It's like I am a REAL reviewer!

Ok, so there I was watching the Sox around the sixth inning, nervous as hell, hoping beyond hope that they could protect that tiny lead. I decided to check my e-mail as a distraction and what did I find in my inbox? A message from Jay Murray, the executive chef at Grill 23! He read my blog entry about my recent dining experience there and decided to reply. I could not be more excited!

Out of respect for this honor, I am not going to publish his e-mail in this blog, but I will relay some of what he said, mostly as means to convey some corrections in my entry. First, he responded to my comments about fois gras and it being considered inhumane. Murray's feelings are that, since this is a small industry, its been susceptible to some negative campaigning - especially if you consider the practices of some of the large poultry farms. Still, he admits to "being on the fence" about serving it. I can respect that. It's such a fine, exquisite ingredient - any good chef should be tempted by it.

Secondly, he shared the beef butter recipe with me! Yee-haw! It does not, as I indicated in my entry, include garlic salt. It is still considerably more complex than I could have identified just with my palate, even with the "tips" from the server. I can not wait to try this - we'll be grilling steaks later this week, I promise you that!

Lastly, he responds to my mentioning the Globe Magazine article on the rising cost of meals at Boston restaurants, with a focus on the "$40 Steak." He notes that Grill 23 has a "plate cost" of $34-40 on their steaks, essentially about what they are charging for them. Apparently, Murray was interviewed for the article by Scott Haas, the author, and was able to offer enough evidence about the value of a Grill 23 meal that he was spared from being included in the article - which was, after all, not particularly flattering for some of the establishments that were profiled.

He finishes with a comment about potentially removing the phrase "hand-selected" from his menu, in response to the article. I am pleased that the article - and perhaps even blogs like mine! - got him thinking and giving some critical consideration to his marketing tactics. I believe that this is a good practice of any quality business and it makes me respect Grill 23 all the more. All the same, I don't think that he should make the change. There will always be pain-in-the-butt journalists who are going to write their articles and - even more irritating! - bloggers like me who are going to read every bit of food news in the Globe and comment on it. However, he should stand by his menu if he feels confident in the product he's producing - and clearly he does. If the meat at Grill 23 is truly hand-picked, as Murray claims, he should keep the phrase on there and just be sure to train his servers to promote its meaning and address any questions that diners may have.

Finally, he closes with an offer to "stop by and say hello" next time I am at Grill 23! Do you think he really means that?! I feel like a quasi-celebrity! Well, I certainly will give it a shot. Maybe I'll head there this week to celebrate the Sox going to the Series! Way to go, guys - we love you!

Investment Advice.

I am far from a financial guru. I pay a mortgage on my house and I have a 401K in mutual funds. That's about the extent of my knowledge on investments. But I will tell you one thing, if I had a spare half mil hanging around, I now know what I would do with it. I would so be buying property on the North Fork of Long Island.

Like any good Bostonian, I have a fair share of - how should I say this? - prejudice about New York. I think that City (see? I used a capital C just to be friendly...) is dirty and full of itself and upstate is (forgive me, in-laws) dull. All I knew about Long Island is that the people there have that funny accent with the exaggerated vowels. Not to mention the enormous guilt I was riddled with by visiting any part of the state while the Sox are in the playoffs. However, it was like the North Fork was calling out to me.

I love wine regions... I've visited five in the last few years and it's always a fabulous trip. One Sunday, I read an article in the Boston Globe Magazine on suggested Fall getaways which included a review of the North Fork wineries and then, literally, less than a week later read a similar review in Everyday with Rachael Ray. It was fated that I needed to go. [Sidebar: Somehow this blog makes me seem obsessed with Rachael Ray, which is not (entirely) true. I do think she has an accessible style about her and the magazine is excellent.] A few calls later, Paul and I were booked on the New London ferry and set for a quick weekend away.

Getting to the North Fork is unbelievably easy - it's a brief ninety minutes down 95 South and then a relaxing, hour-long ferry across the Sound. Once you get to Orient Point in New York, you can travel the whole length of the North Fork in about an hour - passing no fewer than forty vineyards along the way. Plus, it_is_beau_ti_ful! One minute, you're on a narrow bridge with the wide expanse of Long Island Sound on one side and the peaceful of Peconic Bay on the other, the next you are passing farm stands overflowing with amazing, technicolor produce, the next you are in the middle of a quaint town with honest-to-god country stores and gingerbread trimmed houses from the turn of the century, and the next you're passing mile after mile of open stretches of vines heavy with plum-colored grapes and fields of kelly-green sod.

North Fork is also super unpretentious, which I found fascinating, considering that the Hamptons are about ten miles away as the crow flies. I've never been to the Hamptons (only virtual visits via "Sex in the City" episodes), but it seems to be a place all about seeing and being seen. North Fork could not be less like that, observed by the locals in their flannels and boots and dusty pick-up trucks on the side roads. It seems to be the Martha's Vineyard to its neighbor island Nantucket, or the Sonoma to its twin valley Napa. I've been to all of those places and, if you have as well, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Here's the interesting part - despite all of this incredible loveliness and terrific laid-back atmosphere, the place seems totally undiscovered. Whenever I visit someplace charming and somewhat remote, I always call it, "the land that time forgot." North Fork really is the land that time forgot - almost to a fault. Some gorgeous old buildings go beyond quaint to simply dilapidated. Several storefronts in each little town are boarded up. The one place that this is definitely not true is at the wineries - they are enormous, modern, and ridiculously gorgeous. And - they were packed. At some places, we had to push our way through the crowds to get our tasting. This is a place on the verge of becoming huge. I'm telling you - now is the time to buy.

Aside the investment advice, I implore you, New Englanders, to at least visit North Fork! I did not see a single non-New York or New Jersey license plate the entire weekend. At one point, a server in a tasting rooms asked Paul and I where we were from. When we answered, "Boston," her reply was, "Oh." And then she turned away. At another vineyard, after we revealed our origin, another patron said to his buddy, "I stayed at a hotel just outside of Fenway last year. We won the game that night - it was awesome." I looked at Paul and and quipped loudly, "When he says he 'we,' why don't I think he means the Sox?" My husband grabbed my arm and whispered to me none-too-kindly, "Don't start a fight." Bring it on Yankees fans. We can get to North Fork just as quickly as you can! We just need to start going!

Oh, by the way - you can also eat on North Fork! And eat well. Due to a somewhat strange schedule, we only really ate two meals out while in the area. The first is at a highly unusual little place in Mattituck called the Iron Skillet. I really don't even know how to begin describing this place. It is in the tiny dining room of an old Victorian house, run by an older couple that live upstairs. The dining room is packed with a mix of antiques, collectibles, and straight-up junk, all covered in a not-so-fine layer of dust and grime. The proprietress is so chatty, I am not sure how she manages to cook our breakfast. But, when she finally does, I could not be happier about it. Thick, spongy blueberry pancakes and crisp bacon for me, veggie omelet, cheesy potatoes, and homemade toast for Paul. Everything is slathered in a full inch of sweet butter and it's all delicious. Aside from the crazy decor, the strange part about the restaurant is that everything is served on disposable dishware. After leaving fat & happy, we stroll down and check out the shops on Love Lane. Yup, that's the name of the street that the restaurant is on. Ick.

That night we have the pleasure of eating at the North Fork Table. This was the one restaurant mentioned in both articles that have led us to the area, so it seems like a no-brainer - it was. The restaurant focuses on serving food made with local and organic ingredients as much as possible and offers a lot of regional wines. The meal is outstanding from beginning to end. I start with a red & gold beet salad, served with goat cheese, salted pistachios, dressed with tiny sprouts and sherry vinegar dressing. It's an enormous portion and I eat every bite of the sweet, salty, tangy dish. Paul has three large potato-cod cakes, served on homemade tartar sauce - also excellent.

We go super-local with our entrees - duck for me and venison for Paul. The duck is tender and succulent with a tart glaze, served on a bed of fluffy couscous dotted with black olives and mission figs - another great sweet and salty combo. The dish also comes with caramelized endive - definitely not something I've ever seen on a menu. Again, the sweet-(this time) sour balance is well done. I don't especially care for endive, so I'd be hard pressed to call it "good." Paul's venison is equally delicious - smoky and full-flavored, but not at all gamey. The venison also has a nice tart pomegranate glaze and is served on pureed parsnips, speckled with tiny, tangy baby brussels sprouts (chefs get all the cool ingredients) and meaty black mushrooms.

Keeping with the theme of balance of flavors, we finish with a "coffee-toffee ice cream sandwich with roasted bananas and salty peanuts." It is fabulous... the ice cream is served between two lightly-chocolaty meringue cookies, with an ample portion of bananas and nuts. It's like an ice-cream sundae for grown-ups! Turns out that the pastry chef, Claudia Fleming, won a James Beard award in 2000. I am certain she deserved it. The meal finishes with coffees and complimentary homemade mallomars - tiny, fun, and tasty!

Oh yeah - we also actually tried some wine! We visited seven vineyards in all, sampling a lot of decent merlots (what the region is known for) and some interesting whites, especially the Chardonnays which tend to be almost smoky, full of tobacco flavor (usually something you only get in certain reds). I am not entirely convinced that I liked it, but it was unique. All of the wine in the region tastes young; no surprise seeing as the oldest vineyards on the island have only been around about thirty years. Three of my favorites were Shinn Estates, where the owners - who own a famous Manhattan restaurant! - served us personally. We had a bottle of their Wild Boar Doe (ha ha) with our dinner that night. Old Field Vineyards is a place full of North Fork history and down-to-earth owner. You have to dodge the roosters to get to the tasting room! The best wine we tried came Bedell Cellars, which has a chic new tasting room.

I'd give the North Fork Table in Southold, NY and A. Even if it was "B" food, I'd be going back to the area. A quick hop to a secret piece of food & wine paradise. What more could a Boston foodie want? Gotta run. Gotta write my deposit check.

Sometimes Less is More.

I bet when you read that headline, you thought that this posting was going to be about some meal that used beautiful, fresh ingredients and was spectacular by the very virtue of its simplicity (think: Insalata Caprese). Nope. It's about money.

A few years ago, Paul took me to L'Espalier for our anniversary and - there is no other way to say this - it was a huge disappointment. I think that it is fair to say that L'Espalier is considered to be Boston's finest restaurant. Zagat's has rated it it's number one choice in Boston for eight years running; chef Frank McClelland just won a James Beard award for Best Chef in the Northeast. To say that I was excited to go there was the understatement of the year. Here's the interesting part - I don't remember a thing about the food the first evening that we dined there (not a great sign). What I do remember is how painfully uncomfortable I was the entire night. It was stodgy and stuffy and ridiculously formal. The service was perfect, but in that highly refined way that makes you feel as though the servers are looking down their nose at you. I could not wait for the night to be over and I was never so sorry about a few hundred dollars spent on a meal.

I really had no intention of ever going back. Then, one night, I was talking about food & restaurants with some friends (surprise, surprise) and we found our way to discussing L'Espalier. After recounting my less than satisfying experience there, another friend piped in, "I go to L'Espalier all of the time - I love it." Sorry? I thought that the only people that were "regulars" at L'Espalier were seventy-year-old conservative bankers that lived in townhouses on the Ritz Carlton-end of Comm Ave? It suffices to say, this was not a description of the friend that had just uttered this line. Ok, I was intrigued... so I pressed for more.

Turns out, that our friend was devotee of L'Espalier's "Wine Mondays" and "Cheese Tuesdays." I had no idea such a thing even existed (the foodie shame was written all over my face)! Every Monday night L'Espalier offers a four course prix fixe menu, paired with wines, for $55! Every Tuesday they offer a four course prix fixe menu, paired with wines and finished with a robust cheese course, for $68! OMG. We were so going back. Now, as you might imagine, these events are super popular and you need to book early. Luckily, the friend that let us in on this little secret is very organized and we got reservations for four for this past Monday night.

I am the first one to arrive and I notice immediately that the tone of the staff is completely different on "Wine Monday" - the hostesses are young women who are friendly and easy going, and one personally shows me to the ladies room while I wait for my friends to get there. I decide to get seated solo at our table, since there is really no place to comfortably wait at L'Espalier. If you have not been there, L'Espalier is housed in this gorgeous Back Bay townhouse built in 1880. It makes for a spectacular atmosphere, but it is small. Rumor had it that the restaurant is set to move to much larger, much more modern digs in about a year. It seems a little sad to lose such a Boston institution from this uber-traditional setting.

Once again, the tempo in the dining room proves that Wine Monday is a totally different experience at L'Espalier. There are five groupings of tables for about ten people each, giving the room a communal, "family dining" feel. The room is about three-quarters full when I sit down and there is a loud din of talking and clinking of glasses. The diners are a wide range of ages, but everyone is well-dressed and fashionable, though not particularly formal. My friends soon arrive and we add to the increasing chatter in the room.

Wine Mondays always have a theme and this past week it was Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere! As you might be able to tell from the goofy name, our meal is paired with four different sparkling wines, including one bona fide champagne. As the first course is being served and our first glass of bubbly is being poured, the restaurant's wine director Erik Johnson introduces himself. Johnson is younger and significantly more approachable (funny, even!) than you would ever imagine him to be. Before each course, he comments for a few brief moments about the wine we are about to drink, complete with a few details of its provenance, terrific anecdotes about the growers and vineyards from where it came, and simple, down to earth tasting notes. At one point, I had chance to ask him for advice for my upcoming wine tour of Long Island's North Fork. Unfortunately, he was not familiar with the wines of the region, but encouraged me to return to a future Wine Monday and report back on my findings - will do!

Our first course is cantaloupe with wild greens and prosciutto matched with a glass of Louis Bouillot, "Grand Reserve" Brut. The salad is simple, but a tasty balance of flavors with the sweet melon, bitter greens, and salty prosciutto, punctuated by just a scatter of tart pomegranate seeds. The wine is crisp, a good match for a salad course, but also sweet and soft on the tongue, pairing nicely with the cantaloupe.

The second course is "autumn rabbit cassoulet with braised red cabbage." Before tasting this dish, I have mixed feelings. Having lived in France on two brief occasions, I learned to love cassoulet - an earthy, peasant stew using local meats and seasonal veggies, all slow-cooked to fall off the bone deliciousness. However, I generally don't eat rabbit. I think it's something about eating an animal that I've actually owned (yup, two bunnies in my long roster of childhood pets - Houdini and Dudley). Plus, the one other time I did try rabbit, it was a bit gamey - one of my least favorite tastes with certain kinds of meat. This dish, however, is nothing short of spectacular. The rabbit is sweet and tender - almost smoky - and shredded to a confit-like consistency. The stew also contains small white beans, root vegetables perfect for an October dinner, and the tangy cabbage. This course is served with a Beaumont des Crayeres Brut Rose, which is apparently a tiny French producer who sources grapes from farms that average only an acre and a half. I love pink wine. 'Nuff said.

The next glass we're served is a Westport Rivers, Cuvee RJR Brut. Westport. As in Westport, MA. Raise your hand if you knew someone was making sparkling wine in southeast Mass. Please note, my hand did not go up. Not only are they making it, it is unbelievable. It is the kind of dense, dark sparkling wine that gives cream soda a run for its money. I'll be making a trip to Westport as soon as I am done typing. Johnson has become friends with the Russell family who owns the winery and, last time he visited, they served him a fried chicken dinner paired with their wine. So, we follow suit and eat fried chicken and gravy with kale and a buttermilk biscuit. It's all delicious, especially the flaky biscuit which is seasoned with a whole bouquet of herbs.

The prix fixe menu finishes with three small tastes of cheese, including Telme, Vacherin Fribourgeois, and a Gouda. The restaurant's cheesemonger takes over at this point and gives a short description of each. I believe he said that the Telme is Greek and somewhat similar to Feta. It has a clean taste like Feta, but less tang. The Vacherin Fribourgeois is a semi-soft stinky cheese which is full of ripe flavor - fantastic. The Gouda is well-aged and had really full flavor and crumbly texture. They are served with thin rounds of crisp French bread and a dollop of macerated golden raisins and nuts. The course was paired with a Beppe Marino, "Muray" Moscato d'Asti, which is only slightly effervescent and honey-sweet. It was good, though I've have muscats that I've enjoyed much more. This one was a little heavy.

In a valiant effort to prevent this lovely evening from ending, I order dessert to cap off the meal - creme brulee with orange-hazelnut biscotti. It is a large serving of creme brulee, with a nice, thick burnt-sugar crust. The "grapefruit salad" served alongside is a great citrus burst that cuts through the creaminess of the brulee. The servers also bring a complimentary selection of petits fours to each table. They are mostly indecipherable and forgettable, with a shining exception of a lightly sweet and tender mini-Madoline.

I'd give "Wine Monday" a L'Espalier at 30 Gloucester Street in Boston an A. Skip the traditional dining experience at this Boston legend. You can go to three Wine Mondays for the same expense and you'll have a much better time. What's more? You'll definitely remember the food.

A request!

I received my first blog entry request… I feel so honored! A friend and co-worker is moving into his first home and, knowing that I like to cook as well as blather about virtually any topic, he asked for a review of a few of my favorite kitchen tools. To honor his closing today, a review of “a few of my favorite things” – none of which are bright copper kettles or warm woolen mittens. I do, however, really love whiskers on kittens.

Knives

Above and beyond all else, I am a fanatic about knives. Growing up, my parents threw all of our hodge-podge kitchen knives into a drawer, allowing them to get outrageously banged up and dull and also subjecting their children to the risk of losing a digit, each time you reached in for one.

I have a collection of Wüsthof Classic kitchen knives and steak knives and I baby them like they are my children. They each have a safe, solitary home in the knife block; they get sharpened regularly; and they never – I mean never – have seen the inside of the dishwasher. I hand wash and dry them. It’s ridiculous.

Knives are super expensive, but you really don’t need a lot of them. At a minimum, you need a good chef’s knife (I recommend a mid-sized, 8” one since it’s pretty versatile) for any number of chopping and slicing tasks. I’d also get a serrated bread knife, which is also good for tomatoes. A small serrated pairing knife is also great for quick tasks and doubles as a cheese knife for entertaining. Personally, I also love my Santoku knife. I am not ashamed to say that I got it after watching Rachael Ray use one repeatedly on her show! The cullens (the little pockets along the blade) make for great slicing.

If you are ever going to make any kind of roast, I strongly recommend an electric knife. Mine is a Cuisinart and has two different sized blades. It makes the carving task very quick and easy.

Pots & Pans

Again, pots and pans can be really expensive. I have a set of All-Clad, which I love, but I also use them a ton and they are great for me because they get a lot of wear & tear. If you are not an avid cook, a few good pieces from a line like Anolon or Circulon will be perfect for your needs. I’d recommend having two 3-quart saucepans, a large non-stick skillet, and a wide 8 to 10-quart stockpot. Make sure that all of your pots have a good, tight lid. Also, make sure that whatever you get can go in the dishwasher; mine are not supposed to and, though I break that “rule” and put them in, they look terrible because of it.

For more specialty pieces, I also have a huge, non-stick roasting pan, with a non-stick rack that fits in it. If you do make a roast, it makes for easy sauce/gravy making and it’s a snap to clean up. I also love my grill pan. Unlike my husband, I am not a slave to our actual outdoor grill. This one is easy to clean, allows you to cook healthfully, and makes nice grill marks on your food. Just be sure to turn on your stove’s fan if you are cooking on high heat, which you usually do with the grill pan. If you have any fear of hot oil or grease hitting your skin when cooking, you might want to invest in a splatter guard. Paul loves ours. I see cooking as a full contact sport, so I don’t use it. One final thing I definitely recommend is a steamer insert for your saucepan – great for veggies.

Bakeware

When you are outfitting your first kitchen, you definitely do not need a lot of bakeware, but there are a few key pieces that you will use again and again. The first item that I’d recommend is a jelly roll pan. This, of course, is for making those essential jelly rolls that you will be turning out on a regular basis. Just kidding. These pans are great to make cookies, to put under a pie that might bubble over, to bake fish, or to roast veggies. Since most of them are not non-stick, unless you love slaving over clean up, I highly recommend getting a Silpat insert for it. These things are amazing – nothing sticks to them! Just don’t put yours under the broiler. Let’s put it this way, I used to have two.

In addition, I would get a 9x13” cake pan. This can be used for all of the above as well as brownies and sheet cakes. Lastly, I would recommend one casserole or lasagna baking dish that looks good. That way you can bring something to a friend’s BBQ or a potluck at work in the same dish you cooked in. I have a few pieces from Emile Henry and they are terrific – super durable, easy to clean, and beautiful.

Appliances

I have an absurd number of counter top kitchen appliances and I don’t use half of them. The ones that get a fair bit of action include my food processor and my toaster oven. The food processor not only grinds thing down more finely that your blender ever could, it’s great for any job that requires chopping a lot of herbs, garlic, or nuts, plus it shreds cheese or slices veggies in a millisecond. The toaster oven does the obvious, but is also great for heating a slice of leftover pizza (without heating up the whole house, or turning it gummy in the microwave) or toasting nuts, or even baking a half dozen cookies.

If you are a baker, the KitchenAid mixer lives up to the legend. They are so powerful, I really think that they could launch a spacecraft, if given the opportunity. Also, if you are organized, but don’t have much time for cooking, I recommend a slow-cooker. We use ours a lot in the winter for stews and chilis. You just need to have your act together enough to have the ingredients and the time to let it to its thing (I always use mine on a Sunday afternoon), but once you do your 15-30 minutes of prep, the slow-cooker does the rest for you. And then you have meals for a week.

Essentials

You can never have enough wooden spoons, rubber spatulas, or cutting boards. With all three of these, you have two choices – buy more expensive good ones and hand-wash them or buy cheap-os and stick them in the dishwasher. Either is fine, just don’t buy the nice stuff and think it’ll survive the dishwasher – it won’t.

You also need at least three mixing bowls, a large solid metal cooking spoon, a large slotted metal cooking spoon, a large pasta spoon , a wide non-stick spatula, a narrow non-stick spatula, a set of metal measuring spoons and cups (plastic ones will melt in the dishwasher), a pair of tongs with a locking mechanism (you’ll love this feature, trust me), and a whisk – I have a whole collection of whisks, but my favorite has a silicon head (somehow that sounds dirty?) that won’t scratch your pots.

A few final things that you’ll need that are a little more unusual are a pepper grinder (please don’t even think of just using a shaker – the quality of the pepper flavor just does not live up) and some type of airtight container for salt (when cooking, shakers are just too slow – you’ll want to be able to just reach in for pinch). Also, you might think that all oven mitts are the same, but I can’t say enough about the silicon ones – they can take massively high heat, double as a decent looking trivet, and – best of all – can be thrown in the dishwasher when covered in some nasty goo. Lastly, you might think that a spoon rest is only something nanas should have, but it really save your stovetop from a sticky smear of spaghetti sauce. They don’t have to be dowdy. You can get a simple stainless one or funky pottery one – mine comes from an art fair in New York.

Gadgets

Remember when I said that I had an absurd number of kitchen appliances? It’s about a third of the number of gadgets that I have. I can’t help myself. If there was a Kitchen Gadgets Anonymous, I’d join tomorrow (just after I bought that mandoline – I totally need one). Like the appliances, some never see the light of day, but a few I truly could not live without. First is a kitchen scale. Kitchen scales can be super high-tech, but I have a retro-looking one that does the job perfectly. A lot of recipes give you measurements in weight and this can help you be reasonably accurate. I promise that you don’t know what four ounces of pasta is unless you measure it. While I am not a total devotee of measurement when cooking, one other device that I’d really recommend is a digital cooking thermometer. It’s perfect for making sure that you get meat to a safe temperature.

I tend to use a ton of citrus when I cook, so I need a way to squeeze the fresh juice easily. I have this double-handled thing that works only ok. I’m considering replacing it for an old-fashioned reamer, which I think is really the best tool for this. Lastly, if I was banished to a deserted island and allowed to take only one kitchen tool (yes, I know – why would I take a kitchen tool to a deserted island… just go with me on this), I would bring my Microplane. There are no words that sum up how much I love this thing. Zest an orange? Microplane. Shred parmesan? Microplane. Mince garlic? Microplane. Chocolate shavings? Microplane. Pulp a tomato? Microplane. Grate ginger? Microplane. It can do anything. And, a good six years after buying it, it’s still razor sharp. Cleaning? Toss it in the dishwasher. It’s perfect.

Molto squisito!

I am not much of a brunch-goer. Brunch was sadly ruined for me a few years ago by reading Kitchen Confidential by famed chef Anthony Bourdain. If you've read the book, you know why I am saying this. Bourdain reveals that brunch is the bane of chefs' existence and that they will basically throw any slop at you on Sunday morning that they can come up with from ingredients on the cusp of going bad. Yum. Based on this, brunch is usually something that I do only when it is unavoidable (friends or family in town for the weekend), versus something that I volunteer for. However, this year my birthday fell on the official day of brunch (Sunday) and we are scheduled for a "big" dinner next weekend (an overnight to the North Fork in Long Island for some wine tasting!); so, brunch seemed like a good, casual choice for today.

Well, if I am going to go to brunch, it needs to be someplace I really want to try. After tossing around a few options last night, my husband thought of a gem - La Morra in Brookline. La Morra is a small, two-story place on Route 9 with dark, rustic decor. It serves traditional Italian fare - not the red sauce stuff they overdo in so many establishments, but good, earthy meats, pastas, and risottos. We ate an excellent dinner at La Morra about two years ago and were scheduled to return for brunch there a few weeks later, but had to cancel last minute when I came down with the flu. So, this was a chance to make up for a lost opportunity.

When we arrive at 11:30 in the morning, we are the only diners in the restaurant, aside from a large party of about eight - also celebrating a birthday. Already steeped in my prejudice about brunch, I take this as a bad sign. I should not have been so quick to judge. Despite the thin crowd, service is a little slow at the beginning. However, after that it is very good. Our young waitress appears to be in training, as she comes over to our table with another waitress and defers several questions to her. But their tandem teamwork is seamless and they both answer my questions about menu with ease. [Interestingly, a little later, I notice the older waitress massacre the answer to the same question that I asked for the diners who fill the table next to ours.] I was also impressed that, after being told we needed to wait a few moments until noon for drink orders (hey, when you are over thirty, you need to start drinking in the a.m. hours), the waitress remembers our wishes without a reminder and promptly brings our cocktails at twelve. The drinks are wonderful - a mimosa for Paul with freshly squeezed juice and Prosecco, and a Bloody Mary for me with freshly crushed salt & pepper on top and tons of shredded horseradish. Also a nice touch was the coffee, served in huge pottery mugs, giving a homey feel to the whole meal.

I don't think that I have yet talked about one my total food obsessions on this blog. Doughnuts. [Or, donuts, as a true Bostonian would prefer to call them.] I love doughnuts; my absolute favorite is vanilla frosted with sprinkles. If you are eating white trash food, you might as well go all the way. So, when I see on La Morra's brunch menu "fried donuts with spiced sugar," we just had to try them. While I don't quite know what to expect, they are not what I envisioned - though tasty all the same. They are small little balls of fried dough, so light you barely know that you are eating them. They are coated in a dense layer of sugar and cinnamon and served with sweetened ricotta dotted with lemon zest. The only thing that falls short with this course is the berries - sparse and not especially fresh.

Deciding on an entree is not an easy task. Three items on the menu, including a wild mushroom, mozzarella, and caramelized onion frittata as well as baccala (cod) cakes with pancetta hollandaise and poached eggs, look especially good. However, I ultimately decide on "eggs in a basket" - eggs baked inside two squares of polenta. Paul vies for some serious foodie status by urging me to order this dish by saying, "you know you want to see how that's prepared." I did. [Another husband-foodie moment at the table included him mentioning the "bitter balance" the arugula gave his meal. Wow!] The eggs in a basket are excellent - fully cooked whites with a soft yolk, surrounded by soft polenta with specks of sage and a crispy crust. All of this was topped with strips of roasted red and yellow peppers, wilted swiss chard, and a healthy dusting of Parmesan. It was as beautiful as it was flavorful.

Paul ordered equally well with an open-faced steak sandwich topped with fried eggs and hollandaise sauce. It was outstanding. The bottom layer was a dense piece of crusty Italian bread, followed by thick slice of salty pancetta, crisp, spicy arugula, well-seasoned sliced flank steak, two fried eggs, and a just-right dollop of hollandaise. The combination of flavors was superb. The only criticism was that it was a little on the salty side; whether that was due entirely to the pancetta, or from a liberal hand with the salt on all elements of the dish, was a little unclear. The roasted potatoes on the side were simple, but prepared perfectly - finished in a fry pan to give them a nice crunchy skin.

I'd give La Morra at 48 Boylston Street (Route 9) in Brookline an A-. Next time that I have to go to brunch, I'll be heading back to La Morra.