Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

10 Oct 2010

Hungry Mother – Boston (Cambridge)

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Hungry Mother is just about the coolest restaurant name I’ve ever come across. Even though I know it’s in reference to a Virginia state park, a part of me still wishes that it were a shortened expression for “hungry like a mother effer!” Alas, it can only be so in my heart…

I was sent to this Cambridge gem by three trusty sources: my brother, Evelina, and GQ magazine. Opened in March 2008, Hungry Mother serves southern cuisine with an Appalachian bent. Employing local New England ingredients, chef and co-owner Barry Maiden (L’Espalier and Lumière) prepares the homey dishes of his youth using French techniques mastered from years working in fine dining restaurants. The premise of Hungry Mother reminded The Astronomer and me of a less formal and hipper version of Highlands Bar & Grill, our favorite restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. We were joined for dinner by our friend Matt and sister Rosalind.

We were seated at a table in the bar area because I foolishly made an OpenTable reservation for the week after our trip. The host was incredibly nice about my absent minded move and managed to fit us in even though the restaurant was fully booked. It was really fantastic that he took good care of us even though it was totally my mistake. [By the way, according to Matt, a Boston resident, the service here is heads and shoulders above the rest of the city.]

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Restaurant Review

07 Oct 2010

Myers + Chang – Boston

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The Astronomer and I had such a positive experience at Flour Bakery + Cafe that we decided to check out Chef Joanne Chang’s latest restaurant concept a few days later. Opened in the fall of 2007, Myers + Chang is a modern and funky diner offering personal interpretations of Taiwanese soul food and Southeast Asian street food.

As much as I love seeking out authentic dining experiences with dishes that can be traced back to the motherland, the opportunity to taste well-executed fusion fare excites me as well. In fact, seeing how traditional flavors and techniques are transformed and reinterpreted can oftentimes be even more intriguing. At Myers + Chang, age-old recipes are tweaked and spun, and the results are seriously tasty.

Myers + Chang is a joint venture between Chef Chang and her husband Christopher Myers, a restaurateur (Radius, Great Bay, Via Matta) and “front-of-the-house wizard” according to Gourmet magazine.

The restaurant, which occupies the ground floor of a luxury apartment complex, feels like a diner as re-imagined by a really hip designer with a penchant for pink accents and Asian motifs. The space is brightly lit, casual, and fun. I would kill to have a place like this in my neighborhood.

Any restaurant that offers a choice of wooden or plastic chopsticks in a vintage tea tin is cool in my book.

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Restaurant Review

05 Oct 2010

Flour Bakery + Cafe – Boston

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While most of my ideas on where and what to eat are culled online through blogs, Tweets, and food pages, I occasionally find inspiration on the telly too. An especially memorable episode of Bobby Flay’s Throwdown that aired sometime in 2007 brought Boston’s beloved Flour Bakery + Cafe onto my radar. After seeing Chef Joanne Chang swiftly kick Bobby Flay’s buns during a Sticky Buns Throwdown, I made a mental note to visit here on my next visit to Beantown. Considering how infrequently I tune into the Food Network, its content is surprisingly influential.

The Astronomer and I, along with The Astronomer’s sis Rosalind, visited the original South End location on our first day in the city. Chef Chang opened the bakery in 2000 after leaving a career as a management consultant and baking in some of New York (Payard Patisserie and Bistro) and Boston’s (Biba, Bentonwood Bakery, Rialto, Mistral) top kitchens.

After the success of the original Flour, Chef Chang opened a second branch in 2007 in the Fort Point Channel area and a third one in 2010 in Cambridge near MIT and Central Square.

As luck would have it, my friends the Two Hungry Pandas visited Boston a few weeks before me and tipped me off on Flour’s terrific egg sandwich ($6.50). Served with cheddar cheese, tomato, arugula, dijonaise, and a choice of ham or bacon, the sandwich was as perfect as Evelina had promised. The elements that rocked most were the silky fried egg and the perfectly ripe tomato slice. Not to mention, the sturdy yet pliable focaccia and smoky bacon strips. Truly, I could go on and on…

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