pickles

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I love Jamaica Plain. I am pretty sure that if we stay on the East coast, JP will be the next place we move. I first started spending time in this Boston neighborhood about three and a half years ago when I started volunteering at the MSPCA, and I have been going back ever since.

On Thursday night, after the Brugal party at the Urban Grape, we decided to swing through JP on our way home to try one of the area’s new restaurants, Canary Square.

Canary Square’s space is SO different than that of its previous occupant, Alchemist (a restaurant I really liked!). Where Alchemist was broken into rooms, Canary Square is wide open with a long bar at the far end of the room and tons of windows.

Any restaurant that starts my experience off with house-made pickles gets an immediate gold star. If these were on the menu, I would have gotten several orders. I am a pickle fiend.

Canary Square pickles

Canary Square has a really good beer and cocktail menu as well as quite a few wines by the glass. It was hard to decide what to order, but I settled on a Harpoon Leviathan, a dark, strong beer served in a cute little glass. The beer was actually too dark to photograph in the dark room, but it was really good.

Deciding on a meal was even more difficult. I thought for sure I would get the SLT, a BLT with smoked salmon in place of the bacon. And I really do want to return to try that.

But, when my eyes came across a really interesting salad, my greens-craving body decided to go for it.

WARM SWISS CHARD AND CRANBERRY
fire roasted pulled chicken, pecans, poached egg, bacon
vinaigrette

Interesting, right? I love chard, and as I am going to be focusing more on getting stronger and toned in my workouts, I liked that this had a lot of protein from the egg and chicken. This was the perfect winter salad, and I never would have dreamed it up!

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My husband’s meal was a little less exciting but just as delicious.

WOOD ROASTED PULLED CHICKEN
canary slaw, bbq sauce, black pepper brioche,
hand cut fries

These were some seriously good fries, thick cut, well-salted, rustic and flavorful. The slaw was quite good as well, and the tender, zesty chicken went perfectly with the peppery bread.

pulled chicken sandwich

Canary Square was a great place for a casual and reasonably priced meal. The service was quick and friendly, the vibe was fun and relaxed, and the restaurant was bustling but not obnoxiously loud. I look forward to returning to sample some of their special cocktails.

I have been on a big greens craving lately but feeling too cold to eat salads, so warm greens it is! What have you had a craving for these days?

Canary Square on Urbanspoon

Tags: beer, Boston, Canary Square, chard, Food, Jamaica Plain, pickles, restaurant, salad

Boston’s first Food Truck Festival was certainly a meaty affair! The South End Open Markets made room for a caravan of food trucks serving, for the most part,  a meat-lover’s dream.  There were many vendors including Speed’s Hot Dogs, M & M Ribs, the Sausage Guy, and another hot dog truck. The lines for all of these were enormously long. Luckily, the line at Grillo’s Pickles was short, short enough for me to return twice for their spicy, crispy pickles.

Grillo's Pickles

These pickles are pretty amazing, though I would love it if they served whole pickles, deli-style.

Grillo's Pickles

The line was also short at another favorite of mine, Equal Exchange Cafe. Their nutty, buttery roast is always delicious and always doing good. So my day started off with pickles and coffee, the breakfast of champions!

Equal Exchange Coffee

The Food Truck festival was a great idea in theory, it is an event that might have been better saved for cooler weather and laid out a little better so to avoid maddening, crisscrossing lines. More veggie options would have been nice too. I think I went into the event expecting it to be like the                 FoodBuzz Festival street food event, which was a little off. At any rate, I was hungry, so we headed over to the market part of the open markets.

I admired some of the jewelry and other wares for sale, including these dog bowls made out of old wine boxes. You know that I will have one of these for my someday dog.

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I spent some time drooling over Marie Galvin’s stunning hats and fascinators wishing I had an occasion to wear one to.

And then we got down to food business. You can always count on The Herb Lyceum at Gilson’s to have fresh, amazing food. We shared the Herbal Spring Roll, a crunchy fresh roll that feature’s Gilson’s fresh herbs and comes with a flavorful peanutty sauce.

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We also shared their BLT which paired salty bacon with chewy focaccia, perfect summer tomatoes, lettuce, and a bit of mayo.

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The South End Open Markets always start the day off right. After, we did some Trader Joe’s shopping for the week, especially to get the hubby well stocked since I am going to be working from my mom’s in NJ later in the week while she recovers from surgery. Prior to that I have a Healthworks blogger event, a lunch at Sibling Rivalry, and lots of work to do. . . it’s going to be a busy one!

Now for the giveaway! I know many of you have been reading blogs that were participating in the Athenos “Change for the Feta” month in July and loving all of the feta creations. Athenos has offered one lucky reader a coupon for free feta plus a neat little salad pod for taking salads on the go. All you have to do is leave a comment letting me know your favorite or most unique way to use feta. If you are on Twitter and not following me, please go ahead and follow. And if you have a blog, please link back to this post. And if you haven’t “Liked” Travel, Wine, and Dine on Facebook, I would love it if you would, thank you!

I would add feta to my recent tomato pie. I made it with blue cheese, but I definitely have friends who would prefer feta, and this would be a perfect dish for entertaining.

The giveaway winner will be announced on Friday. Good luck everyone!

Tags: Athenos, Boston, food truck festival, giveaway, pickles, South End, SoWa Markets, The Herb Lyceum

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