Providence/Boston Food Truck Showdown

With 20,000 people descending on Providence Rhode Island's, India Point Park for the first ever Providence/Boston Food Truck Showdown the lines stretched clear across the grassy park for many of the 20 trucks in attendance. It was advertised that there would be 10 trucks from each Boston and Providence to compete.

According to the shows promoter Food Truck Festivals of America they had 15,000 pre-sale tickets and another 5,000 at the gate sales. The event was sold out roughly 1 hour after opening. We arrived a little early with our pre-bought tickets. The line was already pretty long. At 12:00 sharp they opened the gates to general admission. Attendees had the option to purchase VIP tickets allowing them early entry to the event for shorter/no lines.

After passing through the gates we made our way to the far end of the park and decided the first truck we would visit was Happy Taco from Gloucester, MA. I picked their fried Baja Fish Taco while Dan went the Grilled Chicken and Chris with the Braised Beef. My taco was light and delicious. the red onions and light lemony sauce was just the right balance.

Next we decided to try something different at the Uyghur Kitchen. They specialize in Turkish food. We each picked the Lamb Kebab Wrap. It included a spring mix, tomato's, pickles, feta cheese with their special yogurt sauce all wrapped in pita bread. The lamb kebabs were marinated in a mixture of onion, garlic and pomegranate juice, which added a kick of tartness to the lamb. While the sandwich on a whole was very tasty the quality of the ingredients was disappointing. In particular the lamb was very grizzly and nearly inedible with the exception of a few pieces. It was also very strange with the pickles. They added a bizarre flavor I didn't care for.

After finishing the Kebab wrap we went to the Samuel Adams beer garden to collect the beer that we got along with our entrance. Chris I enjoyed Angry Orchards while Dan go a Summer Ale. We all commented that the can's tasted a bit off and wondered if they had been sitting in the sun to long.

After a relaxing brew while listening to some music we decided or rather I decided it was time to hit the trucks once more. Unfortunately the lines had grown to ridiculous lengths and I opted for a desert waffle from Zinnekens of Cambridge. I picked the Sin which was a soft and chewy waffle made with caramelized Belgian pearl sugar covered in Nutella and banana slices. It was just the right way to finish of a fantastic festival and a full stomach.

Stuffed we went for a walk up to Thayer Street to check out all the little stores along the way It was a perfect day and a great time enjoying the sights, smells and tastes of Providence & Boston too.

Phantom Gourmet Wine and Food Festival

This past weekend we continued our sampling of local foods and libations by attending the Phantom Gourmet Wine and Food Festival! The food and wine festival was held in the beautiful main atrium of the Boston Center for the Arts. and provided locals with a sampling of 12 of Phantom's favorite foods, along with 36 varieties of wine.

The Phantom Gourmet is a food-related television and radio show based here in New England. Originally, the Phantom Gourmet was an anonymous critic who visited local restaurants, provided reviews, and conducted interviews with chefs and restaurants owners. Today, The Phantom Gourmet, Inc. is run by the Andelman brothers, Dave and Dan. Though the original concept of the anonymouse critic is no longer part of the show's format, the company logo and overall idiology remain intact: "Food and Fun. That's all we serve." The festival, complete with a "Wine Snob Detector," was very relaxed, and provided a casual, social environment in which to eat, drink, and be merry.

Our group began with samplings of classic red wines such as Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon from Ghost Pines vineyard. Ghost Pines is a California-based vineyard named for the ghost pine tree, which is native to Califronia, and grows in nutrient deficient soils, the same as the grapes used to make their Cabernet. Ghost Pines relies on the blending of grapes from different appellations to craft each of their wines' unique characters. One of the vineyard's signature blends, their Cabernet Sauvignon, is created by the mixing of Cabernet grapes from their Napa county vineyard, and Merlot grapes from Sonoma. Robust, dense, and hinting of oak, Ghost Pines was a favorite amongst our dry wine fans. Though the blending process makes each of these wines unique and impossible to duplicate, our group found the samplings to be a bit too dense for our liking.

Between libations, we sampled local foods from shrimp Mozambique to savory cheesecakes. A favorite among our group was Harrows Chicken Pies. Harrows was originally opened in Reading, MA in 1930 by Charlie and Winnifred Harrows, and has remained a New England staple for more than 70 years. Though the Harrows no longer own the business, it was purchased by an employee, Walter Arsenault, in the 1950's and has been owned and operated by members of the Arsenault family ever since. Harrow's pies are made with all white meat chicken, potatoes, carrots, and the same buttery crust that made the restaurant's pies in 1930. With New England just beginning to emerge from this year's exceptional snowfall, our group agreed that Harrow's pies would make for outstanding comfort food in New England winters.

Towards the end of the festival, we stumbled upon another California vineyard called Bread & Butter.  Bread & Butter is noted for their cool climate grapes and cold fermentation processes, which, combined with their malolactic fermentation process, creates wine that is smooth, rich, and void of sharp acidities. Their flagship wine, a Chardonnay, is a perfect balance between the "bread" and the "butter" for which the vineyard is named. The bread, is B&B's process of storing their wine in barrels made with a range of oak woods from France, the United States, and Eastern Europe, which imparts flavors of vanilla, toast, and nuttiness to the wine. Meanwhile, the butter is B&B's malolactic fermentation process, which takes the malic acid, (the tart notes found in green apples and other citrus) and converts it into lactic acid, (the softer, richer notes found in butter and cream.) This Chardonnay is a personal favorite of our friend Grace, who notes that the stability and buttery notes of this wine make it a wonderful cooking wine, suited best to shellfish and risottos.

Winding down our sampling, our group had a calling of the sweet tooth, and decided to partake in one of Boston's sweetest treats, Chilly Cow's frozen custard. Chilly Cow's has been a New England manufacturer of ice cream pies, cakes, and frozen custards since 2006. Made from high-quality cream, sugar, and eggs, the frozen custard at Chilly Cow's isn't just any old ice cream. The creamy texture of frozen custard courtesy of the egg yolks, sets it apart from traditional ice cream in both texture and flavor profile. Chilly Cow's had vanilla, salted caramel, and black raspberry available for the festival attendees, and our group made sure to sample each variety. Twice.

Overall, the Phantom Gourmet Wine and Food Festival was a very casual event, and an easy way to spend an afternoon. If you are looking to try various types of wine in a snob-free environment, this festival would certainly hit the mark. Though the large crowd was a positive marker for the festival's turnout and provided mass exposure for local businesses, our group feels that this event will not be a repeat offender in our list of weekend excursions, due to the excessive crowding of these events.

Boston Beer and Cheese Festival

This Saturday we decided to take part in some local libations at the Boston Beer and Cheese Festival. Sponsored by Drink Craft Beer, this excursion has been a recent addition to the Boston festival circuit. The festival centers around the support of local craft breweries and creameries. In total, there were 20 beer and cider brewers ranging in location from right here in Massachusetts to Portland, Maine, as well as 8 creameries based throughout New England. After making our way through the cold streets of Boston, we were definitely ready for a few samplings to warm ourselves up!

Our tasting began with Bantam Cider, a hyper-local brewery that started only three years ago in Somerville, MA. We sampled their original cider, Wunderkind, which is made from a variety of apples grown in Massachusetts, champagne yeast, and local flower blossom honey. The Wunderkind was followed by their newer blend, Rojo, which is a tart cider flavoured with sour cherries and black peppercorns.

Following Bantam was a sampling of aged soft cheeses from the Vermont Creamery. The cheeses are all sustainably produced from goat's milk, and we sampled such varieties as the coupole, bouche, and cremont.

 We proceeded to make our way around the perimeter of the festival, where there was a plethora of local brews and cheeses for us to indulge in. Halfway into our exploration, we happened upon Mayflower Brewing Company. Mayflower is a microbrewery, founded in historic Plymouth, MA by the tenth great grandson of John Alden. Alden was a beer barrel cooper aboard the original Mayflower, thus the namesake for the brewing company. We sampled their red Spring Hop Ale, Porter, and Golden Ale, all of which are made using water from the brooks surrounding Plymouth, where the original pilgrims landed.

Following Mayflower Brewing Company, we made our way to Cellars at Jasper Hill, a Vermont creamery specializing in cow's milk based cheeses. Jasper Hill utilizes Ayrshire cows for their cheeses, resulting in high-solids cheese with an exceptionally creamy texture. The cheeses we sampled were mostly made from raw cow's milk, meaning that the milk was not pasteurized before being turned into cheese. Though there is much debate over the effects of bacteria on cheese flavor, and how pasteurizing can remove that bacteria, our group was quite enamored with the variety of cheeses we sampled, which included bleu, brie, and alpine cheeses.

The end of our festival samplings took us to the Wormtown Brewery. This brewery, based in Worcester, MA, is listed as the only brewery that uses Massachusetts-grown ingredients in every one of their beers. This company is known for their Hop Back and Double Dry Hop brewing proccesses, which give their beers extra hoppy flavor. Wormtown was voted the 2014 Grand National Champion at the U.S. Open Beer Championships, and won this year's Boston Beer & Cheese Festival award for the King of Hops. Even with these accolades, the bitter taste of this hoppy beer was not a favorite amongst our group.

The final cheese tasting we enjoyed was with Crystal Brook Farm, a creamery based in Sterling, MA, specializing in cheese made from goat's milk. The soft cheeses they provided were both decadent and unique in their flavors. Crystal Brook sampled their Australian Ginger, Chive, and Lemon-Lavender cheeses. The favorite amongst our group, and seemingly the majority of the festival attendees, was the Australian Ginger Cheese. This particular cheese was brimming with the typical flavors you find in cheesecake, making it a sweet ending to our samplings.

In the end, the festival was an entertaining way to spend a Saturday night, and provided some much-needed exposure for local businesses. Sampling the many craft brews, ciders, and cheeses allowed us to try products that we would not normally know of, and sample brews that we wouldn't typically be inclined to purchase. I would recommend this festival to anyone wishing to experience a taste of New England in a fun, casual setting.

Cheers!

2014 Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular @ Roger Williams Park Zoo

This year I returned yet again to visit and enjoy the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. I decided to go on a Thursday night rather than the weekend to avoid the crowds I had experienced in years past. That was a smart move. There were virtually no lines at all and parking was a breeze. I think it also helped that all day it had be on the verge of rain or sprinkling.

Anyhow it was a perfect night to go. This year the theme of the show was called A to Z. It arranged scenes in alphabetical order and included highlights from history and pop culture. There was also a section honoring inspirational figures past and present. The display includes over 5,000 illuminated jack-o-lanterns with 125 of them skillfully carved. All of the carved pumpkins are surrounded by dozens of other smaller jack-o-lanterns. Each with their own unique personality and quirky look.

The intricately carved pumpkin started with the typical Halloween style scary pumpkins. I particularly enjoyed the limbs that appear to show people trying to climb out of a whole that formed a face. It was creepy and awesome all at the same time.

Next we saw some famous artists like Norman Rockwell. It was one of his iconic self-portraits and makes me want to visit his museum in Stockbridge, MA.

As we proceeded we encountered the dinosaurs. The skillfully carved triceratops and t-Rex were amazing but the dinosaur eye really was awesome. It felt like it was looking right at me.

In keeping with the dinosaurs the next batch were what they called exotic pumpkins. They included the fantastic plumage of the peacock, the delicacy of the tree frog and the mystery of the mermaid. Others along the winding path included the world of fantasy with cartoon characters and mythical creatures like the unicorn.

Impressions are everything and the impressionist collection of carved pumpkins included Monet’s water lily’s and Degas’s dancers.

The Jungle included the likes of Tarzan swinging from the vines while avoiding crocodiles, a masterfully carved leopard, a lion, gorilla, and a tiger.

 

The Knights second brought us back to medieval times with dragons, castles and full suits of armor.

In keeping with legends we moved towards a more musical kind. Including the likes of Elvis and Aretha Franklin. Each pictured belting out one of their greatest hits.

Mythology took us next into a dangerous world of werewolves and gods with Poseidon yielding his trident and medusas snakes gazing out at us. My favorite his was the Cyclops with his menacing face and single eye.

 

Many of those creatures of mythology can be found in novels and that leads us to the likes of Gulliver’s Travels, 20000 Leagues Under The Sea and Moby Dick all featured with scenes from the book that are unmistakable.

Next we were caught by the words of famous poet Robert frost carved into 7 pumpkins. “The words are lovely dark and deep but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep”.

While he maybe a king of the literary world he is no match for the next group of notable figures. Many of these women ruled the world like Queen Nefertiti, and others are remnants of monarchy’s that were once more than just figural however Queen Elizabeth II is still a highly regarded leader. Others only hold their power at the casino’s and are featured on playing cards.

Saying good bye is hard and in the remembrance section we got a last chance to say goodbye to Robin Williams, Joan Crawford, Shirley Temple and other famous actors, and comedians. 

Following is the Seashore and with summer past it too is like a remembrance to see the surfboards and other sea life like the giant turtle.

Each of them made you think Like Rodin’s “the thinker”

Even pop culture made an appearance with True Blood’s Snookie Stackhouse, Willy Wonka themed pumpkins, and Star Wars characters showing us the way.

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite part of the whole spectacle is the final display called the Laughing Tree. It includes hundreds of glowing jack-o-lanterns spread out on the ground and in the trees all surrounding several carved giant pumpkins that weigh in over 1,000lbs with spooky music and fog which creates a dramatic finale to the amazing display. It was a great evening and a pleasurable experience and now I know to come during the week to avoid the crowds for future visits.

 

The final few pumpkins were designed to inspire us to carve a pumpkin of our own and called on some inspirational people to help carry the message to do something great in our lives.