Central Grill: A New Brazilian Restaurant in Woburn

After La Stanza Diva in Woburn shuttered its doors, there was speculation that it would only be a temporary closing but then there were signs in the windows that another restaurant would open there. But several months passed and the new place failed to open so I was unsure what was happening.  But, the restaurant has now opened. Central Grill Restaurant & Cafe is a Brazilian place, joining a host of other Brazilian restaurants in Woburn. It is a casual place, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and oddly enough they serve a handful of Italian dishes such as Chicken Parmesan and Spaghetti with Garlic & Oil.

I recently stopped by for lunch, though will likely check out breakfast in the near future as well.  The breakfast menu is fairly complete, with plenty of egg dishes, omelets and pancakes, though you won't find waffles. The lunch and dinner menus appear to be the same with Appetizers ($7.99-$9.99), Salads ($5.99-$7.99), Fish, Chicken, Pork, and Beef Entrees ($7.99-$18.49, though most under $10), Sides, and Sandwiches. Entrees generally include several sides, such as rice, beans, salad and fries. There are plenty of grilled meats, and specialties like linguica and yuca.  

I decided to order a couple of appetizers for lunch, to get a better idea of the variety of their dishes. I started with the Camarao Alho e Oleo (Shrimp, Garlic & Oil for $9.99). Initially, I thought it might be like the Spanish dish, a plate of sizzling shrimp in a pool of oil and garlic but that was not the case. Instead, they were grilled shrimp atop lettuce and tomato. They were cooked nicely, with a strong garlic and pepper flavor. 

The Porcao Mista (Mixed meats for $8.99) comes with three grilled meats, pork (linguica), chicken and beef. They too come atop lettuce and tomato, and I also ordered a side of the Mandioca (Yuka for $3.99). This was a plentiful plate of meat and the linguica was my favorite of the three, moist with plentiful spices. The chicken was also good, small, thin and mostly tender strips but the beef was generally well done and a bit tough. The fried yuca was tasty, with a starchier consistency than fried potatoes.  

Service was excellent and attentive, and my server even explained why someone who sat down after me got their food before me. I hadn't asked her about him, but she offered anyways, stating that he had called ahead to order his lunch. It was fairly quiet in the restaurant, with only a few others dining there. It is also a new restaurant, so it is still getting the kinks out, as well as getting known to the public.

Overall, my food quality was average, though plentiful and reasonably priced, but I would like to return to see how it fares at a different time, such as during a busy dinner period.  With all of the other Brazilian restaurants in Woburn, Central Grill will need to step up its game to be more competitive. But that might come in time. I'll report back once I make a return visit.

Central Grill Restaurant & Cafe
315 Main Street
Woburn, MA
Phone: 781-281-1652

Sake Professional Course in NYC

Sake lovers step forward and prepare to learn all about this wonderful beverage.

John Gauntner, the famed Sake expert and "Sake Dendoushi" ("Sake Evangelist"), is holding his 8th Stateside Sake Professional Course in New York City from Sunday, July 2 to Tuesday, August 2, 2011. This is an educational opportunity you should not miss.

The course runs for three days and finishes with an optional exam, which if you pass will garner you a Level 1 Sake Specialist certification. The course costs $775, which includes the three days of instruction, materials, all Saké for tasting, and one shot at the exam. There are only 60 spots available for the course.

Gauntner states "The course is geared toward industry professionals wishing to expand their horizons in a thorough manner into the world of sake, and will therefore necessarily be fairly technical in nature, and admittedly somewhat intense. But the course is open to anyone with an interest in sake, and it will certainly be fun! The course lectures and tastings will begin with the utter basics and will thoroughly progress through and cover everything related to sake. There will be an emphasis on empirical experience, with plenty of exposure to a wide range of sake in the tasting sessions throughout the three days. Upwards of 90 sake will be tasted across the three days."

For reservations or inquiries, please send an email to info@sake-world.com.  With a limited amount of spaces available, I suggest acting soon if you wish to attend the class.

I attended this course last year when it was held in San Francisco and you can read my review here. In short, it was a superb class, taught by an excellent instructor and well worth attending if you love Saké. I cannot recommend this class enough.

Thursday Sips & Nibbles

I am back again with a new edition of Thursday Sips & Nibbles, my regular column where I briefly highlight some interesting wine and food items that I have encountered recently.
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1) Join The Beehive for “A Night in Buenos Aires” on Tuesday, June 7th, as they present the first-ever “Tango Café,” a celebration of tango music and dance featuring live performances by musicians and dancers from the Longy School of Music, as well as inspired Argentinean food and libation specials. Tango was born in the brothels of Buenos Aires and its seductive and sensual character will be on display at The Beehive.

The Beehive will be transformed into an authentic Argentinean café with the captivating and seductive sounds of The Beehive Tango Orchestra, complete with strings, keys, vocals and accordion. Professional tango dancers from the Longy School will mesmerize the crowd with sultry dance exhibitions throughout the night. Argentinean-inspired food specials and Milagro Tequila cocktail specials will be on tap as well! Boston’s queen bee, Executive Chef Rebecca Newell, will be serving traditional Argentinean cuisine such as Empanadas ($10) and Gaucho Steak with Chimichurri ($24 to $30). Dinner, including The Beehive’s regular menu, will be served from 5:30pm-1am. Live performances are from 8pm-12am. Reservations are recommended by calling (617) 423-0069.

2) Smolak Farms, located in North Andover, has partnered with Edible Boston, Gilt City Boston, Le Cordon Bleu Boston, Yelp!, Vermont Fresh Network and New England Cooks to create “Whim,” an outdoor dining experience. Unlike the typical “pop-up restaurant” Whim will be a permanent installation, hosting dinners every Wednesday night starting June 29th, and continuing on through August 24th, featuring some of New England’s best chefs.

Whim is different in several ways explains owner of Smolak Farms, Michael Smolak, “We’ve held off on doing a dining series because we wanted to offer something distinctly different. With the success of our chef demo series last year drawing over 400 people each night, we felt the audience was there, but we wanted to make sure we did something distinctly different, that would allow the chefs involved to flex their creative muscle and showcase our farm and what we do here. We have a lot of pots on the stove, no pun intended. Our guests are going to walk away with a memory from this experience and feel as if they are receiving a value,” said Smolak.

Guests of Whim at Smolak Farms will be served a three-course dinner under the stars as the chefs cook “in the rough” with only a commercial grill and a La Caja China at their disposal.  Another unique component of Whim is that each week the featured chef will be cooking for his/her own charity. Beyond dinner, guests are invited to take a post-dinner hayride through the Smolak Farms orchards as part of their $60 per person ticket price (excluding gratuity and beverages).

Each chef will be armed with culinary students from Le Cordon Bleu Boston to help them execute the dinner to an audience of 100 guests each Wednesday evening, and then we get to the reason why the restaurant is called “Whim.” The menu for Whim is only unveiled that evening and is completely vetted through the chef’s culinary filter.

For more information on “Whim” – The Restaurant at Smolak Farms please visit www.smolakfarms.com. Tickets can be purchased directly via: http://www.giltcity.com/boston/smolakfarms

Schedule:
June 29: Whim Featuring: Chef Jason Bond of Bondir Restaurant
Charity: Faith Kitchen, www.faithkitchen.org
July 6: Whim Featuring: Chef Erwin Ramos, Olé Mexican Grill
Charity: Food for Free, www.foodforfree.org
July 13: Whim Featuring: Chef Tony Bettencourt, 62 Restaurant & Wine Bar,
Charity: St. Joseph's Harvest of Hope Food Pantry, Salem, MA
July 20: Whim Featuring: Chef Richmond Edes, Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro,
Charity: Community Servings, www.servings.org
July 27: Whim Featuring: Chef Andy Husbands, Tremont 647
Charity: Share Our Strength, www.strength.org
August 3: Whim Featuring: Chef Rebecca Newell, The Beehive
Charity: The Boston Food Bank, www.gbfb.org
August 10: Whim Featuring: Chef Tom Bivins, New England Culinary Institute,
Charity: New England Culinary Institute Scholarship Fund, a 501C3
August 17: Whim Featuring: Chef Evan Mallet, Black Trumpet Bistro,
Charity: Future Chefs, www.futurechefs.net/
August 24: Whim Featuring: Chef Paul Turano, Tryst Restaurant,
Charity: Jimmy Fund Clinic, www.jimmyfund.org

INFO: $60 per person (gratuity and beverages not included). Visit: Smolakfarms.com to learn more and purchase tickets. Included in the ticket price is a 3-course dinner and hayride farm tour. Dress is casual. Beverages not included. Paired wines, beer and non-alcoholic beverages available for purchase. Only one menu will be presented with no substitutions. Ticket is non-refundable.

Tuesday Sips & Nibbles

I am back again with a special Tuesday edition of Sips & Nibbles, my regular column where I briefly highlight some interesting wine and food items that I have encountered recently.
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1) The Boston Public Market Association (BPMA), the all-volunteer Board that is working towards the creation of a year-round Boston Public Market in downtown Boston, announced hours and programming for the Boston Public Market Association’s 2011 Summer markets.

Boston Public Market Association Summer Market at City Hall Plaza
Location: Boston City Hall Plaza, off of Cambridge Street
Start/End Date: Monday, May 23rd, 2011 – Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 (No markets on Monday holidays – 5/30, 7/4, 9/5, 10/10)
Days/Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays: 11AM – 6PM (11-5 after November 6th)

Boston Public Market Association Summer Market at Dewey Square 2011
Start/End Date: Thursday, May 26th, 2011 through Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
Days/Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays: 11:30 AM - 6:30 PM (11:30AM – 6:00PM after November 6th)

Cookbook Signings at Dewey Square: A chance to meet the region’s favorite local cookbook authors and get seasonal market tips. Authors will include:
--Cathy Walthers, author of Soup & Sides Thursday, June 9th
--Joanne Chang, author of Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery & Café Tuesday, July 12th
--Susie Middleton, author of Fresh & Honest Thursday, August 11th

Weekly Market Tours at Dewey Square June-September
Beginning June 21, join instructors from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts for lunchtime Market tours, providing education and instruction on preparing seasonal recipes with market finds.

EBT Market Tours at Dewey Square and City Hall Plaza
Thursday June 30 at Dewey and July 13 at City Hall
A market tour specifically geared towards the SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps) customer to kick off the season and familiarize this population with the market, along the savings opportunities available to them with Bounty Bucks. Through this program, recipients may receive up to $20 per day in for fresh local food at our markets for half the price.  Farmers markets can be intimidating; they are often perceived as expensive, there are many choices and the preparation of foods can be daunting. We will attempt to break down the barriers to entry with this event; customers from last year will be asked to speak about their personal experience with the program. We will arrange for attendees to receive $5 in coupons for the market and free tote bags.

Harvest Festivals at Dewey Square
Seasonal festivals that will coincide with and celebrate Massachusetts’s regional harvests. Events include contests, demonstrations, free food, raffles and interactive events.
Dates: Strawberries June 16
Sweet Corn July 21
Tomatoes August 18
Apples September 15
Pumpkins October 18

2) The Spirited Gourmet in Belmont has a couple fascinating wine tastings upcoming.

On Thursday, May 19, from 5-8pm, Winemaker Alberto Aiello Graci of Graci Vineyards, Mt. Etna, Sicily will be there presenting three wines: two reds (Nerello Mascalese) and one white (Carricante). They are biodynamic and  well express the unique microclimate of Mt. Etna, which has some of the highest elevated vineyards in the world.  The wines to be poured include: 2009 Etna Bianco Quota 600, 2009 Etna Rosso and 2008 Etna Rosso Quota 600.

On Saturday, May 21, from 4-7pm, the legendary importer Terry Theise will be on hand pouring through a selection of Austrian and German red and whites from his portfolio.  Wines will be focused on the Pfalz region of Germany, but they will also be sampling Mosel wines and assorted Austrians. Thiese recently published his book, Reading Between the Wines, and it is a compelling and thought provoking book and you can read my previous comments on it. This should be a great event and I highly recommend that all wine lovers check it out.

3) In celebration of National Doughnut Day, Smolak Farms in North Andover will be holding their second annual, weekend-long Doughnut Day Festival from Friday, June 3rd, through Sunday, June 5th. In honor of the holiday’s founders, Smolak Farms will be donating a portion of the festivals proceeds to The Salvation Army.

"National Doughnut Day was officially established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds post depression, and to honor the work of World War I Salvation Army volunteers. During World War I, The Salvation Army set up small provision stations for U.S. serviceman that included writing supplies, sewing materials, hot coffee and yes, doughnuts to bring comfort to the soldiers. The doughnuts were a huge hit with the serviceman and became an important part of providing comfort and morale for soldiers."

To kick off the celebration on Friday, June 3rd, the farm will be offering a free ½ dozen doughnuts with the purchase of a dozen of their famous cider doughnuts, available in plain, sugared and cinnamon sugar. All veterans a.k.a. “doughboys,” will receive 1 free doughnut!

All weekend long, from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, families will have a chance to get creative at Smolak Farms’ free doughnut decorating stand located in the Greenhouse. From 9am-1pm guests will be able to dunk their own doughnuts into all sorts of yummy toppings. Free with the purchase of a doughnut. Smolak Farm’s is offering free hayrides from 9am-1pm, all weekend long!

Who doesn't love cider donuts? They are certainly one of my favorite things so I will likely be there for the Donut Festival.

Roger Berkowitz and OAWRS

Can Roger Berkowitz be trusted?

On Friday, I posted my first follow-up, concerning Vietnamese shrimp farming, to the controversial dinner held at Legal Sea Foods, showcasing "blacklisted" seafood. I am back with another follow-up, to discuss Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS), a new type of sonar which Roger Berkowitz believes is the future of fish biomass assessments. At the dinner, the OAWRS system sounded very impressive, but it was the first time I had heard of the system so I wanted to do some more research, to get the facts from other sources.

Currently, fish surveys are generally conducted using a combination of trawling and conventional fish-finding sonars (CFFS). The maximum detection range for CFFS is basically only one kilometer from the survey ship, so it takes a long time to cover a large section of the ocean. Plus, as CFFS is generally incapable of differentiating fish species, trawling is a necessary adjunct. But trawling has had its share of problems, including the significant Trawlgate debacle, where NOAA admitted some assessments had been incorrect due to problems with the equipment they were using. Because of such issues, some factions have been calling for the use of new technology to assess fish biomass. 

A team of researchers, from MIT and Northeastern University, backed by the Federal National Oceanographic Partnership Program, the Office of Naval Research and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, adapted a new sonar device, which had been developed to detect nuclear submarines, to assess fish biomass. This sonar system is known as the Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS). The team, led by Nicholas C. Makris, a professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at MIT, conducted field tests with the OAWRS in 2003 and 2006. 

Both tests involved herring, the first test in the waters south of Long Island and the second in the waters off Georges Bank.  Results of the initial test were published, and peer reviewed, in Science Magazine in February 2006. The tests were quite successful, offering significant advantages over CFFS. One such advantage is that OAWRS can cover far more ocean than CFFS in a much quicker time period. As I mentioned, CFFS can cover maybe one kilometer out from the boat but the OAWRS can cover a 100-square-kilometer area in 75 seconds.  What a huge difference.  So, based on that alone, the OAWRS would be an excellent and more accurate replacement for CFFS.

But can OAWRS differentiate fish species, especially groundfish, thus eliminating the need for trawling? That is the major question about this technology and the answer is currently unknown. Nicolas Makris believes it is possible, but further testing is necessary. Yet it seems no one is willing to fund the testing, including NOAA. It has been estimated that such testing would cost about $1 Million, a relatively small amount considering the overall budget of NOAA. In the end, if the testing was successful, the OAWRS could save NOAA plenty of money, and provide far more accurate fish biomass assessments.

During the dinner, Berkowitz made it seem that the OAWRS was a much more successful system than the reality. He did not emphasize the uncertainty as to whether OAWRS could differentiate fish species. That is certainly a crucial issue which should have been stressed. The OAWRS is impressive and offers advantages over CFFS, and has the potential to be even more impressive if it can be proven that it can differentiate fish species, including groundfish. Thus, we should support further testing of OAWRS and NOAA should be willing to finance that testing.

I did inquire as to whether Legal Sea Foods would be willing to put up their own money for the OAWRS testing. They responded: "The government – and rightly so – has taken over the regulation of the fishing industry, thus the onus of responsibility is on them to ensure they are getting accurate assessments. Roger is trying as are others like Senator Kerry and Congressman Tierney to persuade them to finance the equipment. The government sets aside funding for assessments now, all they need to do is redeploy it. If funding came from private sources, there would always be the suspicion that the findings were slanted."

I do agree that the government should be the party responsible for financing the testing, and that they should be seeking the best science available to conduct biomass assessments.  And I also agree that if Legal did finance the testing, some parties would view their findings with suspicion. I am curious why numerous sustainable seafood organizations have not proclaimed their support for the OAWRS system, or asked NOAA to finance the testing. Would any of those organizations be willing to finance the testing?

Better science can help seafood sustainability, but we must be willing to support research efforts, especially if they have such potential. During the 1950s, echo-sounders were used to detect fish but that sonar had its disadvantages. So, by the 1970s, side-scan sonars were used, improving on the past. By the late 1980s, this was replaced by multibeam sonars. It may now be the time for OAWRS to take over, leading the way to greater accuracy.