A Valentine's Day Surprise

In honor of Valentine's Day, Z surprised me with dinner at Rafiki Bistro in Porter Square. And I mean surprised me.

For two weeks, he wouldn't tell me where we were going for dinner, but I knew we had reservations at 8 p.m. - and that I was supposed to wear a dress. So when Z drove us up to Cambridge Common last night around 7:45, I was insanely confused. We walked inside, sat at the bar, ordered a round of beers, and Z kept saying how we needed to drink fast so we could be seated - at Cambridge Common - for 8.

Now, I love Cambridge Common, but....for Valentine's Day dinner? Not so much. Needless to say, I was very relieved when Z had me follow him out of Cambridge Common at 7:59 and walked me across the street to Rafiki Bistro.

Rafiki Bistro describes themselves like this on their website:

Rafiki Bistro is designed to become an outlet of choice by providing a community-based location to socialize while offering a highly competitive organic food and beverage service with an underlying agenda of social responsibility and environmental stewardship. Rafiki Bistro has special appeal to community members that understand that the products and services they choose can positively influence issues of social justice, environmentalism and sustainable business practices.

Now that's a mission I can get behind! Last night, for the holiday, Rafiki had a prix fixe, four-course menu with a vegetarian option for each course. Z and I's dinner consisted of carrot ginger soup, salad with arugula, goat cheese and beets, and mushroom ravioli. The carrot ginger soup was beautifully spiced, the dressing on the arugula salad was incredibly light and flavorful, and the mushroom ravioli? Well, let's just say the serving was heaping and I would have given anything to lick my plate clean.

For dessert, we had three options, and I chose the black and white mousse cake, while Z went for the apple tart. The mousse was wonderful - creamy, decadent and elegant - and Z's tart was also delicious, based off the one small bite I had. 

The price for this prix fixe menu for two was also only $95 - which my lovely boyfriend footed the bill for - which isn't a bad price tag for local, organic eats in a more formal setting.

The waitstaff at Rafiki was also very friendly and accommodating, and I was pleasantly surprised at their beer menu, which consisted of some great local craft brews.

All in all, it was a lovely Valentine's Day - despite the short-lived scare at Cambridge Common. :)

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Regaling at Rendezvous on Valentine's Day

Rendezvous in Central Square helped to make my Valentine's Day extra special - as did the person I dined with.  Zach's parents gave me a gift certificate to Rendezvous for Christmas, so Valentine's Day was the perfect opportunity for us to try out a new, fancier restaurant together that we wouldn't normally go to. The menu at Rendezvous seems to change often, but when we went on Sunday, the options included alluring options such as crispy roast chicken with horseradish mashed potatoes and skillet-roasted skate wing with baby brussel sprouts. Since Zach is a vegetarian (and in an effort to stay within the price of the gift certificate), we decided to order a bottle of wine and several appetizers to share. 

The wine we ordered was recommended by our waitress - we told her we wanted a white, dry wine and she immediately suggested the Domaine Du Tariquet Sauvignon Blanc. 

The wine was crisp with light notes of citrus and oak. Definitely a great recommendation.

We ended up ordering a total of four appetizers for our meal, and our waitress brought out two at a time, which was a great way to elongate the meal/experience. The first two that came out included the Boston lettuce salad with apples, cheddar cheese, spiced pecans and cider vinaigrette ($10), as well as the selection of three farmhouse cheeses from Formaggio Kitchen ($12).

The salad was surprisingly exciting, thanks to the tangy cider vinaigrette and necessarily spicy pecans.

The cheese plate, however, was incredible. The plate included blue cheese, creamy goat cheese and another kind that I sadly cannot remember, but each piece was insanely fresh, full of flavor, and accompanied the raisins and almonds on the side very well.

The final two plates that we ordered were the vegetable antipasto with roasted eggplant puree and muhummara ($11), along with the black truffle risotto with aged Mahon cheese ($13).

The vegetable antipasto dish was the perfect size for two people to taste, and included potatoes, spicy coleslaw, yogurt with cucumber sauce, and brussel sprouts, to name a few. The dish had a lot going on, but wasn't overly complicated.

I, unfortunately, dug into the black truffle risotto after my stomach capacity was near full, but the dish was still creamy, cheesy, and perfectly cooked, with a slight background flavor of the treasured black truffles.

By the end of the meal, we were stuffed and slap happy. The food was outstanding, but our waitress was also extremely informative, attentive, and patient. We definitely experienced five star dining that made a special holiday that much more special.

Food = love

In honor of Valentine's Day, I wanted to share this story with you guys that I wrote for The Nashua Telegraph last week. The story is about couples local to Southern New Hampshire who fell in love or revived their old love through food.

I am one of the fortunate people in this world who is able to share my love for food with my significant other. Zach and I are always cooking together, and we also enjoy trying new restaurants and visiting our favorite eateries.

I'd love to hear your stories, too - does food play an integral part in your romantic relationship? If so, let's hear about it!