Cambridge food porn!

Hopefully speaks for itself.

another "Bike as Multipurpose Cargo Vehicle" from the archives

This actually inspired me to go back through the archives and add a new label of "cargo bikes".

If it's insufficiently impressive that this photo was taken on November 29, 2015 (the internetz tells me it was a high of 44 that day); I was just starting to ride about 3.5 miles through Boston city streets. (Watertown, Brighton, and Allston for those who know the city.)

dusk moon

With absolutely no regularity whatsoever, google photos occasionally sends me "hey, these are the photos you took on this day last year!" reminders. 

Here is a photo I made on March 18, 2016, in Cambridge, MA, of a gorgeous waxing 3/4 moon bright in a dusk sky. I was wandering around geocaching while waiting to join F for a gallery showing of "Not Art". 

This wasn't in a gallery, or tagged on a bus stop shelter, but it was certainly nature's art. I barely did it justice by photographing it with my phone. Kind of makes me want to get back to photography in a serious way. 

Still more food porn

This was the first dinner I cooked upon our return to the Boston area (we're actually pet-sitting and house-sitting in Cambridge, having moved out of our Roxbury apartment at 3am on the morning we flew to Nevada for Burning Man. An excellent decision to move out, though given the opportunity I might do the timing a little different.)

Delightfully, the friends we are sitting for have a nice garden in the back and are gone for a month, so they implored us to harvest and eat their garden veggies.

From top left, that's ONIONS!, kale (from the garden), eggplant (from the garden), garlic, hot red peppers (from the garden), lime, and green bell peppers (from the garden.) Unfortunately I don't have any photos after I oven roasted them. While they're more delicious after roasting, they look better raw. 

Well done, Boston Fire Department MAINTENANCE IVISION

I hope you maintain Engine No 43 better than you maintain your building.

Hippie slop!

Tempeh, ONIONS, Anaheim peppers.

this is what $30 in quarters looks like

When your landlord doesn't want you to move out.

We'll see. 

Onion O'Clock

PAGING A1, PAGING A1: onions available in Boston. Repeat: onions available in Boston. Please advise.

Pickle In A Blanket, Fancypants Vegan Gourmet Style

Going way back here: A1 and I shared an apartment in Denver. There, the (in)famous Pickle In A Blanket was born. This culinary revolution consisted of a bunch of cheap shreeded cheese melted onto a flour tortilla, with a half Claussen dill pickle on top, a pile of mayonnaise unceremoniously plopped on top, and a shake of black pepper.

Now (back) in Boston, we have a more refined, grownup, vegan version:

That's Daiya vegan cheeze on a tortilla warmed in a skillet, caramelized ONIONS and garlic, Just Mayo, sri racha sauce, and still the star of the show: a half Claussen dill pickle. As much as I gobbled down the originals by the dozen or so per week, I gotta tell you, this ones tastes better.

Radish greens!

These are radish greens about to be sauteed with garlic and olive oil. They came (attached to radishes) from Daily Table, dailytable.org, an  awesome nonprofit grocery store in Dorchester that sells perfectly useable and safe and tasty food that isn't picture perfect for the corporate supermarkets, or is past its silly and arbitrary "best by" date. It was founded by the former head of Trader Joe's.

Example? Sure: how about a half gallon of Cedar's brand hummus, or baba ganoush, for $3.99?!? For the record, they both freeze in smaller containers just fine.

Orange juice price comparison at Boston Logan airport

Because everyone's hair is on fire over allegedly long security lines at airports, I showed up to Boston Logan airport 2.5 hours early. I then had one person in front of me in the security line, so I have some time to kill. The really intensive patdown and bag check after TSA's piece of shit machines flagged my bag for "explosive residue" did eat up about five minutes. Breakfast burritos strike again? I did receive excellent guest service from the lead TSO.

Anyway, I now have a couple hours to fill. I wanted some orange juice. But I didn't want to pay the outrageous prices. So instead I'm entertaining myself comparing the cost of bottles of orange juice in terminal C at Boston Logan international airport. For consistency's sake (and because this IS science, right)?), it is all 100% orange juice. All per ounce prices rounded to the nearest penny.

Green Express, gate C32
Tropicana 15.2oz, $2.99 ($0.20/oz)

Hudson News, gate C29
Simply Orange 11.5oz, $3.99 ($0.35/oz)
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Go Go Stop, gate C29
Tropicana 12oz, $2.79 ($0.23/oz)

Wolfgang Puck Express, food court opposite gate C27
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.79 ($0.24/oz)
Naked Juice, 15.2oz, $4.39 ($0.29/oz)

Johnny Rockets, food court opposite gate C27
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.79 ($0.24/oz)

Hudson News, opposite food court / gate C26
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Starbucks, mini food court near gate C10
Naked Juice, 15.2, $4.39 ($0.29/oz)

Hudson News, sorta near gate C8
Simply Orange 11.5oz, $3.99 ($0.35/oz)
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Potbelly Sandwich, b/n gates C11 and C15
Tropicana 12oz, $2.35 ($0.20/oz)

Hudson News, gate C15
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

UFood Grill, gate C19
Tropicana, 10oz carton, $2.99 ($0.29/oz)

Dunkin Donuts, gate C20
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.19 ($0.19/oz)

Conclusions? Well, you can draw some of your own. In short, Dunkies wins it, closely followed by Green Express, which of course has way shorter lines (or usually no line at all.)

And fuck you, Hudson News, since despite your virtual monopoly of airport convenience stores all over America, and the massive purchasing power you have as a result, you nevertheless sell the most expensive orange juice, by far, of anyone, including for crying out loud Starbucks.

And since 100% orange juice is regularly available at Boston area supermarkets (Star, Stop & Shop, etc) for $2.50 for a half gallon ($0.04/oz) and is rarely more than $3.99 for a half gallon ($0.06/oz) let's just call this all a gigantic ripoff facilitated by the asinine TSA prohibition against bringing in more than 3.2 fluid ounces of liquid toiletries, and more than 0.0 ounces of orange juice.

Baltimore, here I come!

#BostonMarathon #MarathonMonday

I've never seen so many day drunk 18-22 year olds in one place at one time. #BU #BostonUniversity students, good luck with Boston Marathon Monday!

Boston Marathon Monday

As long as you're nowhere near Copley Square, or Beacon Street, or Commonwealth Ave, or trying to walk, bike, or drive anywhere in central Boston, and not taking the Green Line or the Red Line, "Patriot's Day" / Marathon Monday is quite pleasant.

Too bad I still live on Comm Ave, near Beacon Street, and have to take both the Green Line and Red Line today.

Related: the MBTA really dredged the bottom of the pond to find overtime staff to wear high-vis vests and filthy jeans and play Rent-A-Cop for a day with constantly chatty radios to meanmug people for their outrageous temerity to bring newspapers or Dunkin Donuts coffee cups into the T system. Really, residents of Boston, who actually live here, and pay taxes here: HOW DARE YOU?

Tasty Burger

Who would have thought Tasty Burger at the Back Bay Station would have such a tasty vegan option? Turns out the veggie burger is vegan if made as a lettuce wrap, as explicitly stated on the menu.

It's more like a salad than a burger, which is fine, and for six bucks, was quite tasty, and a nice alternative to just eating cashews and peanuts on the commuter rail to Providence.

Moving

Yep. That.

Sinks, drains, and downright nastiness

Longtime readers of my blog know that I have a special hobby of cleaning out sink drains and p-traps. Check out my home renovation label for some earlier examples. This time around, though, it wasn't just a random whim to go hunt some biogoo: our apartment bathroom sink was starting to empty scarily slow.

I have now far surpassed my previous record for grossest nastiest yuckiest foulest thing pulled out of a drain or p-trap:

For size reference, those (in)famous needlenose pliers are just under six inches long.

Our apartment building was built in 1935, but I would roughly place the pink sink (and toilet, and bathtub) in the 1950s era pink bathroom craze, during which this delightful website, Save The Pink Bathrooms, estimates that perhaps one in four bathrooms built in the era had pink bathroom fixtures.

Anybody want to hazard a guess on the last time this sink drainpipe was cleaned out?

Springtime salad

It's been in the 60s and 70s in Boston: 76 a couple days ago, which shattered the record for the earliest that temperature has been reached in the year. #globalclimatechaos?

With the warmer weather, I'm beginning to move away from the soups, stews, and chilis I've been making (despite how mild the winter was.)

This is an Asian tofu salad, with blanched Chinese spinach, other Asian greens (I forget which I picked up), scallion ribbons, soba noodles, and carrots.

The dressing was also the marinade for the baked tofu, which was more or less just randomly pulling things out of the fridge and shelves, and putting them in the blender: apple cider vinegar, the liquid from pepperoncinis, pickle juice, mustard, soy sauce, tahini, white miso paste, canola oil, sesame oil, garlic powder, ginger powder, lime juice. Kinda random, but it worked out well. Having a rocket powered blender helps.

Today is looking like bike rides.

Hello spring!

Deluxe vegan grilled cheese!

With fresh basil, tofurky, and bread baked around the corner in Brookline at Clear Flour. Yum!

Vegan fetruccine alfredo pasta bar!

Not a heck of a lot more to say on this snowy wet slippery Boston night.

Ringing in the new year

What better way than with vegan chocolate chip cookies?