Cuisine - Japanese, Places - Boston, Places - New England

Review: Sake

Tekka Don at SakeA few weeks ago we got part of the Emerson J-School Mafia back together for a little reunion. Enter: Me, Brett, our friends Jake and Stacey (see our review of The Barking Crab for our other outing with them), as well as Jamie and Jon (Jon’s the only non-Emersonian from the group.)

Stacey and Jamie were doing a little baking. (I hope Stacey will bring her baking expertise to the blog one day soon) So, after we indulged in some really great liquor-ladened sweets we were starting to get the munchies for some more substantial eats. We headed up Route 1 in Saugus, Mass., to a little sushi shack called Sake.

Now, I must apologize in advance that I don’t have more pictures of our dining experience. My camera takes really poor pictures in low lighting so it was acting a little wiggy on me this night. But, please take my word that the food was really good!

The ambience of the restaurant transports you to Japan. Think lots of wood, bamboo and the waitstaff wearing traditional kimonos. I felt like Mr. Miyagi was going to jump out from behind the sushi chefs. However, I felt it was kinda weird that they had a fish tank (full of live fish – not the kind you would eat – more goldfish and guppies) right next to the sushi chefs artistically hacking up their cousins.

While the restaurant had plenty of western-style tables (the standard height table and chairs), we opted to sit on the lower tables with no chairs and on pillows. For me, leaving our shoes and coats near the door was a bit strange. We all thought we had to sit with our legs crossed like pretzels but, surprisingly, there was room under the table where you could comfortably hang your legs down to sit normally. Still, it was hard to get up and down from the table in a graceful manner.

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Cuisine - American, Cuisine - Desserts, Recipes

Recipe: Soft ‘n chewy whole wheat ginger molasses cookies

Ginger molasses cookiesI was hankering some big, chewy molasses cookies the other night. In about 30 minutes, I had 2 dozen ginger-colored delights popping out of the oven and into my mouth. Just perfect with all the holiday blends of coffee and tea out right now, or even a glass of milk.

I wanted to share this super quick and easy recipe for ginger molasses cookies. This is the original recipe that I adapted it from.

Again (as with many of the recipes I do for baking), I didn’t have any all-purpose flour in the cupboard, so I substituted whole wheat flour. The only other substitution I made was using real butter instead of margarine. We only had Smart Balance in the fridge and I haven’t tested out baking with it and I really didn’t want to try.

Photo caption (above): One of the few photos that I could find on the page from the original recipe that resembled my finished cookie. They have a great color, a cracking top and glisten of granulated sugar. The whole wheat version that I’ve created may even be slightly darker than this representation.

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