Cooking with Community Servings, Plus: Touring Boston Public Market

Most Bostonians already know about Boston Public Market as a great place to shop for produce and prepared foods, but did you know about The KITCHEN that sits in the back of the market? The KITCHEN is a demonstration kitchen space that serves community teaching and learning. The Trustees have partnered with a number of partners to provide classes, workshops, and more. These programs range from baking classes, yoga classes presented by REI, and weekly seasonal tastings with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. I recently attended a preview of a cooking demonstration with Community Servings where we made a sweet potato lentil soup. 

Community Servings is a great non profit organization that prepares and delivers nutritious meals to critically ill patients (and sometimes the family they have to provide for). Each meal takes into account the patients' illnesses and the dietary restrictions that come with them.

Appropriately, the classes they will be holding at The Kitchen are titled: "Food Heals: Taste Your Way to Better Health with Community Servings". These classes will be on March 19 (11 AM - 1:30 PM) and June 23 (11:30 AM - 1:30 PM). These classes will teach how to prepare nutritious meals and how they can improve health.

Chef Kevin Conner came up with this sweet potato lentil soup when he had to make a meal for someone who was vegetarian, diabetic and in need of a high protein meal.

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A Food and Drinking Crawl Through Grand Case (Saint Martin)

Grand Case, on the French side of Sint Maarten/ Saint Martin, is the gourmet capital of the island. Naturally, I had to spend some time there during my vacation! We had dinner plans at one of the top rated restaurants, but ended up food crawling our way down!

The first place we saw was this little crepe shack on the side of the main road (Boulevarde de Grand Case). Both times I passed by the little crepe shack I was too stuffed. I'm regretting it. You guys should try it and let me know what I missed out on.

Across the street from the crepe shack is our first stop, Calmos Cafe. We went there to drink and let our lunch digest.

Calmos Cafe is a popular bar/cafe on the beach.

By on the beach, I mean lterally on the beach! Grab the best tables which sit on the sand, right next to the water! I could feel the waves on my toes.

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Charcuterie and Vegetables Showcase at BISq (Cambridge, MA)

The popular Bergamot Restaurant opened a more casual sister restaurant near my apartment in Inman Square. I had walked past BISq many times in Inman Square, and I finally had the perfect opportunity to try it when I saw a Groupon for a 6-course tasting menu for $30 per person! I hadn't used Groupon for a while but recently I took a look around and saw that they actually have some great restaurant deals in Boston. I convinced my roommate to join me for dinner one night.

Our tasting menu starts off with some grilled avocado, grapefruit, frisee, salumi jam, peppercorn vinaigrette

I love avocado so this was a great starter for me, but the star of the dish was really the salumi jam. Yes, really, it's "jam" made with salumi instead of fruits!

Herb-marinated beets, raita, fennel, sunflower seed granola

It was unusual to have beets paired with spicy flavors as in this dish.

King oyster mushroom carpaccio, queso verde, red cabbage, peanuts, omelette, soy-ginger dressing 

This was my favorite dish of the night. A thin slice of king oyster mushroom is topped with small cubes of egg omelette, peanuts, and a bold queso verde.

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