Amy's Food Adventures

Road Food

Eating on the road is a mixed blessing.  With planning -- or even blind luck -- it can be wonderful.  Often, hungry and tired, it's pretty grim.  Our recent trip to Boston was a good example.

We started out to Boston on a Sunday, planning to arrive in time for a dinner at an old favorite -- Legal Sea Food.  Our hotel was near two of their locations and we expected to arrive in plenty of time.  Fate intervened and we left much later than intended so our dinner ended up as a 10 p.m. sandwich at a turnpike MacDonald's, further limited by the fact that their "full" menu isn't available at that hour.  Ugh!

Next day in Boston we had tickets to an American Impressionists show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (it was wonderful) and we decided to have lunch afterwards in their cafe.  They serve a limited menu of theme "plates," assortments of foods on geographic themes.  My husband had New England -- very good clam chowder plus a mini lobster roll, some chicken salad, and a demi-dessert of walnuts and cranberries.  I had Spain -- a tapas assortment of olives and almonds, a chickpea and red pepper salad, Serrano Ham, Manchego cheese and Membrillo (guava paste -- a very tasty combination), and a few figs.  Unfortunately, our lunch was interrupted before we got to the "dessert" by a clear the museum fire drill.  I had an IBM briefing starting in less than an hour so we didn't stay to see how things turned out.

That evening we had fine dinners -- mine with the IBMers and my husband on his own -- at the Four Seasons Hotel.  Mine was in the form of a fancy buffet with lots of salads, the usual things in sauces for main courses, and an assortment of restaurant desserts.

Next day, after a full day of meetings, we drove three hours to the far northwestern corner of Massachusetts to Williamstown, site of the Clark Institute, a remote but very fine private museum with an excellent collection of Impressionist and early 20th century art.  By the time we were ready to go to dinner, we wanted something nearby (although we were in the northern end of the Berkshires and there are lots of good restaurants to pick from).  On our hosts recommendation (we were staying in a real motel, owned by a Swedish couple who were fanatic gardeners) we tried a local road house a few miles down the road.  The menu was big but we weren't sure how good the food would be.  We decided to stick with something simple and ordered the Fish and Chips.  To our amazement, huge platters of meltingly soft fish encased in crisp batter, waffle chips, and very nice cole slaw appeared.  Of course, we couldn't make a dent in it! 

Next morning we toured the Clark and dined in the museum's restaurant (we like museum restaurants) on very good gazpacho and crab cakes.  Then it was time to start toward home.

But we had one more meal planned.  This trip had been planned around an attempt to eat at the Blue Hill at Stone Barn restaurant at the Rockefeller farm in Pocantico, New York, near Tarrytown.  Built in the 20's, the farm had been brought back to life about five years ago and a gourmet restaurant added, built into one of the Norman-style barns.  Let us say it was worth the wait.  We had a tasting dinner that was based on the produce grown at Blue Hill and on its neighboring farms.  I'll try to remember it all.

Hors d'ouerves:  Patty pan squash and Corn (raw and -- we think -- marinated); Tomato water with tomato water granita and olive oil

Napoleon of Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil with Tomato Sorbet and Tomato Water Cream

Bean Salad (Haricot Vert, Wax ) with Lardo and Pistachios

Striped Bass with Corn Chowder

Oyster Mushrooms with Two Hour Poached Egg

Lamb Two Ways with Quinoa

Poached Peaches with Peach Sorbet

Much better than MacDonald's -- but you would not want this every night!

Eating Out while Eating In

Sometimes it's just too darned hot to cook.  Philadelphia's been in the grips of a heat wave and the temperature's been hovering at 100 for days, with no relief in site.

We stopped for a water ice on the way from the bank to the super market and parked right in front of a boutiquey food takeout shop that we've been meaning to try.  It looked cool and irresistible -- and all the summer items on its outdoor chalkboard lured us right in.

This shop (Cooermarket in Bala Cynwyd, PA) gets high marks for a big selection, nice presentation and friendly help.

The quality of prepared "gourmet" food is always an issue of expectations.  If you expect it to be like eating in a restaurant, it depends on which restaurant you have in mind.  It won't be a three star, but it might be an excellent bistro.  Being a gourmet cook doesn't help.  Of course, you could make it better yourself!  The point is they're letting you not cook at all.

I'd say this food was quite good. 

• We had Cold Beet Borscht mixed with Sour Cream for a first course.  Good enough that we were sorry we had bought a pint rather than a quart. 
• Then we moved on to crab cakes and a corn pudding.  The crab cakes were excellent --all crab and already cooked so just a little oven warming was required. 
• The corn pudding was a disappointment.  It was filled with fresh corn (plus) but it seemed to have no seasoning at all and barely any other ingredient (we guessed there was some egg in it).  We doctored it up with some freshly ground black pepper.  In hindsight, I should have used some cream and butter, too.
• For dessert we tried pipeces of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.  It was pretty good -- a little too dense with a little too muh thick crust.  A little sugar sprinkled on the crust before baking would have helped a lot.  We sparked it up with small scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Would we go back?  Sure!  There are lots of other things to try and it's a lot better than raiding the freezer at the supermarket when you're too tired or too hot to cook.

What does it cost?  That's always an issue with good quality prepared food.  Let's say that it's more expensive than if you made it (no surprise) but cheaper than going to a restaurant for the same meal.  We paid $48 for the above meal for two.

We don't buy whole meals this way very often.  Usually we buy one or two prepared foods (crab cakes and rotisseried chicken are favorites, as are Italian antipasto items like roasted peppers) and then add our own pieces -- often simple things like salads, good bread, and fruit desserts.  That is, of course, more economical and more personal.  But it's fun sometimes to buy a whole meal this way -- a kind of picnic on our dining room table.