Sel de la Terre, Boston’s bastion of Provencal cuisine, is infamous for its rosemary pomme frites.

With good reason.

They’re cut thin as shoestrings, fried perfectly (crisp not greasy), and seasoned well with salt and rosemary. Believe me, my picture doesn’t do them justice.

I hit Sel de la Terre the other day for lunch with my friend Nicole. Hands down, it’s one of my favorite spots in Boston. Here’s a quick review of our meal.

I have a big post on tap about the etiquette of taking pictures in restaurants, so more on this topic soon.

For now, suffice it to say that the food at Sel de la Terre is so good, I couldn’t NOT take pictures. I snapped some quick shots with my phone before we dug in.

Sel de la Terre

So Sel de la Terre is located down on the wharf in Boston, by the New England Aquarium. It’s a few blocks from my office in the financial district, so it’s a really convenient place to grab a fabulous lunch.

The front window is lined with flour-dusted, crusty loaves of fresh bread. (Hungry yet?)

If you don’t feel like dining in, Sel de la Terre has a great little front take-out area. You can get soups, salads, sandwiches, and some of the best coffee downtown there.

I love the inside of the restaurant. It’s warm and inviting, with high ceilings and well spaced tables.

A note on the wine list

It’s huge. Seriously. We didn’t drink, but I couldn’t keep myself from peeking at their lengthy offering.

Nom, nom, nom

Warning: When you tuck into your table at Sel de la Terre, you’ll be presented with a basket of unbelievably chewy and crusty fresh bread. Don’t eat it all. You’ll be tempted. It’s that good. But you’ll be stuffed. Save some room. (I’ve been known to take bread home in a doggie bag that is most decidedly NOT for the dogs…)

My friend ordered a salad and the grilled steak frites with red wine-shallot reduction.

I ordered the three-course prix fixe lunch menu. For $24, it included a choice of starter (mixed green salad or potato leek soup), entree (crispy confit leg of duck or sauteed trout), and dessert (brown butter financier or honey-vanilla coeur a la creme).

Our salads were lightly dressed and really fresh. My salad had thin slivers of grilled onion and small bits of sun-dried tomato.

Nicole’s salad was dotted with toasted sunflower seeds and (ever so slightly under ripe) papaya.

Nicole’s steak was totally yummy. Perfectly cooked medium rare. Thinly sliced across the grain. Drizzled with red wine reduction. Crisp rosemary fries piled nearby.

My duck confit was meltingly tender. It arrived with topped with a couple of sweet potato chips (they were delicious…I wanted more). It was perched happily on a bed of earthy french lentils, carrots, and snappy haricot vert.

If you’ve never had confit, definitely seek it out. Basically, to confit a piece of meat means to slow cook it in its own fat. It’s an ancient method of preserving meats like duck and pork. (Which is great, but totally anecdotal in this case. I think my confit disappeared in all of 10 minutes.)

The skin was crisp and the meat was so tender you could basically pull it apart with a spoon.

I stopped just short of nibbling on the bones.

Dessert was delicious and impressive. It was a brown butter financier with blackberry ricotta and tarragon ice cream. I definitely want to figure out how to make these.

A financier is a little French cake made with beurre noisette (butter cooked until it’s nutty and brown), and crushed almonds. It’s kind of like a deliciously chewy shortbread.

It was topped with piped meringue that was browned on the top and soft and fluffy inside. It was sweet but not too sweet.

The blackberry ricotta had great fresh berry flavor. The tarragon ice cream was amazing. Another one on my list to experiment with in the kitchen. It was light, almost like gelato, and was faintly fragrant with licorice. Definitely more subtle than anise. It was just lovely.

Two thumbs up from The Mouse

Thanks a heap to the good folks at Sel de la Terre for a fabulous lunch. The service was attentive (not intrusive) and the food was great. I’ll definitely be heading back soon. If you’re in Boston, I definitely recommend stopping in for an hour or three.

Location & contact info

Sel de la Terre has a few different locations in Boston. Find them online at SelDeLaTerre.com.

Downtown
255 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
tel. 617.720.1300

Back Bay
774 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02199
tel. 617.266.8800

Natick
1245 Worcester Street
Natick, MA 01760
tel. 508.650.1800

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They were the kind folks who sent me all that cheese a month or two ago, which I used to make my Harvest Cheese Bread Wreath. (I should also note that they’re also paying us for our participation in the program…thank you, guys! You’re helping to keep The Hungry Mouse humming.)

As part of that partnership, we’re heading up to Sam’s Club this weekend for their Eighth Annual Holiday Taste of Sam’s Club Event. It’s a three-day event featuring gourmet food, recipes, and entertaining tips.

After all, we love to try before we buy, so we’re really excited to check out their holiday wares. Because we do so much cooking here at The Mouse House, we love stores like Sam’s Club. In fact, that’s almost always where we get all our bulk staples like flour, sugar, and oil, etc.

Eighth Annual Holiday Taste of Sam’s Club Event

It’s this weekend (Nov 19-21), from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at more than 600 Sam’s Clubs across the U.S. Here’s what Sam’s Club has to say about the event:

“The event will feature nearly 50 menu items, totaling more than 500,000 pounds of food, served during the three-day event. Shoppers will be able to sample the best flavors of the season, from hand-cut USDA choice beef and boneless spiral hams to delectable appetizers, premium side dishes and elegant desserts.

Additionally, Sam’s Club will host a Trim-A-Tree demonstration workshop for members to learn affordable and creative decorating tips on personalizing their trees and homes for the holidays. Each member will receive a complimentary 20 page booklet…while supplies last. Choose from glamorous to whimsical looks and the season’s coolest color trends.”

Find an event near you

Visit samsclub.com to locate a Holiday Taste of Sam’s Club event near you. They also have a ton of recipes, instructional videos, daily tips and deals, at Holidays Made Simple.

We’ll report back!

We’ll be there this weekend. We’ll report back with the full scoop in a few days. Stay tuned!

*Please note that Sam’s Club compensated me for my participation in this campaign.

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So The Hawthorne is one of those grand old hotels, in mini form, nestled right next to the Common.

The first time I walked in (a few weeks ago, to have coffee with Juli Lederhaus, the hotel’s general manager and one of the nicest people on the planet), it felt like a historic Manhattan hotel.

The Hawthorne also happens to be right up the street from The Mouse House, making it extra convenient for holiday feasting. Now that we’ve finally managed to get ourselves inside, I know we’ll be spending a fair amount of time at the Tavern this winter, tucked in by the fire with cozy beverages and snacks.

We walked in through the side entrance on Essex Street, which puts you in just the right position to peek into Nathaniel’s, the fancier of the hotel’s two restaurants.

Here’s the proper entrance to the restaurant.

And what you see once you walk inside.

For Christmas brunch, however, they transformed the entire lobby into a banquet and buffet area, with seating in Nathaniel’s, the Tavern, and the grand ballroom.

We were seated in the Tavern (the door on the left).

We couldn’t have asked for a better table.

The Tavern opens up to the grand ballroom, which is just as grand as it sounds—and makes you want to put on your best posh frock, drink champagne, and go twirl around in the center of the room.

Enough poking around. We were there for the food. And it didn’t disappoint. We ordered a bottle of wine and went to investigate the buffet.

Right before we got up, Juli came by and snapped a few family pictures for us (thank you, thank you!). And, of course, because I always have my camera with me, I had to reciprocate.

To the buffet!

The lobby was packed with food. There was a bunch of delicious brunch-y stuff. Bacon. Waffles. Eggs. Sausages (mmm, sausages)…

And a carving station with prime rib, roast turkey, and ham.

There was an assortment of other stuff, including a nutty cranberry pilaf and some outstanding butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter cream sauce.

The Angry Chef loaded up on waffles and bacon to start. (Everyone drinks scotch with their waffles, right?)

While Mom and I took a little bit of everything.

As someone who used to review restaurants for a living, I have to say: Buffets are hard to pull off.

There’s a ton of food. You need to keep it hot. You need to keep replenishing the chafing dishes. You need to keep it from drying out.

I can safely say that The Hawthorne Hotel threw one of the best buffets I’ve ever seen. The food was great, and the service was outstanding.

I’m not quite sure how, but we managed to leave room for dessert.

They even had mini apple pies—one of my favorite desserts. (Hey, I’m a mouse. We’re partial to food in miniature form.)

Visit The Hawthorne Hotel

18 Washington Square W
Salem, Massachusetts, 01970
(978) 744-4080

www.hawthornehotel.com

Hope you and yours all had a wonderful holiday!

December was great and packed with adventure, but I’m looking forward to the new year.

I can’t wait to get back to serious business in the kitchen. We have a metric ton of new recipes to test, as well as another book and a few other top-secret projects in the works.

Thanks again for all your support this year. Don’t forget to download your free copy of our cookbook, a Holiday Feast!

Cheers!

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Sometimes you find things where you least expect them. (Obvious, I know.)

Case in point: I had no idea that one of Boston’s oldest Irish bars would also serve one of the city’s tastiest lobster rolls. A close friend and I recently tucked in to The Green Dragon for lunch, and were oh-so-pleasantly surprised by the food.

If you’d rather make your lobster rolls, read on for a quick recipe and a list of where to buy live lobsters in the Boston area.

Wait, lobster at one of Boston’s oldest Irish bars?

Yep, yep. Established in 1654, The Green Dragon slaked the thirst of the likes of Paul Revere and John Hancock. It’s said that it was in this bar that someone overheard whisperings of the plan to invade Lexington and Concord, ultimately sparking Paul Revere’s famous ride.

A slightly lesser known fact: It’s also home to the best lobster roll that The Hungry Mouse ate in the summer of 2009. (There’s one destined for the history books, I know.)

What’s your favorite way to eat lobster?

Let’s back up for a second.

Now, I’m not generally fussy about how I eat my lobster. After all, it’s one of those versatile, culinary creatures that’s just as happy on a picnic blanket on the beach as on a table at a four-star downtown restaurant.

I like it boiled, cherry red, and steaming hot, so I have to wrestle with it a little before triumphantly dunking it in drawn butter.

Or baked and stuffed with rich cracker crumbs for a decadent treat that’s all flavor, no work.

Or transformed into blissfully creamy lobster bisque—the kind that’s thick and velvety and finished with a drizzle of cognac.

(What about you? What’s your favorite way to eat lobster?)

Sigh. Given the gusto with which we devour lobster, it’s hard to believe that, in the early nineteenth century, the venerated crustacean was only seen fit to feed folks on the lowest rungs of society.

Hands down, the lobster roll is my quintessential New England summer food.

And when it comes to serving up chunks of the sweet meat in salad form, I’m a purist. Just enough mayo so the salad holds together. A little chopped celery. A pinch of salt. A toasted hot dog bun.

No lettuce. No cayenne pepper. No chives or chunks of onion. No…extra stuff. (All those things have their place with lobster…just keep them out of my sandwich, please.)

And that’s just what we got at The Green Dragon.

Like this town’s Irish bars, most Boston locals have strong opinions about where to fish up the best lobster roll. Not to mention, you can’t throw a rock without hitting a bar or restaurant that claims to have the best around.

(That’s OK. Someday, I’ll eat my way across the city, like Erin Byers did, when Boston Magazine sent her on a quest to find the best lobster roll.)

The Green Dragon’s lobster roll

At $13, the lobster roll at The Green Dragon is about average in price for Boston. It also comes with a hefty side of fries. The fries were OK, but weren’t really anything special. And that’s just fine. This lunch was all about the lobster.

Inside, The Green Dragon is a charming and homey pub, with a lot of wood, set off by glossy black and cheery red paint.

One word of caution: Since it’s near Faneuil Hall, it can be packed with tourists. But if you can pop in for a drink or two at off-peak hours (i.e. during the week, not on the weekend, not when there’s a game), it’s a comfortable and cozy place to shoot the breeze and catch up with old friends.

We nabbed a window table, overhung with a window box of fragrant flowers, so we could watch passersby.

Honestly? A good friend + good food + warm, sunny weather? Now that’s a summer day that’s just my speed. I’m not sure lunch gets much better than this.

Here’s that lobster roll one more time. It was simple. And perfect. And gone far too fast.

If you’re in the area, I highly recommend stopping in and having a nibble and a pint. I can almost guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

The Green Dragon
11 Marshall St.
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 367-0055

Make your own lobster rolls at home: A quick recipe

Rather make your own lobster salad? Here’s a quick recipe that’s more method than anything. (We’ll do a more in-depth feature on lobster before the summer is over.)

You’ll need about 5 lbs. of live lobsters to yield 1 lb. (about 2 cups) of cooked lobster meat. (This depends on the time of year—which dictates how thick the lobsters’ shells are—so ask when you buy them.) 1 lb. of lobster meat is enough to make about 4 lobster rolls.

• Steam your live lobsters in a large pot of salted water. A 1 1/4 lb. lobster will take about 15-20 minutes to cook.
• Cool them to room temperature.
• Crack the shells with a cleaver and remove the meat from the tails, claws, and knuckles. Pick meat off the rest of the carcass as you see fit, discarding the intestines, etc. Freeze the shells for stock, if you like.
• Dice the meat up into large-ish pieces, about the size of a peppermint candy.
• In a large bowl, toss the lobster meat with just enough of your favorite mayo to coat it. (Start with a large spoonful, then add more if you need it.)
• Mix in a little kosher salt and finely diced celery.
• Serve heaped up on toasted, buttered hot dog buns.
• Enjoy!

Where to buy lobster in and around Boston

Here are some good options for buying live lobsters outside of the area’s normal supermarkets and grocery stores. This list is by no means comprehensive. Please leave a comment if I’m missing your favorite market.

James Hook Lobster
15 Northern Ave., Boston, MA (617) 423-5501

Yankee Lobster Fish Market
300 Northern Ave., Boston, MA (617) 345-9799

Boston Lobster Company
345 West First St., Boston, MA 02127 (617) 464-1500

New Deal Fish Market
622 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02141 (617) 876-8227

Super 88 Market
One Brighton Ave., Allston, MA 02134 (617) 787-2288

Patriot Lobster (call ahead to arrange pick up)
48 Broadway, Salem, MA 01970 (978) 740-2900

C & C Lobster Company
297 Lynn St., Peabody, MA 01960 (978) 530-1500

Rockport Lobster Company
54 Commercial St., Gloucester, MA 01930 (978) 281-0225

Enjoy your lobster, whether you hit The Green Dragon, or drag some bugs back home and cook ‘em up yourself. Cheers!

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Last week, my dear friend The Cocktail Queen suggested we meet at Bonfire, a contemporary steakhouse with a Latin American twist in the heart of Boston. It had been ages since we caught up, so I was totally game. Bonfire is one of Todd English’s restaurants, and I’d been wanting to try it. Here’s a peek around the restaurant and a look at what we ate.

This isn’t a comprehensive restaurant review by far since I’ve only eaten there once, but…I would certainly go back based on the experience. The food was great and the service was excellent.

So as in most big cities, you can lose your shirt eating out in Boston. It takes practice and skill to know how to eat well at the city’s best restaurants—without breaking the bank each time. If I’m unsure about a new place, or just want to test drive the food without committing to a whole meal, I usually have a nibble or two at the bar first.

The bar at Bonfire

Now, The Cocktail Queen is a dear old friend of mine, and knows exactly how to talk me into things quickly: “Bonfire has delicious drinks and really good, cheap, tiny tacos.”

“Delicious drinks! Wait, and…tiny tacos?”

“Tiny. Tacos.”

“Oh! Well then. I’m in.” I’m a sucker for any kind of mini food. How could I resist?

Location, location, location

Let me back up for a sec and set the scene for all you non-Boston folks. Bonfire is located in the historic Boston Park Plaza Hotel down on Arlington Street.

The Boston Park Plaza Hotel

If you’ve never been inside the Plaza before, it’s worth a stroll through. It was built in the late 1920s, and is just grand and gorgeous like most of the big hotels from that period.

The lobby of The Boston Park Plaza Hotel

The lobby of The Boston Park Plaza Hotel

The Plaza Hotel is just a few blocks away from the Public Garden, on the edge of Boston’s Back Bay—one of our city’s swankier neighborhoods. (The area is just stuffed to the gills with condos, cobblestones, designer boutiques, and high-end hotels.)

Boston’s Public Garden, along Boylston Street

Here’s the view up Boylston Street from the corner of Arlington Street. The tall, blue building in the background is the John Hancock Tower, built by I.M. Pei. I worked on the 42nd floor for about a year. (The views were a-ma-zing.)

Via Matta, which serves Italian food and has a really pretty outdoor dining area, is right across the street from the Plaza.

I entered Bonfire from the street.

But there’s also an entrance inside the hotel.

The atmosphere (a.k.a. a peek inside Boston’s Bonfire)

So what’s the vibe? Bonfire is dark and inviting, with lots and lots of dark wood and stone that’s softened by richly upholstered chairs, velvety curtains, and warm, glowing lights. The crowd is 30-something-ish, stylish, and relatively well behaved.

One of the first things you see when you enter the restaurant is the stately, slate-floored wine room, Bonfire’s private dining room.

The room seats up to 22, and has a handful of prix-fixe menus.

Inside the main restaurant, the dining area is to the left.

Even before dark, the dining room is cozy and inviting. But then, we weren’t there for dinner.

The Cocktail Queen and I made a beeline for the long, curved bar to the right.

There’s a ton of seating at the bar and in the bar area. We were there after work, so I’m not sure how busy the place gets later on in the evening.

There’s a long, open kitchen behind the bar, so you can watch your food sizzle away as you sip one of the place’s signature, juicy cocktails.

The cocktails at Boston’s Bonfire

The Cocktail Queen, in typical fashion, ordered what I have to believe (admittedly based on almost no experience) has to be the best drink on the menu: An Authentic Bonfire Margarita.

Their take on the drink is a mouthwatering concoction of tequila, Grand Marnier, and lime juice topped with a splash of champagne. It was fresh and juicy, and I took the biggest sip I could politely pull off when I was offered a taste.

I was in the mood for a glass or two of red wine, and ordered a really good Cabernet-Tempranillo.

Tiny, tiny tacos

So what’s on the menu?

Like I said, this is a steakhouse with a Latin American flavor. Twenty-four ounce Porterhouse steaks share menu space with the likes of paella and appetizer portions of beef empanadas.

But that’s not why we were there. We were there for the tacos.

Which brings me to the Taqueria menu available at the bar from 5-7 pm. Four tacos are $12, and were more than enough for a small dinner.

Bar menu at Bonfire

The Cocktail Queen and I each ordered a plate of four tacos. The soft tacos were shot through with a skewer to keep them upright, and arrived on a bed of lightly dressed greens.

I had (pictured below from left to right): The smoked pork taco (by far my favorite), the smoked beef tongue (very beefy and surprisingly tender), the skirt steak taco (pink in the middle and also sliced to be very tender), and the brown butter braised lobster taco.

The Cocktail Queen had a crispy fish taco, a spicy tuna tartare taco, a smoked pork taco, and a chicken taquito.

Boston’s Bonfire: The Hungry Mouse’s Verdict

I liked Bonfire a lot—at least at this hour. I highly recommend heading over to the bar and nibbling your way through a personalized tasting menu of tiny tacos.

Who knows. We may even go back for dinner sometime.

All’s well that end’s well

Oh, and you never know what you’re going to see in Boston, especially at a place like The Plaza, which is a curious intersection for tourists, business people, locals, and—this evening at least—teenagers.

As The Cocktail Queen and I were saying our goodbyes, a flock of prom-goers swept past us, on their way to their party at the hotel. We stood and watched the kids parade by in their fancy dresses, rented tuxes, and corsages.

It was a perfect—and perfectly strange—way to end a lovely evening.

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