Sandrine's Bistro: Hoppin' Rabbit

Sandrine's Bistro, located at the heart of the Harvard Square, presents classic and contemporary French cuisine. According to its website, the owner Raymond Ost is one of the most decorated French chefs in the region. With his partner Gwen Trost, he has created "a winning combination of European warmth and style with American efficiency."

I always walked past Sandrine's while visiting some friends in the River Houses, so I was excited to try the place for the first time. My friend I ordered the day's special appetizer, Avocado and Lobster.

Granted, we were surprised when the waitress brought the dish. It certainly didn't look like what I had expected! I have never had a dish with half shell of the entire avocado. The dish itself was presented beautiful, so I was really curious to see if the taste lived up to standard.

It certainly did. Like the unique presentation of the dish itself, the taste was nothing like I had ever tasted. We had to scoop the avocado with a spoon and get the crab meat and carrots/cucumber mixture (I believe it was mixed with mayonnaise and some spicy chili sauce). The savory crab meat went really well with the smooth avocado and the seaweed salad at the bottom. Even the cucumber and the tomatoes on the side, which I assume were used merely as a decoration, were tasty! The only minus would be that the dish was a bit difficult to eat because the avocado kept swiveling to the side.

I felt pretty adventurous, so I decided to order the Braised Organic Rabbit Leg (One rabbit leg with wide egg noodles, mushrooms, lardon, maille mustard a l’ Ancienne sauce). Again, it was my first time having rabbit. What a revolutionary experience! The meat was extremely tender, especially compared to the chicken my friend ordered. The sauce was a little too creamy and had big chunks of pork fat (aka bacon) that I was appalled by, but the combination of egg noodle and tender rabbit meat was fascinating.


This is the Organic Roasted Herbes de Provence Half Chicken with Crushed yukon gold potatoes, sautéed haricots verts, au jus that my friend ordered. Eh. Nothing too special. Just a regular chicken. The meat was a bit dry, but that could be because the rabbit was extremely tender in comparison! Rabbit meat could perhaps be my new favorite meat dish.

Shabu-ya: A Dining Experience

Shabu-ya, a fusion Japanese/Korean restaurant that specializes in Shabu Shabu, is somewhat notorious among Harvard students as a place to get sake shots. One casual Saturday afternoon, I went to Shabu-ya with a friend in Eliot, not for a shot of sake (I'm not 21!), but for some delicious non-dining hall food.

We ordered two servings of Shabu Shabu, while my friend also added an order of Red Sox Maki (tuna, avocado, spicy mayo with tobiko on top).

I had one piece of the roll just to get an idea of what it tastes like. There was a pretty big piece of sushi in each roll. I am not a huge fan of mayo, so I avoided the sauce at the bottom. Luckily the sushi roll itself was very simple without any artificial non-seafood flavors (think excessive mayo & fried stuff). Instead I could taste the fresh sushi itself, along with the savory avocado and crunchy (?) tobiko.

The lighting was great so I couldn't stop taking pictures of the sushi roll!

While we enjoyed the sushi roll as an appetizer, the waiter came by with a platter of vegetables (lettuce, cabbage, corn in the cob, tofu, mushroom) and raw meat (boneless beef short rib) to be dunked in a pot of boiling broth, special shabu sauce (similar to soy sauce but less salty) for dipping the meat and the vegetables, and a bowl of udon noodles.


Eating shabu is a fun experience if you have never tried it. You get to "indirectly" cook the food by dunking it in the boiling broth and dipping it in the sauce. It is also a course meal that involves vegetables and meat as the first course and noodles as the second course. I have definitely had a much tasiter shabu shabu in Korea, but it was nice to get a little taste of "home" in Cambridge. Nonetheless, I think I would rather stick to sushi rolls or Korean food at Shabu Ya because the vegetables weren't very fresh and the broth itself wasn't very flavorful.

The birth of my new blog: Nosh On Me

I love food, and there is absolutely no question about that. I have also kept a personal blog in which I also posted about the restaurants and eateries I have visited. But I realized I wanted to centralize all the food-related posts in one area to entertain other foodies like me.

So I present to you nom (Nosh On Me), my first ever official food blog in which I will post about all the delicious outings, dining hall food, home food, etc.

Below are imported food posts from my previous blog. Expect the future ones to be more detailed, more juicy, more delicious.

nom.
Jane

A Delicious Affair: Rialto at Charles Hotel

Last Saturday I went to Rialto Restaurant at Charles Hotel with Audrey and her family, who came to visit for the 375th birthday and the Harvard College Parents Fund event. The bread basket had crusty wheat roll with soft inside, Parmesan sticks, and focaccia bread rubbed in garlic oil.

The dinner started with a pleasant glass of red wine. I am not a wine connoisseur and have not had much wine, if not at all, but this wine tasted not too strong, not too bland. Just the right amount of preservation.

I had Lobster bucatini with green and red tomatoes, chilis, saffron ($16) as an appetizer. The bucatini tasted a bit undercooked because it was a bit hard and difficult to choose. The tomato sauce with bits of lobster meat and cubes of tomatoes was savory, but I sort of wanted more sauce because I ended up just eating the sauce and not the bucatini.

I ordered the day's special, grilled char with vegetables and some sort of risotta and grilled jumbo shrimps. This sounds crazy, but I really like the heads of shrimps and the black gooey intestine stuff because they are full of flavors! Haha. The char was a bit fatty and the skin was grilled to black and very crispy (didn't eat the whole thing). I like that the char was cooked medium rare because that kept the juiciness of the fish. The risotto was a bit too buttery, but there really wasn't much for me to truly grasp its taste.

The dinner ended with Caramelized autumn fruit tart with maple cream and candied lemon zest ($12). I enjoyed the fig but the rest of the dessert was a bit too sweet. Well, it was just the right level of sweetness, but I need to watch my waistline so I had to be cautious about eating haha. The peach was the perfect texture, the tart and the bottom was not like a typically pie crust in a tart, but softer (more butter, perhaps?). I like the balance between warm peach and a dollop of cool maple ice cream on top.

I really enjoyed the food, but more so the lovely time and interesting conversation I had with Audrey and her family!

A Reward Well-Earned From Studying

While working on some work yesterday, I received a text message from Tyler inviting me to a dinner in Boston with his blockmates. At first I didn't want to go because 1) I was so immersed in my work, 2) I have been a lazy bum in the last couple of days and 3) I went to Boston twice last week. But I would never turn down an opportunity to hang out with the boys in Adams.

Turns out Erik made a spontaneous reservation at the Harvard Club of Boston for dinner, so we took a cab to the clubhouse around 7:15 and had a pleasant dinner there. I got the broiled haddock with jasmine rice and scallion cake, which was quite delicious! I asked to skip the butter because I am watching my waistline...All the guys got the duck confit, which was tempting to order only because it came with acorn squash. Haha

Traditional Harvard Club Broiled Boston Haddock, Jasmine & Scallion Rice Cakes, Roasted Asparagus, Gingered Carrots Topped with Maitre d´ Butter. The haddock was juicy (can't stand dry fish!) but I wished it had been broiled without the bread crumbs on the outside. The highlight for me, however, wasn't the haddock, but the rice cake. I think it was lightly pan-fried because the rice cake was super crunchy.

Sea Salt & Oil Poached “Duck Confit”
Pan Seared with Porcini Mushroom Ravioli with Marinara & Brandy Soaked Plums
Roasted Acorn Squash & Micro Greens with Roasted Garlic Aioli

It was a really long dinner because we didn't leave the clubhouse until around 9:30, granted that we took lots of group photos and toured the place for a bit.

We walked along Newbury street, which was very reminiscent of my Boston Buddies outing with Katya just a week ago. Wow, I really am doing a good job of leaving Cambridge this year. We spotted a small mouse in Boston Commons. Yikes.

After we came back to Boston, Ash and I had a ladies night out with Monica and Luciana. We went to the Donkey Show, which was definitely a new experience that I would not mind not repeating again...a bunch of guys in g-string isn't my thing. Haha

I am glad I had 5 hours in the day to relax and have fun. Enough with studying 24/7!

Waffling Up At Zinneken's

There is a new waffle place in town, and I visited the eatery with a videographer from the Crimson to report on it.

Zinneken's, located on 1154 Mass Ave., serves fresh Belgian waffles, which is different from American waffles in that it is made of dough rather than liquid batter. The space has been vacant since a creperie there closed last year.

The menu featured signature waffle ($4.70) with various toppings, including fresh fruits and sweet sauces) that cost $0.50 to $1 extra. I tried The Gourmand--signature waffle with whipped cream, sliced bananas, and a drizzle of caramel sauce ($6.70).

The waffle was chewier and doughier than the veritaffles, but considering its size I don't think the price was worth paying for.

The last time I was here, I actually just got the signature waffle without all the extra toppings, and I could taste the waffle better.The place itself was quaint and homey, definitely an ideal space to get some busy work done, but not so much dense readings.

Another thing--the waffle has sugary syrupy thing inside that makes it chewier. Well, at least I tasted it the first time I had it but not so much in this one.

A Delicious Affair: Takemura

My momma told me to never go out for sushi on a rainy day—something about the sushi chefs not serving a fresh filet of fish on those days, she said. I usually listen to what Mom says, but I was craving sushi so much the other day that I just had to be the disobedient daughter.

Because I was lounging at the Harvard Kennedy School around dinnertime, I decided to go to the nearest Japanese restaurant called Takemura (18 Eliot St. Cambridge, MA). The atmosphere leaves something more to be desired, as I was not a fan of its plain wooden furniture in a dimly lit basement. Since I came with a close girl friend, thus not needing a romantic setting, the atmosphere didn’t matter too much.

Takemura’s extended menu offers a wide range of food, ranging from sashimi to udon noodle to even Korean food. The most impressive menu, however, was the different specialty roll with unique names like “Obama Maki” and “Red Sox.” Despite the weather, I ordered a nigiri sushi platter ($16.95), chef's choice of assorted fillets of raw fish served on sushi rice, while my friend had Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap ($12.95), a Korean delicacy of beef, fried egg, and assorted vegetables served on a bed of rice in a sizzling stone pot. We also decided to share salmon-scallop roll ($10.95), scallop and cucumber roll with filet of salmon and slices of avocado on top.

There was a large group of 10 dining in the restaurant, so the waiter told us that our sushi roll might be delayed a bit. We sipped on a warm cup of green tea and citron tea as we waited for our food.

The first entrée that graced our table was Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap. The sizzling sound of rice, together with the savory smell of beef, vegetables, and egg frying in the hot pot, made my mouth water. We squirted a dollop of red pepper paste and mixed all the ingredients together. The phrase “Saving the best for last” is so suiting to this dish—the lightly scorched rice that sticks to the bottom of the hot stone pot is crispier than potato chips, a perfect ending to a delicious, healthy dish.

While we were busy digging our spoons into the hot stone pot, the waiter brought the nigiri sushi platter and salmon-scallop roll on white, rectangular plates. The sushi platter had six pieces of nigiri, or raw filet of fish (two tuna, salmon, shrimp, yellowtail, mackerel) over rice, as well as six tuna maki. Both the shrimp and yellowtail nigiri were a bit on the dry side, and the rice could have been seasoned with more flavors. Furthermore, there was an imbalance in the amount of tuna and rice in the maki because all I could taste was the rice.

(This isn't exactly what we had, but it's close enough)

On the other hand, the salmon-scallop roll was a sweet surprise to an otherwise mediocre dining experience. The layers of avocado and salmon on top added visual attractiveness to the sushi roll with thin slices of cucumber and scallop. The sushi pieces were so big that I had to eat them in two bites. The fresh salmon melted right as it touched the tip of my tongue. The mishmash of crunchy cucumber and slimy scallop provided a fantastic textural combination.

Although the restaurant was packed despite it being a weekday night, the waiter constantly refilled our tea as soon as it ran out and asked us about our food. Overall, Takemura is not an exceptional, four-star quality restaurant, but a decent place for anyone craving one food item the Harvard dining hall can never serve.