More L'Thai and Taka

We are definitely enjoying L'Thai as our new favorite Thai spot. It's close enough to decide to go when we are just tired and are already home.

We started off with the Oysters Sri-Raja which are fried oysters served with what looks like a sriracha mayo. I like the oysters and J likes the spicy. It all works out. We switched it up a bit and got the Masaman curry with Shrimp and the sea bass gingerine (a ginger sauce). Both were fantastic. We left very happy.

Last night, we hit Taka which I was sad to see was pretty much completely empty, especially on a Friday night. I only saw a table or two in the main dining room. J and sat at the sushi bar for the first time. There were a few couples who rotated the bar.

Taka had noted the toro as "one of the best" so we each got some toro and oh-toro nigiris were were fantastic. Everything was great. I was still hungry after a selection of nigiris so I asked Taka to make me something, his choice, with a little uni, which I was craving. He made me a small portion of the uni app where uni is paired with fish. Pretty tasty. I may try the toro/uni bowl that he does next time.

Well, it was awesome. I'm tempted to go back while the toro is so amazing...

Riverview Meat CSA

So we subscribed to a meat CSA. I may have gushed about it earlier. Basically, it's a monthly CSA for about 13 lbs of meat. Guaranteed are a whole chicken, a dozen eggs, 3 lbs of sausage, 2 lbs of ground meat, and a roast of some kind.

We're two pickups in at this point.

Month 1 was the very first month of the CSA, so you have to cut them a little slack. I expected that everything would arrive fresh, not frozen, which was a bad assumption on my part. I had planned to make burgers that night, but to my dismay, there was no ground beef in the pickup. My idea for fried chicken the next night also fell through when I saw that the whole chicken was frozen. We also got three bratwurst and two packages of hot sausage. I made a sausage ragu with just the sausage meat and a can of tomatoes, and J said it was awesome. Too bad it is too spicy for me because apparently, that is some tasty stuff.

A boston butt was in the package with a randomly placed bone in it. I've never cooked a boston butt, so this has so far just been taking up freezer space while I debate how I should prepare it.

I think that's a 3 lb boston butt so that's a lot of meat right there.

The pork chops look like a pretty good size, but there was a lot of fat on it. Actually, I felt like these were too fatty/gristly but looking at the picture now, they really don't look that bad. We ate one that night but I cut the bone off the other to grind up in the future. I think that will be a better use.

Two pounds of cubed pork is a lot. I made souvlaki with it and was sad when a lot of it went to waste.

The sopressata is house-made at the Pine St Market which is our pickup point. The sopressata was pretty fatty/greasy and fell apart rather easily.

I also got a Sweet Grass Dairy fresh chevre (always yum) and a Gray's Goat, which is rather nasty. Perhaps it was past its time which is worse.

This month's pickup contained a dozen eggs, a whole chicken (frozen, of course), two packages of hot sausage, three packages of ground beef, three bratwurst, and a "ham roast" with a bone in it. Whatever that is. Everything came frozen this month. I guess that works better for them.

We defrosted one of the packages of ground beef (it felt like just over a pound) and made burgers on Friday. J said they were awesome, in no small part because of the beef. Still don't know what to do with the pork. I emailed our CSA contact for help.

Varasano's

Well, part of the reason I am so behind on my blogging is that I wanted to keep posts in chronological order. At this point however, any blogging is a step up, so I'm going to go out of order.

A couple weeks ago, J & I went to Varasano's with M7N for dinner. With more people, you are able to try more stuff which is always a good way to try a new restaurant.

We started off with the caprese salad. Tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella were arrayed on the plate. Small pools of olive oil and aged balsamic stayed isolated in their own corners of the ceramic plate. Personally, I like it when it comes pre-drizzled, so this was a bit awkward. I believe the waiter talked up heirloom tomatoes for this dish, but it was clear they were not.

We ordered a few pizzas at once and they just kept rolling out of the kitchen. That's a divine way to eat.

We started off with the Nana, the house special. It's described on the menu as mozzarella and tomato sauce with a secret blend of Italian herbs. Typically I like to start off with a margherita, but the waiter mentioned the nana was better. And it was so good. The nice fat pieces of mozzarella were tasty, the herbs were all fresh. This is a damn good pizza.

The salumi was also tasty. j was happy with it. Topped with Italian meats and olives, the pizza was tasty, though not my favorite. It was not greasy like a normal pepperoni pizza would be.

Moving on, we had the Nucci -- garlic, olives, and emmenthaler finished with arugula, capocollo, and herbs. I was surprised at how much I liked this given that I don't normally like arugula, but it matched perfectly.

The last of the dinner pizzas was the New Haven Clam which you can get as red or white. Even if Jeff Varasano marked Pepe's as a 9 in his list of top pizzas of the world, I prefer the original New Haven clam. Varasano's version was garlicky and clammy, but there were large gaps of uncovered dough. I just found the distribution of clams to be rather sad. Of course I will order this again -- I don't know where else to get it -- but next time I will ask for extra clams.

At the end of it all, we were definitely stuffed, but we ordered the Dolce anyway. Medjool dates and fontina with honey, walnuts, and rosemary. I was surprised that I liked it, but then it just got to be too much.

All in all, Varasano's was very good. In the future, I see us getting two pies, maybe three if we want leftovers, but that begins to get pricey for a pizza night. I've already had cravings for the clam pizza.