Restaurant Review: The Independent

While I've rubbed up against hipsters many a time on the pub side of The Independent, Friday night marked my first foray into the restaurant area. Seven of us sat at a large high-top table, conveniently located by the front window, which was open to the lovely end-of-summer air and the Union Square showing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971) in smell-o-vision. Our waitress was also bartending, so we had to do some fighting for her attentions.

A few of us split the Korean-style calamari, which was fried ever-so lightly and came accompanied by a tiny silver pot of delicious dipping sauce. The calamari was tender and stopped my friend from gnawing off my arm in hunger (she threatened several times to do so), but I could have done with fewer scallions. While the scallions were cut prettily -- extra fine and on a deep bias -- they got tangled up in the calamari and it was impossible to avoid them in bites. The same scallions returned on my croque monsieur and I was throuroughly over the slender green onions by that point.

The ham of the croque monsieur was delicious, but I lost a lot of the flavor in the slather of bechamel and pilings of gruyere. The sandwich was served in two open-faced halfs, which was probably wise in terms of construction, but resulted in toasty bread on only the bottom of each bite; this was not enough to cut the richness of the bechamel/gruyere combo. The croque monseiur is one sandwich that does not come with a side of fries and a pickle, so it was just RICH AND CREAMY ALL THE TIME. Conceptually, rich and creamy all the time appeals to me, but in reality, this sandwich quickly became too much to handle.

I had a Six Point Apollo Wheat with my meal, that was quite nice: light and citrusy. I will come back to try a more robust entree, rather than a sammy, but at the moment my only recommendation of the croque monsieur at The Indo is that it's cheap ($7.00).

The Independent
75 Union Square
Somerville, MA

Trader Joe's Bananas Make Me Sad

I eat a banana every day.

My former apartment was within walking distance of a Shaw's (Star Market? Shaw's?) and thus within walking distance of beautiful Dole bananas. I know that bananas are not local and therefore heathen, but if I ever decided to live off of only locally grown and produced foods for a year I would have to make an exception for bananas. Barbara Kingsolver made some exceptions (coffee and olive oil were on her list, I believe) and if she can, I would too. For bananas. Bananas!

My new apartment is just steps from Trader Joe's (and a few more steps from Whole Foods) and while this makes me generally happy, the organically grown bananas found there do not. They are consistently and perpetually bruised! There are some fruits that I can handle eating bruised, but the banana is not one of them. A bruised banana reaches a whole new level of mush that is completely unpalatable. Are the organics more delicate than non-organic? Or does Trader Joe's toss those puppies around like they're bales of hay?

Some interesting books that come to mind, that I recommend, and that I think I need to re-read passages of in light of this post:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel