December 2009

We got a table! At long last, Coppa Boston has opened, and we were there for their first dinner. Now if you read regularly, you know that tonight I had planned a 30 minute hill workout and a Project Strength yoga workout. You also know that, to me, flexibility is one of the most important parts of marathon training. I received some not so great news today regarding my career, and with the rainy, gray weather and still being tired from a killer Monday workout, I decided that I needed to eat good food and sleep. That’s it.

I had also heard that Coppa, a new South End restaurant headed up by Chef’s Ken Oringer (of Toro gorgeousness, among others)  and Jamie Bissonnette, was finally opening after some delays. I for one was very excited to give it a try, so the hubs and I headed over to the South End after he picked me up from work.

Located on the corner of Shawmut and Milford Streets in a quaint little neighborhood, Coppa is across from  South End Formaggio  and Polka Dog Bakery. We arrived before 6:00 when Coppa opened and opted to have drinks at the Franklin Cafe. At exactly 6 we went back and were seated immediately. The inside of Coppa is small and cozy with wood floors and painted exposed brick. The bar features a blackboard with the cocktail specials and wine list scrawled on it and looks like the perfect place to sit for a couple of small plates and a drink or two.

We were seated at a table next to the bar and started with a pitcher of Aperol Spritz, a refreshing mix of Aperol, prosecco, and soda water. It reminded me of a very long time ago on a trip to Italy, the slight bitter grapefruit of the Aperol with the effervescence and sweetness of the prosecco and soda. The perfect choice.

We ordered a bunch of small plates, Island Creek oysters with cranberry and prosecco, arancini, burrata with sea salt and breseoala, skirt steak topped with cippolini onion agro dolce, and Brussels sprouts with pancetta, pecorino, and horseradish. After finishing those, we ordered more oysters and fried artichokes with aioli.

Where do I start? Everything was delicious, but the standouts for me were the oysters and the addictive Brussels sprouts. The sweet tart cranberry paired perfectly with the briny oysters. It didn’t hurt that the oyster truck was actually outside, and Chef Oringer told us himself that they had just been harvested. Nothing better than fresh oysters, except for oysters artfully topped with cranberries and prosecco! Then there were the Brussels sprouts. Thank you Chefs for having these on the menu! We all know how much I love these green globes of deliciousness, and Coppa prepares them with flavor and flair. They were on par with the Brussels at the Foodbuzz Festival. And that is a serious comparison. 

The hubby LOVED the steak. I didn’t try any of it but did have a bite of sweet cippolini onion, yum! The fried artichokes, with their ever so light batter and salty aioli and a squeeze of fresh lemon also topped the list. We tried so many dishes, and yet there are still so many that we wanted!

The music at Coppa was great, and the whole vibe was energetic and welcoming. The service was that of a restaurant on opening night, servers moving swiftly around, making it difficult for me to snap great photos, but making for a fun eating experience. The Boston Channel’s Chronicle was filming the opening night; check it out and maybe you will see us eating and trying not to laugh in front of the camera 🙂

Coppa is a welcome addition to the South End and is off to an incredible start. Our meal went off without a hitch, and the hostess was very interested in our feedback as I was leaving. Best of luck to this new restaurant, and if you are looking for a rustic yet chic Italian experience in Boston, check it out!

Fresh off of last night’s baking disaster, I thought that I would share a disastrous travel story from days long past. I really wish that I had photos of my college travels through Europe, as there was always an adventure to be had. Alas, digital cameras weren’t invented yet, or at least they were not very common.

Living in Ireland as a student meant that we were a hop, skip, and a jump from continental Europe, and with Ryanair emerging as THE discount airline to fly we had no reason NOT to travel. For much of the semester, we cleaned a house that our landlord owned just to make extra money. We were determined to go everywhere.

One weekend, we found round trip tickets from Shannon to Frankfurt for around the equivalent of $50, and we booked them on the spot. Knowing nothing about Frankfurt except that we had never been there and that it was the birthplace of Goethe (Hey, I was an English major!), we set off for Frankfurt and our weekend home, Jugendgastehaus.

We spent our first night as any 20 year olds in Europe would, bar hopping, I remember in particular capirinhas at a Brazilian bar called Ipanema and singing Irish songs at an Irish bar called O’Reilly’s. It was an early night as we had traveled early in the morning and were exhausted, but it was not to be a restful night. Not long after I fell asleep, I was woken up by the piercing screams of my friend. In the dark, there was no telling what had happened. Our other hostel roommate, a much older woman, had sprung to action and turned on light. My friend was laying face down on the floor in a pool of blood. A deep sleeper and unfamiliar sleeping in a top bunk bed, she had rolled out and on to the floor, only waking up when her face collided with the hard wood!

Our strong and fast moving roommate, shouting in German, scooped my friend up, using the hostel towels to stop the bleeding from her nose. I got my first and only ride in a German ambulance that night and got the inside scoop on German healthcare. We spent most of the next day sleeping, my poor friend with two black eyes and a broken nose. Other than a few walks by the river and a few slices of cake in coffeehouses, we didn’t see much of Frankfurt, and now I want to go back!

So that’s one of my travel trials. There are many more to share!

How about you? What is your most disastrous travel story?

Happy Tuesday! Baby it’s cold outside here in Boston. Wasn’t it just Thursday that I was wandering around during lunch wearing a skirt and short sleeved shirt? That’s New England for ya, summer one day and snow the next! We are expected to have a messy morning commute, and I would like nothing more than to work from home. Fingers crossed!

Tonight was a busy night in that we had to go and vote. Normally voting takes a really long time, but unfortunately it seems as though less than 10% of Boston’s population came out to vote today. I really didn’t want to go, but started thinking about all of the people in the past and present who were not allowed to vote, and that got me off my bum.

Dinner was quick and easy, California Pizza Kitchen Margarita Pizza from a box and delicious spinach and pickled veggie salads.

All day long all I thought about was making chocolate chip shortbread, the same recipe I have been making for years from my Chocolate Lover’s collection recipe book.

I gathered all of the ingredients, 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup Ghirardelli chocolate chips, the ones that make me swoon. If I lived in San Francisco, I would spend a lot of time in Ghirardelli Square. There’s a wine tasting room there too. Chocolate and wine 🙂

I paired my baking with a small glass of Alexander Valley Petite Syrah called Rendition. It helped when the recipe turned out to be a total flop. Normally it is very easy. Normally I just combine the sugar and softened butter into a paste, then, using my hands, work the flour in, adding the chocolate chips last, then pressing the whole ball of dough into a pie plate.

The dough looked okay, maybe a little more crumbly than normal, but I pressed it into the dish and popped it into the preheated (375) oven for 12 minutes.

Well, I don’t know if it was that I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose white flour, which is what I suspect, but rather than baking into a golden, crunchy shortbread as it has dozens of times before, I ended up with a burnt buttery puddle with melted chocolate in it. Not. pretty. I let it sit because sometimes the shortbread hardens more after sitting for awhile. Not this time. The butter separated out, leaving a lovely oil slick, and well the melted chocolate part. No one would want to eat it or look at it. 🙁

I really wanted to make a fun dessert, so I went to option two, Oreo balls from How Sweet It Is:

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2009/11/29/oreo-balls

I used faux-reos from the supermarket, penny pincher that I am 🙂 In all I took 8 of these lovely cookies, not counting the one I ate, and mashed them beyond recognition in my mini food processor. Then I tossed in about a cup of cream cheese and let the processor do its thing. The result was a chocolatey cheesecake filling. Instead of forming the filling into balls and dipping them in chocolate as Jessica did, I made a crust in small dessert bowls out of more faux-reos and topped the crust with the cheesecake filling. Easy and yummy, and more than made up for the shortbread disaster.

When the shortbread DOES turn out as planned, it is amazing. I have made it for parties and it disappears quickly. It is also nice when cut into bars, wrapped in wax paper, and given as a little gift in a decorative tin or box.

I will make it again, don’t worry. For tonight, my no bake chocolatey cheesecake bowl is just fine 😉