As you may have heard, I'm bringing mycranium1 to Boston for the last two weeks of December. He's never been. It seems that every time I tell him about Boston, some unique-to-Boston eatery is in the mix.

So, where do I bring him for the quintessential Boston dining experience? Assume that Dunkie's is a given, as are authentic bagels, and assume that I'll feed him an Italian grinder and look on with envy (even before I went veggie, I was allergic to half the ingredients in a grinder, darn it).

If you have opinionated Boston-dining friends, tell them about this poll! I'd love to get more input.

Poll #1282350 The quintessential Boston eatery?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

What restaurant should I take mycranium1 to, so I can best show him the quintessential Boston dining experience?

The Wall Street Journal ran an article today about New Zealand dairy production, why it needs to industrialize further, with info on how much more food production comes out of industrialized, large farms.

Meanwhile, Colony Collapse Disorder, as well as several other ailments, are killing lots more bees. How many? About a third of the bee population. Without the bees, we can't pollinate those large industrial farms. And why has it spread so fast? Because all those bees are being trucked in to California from around the nation to pollinate at those large, industrial farms that the Wall Street Journal says are the answer to the global food crisis.

Meanwhile, the Pew Foundation just did a study that says industrial farm animal production poses great risks to American health.

Small farms may be less productive immediately, but it is starting to look like they're a much better idea when you view things on a broader time scale. Unfortunately, many large corporations, as well as business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, focus only on the next quarter.

A couple of people have asked, so here's two easy, and tasty, vegan recipes.

Can-Can Pasta

Ingredients
One bag of pasta (penne, shells, ziti, or something shape-y)
One can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans
One can of chopped tomatoes
One red onion
Olive oil

Optional but yummy
- Asparagus
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup olives OR a few tablespoons of capers (or be wild and use both!)
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- Parmesan cheese (makes it non-vegan)

Instructions
Cook the pasta. Do everything else while the pasta is cooking.

If using balsamic, pour into small saucepan and simmer over medium heat for 10-20 minutes. It will reduce by 1/3 to 1/2. DO NOT OVERREDUCE, or it will turn from sweet to nasty-bitter.

If using pine nuts, toast them in a large skillet over high heat until just brown. When done, pour into a bowl and put aside for now, and put olive oil in the skillet.

If not using pine nuts, put olive oil in the skillet over high heat.

If using garlic, slice the cloves thinly and sautee until just browning.

Roughly chop onion and sautee.

If using asparagus, now's a good time to toss it in. Sautee until dark green, about 3-4 minutes.

Turn off heat under skillet. Toss chickpeas and chopped tomatoes into skillet and stir.

Drain pasta. Toss contents of skillet into pasta and combine. Pour balsamic glaze over the whole shebang and toss.

Serve. If you're not vegan, parmesan makes an excellent topping.

Lentil Boba Couscous

Ingredients
2 cups Israeli couscous (that's the big ball-bearing sized couscous)
2 cups lentils (green recommended over red)
1 cucumber, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Curry powder to taste

Cook couscous and lentils according to instructions on package. Add curry powder while cooking.

Combine couscous and lentils in a bowl.

Add cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley and pine nuts to bowl and toss.

Serve.

Note: I think a bit of lemon juice would have added a lot to the flavor of this, but I haven't had a chance to test it out yet.

I'm watching a local cable access show that's interviewing a Korean guy who runs a popular halal (that would be Muslim) market. It's one of those "only in L.A." things.

Over the past 6 months or so, I've started eating less and less meat. Some of it is a byproduct of reading Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma", but it's not the only reason. The other reason?

Simple. Vegetables are much yummier in California than they ever were in Massachusetts.

As a kid, much like many other kids, I hated a lot of vegetables. I loved any vegetables that were fresh from the gardens - green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and so forth. I preferred them raw, always raw. Well, when you're living in Massachusetts in the '70s and your mom doesn't have much of a green thumb, vegetables like that are limited.

Even after I grew up and expanded my palate, while I liked vegetables more, I wasn't in love with them.

If I drove down to the farm near my mom's, I found a small range of tasty vegetables (amazing tomatoes and green beans), and a bunch of other vegetables that were imported from far away and weren't nearly as tasty. Most of the produce at the grocery stores was pretty to look at, but was largely flavorless. Sometimes you could get a little more flavor from the stuff at Whole Foods, but they don't nickname it Whole Paycheck for nothin'.

When I moved out here, I was surprised to see how huge the farmer's markets were. I've never been to a farmer's market, even in the height of summer, in Massachusetts that was as large as the smaller farmer's markets in the Los Angeles areas are. I found entirely new foods (such as cherimoyas) that I liked but had never seen before. And all the fruits and vegetables I was familiar with? It was as if I was eating the Platonic ideal, as if I'd always been tasting a watered-down version and now they were the real deal.

The more I ate them, the more content I was to have them take center stage. They were so flavorful, so complex and interesting, way better than I was used to. I'm a sybarite at heart, and a taste sensation like that is worthy of being the star in my meal.

I'm not sure I will ever become a complete vegetarian, but I'm likely to eat far less meat than I ever imagined I would. Some of it was the effect of reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma", but most of it was because vegetables here are so much better than any I've tasted before.

We started eating solid food again today. It's been very interesting. The flavors seem stronger, and the textures are more noticeable, and not quite what I remember.

I've been surprised at how much my appetite has decreased, and how slowly I have to eat. This is good; anyone who knows me knows I eat far too quickly for my own health. I also have a tendency to eat portions that are far larger than I should, and I'm trying to fix that. The juice fast aftermath seems to have provided a solution to both problems, albeit temporarily; I'll have to continue to work on them on my own. More on that in a minute.

We decided to start light in reentering the solid food world, and I decided to try a raw food day. I'm not sure a raw food diet as a lifestyle is a good idea, for a few reasons, but I was curious about what the food was like and thought I'd be more open to it after a fast, being very hungry and all.

This morning we had fruit for breakfast. I was surprised how satisfied I could feel after so little food, just an apple and a clementine. When I got to work, someone gave me a few pieces of walnut, not even a full mouthful. I chewed them carefully, one by one, and was surprised both at the intensity of the flavor and the feeling of fat coating my mouth. While I know intellectually that nuts are high-fat, I've never been able to feel it until now.

For lunch, I went to Juliano's Raw in Santa Monica. The food was good, but half the waitstaff was inattentive (my waitress, however, was friendly and helpful), and it's expensive. On the advice of my waitress (I told her I was coming off a juice fast) I had a tahini salad, which was some field greens, an avocado, some unusual sliced veggies, and a few crunchies I couldn't identify. I wouldn't have found it filling at another time, but boy, did it ever fill me up today.

I went un-raw just after by having coffee with angelcityblues. (Lovely company, and boy, a small coffee made me vibrate.)

For dinner, mycranium1 and I went to Leaf Cuisine, just around the corner. The counter staff was cranky as all hell, and they were out of nearly everything, but the few things they did have were exceptionally tasty. (More detail in my review on this page.) Again, I was surprised at how very slowly I had to eat, and how little I could eat. I had to eat so slowly, in fact, that I found myself a little bored with the process, or perhaps frustrated by it. I'm not sure what that means, but I'd like to explore it more.

The juice fast itself didn't seem to do much except give me a backache, but the post-fast experience so far has been fascinating.

Anyone who makes bread, please head down toward the end of this post, as I could use some advice. Also, if you cook food with lots o' leftovers, head down that way, as I could use some advice on freezing them. (amber_phoenix, chile_sauce, I'm lookin' at you two!)

What a crazy weekend!

Friday night I took Mycranium up to Crown City Brewing in Pasadena for dinner. They have over 100 beers, and decent food. They have a "beer passport" - drink 100 beers there (each of which has to be certified by a member of the staff), and you get a plaque on the wall and a free T-shirt! The beer I had (a Fat Tire draft) was very tasty. Mycranium appreciated his beers, as well.

Returning bottles on Saturday seemed to take far longer than was really warranted, as did the rest of my errands. Saturday night, Mycranium took me to Vroman's Bookstore on an errand. It's one of the best independent bookstores I've been to anywhere. (Not as good as Powell's, but few are.) I told him we have to go on a date there sometime.

From there, we went to dinner with a group of his friends at Radhika's Cuisine of India. Mmmm, Indian! The samosas were flaky with a rich flavor. The naan was well cooked, although the garlic naan could have been more garlicky, and the onion naan could not have been more oniony without breaking certain laws of physics (which made it slightly less enjoyable). The spice level on the saag paneer was a little high for me, but it was still darn tasty. (I need to learn to make saag paneer!) The chicken tikka masala was the brightest orange I've ever seen, but very yummy. The serving plates were really cool - the bowls were square instead of round. The wait staff was quick to take our order, but very slow to get our check to us. I'd probably go back, were I in Pasadena - so far, it's the best Indian I've had there.

We continued on to Mycranium's friend's birthday party. The entire house was furnished in "mid-century modern Ikea", to quote the birthday girl; exactly the sort of thing I drool over. They also had the cutest, teeniest pug you ever did see.

Today I went to the farmer's market, which was a freaking madhouse. The only time I've seen it that busy is the weekend before Thanksgiving. I've no idea why it was so nuts, but everyone had their good produce on. I realized it's been so many years since I shopped for one that I really don't know how to do it anymore. I know I'm going to be making stuff with lots of leftovers, and that brings me to the issue of freezing things.

Years ago, I used to freeze stir fry to have for lunch later. However, I dimly remember that it was always freezer burned to heck. Since the freezer at Starbase Zero never had any room, I got out of the habit of freezing food. I'd like to get back into it again, but I don't know if it's feasible to do it with things that aren't fairly liquid (spaghetti sauces, soups, etc.). Any advice?

Bread: I decided to make pumpernickel bread. It's only going to be semi-pumpernickel, however, because I could find neither rye flour nor caraway seeds, both of which are generally an important part. (I substituted part wheat and part white for the rye flour, and I didn't substitute anything for the caraway seeds.) Can anyone recommend where I can find such things? Ralph's was no good, but maybe there's some other type of grocery or specialty store that would have it?

Tonight: testing something for work, then off to the Hotel Cafe to watch a coworker play.

I've cooked many things before. Complicated things. Crazy things.

But today, I tried something that was so difficult, I had to look it up on the Internet.

Yes, tonight, for the first time in my life, I made...

a grilled cheese sandwich.

Mmm. A little burnt.