Eating & Learning in Boston's North End

With a recent work trip to India followed immediately by Spring Break, I am behind on updating this blog. After my return from India Will and I visited my sister Edie in Massachusetts, and now I am in SoCal for four days.

In Boston, Will and I enjoyed a guided food tour of the North End, then returned the next day with Edie to explore further, and do some shopping. I am really becoming a fan of guided city tours. Our tour in Boston was provided by Michele Topor's Boston Food Tours, and our tour guide was Jim Becker. The tour was packed with information about Italian food and the history of Boston's North End. Jim was a great teacher and entertaining guide.

I especially appreciated the fact that Jim worked hard to steer clear of the more touristy aspects of the North End. Authentic is an overused word that is hard to define. Authentic Italian American cuisine is certainly not authentic Italian cuisine, but it is also a step up from from 'tourist' Italian American cuisine. Jim was great at explaining the differences and how they developed over time.

My son Will asks "why do you have to take pictures of everything". After looking at the photos I took in the North End, my personal reaction was "damn, I was paying so much attention to Jim that I missed a lot of photos I should have taken". With that said, I did get a few good shots, and of course recollections of the places we visited. These are actually a composite of the tour and returning the next day to shop, eat and reprise the tour with my sister.

Polcari's Coffee

Polcari's Coffee is one of my favorite spots in the North End. I had been there previously, but learned a lot more on this tour. Polcari's has been in operation since 1932, selling coffee (of course), spices, grains and other dry goods. Walk in, and you are engulfed in sweet smells of coffee, cinnamon and other spices and the sense of being transported back in time by the wood floor, glass canisters and variety of bulk spices and dry goods.

**Part of Polcari's Huge Selection of Spices and Dry Goods**

At each place we visited, Jim provided some interesting food lore. His background as a chef was certainly evident and helped make the tour far more than a series of visits to interesting shops. One of the key lessons at Polcari's was on the difference between Cassia Cinnamon and Ceylon (real) Cinnamon. They are both tree bark, and have similar flavors and aromas, but cassia is less expensive and is commonly sold as cinnamon. I knew they were different, but had never compared them head to head. Smelling cassia side by side with real cinnamon was a revelation. The aroma of cassia made me think of fireballs and other cinnamon candy. The aroma of real cinnamon brought to mind the best pastries or cinnamon flavored rice pudding. It was a little milder, but also more complex with scents of a range of spices and flowers. In the future for baking and desserts I will be using Ceylon Cinnamon.

One of the wonderful aspects of the North End tour was how friendly everyone was in the shops we visited. I wanted to take a picture of the old scale at Polcari's. The nice guy behind the counter (whose name I embarrassingly failed to get) staged the scale with espresso beans, and then posed in the photo.

Monica's

Monica's Mercato and two associated restaurants are the collective project of the Mendoza Brothers, whose mother and family are Italian immigrants to the North End via Argentina. Part of our take home dinner on Friday came from Monica's Mercato, and we visited Tratorria di Monica for lunch on Saturday. All of their food was drool-worthy.

I can vouch for the sign that says "Best Italian Sub in Boston". Will and I shared one on Friday, and it was delicious. The Mendozas have their own bakery, and the sub roll and contents were both excellent. I am not eating much wheat these days, but the North End was a justifiable excuse to cheat.

One of Jim's lessons at Monica's Mercato was on the difference between salami and sopressata. While both are cured sausage, salami is typically made with ground meat and has a fine grain texture while sopressata is made with chopped meat and hence has a course texture.

Monica's Mercato (like most of the places we visited) had a small interior, but it was densely packed with delicious and colorful food.

Trattoria di Monica

We had lunch Saturday at Trattoria di Monica. Our wonderful waitress (another name fail on my part) said the broccoli rabe with sausage over sweet potato gnocchi was her favorite. I would have been sold anyway, and it was delicious. Will had a sausage sub, which as normal with him disappeared before I had even noticed its arrival. That seems to happen with 14 year old boys and food.

Jim took us to a lot of other places in the North End. We ate wicked pastries at Maria's, met Albie at Alba's Produce, learned the difference between the two types of real balsamic vinegar at DePasquale's and tasted delicious limoncello at Cirace & Son. When people retire to Florida it baffles me. If I ever have the luxury of retirement, I will move to somewhere like the North End where I can be in the midst of a continuous lesson in delicious food and wine.

The photos below show more of the mouthwatering North End neighborhood.

JetBlue Fancy Nut Mix: Not Nutritious, Not Nuts

I have to admit to being very frustrated with JetBlue. Part of the problem is missed expectations. When I flew JetBlue a few years ago, I was impressed. They were a value priced airline with perks. JetBlue had good service, high quality cabin snacks, free seat-back video, and convenient airports. I flew them from IAD to Long Beach on quite a few occasions.

The last couple of days my experience has been very different. Delays on both legs of a round trip to Boston. Bait and switch pricing on their web site. Seat back video that didn't work. Extreme nickel and dime up-charges for everything. And lousy, unhealthy cabin snacks instead of the nice high quality Terra Chips that I remembered.

I am only focused in this blog post on their "Fancy Nut Mix" cabin snack. I will start with the Nutritious claim on the bag (Gourmet & Nutritious). As seen in the photo below, the bag contains 14g of fat out of 28g (50%) and 8g out of 28g carbohydrates (28%). So 78% of the package is fat or carbs, and only 18% is protein. Bacon is healthier, at 42% fat and 37% protein (reference here).

The main label on the bag of Fancy Nut Mix shown below is very misleading, and the fine print ("A premium blend of Almonds, Cashews and Honey Roasted Sesame Sticks") is only a little better. From the labeling I would expect bag of nuts, and even if I read the fine print I would expect mostly nuts. Not so.

I weighed the contents of two bags together to try and correct for a single bag outlier. The weight of the two bags together was 57g, almost exactly what it should be. However, the sesame sticks constitute slightly over half the total contents by weight (30g out of 57g, or 53%). A more accurate title on the package would be sesame stick and nut mix.

**Total Weight of Contents of Two Bags of Fancy Nut Mix**

**Sesame Sticks Contained in Two Packages of Fancy Nut Mix**

Even more misleading is the official ingredients label. It lists almonds as the first ingredient, and sesame sticks as the second. These labels are required to list ingredients in order by their proportion in the overall contents. So, by listing almonds first, they should make up the highest proportion of all the ingredients in the bag. Not close.

**Almonds Contained in Two Bags of Fancy Nut Mix**

Sesame sticks are 30g, or 53% of the total and Almonds are 19g out of a total weight of 57g, or 33% of the total. Almonds and cashew nuts IN TOTAL are not the primary ingredient in the bag. Listing almonds as the primary ingredient is not even close to correct.

So, JetBlue is handing out snacks that are labeled in ways that are both misleading and factually incorrect. I know a single cabin snack is probably a silly reflection on an airline, but my experience this week with JetBlue was a big let down after my earlier experience and my current expectations.

Exploring Bangalore: Visiting Ulsoor Burial Ground

I was in Bangalore recently and had the great good fortune to take a guided cultural tour of the city arranged by Kaveri Sinhji at Bluefoot Cultural Consulting. My guide Laila has lived in Bangalore for 10 years, and provided an excellent and thought provoking experience. This is the first of several blogs posts capturing my experiences from the tour.

The first stop on our tour was an old cemetery, where there is a temple to the Hindu goddess Kali, and where many followers of Kali are buried. The graveyard is quite large, spanning the distance between CMH Road and Old Madras Road in central Bangalore. In spite of its size, I have found getting an accurate name for the cemetery to be challenging. Laila said I should just just search for the CMH Road Cemetery. In looking at the maps, it appeared (see below) that the proper name is the Lakshmipuram Graveyard. When I asked Kaveri she immediately said it was the Ulsoor Burial Ground. There are very few references on Google under any of these names. The only article I found which links the two names is actually about using a portion of the burial ground as a cricket pitch!

I have to say that what I learned during my cemetery tour and my research since has left me with a lot of questions. For example, most Hindus are cremated when they die, and I understand their ashes are often spread on a river. If so, why the grave markers? Do some people have their ashes buried?

All of the grave markers have triangular openings. Why? Are these vents of some kind? I thought I was being observant and asking good questions, but I obviously have a lot more reading to do.

I visited the Ulsoor Burial Ground soon after a festival celebrating Kali. As shown below, and visible above, many family members of the dead had recently visited the ceremony to perform pujas (religious rituals) and make offerings of food and flowers to their departed relatives. I think this is a wonderful way to maintain spiritual connections to departed family. I remember having picnics in the cemetery where my paternal grandparents are buried, and have only come to learn as an adult that this is unusual for Christians.

While I found some references on Google to the Ulsoor Burial Ground, I found no references to the Kali Temple located in the center of the cemetery. As seen from the photo below, the site, called Smashana Kali Temple according to Kaveri, is large and distinctive and I was surprised not to find more information about it and its history.

The statute of Kali is pretty classic (based on my research), painted blue with a red tongue and eight arms. She is usually shown standing with her foot on Lord Shiva.

Laila took me to the cemetery explaining that is was a place where black magic is practiced. While that appears to be one manifestation of Kali worship, she is a very complex goddess and very important in Hinduism. I read the Wikipedia entry on Kali a couple of times, and it is interesting. It starts out describing Kali as the "Hindu goddess associated with empowerment" but as you read further, a more violent persona emerges.

“In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, popular legends say that Kali, becoming drunk on the blood of her victims on the battlefield, dances with destructive frenzy. In her fury she fails to see the body of Shiva, who lies among the corpses on the battlefield and steps on his chest. Realizing Shiva to lie beneath her feet, her anger is pacified and she calms her fury.”

— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali

Further reading amplifies the complexity of Kali and her importance. Interestingly though, I did not see much discussion of the link to black magic. I did not learn why her followers still practice blood sacrifice, nor why their rituals are considered 'black' magic. While I am not sure the definition of black magic, there certainly appear to be powerful rituals associated with the worship of Kali.

In the photo below, this group had just sacrificed a chicken and placed it beside the figure of the goddess. There seems to be a set sequence in praying to the goddess. Making an offering, purifying yourself in the fire, kneeling and saying a prayer and then taking the red powder to mark your forehead. I did my best to follow the same routine, minus the chicken.

**Locks Signifying Requests of the Goddess**

This reclining figure is also the goddess Kali. Each lock was placed by a worshipper and represents a request for assistance from the goddess. It was explained to me that if the request is granted, Kali unlocks the lock. I saw a few unlocked locks and wish I could follow up with whoever placed them to find out if their request was in fact granted.

At the end of my visit to the cemetery and temple I had a ceremony performed to rid my body of negative energy. A holy woman (I am not sure the correct term) took an egg and waved it over me, then tapped my forehead, shoulders and side with the egg. After this, she threw the egg away in a field of trash. The egg had captured the negative energy from my body and (I think) it was carried away and destroyed when the egg was broken.

I can't say whether or not the ceremony worked, but I had a wonderful day with Laila, and my trip to India was very successful. This is one of those situations where I am willing to try the magic, I will take any help I can get.

Wandering in Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore

I am in Bangalore over the weekend, and in addition to work I am doing some exploring. As usual when I am traveling, a lot of my exploring relates to local food and markets. I started yesterday with a return visit to Gandhi Bazaar. (Any of the photos below can be clicked to view them full size.)

Gandhi Bazaar is in a very old part of Bangalore, near the Bull Temple in the Basavanagudi area (this is actually redundant since Basavanagudi refers to the temple). This is a residential area with wonderful tree cover that makes the main street almost a tunnel. I am told all of Bangalore used to look like this.

Gandhi Bazaar has vendors selling a variety of fruits, vegetables and of course many other things on side roads. It is distinguished though for selling various items used in Hindu religious rituals including temple offerings and personal ceremonies, or pujas. As I learned last night from my friend Neeraja, pujas are a daily occurrence in most Hindu homes.

“Puja (worship) of the gods consists of a range of ritual offerings and prayers typically performed either daily or on special days before an image of the deity, which may be in the form of a person or a symbol of the sacred presence. In its more developed forms, puja consists of a series of ritual stages beginning with personal purification and invocation of the god, followed by offerings of flowers, food, or other objects such as clothing, accompanied by fervent prayers.”

— http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/a/rites_rituals_2.htm

Many offerings are made enclosed in the betel leaf, which is also historically chewed along with the areca nut as a stimulant. These are offered at the end of meals, when guests leave your home, and apparently on many other occasions. I will say they must be offered a lot because there were numerous betel leaf vendors selling what must have been tens of thousands of betel leaves.

I had a wonderful dinner last night with Neeraja at the restaurant Karavalli at the Taj Gateway on Residency Road and tried the betel leaf at the end of the meal (shown below wrapped and unwrapped). It tasted mildly of menthol, and the package included fennel seed and clove. It cleared my breath, and according to Neeraja aids digestion.

This photos below show a wrapped betel leave, or paan, and the same leaves opened to show sugar coated fennel seeds and other enclosed goodies.

I love going to farm markets in other countries and regions to see the fruits and vegetables that are part of the local cuisine. You can learn so much about a culture and how it evolved from its food. While South Indian food is clearly distinctive, it has also assimilated plenty of European ingredients.

The photos below is one of my favorites from the day. It shows a vendor selling jack fruit, both the very large and distinctive whole fruit, and cut up fruit in the glass case (hard to see in the photo). I understand these fruit to be extremely aromatic, and very sweet. I am also told they are extremely difficult to cut up. I am hoping to try the fruit today. Jack fruit are the largest tree bourn fruit.

A common part of many offerings and pujas are flowers. There were many vendors in Gandhi Bazaar selling individual flowers cut from their stalks, and also flower woven into long garlands that I understand are a traditional offering between the bride and groom in Hindu wedding ceremonies.

I have come to love South Indian food, and am trying to learn to prepare some of the dishes at home (with somewhat limited success). The food is largely vegetarian, very richly flavored, and generally healthy. (I don't think I could be a vegetarian, but if I was I would eat South Indian food every day.) I am continuing to learn the ingredients, most of which are available at South Asian markets in the US. The photos below show (on the left) a variety of vegetables mostly familiar to me. There is kohlrabi, cauliflower, small eggplant, beans and others. The photo on the right is bitter gourd. It is stewed or fried, and apparently needs to be soaked in buttermilk first to moderate the intense bitter flavor. It also looked very cool. Above the bitter gourd there is a yellow cucumber, which I would have pegged as a squash. I understand that the color yellow, and yellow food in general, is very auspicious.

I found lots of other interesting things yesterday beyond fruit and vegetables. There is an enormous amount of construction in Bangalore. The larger construction projects use metal scaffolding that would probably pass inspection in the US. Smaller projects use poles lashed together with twine, like the example below. This scaffolding was three stories high, and actually looked very sturdy. I would just not be keen climbing something made out of old poles tied together with string.

The Royal Enfield was originally a British designed motorcycle, now manufactured in India. Much like a modern Triumph it is a retro looking bike (that probably shares some DNA with the Triumph). I love the look, and think it has been more optimized for low cost production than most bikes sold in the US. I am pretty sure this is a Bullet Electra Twinspark model. That would mean 346cc, 19.8hp and a kickstarter. Those would have been competitive specs for a commuter motorcycle in the US in 1967. I would love one of these for around town use in Alexandria. (According to WikiPedia, the Royal Enfield is produced in Chennai, and it the oldest continuously produced model of motorcycle in the world.)

The guy beside the bike did not seem keen on my picture taking. He had been glaring at me, and in this photo is starting to turn to look more closely at what I was doing. He has the look of a small town cop, complete with pot belly straining against an oversized belt buckle. I wandered off and he lost interest.

On the side streets near the main market there were many of the other typical shops. I noticed several shops where it appeared the mannequins were old, and maybe not originally intended for the type of clothing they are now being used to showcase. In the example below, I found the mannequins downright spooky. The saris are colorful, but nothing special. The mannequins are chipped, faded and look like they could come to life as zombies.

This is the only street shot not taken in Gandhi Bazaar. This is in an area near city market, and the rock wall is actually the outer wall of Bangalore Fort which General Cornwallis captured from Tipu sultan, trying to reclaim his pride after suffering defeat in America.

The lighting in the photo is terrible, but the dark items arrayed on the blue tarp are locks of human hair. Long, beautiful locks from what I could see, I assume it is worn woven under a shorter hairstyle. I thought it was an interesting item see being sold in the market.