Bites: Pão de Queijo at Padaria Brasil

Bites: In which I share with you short dish reviews and ratings from my adventures with Tasted Menu. The scale is from 0-10, where 0.0 equals “A traumatic experience” and 10.0 “A culinary epiphany”.

Padaria Brasil is a tiny shop on Harvard Ave. in Allston with a green and yellow awning that you’ll likely miss if you aren’t looking for it. Usually there is a spot you can pull into right in front, and get in line with a group of Brazilians ordering from the wide range of pastries.

Pão de queijo {8.0}
Mini: 50 cents.

It is always a formidably odd experience when you try something you’ve never had before and it tastes *exactly* like a food you grew up with from half way across the globe. This Brazillian treat tasted just like a little Turkish Kaşarlı Poğaça!  Kaşar is a sort of tart hard cheese, like a Parmigiano but slightly more acidic – I’m guessing that they use Minas, but I’ll have to check for sure… {This was my first Pão de Queijo from Padaria Brasil, and now I understand what Amanda was going on about when she went to great lengths to get this place on my radar.}

Next up to try: the Coxinha (a deep fried chicken croquette).

Padaria Brasil
125 Harvard Ave.
Allston, MA 02134 Map
(617) 202-6783

Padaria Brasil on Urbanspoon

Cheese at Omnivore Books

[This photo of Laura Werlin (cheese lover and author) is a perfect example of how much fun we have at Omnivore Books.]

Laura came by to talk about cheese, but more importantly, to lead us in a mini-tasting. We had a tasting of three American cheeses, all of which I’d purchase again, and recommend highly. Forgive my cheese-tasting notes, I need to work on cheese vocabulary without sounding inept or worse, ridiculous – “grapefruit and foie gras notes in that cheese Marty, don’t you think?…”

1. Crocodile Tears (See photo below) – made by Judy Schad of Capriole Dairy in Indiana. This was an aged but still soft goat cheese with a really smooth goat-cheesy texture, and nice tangy flavor. While sampling this cheese we learned that most goat cheeses are that characteristic whitish color because don’t metabolize beta carotene the same way that cows do, producing a lighter milk.

2. Pleasant Ridge Reserve – made by Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. A special cross breed of cows, and rotational grazing techniques used by the farmers makes this cheese a nice golden color. It was a firm (semi-hard?) cheese with such pleasant complex notes – a little bit like tasting the grass the cows were eating in the plains, just a little bit of nuttiness and a tiny crunch.

3. Oma – made in Vermont by the Von Trapp Farmstead, aged in the Cellars of Jasper Hill, one of the only Affineurs (cheese agers) in our country. Yes, those Von Trapps. We tasted this cheese last, as it was the most “aromatic” aka delightfully smelly. It was also wonderfully creamy.

But maybe it’s something about people who work with cheese:

Here’s Gordon Edgar – Cheesemonger at Rainbow Grocery, and author of one of the best food books I’ve read this year. His book, ‘Cheesemonger: A life on the Wedge‘ single-handedly doomed me to uncontrollable cheese cravings for the past month. (Fortunately, my family just gave me a gift certificate to Rainbow Grocery for my birthday, so I now have the funds to spend it all on cheese. I’ll have to use restraint.)

I loved this book because the voice is uniquely Gordon Edgars’ – and is as passionate about cheese as he is about politics, activism, music, and the Bay Area. I learned more about my city from reading this book than from living here. (Which just tells me that I have to be more involved. Folsom St. Fair anyone?) In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that when I finished reading it…. I went back to his livejournal, which to my delight has archives dating back to 2002. I know, I’m a little creepy.

And he loves dogs! And dogs love him.. Maybe dogs also love cheese?

But then, he too fed us delicious cheese:

Dee Harley’s freshly made goat cheese from her farm in Pescadero. Not only was this goat cheese delicious and fresh, but I had the privilege to take home some of the leftovers. It went on asparagus, morning toast, and in a glorious trick – in the cavity of my roasting chicken. Delicious!!

Jealous?

Come to Omnivore! Here’s the event calendar. There are events every week – usually on the weekends, but some excellent ones scheduled during the week as well.

As for more cheese lust- this is what I’ve been reading over the past few weeks:

It’s Not You, It’s Brie : Kirstin loves cheese, and works as a ‘cheese program director’ among other fabulous food related jobs. She also takes some beautiful photographs of cheese, and makes me hungry on a regular basis.

@formaggio on twitter: I follow Formaggio Kitchen because I’m a masochist. Some of the best cheese (and foodstuffs) on the East Coast. A few years back I went to a cheese tasting with Ihsan Gurdal (the owner) at Tanglewood. Do it if you have a chance.

Gordon Edgar’s Blog: Yes, the Cheesemonger keeps us updated and laughing.

I also am in the middle of reading ‘The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food‘ about a community in Vermont at the center of a food revolution/scandal/hype/or what have you. (You’ll have to read it.). It also has a good amount of information on cheese and dairy’ing. Worth a look.

Winter Fancy Food Show 2010

This week, the food gods aligned yet again: Food Fete, the Winter Fancy Food Show 2010, and a last minute trip to the East Coast coincided all at once! It’s safe to say that I’m feeling stuffed and looking forward to a week of leafy greens and light broths to get back to feeling normal!

The week started off with Food Fete, a media event featuring new and delicious products to sample. Some of my favorites included the blue cheese stuffed figs from the California Fig Advisory Board, the frozen quinoa from Village Harvest and Sweetwater Spice Co.‘s fajita bath, an incredible meat marinade. But I will say that the hugest surprise were the various sausages and products from the Field Roast Grain Meat company, which, being a vegan meatless product made of grains (alas, not gluten free) were perhaps the tastiest meatless products I have ever eaten. I was honestly shocked!

After a lovely evening, I went home to prime my stomach for day two, a full day at the Winter Fancy Food Show. The Fancy Food Show is the ultimate food discovery event – over 1300 vendors show up to share their products. Even pacing myself, I’d say that I may have had about 75-100 samples over the course of the day, but these were some of my favorites:

Happy Goat – Goat Milk Caramels. A smash hit. These caramels are made in tiny batches in the Bay Area, out of goat milk, organic sugar, and vanilla. Pop one in your mouth and you experience what I like to refer to as “SQUEE!!!!” : becoming completely unable to focus on anything other than how wonderful these are. And if say, you happen to have a morning caffeine habit, these taste absolutely delicious when stirred into coffee.

Cowgirl, Bellwether Farms, and Cyprus Grove Cheeses: it’s safe to say that these bay area favorites are some of the best cheeses around. I was excited to try Cowgirl’s new Devil’s Gulch cheese, which is only available for the next few months (it’s in a test phase). Bellwether’s sheep milk ricotta is always delightful, and Cyprus Grove’s Humboldt Fog is one of my favorites.

Secret Stash Salt: Having good salt is an invaluable part of any kitchen. I’m a big fan of Maldon Sea Salt, various coarse sea salts, but was completely wowed by the incredible flavors of Secret Stash – particularly the lavender, and the truffle salts.

Sam Adams Utopias: I’ve been trying to get a taste of Utopias for years, and was overjoyed to get my sip after asking coyly if they were still sampling it (there were no bottles left when I got there) – but the kind rep pulled out an unopened one and poured it for me! This stuff is touted as the strongest beer (at 27% alcohol), but tastes more like a fine liquor than a beer. In the future, when I can throw around mass sums of cash without worry, I’ll keep this in stock in my liquor cabinet. Smooth, potent, and delicious.

Black Garlic (see photo at top) – Black garlic, a fermented garlic product which tastes sweet is delicious! The fermentation process adds extra health benefits, and mellows the garlic flavor, producing a sweet product, almost like dried fruit. I’m thinking spread on some warm toast, this would be delicious.

Fentiman’s ShandyFentiman’s brand of fermented natural sodas are truly spectacular. They have them at Il Cane Rosso in the Ferry Building in San Francisco, but come originally from the UK. I was psyched to finally try the Shandy – a beer and lemony soda mix which is refreshing and delicious.

Kodiak Cakes – After seeing Jenna from Eat, Live, Run feature these regularly on her blog, I was excited to try some of their pancakes. Normally I’m a “from scratch” type of gal, but this mix is going to become a regular staple in my household – and I’m looking forward to trying more of their products. As I’m also particularly interested in the business of entrepreneurial food companies,  Joel from Kodiak was really kind to  give me a copy of the ‘History of Kodiak Cakes’ which I’ve been making my way through.

Barney ButterI stir nut butter into my oatmeal, on toast, and even into savory soba noodle salad. Recently I switched from peanut butter to almond butter, which is slightly more nutritious and in my opinion more filling. Barney Butter is a brand of almond butter which I find particularly tasty, and was happy to see that they were at the show, and sporting a cute new look.

Stonehouse 27 Spice Co: While I’m most likely to make my own cooking sauces when creating Indian dishes, I was completely impressed by these flavorful sauces created by a sweetheart entrepreneur named Sharon Fernandes. The sauces are salt-free and bursting with flavor. I tried as many as I could, my favorite being the cashew cream. These are definitely going to be in my cabinet.

Nutmeric – Turmeric is a staple in my kitchen, and I was excited to see this nut butter product with turmeric at the show – nutmeric was developed by a chemistry professor, which touches at my heartstrings, and made me chuckle. There is a huge* crossover between science people and food people…(I heart all my former science profs!)

Other favorites included Kikkoman’s new yuzu ponzu sauce, yuzu being a delicate citrus, which they served with tempura shrimp and avocado. I’m looking forward to seeing this product on the market. Yuzu also showed up with Yuzusco – a liquid spice… And I also quite enjoyed my Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the savory macarons by Fabrique Delices, and some delicious Nueske’s bacon.

Finally, I was happy to see some hometown favorites from New England, including Stonewall Kitchen, Lollipop Tree, Stoneyfield Oikos yogurt to name a few.