2021: Favorite Food-Related Items

What were some of my favorite food-related items of the past year?

Let me continue the lists of my best recommendations and favorites of 2021. I've already posted my Favorite Restaurants of 2021. Now, I want to address my Favorite Food-Related Items of the past year.

This is certainly not a complete list but it is more a sampling of memorable food items I've experienced and/or posted about over the past year. This is also a purely subjective list, based on my own preferences, and makes no claims about being the "best" of anything. But all of the items here have earned my strong recommendations and I hope you will enjoy them as well. For more food-related items, you can just search my blog posts for the past year.

Favorite Culinary School: NECAT is a local culinary school which trains people from challenging backgrounds, from ex-convicts to recovering addicts, from the homeless to the chronically unemployed. NECAT fills an important need for culinary help while helping numerous people achieve a better life. It is such a worthy school, helping to transform lives, and it really touches my heart. It helps individuals while also helping the community, and I continue, year after year, to try to raise awareness of NECAT so that its good work can continue and even expand. It is one of my favorite causes and is well worthy of your continued support.

 

Favorite Food Rant: At the start of the year, I wrote Rant: Duck Wings > Chicken Wings, and it's an issue that brings out strong feelings in me. Chicken wings get all the attention, probably in large part because they are inexpensive. However, duck wings are more flavorful, but not enough restaurants serve them. Chicken meat is much milder, and the sauce and coating is far more important to bring more flavor to them. Duck wings don't have to rely as much on sauces and coatings to offer delicious flavors. Let's hope that in 2022, we start to see more duck wings available on local restaurant menus. 

Vietnamese Restaurant List: In honor of Vietnamese New Year, I compiled a list of Vietnamese restaurants, largely in the eastern portion of Massachusetts. This is a work in progress, which I shall revise and expand over time. If you know of any Vietnamese restaurants in Massachusetts which aren't on my list, please send me the info and I'll add it. 

Food History Articles: During the pandemic, it's been tough for many food writers and some have simply written sporadically, especially those who concentrated on restaurant reviews. For myself, I 've continued to devote many hours to researching and writing numerous historical food articles, combing through thousands of newspapers and books. I've especially delved into the origins of numerous foods, trying to seek out their true origins, and not just accepting the unsubstantiated claims of others. Here are over 25 historical articles I completed this past year. 

My Chinese related articles include:

The Origin of Chinese Duck Sauce: Did Boston Invent" It?

A Historic Look at Chinese New Year (1870-1890)

Sam Wah Kee: From Chinatown's Most Wealthy Merchant to Wanted Fugitive

Dr. Ensang Cheng: Boston's First Chinese Licensed Physician

An Early History of Chinese Herbalists in Boston

The First August Moon Festivals in Chinatown

A Chinese Restaurant in Mayberry?

Origins of the Pu-Pu Platter

The First Restaurants in Boston's Chinatown: The 1960s (Part 9)

The Origin of the Chinese Egg Roll

The First Chinese Restaurants in Vermont

Origins of the Chinese Buffet

China Pavilion Restaurant: Only A Sign Remains

My other food history articles include:

The First Vietnamese Restaurants in the U.S.

Origin of the Hamburger: The First 20 Years (Part 1)

Origin of the Hamburger: The Sandwich Appears (Part 2)

The Origin of Salisbury Steak: The Hot Water Cure & Meat Diet

The Origin of Jimmies aka Chocolate Sprinkles

A Short History of Peruvian Restaurants & Chifa in the U.S.

Pizza History in the U.S. (Part 1)

Pizza History in the U.S. (Part 2): The True Origin of Hawaiian Pizza

An Early History of Slade's Barbecue: "A Living Monument"

The Origin of Fried Chicken & Waffles

Some Balut History: Duck Eggs to Quail Eggs

A Brief History of Rappie Pie in the U.S.

Vermont Trip: In August, I spent several days in southern Vermont, investigating some of the food scene there, including a few visits to cool and unique farms. Vermont has much to offer and I look forward to returning in 2022, to explore more of the options. 

  

Check out my four posts about this trip:

Chester, Vermont: Helping Hands & Wine, Cheese, Pies, Candy, Donuts & More (Including the Chester Candy Company, Southern Pie Company, and Smitty's Chester Market)

Vermont Raised Mangalitsa Pigs: Bring on the Lard (Superb heirloom pork products!)

Cavendish Game Birds: From Quail to Balut (Excellent quail!)

Vermont Waygu: Pure Breed, Pure Deliciousness (Amazing Waygu beef!)

Favorite Vermont Restaurant: I thoroughly enjoyed a fine dinner at the Social House: A Culinary Treasure in Manchester, Vermont. It has a small menu, which changes frequently depending on seasonality and what's available, but which offers plenty of appealing options. Such tasty options like Hamachi Crudo, Grilled Octopus, and Gnocchi all Buttera. They also make excellent cocktails and have a good wine list. I'd definitely return here and it worth a stop if you're in southern Vermont. 

Nova Scotia Trip: In the fall, I traveled to Nova Scotia, mainly as a family trip, but with a few culinary highlights, including:

Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia: Dockside Donuts Truck (Mini-donuts, made to order, where you choose your own toppings. A tasty treat.). 

Pictou County Pizza: A Nova Scotian Specialty (A unique regional pizza style made with a brown sauce, not a red sauce, loaded with spicy pepperoni and then covered with cheese.)

What were some of your favorite food-related items this year?

2020: Favorite Food-Related Items

What were some of my favorite food-related items of the past year?

Let me continue the lists of my best recommendations and favorites of 2020. I've already posted my Favorite Restaurants of 2020. Now, I want to address my Favorite Food-Related Items of the past year.

This is certainly not a complete list but it is more a sampling of memorable food items I've experienced and/or posted about over the past year. This is also a purely subjective list, based on my own preferences, and makes no claims about being the "best" of anything. But all of the items here have earned my strong recommendations and I hope you will enjoy them as well. For more food-related items, you can just search my blog posts for the past year.

Favorite Culinary School: NECAT is a local culinary school which trains people from challenging backgrounds, from ex-convicts to recovering addicts, from the homeless to the chronically unemployed. NECAT fills an important need for culinary help while helping numerous people achieve a better life. It is such a worthy school, helping to transform lives, and it really touches my heart. It helps individuals while also helping the community, and I continue, year after year, to try to raise awareness of NECAT so that its good work can continue and even expand. It is one of my favorite causes and is well worthy of your continued support. 

Favorite Food Market: The Greek International Food Market, in West Roxbury, is an amazing place, with so much excellent Greek food and ingredients, from prepackaged items to freshly made dishes. Lots of Greek cheeses and olives, spreads and pastries, wine and olive oil, and so much more. I tried numerous foods from the market and they were generally excellent and delicious. I plan to return there again soon to stock up for the winter. I highly recommend this market to anyone who loves food, to anyone who loves Greek cuisine, to anyone who is adventurous.

 

Favorite Food Rant: At the start of the year, I wrote, We Need More Bread Pudding! It's been a cause of mine for years, and there still aren't enough restaurants and bakeries offering delicious bread pudding. I wish there was a bakery that even specialized in Bread Pudding. It is a relatively simple dish to prepare, can be made in many different flavors, and is so tasty. So why isn't it more readily available? Why isn't it more popular? Let's hope 2021 seems Bread Pudding become a new trend. 

Writing For The Sampan: In April, I started a new gig, writing for the Sampan, the only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England. The newspaper, which was founded in 1972, is published bi-weekly by the nonprofit Asian American Civic Association and is distributed free-of-charge. It is also available online. Most of my articles deal with the history of Chinatown, especially its restaurants, though I also write restaurant reviews and related articles. Please check out my various Sampan articles here.

Blogging During A Pandemic: This year has been tough for food writers and some have simply written sporadically, whenever they had a topic idea. For myself this year, I devoted many hours to researching and writing numerous historical articles, combing through thousands of newspapers and books, especially about Boston's Chinatown and related topics. Many of the links to those numerous articles can be found in this compilation post.

I greatly expanded my previous five-part series on The First Restaurants in Boston's Chinatown, and it became an eight-part series, consisting of over 100,000 words (making it the size of a book). I'm especially proud of this series, and was surprised and enlightened by the information I found in my research. Some day, I would like to turn it into an actual book.

I also wrote a seven-part series, The First Chinese Restaurants Outside Boston, and a three-part series, The First Chinese Restaurants in Connecticut. In addition, there are histories of Dim Sum in the U.S., Origins Of The Chop Suey Sandwich, What's A Chop Suey Sundae?, The Origins of American Chop Suey, Origins Of The St. Paul Sandwich, Origins of Crab Rangoon, PA History of Peking Duck, and Chinatown, Little Syria & Its Restaurants. 

For non-Asian historical articles, I also wrote Origins of Manhattan Clam Chowder, Early History of Greek Restaurants in Boston, and Pastitsio: A Short History of a Greek Classic. Maybe the most poplar historical article I wrote this past year was Closed For Fifty Years: A History of the Sahara Syrian Restaurant. Who knew so many people were curious about a restaurant that has been closed for about fifty years? (And I have some new information which I will be presenting in an expanded article in 2021). 

What were some of your favorite food-related items this year?

Rant: NECAT Needs Your Support Immediately!

NECAT (New England Center for Arts & Technology) is one of my favorite causes. In short, NECAT provides culinary training to students who have had troubles or disadvantages in their past, such as drug addiction or incarceration. You can check out my previous article, Support NECAT & Transform Lives, for more background information on NECAT and their mission. You also should check out my prior post, NECAT's 2018 Accomplishments, to see what NECAT has done this past year.

As I wrote before, "NECAT is helping to show their students that they don't need to be defined by their past, that they can move forward despite what they might have once done. They are helped to believe in themselves so that they can change their lives for the better. They might have challenged backgrounds but that isn't sufficient to hold them back, if they are willing to work toward a better future. These are such worthy goals, creating a better community for all of us."

NECAT now needs your support, and there is a sense of immediacy. It won't cost you any money, just a short bit of time. As their latest email states, "The House of Representatives will be considering the FY20 budget over the next few weeks. Representative Jon Santiago is filing an amendment this week on behalf of NECAT for $300,000 to help support our critical workforce training efforts. While NECAT partners closely with the state through the Learn to Earn initiative and our current Re-Entry grant, funding is limited and the state appropriations process remains a critical source of support for our continued growth."

On behalf of NECAT, I ask you to please contact your State Representative no later than Friday, April 19 to ask them to co-sponsor this amendment in line item 7002-0010 for level funding to NECAT. You can find out who your Representative is by clicking here.

This is such a worthy cause, that not only helps individuals but also helps the community. Please, please help NECAT.

Please either personalize the template below as an e-mail or call your rep's office.

SAMPLE EMAIL TO YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE:

Dear Representative ________ ,

My name is _____________ and I am a constituent in _____________. I am writing in support of the New England Center for Arts and Technology (NECAT) and their workforce training program for chronically unemployed individuals.

NECAT is a culinary arts job training program based in Boston that serves as a catalyst for social change, helping hundreds in our community bridge the skills gap, enter the workforce and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Students in NECAT’s tuition-free program learn practical culinary skills, receive financial coaching and participate in job readiness and attitudinal training to prepare for jobs in an industry with a high demand for workers.

NECAT empowers individuals who face significant barriers to employment, including homelessness, recent incarceration and substance abuse recovery, to move from reliance on state public assistance to personal and financial independence. Successful NECAT graduates are saving the state significant dollars by getting off public benefits, staying out of prison and paying taxes, often for the first time.

I respectfully request that you co-sponsor Representative Santiago’s amendment to line item 7002-0010 for $300,000 in level funding for NECAT.

Thank you for your consideration and the work you do on our behalf.

Sincerely,
Name and Address