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.

Le Macaron!

I am the daughter of a francophile. That is as plain and simple as it sounds. When I was 16 pop was going to London to perform a show. In the mind of a francophile a trip over the pond to the motherland actually means a weekend in Paris. This time, he was taking me and my older sister. When I left school early to get my passport picture taken I realized how much phile there was in this francophile.

Our trip was all the usual Parisian spots littered with stops at the haunts of the ex-pats. (He's a franchophile and a Hemingwayphile. One and the same?) We walked all over the place. Which means we kept passing bakeries. Almost every window of every patisserie was filled with little macarons. One shoppe stays in my mind so vividly. We unexpectedly turned a corner and a large expanse of windows revealed stacks and piles of pastel macarons. The delicate abundance of it all was beautiful! We were instantly in love. I always requested that we take the long way back to the hotel just to see them all lined up.

Macarons are little round almond, egg white cookies sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream or jam. They are a crisp substantive bite the melts away on your tongue.

These little treats have been a special bond for pop and me. We are constantly on the lookout for them anywhere we go.

Here is what I have found around this town of mine.

LA Burdick in Cambridge was the first stateside place I discovered them. We went for hot chocolate and chocolate mice with satin tales, and if that wasn't enough, I spotted the Macarons! What heavenly afternoons I have spent there! I have only been during the snow laiden winter months and don't know what the experience offers during warm, warmer and hot months. The handful of times I have been there mark memories from many different stages in life with different friends and family. all Only cozy feelings are conjured up when I think of being here (recently remodeled to feel even more french...which if I think about makes it feel a touch inauthentic... Luckily, I am forgetful!)

I had recently heard of Formaggio Kitchen, the sister to South End Formaggio (I mention it here.) This spot deserves so much more said about it. About 3 stores strung together, Formaggio Kitchen has so many decadent, unusual, interesting, fresh, and high end gastronomical delights. There is a reason it is in Huron Village of Cambridge. In the center, among ceiling high shelves of chocolates and sweets is a pastry case. In it are those beautiful macarons that take me to another place.

Finally, after an indulgent dinner at Aujour d'hui (to be discussed later) there was a macaron. This mignardise with the heavy check was light as air. (As confirmed with KK mignardise is the name of the sweet bite sent out at the end of a meal. The old french word means small child in noun form and something delicate, pretty and graceful as an adjective. A new favorite word? check that. )

I long to be good at making them. I have tried a few times and Martha's recipe really came through the best. The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts occasionally offers a whole class devoted to this delicate sandwich of a treat.

In conclusion, I can't say pop has rubbed off on me totally. Sometimes I need more than A Farewell to Arms can offer. But, at least I can say that I am a macaronphile. I think I can add that to his list too.

New York City! (part 3)

When it comes to places to try, I always trust KK. So when I decided to head to the Big Apple I asked for her suggestions of where to stop. She equipped me with an index card scribbled with bakeries and cafes. It gave me the structure I lacked for a day in the city.

I showed my card to LM after brunch and she conveniently knew which stops were in walking distance. She marched us right over to soho, making a recommendation or two of her own along the way. In all my trips to NYC I have never spent much time in this neighborhood.

LM's addition was Ceci-Cela, a tiny hallway of a bakery that had a little room off the back for sitting. Stuffed in this narrow rectangle was a case brimming with rows and rows and columns and rows of colorful, cheerful macrons (stay tuned for more on this subject). In baskets and on trays were many other very French pastries and out of drawers poked serve yourself take-away savory pastries. Oh, I just adore macrons and these were true to their form!

We then went to Balthazar, a grand looking restaurant with a tiny and elegant bakery next door. LM swears by their chocolate bread. I ordered an almond croissant, a petit fore, a madeleine, and an éclair. Later in the afternoon I discovered the croissant was flaky; the petit fore with a marzipan bottom had a moist, perfectly square cake and dare I say it, supple fondant; the madeline was not too sweet and not too soft, the éclair disappointed me, but that is mostly because I had expected vanilla pastry cream pouring out but instead it was a wilting chocolate cream.

With two bags of treats in my hands, LM pointed us towards Once Upon A Tart, and said good-bye. Hot and tired, IAM and I decided to sit down at this next stop. A nice shoppe, with nice food, but something was missing. We refreshed ourselves but were not as taken by the atmosphere or the food. We nibbled, drank our iced beverages and went back into the stuffed streets of the city. Discovering the edge of a park, we stepped over a fence, reclined on the grass and laid out our spread of sugar, flour and butter from the bakery crawl.

Sunshine and treats…need I say more…

Perfectly content, we hopped on the subway. We had a live radio broadcast to see, after all!

New York City! (part 1)

Nothing says, "Welcome to New York," like arriving in Penn Station at 5:30 on a Friday evening. I was bombarded with emotions flying everywhere in between panic and Mary Tyler Moore. Finally, I met my sister, IAM, at her office at the New York City Opera. After she had her friend give me a tour of the theatre at Lincoln Center we walked around the upper west side.


Such a beautiful evening in the city and we went right to Shake Shack (it seemed like everyone else did too). We ordered two hamburgers, french fries, and a shake to go. A little old-fashioned but very contemporary joint with a drive-in feeling on foot and modern twists. The price of the classic hamburger seemed great, but our drink cost more than the burger. After going through the well oiled machine they have to get people in, out and fed, we took our paper bag and headed to the park. Everyone we walked by had just come from the Shake Shack and plopped down where they could to enjoy their spoils. The scene was probably the same in the surrounding blocks of the two other Shake Shack locations. We joined everyone once we found a bench in a little nook of the park that seemed right for us; a tasty way to partake in the warm(ish) night and catch up.

Even though we were full we walked to Magnolia Bakery for a treat to take with us back to Brooklyn: a Chocolate cupcake with white vanilla frosting and pink sprinkles. The self serve style of the cupcakes and cookies was off putting but it felt so right. When you order cupcakes don't you always have your eye on the perfect one? Sweet and satisfying, yes, but, part of the charm of the cupcake was going into that pretty shop with high ceilings and lace curtains. Luckily, IAM knew to order a serving of banana pudding, which was actually vanilla pudding, banana peices and vanilla wafers. It was so American, creamy and fluffily rich. I would go back for this pudding more than those famous cupcakes, lace curtains or not (don't get me wrong, I'm not about to refuse a cupcake either).

IAM and I fell asleep on the pullout couch that she made up for me in her little apartment, resting up for the indulgent day ahead.