Old world Harvard Sq - Casablanca

Casablanca
40 Brattle Street, Harvard Square
Casablanca is one of those old institutions in Harvard Square, having been around since the 50's. It was where my former boss took me for my welcome lunch, and since then we've had a number of other goodbye and welcome lunches given it was so close to my old office. They have different menus for lunch and dinner, as well as small bites and tapas menus for different times of the day. When you go in the front door off of Brattle Street, the first room in the front has a lot of light and the back room tends to be more social (albeit darker). They brought a delicious bread basket to our table - with fresh pita and another softer sourdough bread. They also bring table salt and pepper to mix with oil for dipping - delicious!

As you'll see above and to the left, we shared the Grilled Calamari and Hearts of Palm Salad (w/ avocados, tomatoes, shaved red onion, cilantro and citrus vinaigrette) and the Pan Seared Salmon (served with shrimp and feta arancini, wilted pea greens, tzatziki and charmoula). Between the bread and these two dishes it was plenty of food for the two of us. The salad was dressed lightly, the way we like it, the avocado ripe and fresh, and the calamari tasted like it was really just grilled out back (and not too chewy). The salmon portion was a large one - and cooked just right, because I hate when salmon is undercooked. The arancini was the first thing we both tried - and liked, but they were heavy and fried. The pea greens weren't overcooked either - and were a nice change from other veggies you tend to find on the side of a restaurant main dish. There was a bit too much tzatziki on the plate for my liking. The charmoula is a marinade typical of this region used on fish/seafood - it's made of a mixture of herbs, oil, lemon, garlic, cumin and salt. It is the darker paste you see on top of the salmon here. Overall there was a lot of flavor in both of these dishes and we were happy with our choices!

In the past for lunch I've enjoyed their flatbread pizza with grapes (except the annoying seeds), their turkey breast sandwich (except the spicy aioli), and they have this unique stuffed baby eggplant dish that's great. Definitely check out Casablanca if you haven't been there before!

South African Food Adventures

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to South Africa for work - I know, not a bad job, right?! Before leaving I was really looking forward to learning more about what types of foods were traditional there. The only things I had heard about were this beef jerky like snack called Biltong, and that the 2nd city I was going to be in was Indian food central. Given that neither of those things were making my mouth water, I set off to try and find a local cooking class. I didn't have any luck there either! It has been just a couple of weeks since I returned from this trip and I would say that I had three unique, local food experiences and I'm glad to be able to share them with you here.

Hotel sushi, fruit and salad - this is what you get
when you try to be healthy on a work trip

I was surprised to see every type of cuisine possible in restaurant form, except ones that stood out as local African food. For the first few days the food I ate consisted only of salads, sushi, greek, and hotel continental breakfast. I was so excited to see one of my favorite DC casual restaurants, Nando's, all over Johannesburg - and yet, I sadly found no opportunity to actually eat there. The common phrase throughout my trip when I missed out on something was, "I have to leave something for next time" so Nando's was left for next time! I have also had my fair share of dinners at hotels, which I am all set with for the year.

On the fourth night of my trip I was graciously hosted by South African parents of a student of mine. It is common to have domestic helpers in their households, and so their domestic helper cooked an amazing, traditional African meal for myself and a number of other guests from my school that are spending their summer in South Africa! The white sphere in the front, called 'Pap', is a traditional porridge made from ground white maize that had a thick consistency. The only thing sort of close to that texture I can think of is polenta maybe. It doesn't have any sort of strong taste because it is meant to be served under another dish with lots of flavor on its own! On this night it was served with a spinach dish, a pumpkin and roast meat stew, and a couple of sides I opted out of because they were deemed spicy - a tomato relish/chutney sort of sauce, and another meat dish. One of the traditional appetizers they served was a grilled sausage, usually "braaied" (aka barbequed), and the dessert was to die for - a sort of bread pudding that has British ties and was served with fresh mango and ice cream. I could've eat the entire tray, and was so happy to find it on a menu a couple of nights later at a restaurant in Durban!

Basil Tree Catering

Just last month I learned that one perk of working in an office that hosts events is that catering companies reach out to you to see if you'd like to sample their food! This was a foodie's dream! Basil Tree Catering, based here in Cambridge, offered to set up a sample lunch for me and a coworker but then I offered to bring together some of my coworkers in other offices to have more people exposed to the name and food! It was sort of like I got to host my own little girls lunch party for free - not a bad part of the workday a couple weeks ago. Basil Tree explains that they have an Earth Friendly approach to catering - trying to reduce waste and engage in green practices wherever possible, which is nice with catering where you typically see the exact opposite of those things.

On the day of our sample lunch Mindy, from Basil Tree, came by right on time and set up this lovely spread for us, recyclable table cloth and all. She explained all of the food and there were probably 8 of us from different centers across the university. The menu included:

Rosemary Lemon Grilled Shrimp
Roasted Pepper & Mozzarella Crostini
An assortment of their fresh sandwiches: 

Fresh Mozzarella & Sundried Tomato, The Vermonter, Falafel wrap, Caesar Salad Wrap
Sundried Tomato Tortellini Salad
Southwest Sweet Potato Salad
Selection of our Seasonal Mini Desserts
Earth Friendly Paper Goods

I think it's safe to say that we were all impressed with the diverse options and quality of the food. Probably the only thing that didn't float my boat was the Crostini, because it seemed like it was the type of menu item that should've been served right from the toaster or oven, not served chilled. Everything else though was delicious! I want to try and make a version of the Southwest Sweet Potato Salad myself - a nice alternative to the traditional mayonnaise filled potato salad you see at all the summer bbqs (and you all know how much I loathe mayo!). I tried a half of the falafel wrap which was great - served on a lavash bread. I think we all went back for seconds and would definitely use them for future events! We asked a lot of questions and had acceptable answers for all of them - they have box lunches, breakfast menu options, monthly specials to target the customer that can't necessarily afford their more expensive options. They're a little more pricey than we could justify for a casual lunch event, but for some of our faculty events or meetings they could be perfect!

Never a shortage of pizza options

Emma's Pizza
40 Hampshire Street, Kendall Square - Cambridge

The Kendall Square area has really exploded in the last couple of years so I'm always up for exploring it further. My friend and I tried out Emma's Pizza, whose claim to fame on their website is "carefully crafted thin crust since the 60's" so they're not one of the new restaurants in the area. They have a little counter to order take out from, and also a small dining room with lots of uniquely decorate pizza peels hanging up on the walls around the restaurant.

They have such a long menu of pizza options on the list, which made it very difficult to decide! We opted for their Pedro's Guacamole - tangy and garlicky for dipping their homemade flatbread chips into. Delicious - but much too large of a portion for just 2 people and not enough dipping chips for the large quantity of dip (also a bit pricey at $8.95). The salads we saw coming out of the kitchen also looked good!

As for their pizzas, they have 3 different types of sauces to choose from as the base for your pizza. Rather than making our own, we trusted 2 of the chef's creations and got a large pizza divided into two different kinds. The first half was the #3 - baby spinach, roasted sweet potato, caramelized onions, garlic, rosemary sauce, mozzarella and goat cheese. The rosemary sauce they have is described as a spicier tomato sauce with fresh rosemary, but even my very sensitive tongue didn't think this sauce was too spicy, so you're safe if you're like me and don't like spice! For the other half we chose their most simple pizza - #2 - cherry tomato, basil, garlic, traditional sauce and mozzarella, but also had them add broccoli to it. I loved that it wasn't such tiny pieces of broccoli that you couldn't even tell it was there - nice bite size chunks! Both of the pizzas were great - we ate the whole pie! I think I liked the sweet potato one better, but only because it was different than the usual. With 23 other pizzas on the menu I could easily come back here and find another two halves to try out! We were also tempted by the pressed sandwiches - in particular the roasted veggie one. Not the place for a big group, but nice intimate feeling for a couple of friends catching up over a long dinner!

Ginger Soy Marinade

Ginger Soy Marinade
cilantro (2 frozen cubes if you don't have fresh on hand)
2 tsp minced garlic
1 TB honey
2 TB lite soy sauce
salt and pepper
3 TB olive oil
fresh lime juice and zest from 1/2 of a lime
2 tsp fresh finely chopped ginger
1 TB water

Mix all of the above ingredients together and use as a marinade or as a sauce to add once you've cooked your dish. I used a bunch of veggies and chicken breast and it worked really well. The sauce isn't too salty - I think adding the little bit of water helped and you could really taste the fresh ginger and citrus. The flavor might be a little bit strong for the lighter taste of shrimp, but maybe just use less of the sauce. Thankfully this sauce also doesn't get too thick or syrupy.

I had some leftover brown rice I was able to use but if you're making fresh rice you could try out this recipe here for Cilantro Lime Rice:
1 TB oil
1 cup rice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2-3 cloves garlic
2 TB fresh lime juice
zest from one lime
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1 tsp salt

Heat the oil on low, add the garlic and rice - saute for about 2 mins. Add the broth, salt and lime juice, bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes (depending on brown vs. white rice), when rice is done - add lime zest and cilantro, stir all together! Brown rice takes a lot longer to cook - so this recipe tends to work better with white but the extra flavors do nicely cover the sometimes grainy flavor of brown rice.