Boston Archives - LunaCafe

Deep, Dark, Spicy Gingerbread with Coffee Glaze

December 29, 2010 by Susan S. Bradley 8 Comments

Spicy Gingerbread Cake with Coffee Glaze

It never fails. When the temperature drops like a rock and snow is in the air, I start craving gingerbread cake. It’s one of those ultra-comforting sweets that has so sparked bakers’ creativity over the years that it now boasts hundreds of variations. Maybe thousands. Look at the lineup of gingerbread cakes on TasteSpotting.

However, for gingerbread inspiration this year, I had only to open the new Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Café cookbook by Harvard educated mathematician turned professional baker, Joanne Chang. I scored the cookbook earlier this fall while at the South End location of Joanne’s Flour Bakery in Boston.

Filed Under: Desserts, Holiday, Let It Snow, Recipes Tagged With: Boston, cake, Christmas, Desserts, Flour Bakery, gingerbread, holiday, Joanne Chang, Let It Snow, Recipes

Eat. Boston. Winter Squash Soup.

November 7, 2010 by Susan S. Bradley 2 Comments

Have you ever set out to eat your way across a city, focusing on a single seasonal dish?

Well, I didn’t intend to go on a winter squash soup kick while in Boston in October, but one thing led to another, as the saying goes, and there I was at Sorellina on our last night in Boston eating my 5th winter squash soup.

And here’s the thing. I could have continued this lovely madness for another week at least. It is highly instructive to see how top notch culinary artists across a major culinary mecca treat the same basic core ingredients and menu item, in this case, winter squash and a handful of flavor complements crafted into a smooth and silky soup.

Filed Under: Autumn Leaves, Boston, Dining Tagged With: Autumn Leaves, bisque, Boston, Dining, restaurants, Soup, winter squash

Quintessential Mac & Cheese Roundup 2009

October 17, 2009 by Susan S. Bradley 12 Comments

When I posted our first Quintessential Mac & Cheese Roundup in 2008, I was certain we would soon run out of restaurants that served Mac & Cheese, and then the idea of a yearly roundup would be a thing of the past. Well, either I was way wrong about the number of restaurants that serve Mac & Cheese or an increasing number of restaurants have recently added the divine macaroni to their menus. Either way, there now seems to be no danger of running out of stellar renditions of this most delicious dish. My ooey-gooey-cheesy cup runneth over!

Filed Under: Dining Tagged With: Boston, mac & cheese, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese, Northwest, Northwest restaurants, Scottsdale, Seattle. Portland

Eat. Boston. Clio.

September 18, 2009 by Susan S. Bradley 3 Comments

We’re in Boston this week, and the first restaurant we head to when we’re in Boston is Clio. I’ll share more of the food pics we’ve taken at Clio over the past few visits in an upcoming Boston Fresh post, but for now, let’s focus on the experience we had in the restaurant last night. Oh. My. God.

Filed Under: Boston, Dining Tagged With: autumn, Boston, Clio, Dining, Ken Oringer, New England, Renae Herzog, restaurants

LunaCafe OtherWorldly Mac & Cheese

October 16, 2008 by Susan S. Bradley 11 Comments

Macaroni and Cheese is one of the easiest dishes in the world to prepare and surely one of the most wonderful, which probably accounts for the million-and-one versions that hurried, hungry folks have come up with over the years. (If you read to the end of this post, you will get to my most fabulous rendition, which I promised you a few weeks ago in Quintessential Mac & Cheese, Part 1, which reviews the best of all the Mac & Cheese I ate last year in Seattle, Portland, and Boston restaurants, complete with photos.)