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!

Task 30 - No Name Restaurant

In a city which made a name for itself as the birthplace of the American Revolution is an institution with no name. Located in the revitalized seaport district of Boston is the oldest restaurant in Boston known only as the No Name Restaurant. 

Opened in 1917 as a diner catering to the local fishermen working on the pier it now caters to tourists more than locals. It has become a must see for visitors to our city and its rustic well-worn interior and lobster eating instructional placemats add to an experience they won’t forget. 

Its dining room spans the width of the building and has limited premium water view seats overlooking Boston harbor. While the view is spectacular the food is really the winner here. While reviewing the menu we snacked on some homemade garlic bread. Having been before I know their famous Fish Chowda is worth every bite and decided it was a must have.

When their famous fish chowda arrived at the table I knew I made a good choice. The broth was creamy but not heavy. The fish was abundant and tender. It was as I had remembered it, Perfect!

For my entrée I picked the broiled scallops. The seafood is prepared minimally, with most items offered broiled, baked or fried. My scallops were garnished with just a lemon and came with a side of French fries. They were perfectly cooked and very flavorful. I’ll admit that I maybe got more food then I should have and struggled to down it all. 

As a whole the meal was excellent but if I had to pick a favorite it would have been the chowda and if I needed to pick something that could be improved it would be the French fries. 

You pay as you leave at the front desk and the gentleman on duty was polite and interested in our experience. It is the kind of place you go back to knowing you’ll never have a bad experience