Features

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webteam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:30:02 GMT

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DADDY’S FRIED DOUGH
You know you probably shouldn’t, but there’s something irresistible about strolling around Boston Common on a sunny weekend with an oversized square of Daddy’s glistening, steaming deep-fried dough ($4). This sweet, unhealthy confection may just evoke tender memories of the county fairs, carnivals, amusement parks, and church festivals of your youth.

For an extra dollar, the hardworking proprietor, who’s there barking his wares to passing tourists every day, will add a dollop of various pie fillings, which include blueberry, apple, cherry, and custard with chocolate syrup. They’re unremarkable; skip them. Instead, stick to the classic preparation, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon until you say “When.” You’ll want to walk this snack off (or perhaps sleep it off) soon after, but it’s tough to feel too guilty about such a simple, nostalgic pleasure.

Approximate address: 130 Tremont Street, Boston
Hours: Daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Nearby landmark: Park Street Station entrance

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webteam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:30:06 GMT

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KARO’S BBQ
Downtown Crossing has the biggest concentration of food carts in the city, but finding something noteworthy is still tough. (The great Chilean sandwich maker Chacarero doesn’t count: it graduated from the food cart ranks years ago and now has two restaurants with indoor seating.) Among the ho-hum sausages, pretzels, dogs, and burritos, there’s one operator that stands out: Karo’s, a mighty mite of a stainless-steel cart in a plaza near the Old State House, at the junction of State and Court Streets.

Here, an Armenian family serves simple, juicy chicken breast kabobs (as the Armenians spell their skewers), given the perfect char on a gas grill and served with pita. The essential topper is a beautiful house-made dressing that you might mistake for a yogurt sauce but that is more like an eggless aioli, made from olive oil, garlic, lemon, vinegar, black pepper, cumin, and allspice. The chicken skewer ($4), which includes a half-dozen kabobs with pita and dressing, is tough to beat, though you can get also get it combined with Greek salad in pita or French bread (both $5.50), in a salad sans bread in three sizes (for $5, $5.75, or $6.50), or as a plate with rice pilaf ($5.50). Karo’s demonstrates the advantages of specialization: chicken kabob (and only chicken kabob) is what’s for lunch here, and you’ll be glad the genial proprietor has such a keen focus on it.

Approximate address: 1 Court Street, Boston
Hours: Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Nearby landmark: The Old State House is across the stre

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webteam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:30:09 GMT

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M & M RIBS a.k.a. BIG MOE’S BBQ RIBS
Purist aficionados of Southern barbecue may sniff, as M & M’s pit master Big Moe doesn’t employ classic low-temperature slow smoking. But the level of finesse he brings to oak-charcoal grilling is nonetheless impressive. In a chain-link-enclosed corner lot of a construction company, next to a sandpit where dump trucks get filled, Big Moe grills up beautifully smoky pork spareribs ($20 for a slab, $11 for a half-slab, and $8 for a tray) and chicken ($9.25 for a whole, $5.50 for a half). These are served from the M & M truck by genuinely sweet servers who apply an excellent tomato-based finishing sauce, which artfully balances subtle smokiness and cayenne-pepper fire, and throw in a roll and a square of not-too-sweet, dryish cornbread.

Specials include fiery jerk chicken with spicy rice ($4), oxtail ($7.50), pig’s feet ($4), and gorgeously fatty beef brisket, chopped and served on a roll ($5). A deep fryer produces oversized whole chicken wings ($8 for eight, $5 for four). The excellent soul food sides ($5.50 large, $3.00 small) are big and satisfying, too, like terrific cheddar-laden mac and cheese, collard greens with the glossy dark color of seaweed and an unctuous hit of fatback, and spicy red rice and beans. It’s all good, but the standout in my book is the chicken, with the kind of crisp skin and juiciness throughout that most backyard amateurs only dream of. The weekend late-night scene, which attracts a raucously hungry, happy crowd, is great fun here too.

Approximate address: 200 Hampden Street, Roxbury
Hours: Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday from midnight to 3 a.m.
Nearby landmark: The brick building at the corner of Norfolk Avenue with the “Howard Storage” sign

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webteam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:30:11 GMT

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SAMI’S
This green-painted trailer sits on a sidewalk in the Medical District just off Longwood Avenue, where it serves up portable Lebanese fare to health-conscious workers from the surrounding hospitals. Given the nearby alternatives, like the nasty fast-food chain outlets in the indoor food court up the street, it’s easy to see why there’s a line here every lunchtime. Sami’s serves up fabulous roll-ups based on Syrian flatbread, like kebab wraps ($4.75) of piquantly marinated grilled chicken or steak.

The Mike’s No. 2 combo ($5) combines excellent, crunchy fava/chickpea falafel with hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and tahini. The No. 1 ($5) features lemony tabbouleh instead of hummus. A generously sized Greek salad ($4.30) boasts good feta, tomatoes, cukes, green peppers, and olives with a fresh house-made dressing. I’ve been patronizing this place ever since it was a 24-hour food truck serving night owls and graveyard shift workers. While it keeps shorter hours now, it’s still one of Boston’s better options for fresh-tasting food on the go, especially for the local scrubs set.

Approximate address: 167 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
Hours: Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Phone: 617.432.0402
Nearby landmark: Children’s Hospital Boston, 300 Longwood Avenue

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webteam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:30:17 GMT

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BOSTON SPEED’S FAMOUS HOT DOG WAGON
Last year, the Wall Street Journal called the Speed’s hot dog ($7) the best in America. I can’t speak for the country, but I will confidently call Speed’s the Weenie King of Greater Boston. In Newmarket Square, Roxbury’s dusty wholesale food warehouse district, you can find this little truck operating, now with more regular hours since former apprentice Greg Gale took over from recently retired founder Ezra “Speed” Anderson.

Gale hasn’t strayed from Anderson’s elaborate technique. He simmers the dog (a half-pound, all-beef, natural-casing behemoth from Connecticut purveyor Grote & Weigel) in cider and brown sugar, then grills it over charcoal while basting it with “Speed’s special sauce,” a ketchup-like, house-made condiment. A split-top bun of excellent quality is grilled all toasty. The dog is then topped with a house-made relish (a mix of piccalilli and cranberry chutney), a special mustard blend, a house-made beef chili (spicy and beanless), and chopped white onions. Eat it standing over the roof of your car or at the nearby plastic picnic tables. It’s gigantic, extraordinary, symphonic in its interplay of flavors. You’ll never crave a puny Fenway Frank again.

Approximate address: 42 Newmarket Square, Roxbury
Hours: Monday through Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. from March through November. Call ahead on rainy days. Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. from December through February, weather permitting. Phone: 617.839.0102
Nearby landmark: Katsiroubas Bros. Wholesale Fruit and Produce warehouse

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webteam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:30:18 GMT

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BURRITOS AND TACOS TO GO!
Pity the poor straphanger trying to grab a quick meal at Back Bay Station. If you don’t get a sugary sinker at Dunkin’ Donuts or convenience store junk food, you might have to face the grim offerings of Amtrak’s dining car. Luckily, the enthusiastically named Burritos and Tacos To Go!, a small stand just inside the station’s Dartmouth Street entrance, gives travelers a reasonably healthy and much tastier Mexican alternative. The menu offers only tacos, burritos, and grande burritos filled with chicken, steak, carnitas (pork), vegetables, or rice and beans.

The taco ($2.25) stuffs a meat or vegetable filling, lettuce, and salsa rojo into the canonical foundation of two corn tortillas. The flour tortilla burrito ($3.75) is equally simple — just filling, lettuce, and hot sauce. The grande version ($4.75) is more typical of what Americans expect in a burrito: a monster stuffed with filling, lettuce, hot sauce, shredded cheese, rice, and beans (your choice of black beans or pintos). Optional sides and extras include pretty respectable guacamole ($0.75), sour cream ($0.55), cheese ($0.55), and extra meat ($1.25). The chefs take some shortcuts, and in general, the meats are less greasy than is perfectly authentic, but given the overall speed, convenience, and flavor, hungry commuters shouldn’t complain.

Approximate address: Inside Back Bay Station, 145 Dartmouth Street, Boston
Hours: Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Nearby landmark: Amtrak ticket window

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webteam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:29:59 GMT

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CLOVER FOOD LAB
Vegetarian and vegan fast food for people who aren’t vegetarians or vegans? That’s the novel idea behind Clover Food Lab, MIT alum Ayr Muir’s prototype for his quick-service chain concept. I’m a dedicated omnivore who doesn’t understand the vagaries of vegan baking (apparently curdled soy milk stands in nicely for eggs) and unabashedly delights in gnawing on seared animal flesh, but I’d happily eat here often if I worked nearby. Breakfast options include vegan banana muffins ($2, small and fine), oatmeal ($3, fresh and chewy), and popovers ($2, simultaneously light and buttery — incredible). Coffee ($2) from Massachusetts roaster Barrington Coffee could not be fresher: Clover uses a one-cup drip-brewing method.

Lunch presents a rotating selection of terrific sandwiches, like the egg and eggplant ($5), which stuffs pita to overflowing with sliced hardboiled egg, unbreaded sautéed eggplant, Israeli salad, and tahini — a beautiful melding of sunny Mediterranean flavors. Eye-catching side salads include carrot with citrus ($2), a Moroccan-influenced combination of shredded carrots, golden raisins, pine nuts, and lemon juice. You might make a special trip just for the fries ($3), hand-cut on the spot (a whole skin-on Russet gets hand-punched through a wall-mounted slicer) and deep fried with fresh rosemary. They’re a little oily and just amazing by themselves — put down the ketchup. Even if the other food trucks clustered on this block were better (as it happens, they’re okay at best), Clover would still stand out. You really have to hope Muir’s chain idea catches on.

Approximate address: 25 Carleton Street, Cambridge
Hours: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Nearby landmark: MIT Medical building

Reside

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:45:35 GMT

Reside

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:45:36 GMT

Reside

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:45:37 GMT

Reside

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:45:40 GMT

Reside

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:45:41 GMT

Reside

Color Suits You

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:31:03 GMT

Color Suits You

Insight Juniper Sphere ruffle-top bikini, $78, available at Karmaloop

Color Suits You

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:31:04 GMT

Color Suits You

Paul Smith bathing suit, $225, available at Stil

Color Suits You

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:31:06 GMT

Color Suits You

A.P.C. madras bikini, $60, available at Stel's

Color Suits You

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:31:07 GMT

Color Suits You

Parke & Ronen swimming trunks, $82, available at Uniform

Color Suits You

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:31:09 GMT

Color Suits You

Sundek Goldenwave swimming trunks, $170, available at Barneys

Color Suits You

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:31:12 GMT

Color Suits You

Modern Amusement board shorts, $98, available at Uniform

Summer Fashion

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:08:36 GMT

Summer Fashion

Yigal Azrouel tank, $264, available at Saks Fifth Avenue; Jenny Han jacquard skirt, $194, available at Twilight; Millie & Me tassel necklace, $325, available at Looc

Summer Fashion

webteam — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:58:50 GMT

Summer Fashion

TAO Comme des Garcons jacket, $840, available at Barney's; Maison Margiela Ligne 6 T-back tank, $236, available at Achilles; Paige Skyline Diner jeans, $178, available at in-jean-ius; Acne Beat shoes, $574, available at Achilles