Even though I try to make it a point to try new recipes and new techniques, there’s nights where I just want to get something on the stove quickly so that I can take care of other errands. And in the past, I usually would just eat takeout (Rod Dee among my favorites), definitely not healthy by any means.

One thing I’ve been trying to be good about lately is keeping enough food in the fridge/freezer that if I don’t have anything specifically in mind to cook one night, I can quickly whip something together like some frozen veggies, chicken, and rice. Lately, I’ve been putting together noodle soups out of the various things I had lying around.

To be honest, I had my share of instant noodles back in college and have been abhorrent to the stuff since. But lately, I’ve been finding a good use for the noodles at least (and discarding the sauce packets!). I’ll open a can of broth, mix some spices in, add in whatever I have in the freezer, boil some bok choy, and there you go, my version of instant noodle soup!

I’ve tried a bunch of different ingredients that worked out pretty well : Roast pork (char siu), Cha lua, fish/pork/beef balls, fish cakes, and wontons. Something that also adds a little flavor is a sunny-side-up egg.

So I’ve been on this “quick and easy” cooking spree as of late. By easy I mean dishes that don’t require a ton of prep and probably have less than 10 total ingredients. And by quick…well, I’ll let you guess

Part of the reason has been that I’m tired of eating at 9pm and the other part is my own laziness. But mainly, an hour or more of prep and cooking was getting a little tiresome and I needed a little bit of a change. I used to get home, cook, eat, and by the time I was finished (cleaning included), I was ready for bed!

So last week I picked up some Arctic Char from Whole Foods partially because it fits the “quick and easy” bill as well as being pretty healthy (I’ve been trying to eat fish/seafood at least once a week). Fish also has a very tasty flavor all by itself and doesn’t necessarily require too much additional sauce or seasoning. I sprinkled a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper on the fish and cooked it in a skillet for about 4-5 minutes on each side. It ended up still being pink on the inside (medium-rare), which was fine with me, I actually enjoy fish better that’s slightly undercooked as opposed to the other way around (In fact, I dread overcooking fish). Throw that together with some pita and metch from Russo’s, and I had a meal in under 15 minutes.

Keeping the theme with things I don’t cook very often, I made a steak the other night.  I’m not sure why I don’t make steak more often (other than the health implications of a pound of beef a night) since it’s so easy to do!  And definitely great for the lazy people, myself included.

All I did was to rub a little bit of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper on either side then threw it into a grill pan to sear for a few minutes on each side.  I like my steak on the rare side so I didn’t end up cooking it for more than about 10 minutes total!  It came out nice, tender, and juicy, but the 3/4 pound steak left me a little bit of a mess for the rest of the night.  Combine that with the noodle salad and greens from Lambert’s and I was ready for bed not 5 minutes after finishing (that’s not a good thing by the way )

That Japanese ramen isn’t around anymore, but its replacement, Misono Wok, is a more than ample replacement. They serve home-style Korean food, which isn’t exactly easy to find in the city. But to be honest, until I got to Boston, I never really had a lot of Korean food, maybe because Korean food is even rarer in New Jersey!

But anyway, back to the food. When I think Korean food, the first thing that comes to mind is Korean BBQ (bulgogi, kalbi, etc), kimchi, and bibimbap. While Misono Wok does have some of these dishes available, my favorite dishes are their noodle dishes, especially the Tukboki (rice cake noodles), or Japche (glass thread noodles). I’ve also been a huge fan of the pork kimchi lately, and even tried making it myself (I’ll save that for another day).

One thing I haven’t had much of in the past couple years was fresh bread from a local bakery. But lately, I’ve wandered to a couple different bakeries in the Allston/Brighton/Brookline area, When Pig’s Fly Bakery, and Clear Flour Bread. Both places are wonderful and bake some awesome bread but today I only have pictures from the latter…I have to admit that I ate the bread from When Pigs Fly before I remembered to take pictures.

Anyway, Clear Flour has all kinds of daily specials in addition to a large assortment of staple breads including one of my favorites, an onion foccacia! They also bake many different pastries and sometimes have creative versions of a bread that are amazing! They had a loaf of Challah bread shaped like a turtle the last time I visited and I’ve seen bread baked in the shapes of flowers as well!

Here are the pictures! See for yourself

During the summer back in New Jersey, the town would hold a few festivals or carnivals at the local park, pool, or sometimes right in the middle of downtown. All of the local stores would have special sales and there would be all sorts of special one-time items from some of the locals with side hobbies: painting, knitting, carpentry, etc.

And as with most festivals, there was the festival food, ranging from italian sausages, funnel cake, and fried dough, to one of my favorites during the summer, snow cones! Nothing more than crushed ice with some colored flavor to it but wow, they sure were good in the heat of the summer.

Fun Foods Snackery brings back the snow cone with a huge new twist! They’ve turned crushed ice with liquid flavoring into a fruit-filled and ice cream topped treat! Not to mention the flower cup

Their signature snack is the summer snow, shaved ice with chopped fruit of your choice, some flavoring and a scoop of ice cream. Now that’s a great summer snack!

Whenever I end up in the North End, I always try to grab a meal and dessert. It’s hard to be hungry after a huge Italian meal but I just have to always have that extra cannoli. Usually, I’ll stop by Mike’s Pastries and grab their chocolate coated cannoli but sometimes the line is out the door and around the corner!

So after trying a couple other places, the roommate and I decided to have a taste test of our two favorite pastry shops, Modern Pastry and Mike’s Pastry.

And our verdict? You can’t go wrong with either one

Mike’s cannoli is slightly larger but you do pay a little more for it, but other than that, I’d go for whichever line is shorter!

Modern Pastry cannoli

Super 88 is one of the local Asian Supermarkets (there’s several other smaller markets around) to Allston. They have a pretty good selection of Asian sauces, vegetables, and snacks, among many other things. There’s a large seafood section where you can get fresh (read: alive ) fish or not as fresh (read: not alive) fish on ice. You choose a fish, tell the fishmonger, and he’ll gut it, scale it, and if you want, remove the head and the tail as well. They also have a decent selection of meats, though I think the seafood section might actually be bigger but they have a coarse grinder for their meat, which is the way I like it. And I can’t forget the fresh noodles that are stocked as well.

But one of the unique things about this Super 88 is that there’s a food court, called the Super 88 Connection. There are about 8 (I might be forgetting one) places to get a freshly cooked meal, spanning Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Chinese, and Indian food. There’s also a bubble tea stand, Lollicup that has a wide variety of sweet drinks.

Anyway, on this particular occasion, a few friends and I decided to stage a family-style lunch, that is, we all order something different and share. Ended up with quite a variety of food from four of the different restaurants…the basil chicken is shown above. All in all quite delicious, two of my favorite dishes to get at Super 88 are shown, see if you can guess which one!

Basil Squid:

Vegetable Tikka Masala:

Lemongrass Pork:

Pork Kimchi:

When I lived in New Jersey and attended Chinese school in New York City (Circa age 10), it was a weekly tradition to get there early and eat Dim Sum before going to class for the day. At the time, I was more amazed by the noise and the carts whizzing by than with the food.

Now that I’m older (and hopefully wiser!), I still end up in Chinatown now and then for Dim Sum. The only thing that prevents me from being there every week is the 30-40 minute travel plus any time waiting for a table, not to mention how hard it is to get parking (So I end up on the ultra-slow B line).

So when I heard about Gitlo’s Dim Sum Bakery in Allston, I was ecstatic (nevermind how good the food might be, it’s DIM SUM!). Gitlo’s is about a 10 minute walk (max) from my condo and is right in the thick of things on Brighton Ave by the Kell’s and Harper’s Ferry.

The place itself is very small, maybe 7 tables or so seating a max of about 20 patrons. All of the food is made to order (No carts full of goodies steamed in bulk) and the menu consists of roughly 40 items. Most of the fare is similar to the food available in Chinatown but there are quite a few dishes with a little twist, such as the Seaweed Siu Mai (Shrimp paste wrapped with seaweed). My favorite dishes there are the Scallop Siu Mai (A small slice of scallop on top of regular pork siu mai) and the XO Sauce Daikon Cakes (Fried cubes of daikon cake served in an XO meat sauce). The dumplings are very juicy and I actually take multiple bites (a rarity for me, I usually eat the piece whole) to savor every bit. And the daikon cakes…wow, I like them even better than in Chinatown!

Last week I ended up there with Jason and the owner, Gitlo, was manning the tables that night. Had a great conversation with him about the restaurant and what they’re trying to do. Really a nice guy and a hard worker. He told me that they deliver all across the area: Harvard, MIT, Copley Square, and even to parts of Newton!

Cantonese Dumplings (Pork, Leek)

Shrimp Dumplings with Pea Pod Stems

XO Sauce Fried Daikon Cake

Roast Pork Bun (Char Siu Bao)

Scallop Siu Mai

Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gao)

Stir-fried Satay Rice Noodle w/ Chicken

XO Sauce Pan Fried Rice Noodles

Fried Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf

Taro Siu Mai

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Tasty Gourmet by definition is a deli, but they make some of the best sandwiches (not to mention some awesome french fries). They also serve, as some of my friends can attest to (story for another time ), some of the biggest portions I’ve ever seen. They’re even open bright and early for breakfast, where some of their breakfast sandwiches (Ham on the Moon – Ham and egg on toasted bread) are a welcome beginning to the day.

And as is with most restaurants I go to, the staff used to know me by face and name, mainly because of the sheer volume of business I gave them (There’s also a funny story about some chowder I got there once – which was good by the way), but they’re a friendly sort and they just installed a plasma tv for sit-in diners.

Arizona Chicken Sandwich

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich