Tag Archives: Food

Boston PUBLIC Market

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For many people the subject of this post may conjur up visions of rotisserie chicken spinning in their heads, but be assured, I write of the Public market which has just opened today in Boston.

Reminiscent of many other urban markets such as Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal, the BPM is trying to establish itself as an all local, all season, food market. I stopped by at the height of rush hour as streets were gridlocked with cars trying to get out of town ahead of an approaching storm and the swirl of humanity moving through the streets made the crushing humidity unbearable outside. Some vendors were not quite ready for today’s grand opening and the venue at the Haymarket MBTA stop was much too chaotic today for a full assessment. What follows then are my first impressions…

Once in the BPM I found salvation in the cool air and serenity amongst fresh flowers and produce organized neatly in rows, vendor by vendor. I spoke with one charcuterie purveyor who’s products all come from Rhode Island where they raise pigs and cure meat. She handed me a free sample of Soppresata and I later noted that even the packaging was from a local collaboration with students at the a Rhode Island School of Design. Around the corner I picked up a small bunch of parsley for tonight’s dinner from an all Vermont farmstand.  Among other things, here they offered the soft creamy bonne bouche coated in its ash rind from Vermont Creamery. On the other side of the market I saw a vendor selling fresh made pastas in a variety of extruded shapes across from a separate stall of well stocked produce both verdant and varied.

Overall the Boston Public Market has the potential to be one of the city’s great treasures.

I’ll be sure to go back but for now here are some pictures I snapped on day one…

A narrow corridor of beer selections
The award winning Jasper Hill has brought world class cheese
BPM staff was on hand with totes and tee
Non-food items were also available such as these wood products
A stand featuring Vermont products
Bostonians enjoying their new market

Eccentric Eggs of Cambridge

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Perhaps no single foodstuff is more intimately tied to breakfast than the egg cooked in all its wonderful varieties. However, in the metro-Boston area, the ubiquitous presence of a certain donut shop chain usually limits one’s options for creativity. But the egg is being raised to new levels in Cambridge at several spots between Technology Square and Kendall.
The simplest offering comes from Clover where a single soft-boiled egg is dropped into a pouch of pita alongside a slice of cheese and tomato. Add a bit of salt and cracked pepper and squeeze the sandwich until the runny yolk bursts free to blend into a fresh flavor profile.
Around the corner at Ames Street Deli the breakfast sandwich gets more complicated. At a base price of six bucks you can get scrambled eggs with piquillo-cheese and kale, but upgrade for two dollars more and you get a pork sausage link split down the middle and tucked under grilled wheat. Ames St. also offers a couple varieties of scrambled egg donuts, but a review of those may require some actual fasting before breaking into one for breakfast.

  

A more traditional, but none-the-less rare preparation is the Scotch egg. Occasionally found at your more authentic Celtic establishments, this dish is available on the bar menu at Catalyst right in the heart of Technology Square. This is a soft-cooked egg encased in sausage and served split down the middle like a geode. It’s a perfect companion to just about anything the mixologists can make up for you behind the bar.   
Lastly, in Kendall Square the egg that has received the most press is certainly in a jar at West Bridge. Matt Gaudett crams mashed potatoes, woodsy mushrooms, and a duck egg into a Ball jar and tops it off with sea salt, Piment d’Espelette, chives, and… a cracklin of crisped duck skin. Gaudett’s cooking process brings out a poached-like creamy consistency from the duck egg and has made this a signature dish.