated by the waitstaff.  With the few taste buds we had left, we enjoyed the rest of the food, such as the seven-bomb harissa-smoked lamb shoulder with merguez sausage, which tasted very mild after the pasta.  We also tried the Wings of Ass Destruction.  I will leave it to you, adventurous readers, to try these next time and see if they live up to their name.

As the night drew to a close, we headed home in a sort of capsaicin high.  I felt great; pepto-bismol before and after the meal was probably what saved me.  At least one member of my group, though, suffered some devastating gastrointestinal aftermath that night and the following day.  So, a few pieces of advice for you daredevils that would like to attend a future Hell Night and eat the Pasta from Hell:

1)  Coat your digestive tract before and after.  Pepto-bismol, ice cream, milk, Rollaids.
2)  Don't overeat.  Take it slow.
3)  If there's a chance you touched the pasta sauce, wash your hands many times - and with dish detergent, not just soap - before taking out contact lenses or handling any sensitive body parts that you value.
4)  Don't make any important plans for the following day.
5)  Hell Night is probably not a good idea for a first date. 

6)  Eat more ghost chili!  In some parts of the world, it is used as a cure for stomach troubles.

See also: Cinco de Mayo Dinner at East Coast Grill

Panettone: Fruitcake Too Good to Re-Gift

An article I wrote for "North End Scene Magazine" - Holiday 2009:

Panettone: Fruitcake Too Good to Re-Gift

EventBite: Meat Meet

This will be brief since I'm saving the details for part of a larger piece I need to write, but this Saturday, I bought meat from the back of a van in a random Central Square parking lot.  Sounds pretty sketchy, doesn't it?

JJ Gonson (Cuisine En Locale) teams up with Stillman's at the Turkey Farm to bring wonderful local meat to hungry local carnivores a couple times a month throughout the winter.  (Stillman's also has a meat CSA program, but Meat Meets are a bit more random, last minute, and non-membership-requiring.)

Ah, the wonders of Twitter.  I'm grudgingly accepting that it has some good qualities.  I wouldn't have known about the Meat Meet had JJ not tweeted about it earlier that day, and I happened to be a very quick T ride away from the random parking lot, so I figured I'd go for an adventure.

I arrived at the parking lot a few minutes early and spotted the Stillman's van, but I didn't see anyone taking meat from it, so I stood awkwardly in the parking lot until some other people showed up.  Then, out came the coolers of meat - lamb chops, ribs, pork butt, chicken, even pigs' legs.  While the other customers seemed to be stocking up for many meals, I figured I'd just try something small since I was new to this strange buying experience.  I got four lamb chops for $13.  (I've actually never bought lamb before - how does this price compare to lamb chops at the supermarket?  Feel free to leave a comment!)

I quickly headed back to my dining companion's apartment in nearby Porter Square, and we let the lamb defrost while we prepared a rosemary garlic paste for the chops (recommended by JJ.)  Ok, that "we" in the previous sentence is a lie.  He did all the work while I studied for an exam.  Anyway, the end result was delicious - see the slideshow below for some photos.  (To see captions, expand the slideshow to full size by clicking on the button with the four diagonal arrows (bottom right hand corner of the slideshow) and then click "Show Info" in the upper right corner.)

Check out JJ's blog for more info on Meat Meets.