L'Andana Grill: A Tasty New Addition to Local Restaurant Scene

It's great to have Boston and Cambridge near by with their abundance of good restaurants to choose from. But it's also nice to have a growing list of top-level restaurants within a 10 minute drive from our home that compare with some of Boston's best. Last week we made our first trip to L'Andana Grill in Burlington, and it definitely warrants a place near the top of our good spots, close to home list.

We entered the restaurant and soaked in the lively energy of the Saturday evening crowd. The decor seemed to conjure up the feeling of being in a Tuscan lodge, with modern accents. The room buzzed with conversation as we made our way to our seat. Though very different than Mistral, it did share some of the feel of that Boston restaurant owned by the folks who opened L'Andana.

We started by sipping Prosecco as we perused the menu. We quickly landed on our "Primi" options, going for a lighter approach then the traditional Italian pasta course. We had a mixed green salad with walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette as well as the prosciutto served with figs, fresh mozerella and oregano. The prosciutto dish was especially tasty, a nice combination of the salty prosciutto, sweet fig and rich mozerella.

My main course selection was ultimately driven by the wine options. They had both salmon and swordfish options that sounded pretty good, but the big Italian reds were attracting my attention on the wine list and also made sense to pair with the filet mignon Jodi had chosen. So I decided in favor of the veal chop, which was served with porcini mushrooms sauteed in a madeira reduction sauce along with a side of parmesan polenta. The meat was nice and tender and the earthiness of the mushooms rounded things out nicely.

I was leaning toward one of the reds from their Northern Italy portion of the list, which had a nice range of Nebbiolo and Barbera based wines. The wine manager wasn't on when we visited, so General Manager Edson Coimbra Jr. came over to confer with us on the selection. He was quite knowledgable about the Italian wines that dominate their list, and he relayed a story about tasting wines with Albino Rocca, who owns and produces the epononymos wine we wound up going with.

The 2003 Albino Rocca Barbaresco from the Piedmont region was a wonderful wine. I could tell on the first taste that it had great potential, very firm and flavorful. We let it decant as we finished our first course, and it had really blossomed. It's a very well-structured, complex wine with full mouthfeel, blackberry fruit increasingly shining as it opened up, with a bit of dusky leatheriness in the backdrop. A great match for the meat we had, and easily one of the top wines I've had this year.

The service was very friendly and responsive, though there was one glitch near the end. We ordered coffees and a dessert to share, the peach and blackberry crisp, but the crisp seemed to get lost somewhere along the way. We were nearly finished with our coffee when a molten chocolate cake appeared along with apologies. At this point, I was ready to go with that--and it was quite tasty. In keeping with their strong customer service, the server promised a complimentary blackberry crisp on our next visit.

My only other small critique is that a couple of the items had a bit more sweetness than I'd prefer. For instance, the walnuts in the salad seemed to be candied walnuts, and the reduction sauce with the veal was a touch sweeter than the mushroom sauces I make. I like to emphasize the earthy quality of the mushrooms a bit more.

Overall, we very much enjoyed our visit and look forward to our next trip. Most nights they offer a three course Tuscan prix fixe deal which looks like a very good deal, we'll probably aim to try that next time. Glad to have another top-quality restaurant on the scene!

Grilled Swordfish with Ginger Soy Marinade

My first attempt at grilled swordfish came out pretty well, I must say. I'd sampled some with an Asian based sauce at Whole Foods and tried to replice something like what I'd had. I liked my version at least as well as theirs. Jodi is not typically a big fish eater, but she liked it too. I actually used this marinade for some chicken as well, and it works nicely there too. Here's the recipe for quick, tasty meal:

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

3 cloves garlic

1 inch ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 tsp brown rice vineger

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

8-12 ozs. swordfish steak

Preheat a grill to medium-high. Puree all the ingredients, expect the swordfish, in a food processor. Pour enough marinade over the fish in a plastic bowl or in a plastic bag. Reserve the extra marinade you don't put on the fish for topping at the table. Cover and shake to distribute the marinade thoroughly. Marinade for up to 2 hours, at least 30 minutes.

When ready to cook, remove the swordfish from the marinade, shake gently to remove excess marinade. Discard marinade. Grill the fish about 5 minutes per side, so that it is just cooked through and flaking. Serve at table with extra sauce, if desired, and a squirt of lemon or lime.

I served this with couscous and a spinich salad. I tossed a bit of the extra marinade into my vinaigrette to give it a hint of the Asian flavor.

Wine pairing: Having not had much swordfish, I sought advice on what to pair with the dish. Suggestions included viogner, gewurstraminer, riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir. A lot of options. I sampled the 2007 Foris Pinot Blanc ($14) from Oregon's Rogue Valley, and felt the lively ripe fruitness and medium body would match the substantial flavors of the swordfish, and it did so nicely.

Thank you, Mr. Grill!

Toward the end of last summer, my grill quit on me. I thought it might just need a fresh tank of propane, but that didn't do the trick. Have had it nearly 3 years, so thought perhaps a more thorough cleaning than what I was able to do might do the track. There wasn't too much incentive to deal with it during the rainy June we had, but some real grilling weather finally rolled in and I wanted to do something about it.

I remembered my brother-in-law had raved about the services provided by Watertown-based "Mr. Grill" and gave him a call. Mr. Grill was very responsive and professional, came with a good supply of power tools and set to work doing a thorough cleaning and tune-up. Sure enough, the grill looked and worked like it did when new. I think his rates are very reasonable for the services provided--it would have taken me half a day to get anywhere near the results he did in less than an hour. I highly recommend for your grill service and cleaning needs!

So the grills been back online just over a week, and already we've enjoyed chicken, steak, salmon and pork off the grill. Thinking swordish tonight perhaps--glad to have the option to grill again!

BTW, Mr. Grill also makes a rub and a sample is heading my way, will let you know how it is.

Also published on http://Woburnite.com, a directory of local businesses and services.

In Defense of Food--and Community

My interest in cooking (and eating) led me to read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, yet I was struck by how some of the societal factors that require food to be defended also contribute to the declining social capital we address here at SCI.

Pollan's basic plot, picking up where he left off in The Omnivore's Dilemma, argues that many of the poor health outcomes we see in the U.S. today result from the Western diet with its reliance on processed food, meat and dairy produced in disconcerting ways, and a limited range of grains. He suggests the link between the "food industrial complex" and nutritionists' quest for a single food factor, be it fat or carbs, that explains health also drives a frequent rollout of new fad diets and food products that at best haven't made us any better off.

The link to issues of social capital and community comes from the cultural milieu that has made us a fast food nation requiring a defense of our food. Across the globe, sharing meals plays a vital role in strengthening bonds among family friends. And in many cultures, the process of acquiring our food from local shops strengthens local ties--residents of a small New Hampshire town realized this recently when they worked to save a local bakery. Understanding at some level that food is a great icebreaker, we often suggest meeting for lunch or coffee if we want to develop a new business or social relationship. Yet the evidence says we are sharing meals with family and friends much less today than in times past--Pollan cites a rather shocking stat that 20% of eating among 18 to 50 year olds takes place in the car.

I would argue that some of the steps urged by Pollan for promoting health and sustainability would also contribute positively to social capital. In our fast-paced culture where our food is take-out and our ideas Tweeted, slowing down a bit and enjoying more meals with family and friends might help to reverse the trends that have us increasingly socially isolated. Living in New England, I enjoy fresh produce from California in the winter so it's hard for me to suggest we should all become strict locavores and get all of our food locally; but shifting the balance somewhat and getting more food from local producers can help forge local ties, not to mention cut down on fuel consumption. The lively exchange among shoppers and growers at the farmer's market I'll visit tomorrow is not something that one sees at a typical grocery store. There is something about shopping from the people that have nurtured the food that invites conversation, and there is always a friendly buzz as people peruse the fresh lettuce and basil.

Ultimately, the link between the "Defense of Food" and social capital issues seems to come down to time. Good, healthy food and relationships both take time. One way to address both issues is to invest some time shopping for some good local food, preparing it thoughtfully and sharing it over a leisurely meal. I'm looking forward to doing my part on this over the weekend!

Originally published on http://socialcapitalinc.org. Be on the lookout for more reflections on the food/social capital link. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject! Meanwhile, two web resources for eating locally in the Boston area are the Mass. Farmer's Market site and Fresh New England.

The 5 Ingredients Test

I finshed Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food on the plane yesterday. I'll certainly be treating it more fully here, but one thing that I thought about today while shopping at Whole Foods was his "5 ingredients" test. His high-level advice is the subtitle of his book is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

As you might imagine, he does elaborate on these points. The 5 ingredients test is something he proposes (along with the "great grandmother test") to distinguish between real food and "foodlike substances". If something has more than 5 ingredients, and/or ingredients you can't pronounce, Pollan argues it is not worthy of the name food. This concept was food for thought, so to speak, perusing the aisles today. Even at Whole Foods, not too much food that comes with ingredients on it comes in under 5 ingredients. But the whole wheat linguine that I made for support tonight passed the test with 4 ingredients to spare...just wheat! (though I suspect water must have been involved too).

Of course, one point of the 5 ingredients rule is that limiting processed foods is the way to go. The local lettuce and red pepper I bought for a salad passed the test, probably none of the other packaged items I bought though. We probably eat much healthier than the average American, but In Defense of Food reminds me that we can still do a lot more to eat healthier and sustainably. Stay tuned for more on this topic!