Sofra (its been a long time coming)

What do you do the day after you run a half marathon?
Take a lazy, sunny trip to Sofra with friends, of course, of course

What do you do after an afternoon of particularly high stress babysitting?
Stop by Sofra on the way home, of course, of course.

What do you do the morning after a lovely late night with a friend?
Continue the conversation over breakfast at Sofra, of course, of course.


I will tell you about the post half marathon trip with LZA, JRD, and SSS.

Sofra sits on the edge of Watertown and Cambridge off of Mt. Auburn. The cafe is a product of the continued collaboration of Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick. Much like their restaurant, Oleana, the flavors are primarily inspired from Turkish and Eastern Mediterranian cuisines.

The four of us sat outside in the beating sun on the sleek patio they recently finished building secretly hoping the sun would color our cheeks a little. The atmosphere is a combination of contemporary chic and an old Turkey I have never seen.

We ordered a mezze platter where we got to pick 5 different spreads to eat with their housemade pita and fingerling bread.
-Lentils and carmelized onions.
-Beet Tzatziki (my fave)
-Whipped Feta with sweet and hot red peppers (JRD's fave from Oleana).
-Whipped Celery root with almonds garlic
-Smokey Eggplants with pine nuts (I didn't love it, but I don't usually like smoked things).

They have this egg sandwhich with cheese, optional bacon and a cooked to order egg on a rich, soft brioche with a spiced top. This is one of the best egg sandwiches I have had.

We also had poached eggs swimming in a tomato curry with toasted pita crumbs, a tasty and welcomed new take (for me) on usual breakfast fare.

The Turkish breakfast was an array of fresh flavors. This was a soft boiled egg with cucumbers, olives, thick yogurt, a sweet jellied fruit, fig and phyllo noodle shreds.


We ordered a sampling of treats.
-The Bee Sting - Honey, almonds, brioche. This sounded better than it was.
Persian Donut - Oof! Not too sweet, delicately fried!
Strawberry Rhubarb tart - a delicious classic.

Good coffee was had, a Rhubarb mint drink (very sweet - we added some seltzer when we got home!) Orange Blossom Lemonade - MK told me to get this a long time ago and I thank her for that. Their iced housemade chai is a little different than you might expect, very very sweet (undrinkable way too sweet for some), but very good (to me!).

We took so much home too so that the experience could last the entire length of a day!

An absolute must are the incredible fluffy clouds of not quite pita that you can buy by the bag full. We did.

Plus Milk Jam. Milk jam is essentially carmelized milk and sweetened condensed milk and is good on most things, including your pinky!

-Earthquake cookies are beautiful, and chocolatey, with a very thin crunchy layer and a chewy inside.
-Molasses cookies have a sweet spice, crunchy outside, soft inside.
-Chocoloate Hazelnut Baklava is a more complex, less sweet version of the traditional.
-Almond Rose cake has a light crumb with a strong almond but gentle rose flavoring.
-Kunefe is shredded phyllo with a sweet cheese inside which makes for such an interesting texture in your mouth and the flavor is simple and deep.

Sometimes the floral flavors are too heavy handed for my taste especially when I am not warned. I have ordered some things and sure enough there is the rosewater, there is the orange blossom and I just didn't want it there. In the lemonade it is clean and delicious but I don't need it everywhere!

I could go on and on about all of the different things I have had over the past 8 months here and I haven't even talked about the flatbreads and schwarma. Look at the menu on their website to learn about all the other options. More importantly, go! They are a cafe with some limited options but they have something everyone whether it be, vegetable tarts, flatbreads, soups, dips, or sweets sweet sweets.

These picture by JRD and SSS are pretty self explanatory and may cause extreme cravings. In that case stop what you are doing, pick up your phone, give me a call, I will pick you up, we will go. Trust me.

Diving In.

I didn't know what to do with myself on a late August night after too much wine with an ex love and unsatisfying responses (though tender) from a new romance to my persistent calls and all of a sudden GP rang my doorbell with a gaggle of people I had never seen before asking to go out for an ice cream. I straightened my summer dress, threw on my sandals and headed out for a scoop.

Last night I saw GP's friends again in a very different way. As it turns out they were part of, involved with, or friends with a musical group called Lake Street Dive. GP got me out with her to the Lizard Lounge over in Cambridge to see their show. I had been to Cambridge Common many times but never downstairs.



Lake Street Dive is a charming band with a trumpet, stand-up base, drums, and powerful, jazzy, full vocals. Most of the songs were break up songs, but they still made you feel good. It was wonderful to be reminded how people can just make music and tell stories and share it. They were all a part of something and it was twangy, pop-y, sensual, folk-y and exuberant. The singer had beautiful stage presence with hips that very slowly shook. The bassist played so hard she almost took herself out. The trumpet player would also pick up the guitar and sit down at the piano, whatever seemed to be needed. The drummer kept everyone together while pulling off a very appropriate mustache.

With lines like (slightly botched but to the best of my memory...) "It feels good to be over you, it felt good to be under you, maybe you just feel good, " and, "most of what I love about Elijah is on the outside..." or, "my neighbors making love upstairs would crush me...I am on the ground floor," you are bound to have a good time.

The Lizard Lounge had a great casual atmosphere with oriental rugs. I know people who are regulars to shows here but I just had never taken that chance and gone. The audience really shares the space with the performer, so that the give and take of show is all very fluid. Of course, if it isn't a good show, that could make for an awkward time. Go early and have a burger, sweet potato fries, tater tots, or fried pickle before!

I recommend two things. 1) Listen to Lake Street Dive and find a show to go to! 2) Check something out at the Lizard Lounge! I will be doing both!

Starving Maternal Figure!

SM and I arrived at our 9:30 Hungry Mother reservation with fierce appetites and the grand anticipation of something already known to be wonderful.

We passed the charming bar with its handsome bartender on our way up the stairs to the main dining room. For most of the night we opted for the #99 cocktail, a bartender's choice based off a few parameters that you give - sweet, sour, fruity, spirits. I, of course, struggle with parameters but managed through the evening rather nicely. FYI, They make their own grenadine.

Right away we ordered the side of grits with ham and cheese to eat while we made most of the decisions for the night.

We settled on the following:

A peanut soup topped with fried pancetta and served with a lime for squeezing. Salty and smooth, this soup slid right down, slow spoonful after slow spoonful. They boil Virginia peanuts and offer them in the "To tide you over..." portion of the menu, but they are also used in this soup. Having had it before, I am pretty sure there was an understanding we'd be ordering the soup this time around too.

Catfish cakes with a sweet potato play on aioli and frisee were a tasty, not too heavy, fried plate . The fact that I enjoyed this stronger fish speaks volumes (I generally don't care for catfish).

We had a quietly titled mixed greens plate accented with golden beets and roasted, lightly spiced pecans. A Meyer lemon buttermilk dressing topped the salad, standing tall and refreshing.

Our main course was steak, medium rare, delicious, full of iron, confidently simple. Truth be told though, main courses are never my favorite thing. This was the only dish that let us get distracted by other things: conversations, tattoos, meyer lemon- buttermilk dressing, and decor.

As for dessert, 3 plates ended up on our table. I'll be honest, I thought SM and I would have seen more changes on dinner menu from the last time we went. However, the dessert menu had satisfyingly rotated.

We had another #99 cocktail that the bartender said would compliment the coconut cake and oh, how it did, delightfully! The cake was substantial with a light crumb. Topped with long coconut chips, the coconut flavor was unmissable but nothing overpowering or sickeningly sweet as it slowly took over your mouth.

The banana pudding tasted perfectly simple (I was accused of eating more than my share of this.). The flavor was fresh, which is all there is to hope for in anything titled, banana. Topped with as much whip cream as there was pudding and accentuated with graham crackers this dessert was full of a bliss.

The moonpies were exquisite examples of their little species and served with a tiny bowl of creme anglaise. If you have a sentimental attachment to these little guys absolutely order them. Otherwise, they won't necessarily change your mind about moonpies, whatever your opinion.

I wish that I could remember what my last #99 was. SM just said, something for dessert and over the top to sip will we finished the sweets and reflected on the meal. It truly delivered and was the perfect ending.

When describing everything at this Appalachian-french restaurant I wanted to end every sentence with "...and comforting." Yet, I shy away from saying this is a restaurant of comfort food. The term connotes a heavy feeling, a sedation. This was comfort food, new and invigorating.

Rialto

If you are at a restaurant where the chef just wants to share an experience, share what she knows, expand what you know, and then personally make sure she did her job, you should go again and again. Rialto is a place of trust and love between patron and owner.

Last night I was treated to a dinner at Rialto by SM. This is classic Cambridge eating. An old staple of the Charles Hotel, Rialto is the chef, Jody Adams. The food is new Italian. The staff is kind, welcoming and efficient. She features a region of the country in seasonally evolving Prix Fixe menus in addition to a regular and changing menu. Our dinner included the following:

Gnocchi with cheese and truffles,
Wild boar prosciutto with cheese and greens,
Bone Marrow with Saffron Risotto,
Pork Medallions with sweet potatoes and almonds,
Berkshire Veal Steak with mashed potatoes wrapped in red onion
Honey Ricotta cheesecake with pine nuts, figs, golden raisins and grappa
Cocoa Hazelnut meringues with a coffee (or mocha) pudding, cream, and a shot of decaf espresso to drizzle over it.

All of this food was good. And I mean that in the way that Greek philosophers used “the good” to describe life’s purpose. I was satisfied from beginning to end. The joy of this meal was not in adventurous flavors but in quality.

The highlights were the bone marrow and the cheesecake.

This was the first time that we had ever had bone marrow. Not sure how to approach it or eat it, we scraped a bit off the bone with ease. The flavor completely filled our mouths many time over while feeling like there was nothing in there. The saffron risotto it was served with was very salty but a welcomed compliment and good on its own.

As for the cheesecake, I was skeptical. I rarely feel like eating cheesecake after a big meal. This cake however, was light with a delicate texture without being whimpy. The honey was a gentle sweetness that enhanced the ethereal and conforting feel of the dessert. The grappa was also not as invasive as it had sounded to me. I don't think I can eat a heavy, dense cheesecake again. This experience changed my view of cheesecake for the better, while simultaneously probably ruining most other cheesecakes in my future.

Here is the thing of this restaurant: As we took our time finishing our wine and dessert, Jody Adams stopped by our table. She really wanted to know if we were having a good time. I think our calm yet elated state told her enough about our time at her restaurant, however, we mentioned that she also gave us the new experience of bone marrow.

She responded, "I think it is really an overlooked thing, that is why we give you such a generous portion." Thank you for thinking of us, Ms. Adams.

www.rialto-restaurant.com