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Clear Flour Bread – Allston MA

Jul 9th, 2008
by dave.
1 comment

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 :)


Lambert’s Rainbow Fruit

Mar 16th, 2008
by dave.
No comments yet

I actually spent about a year working in Norwood before I found Lambert’s and it appalls me how that happened given that I have to drive past it every night on the way home. And especially since I can walk there from work for lunch!

Lambert’s is mainly a deli counter and fresh produce kind of grocery. No meat/fish section and some very small selections of stuff like pasta, baking goods and whatnot. What they do have though are a lot of specialty sauces/jams for marinades and whatnot such as Stonewall Kitchen jams and spreads. I use these jams for the baked brie :) . And one last note that they sell freshly ground spices (which is a huuuuuge deal).

Also, for a hearty lunch (and possibly dinner because of leftovers!), Lambert’s deli counter makes some extremely massive sandwiches. Maybe not on the level of Harold’s New York Deli but they’re still large enough anyway that one could easily chow down on half of the sandwich and save the other half for a nicely sized dinner. They also bake rotisserie chickens, spare ribs, and fresh calzones (The calzones are VERY hearty as well…oy!) as well as serving at least 6 different types of soup every day. And I need to mention the salad bar…one of the largest I’ve ever seen!

Somerville Visit

Feb 18th, 2008
by dave.
2 comments

I always find myself in Somerville at least once a month and when I’m there, I always try to make it to a few of my former eateries as a former Tufts grad. One of them makes some of the best pasta in Boston and it just so happens I stopped there on Saturday.

Dave’s Fresh Pasta sells, as you may have guessed, fresh pasta! They have about half a dozen or so freshly made ravioli each day that you can purchase at a pretty darn reasonable price. They also stock various cheeses and pre-prepared foods ranging from lasagna to clam chowder. There are wine tasting events monthly (or more than that, I don’t quite remember) and the selection is fairly large. And not only that, but they also make fresh sandwiches, rotating about 4-6 different sandwiches of the day, including one of my favorites, the Cuban. And all this is crammed into a small retail space where not an inch of room is wasted.

They’re located right outside of Davis Square, along Holland ave going towards Teele Square.

I ended up ordering a sandwich I’d never seen there before, made with flank steak!

It’s got flank steak, boursin cheese, caramelized onions, and the obligatory lettuce. Personally, they had me at the flank steak…or was it the onions. Anyway, wolfed that down real quick and off I went to another favorite place.

The Tea Zone is the opposite way away from Davis…going down Elm Street nearly until you hit Wilson Square (or Somerville Avenue). Really small place but has an excellent selection of tea leaves (not the prepacked stuff that you can buy in a grocery store, but the nice fresh stuff!) Ended up picking up a couple pounds of different teas for work (waking up, duh!) and for home (anti-aging :P )