January 2012
21 posts
The Mathematics of Taste
Here’s something good from across the street. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/what-smells-good-0124.html Across the street means MIT, not Salt, Craigie on Main, Area Four, Catalyst, or Rendezvous. Those are nearby famous restaurants. Chefs and others in the food business spend huge amounts of time using informal methods to guess about flavors that might prove popular. Recently I...
Bill Frisell and music
We’re playing a lot of Bill Frisell this week. Frisell is a personal favorite and a darling of music writers. He’s playing Friday and Saturday at Scullers atop the DoubletreeHilton Hotel next to the Mass. Turnpike exit in Allston.
Some of you remember when there was a Coke plant there with a memorable sign on top and a turn of the (20th) century production line that a pedestrian...
The WSJ covers cocoa futures and ends with an...
We pay some attention to commodity prices for milk, sugar and cocoa. I plod through articles like the following from today’s Wall Street Journal. The article was written by Alexandra Wexler. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203750404577173241864893920.html?mod=WSJ_Markets_RIGHT_Top But at the end of the article, which seems altogether confusing about what might happen to...
The Cantata Singers get a rave from The Globe
I was lucky enough to see this performance, and lucky enough to read Michael Lutch’s appraisal in today’s G Section of the Globe.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2012/01/23/cantata-singers-astonish-breathtaking-pairing/y3trPs2eWmbf3nUN9rfOpJ/story.html
MICHAEL J. LUTCH
David Hoose, music director of the Cantata Singers.
CAMBRIDGE - The Cantata Singers’ pairing of obscure works...
Introducing our new racing correspondent
While retaining her responsibilities as Director of Volunteers our new racing correspondent reports from Maine. This doubles the size of our New England Bureau since Tommy will continue to cover Pond Hockey. The New England Bureau also functions as our Sports Desk.
“We have one horse - Fiona - whom Leigh has been raising since birth. She was a rescue of sorts (that is, her mom was a...
We don't close for snow flurries
We’re open until 11PM tonight, Saturday January 20, 2012 We’re not serving Breakfast@TheBigTable this weekend but we will be open at 9AM on Sunday. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Maple Walnut Ginger Snap Molasses Chocolate Chip Grape Nut Burnt Caramel Malted Vanilla Mango Cocoa Pudding Hydrox Cookie Sweet Cream Butter Almond White Coffee Hydrox Cookie Cranberry ...
Driving around with Tommy, doing good deeds
I got to ride around town with Tommy, while we delivered Christmas packages for Gill Fishman. I got to hear Tommy book a hardcore band for this weekend’s show in Harvard Square and ask about food allergies and special requests. After visiting many alienating office buildings downtown we headed for Saigon Sandwich on Washington St. I love Saigon Sandwich although right now I think I...
Th Ja 19, 2012 flavors for snow flurries
French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Nocciola Salty Caramel Burnt Caramel Salty Saffron Cocoa Pudding Mint Chocolate Chip Hydrox Cookie Malted Vanilla Wort Espresso Blackberry Rooibos Sweet Cream Bourbon Vienna Finger Chocolate Chocolate Chip Earl Grey White Coffee Hydrox Cookie Mango Khulfee Strawberry Grape Nut Maple Walnut Ginger Snap Molasses Tiramisu Goat Cheese Brownie ...
Mo Ja 16 is MLKing Day, a national holiday.
Banks are closed. Toscanini’s will open an hour late at 9AM and close at 11PM, our regular closing time.
New places to eat everywhere
Drove off to the South End to find Render Coffee Bar which I have been hearing about for weeks. They are included in the Disloyalty card you can get at Voltage on Third Street. Render is at 563 Columbus Avenue, close to Mass. Avenue. Chris Dadey is the owner. They use Counterculture Coffee and Dadey previously managed Espresso Royale and Pavement. Render is serious about coffee without...
Flavors for We Ja 11, 2012
French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Maple Walnut Black Bottom Pie Cookie Dough Grape Nut Burnt Caramel Chocolate Chip Rum Raisin Butter Chocolate Chip Hydrox Cookie Mint Chocolate Chip CBC Wort (beer before it gets fermented) Strawberry Khulfee Mango Bourbon chocolate Flake Dulce de Leche Cranberry Apple Vienna Finger Spicy Chocolate Rooibos White Coffee Goat Cheese Brownie ...
Marc Levy covers the Chestnut Hill Petition for...
http://www.cambridgeday.com/2011/12/21/basement-apartment-district-passes-7-2/
Basement apartment district passes 7-2
By Marc Levy
Published: December 21, 2011
A plan for basement apartments passed 7-2 at Monday’s meeting of the City Council, despite councillors having a week to think it over since passing it 6-2 and a new round of comments from residents who are opposed.
The Basement Housing...
MIT's Faculty Newsletter reviews MIT's own plans...
Large parts of the new MIT Faculty newsletter are devoted to MIT 2030, a plan for the future of eastern Cambridge prepared by MIT’s non-academic real estate company. There is a lot to read here and much to think about. It is rare that any large development proposal gets such informed review. Much of the newsletter is concerned with internal matters such as how much space MIT may need...
Ice cream flavors for We Ja 4, 2012
We are giving away tiny cups of a New Barismo Espresso ice cream. That ends at 11PM when we close. We will probably start Thursday with these same flavors. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Hydrox Cookie Chocolate Chip Mocha Coffee Ice Cream Sandwich Ginger Snap Molasses Strawberry Cocoa Pudding Burnt Caramel Gianduia Malted Cookie Dough White Coffee Grape Nut Rum Raisin Maple...
Flavors for Mo Ja 2, 2012 The Future
We’re living in the future. 2012. And we’re open until 11PM French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Cinnamon Nutmeg Coffee Ice Cream Sandwich Earl Grey Kenyan Khulfee Goat Cheese Brownie Egg Nog Cran Apple Butter Almond Malted Vanilla Maple Walnut Rum Raisin Grape Nut B3 Gianduia Mocha Burnt Caramel Cocoa Pudding Strawberry Ginger Snap Molasses Orange Chocolate Hydrox...
December 2011
35 posts
A great time in an empty bar on De 30
No one’s in town. Everyone went back to New Jersey: students, faculty staff, friends, pets. It happens every year and it is always an odd and great time to live in Cambridge. Park your car wherever you want and there’s room for everyone at any restaurant. Once I talked with a hotel manager about room rates. A room might be $450 during MIT graduation and $89 for Christmas. ...
Wasting money as fast as they can
Gambling casinos, sports stadiums and convention centers are what politicians like to build. Usually they are said to be good for nearby restaurants and hotels although its pretty clear that gambling casinos with their own restaurants just steal customers from other places. Sports facilities and convention centers don’t work either. This story appeared in the Wall Street Journal on...
The last day of the year and beyond.
We are closed on New Year’s Day. Monday Ja 2 is a legal holiday. We reopen on Tuesday Ja 3 at 10AM. These are the flavors for this short day. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Egg Nog Hydrox Cookie Chocolate Chip Orange Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Sandwich Ginger Snap Molasses Strawberry Cocoa Pudding Burnt Caramel Coconut Gianduia B3 Grape Nut Rum Raisin Maple Walnut Malted...
The best neighborhoods for restaurants according...
Eater.com asks the questions others are afraid to ask, What is the best neighborhood for restaurants? http://boston.eater.com/archives/2011/12/28/as-is-the-tradition-at.php The Globe’s Devra First endorses all of Cambridge. Others choose Allston or Kendall Square. Penny and Ed Cherubino of BostonZest choose Central Square. Good for them. For us, Central Square, Cambridge. With...
MixMenu.com starts delivering pints
Our Tommy is delivering pints to MixMenu.com. Then they will deliver the pints to you. We’re all starting with these four flavors. French Vanilla, by definition is rich with egg yolks, accounting for its mouthfeel. Belgian Chocolate is made with Callebaut chocolate from Belgium. Belgium has great chocolate and great laws concerning the quality of chocolate. We make many chocolate...
Coffee by Design in Portland gets a recommendation
Maine coffee shop makes Zagat top 10 list
A well-known publisher of restaurant reviews is giving high marks to a Portland-based coffee company.
Zagat.com has named Coffee By Design one of the nation’s 10 coolest independent coffee shops in a blog on its web site.
Other shops to make the list include ones in Brooklyn, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Austin, Texas.
Coffee by Design was...
Day after Christmas, still in Central Square
We’re playing Bill Frisell’s Good Dog Happy Man album, through our super stereo system created by Brown Innovations. A nice way to begin this in-between week. Tonight we’re open until 11PM. We turn off the espresso machine at 1030PM so we can give it a good scrubbing. Right now ice cream we have the following flavors. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Cocoa Pudding Salty...
25 years and out for The Ice Cream Reporter
For years the single authoritative voice for news about the ice cream business has been the 8 page Ice Cream Reporter, written and edited by Howard Waxman. The new issue has a short story about Italian coffee giant Illy’s entering the gelato business, and a long story about The Ice Cream Reporter ceasing publication. The story lists some of the trends that have been important in the...
Flavors for The day before Christmas Eve
These are the flavors we have right now. The flavors are made in small batches so we can run out of things before the end of the day. We close at 11PM. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we open at 10AM and close at 4PM. We are closed all day on Christmas. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Cookie Dough Hydrox Cookie Chocolate Chip Salty Saffron Maple Walnut Burnt Caramel Cocoa Pudding ...
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Watch36 Seconds in Cambridge, Mass
NYTimes likes Toscanini's, Central Sq. & Cambridge
December 22, 2011
36 Hours: Cambridge, Mass.
By FREDA MOON
WHEN the leaves have fallen and the winter chill has set in, many small cities slip into a prolonged hibernation. But Cambridge barely misses a beat. During the holidays, tree branches are strung with tiny white lights, and local theater productions celebrate the season. A city of bookstores and coffeehouses, art-house cinemas...
Oh I love candy bars
And you will too after going to this website for what an architect might call “sections” of various candy bars. http://scandybars.tumblr.com/ Its a little disturbing, perhaps erotic or even pornographic if you confuse sex and food. But who would do that?
Southwest flies to Lockhart TX
Edward Behr’s The Art of Eating doesn’t contain any advertisements for Food Channel shows or restaurants located in gambling casinos. If you like to eat and read about food you might think these are features rather than omissions. The cover story for Autumn 2011 is “Central Texas Barbeque” and I’d still buy the Texas Monthly Barbeque Nation issue but this story...
Erin Byers Murray writes nice things in Edible...
Erin Byers Murray writes in the Winter 2012 issue of Edible Boston
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/boston/winter-2012/season-to-tastes-at-the-table-with.htm
Season To Taste’s “At The Table With…”
By Erin Byers Murray
If the sign of a successful dinner party is the quality of the conversation, then Robert Harris knows how to throw one killer dinner party. On a recent fall night, the chef...
Ice cream until 11PM, on We De 14, 2011
We’ll probably start Th, De 15, 2011 with these same flavors. Sleep tight. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Coconut Gianduia Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Salty Saffron Malted Vanilla Burnt Caramel Rum Raisin Bourbon Chocolate Flake Coffee Butter Almond Cinnamon Nutmeg Cranberry Cocoa Pudding Peppermint Stick Just Fluff Apple Chaider Pink Grapefruit Grape Nut Raisin B3 ...
Improving Magazine Beach as imagined with crayons
Magazine Beach is not the historic site of Cambridge’s first newsstand. Like Somerville’s Powderhouse it is named a after a colonial powderhouse or powder magazine, where ammunition and explosives were stored. Magazine Beach is a park located between Memorial Drive and the Charles River. Neighbors in Cambridgeport have been organizing to restore and improve the park. We are...
Flavors for the Sunny First Day of the Week De 12,...
We change flavors frequently but these are the ones we start with. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Salty Saffron Mango Malted Vanilla Burnt Caramel Strawberry Wort (CBC beer before fermentation) Ginger Snap Molasses Bourbon Chocolate Flake Khulfee (cardamom, almonds & pistachios) Chocolate Chip Gianduia (Chocolate Hazelnut) Maple Walnut Hydrox Cookie Cake Batter Grape Nut...
Christmas Shopping as adventure
Went shopping in Harvard Sq. Advance work for Christmas. Parked on Chauncy Street across from Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center. I couldn’t walk through the Yard because all the entrances required a Harvard identification card because of the Occupy Harvard people. I walked to Out of Town News and found an unusual magazine. Then I visited the biggest and latest addition to...
Its cold but sunny and we have ice cream for...
On Thursday De 8, 2011 we have these flavors. Even on a December day the flavors change since we make the ice cream in small batches. French Vanilla Belgian Chocolate Gianduia Espresso Chocolate Chip Grapenut Rum Raisin Ginger Snap Molasses Wort Strawberry Burnt Caramel Malted Vanilla Mango B3 Maple Walnut Cake Batter Green Tea Khulfee Hydrox Cookie Toasted Coconut Just Fluff ...