A lovely day in Boston (except for the weather)!

I always try to plan my last day, when I visit my son, daughter-in-law, and the most adorable baby in the world, so that I can have a walk-around day in Boston before flying home. The weather didn't cooperate yesterday; it was cold, grey and damp.

However, I did get a lovely lunch at Kingfish Hall . This is a Todd English restaurant (that handsome devil!), but I wondered about the fact that it's right by Faneuil Hall, a major tourist destination. I should have known. Just as Olives and Figs are wonderful places, so is this!

I got there a little early, and just enjoyed a glass of McCrostie chardonnay ($10) as I perused the list of excellent seafood dishes. That's not all they have, but that's their specialty and who am I to argue! I started with "Not Your Mother's Clam Chowder," a more elegant version than most I've had. With bits of potato, scallion and streaky bacon to supplement the generous portion of chopped fresh clams, topped with one steamer, and really cute little cracker puffs. Eventually I narrowed the main course list down to the Pasta Crabonara: Linguine with bacon, cream, parmesan and a fresh Maryland soft-shell crab, or the pesto-crusted roasted halibut.

I thought about taking both and getting a doggie bag for later, since the flight home was foodless, but the side dishes pulled me toward the halibut: a baby yellow and red tomato salad, crusty potato cake and balsamic drizzle. YUMMY. But I still wish I had gotten the soft-shell crab dish, too! The waiter could not have been more gracious if I had been a table of corporate guys on expense accounts instead of a lone female, so I tipped him generously!

Afterwards, walked the few blocks to the North End, Boston's little Italy. There's a sort of pharmacy that carries a wide variety of real Italian cooking magazines and I always pick up a few to bring back.

Then on to Mike's Pastry Shop for pastries and pistachio macaroons to bring home. By then the weather was getting threatening, so I headed it back to the airport without my usual espresso in one of the very authentic Italian cafés along Hanover Street, complete with handsome Italian hunks watching satellite Italian soccer games and rooting in Italian for their favorite team (and wondering about the unfamiliar woman in the corner, drinking espresso and reading Italian cooking magazines!). Fortunately, there WILL be a next time!

I'm off in Massachusetts, visiting the most adorable baby (and her parents, my son and daughter-in-law). We went the first night to a Mexican restaurant, Azteca in Attleboro, MA. Might be one of the most authentic I've ever eaten in. My son, the voracious eater, had the Azteca special, which appeared to be one of everything on the menu, and took two plates to serve. The other three of us had different combo dinners. Mine had an enchilada, and the unique sauce was almost creamy and quite yummy. Then there was a "guacatorta," a sort of flatbread topped with a bean filling, shredded spiced lettuce, thick red-ripe tomato slices and possibly the best guacamole dressing I've ever had! With three excellent margaritas and a beer, the entire check was a hair over $40. Wish they would open a place in Memphis! I would love to have a recipe for that enchilada sauce...more about MA eating experiences later.

Interesting statistic: The annual per capita comsumption of honey in the US: 1.31 lbs. The amount of honey the average worker honey bee makes in its lifetime: 1/2 teaspoon. Holy cow, that's a lota bees!

Take some of that honey, cream it with softened butter and cinnamon and spread it on flour tortillas. Cut them in wedges, place on a buttered baking sheet and bake at 400 until puffed and golden, about 5 minutes. Goes great with coffee ice cream. Or mix it with equal amounts of Saga blue cheese (or any soft creamy blue) with a dash of port and stuff very ripe pears (halved and cored). Place in a buttered baking dish, stuff with the blue cheese mixture and run under a preheat broiler until lightly browned. Transfer to dessert plates and spoon any juices in the pan over the top. Yum!

SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD: The Seafood Choices Alliances (Washington, DC) has unveiled the nation's best choices in terms of both taste and environmental impacts:
Wild Alaska and California salmon
American farmed caviars
Atlantic mackerel
US farmed catfish
Dungeness and stone crabs
Pacific halibut
Rainbow trout, farmed
Sablefish (black cod)
Clams, mussels and oysters, farmed

Good regional choices (not always widely available)
Nantucket bay scallops
Southern crawfish
Florida mahi-mahi
South Carolina wreckfish(of which I have never heard!)

And the five worst choices:
Beluga caviar
Chilean sea bass
Farmed Atlantic salmon
Orange roughy
Imported farmed shrimp

Interesting, is it not?

Just to set the record straight: the word "panino" in Italian (the plural being "panini") does not of necessity refer to a grilled sandwich. It means "little bread" or "roll." In cafés or bars, there will be a wide selection with a variety of fillings, beautifully stacked. Some will be on the equivalent of a coarse textured white sandwich bread, some on ciabatta type bread, some on crusty ("Italian") bread. Most bars and cafĂ©s have what we call panini presses, and can warm the sandwich if it's appropriate, and if you want it that way. In the US, it seems that the general accepted wisdom dictates that 1) panini is a singular word, and 2) it MUST be grilled. Wrong on both counts!

Anyone who has ever been to my house for dinner knows how it will finish: with a tiny glass of Limoncello. Or at least one tiny glass! This is pretty ubiquitous in Italy, and is made in many areas. My favorite brand, available in most Memphis liquor stores, is Caravella, but none are bad. Keep it in your freezer, and bring it out just before you're ready to serve it. I serve it after the dessert and coffee, but there is nothing that says that you can't serve it with a few crisp little Italian cookies (available, of course, at Mantia's) instead of dessert. It's a little pricey but a bottle goes a long way!

A quick recipe for a nice antipasto item, or accent to roast or grilled chicken or pork: Pick up a 1# bag of frozen pearl onions at the grocery (heck, they stay good in the fridge for a couple of weeks, double it if you like!). You can, of course get fresh pearl onions and go through the drudgery of peeling each tiny little one... Throw them into a big pot of boiling salted water and bring just back to a boil. Drain and put into a wide skillet (best if you could have them all in one layer, but if you're doing two bags, it would have to be a REALLY wide skillet). Add the juice and grated peel of one large orange (wash it before grating the zest...and zest it before cutting and juicing!), about 1/2 cup good fruity extra-virgin olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Cook for about 10-15 minutes over low heat, just simmering, or until they are golden and glazed. Taste for salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least a day. When ready to serve, grind a little pepper over the top and sprinkle with minced parsley. If you have some basil around a chiffonade of basil (that means cut into very fine little strips) is nice, too.

If you are doing a buffet of antipasti, this makes an admirable addition!

An "Ask Alyce" question: What's the big deal about food temperatures? One of our blog readers had heard from a restauranteur about how ticky the health department can be about food temperatures. I can sympathize with the reader; I remember my grandmother working in the cool of the morning preparing a great big ole meal (called dinner) served to the working men on the farm at noon or thereabouts. After they were done, the fire got banked in the wood-burning stove so it wouldn't be quite so hot in the house, and plates got turned upside down on the bowls of food to keep the flies out. In the evening she took off the plates, made fresh cornbread or biscuits and that was supper. Why aren't we all dead of food poisoning?

I don't know why, but a few years in the business have allowed me to hear and read about enough horror stories to take the food temp edicts very seriously. So, food must be kept either above 140F or below 40F to be safe. Spoilable food kept in the middle of those temperatures risk bacteria growth after a short time, and after a couple of hours can become a hot house of nasty stuff!

That said, I still love the hors-d'oeuvre variés in France, or tapas in Spain, or antipasti in Italy, mostly made earlier in the afternoon and left at room temperature. I eat them with no hesitation at all and have never gotten sick. Foods with plenty of vinegar or some other acid are much less likely to grow evil critters. I certainly have no problem marinating meat a few hours at room temperature, especially if I don't have long before cooking. The flavor seems to penetrate better at room temperature.

To be safe, if you have any concerns, follow the healthy rule of under 40F or over 140F and you should have no problems!

Okay. I've had several e-mails accusing me of being a very slothful blogger lately and what can I say? They're right! We've been so busy at the shop that I've let some things slip! So I promise to catch up with your "Ask Alyce" questions a few at a time, and to get back to drawing your attention to some of the things on the web that I've enjoyed! Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

We've had a hard time recently finding the popular Szechwan (Szechuan? Sichuan? Sichwan?) peppercorns. But until I heard on "Splendid Table" this week about the great Szechwan pepper famine I wasn't sure why!

Since 1968, the federal government has banned the import of Sichuan peppercorns, which are the dried berries of the prickly ash shrub. The Agriculture Department did not really enforce the ban until two years ago, and its effort is expected to dry up supplies soon. Some chefs and retailers say that they are unable to find the peppercorns, which are often an ingredient of five-spice powder, a common Chinese seasoning. Others say they are selling what was stockpiled before the enforcement effort began.
The details are a bit complicated, but if you can believe the New York Times, there is no good reason for the ban other than excessively broad bureaucratic classifications (a related item endangers citrus crops).

There are still some available but apparently when they're gone, they're gone until or unless something changes, when existing legal supplies are depleted, that will be the end. Lynn Rosseto Kasper recommends firing up a peppermill with regular peppercorns, whole all spice and a touch of dried lemon peel as a substitute. I'll give it a try and report back!