Eat This: Huevos Rancheros at The Friendly Toast

If you find yourself with a hangover at any point this weekend, I highly suggest you head on over to The Friendly Toast and order this:

The Friendly Toast’s Huevos Rancheros ($10.75) consists of cheddar cheese melted on their anadama bread, topped with two poached eggs, avocado and fresh salsa. Crispy, well-seasoned homefries are also served alongside this perfectly heavy dish.

The poached eggs were a little too overcooked for my liking, but the silky yolk still managed to envelop the thick cornbread and creamy avocado beautifully. The refreshing salsa also helped to counteract the decadence from the rest of the ingredients.

I ordered this at The Friendly Toast’s Portsmouth location, but the Cambridge restaurant has the same menu.

What's your favorite hangover food?  

Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth, N.H.

On Friday evening, Z and I drove up to Portsmouth, N.H. to meet my older sister and her husband for dinner. My sister’s birthday is tomorrow – and she’s also a Mom (who just so happens to also be 8 months pregnant) – so we offered to treat her to a nice dinner to celebrate. Z and I chose a restaurant none of us had ever been to before, with a menu that had plenty of options for the omnivores, vegetarians and pregnant people: Black Trumpet Bistro. 

Black Trumpet Bistro’s food mainly comes from local sources in New Hampshire and Maine (the back of their menu boasts the farms they’re currently working with). The menu, as a result, reflects ingredients that are in-season – and the dishes are innovative, original and downright impressive. The restaurant’s intimate décor is also worth mentioning, from the copper tables to the rustic wooden ceiling beams to the old, brick walls. Z and I felt like we were back in Italy, dining at a historic eatery. We ate on the first level, but the second level had a lively yet classy bar scene.

My sister and her husband were running a little late, so Z and I ordered cocktails and a snack while we waited. I sipped on a 29 Ceres Cup ($12), which was made with gin, Pimms, earl grey syrup, fresh citrus and cucumber (Black Trumpet’s cocktails also incorporate seasonal ingredients). It was refreshing and delicious, and the perfect accompaniment to the Fried Almonds, Olives and Garlic ($6).

Soon after our almonds came, my sister and her husband arrived. We ordered the Harbison cheese plate ($11) for the table – the cheese was a raw cow’s milk wrapped in birch bark from Jasper Hill, Vermont, and was served with raisin birch mostarda.

For my entrée, I decided to get a “Medium Dish” of Baked Polenta Stuffed Mission Fig ($13), which was served with sauteed wild mushrooms and asparagus tips and a vincotto drizzle, along with a bowl of the Asparagus Soup ($9), which came with a dollop of vanilla parsnip cream and some crispy Vidalia onion rings.

I washed my meal down with a Moat Mountain Brewing Pale Ale ($6).

The fig and polenta dish was wildly flavorful and full of fresh ingredients. Several bites were a little too salty, but the dish as a whole was successful. The asparagus soup with the sweet vanilla parsnip cream proved to be a fantastic combination, despite how odd it may sound. The salty, crispy onion strings helped to keep this a savory soup.

Although we were all beyond full at this point, we had to make sure my sister's birthday was acknowledged. She chose the Opera Cake ($8) for her dessert, which was coffee soaked almond genoise (an Italian sponge cake), buttercream and chocolate, served with an orange sauce and whipped mascarpone. The waiter brought it over with a lit candle in the center - and didn't charge us a dime for it. Yay for birthdays!

From start to finish, our dinner at Black Trumpet Bistro was elegant, delicious and all-around enjoyable. The waitstaff was also extremely knowledgeable about the menu, not to mention friendly and accommodating. My sister and her husband don't get to get out of the house too often, so I was really happy we were all able to have such a great dining experience.

What was the best meal you ate this weekend?

24 Hour Food Coma

After barely making a dent in the heaping pile of breakfast below, I was literally full until dinner time the next day.

Holy eggs and carbohydrates! The masterpiece above was served to me at The Friendly Toast in Cambridge. Z and I went there for brunch last weekend, and although there was an hour wait for a table, we opted to sit at the bar, sip some kickass Bloody Marys, and order our food without a wait.

Two of my siblings have been to the Portsmouth location on numerous occasions, and warned me that the breakfast and lunch joint should be named "The Unfriendly Toast." Luckily for me, however, I had an opposite experience at the Cambridge spot. Our bartender was helpful, efficient, and friendly.

The heaping pile of food you see above was the Guy Scramble ($9.50), made with cheddar, avocado, black beans, and salsa. The picture doesn't show the enormous amount of home fries it came with, but they were there - and for my homemade toast, I opted for the Cayenne Cheddar, which had a spicy kick to it that I expected the bread to lack. The Friendly Toast's bread is insanely airy and flavorful, and the scramble itself was chocked full of the creamy avocado, beans, and chunky salsa. The price of the plate may seem a bit high for brunch, but the serving size could literally feed two or more people - I had more than enough leftovers for breakfast the next morning. In fact, I believe they give you too much food - they could easily cut the price and amount of food down.

In addition to the food, I loved The Friendly Toast's funky atmosphere, chocked full of odds and ends that the owner must have been collecting for decades. Even the wall was a bright green color that woke me right up, along with the creatively named menu items (i.e. Sklarmageddon - "an omelette built to kill").

Although I overate (despite the leftovers I still took home), my brunch at The Friendly Toast was one awesome experience. Nothing like a spicy Bloody Mary and a mound of eggs to get you going on a Sunday...or, in my case, to force me to veg out on the couch until my alarm went off the next morning.

Have you been to The Friendly Toast? Was your experience as friendly as mine?

Cure for the common cold: A towering pile of chili nachos from Red Hook

There’s no better way to embrace being "snowed in" than with this monstrosity at Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth:

Their nachos are basically a tower of cheese, sweet chili, banana peppers and oh-so crunchy tortilla chips that refuse to get soggy from the mounds of ingredients placed on top of them. My cousin and I took a road trip to Portsmouth during the most recent snow storm a few weeks ago just to get some good beer and fabulous grub at Red Hook – plus a tour of the brewery, ending with several ice cold samples. Our decision may not have been the brightest, given it was snowing outside – but it was worth braving the unpleasant weather for. The price for RH's nachos is under $8 (if my memory serves me right), and can easily feed four very hungry people. If you try to split it between two, too many chili-covered chips go to waste.

What kind of food do you crave during a snow storm?