At Kingston Station,
standard great brasserie fare
is so flavorful.

Ball Square breakfast war
is win-win for customers,
if not mad owners.

Tavern in the Square
now has a branch in Porter.
New one is better.

Ed Levine's food bowl
has moved to the Globe! He claims
a win for New York.

Sheryl Julian
sticks up for Boston. Where else
are clams so tasty?

As we mentioned yesterday, we are a terrible person in utter thrall of HBO and we will not be watching the Super Bowl. We're guessing, however, that most of you are unlike us in that regard and have big plans to watch it. If the television in your apartment is missing that certain je ne sais quoi, below are four Super Bowl bar parties that sound like pretty sweet deals. In all cases, we'd recommend calling for reservations in advance.

•The always-festive 75 Chestnut is holding a Super Bowl party complete with beer, wings, BBQ baby back ribs, and sausages. There will also be fabulous prizes and, of course, the restaurant's regular member available a la carte.
•We don't often find ourself at sports bars, but when we go, we like to go all out, and what better place to do so than at Big City? In addition to the astonishing eighty beers on tap, the restaurant will be offering 25 cent wings (!!!!) and showing the game on an amazing nine plasma televisions.
•The best deal of the night has to be at Croma, where attendees will be treated to a free buffet full of pasta, chicken wings, and salad at half time. There will also be Patriots-inspired cocktails and general good times.
•Vox Populi definitely has the cutest Super Bowl conceit. The restaurant will be serving two a la carte menus, one featuring the iconic foods of Boston and the other highlighting those of New York. Boston cream pie beats New York cheesecake any day!

75 Chestnut [Official Site]
Big City [MenuPages]
Croma [Official Site]
Vox Populi [Official Site]

Wow, Myers + Chang
gets four stars. The food forgives
pricy small portions.

New Giorgiana's
brings Greek-Italian takeout
to the haute South End.

Spicy Montien's
en-toon-mor-fai will burn you.
Fire pots rock winter.

Way back in October, we looked at Facebook groups devoted to Boston restaurants. Today, it's time to look at the Hub restaurant scene on MySpace. As MySpace users know, the site can be...special. Someones, we'll click on a friend's picture and then all the sudden we're assaulted with a flashing background and loud music and we suddenly feel approximately ninety years old. Nonetheless, MySpace is a pretty great way to reach consumers, and we're excited to see so many Boston restaurants using it. Below, six of the top (or at least easiest to find) Boston restaurant MySpace pages.

Restaurant: flour bakery + cafe
Friends: 211
Music: None
Best Comment: "Flour have your cupcakes give me a call and lets go buy some property!!!"

Restaurant: Tremont 647
Friends: 167
Music: "We Used to Vacation", Cold War Kids
Best Comment: "I love Tremont 647! The grass fed burgers are THE BEST EVER. If you are a vegetarian thinking of going to the other side, skip, don't walk to Tremont 647...you will not regret it!"

Restaurant: Green Street Grill
Friends: 165
Music: Song deleted by the artist
Best Comment: "good to see you donkeys last night!!"

Restaurant: Myers + Chang
Friends: 106
Music: A playlist consisting of "China Girl" by David Bowie, "Me So Horny" by 2 Live Crew, "Alison" by Elvis Costello, and "Get Your Snack On" by Amon Tobin.
Best Comment: "So is it healthy to have dreams where your entry dishes were the main charactors,three nights a week in the past month? em, yea, that seems to be happening to me and some other folks.
Some of the dreams had dramatic and yummy plots."

Restaurant: Toro
Friends: 58
Music: Song deleted by the artist
Best Comment: "I had the best night of my life at Toro again......everytime I'm there I eat the best food and meet a million people!"

Restaurant: Ten Tables
Friends: 52
Music: "Traveling All Alone", Billie Holiday
Best Comment: "Come see JP's finest Electro-Rock band! Who wouldn’t want a crazy Saturday night of gay-fronted-weird-goth electronics at JACQUES Underground!"

[Photo: What's Next Blog]

Since we singled out some of our least favorite food-related commercials earlier this week, we thought it would be only fair to show you one food-related commercial we love. It's even electorally-related! The below ad aired during the 2000 general election series. It still makes us laugh. A lot.

Snickers - Voting Booth Commerical [YouTube: edgesmash]

Blogston Proper is your thrice-weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

•You know who never gets free dinners with foie gras and veal osso bucco? Us. We are jealous. [All Eyes on Jenny]
•Adjectives that describe Hot Off The Press: hot, pressed, delicious, and cheap. [Bostonist]
•b.good has a fry-making secret! [Cantabrigia]

[Photo: Flickr: Boston Pozivivor]

Free food and free drinks
are bargains at twice the price.
That's freeganomics.

Wine can warm you up
in the cold Boston winter.
You should stock up now.

Diner's Agenda has too many books out from the library.

Wednesday, January 30
•It's so warm out today! What's up with that? Celebrate the temperate weather with a trip up to Portsmouth for the French Catalonia wine dinner at Black Trumpet Bistro. France's Catalonia region is, as the name implies, bordering Spain, so the region's cuisine combines the most delicious aspects of both French and Spanish foods. Dinner starts at 6:30pm and tickets, which cost $90, may be reserved by calling (603) 431-0887. [Black Trumpet Bistro]

Thursday, January 31
•We must confess to some startling ignorance: until last week, we thought that barleywine was just some sort of hippy-dippy wine. It turns out it's actually really strong beer. Much better! Cambridge Brewing Co will be paying tribute to the genre from 5pm-10pm by offering a selection of barleywines (including the hilariously-named Blunderbuss Barleywine) and some fine tapas. Reservations, which are only being taken for parties of eight or more, may be made by calling (617) 494-1994. [Cambridge Brewing Company]

Chipotle finally makes its first incursion into Boston proper with the opening of their Cleveland Circle location today. This seems pretty smart to us: Cleveland Circle is far enough away from the Brookline burrito glut that it won't be threatened by Anna's Taqueria, Boca Grande Taqueria et. al., but it's still near enough to the target demographic (i.e. broke college students).

Here's where it gets exciting! To celebrate the new location, the Cleveland Circle Chipotle (ooh, alliteration) will be giving away free burritos from 11am-8pm today! We're sure the lines will be massive, but still! Free burritos! We like to get the carnitas with rice, fresh tomato salsa, guacamole, cheese, and black beans, but you can choose your own favorite combination. Free burritos: definitely worth the trek to Cleveland Circle.

Chipotle [MenuPages]
Chipotle [Official Site]

Hey, remember that vegan dinner at Chez Henri? Well, it looks like it was awesome. The picture below is of the evening's entree, "tofu au poivre", which looks like a very clever play on steak, with one piece of tofu resembling steak au poivre and the other looking like a piece of feta in the now-ubiquitous feta and watermelon steak combination. If vegan food always looked this great we'd...well, we wouldn't give up meat, but we just might eat it less often.

Chez Henri [MenuPages]
Chez Henri [Official Site]

[Photo: Flickr: eprescott]

Well! After a very slow news week, we're back with plenty of openings, a few closings, and several of what we're going to have to charitably call "rumors." Let's dive right in, shall we?

Openings
•Everyone's favorite Brookline beer bar The Publick House will be opening Publick House Provisions in the old Beacon Kosher Market space. Hot, Buttered, and Toasted reports that the new shop will carry gourmet goodies like specialty oils and vinegars, cheeses, and a wide and presumably excellent selection of beer. Construction has already begun, so here's hoping it opens soon!
•It seems that the Au Bon Pain on Brattle Street has departed this world. Sigh. We remember when it was Warburton's. It will be replaced by some sort of coffee shop, about which little is known other than that it will be serving fancy-pants Terroir Coffee.
•Craigslist brings us the news that the perpetually-planning-to-open Johnnie's on the Side won't be the only new spot near the Garden. DJ's at The Garden will be joining it. According to the restaurant's MySpace, it will feature "great service, a fantastic beverage selection, and sublime food" as well as no less than twenty plasma TVs.
•In what has to be one of our favorite Chowhound threads of all time, one hound wondered whether a Todai Restaurant was going to open in Boston. Soon, the thread devolved into arguing as to whether or not Todai is any good and if, in fact, there are any good all you can eat restaurants. No one answered the original poster's question, but we looked on the company's website and, indeed, Boston is listed as a "future location."

Closings
•In a piece of genuinely sad news for the city's burger lovers, Grille Zone, which had previously planned to open ten new locations within the next five years closed this past Saturday.
•When two Garden-area restaurants open, one, apparently, must close. Mulligans, where one may allegedly purchase a turkey sandwich with butter and mayonnaise, will close on Thursday.
•Finally, one Chowhounder wonders if The Spotted Apron is relocating or closing. This is the first we've heard about this and no one at the bakery was available for comment but tips are, as always, very welcome.

[Photo: Flickr: hawk684]

We recently learned that Wendy's will soon be dropping their red wig ads (one of which we discussed here) in favor of a new campaign with the dubious slogan of "It's w-a-a-a-ay better than fast food. It's Wendy's." This is dumb, mostly because Wendy's is, clearly, fast food. We suspect these Wendy's ads are going to be legendarily terrible and it got us thinking about some of our least favorite fast food commercials of all time. Because we believe in spreading the pain around, we're sharing them with you. Sorry.

Burger King, "I Am Man"

This ad is just so grossly over-the-top sexist. "Chick food"? Really? You can't do better than that? Not only is this not especially funny, but it's just inaccurate. Girls like Whoppers and boys like quiche. (This particular chick would take a bacon cheeseburger over a leek quiche any day of the week.) We accept that it's supposed to be satire, but as the comments on the YouTube page show, a lot of viewers took it at its face value, which is pretty gross.

Quiznos, "Bob the Baby"

To be fair, all the Quiznos ads featuring Bob the Baby were incredibly weird, mostly due to the completely unnatural Photoshopping of the baby's mouth. This one, however, also has an adult woman hitting on a baby. Creepy!

Domino's Pizza, "Fudgem"

Our deep disgust with this ad should be obvious: Fudgem looks like a giant poo. And then the little girl hugs him. And is covered in poo. You know what this ad does not make us want to do? Eat. Ever again.

What about you? What fast food ads do you hate? Are there any you love?

Wendy's To Set Self Apart As 'W-a-a-a-ay Better Than Fast Food' [Marketing Daily]
I Am Man - Burger King [YouTube: feeteh]
quiznos baby [YouTube: djagreeable]
Domino's Fudgems Commerical [YouTube: commercialfan]

In our old (read: post-collegiate) age, we've become much less easily riled. Back when we were an impressionable young college sophomore, we could get angered dozens of times while reading just one section of the paper. These days, most stories just make us depressed. It's been a good long time since we've read something that really set our blood boiling, but a recent post about food stamps on Megan McArdle's blog over at The Atlantic did just that. (Props to MP: Chicago for bringing it to our attention.) McArdle is, we think, mainly trying to make the point that food stamps are not a good way to stimulate the economy. We have never pretended to be an economist, so we will reserve judgment as to whether or not that happens to be true, but, frankly, whether or not food stamps are a valid economic stimulus is irrelevant because that's not what they're meant to be. Food stamps are meant for people who don't make enough money to buy sufficient food. Period. They are not for people who, as McArdle contends in a later post, "take money out of their food budgets to buy something else." They're for people who don't have enough money to have a food budget to begin with.

In our personal favorite part of the original post, McArdle argues against food stamps on the grounds that "the poor don't need more food. Obesity is a problem for the poor in America; except for people who are too screwed up to get food stamps (because they don't have an address), food insufficiency is not." SERIOUSLY???? Might that be because there's, oh, we don't know, higher-calorie processed foods are cheaper because they're full of ingredients subsidized by our agricultural system?

There's an incredibly icky subtext in the posts and their comments that low-income people are in their financial circumstances purely because they make bad choices (at one point, McArdle suggests giving "the poor" money instead of food stamps because "even if they spend it all on drugs, it will hardly be much worse than spending it all on increasing their already astronomical obesity rates." You know those poors! All they want are drugs and fatty foods!

We are willing to bet that McArdle has never been to a supermarket in a low-income neighborhood. We have, and we'll tell you a few things. First of all, basic foods (milk, eggs, etc.) tend to be more expensive than they should ever be. Secondly, the produce is, generally, incredibly subpar: rotting fruits and veggies, all for astronomical prices. We don't generally eat processed foods and we'd go for the mac and cheese in that situation. Plenty of the commenters seem to think that because they have certain grocery-shopping options, clearly low-income folks do as well. Many low-income people are, to a large extent, bound to their location, especially in non-urban areas. We agree that Trader Joe's has some really great deals. That's not very helpful if you don't live near one. Sure, you can save a lot of money by doing your grocery shopping in bulk at Costco. Guess what? If you don't have a car and you can't pay for a few months worth of groceries up front, that's not feasible.

Of course it's problematic that most people who qualify for food stamps have to use them at grocery stores with sub-par options. The solution to that problem, however, is definitely not to eliminate food stamps. Instead, we need to think about how to make healthy foods realistic options for low-income consumers.

Why Not Food Stamps? [Asymmetrical Information]
Protect Them From Themselves [Asymmetrical Information]

[Photo: From the Wilderness]

We're going to be 100% honest with you. Not only do we devote our Sundays to The Wire without question or pause, but this particular Sunday, our boyfriend will be visiting us and he is neither from Boston or New York nor interested in sports. We will not be watching the Super Bowl, although we will, of course, be rooting for the Pats in our heart. If you're less of a fairweather football fan than we are, we imagine you'll be watching the game and we'll have plenty more to say about that later this week. If, however, you're truly devoted, perhaps you'll be making your way to Phoenix this week. We did a little research and found a few restaurants you might want to check out when you're down there.

•Arizona has superb Mexican food and few places do it better than Barrio Cafe. Word on the street is that the desserts are second to none, as is the twelve-hour roasted pork.
•Despite a facade that looks like a rejected spot for an Olive Garden and a name that sounds like it should be followed by the words "Family Fare", Binkley's is apparently the Phoenix area's premiere stop for fine dining. The restaurant has been compared to Thomas Keller's legendary French Laundry in Napa, but with a six-course tasting for a relatively meager $77, Binkley's will run you a whole lot less.
•When in Phoenix, do as the Phonecians do and head to Four Peaks Brewery for one of their many excellent beers and maybe a soft pretzel. Mmmm, soft pretzels.
•If you're looking for a light lunch, you could do much worse than Lisa G Cafe and Wine Bar, where the sandwiches are delicious, the wine list is ample and, according to one local blog, the desserts are "oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-wet-my-pants good."
•Confession time: before we started researching this post, Pizzeria Bianco was the only restaurant we had heard of in Phoenix. Allegedly, the pizza is some of the nation's very very very best. Rumor has it that you should go as early as possible to minimize the wait. If you go to Phoenix and don't eat here, we will be mad at you.
•It's pretty hard to find New Mexican fare in the Northeast, so take advantage of your time in Phoenix and try some. Rumor has it that Richardson's Cuisine of New Mexico is your best bet. It sounds like you should not, under any circumstances, miss the margaritas.

[Photo: Jon Sullivan]

Today, Florida is holding its presidential primary. Well, sort of. While both parties are holding primaries, only the Republican one actually counts, delegate-wise. Furthermore, since Florida has early balloting, many of the votes have already been cast. Whatever! We're still excited to see how things shake out. Will Obama continue his momentum? (Not tonight, because older Americans love Hillary!) Will Giuliani's campaign finally take off? (No, because he has a terrible strategy!) As we did for Michigan and Nevada before their primaries, we'd like to do a rundown of some Floridian-inspired food. When we hear the word "Florida", we automatically think "orange", so we've created an orange-based meal for you to enjoy while you watch CNN tonight. Note: we totally won't judge you if you flip back and forth between the results and American Idol.

Salad: We are notoriously terrible at motivating ourself to eat a salad, so any salad that wants to make its way into our tummy needs to have a lot of interest. We adore the flavor profile of this arugula and mint salad with oil-cured black olives, oranges, and ricotta salata. Each bite contains the perfect balance of salty and sweet.

Entree: Linguine with clams is a standard and yummy dish in this part of the country, but after a while, it can get to be the slightest bit dull. Spice things up with a recipe that adds a tomato-fennel sauce with more than a hint of orange. The best part? The whole thing comes together rather quickly.

Dessert: All we're interested in these days are cupcakes. These sunken chocolate-orange cupcakes sound like an absolutely perfect blend of a cupcake and a flourless chocolate cake: two of our very favorite things.

Arugula and Mint Salad with Oil-Cured Black Olives, Oranges, and Ricotta Salata [Epicurious]
Linguine and Clams with Tomato-Fennel Salsa [Epicurious]
Sunken Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes [Epicurious]

[Photo: OrlandoFun]

Blogston Proper is your thrice-weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

•Toscanini's Ice Cream is back in business! [Save Toscanini's!]
•Not to brag or anything, but it looks like great minds think alike. [Slashfood]
•We kind of love the idea of basing your apartment search around your favorite bar. [Redfin Boston Sweet Digs]

[Photo: Flickr: venotar]

We recently noted a new trend in the food world: social networking sites for the culinarily-inclined. A month or so ago, we heard about FoodCandy. A few weeks later, The Grinder alerted us to FohBoh and on Friday, we read about Masterchef on Slashfood. Since three is, officially, a trend and since we're a sucker for nearly any social networking site, we figured we'd check them out.

The front page for FoodCandy is sort of overwhelming. Upon logging in, the user is bombarded with a slew of options: Read FoodCandy member interviews! Check out some featured groups! Post on the forums! Read blog posts! Check out new members! Like MySpace, it makes us feel old and confused.

Even though FohBoh's home page is also a little busy, for some reason (maybe the font?), we don't mind. FohBoh seems to be more explicitly targeted to those working in the restaurant industry, so the featured groups include "Restaurant Marketing" and "Equipment." Ten minutes after we signed up, we got a comment, so it seems that the people are pretty friendly. Also, we love the links to featured recipes. We might have to try this polenta with poached egg and pancetta sometime very soon. FohBoh reminds us of Facebook, and that's certainly not a bad thing.

If FoodCandy is MySpace and FohBoh is Facebook, sadly, Masterchef is Friendster. The layout is tremendously unappealing, there's no way to easily browse members, and the site is shockingly unintuitive. Also, when filling out our "social profile", the site asked us for our height and weight. Creepy.

FoodCandy [Official Site]
FohBoh [Official Site]
Masterchef [Official Network]

Diner's Agenda covets America Ferrera's dress from last night's SAG Awards.

Monday, January 28
•We are far, far, far too wimpy to check out Hell Night at East Coast Grill & Raw Bar, but folks with hardier constitutions seem to love it. This time around, Hell Night is stretching out over three nights, giving you three chances to totally destroy your tastebuds. Call (617) 491-6568 to save your spot(s). [East Coast Grill]

Tuesday, January 29
•At 7pm, Icarus will host Michael Honig of Honig Wineries for a five course dinner with wine pairings. The cost is $75, which is actually a pretty good deal as Excelsior charged $150 for their similar event in July. Call (617) 426-1790 to reserve. [Icarus]
•Get ready for the Pats' win on Sunday by basking in the glow of Boston's last big win when the 2007 World Series trophy makes a stop at Cheers at 7pm. There's a $5 suggested donation at the door, and all proceeds will go to "Cheers for Children", an organization that raises money for several children's charities. [Cheers]

Welcome to the fourth and final installment of the Boston/New York Food Super Bowl (for installments 1-3, please look here, here, and here). Today, we'll be evaluating the two cities' burrito, street food, and seafood offerings. Let's hop right to it!

BURRITOS
Boston: We've written about our city's burrito glut at some length before. Simply put, if you want a burrito in the Hub, you don't have to travel far to sate your craving. From Anna's Taqueria to Boca Grande Taqueria our local chains are second to none and, perhaps more importantly, they're cheap as all get out.
New York: To be sure, there are great burritos to be had in New York, if you find yourself in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, East Harlem, or at one of the incredible vendors' stalls at the Red Hook Ball Fields (those vendors, incidentally, are in grave danger of losing their licenses, which would be a tremendous shame for New York). If, however, you'd like to get a burrito on your lunch break (and really, who wouldn't?), you're likely to find that all your options cost twice as much as Anna's et. al. and taste half as good.
Advantage: Boston

STREET FOOD
Boston: Well, there's Speed's. And we have a continued weakness for the lemonade stands in the Common. Um. Yeah.
New York: Let's imagine together, shall we? You're in New York, you've just had a fine dinner, but you're craving a little something sweet. You don't want to go for a sit-down dessert. What would be great is if you could just stop at a truck and grab something you could then eat while wandering about. New York says "Sure! Do you want a perfect Belgian waffle from Wafels & Dinges? A great brownie from the Treats Truck? Maybe it's chocolate bread pudding with bacon creme anglaise you're craving. If so, you can pick that up at the Dessert Truck. Hey, while you're there, why not stop at the Dosa Man's cart in Washington Square?" All the options mentioned don't even include the bountiful choices in the outer boroughs or in Chinatown. This is, after all, a city that has an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of the best in street food. It's just no contest.
Advantage: New York

SEAFOOD
Boston: Admittedly, Boston is not Maine, so we do not have the absolute finest lobster this great nation has to offer, but goddamn if we don't make a strong showing in second place. Bostonians are notorious seafood snobs (we once strongly declined to order steamers in Northampton because it was a "little far inland") and it shows in the quality of our seafood restaurants, from Yankee Lobster to Neptune Oyster to, yes, even Summer Shack. Our seafood options are not, however, limited to traditional New England fare: from the fusion flavors at East Coast Grill & Raw Bar to Chinese treats at Big Fish Seafood Restaurant, Boston rocks seafood in all of its forms.
New York: The seafood category seems like it should be a full lock for Boston, but it's actually quite close. New York has a few very respectable New England-style seafood eateries, like The Mermaid Inn and Pearl Oyster Bar, as well as a plethora of great seafood-based Chinese restaurants and the best ceviche we've ever had (once again, that event took place at the Red Hook Ball Fields). In the end, however, New York's seafood scene misses a certain authentic something that Boston's has in spades. Besides, Jasper White lives in Boston and if that doesn't give plenty of points, we don't know what would.
Advantage: Boston

The final tally gives Boston five (sandwiches, ice cream, cookies, soup, burritos, and street food), New York four (pizza, barbecue, hot dogs, and street food) and two ties (burgers and bread). Boston wins! Again, we would like to express our deepest admiration for Ed Levine, who's original post on the matter inspired our passionate responses. As Gridskipper noted, we are certainly not an unbiased source. We are, however, an unapologetic believer in Boston's culinary greatness. We stand by our results, just as we stand by our prediction that the Pats will win on Sunday. As always, however, we do encourage your thoughts in the comments.

We're loving Cookus Interruptus, the video site from organic cookbook author Cynthia Lair, even though we're pretty sure it's targeted at non-meat-eaters. Cynthia is pretty charming and the whole enterprise has a good sense of humor. In the segment below, Cynthia teaches us how to cook quinoa, and we learn (several years too late) that it's totally not pronounced "kwin-oh-a." Oops.

Cookus Interruptus [Official Site]

Blogston Proper is your thrice-weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

•People seem to be pretty into Highland Kitchen. [Bostonist]
•A Hamburger Today also loves R.F. O'Sullivan. [A Hamburger Today]
•We're pretty pumped to try Oceanaire. [Cave Cibum]

[Photo: Flickr: chompster]

•Some people love ridiculously gorgeous pictures of lemons... [MP: Chicago]
•...While others adore restaurants with awesome names. [MP: Philadelphia.]
•The US government doesn't love haggis. [MP: San Francisco]
•And the state of Virginia has an inexplicable prejudice against delicious sangria. [MP: South Florida]

Diner's Agenda can't believe it's already Friday. Awesome!

Saturday, January 26
•The Greater Boston Food Bank's Super Hunger Month continues with the justly legendary Super Hunger Brunch. Over twenty of the Hub's best restaurants will be offering prix fixe brunches from 11am-2pm on Saturday and Sunday at prices ranging from $25-50 per person. Call the restaurant of your choice to reserve. [Greater Boston Food Bank]
•This weekend's installment of the Fairmont Copley Plaza/Boston Center for Adult Education sponsored Celebrity Chefs series sticks very close to home for its teacher. Laurent Poulain, executive chef at the Fairmont, will be holding court from 1pm-3pm. As always, tickets, which are $60, may be reserved online. [BCAE]
•Hey, we're not sure you've heard or anything, but it turns out there's kind of a big football game next weekend and it seems like a New England team is playing. Might be a fun thing to check out! In the meantime, Gordon's is offering a class called Soup-er Bowls. Maybe the two things are related? The Gordon's class runs from 1pm-3:30pm and tickets, which cost $50, may be reserved online. [Gordon's Fine Wine & Culinary Center]

Sunday, January 27
•We're still tackling the conversion of all our foods to organic stuff. We haven't even started thinking about wine yet (do they even sell organic three buck Chuck?). If you're a little more advanced than we are, you might want to check out the organic and biodynamic wine dinner at Rialto at 6pm. $60 gets you a fine meal with eco-conscious wine pairings. Call (617) 661-5050 to reserve. [Rialto]

B+ for La Voile.
Schaffer truly loves the spot
with its simple fare.

Veganomicon
is a new vegan cookbook
with yummy mushrooms.

Smelt escabeche
from T.W. Food, yum!
Ice fish sure taste good.

New spot Oceanaire
has a nautical decor
and lots of seafood.

1) Make your way to The Butcher Shop.

2) Order the cassoulet, pictured below.

3) Feel warm and happy.

The Butcher Shop [MenuPages]
The Butcher Shop [Official Site]

[Photo: Flickr: synaethesia]

Our side-by-side comparisons of the Boston and New York food scenes continue now with a look at burgers, soup, and cookies. Currently, New York is in the lead with wins in pizza, barbecue, and hot dogs. Boston has won the all-important categories of sandwiches and ice cream. Bread was a tie. Let's see how things shake out with these new categories, shall we?

BURGERS
Boston: There are plenty of Hub restaurants that just so happen to serve out-of-this-world burgers (think R.F. O'Sullivan or The Cantab Lounge), but we'd argue that the shining jewel in our city's glistening burger crown is Bartley's Burger Cottage, a veritable temple to the humble hamburger.
New York: New York sure does have some great burgers. We're partial to the brilliant specimen served up at the Shake Shack, as well as the super-flavorful options from brgr. While New York also has a few solid burger chains (Five Guys and New York Burger Co. come to mind) that top what the Hub has to offer, we must deduct points for the lack of any iconic Bartley's equivalent.
Advantage: Tie

SOUP
Boston: We have five words for you: lobster bisque and clam chowder. We could rest our case there, but we'll add that we also have excellent matzo ball soup, great pho, and some killer ramen.
New York: While New York has great Asian soups (many, many points are given for the presence of Momofuku Noodle Bar) and, of course, great matzo ball soup, so-called "Manhattan clam chowder" is an abomination onto the world.
Advantage: Boston

COOKIES
Boston: The chocolate chip cookie was invented in Whitman, Massachusetts, a mere 24 miles south of Boston. The chocolate chip cookie is the world's greatest cookie. That's just a fact.
New York: Though there are some fine cookies in New York (the TKO at Bouchon Bakery comes to mind), New York did not invent the chocolate chip cookie.
Advantage: Boston

Boston and New York are tied, three for three. Tune in on Monday for the tiebreakers: burritos, street food, and seafood.

Clink isn't great yet.
Food and service are both meh
but there's potential.

Cuban fare, more at
Oriental de Cuba
will warm you right up.

Somervillians love
the brand-new Highland Kitchen.
Great neighborhood joint!

Canton's Mangia
is "close to perfection." Wow!
It sure does sound good.

As promised, we're back with our pre-Super Bowl series of posts comparing the food scenes of Boston and New York. We've looked at sandwiches, pizza, and ice cream. Now it's time to investigate bread, barbecue, and hot dogs. As of this writing, Ed Levine has not yet weighed in on these categories, but we suspect there will be some differences of opinions.

BREAD
Boston: Boston is, without question, a fantastic bread city. From Clear Flour to flour bakery + cafe to Iggy's, there's no shortage of near-perfect loaves in the Hub.
New York: New York is also no slouch in the bread department. We constantly dream of all the offerings from Balthazar and we also love Sullivan Street Bakery and Amy's Bread. New York undoubtedly has more good bakeries than Boston, but we would argue that it does not have more per capita.
Advantage: Tie

BARBECUE
Boston: We must admit to a certain dissatisfaction with Boston's barbecue scene. Sure, we love BBQ Town and Redbones, but most of the mainstream options leave us cold. Boston also suffers from a surprising dearth of Korean barbecue options...we can't think of many besides Koreana.
New York: Just thinking of the following names makes us drool: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Hill Country, Daisy May's BBQ USA. New York is also blessed with an entire Koreatown, where excellent Korean barbecue may be enjoyed.
Advantage: New York (decidedly)

HOT DOGS
Boston: First of all, Boston has three branches of Spike's Junkyard Dogs, which, as far as we're concerned, is almost the ne plus ultra of the American hot dog, bested only by Speed's. Boston also has unquestionably better sausages than New York: just think of The Sausage Guy.
New York: If we could import one New York chain to Boston, it would unquestionably be Gray's Papaya, where $3.50 gets you the "Recession Special": two dogs and a juice. We can't think of a better lunch. We're also rather fond of Crif Dogs, where one may obtain a dog wrapped in bacon, deep-fried, and topped with kimchee.
Advantage: New York, by a hair

Currently, New York is ahead, but don't worry: we've got hamburgers, soup, and cookies up this afternoon and things are looking good for the Hub.

Gimmicks work at Stix.
The sticks are fine, but the large
plates are much better.

Hmm, S&I Thai
is sure under the radar.
Also, delicious.

Is Pho #1
worth the trip out to Woburn?
Amazingly, yes!

Slashfood recently alerted us to the best video of dancing food that we've seen in quite some time, one that's made even more awesome by the fact that it was created in the 1950s for the legendary Ernie Kovacs Show. The effect is very much like a live action "Be Our Guest." Watch and enjoy...especially the part where the sardines dance.

Ernie Kovacs' 'Kitchen Symphony' [Slashfood]
Ernie Kovacs - Kitchen Symphony [YouTube: laflizard]

Blogston Proper is your thrice-weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

•Truly, there isn't much better than Santarpio's Pizza. [Roadfood]
•Breakfast for two for under $15?!?!?! [Lower Dot (Lower Dorchester)]
•Even self-professed beer-haters will find a brew to adore at Sunset Grill & Tap. [We Are Not Martha]

[Photo: Flickr: pineconekaty]

Boston tea roundup.
So many lovely places
for a nice cuppa.

Narangansett beer:
is "classic American."
Drink it from the can!

Sigh. Proper stemware
is so important, we know.
It's an investment.

Diner's Agenda is excited by Moosewood frozen meals.

Wednesday, January 23
•Slow Food Boston turns their attention to cheese with a special dinner at Haley House Bakery celebrating the terroir of Westport and the making of cheese. $30 gets you a fine meal full of goodies like risotto and fried green tomatoes. The fun begins at 6pm and reservations may be made online. [Slow Food Boston]

Thursday, January 24
•Free cheese! Free cheese! Free cheese at Panzano Provviste e Vino! Stop by any time between 6pm-8pm to sample a variety of Italian wines and cheeses. A bargain at twice the price! [Panzano]
•The weather outside is only mildly frightful, but that will make an evening of skating and supper with the Beacon Hill Civic Association even more delightful. The merriment starts at 6pm with skating on Frog Pond and continues with an 8pm dinner at Hampshire House. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door and may be purchased online. [Beacon Hill Civic Association]
•January is Super Hunger Month. Throughout the month, the Greater Boston Food Bank will be holding a series of excellent fundraisers. At 6pm, the Four Seasons will host the Super Hunger Chef Challenge where Rialto's Jody Adams and Pigalle's Marc Orfaly will fight to see, as they say, "whose cuisine reigns supreme." Tickets are a steep $250, but it's for a good cause and we're sure it will be a great meal. As seems to be the trend this week, they may be purchased online. [Greater Boston Food Bank]

New York food writer Ed Levine, the man behind Serious Eats, is one of our favorite foodies. We read his blog religiously and crave pretty much every single dish he mentions. When he's wrong, however, he's wrong and boy is he wrong right now. Levine has started a series of posts on his personal blog Ed Levine's New York Eats comparing the foods of Boston and New York in preparation for the Pats/Giants Super Bowl matchup. In his first comparative post, he evaluated both cities in terms of their aptitude in sandwiches, pizza, and ice cream. In future posts, he's promised to address bread, barbecue, hot dogs, hamburgers, and soup. We've spent quite a bit of time living in both cities, so we feel fairly well-equipped to make some comparisons ourself. Let's take it category by category.

SANDWICHES
Boston: From the All Star Sandwich Bar to Cardullo's to flour bakery + cafe to Parish Cafe, Boston is a superlative place to get a sandwich. Boston is also the home of the lobster roll, which is, quite simply, the world's greatest sandwich.
New York: New York is most certainly not without its own sandwich charms. We constantly crave the Despaña bocadillo from the Soho shop of the same name, along with the pastrami sandwich from Katz's Delicatessen and there is no denying the fact that New York's banh mi options are far superior to those available in our fair city. Nonetheless, we cannot help but be troubled by the difficulty of finding a reasonable seafood sandwich in the Big Apple.
Advantage: Boston (by a hair)

PIZZA
Boston: While Boston is plagued by a number of truly mediocre pizza spots, we also have many pizzerias at the very top of their games: Santarpio's Pizza, Gran Gusto, the original Pizzeria Regina, and Emma's Pizza. Furthermore, our pizza chains are far more consistent than New York's: Bertucci's always makes a solid pie, as does The Upper Crust.
New York: While Boston does make some great pies, there is no comparison between anywhere in Boston and the justly legendary Di Fara. The pizzas at Lucali, Una Pizza Napoletana, and Franny's are also all near-perfect. Finally, there's no denying the fact that you're much more likely to get a good slice at a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint in New York than you are in Boston.
Advantage: New York (closer than New Yorkers might think!)

ICE CREAM
Boston: Are you kidding? Boston is, quite simply, America's best ice cream city. Truly, there is an embarrassment of riches: J.P. Licks, the hopefully-soon-to-reopen Toscanini's Ice Cream, Herrell's, Christina's, Lizzy's Ice Cream. And that's not even including the many excellent places in further-flung suburbs!
New York: Straight up, New York has almost NO neighborhood ice cream places. It is really very difficult to go out for a walk on a summer's evening and decide to get a cone. Generally, you have to get a pint of Ben & Jerry's (which, BTW, comes from New England) from your local bodega. Oh, there's plenty of gelato (the olive oil gelato at Otto Enoteca and Pizzeria is one of our favorite substances in this world), but you know what? We love gelato, but it's not the same as ice cream. The awesome Shake Shack makes great frozen custard, but frozen custard is also not ice cream. Really, one of the very few places we've found that approximates Boston-style ice cream to go is Blue Marble.
Advantage: Boston (no contest)

Like Levine, we're going to break this one up. We'll be back to the Food Super Bowl with more categories tomorrow morning. In the meantime, feel free to chime in with comments.

You know how we feel about bees. The epidemic of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is incredibly troubling to anyone who enjoys fruits and vegetables. Now, three filmmakers are attempting to make a documentary about the situation. The trailer, below, is really interesting stuff and the visuals are gorgeous. Check it out and, if you like what you see, consider donating to help get the full film made.

Vanishing Of The Bees Documentary [BoingBoing]
The Vanishing of the Bees [Official Site]
The Vanishing of the Bees [YouTube: hipfuel]

There aren't really any major openings or closings to discuss this week, so we thought we'd visit our good friend Craigslist for our semi-regular feature wherein we find you a job in food service. You're welcome.

•This is actually a legitimately hot job. Daniel, Daniel Boulud's eponymous New York restaurant, is seeking an Assistant General Manager. This is a chance to work at one of the country's very best restaurants and if you're interested in that sort of thing, we'd recommend checking it out...even if it means leaving our fair city.
•This Craigslist posting is so insane that we felt the need to quote it verbatim, that it may be preserved on the internet long after the post itself expires:

I'am looking for a business partner/ company to produce and manufacture the best new cereal for decades to come! If you dont believe me , try me! What do you have to lose? This industry thrives on new products, and this 100 percent belongs on the shelf. It would sell itself based on what it is, guarenteed. Your probably wondering what it is and saying no way it will be the best, but it will be. If anyone can get me in touch with ceo's of General Mills, Quaker Oats, Kellogs or any other major cereal producing company , I will give you what you want at your price. These company's wont except new offers unless its direct to the chairmans. I've tried everything to get to the top. Now its just pure luck. Unless your a company that is willing to go into business please email me back and we will talk business if your interested. Anybody that can help service me feel free to emial me and we will go from there.

My product is very flavorful with many different changes that can be made for years down the road. Most important it is very very cheap, which is the most important part to making it profitable.

Assistant General Manager for Chef Daniel Boulud [Craigslist]
Best New Cereal of 08 Want to be a millionaire [Craigslist]
Roll with Us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Craigslist]

So, 2008 is turning out to be something of a bizarre year for Boston-area dining, no? First there was the debacle of Vlora's New Year's Eve party gone horribly awry, and now, we're faced with the epic tale of Toscanini's Ice Cream. Last Thursday, visitors to the Central Square ice cream mecca were greeted by an orange sign on the door revealing that Toscanini's had been seized for nonpayment of taxes. Aghast cries went up on Chowhound and Bostonist. We were personally sad as, while we frequent J.P. Licks much more regularly, we've long suspected Toscanini's as having the Hub's best ice cream. We imagined that this was the end of the line for dear Tosci's and we mourned accordingly.

Then things took an unexpected turn. Toscanini's owners Gus and Mimi Rancatore set up Save Toscanini's!, a site where ice cream fans can donate money towards a down payment that will allow the shop to reopen. The Rancatore's fully admit that they were derelict in paying their taxes and accept responsibility for paying the bulk of what they owe, but claim that they can't reopen (and thus, get the money to pay their taxes) without some outside assistance, to the tune of $25,000. Since launching on Friday, the site has raised over $13,000.

Predictably, the reaction to Save Toscanini's! has been somewhat mixed, with plenty of folks excited to donate, and plenty more appalled that a profitable institution would ask for public donations for something that's entirely their own responsibility. Our own feelings are divided: we believe that anyone can ask for anything, but that sure doesn't mean they can actually get it. On the one hand, we're horrified that Toscanini's failed to pay their taxes (taxes help people!), but on the other hand, we really like their ice cream and what's a small donation if it means we can always enjoy a scoop of burnt caramel when we find ourself in Central Square?

We'd love to hear your thoughts. Will you be donating to Save Toscanini's! or are you grossed out by the whole thing? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Toscanini's Ice Cream [Official Site]
Toscanini's Shut Down! [Chowhound]
Toscanini's Shut Down for "Nonpayment of Taxes" [Bostonist]
Save Toscanini's! [Official Site]

[Photo: Mikki Ansin]