Craigie on Main

Craigie on Main may be my new favorite restaurant. The Boston area's premier locavore, "'snout-to-tail" eatery, it has won all sorts of accolades for its excellent food, sustainable principles, and customer service. Consider this post my humble addition.

I have enjoyed drinks and dinner there before, but my most recent Craigie experience, on a bustling Friday evening, started on a particularly high note and remained there over the course of the night. What made it so great? Was it the Northern Lights cocktail - St. Germain, citrus, and tiki bitters aligned so that I hardly noticed its Scotch base - that was waiting for me when I arrived? Was it my perch at the corner of the bar, achieved soon after arrival, that allowed me to take in the maneuverings of the bartenders, the distant activity of the kitchen, and the cheerful hubbub that existed about the fellow diners? Was it what came after I settled in?

To start, the atmosphere of the bar area really defies categorization. It manages to feel like a well-mannered bar, a bustling bistro, and an intimate restaurant. There is something festive yet relaxing about the space, as though you are simultaneously celebrating something special and settling in for a cozy night - even if neither mood is intended. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and the foodies sharing the bar space are chatty and enthusiastic. Everybody's smiling. Everybody's ordering more. Oh, you ask - what did I order?

My appetizer was a Julie-esque ragout of morcilla and local forest mushrooms, with farro risottto, poached egg, carrot puree, and herbs. (Of course, I had to order a dish with mushrooms!) I reveled in the tender mushrooms' robust earthiness, and enjoyed stirring the risotto in the herbed puree. Morcilla is a Spanish blood sausage, and therefore was previously-uncharted territory for me; I was pleasantly surprised by its soft texture and deep spicy flavor. I kept the egg at bay as long as I could, but when it did rupture and the runny yolk became unavoidable, I was not displeased by how it mixed with everything else.

Then, it was time for one of the tastiest pieces of meat I have ever had. (No, not the pig's head, however much my dining companion may have joked about us sharing it!) The famed Craigie burger is no longer on the menu, but if you are lucky enough to request it while the day's dedicated beef is not yet depleted, you can have one. I ordered mine medium rare. It was moist and slightly runny, as I would expect, but it did not turn the admittedly-sturdy and slightly sweet sesame bun into a sopping mess. The fresh-tasting grass-fed beef is enriched with marrow and miso, and the resulting umami-ness was really unique in this setting. The burger was topped with a rather sharp cheddar cheese, a bit of watercress, and some fried onion strings. I added some house-made mace ketchup to the mix, and the result in toto was an explosion of so many hearty, savory flavors that my tastebuds may have died. Oh, did I mention that there were equally-delicious fries served on the side? Those thick potato chunks were delightfully seasoned, and I dipped them repeatedly in whatever mace ketchup did not get slathered on the burger. There was so much food that I ended up taking half of it home; I can happily report that it was just as tasty left over.

This restaurant is also known for the subtle, talented mixologists behind the bar. They also stock a variety of unique liqueurs (we sampled Cynar, an unusually vegetabular yet sweet artichoke spirit I had not previously encountered) and house-made mixins (bitters, syrups). I was emboldened, after one or two Northern Lights, to ask the closest bartender, Carrie, for something special. After giving her a vague request ("something with St. Germain, that's different!") and an answer to one question ("yes, I like citrus"), she concocted this delight:

The beverage is equal parts blanco tequila, mezcal, St. Germain, grapefruit juice, and lime juice, with three dashes of grapefruit bitters and an orange peel for garnish. As with the appetizer, this was one Julie-esque drink. If the night hadn't been late, I would have ordered another.

After rolls, the shroomy appetizer, many cocktails, and that chunk of carnivorous heaven, I can't believe I still had room for dessert! I wasn't listening as well as I could have when Carrie announced the options - the aforementioned custom cocktail was monopolizing most senses - but I managed to hear that pumpkin was involved in the day's special, so that made the decision easy. Enter a cream-based dessert that was a complete departure from what I usually order.

The custard itself was sturdier than a creme brulee, and had a more assertive burnt sugar flavor. Despite its dense creaminess, it did not weigh me down. It was drizzled in a lightly sweet, somewhat salty caramel sauce, with bitter kumquats added for contrast. The aforementioned pumpkin was expressed in the thin, wavy cookie decorating the top of the dessert. The cookie was startlingly pumpkin-y and spicy, in a robust way that would have been shocking even in a sturdy, doughy cookie...or pumpkin pie. It was the most surprising aspect of the entire meal, and I wish there had been more of it - perhaps an equal amount of cookie in relation to the custard, so each bite could have had both? (I consumed the cookie far too quickly for it to be of any use to the custard.)

I can't wait to return to Craigie and order a different dessert, to see what else they're capable of.

What a meal that was! All in all, I give the food, drinks, and general restaurant feel each 6 stars out of 5. I wish I could eat and drink it all over again; maybe I will, if you go back with me? I hope this first attempt at expanding "the dessert blog" to contain other food reviews is adequately persuasive! :-)

The Christmas Hamper!

Hello, dear readers, and happy 2011! Now that the joyous swirl of holiday revelry is over, I have resurfaced to share a very special Christmas treat.

I have a British stop-motion adaptation of The Wind in The Willows to thank for my introduction to Christmas hampers. Oh, how I loved that endearing series, especially the festive winter episodes! In one such episode, Toad challenges four weaselly troublemakers to a downhill race, and a Christmas hamper - or 'ampah, as the accent would have it - is the winner's prize. My young American sensibilities were amused that (1) a hamper would be a desirable prize - laundry, anyone? - and (2) said hamper was actually a large wicker basket, picnic-style, filled with fine foods. Hampers became a bit of a family joke, especially when other BBC period productions confirmed they were a "thing" beyond TWITW. Still, I never thought much of  them beyond those laughs.

Then, imagine my surprise last summer when I was at Fortnum & Mason, in London...and I saw an entire floor of that great emporium devoted to hampers! I kept murmuring to myself, "they're real!", as I perused wicker box after wicker box filled with desirable confections.

I wanted one, badly. Bringing one back on the plane was out of the question, so I told myself I would order one for Christmas. What a great treat that would be for the family to enjoy, right?! Well, I was not as diligent as I could have been, and Christmas was upon us before I knew it. I had not ordered a hamper.

Fortunately, my father had been attentive where I had not. Christmas Eve saw a rather formidable box, with a very promising logo, positioned in front of our Christmas tree.

I honestly couldn't contain my excitement upon seeing the large Fortnum & Mason cardboard box. This excitement reached an even higher pitch when I noticed the wicker visible through the box's handles. I gleefully cut through the box's tape and lifted the hamper out of the box, pausing briefly to admire its weaving as well as the F&M emblazoned on its side. I unbuckled the hamper - yes, it is fastened shut with two leather buckles! - and unwrapped the well-cushioned treats within. I may have also done a little dance of happiness, both in and out of the original box.

So, what was in this hamper? You can see the treats, in their lovely keepsake tins and other such packaging, here. I should add that this was a "bespoke" hamper, with contents tailored to my family's dessert preferences!

• Piccadilly biscuit assortment - Piccadilly biscuits are wafer-thin and rather crisp, yet they pack a lot of flavor! The lemon curd biscuits were a particular standout.
• Explorer biscuit assortment - this tin contained many exotically-flavored biscuits, of a heartier nature than the Piccadillies, featuring different spices and nuts from around the world. The Lucifer biscuit, a pungent ginger cookie with chilli spice, is a great example of the tasting adventures found within this assortment.
• Christmas tea - this tea was so, so flavorful! I detected hints of orange, clove, ginger, and cocoa. It paired perfectly with our holiday breakfast (orange rum coffee cake) and official dessert (buche de Noel).
• Chocolossus biscuits - I have previously extolled the virtues of the Chocolossus biscuit, and this batch had an especially smooth chocolate coating and richly-flavored biscuit center. I have to add that the scent of Chocolossus biscuits will forever remind me of London. Sigh.
• Christmas biscuit assortment - this musical tin played a music-box version of Jingle Bells and contained Christmas spice, lemon curd Picadilly, and traditional butter biscuits. The butter biscuits were very, well, buttery!
• White and amber F&M sugars - the perfect addition to a bitter tea, these individually-wrapped sugar wafers with F&M imprint were quite welcome...and cute! I guess the British use "amber" to denote brown sugar?
• Superb English creams - these dark-chocolate-covered candies blew me away. I've never really enjoyed American fruit creams, where the fruity filling usually looks like nougat and tastes like an artificially-flavored, overly saccharine marshmallow. Many American chocolatiers make this filling even more of an abomination by adding nuts. However, F&M's creams were filled with a substance I can only describe as a pleasantly sweet, crystalline version of the fruit, or bean, or root, they were meant to imitate. So, I tasted surprisingly robust forms of black currant, coffee, and ginger (to name a few), while enjoying the sensations of sugar dissolving on my tongue and rich dark chocolate melting in my mouth. Superb, indeed!
• Dark chocolate bar with rose and violet - ok, I haven't tried this yet...but if F&M's other chocolates are representative of this bar's quality, I will enjoy it thoroughly.
• Milk chocolate bar - repeat the above bullet's comments!
• Christmas spiced biscuits - these hearty biscuits were thick and chewy. They had plenty of spice flavor, and crumbled nuts plus bits of dates added textural variety. These treats really highlight the differences between English biscuits and American cookies. They're denser, creamier, less sweet, and more robustly flavored than the average cookie found on this side of the Pond.

I feel so lucky to have enjoyed this hamper, a delicious synthesis of childhood memories and present adventures! I'm pretty sure that Toad and the weasels would have approved. Both the packaging and the delights within surpassed all expectations.

While most of these treats may now be gone, the hamper will continue to serve us. My family has decided to make a tradition of filling the hamper each year! I can't wait to see what next Christmas will bring...