The Mustard Zone

I recently upset a fellow Expat Blogger by insinuating that American food is inferior to French food.

I said this partly as a joke, but part of me (the Cheapskate Healthnut part) has been disappointed with the over-processed and over-priced meals I’ve encountered in Boston.

But, since I felt a lot guilty about my treason-worthy comments, I decided to take my camera to lunch with me today at Summer Shack, a very good, fun and casual seafood restaurant owned by James Beard award-winning Boston chef and New England Seafood cookbook guru, Jasper White.

Here is some proof that American food can indeed be good and fresh.

I also had a nice Strawberry Shortcake dessert but ate it before I realized I had wanted to photograph it first.

I went to a Red Sox game a few weeks ago and never got around to posting the photos.

This was only the second time I’d ever been to any kind of sporting event and both times it’s been to a baseball game.

My first game was more fun because my seat was closer to the action on the field and the weather was better.

But at least this time we won!

The 25th annual all-the-ice-cream-you-can-eat-for-only-$7 event known as the Scooper Bowl is taking place this week at Government Center (aka City Hall Plaza).
It’s a fund raising event for the caring and dedicated people commited to fighting cancer at The Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (These organizations and the people who work and volunteer for them really are amazing and special. I know this first-hand since I worked at DFCI during my first year of college.) .
Brain Freeze hit me a few times as I indulged in scoop after scoop during my attempt to lick up every unusually sounding flavor before having to run and catch the 8:20 PM commuter train.
(I made it on the train after running down the platform just seconds before it left. Whew!)
Listed below is a sampling of the flavors I remember trying….There were so many I may have forgotton a few.
The full list is here, though I notice that there were many substitutions. I was interested to see what Lobster Tracks would contain but it wasn’t available tonight. There was also a scary, but also very cool looking, blue ice cream called Splish Splash that was making many in the crowd look like they had been exposed to cyanide. Though it must have been tasty and completely harmless since I overheard one little girl say that it was her new favorite ice cream flavor. It seemed to be very popular since by the time I got around to that stand it was all gone.

My list of 11 flavors (mostly in order of preference)

1. Hollywood Cheesecake (My hands-down favorite. Swirls of cherry coulis and graham cracker. Just like a real cheesecake, only frozen.)

2. Light Maine Blueberry and Sweet Cream (Very good blueberry taste. Lots of big, fat blueberries mixed in! Didn’t taste light.)

3. Crème de la Berry (Nice. Like a crème brulee with raspberries.)

4. Rum Raison (Basic but good.)

5. Lemon Meringue (Very refreshing.)

6. Cinnamon Buns (Unexpected, since what I always associate cinnamon buns with is warmth and breakfast. The dry-textured little balls mixed into the ice cream tasted like brown sugar and cinnamon.)

7. Raspberry Sorbet (Also very light, refreshing, and basic.)

8. Maine Wild Blueberry (Lacking those big bursts of blueberry like the flavor at number two. A little more artificial tasting.)

9. Cookies and Cream (Vanilla ice cream with crushed Oreos mixed-in.)

10. Shock-A-Cone (Interesting. Though I still have no idea what the base ice cream flavor was or what was in it besides maybe chocolate chunks and bits of waffle cone.)

11. Take the Cake (Very artifically yellow-tinted with brightly colored confetti sprinkles mixed in. Tasted like raw Duncan Hines yellow cake batter I grew up licking out of the bowl.)

I think there may have been a few more, but if so, they were not memorable enough for me to make it onto my list.

Still. 11 scoops in total is a lot! Good thing I am not lactose intolerant.

Sorry for the lack of photos. My camera’s battery died right as I was going to take my first photo.

It was hot and humid today after a few days of cold and drizzle, so I decided to take the scenic route to the train station this afternoon.

Across the Longfellow Bridge, up Beacon Hill, through the Public Garden, down Newbury Street, and through Copley Square.

The Swan Boats are out and the flowers are in bloom…..

I’m so excited to be in Boston this Spring since I got to be here to meet the Chocolate & Zucchini Blogger, Clotilde Dusoulier at The French Library!

Clotilde talked about her life (both in California and Paris), her blog, and the process of writing and publishing a cookbook.
She is very passionate about food and gave a very personal talk. She speaks as if she is talking to a group of friends and not giving any kind of formal lecture. She is also very funny and very pretty!

After the talk, there was French wine and a sampling of three recipes from her new cookbook:

Green Bean Salad with Pecans and Dry-Cured Ham
Chocolate Raspberry Cake
(and of course!) Chocolate & Zucchini Cake

I liked the cakes the best.

I spent the rest of the night speaking with Megan and Kelly. They were both so fun and interesting to talk to that I hope we run into each other again for some more French food and drink! We’ll have to try and practice our French next time!

I am counting down the days until July 1st when I move into my new, posh Harvard Square apartment with a real kitchen. I’ve been living in the worst conditions in a tiny studio and sans oven for the last 3 months and oh, how I hate not being able to make all those American dishes I used to miss when I was in France. It’s such a shame to be passing by all those ingredients I now have such easy access to.

I think my first recipe from the book will probably the zucchini carpaccio with raspberry vinegar since that requires no cooking and sounds really healthy.

When Clotilde was signing my copy of her book I asked her if she thinks the French will be as receptive to her recipes as the Americans, since almost all of her recipes use very unexpected pairings of ingredients (avocado and strawberry, beef bourguignon with chocolate, mashed potatoes and anchovies). I only asked because all of the French people I know think it’s a scandal if you even so much as add some exotic spices to foie gras or try and add mushrooms to ratatouille. All the ones I know also never use any kind of spices in their cooking or at the most they’ll use just one since they think that mixing too many flavors together does not complement the main ingredient but is instead overpowering. (She replied that she thinks things in France are changing.) Hopefully Clotilde will one day open a restaurant of her own! She said it wasn’t something she was interested in doing but perhaps she’ll change her mind if we’re lucky.

Congratulations Clotilde and thank you for signing your book for me!

Some of Clotilde’s photos from her book tour can be found on her Moblog.

Meet Centipede, Spider, and Mold.
They love to greet me at the door each night and always seem to jump into the shower before me in the morning.
They’re such pests.