gastronomy in practice
This spring I took a fascinating class on cheese for part of my master’s degree in Gastronomy.The celebration at the end of the class involved a road trip up to Vermont on a beautiful late-spring day to visit two goat farms: Twig Farm and Blue Ledge Farm.I’m going to post in two installments on this trip, as each farm and experience deserve a proper description.
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This is a picture of one of the new friends I made while up in Vermont visiting two cheese farms this week: Twig Farm and Blue Ledge Farm. Twig Farm’s site has posted a bit on their blog about my cheese class’ trip. I will update myself about it when I get back.
Back from where you ask? I am busy packing for David’s sister’s wedding. It is being held on a whale watching boat, based in Anacortes, Washington. I’ve always wanted to vacation in the San Juan Islands, and I’m very much looking forward to it – especially since it coincides with celebrating the end of my first academic semester in grad school! (*few!*)
Along the way we’ll be visiting friends in Seattle, and basking in the comforting culture and climate of the Pacific Northwest.
In the meantime I am busy packing (including a last-minute race to CVS pharmacy for carry-on size shampoo bottles), and emptying our refrigerator. Dinner was tasty – we had a green salad with bacon and peanuts in a light balsamic dressing, along with blue-corn nachos topped with ricotta and mango-peach salsa. An incredibly under-30-minute dinner that was all from our fridge, nourishing, and delicious! Among the other sacrifices I must make to empty the fridge is finishing up our latest bottle of 2006 Erath Pinot Gris made in Dundee, Oregon. This has been my favorite wine lately, and the only one I’ve bought in the last month or so! A great deal for the best American Pinot Gris (or Grigio for that matter) I’ve encountered so far.
I will be back in Boston in a week, so please stay tuned for more news on my adventures in Vermont and Washington!
Peace be with you.
There are some places that are an institution. They’re cozy and comfy and people return day after day because they know they’ll be recognized, they like the food and drink, or they think the chairs are cozy. At Darwin’s Ltd. it seems it’s a little bit of everything, despite its draw-backs.*
People are lured in by the promise of good sandwiches, and they often wait upwards of half an hour in line to order their ten minutes of bliss. After they have ordered they arrive at the register and realize (until last week) – what? No credit cards?** After they’ve paid with trusty greens, they turn around and go to the other side of the store to find a seat. If they are lucky they will get one of the benches along the coffee bar or outside the store, leaving the chairs, tables, and soft seating for the extra lucky ones.
So why, you ask, do people still come back? Because once you’ve had a bite of a Darwin’s sandwich, you have to go back for more. On each subsequent visit you will find other treasures in the store – the beer and wine selection is great, and you’ll make it to the coffee side and find their coffee and espresso to rival if not beat out most other joints in town. Someday you’ll discover the Lakota sandwich cookies and macaroons, $1.25 to extend those ten minutes of bliss by one too-short minute, but totally worth it. If you return often enough, you will one day be recognized. Finally, the big moment will come when you get one of those comfy soft chairs to sit in and you’ll realize that the chairs really are cozy, the music is good, the food and drink splendid, the service as speedy and helpful as they can be, and the ambiance perfect for an afternoon of studying, good conversation, or a pleasant little nap – or all three.
Darwin’s is quirky. Its sandwiches aren’t named the traditional way by using their ingredients. They’re named using street names around the store (with the second store open now each store has the same sandwiches, but different names). We don’t have a BLT or a grilled cheese but there are amazing other options: one with hummus and vegetables; a sandwich of prosciutto, tomatoes, pesto, and mozzarella; a roast beef with boursin cheese sandwich; a turkey sandwich with avocado and an herb vinaigrette; a smoked salmon, cream cheese, caper, cucumber and red onion sandwich; and countless more concoctions to choose from. As if that weren’t enough, daily sandwich specials (with a vegetarian option) and soup specials are also available, along with countless salads and some to-go dinner choices.
Some people at Darwin’s come not only once a day, but they’ll be there throughout the day several times. One customer comes in in the morning for a large dark blend in a double cup, only to return at least two more times in the day ordering subsequently smaller cups. A dog walker comes in every evening to order coffee, and one architecture firm’s employees came in so often that a sandwich was named after them. One wonderful customer stops by every evening and calls Darwin’s the perfect living room and Darwin’s a great big family. I have to say, there are definitely days when I wish I could be in the living room and enjoy the scenery around me. However, it’s also fun and rewarding being behind the scenes at Dawrin’s, making the living room as pleasing for everyone as possible.
You can find Darwin’s Ltd. at 148 Mt Auburn Street or 1629 Cambridge street, both in Cambridge, MA near Harvard Square. Hours are 6:30-9pm Mon-Sat and 7-9pm Sun. Mt. Auburn’s phone number is (617) 354-5233 and Cambridge Street’s number is (617) 491-2999. Both stores accept sandwich orders over the phone but must be picked up in person at the store.
* Disclaimer: I work here, so this “review” may be a bit biased. But I have tried to be as fair as possible and am aiming to capture all aspects of Darwin’s, including the food as well as the atmosphere and culture surrounding it.
**Darwin’s has recently started accepting Visa and MasterCards but with a ten dollar minimum. This is due to the exorbitant fees credit card companies charge on each sale.
The pink house on the left corner is my beautiful apartment building in RadebergI don’t have a lot of time to post this, so I’m sorry if there are errors. I realize I haven’t posted in a really long time. It’s been busy here. David and I visited friends in Hamburg and Berlin last week, which was a grand time. Both of us caught some kind of bug though, which took me out one day in Berlin, and caught David when we arrived back home. Other than that, and the Bahn locomotive drivers going on strike on our way back to Radeberg, everything was wonderful.
This week we’ve been busy packing everything up. I feel like there is so much stuff in my apartment, but also I feel strangely calm about this whole thing. We’ll see how I feel Sunday morning when we leave for my parent’s house with all my belongings. Tomorrow is going to be busy – aside from packing I am having some of my Sachsen Fulbright friends over for one last brunch (leek quiche with a cornbread crust is on the menu). Then in the evening I am attending my school’s Abiball, which is for all the 12th-grade students who completed their Abitur (high school exams) this year. It’s kind of like our Prom in the States, except that students only have one ever and it’s after everything is over. Needless to say I’m sure there are going to be some incredibly happy students at that party. I’m looking forward to seeing them and many of my teacher colleagues one last time as well. I’m not looking forward to the rumored ballroom dancing that’s going to occur. Why do disco fox and tango have to be on the German curriculum, but not the American?
Now that I’m done here in Germany, you might ask what’s next? Well, that’s a very good question. I’ve been accepted by Boston University’s masters program in gastronomy. There I will start in the fall with a hands-on culinary arts course (I already bought my knives and I have to buy a thermometer and two chef’s coats when I arrive in the States). After the culinary course I’ll continue on with being a part-time student (hopefully employed full time somewhere) learning all about food in the context of history, culture, sociology, anthropology, and so much more. I’m looking forward to it – I have many ideas of what I’ll do with this degree. Food journalism is probably the most tangible one, but I’d love to combine my food degree with my love of teaching languages. Perhaps someday I’ll be able to make that work. In the meantime, David and I are busy packing up my life in Germany, moving back to Oregon where we’ll teach at our favorite language camp again for a week, and then packing up our lives in Oregon for the big move to Boston. But don’t worry, I plan to take the blog with me. I think it’s a great place for me to practice my writing and explore my love of food and culture. Although there may be a bit of silence on this blog for the next few weeks, I can promise you I will pick it up again when things settle down and I’m in Boston. Until then, may your summers be wonderful and safe! Hope to see you all here again soon!
When I’m alone, I don’t drink alcohol with dinner. However, if I cook a nice meal for guests, it’s always nice to enjoy it with some good wine. In Germany, this is not difficult to find as it’s in the middle of Europe with its thousands of wine regions. One of the smallest, and most northern, wine regions in Europe is right here at my doorstep on the Sächsische Weinstraße.
For our pesto dinner, Sarah and I went to the wine shop in the Kunsthof Passagen in Dresden. We were helped by a very friendly woman, who has visited the local wineries from which her wine comes from. She started by offering us a wine from Baden, but we had just come from that area, and we wanted to try something Sächsisch. She knew we were eating lamb, so she suggested a dry white wine and pointed us in the direction of the Frédéric Fourré Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris).
I love Grauburgunder, so I was sold on that. However, the woman continued to explain to us how small this vintner is, and that it is too expensive for these small vintners to get a certain accreditation from the state. Furthermore, in the process of testing, these vintners would lose a significant portion of their yield. Instead, they have formed an organization of their own, the Weinbauverband Sachsen. Fourré, like many of the other regional vintners, just started rebuilding his vines after the wall came down in 1989, so his land and yield are very small. You all probably know by now that I love supporting the small, local guy – and when it’s something I really like in general all the better!
Due to their small size, it is very difficult for Saxon wineries to compete against the massive wineries from Baden-Württemberg. Thus they have developed a specialty niche, and the prices of their wines show this. While a good Baden-Württemberg wine* can usually be bought under ten Euros, Saxon wines range anywhere from ten to twenty. Our Fourré cost around sixteen. This may seem inexpensive to American eyes (purists might say a decent bottle is cheap when it’s around twenty dollars) but from a discounted European perspective, it’s a hefty ticket.
But it’s worth it. Even Nathan, who usually doesn’t drink, enjoyed sharing this bottle with us. It was delicious next to the lamb: a fruity yet dry, rounded taste which brought out the flavors of the pesto and lamb, yet helped reduce the sweetness of the dates. We had no problems drinking this with our dinner, and it tasted just as good after dinner by itself (or, with a piece of parmesan cheese). I’ve had similar experiences with other wines in this region, most notably the wines, especially the Bacchus, from Schloss Wackerbarth.
To find Saxon wines, try online or in your local wine shop. If they don’t have it, ask if they know about it. I don’t know if it is exported internationally, but it should be!
*Some wines in Baden-Württemberg were produced en-masse in recent years and very cheaply sold to discount grocery stores. This means I can buy a drinkable bottle of wine for one to two Euros, and a quite good wine for three or four, but it also means that Baden-Württemberg’s reputation has unfortunately gone downhill, even though many wineries still produce excellent wines.
Frédéric Fourré can be found on Bennostraße 41, 01445 Radebeul, Tel. 0351-8011345, Fax 0351-8011345, email: fourre [dot] fred [at] t-online [dot] de. Tours of the wine region are also available if you contact the Dresden, Radebeul, or Meissen tourist information offices.