Tag: food

Möeca: A wonderful new restaurant for Cambridge

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Möeca at 1 Shepard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a classic example of a Boston-area restaurant that offers wonderful flavors in new and compelling dishes. It is presented by the folks who gave us Giulia, so expectations were high.

The dish of the evening was the green crab custard with black truffles and leeks. Our (warm, friendly, knowledgeable) waitress explained that the idea behind the dish is to make an appealing dish out of an invasive and destructive species—green crabs are bad for oysters in particular.

The savory, creamy result was a big hit. A very creative and delicious solution to a problem.

The big dishes were equally well done. The cassoulet was a big hit among a party that has spent a good deal of time in France and paid attention to the food while there. The butter beans in that dish, always a key element, were delicious.

Dessert offered, among a list of compelling items, a lemon bombe that was out-of-the-park good. I don’t know when I’ve had a better lemon curd. Intense without the harsh edge that sometimes accrues. Even one spoonful made a memorable conclusion to a wonderful meal in a memorably charming restaurant.

Learn more about Möeca on their website: https://www.moecarestaurant.com/

Reintroduction: Why write a food blog?

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It has been a while since I’ve added an entry to this site, but with a new year coming, why not? It’s a good time to revisit why I started writing a food blog.

My path to food was circuitous. I studied history in graduate school and stumbled into journalism by accident: a friend introduced me to a small-town newspaper editor at a party, we hit it off and she offered me a job as a reporter. This was long enough ago that newspapers were powerful civic instruments – I was hooked. Flash forward. I worked for a small group of publications that published weekly restaurant reviews. Every week at our managers meeting, I complained about how bad they were. Predictably, my publisher announced that going forward, David would be the food editor.

Irritability was my only qualification.

It was a challenge. Used to reporting on hard news, I suddenly had to figure out how to write about the subjective flavors of a sauce and the texture of well – or badly – cooked beef. And how to maintain a consistent tone writing about a high-end bistro one week and a mom-and-pop pasta place the next.

I loved it.

Despite knowing next to nothing about food and food prep, it was a compelling exploration. Ultimately, I wanted to know more, and when I retired I went to cooking school, learning the details and techniques required to create good and interesting food. A high point of that experience? Working with a deeply knowledgeable and talented chef to create a classic French consommé as a final exam good enough to earn my chef’s toque.

The idea of this blog is to enable me to write about recipes, cook books, restaurants – anything food related that appeals to me in this time when food is gloriously global, and restaurants are even more threatened than usual.

I can’t wait to see where it goes.