trattoria pulcinella

For Christmas Eve this year, we went out to dinner with our good friend, Renee. We were lucky to find that Trattoria Pulcinella was open and still accepting reservations. It's located on another side of Cambridge that we don't normally venture to, and has been there for fifteen years.



It's a cute, cozy restaurant that serves Mediterranean style Italian cuisine. We shared a bottle of white wine and the Beef Carpaccio antipasti. It was so delicious and went perfectly with the Italian bread and olive oil. Our waiter was kind enough to bring out a tray of plain olive oil when I told him that I am allergic to cracked red pepper.



The food was amazingly good! Renee had the gnocchi with mushroom, ricotta, and sausage dish which was quite delicious. Tony devoured the bone in rabbit with onions, black olives, and tomatoes. I thoroughly enjoyed the ravioli of the day: shrimp and ricotta in a cream sauce topped with grilled shrimp. Yum, yum, yum!


We {surprisingly} had enough room to share dessert over some decaf coffee so we tried the chocolate pudding with olive oil and Sicilian sea salt. Wow, so good! I think after our honeymoon in Seattle and trying the amazing sea salt caramels at the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar, we've learned that sea salt compliments chocolate very well.

We had such a wonderful experience at this place that I'm sure we'll be back again soon. It's nice to support local, small neighborhood restaurants. Especially when the food is this good! :)

the beehive

After a disastrous attempt to attend a taping of the NESN Comedy All-Stars, we went out to the Beehive in the hopes of catching some sort of musical entertainment. There is such a cool atmosphere in the Beehive. The Jazz Criminals were playing and they were quite entertaining. We shared a carafe of wine and the Beehive frites with sage and sea salt. It was a great way to get out of the cold and enjoy some funky jazz.

the independent

One reason that we would find it really difficult to move away from this area ("Camberville") is the culture within each neighborhood that I don't think you'd be able to find in suburbia. For instance, Union Square. It's a short walk from where we live now and it has so much cool stuff going on. Obviously, our favorite these days is Bloc 11 Cafe, but there are also places like the Independent, Great Thai Chef restaurant (proclaimed by Tony to have the best tom yum goong soup), Grand the store, Capone Foods and so much more.

This particular post is about the Independent. They have consistently good food there and a nice, cozy atmosphere. We tried their deviled eggs appetizer and they were so tasty! I don't think I've ever seen deviled eggs on a menu before, but I have to say that if I ever own a restaurant, that's something I'd like to include on the menu. They're so simple but so yummy.

Tony had the french dip sandwich and I had the steak and gruyere cheese sandwich appetizer with a side order of french fries. The food was delicious and the portions are generous. With a beer and a glass of wine (and before the tip), our bill only came out to $40. Not bad for a Thursday night outing.