Dun Dun Dun...

Boston isn't known for having wonderful Chinese food. No, that honor goes to New York, or Toronto, or Vancouver, among many other possible cities. We're just not one of them.

One of the treats I had to have during our recent trip to a suburb of Toronto (Markham to be more precise) was "dun dan" or basically a steamed egg dessert. If you are a healthy eater, please, do NOT get the all white version... it is so much better with the egg yolk included.

Since we don't have a local shop that offers such a treat, I took a peek online and found the following recipe that I hope to try sometime:

Steamed Egg with Milk

2 eggs

1 cup milk

2 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)

Beat the eggs. Warm milk in the microwave oven a bit. Don’t boil it.

Add warm milk into the beaten eggs first, then add sugar. Mix well. You don’t need an electrical mixer. A fork can do. Use a spoon to get rid of the foam on the surface of egg mixture.

Cover the mixture with foil. Steam it for 12 minutes in a wok with a lid on. Every 4 minutes, lift the lid up a bit and let some steam release. Done! Serve hot.

Source: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2008/06/steamed-eggs-with-milk-dessert.html

Sounds simple and delicious to me! Can't wait! (Well, actually, I probably will, but you get the jist!)

Half Priced Saturday

Not as cool sounding as Fast Food Friday (yesterday it was DD for breakfast, BK for lunch), but today's Half Priced Saturday was a unique one day opportunity.

It began with 1/2 off a pizza lunch courtesy of a Groupon, which I had initially mentally neglected in my summarization of my day. It continued with a visit to the bar at Radius where they were offering their burger at half price on Saturdays for the month of July. And concluded with half priced cheesecakes at The Cheesecake Factory where they were celebrating National Cheesecake Day.

Mr. Peanut Comes to Beantown

While peanuts are often considered nuts, I've heard that they are actually a member of the legume or bean family. Well, it seems the biggest peanut of all has decided to pay a visit to the city known as Beantown.

I was walking by Boston City Hall Plaza today when I noticed this huge peanut... and nearby, oh, there's another peanut all decked out with a top hat - it's Mr. Peanut!

Turns out it was the 1st day of a 2 day stop in Boston for the Planters Naturally Remarkable Tour before the Planters Nutmobile heads off to New York.

Samples of some kind of spicy peanut was given out both at room temperature and all warmed up. Photo ops with Mr. Peanut were not only granted, but quite welcome. And if you are the sporty sort, you could dunk a basketball, or toss a few beanbags. They'll be there tomorrow too from 11am - 6pm.

“Macy’s Chefs A-Go-Go” FOOD TRUCK!

A temporary food truck rolled into Boston this weekend and set up shop at the Prudential Center Plaza. This was a short stop on the nationwide tour of the Macy's Chefs A-Go-Go Food Truck, manned by a local chef from the Macy's Culinary Council. Today, our host was celebrity chef Ming Tsai, who was assisted in his mobile kitchen by his young sons.

It was my pleasure to enjoy gratis a yummy menu of Stuffed Bao of Hoisin Marinated Hanger Steak with Cucumber Kimchee & Samal Aioli. Strawberry-Yuzu Crumble Cakes, as well as Emeril's BaBAM! Foster Pop. While the samples were indeed free, and super-tasty, donations were being accepted for Feeding America, where every dollar donated would be used to feed 7 meals to those in need. Also, a free gift was offered to those who "liked" Macy's on Facebook or did something similar on Twitter (yeah, I'm not familiar with that...), which led to the funniest thing I heard there - "Stop telling people to "like" us. I'm running out of bags." =D

The event continues tomorrow from noon to 4pm with Todd English at the helm before he accompanies the truck to New York.

Hyatt Regency Terrance Opening

"Come celebrate our season opening of The Terrace at Avenue One! Join us, Friday, June 3rd starting at 5PM. Be sure to get there early, because we'll be passing hors d'oeuvres and sangria samples from 5-7PM.

All season long, we'll have $4 Dos Equis Drafts, Thursday/Friday live music, $4 chef's happy hour bites and the mojito flavor of the day. Open Tuesday-Friday beginning June 3rd, 2011."

Sure! Sounds good to me! So I rsvped and headed off to enjoy the Terrace in the company of a friend. But what occurred was an example of "What not to do..." The sangria samples were quickly served in your choice of red or white, however, the promised passed hors d'oeuvres were few and far between. This resulted in hordes of eager guests descending upon each platter as soon as they spied them.

If I had continued to wait in a civilized fashion, I would have ended up with but a sample of the single item which was specially brought over to our elderly tablemates by a friendly and quick-footed server. What tastes I did sample however were pretty good.

My Pick @ Mickey D's

Food Trucks in Boston!!!

Gov't Center Plaza is now host to FOOD TRUCKS! Yes, food trucks are no longer the prized property of the MIT weekday lunch crowd (and a few others scattered about, ie. Dewey Square (Clover Food Lab), Boston Common (the ice cream truck with the Make Way for Ducklings painting), Newmarket Square (the famous Speed's), Cleveland Circle (relative newcomer Roxy's Gourmet Grilled Cheese), and any other spots that do not come to mind right now). And yeah, I'm not counting the Sunday grouping at the South End SoWa Open Market.

The winners of the Mayer's Food Truck Challenge in 2010 began serving the populance the week of April 4, 2011:

Bon Me

Momogoose

Clover