Review: Donna's Restaurant in East Boston

Donna's Restaurant in East Boston has the best chocolate chip pancakes ever. It's no secret I love all things breakfast, so let's start things out right:

I usually wait until I take a photo to eat. Clearly, I couldn't wait. These bad boys came with my two eggs, bacon, home fries and toast ($9.79) - Breakfast Special 7B.

I love these pancakes because at Donna's they use the small chocolate chips. These are awesome because the chocolate gets a thin crispy crust on the outside but maintains its gooey center. And, the chocolate to pancake ratio is spot on. Best. Pancakes. Ever. #awesome

Here is the rest of my breakfast that day:

Breakfast Special 7B (comes with chocolate chip pancakes above).

Donna's is absolutely one of my favorite breakfast places ever. I will drive 45 minutes from my home in Rhode Island for this place. I can't remember all the prices but everything is basically under $10. 

The atmosphere of this place is also amazing. It's a diner geared towards families. Every time I go, the place is packed with families. Plus, there are murals on the walls running the gamut from kids movies to dinosaurs. Check it out:

This place is a family affair. Here is Donna (on the right) with her mother (left):

And this is what the joint looks like from the outside:

Now, let's get back to the food. Everything is very basic, nothing fancy. Just well made comfort food in great atmosphere. The eggs are always on point, the breads are always fresh and everything is made to order. I did find it a bit odd though that the waffles were made with pancake batter. It wasn't bad, just more dense than fluffy - something I look forward to in a waffle. 

Same thing with the Eggs Benedict: simple with no frills. Good Benedict sauce, nice thick piece of Canadian bacon, eggs perfectly poached and the English muffin nicely grilled. A bit too much Benedict sauce, but I would rather have more than less. 

You know what was really good? The corned beef hash. I love a good hash and I loved this one because it is exactly what you want and expect when having a hash craving. Simple and to the point with exactly the right texture: crispy bits with soft bits mixed in.

I now make sure to give Donna a hug every time I leave. I've been going here for over five years and I can say that every time I eat here, I leave satisfied. I've never had a bad meal. I've never been served by someone with a bad attitude. And every time I come to Donna's, Donna comes to my table, asks me how I am and makes sure that I am taken care of. This is one of my favorite restaurants of all time. I am taken care of in every way I can think of here, and I can't wait to come back.

Me and Donna. I love this woman so hard!

Restaurant Review: T's Restaurant

I think it's fair to say that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.  I have my usual breakfast spots but I have to share this one with you: T's Restaurant.  There are three locations: Cranston, East Greenwich and Narragansett.  I've been to Cranston and East Greenwich and I have to say that there is absolute consistency between the two.  I am assuming that the Narragansett location also falls in line.

Back to the breakfast, I die for Eggs Benedict. What can I say?  It's my Achilles heel.  Here is a prime example:

T's Traditional Eggs Benedict

The T's Traditional Eggs Benedict ($9.49) hits the spot for me.  It is a bit on the sweet side.  The Canadian bacon is very thinly sliced and a tad sweet, which makes me grateful for the savory hollandaise sauce.  It is creamy and delicious.  It's sprinkled with a bit of paprika - but I can't really taste that.  I have to say, every time I have the Eggs Benedict, which is at least ten times, the eggs are perfectly poached to my liking.  The whites are cooked through with a nice runny yolk.  The home fries are also top notch -  crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  

And you can't go wrong with the coffee.  There is always some seasonal bean they are brewing hot and fresh.  

One awesome thing is how considerate they are of food allergies.  I was recently at the East Greenwich location with a friend and they are super considerate of dietary restrictions.  I am lactose intolerant and my friend is gluten-free.  They had gluten-free toast, used a separate toaster and cleaned down the grill specifically to avoid any cross-contamination.  Alright, nice touches.  Success is in the details.

Here is my friend's dish with the gluten-free toast (#7 Two Farm Fresh Grade AA Eggs with sausage, an extra egg and the apples with cinnamon, $7.99),

Eggs, sausage, cinnamon apples and gluten-free taost

Now, let's talk about their pancakes:

Seasonal Pumpkin Pancakes

These are the seasonal Pumpkin Pancakes.  For the love of God, eat these.  They come around but once a year, in the fall, they come with pumpkin butter and are the nectar of the gods.  There are no words... just eat them.  

Then there are the Buttermilk Pancakes:

Buttermilk pancakes, sausages, home fries and eggs

This is the #1 Two Buttermilk Pancakes with eggs, sausage and home fries ($8.29).  

Here's the thing.  I ask for my eggs poached, they come perfectly poached.  I ask for them over medium, they come to me over medium.  My friend wanted them sunny side up... you get the point.  You know how hard it is to get good eggs?  You'd be surprised.  They say you can judge a chef by their eggs.  Well, T's... A+.

I've also had lunch here and, of course, it was great.  T's is like kicked up diner food that's solid, consistent and just darn tasty.  

Restaurant Review: The Wurst Window/Kitchen at Chez Pascal

Give me your wurst... please.  And by wurst, I mean Chez Pascal's house-made sausages, cured meats and other pork delights.  The restaurant gets whole pigs from a farm in New Hampshire then does the majority of the butchering in-house.  

What is the Wurst Window/Kitchen?  It is the outdoor (Window) versus indoor (Kitchen) component to a specialty dining experience at Chez Pascal in Providence.  Within the same building lies an upscale French restaurant (Chez Pascal) and a more approachable and low key dining experience (Wurst Window/Kitchen).  One walks into the restaurant and past the bar to the Wurst Kitchen where you can be seated at unique high top tables or at the bar where you can watch the chefs with their wurst.  Or, if you are dining outside or on the go, stop by the Wurst Window where you can order your wurst right there, street side.  Got it?

Now, I hope you can appreciate how difficult it can be for a young woman to write a blog about sausages and pork products with a straight face while attempting to not dip into innuendo sentence after sentence.  I will do my best, but I promise nothing.

I've been coming to the Wurst Window/Kitchen for sometime, and it is about time that I shared my love of these sausages with you.

So, to start with, take a look at these sausages, they are the absolute in wurst:

Beer Bratwurst, Jagerwurst and Bacon-wrapped Pork Meatloaf Sandwich

At the top of the photo is the Beer Bratwurst ($3.50) with beer onions, sea salty feta cheese and house mustard.  The bottom wurst is the same without the feta, because I am lactose challenged... yay.  The sausage is juicy, not fatty; the onions are super tasty and savory and the dijon is just slightly sweet and spicy.

Second from the top is the Jagerwurst ($3.50) with braised red cabbage, pistachios and apple dijon.  Pistachios in sausage you say?  I do say.  What an interesting textural experience.  I don't find that it adds much flavor, but it is pretty and fun to eat.  Again, the braised red cabbage is nicely and slightly sweet along with the apple dijon.

Another Jagerwurst, close up.  Shame you can't see the pistachios in it.

Third one down is actually a Bacon-wrapped Pork Meatloaf sandwich with coleslaw and a spicy fig compote.  It's all quality stuff and you can actually taste all of the individual components as they blend together to create the dish.  But as you can guess, I find it just a touch sweet, but still good.

Pictured below is an appetizer of house-made wieners with fig compote with cole slaw:

Wurst Kitchen specialty of weiners with fig compote and house-made cole slaw.

I find that the sausages are just a touch on the sweet side, and that doesn't bother me.  I also find the dijon a bit on the sweet side and that also doesn't bother me.  You know what I love about the experience of these sausages?  The meat to bun ratio is spot on.  Also, the buns are always lightly grilled with just a hint of butter or oily goodness.  Whichever it is, I don't care, because I like it.  That's right, I like how the buns and the sausages work together...

One thing I'd like to mention, although many of these sausage dishes stay relatively the same, many of the topping are based on seasonality, in-house creativity and of course availability.  What is available one week or month could be slightly or entirely different on your next visit.   

Take these for example:

Chorizo sausage and Pickled Green Tomato and Baked Bean sausage

One day, I went with a friend to the Wurst Kitchen and we couldn't decide which sausage we wanted.  So, we split two sausages.  Just a couple of girls who can't decide on which sausage they want.  Anywho, the one on the left is the Chorizo ($3.50) with potatoes and typically comes with feta.  But we've gone over this.  The chorizo had a nice spice to it and the potatoes added a nice textural and starchy component.  

The one on the right, I can't remember the names but it has pickled green tomatoes, feta and baked beans.  A nice combination of sweet, tangy and savory from the baked beans.  

All of the sausages come with a side of potato salad, which I'm not crazy about to be honest.  But it's just not my taste.  It's also not what I wanna eat with a sausage.  I want beans or French fries with my sausage, on the side, of course.

If you are starting to understand my palate you know that I have insatiable chocolate cravings, and after a nice savory meal I like some sweets.  Well, the Wurst Window/Kitchen has some creative and satisfying sweets:

Caramel and Chocolate Pudding with whipped cream

Welcome to the Caramel and Chocolate Pudding with whipped cream ($3.50).  The caramel is not overpowering, in fact, it's sugary sweetness seems a bit tamed by some nice heavy cream.  The chocolate pudding has a fantastic almost bittersweet chocolate flavor that is very rich and the whipped cream was clearly freshly made.  I actually didn't finish it all, which made for a nice mid-afternoon snack.

And:

Salty Chocolate Chip Cookie

Here is the Salty Chocolate Chip Cookie ($1.25), and only half of it.  I really do love the salty and sweet combination.  I'm not saying that this cookie was the size of my face, but it was close.  I just loved it dammit.  There were nice big pieces of what I think was semi-sweet chocolate and nice flecks of salt.  Yes... just yes.

Honestly, what you get for the price here is insane.  You get gourmet ingredients thoughtfully and lovingly prepared for a reasonable price.  The Wurst Window/Kitchen is definitely a specific craving I get from time to time, and I plan on satisfying that craving on many return visits.

Chef Series: An Interview with Pastiche's Pastry Chef Scot Stegmann

As seen in the January 2014 issue of Providence Monthly magazine

From a young age, Scot Stegmann worked in the restaurant business. Influenced by his mother, who is a baker, he went to Johnson & Wales to pursue a degree in Pastry Arts. Before he graduated, he started working at Pastiche. Twenty-six years later, he remains there, where he puts perfection and patience into the pastries.

Photo by Mike Braca.
Pastry chef Scot Stegmann was so passionate about his craft.  It gave me a whole new appreciation for some of my favorite sweets at Pastiche.

Can you describe the pastry making process at Pastiche?

There were a lot [of recipes] that were in place when I got here and we’ve created a lot since. They’ve been manipulated over the years as we see fit. We’re constantly tasting each component. Maybe it’s too sweet or needs something. I’ve yet to pick up a recipe where I haven’t seen some change I think it needs.

How long does it take to perfect a new recipe?
From start to finish it takes about 10-20 times to perfect a recipe. And that’s starting with two to three cakes and bumping that recipe up to 15 cakes. Everybody’s got to be able to do the same thing, so you want to have recipes that everyone can do.

What advice can you give to the home baker?
Perfection and patience equals pastry. You have to mix it perfectly and have the patience to allow the tools to do their job. You can’t rush things. You can’t use short cuts. Mistakes will always happen but what’s important is what you take out of it.

Do you use any local ingredients?
We’ve been buying local before there was a movement. Anytime we can, we do. In the summertime we use fresh fruit. We use Christiansen’s Dairy because they have a very high fat content. The cream whips easier and stays thicker longer. We get our eggs from Stamp Farm in Johnston. We’ve been buying from both of these places for over 25 years.

Can you possibly pick a favorite pastry?
Season to season I have different desserts I’m hooked on. In the summer, it’s the Passion Fruit Tart. In the fall and winter it’s the Pumpkin Cheesecake. So many of our items are year round so these are really special.

My favorite dessert is the Torta di Cioccolata. How did that recipe evolve?
This was one of the recipes I had worked on. It used to be a choco- late chestnut flourless cake. But we found that chestnut didn’t sell well. So we took the chestnut purée out and put almond butter in. It’s that dark, smooth, melt-in-your-mouth kind of thing. I use Callebaut chocolate in that; it’s a 64% dark chocolate.

How can two chocolates have the same percentage of chocolate yet taste different?
Dark chocolates with the same percentages will taste different based on where they get their cocoa beans from – South America, Mexico, etc. Each country has different flavor components and each company blends it differently. It’s like coffee beans. They may even blend beans from different places. They’ll also taste different based on what they add to the chocolate base.

Tell me about your vanilla sponge cake.
We use this for our Mascarpone Torte which is basically our version of tiramisu. It’s also used for the Lemon Mousse. It’s not like a pound cake; this is a lot lighter. We think it matches up with the mousse better. We always fold egg whites into the sponge base by hand.

Do you carry any gluten-free items?
We have several gluten-free items such as the Torta di Cioccolata. Another is the Raspberry Bomb, which is a flourless chocolate base, almond mousse in the center with a raspberry mousse around it covered in dark chocolate. We also make a flourless coconut cake with coconut cream cheese frosting.

What’s the newest recipe you’ve come out with?
We just experimented with a new type of caramel dessert. We use caramel nibs, salted caramel and caramel mousse between chocolate cake layers. It took us awhile to figure this one out. How much sugar do we take out because caramel is so sweet. January is the time we experiment.

What’s your secret to remaining passionate about your work?
I always take it to heart when a customer complains. I always wonder if there is something I can change. You can’t take the attitude of “it’s perfect.” You always have to reevaluate, to taste the product and make sure there is consistency. It’s an everyday thing. I like to taste things. You’d be surprised how many things you can catch just by tasting it. I think it’s important to let some criticism flow.