Tiny Urban Kitchen: January 2007

Who is Tiny Urban Kitchen?

My name's Jen. I live in a tiny urban condo between my alma mater and the other school in Cambridge. My tiny urban condo comes with a tiny urban kitchen, hence the name of this blog. It's a bit tight at times, but over all, it works for me, and I spend lots of time there exploring new recipes and cooking methods.

I am an experimenter by nature. I worked as a research chemist for years synthesizing new molecules in the lab. Similarly, at home, I love experimenting in the kitchen and coming up with fun, new creative ways to cook.

I also love eating, and am very willing to travel for good food! That's why this blog also includes my takes on my various eating adventures, whether in Boston or around the world. I love sharing about my food adventures, and I also love hearing what you have to say. So, please leave a comment, say hello, and feel free to give me your thoughts and suggestions too. If this is your first time here, welcome!

If you're interested in cooking, definitely check out the Recipes link, which is a compilation of all the recipes on the site to date. If you like Asian food, visit the Chinese Recipes Gallery, which gives you a quick, photolicious way of browsing through the Chinese recipes on the site.

Interested in the sous vide technique? Here's a primer on sous vide, including links to several recipes I’ve made from famous chefs like Thomas Keller and David Chang.

Dining Out
Since I live in Cambridge, many of the restaurants on this site are in the Cambridge/Boston area. You can check out the “Restaurant Index” if you want to search by neighborhoods. For a fun photo gallery of all the Michelin Starred restaurants I visited, check out the Michelin Stars Gallery. I do travel extensively, and thus you’ll find all sorts of food from places such as New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tokyo, China, Taiwan and Europe.

What has surprised you most about food blogging?
I think everyone says the same thing, and I have to agree. The community is AWESOME. Most people start food blogging to share recipes with friends and family, or to keep a record of all the restaurants they've visited - at least that's why I started my blog. You never really realize how food blogging can connect you to so many like-minded people around the world. I've had the great privilege to "meet" people from Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, and, of course, all over the US. Things like the Foodbuzz Festival are great ways to connect with other food lovers. I never would have thought that starting a food blog would open the door to so many other friendships, opportunities, and experiences.
What has been the most amazing food opportunity that you've had as a result of food blogging?
No question it would be my trips to Napa Valley (both in 2010 and in 2011) to Napa Valley to blog about the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition. In 2010, Foodbuzz and S. Pellegrino had hosted a contest to send one person there. I was thrilled and beyond belief that I had actually won the contest. The trip really opened my eyes to what the food industry is like. The food industry, especially the restaurant industry, is grueling, and it takes a ton of hard work and perseverance to make it. I was so privileged to be able to see this up close. It really gave me a new perspective and added respect for those who choose to follow this career path. Of course, Napa Valley is also beautiful, and I had a fabulous time there just checking out the vineyards and trying some amazing restaurants!

What camera do you use? What's your process in photography?
I switch between my Panasonic Lumix GF1 (which is more pocket-sized so I carry it around with me everywhere I go), my Canon 5D, or my husband's Canon 5D MkII depending on the situation. The SLRs are really big and heavy, so I only bring them to events that have super low lighting or are clearly "camera-friendly." I would say 80% of the pictures on my blog are taken with the Panasonic Lumix GF1. I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 to catalog and work up my images, which are all shot in raw format. I then export them to Flickr, which hosts all my images.

Which posts did you have the most fun making?
Man, that’s a tough question! Before Project Food Blog I would have said my first 24, 24, 24 post titled "Kyaraben on Steroids." I spent the day making sushi and other foods in the shapes of my favorite Japanese anime characters. It was a ton of work and took all day, but to this day I still love looking at the pictures of the cute Hello Kitty, Domokuns, Totoros, and Keroppis that I made for this post. However, I had a lot of fun creating posts for the numerous rounds in Project Food Blog. My favorites would have to be a toss up between the final post in the last round (“Final Reflections”) where I made a moving stop-animation video of Boston constructed out of vegetables (and sang a song!) and the hand-pulled noodle instructional video that I made for Round 7. In general, I love playing with my food and photographing them in different angles, and therefore some posts whose photography I really enjoyed creating are the ones about dragon fruit, meyer lemons, ratatouille, and inside out apples.

What are you favorite restaurants in Boston?
My favorite neighborhood restaurant is Garden at the Cellar, which is probably the place we visit most frequently. The truffle fries alone are the best I've ever had, and the rest of the menu is excellent and priced very very reasonably. I hope it never moves away! (Though recently Will Gilson, the brains and inspiration behind the place, has just left. Let’s hope it maintains its excellent quality!)

Bergamot is also another excellent restaurant that just recently opened. Hungry Mother is great, though really hard to get into because it’s so popular! For fancy dining, Craigie on Main, formerly Craigie Street Bistrot, is fantastic - some of the best food I've had in Boston. O Ya (Japanese inspired cuisine) is also an amazing dining experience - hands down one of the best restaurants in Boston. Similarly, Menton by Barbara Lynch also executes incredibly good food.

For outdoor dining during the summer, some of our favorite places in Harvard Square include Upstairs on the Square, Monday Club, Rialto, and The Red House. Muqueca (Brazilian coastal food) is one of my favorite little ethnic family restaurants, while Mamma Maria or Prezza just might be my favorite North End restaurants (of course you can't forget Mike's Pastry or Modern!). Though it’s not Italian, Neptune Oyster in the North End is also excellent - a perfect taste of New England.

Outside of the North End, we love Gran Gusto and Basta Pasta, both the original Cambridge location and the new Quincy location.

As for Asian food, because I'm Taiwanese, that cuisine tends to be my favorite, which is why I love going to Taiwan Cafe, Gourmet Dumpling House, and Shangri-La. I also love the hot pots at Little Q (more recently moved to Arlington). I think Oishii takes the cake for best traditional sushi while O Ya kicks butt when it comes to nontraditional Japanese inspired food. Fugakyu has one of the best sushi lunch specials around and Cafe Sushi is our favorite place for Sunday evening sushi dinner specials ($1/piece nigiri!).

Hi Rise Bakery is one of my favorite bakeries (love love love their vanilla loaf) and also one of my favorite sandwich shops. My favorite ice cream is from Toscanini's (though his brother’s place Rancatore’s is awesome as well) and my favorite pizza is from Emma's. My favorite burgers are from Bartley's, while Bryan also really like the burger at Craigie on Main, Radius, and Smith &amp;amp; Wollensky.

What have been some of your favorite dining experience ever? In the world? One of my all time favorite dining experiences in the world was at Kyubey in Tokyo. It's this sushi place right down the street from Tsukiji Fish Market. We got the omakase and essentially had our personal sushi chef for most of the meal, creating interesting bites for us. Similarly, our sushi experience at two star Michelin Sushi Kanesaka was out of this world.

As a seafood lover, my favorite restaurant in terms of food is probably Le Bernardin in New York City. One of my favorite dining experiences was at Daniel, where the service, food, everything was so impeccable, it really made for an unforgettable experience. I also love dumplings, and therefore Din Tai Fung in Taiwan (and China!) is also one of my favorite dining places in the world.

Final Thoughts?

I love interacting with my readers through comments the blog. I like to think of the blog as a forum for communication about food. Although I offer lots of information on the blog, I have also learned a lot of things from my readers. The communication totally goes both ways, and I love it that way! So please, feel free to leave comments and say hello. I definitely read every single one. :)

Thanks for visiting!

Warmly,

You can contact me at jen{at}tinyurbankitchen{dot}com

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