Why I love a) living in the city b) trying new foods

[urbpan]

When I first moved to Boston I was fortunate to quickly meet older, more experienced people, who guided me to some positive experiences. In particular, my friend Otto (not his real name, except to me) was wonderful in exposing me to foods that my suburban upbringing had deprived me of. He was also the first vegetarian I'd ever become friends with, and so when I became vegetarian some five years after meeting him, he'd helped me find some foods that make not eating meat a joy rather than a chore.

Early on he took me to an Indian restaurant, and it most definitely changed my life. We had vegetarian thali, poori, and lassi. It's notable that I remember what we had--this was eightteen years ago. I don't think I'd ever had food that tasted so good--or perhaps my tastebuds had been blunted by the cold fried chicken and mac and cheese that I'd been eating every day since I'd arrived. I'm still devoted to Indian food, and one requirement for when we move is that there has to be a decent Indian place nearby. Fortunately, Indians have widely migrated and almost every city on earth has Indian food (as far as I know). The best meal I ate in Rio de Janeiro was at an Indian restaurant (the proprietor came out and talked to us: he assumed I was a Hare Krishna).

Otto taught me how to make stir-fry. In one fell swoop this introduced me to sesame oil, tamari, water chestnuts, baby corn, and most importantly pre-fried tofu. I had heard of tofu--never in a positive context--but had never eaten it. When its pre-fried (available at Asian grocers) it has a chewy meaty texture that I appreciate. It tastes like, well, sesame oil and tamari. Now when I eat at a Chinese restaurant, if it doesn't have pre-fried tofu, it's not worth eating. The best meal I had in Anchorage (and in all of Alaska) was at a Chinese restaurant. There wasn't a tofu meal on the menu, but I asked the waiter for one of the meals with fried bean curd instead of meat and without hesitating he said yes. Delicious.

Otto took me to the North End of Boston and showed me what cappucino was. He was horrified at my attempt to put sugar in it. Later he showed me plain espresso. Another requirement for a place to live is access to espresso. Fortunately, the Seattle invasion of the 90's has put espresso machines all over the country. I could probably get a low-fat macchiato in my tiny home town now.

Speaking of which, a friend of mine from my home town had moved to Boston a year before me. When I caught up with him, we ate at one of Boston's many pizza/sub shops--most of which are owned by non-Italian Mediterraneans: Greeks, Lebanese, etc. The advantage of this is baklava. I didn't know what it was or even how to say it but oh my god is all you can say after your first bite of it. It's rich and sweet and crisp and gooey and you just want to slowly eat it for hours. It's the kind of food that if I saw it as a child I would have thought it was gross, now, well, now it was the inspiration for me to write this post.

I was a really picky eater as a kid. Partly there wasn't much variety where I grew up, and in larger part I didn't ever want to try anything new. When I moved to the city, and had to feed myself, I was suddenly more willing to try new things. Luckily Boston has a great many new things to try. I'm so happy that I had friends who showed me them, and made me try them. Now I can't live without them.

Comments

[meryddian.livejournal.com]

Well... there's not a Starbucks in town *yet* - I think town zoning laws (anti-franchaise corporate) won't allow it, although maybe that's softened in the past few years - but there's now one in Enfield, and one in Windsor Locks.

Although I bet Tosca (restaurant) serves up a decent espresso...

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I bet I could get a nasty espresso at the Xtra mart near my dad's house. Last time I stayed over I couldn't find a convenience store open first thing in the morning! I was going through coffee withdrawal until we went to Enfield to go to Dunkin Donuts.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

McDonald's now has Green Mountain coffee.

What town does your dad live in?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Suffield

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Now I totally want indian food and baklava!!!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm about to go head out and go shopping--do you want me to stop at the takeout Indian place and bring home lunch to heat up? (I'll look for baklava, too--Village Pizza has it, right?)

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

TJs has baklava - I know I saw it there. :)

Maybe Alex would like indian food for dinner?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

She's coming over, then? Perhaps we should communicate telephonically.

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

Oooh thanks for the food adventuring post...:) Now when I go on trips to Rio de Janeiro, Alaska and Boston, I know where to eat...;)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I always do a google search for "vegetarian restaurants" + (place I'm going) before I go, but failing that, Indian and Chinese restaurants are pretty good.

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

Yes they sure are...:) I'm glad to see you had better luck at being a vegetarian than I did...I love fish too much...:(

[mozzer131.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I've never had Indian food, nor baklava, nor tamari, nor pre-fried tofu (I don't think, maybe at the Grasshopper?). I'm certainly not an adventurous diner!

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how can you stand to live?!?!?!?!?!?

what on earth do you eat?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Grasshopper uses some pre-fried tofu, but mostly they use seitan. Tamari is basically good quality soy sauce. Baklava you GOTTA try its so scrumtious. I just bought some from Trader Joes--we'll see how good theirs is--but any Greek restaurant should have it.

Indian food--well, I don't think I would have been able to stay vegetarian without Indian food. The blends of spices they have come up with are mind-blowingly delicious, although I have heard of people who don't like cumin or coriander. There's plenty of meat for the meat eaters, too (chicken and lamb).

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I have yet to encounter an ethnic food that I haven't enjoyed - particularly if it's an ethnicity that celebrates the art of pastry.

[barbmg.livejournal.com]

Was the Indian place Otto took you to the one in Porter Square? I think I remember you taking me (and Matt?) there, and the Golub jamun for desert. Soooooooooooo goooooooooooooooood. I've only had it once or twice since then, and I'm not sure why the heck not. Okay, now that I think about it I'm usually too full when I go out for Indian, from all the other yummy stuff.

There's an all vegetarian Indian place here in Raleigh. Does that tempt you into visiting at all?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

That's the place: "A Passage to India." Indian desserts are nice, but who has the room?

I'm plenty tempted to visit, hon. It's winter here for four more months.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered how good that place is. I've been to so many Indian restaurants in the Cambridge area, but never made it to that one. Mostly because the place across the street from where Otto and I worked was really good, and I've always just ended up going there when I'm in the area.

Have you eaten at Veggie Planet in Club Passim (Harvard Square)? They have some of the oddest, and yummiest food in the area. We went there last weekend and I had a coconut rice, broccoli, peanut curry, and tofu pesto on thin whole wheat pizza crust. I usually get the "Dinner for Henry", Henry being a cat who appearently likes grilled sweet potato and onions on his pizza.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Passage to India is just fine, but there are plenty of less expensive just as good places around. I've only been there maybe two or three times since.

Never been to Club Passim--I actualy saw it for the first time when I bought my most recent textbook. I'll try it some time.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

Storrs has an Indian place, and it's not too bad, but they don't have a tandoori oven, so they don't really have bread. What's Indian food without naan?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

When I'm visiting sometimes we go to a place in Windsor that's pretty good.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Ahh, so it's Otto I have to thank for the tofu, water chestnut, baby corn and peanut sauce stir-fry inspiration! I used to make that at least once a week for many, many years. I've moved onto Pad Thai as my favorite meal now, but the stir fry is still close fond memory.

And yeah, Indian food is pretty much a staple for me too. When David and I were checking out Wolfville, Nova Scotia where we bought property, we were happy to see that there was indeed an Indian restaraunt in the town. Unfortunately, it turns out to be the worst Indian restaurant we've ever encountered. I think they just served prepackaged, reconstituted food. It was weird.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I love pre-fried tofu. I wish I had some!

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Oh, and baklava. Baklava is a filo dough pastry with honey, walnuts, cinnamon and cloves inside. That is what my taste buds tell me, and also what I was told by the owner of the local Greek restaurant. Baklava is the bomb! =)