Go. Eat.

Side Street Cafe, Florence, MA (June 2009): Can get noisy, and it’s always full, which can slow service, but this restaurant always makes me feel a part of a vibrant community, especially with its creative focus on local ingredients (see the warm roasted beet salad with fennel). Don’t miss the baked goat cheese and honey app!

Ristorante DiPaolo, Turner’s Falls, MA (July 2009): If you’re looking for the place to impress your date or your guests this is it—a real surprise in a tiny river town. Perfect ambience. Perfect risotto. Perfect evening.

Bamboo House, Springfield, MA (August 2009): Scrumptious Vietnamese fare in modest surroundings. Their Chinese menu is less exciting and more expensive.

Green Street Café, Northampton, MA (September 2009): Grapefruit with mint. No more need be said. Delicate and delicious bites. Menus change regularly and are quaintly handwritten. Owner John and partner, James, are Northampton institutions and full of interesting tales to tell.

Elmer’s, Ashfield, MA (October 2009): Off-beat and off the beaten path, but worth the trip. I hear their breakfasts are the best around, but I still remember my dinner’s tasty cabbage accompaniment to the pork chop entrée (though the chop itself was slightly dry).

Hope & Olive, Greenfield, MA (November 2009): Also a bit noisy, but good casual fun. Roast pumpkin korma was unusual and I liked the way each ingredient kept its character (which often is not the case in saucy Indian fare). A couple of our group were not impressed with the crab cakes, but that would not deter me from returning.

Venus/Cellar Bar, Easthampton, MA (December 2009): Easthampton’s most chic establishment. One of the best dinners I’ve had recently. Crazy good gnocchi app. Of course, Chef Casey is a perennial favorite of mine (tip o’ the hat to Apollo Grill). There’s a house for sale only a block away from Venus and I want to buy it because it’s so close to this place and other great Easthampton offerings.

Ollie’s Down Under, Shelburne Falls, MA (January 2010): Cozy and casual. An amazing and unusual drink list. Owner Margaret is a great hostess and a real hoot to boot. Curried oysters = outstanding.

The Federal, Agawam, MA (February 2010): Risotto balls and/or fig poppers (prosciutto-wrapped figs). They’re both worth at least a trip a week. Excellent facility for a banquet; their service (along with Bistro Les Gras) was about the best we’ve had.

Bistro Les Gras, Northampton, MA (March 2010): European portions with local ingredients. The vibrantly hued yellowtail and beet tartare, soft and delicate, simply melted in my mouth. Some felt the portions too small for the price.

Blue Heron, Sunderland, MA (coming up, April 8, 2010): A Valley favorite we’re all anticipating.

I (and many others, based on my informal polling) want to start carrying lunches in something non-plastic with multiple compartments to keep items separate, but most bento boxes are plastic and their lids don’t attach well. And the metal ones can’t go in the microwave.

Seems like a business opportunity here somewhere….

I admit, I’d never heard of it. So, I was a bit skeptical when I got an email from a Bob’s rep offering to send me a free sample. And I struggled with wondering what would happen to my integrity if I got something for free in exchange for a review. But, hey, I’m an honest gal, and hopefully you readers know it as long as I tell you how this came about. So, finally, I thought “What the heck?”, and said “okay.”

Then the box came in the mail. Not one, but two bottles of sauce with a simple red, white, blue and yellow label. A windfall!

If you know me, you know I’m a saucy sort. I love Worcesteshire sauce, and A-1 steak sauce, and BBQ sauces of all sorts (especially homemade). Especially on fries.

So, this Bob’s stuff had competition, and I was so certain it wouldn’t really stack up that I didn’t even try it. At first. Then I began to feel badly that the company had mailed me two free bottles, so I poured a little into a spoon. (I’m a big believer of trying new products unadulterated and on their own before using them with something else.) And you know what? My preconceptions were entirely wrong.

This stuff is everything I love: spicy and sweet, with some (but not too much) heat. I’ve since eaten it on fries, vegetables, and, yes, meat. It’s worked really well with them all. An all natural recipe, it reminds me a bit of my dad’s memorable concoctions from my youth.

Not sure where I can buy it around these parts, but I do know they are on-line. I’ll hoard my two bottles as long as I can, and then I guess I’ll have to buy my new stock. But that’s okay, ’cause it’s worth it. I have to admit the “Christ is our CEO” slogan on the bottle took me aback, as I’m not used to seeing products tout their beliefs and I get a little concerned since I know too many supposed Christians who are less the golden-rule sorts and more the “I-abhor-everyone-who-doesn’t-belong-to-my-belief-system” sorts. If I find out that the latter rules here, I may have to discontinue eating their yummy sauce.

Thank you, blog, for leading me to something new!

Ever since, to my boundless delight, he’s been busy in the kitchen making things like sweet potato felafel, chili pumpkin and wild mushroom soup, Leon Gobi, and chicken-asparagus-lemon cassoulet. All simple, all fast, all delicious.

Turns out Leon is a restaurant on London’s Carnaby Street. It opened in 2004 with the goal of changing the face of fast food by focusing on bold flavor and simple, fresh, local, natural ingredients. Pretty radical, eh?

It was named the Best New Restaurant in Great Britain only six months after it opened by a judging panel that included the inimitable and intimidating Gordon Ramsay. Now the cookbook is influencing my travel plans.

If only the U.S. fast-food folks could get it right….

He’s the guy that wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma–a book I’ve found quite influential to my thinking about food, tracing several meals back to their origins, while exploring America’s food industry.

Well, he’s just come out with Food Rules, a rule book like Richard Carlson’s Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…. A guide for better eating as Carlson’s is for better living. A random page flip brings us:

“If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.”

So much for Oreos. Sigh.