Christopher.kantos

It looks like an Illinois-based chain of gourmet sandwich shops is coming to Boston.

According to a post on the Flats on D website, Jimmy John's plans to open within the new apartment complex on D Street in Southie, just south of the heart of the Seaport District. The post says that the sandwich shop will move into one of five retail spaces at the complex, with this being the first business to open there--and the first Jimmy John's to open in all of New England. There doesn't appear to be an opening date for the shop as of yet, so keep checking back for updates.

Jimmy John's first started out in Charleston, IL, in 1983, with the chain of eateries having more than 1,900 locations across the country today. The shops feature gourmet sandwiches with bread baked in-house each day and meats and veggies sliced fresh in-house every day as well (no additives or vegetable-based fillers are used, according to the chain's site). Sandwich options at Jimmy John's include "plain slims," 8-inch subs, giant club sandwiches, and the "J.J. Gargantuan," which has salami, capicola, ham, turkey, roast beef, cheese, veggies, and dressing, all stuffed into an 8-inch roll.

The address for this upcoming sandwich shop in South Boston is: Jimmy John's, 411 D Street, Boston, MA, 02210. The website for the chain can be found at https://www.jimmyjohns.com/

Thanks to @ClaireInBos for bringing this to our attention.

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[Photographs: Liz Bomze unless otherwise noted]

That Hainan Airlines is about to start direct service between Boston and Beijing somehow makes authentic Chinese food seem less far away. But for those who want the real deal closer to home, Boston has you covered—both in quality and range of cuisine. The options are sprawling, too. While Chinatown is a stronghold for excellent Cantonese and—more recently—Taiwanese fare, stepping farther afield to towns like Malden, Woburn, and North Cambridge will bring you to versions of mapo tofu, biang biang noodles, and handmade dumplings that can go head-to-head with their counterparts in the mother country.

Behold, our guide to the best Chinese food Boston has to offer—a roster that is by no means comprehensive, but gives you a good start. It might just save you an airline ticket, too.

For Sichuan: Fuloon

[Photograph: Kenji Lopez-Alt]

You don't go to Fuloon for the atmosphere, which is classic suburban Chinese restaurant (think: elevator music, slippery "leather" booths, and a fish tank). Nor do you go because it's convenient, as Malden is a good 20 minute drive north of the city. You go for the chili burn, the citrusy numbing sensation of ma la, and the vinegar punch, all of which make frequent appearances on the restaurant's largely Sichuan menu.

Chef Zhang Wenxue's ma po tofu is some of the best you'll taste anywhere, including in its hometown of Chengu: rich and intense, custard-smooth, and mouth-numbing with the intensity of its Sichuan peppercorns. But that's just one of many must-order dishes. Our best advice: get a group together and share as many of the following as can fit on the lazy Susan: Bang Bang Chicken, Wonton's with Special Hot Sauce, Jingdu Pork Pancake, Starch Noodles with Pork, Mandarin Cabbage with Spicy and Sour (the sleeper hit of the menu), Szechuan-Style Steamed (read: swimming in chili oil) Beef, Kan Shue String Beans, Hot Diced Chicken Szechuan Style, Wok-Baked Beef, and Bean Curd Knots with Pork Belly.

For Cantonese Seafood: Peach Farm

Thanks to its late hours (open 'til 3 a.m.), this bustling subterranean Chinatown staple doubles a hangout for off-work chefs. (It's also a good idea to go late at night, because eating during primetime often means crowding around the entryway while you wait an hour or more for a table.) But the real draw is swimming in the restaurant's fish tanks: live fish and shellfish that are no sooner plucked from the water than they appear on your plate.

Live, head-on, in-the-shell salt-and-pepper shrimp are a must, and you know they're fresh because their availability is day-to-day (call the restaurant after 1 p.m. to check if they'll have them that night). The fry job is so expertly done that the two-bite crustaceans boast a light, delicate crunch that you might not expect from shell-on seafood. Other good choices include Cantonese classics like lobster with ginger-scallion sauce and clams with black bean sauce.

For Dim Sum: China Pearl

This is your quintessential pushcart dim sum experience. Ascending the steep staircase brings you to one of Chinatown's most impressive dining rooms (vast, dressed in red and gold), buzzing with a merry-go-round of shumai, fluffy barbecued pork buns, translucent shrimp and chive dumplings with tidy pleats, tender-chewy stuffed rice noodle rolls, egg custard tarts, congee, and a barrel of silken tofu drowned in ginger syrup. (There's also a buffet table with favorites like clams and black bean sauce and steamed Chinese broccoli.) The prices are low: you can expect to order half a dozen items—enough for two or three people—and keep the check around $30.

Like most good dim sum restaurants, the line at weekend brunch time is as long as you'd find at a good diner or deli. Be prepared to stand in line for at least half an hour—and consider picking up a custard bun at nearby Hing Shing Pastry to hold you over. 

For Taiwanese: Dumpling Cafe

[Photograph: Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Dumpling Café or Gourmet Dumpling House? The rivalry between these always-packed Chinatown neighbors can be fierce, but if you ask us, Dumpling Café edges out the competition when it comes to soup dumplings. The pitch-perfect XLB (xiao long bao) feature thin skin that's just elastic enough to hold in the juicy, fatty pork meatball and its rush of hot broth. Give it a quick dip in the punchy black vinegar-ginger dipping sauce and you're set to start slurping.

The kitchen also happens to turn out the best garlicky peapod stems we've ever had—these, plus the soup dumplings and a bowl of steamed white rice, make a perfect meal—not to mention sautéed chewy sliced rice slabs with pork and pickled mustard greens, oodles of noodle soups and stir-fries, and the hidden gem: ultra-savory twice-cooked preserved pork with slabs of smoky pressed tofu.

A caution for impatient diners: The weekend dinner rush can leave you waiting in the tiny vestibule for the better part of an hour, and dining with strangers at a packed table. For a more relaxed meal, try going in the mid afternoon or late at night (dinner is served until 2 a.m.).

For Northern Chinese: Quingdao Garden

Qingdao Garden might be the most unlikely looking of Boston's best Chinese restaurants—a sparsely decorated, harshly lit dining room that doesn't have a liquor license and is almost never crowded. But, oh, the dumplings. Chef-owner Wen Ji Xiang's pork-and-leek specimens are juicy, ultra-savory, expertly wrapped in a thick, resilient-but-tender dough, and they've put this North Cambridge restaurant on the map. (There are six other flavors, too, including three really good vegetarian options, and they're all available frozen in bags of 50 for take-home. Just boil and serve.)

Beyond that, stick to the Pastry, Northern Style, and House Special sections of the menu, particularly the scallion pancakes and leek pies, hot and sour potatoes with chili peppers, fried tofu with pork and black bean sauce, and the truly awesome boiled fish in fiery sauce: a cavernous bowl of dark, rich broth chock-full of tilapia fillets, celery, cabbage, dried chiles, cilantro stems, hot broad bean paste, and Sichuan peppercorns that might be just the best cold remedy out there.

For Peking Duck: China King

It's hard to say what's more satisfying about the Peking Duck experience at this cramped Chinatown corner spot: the gorgeously lacquered fowl, or the fact that it turns into a multi-course dinner that costs $38 and feeds four. Call 24 hours in advance to order the duck (do make a reservation—tables go fast at peak hours, and chances are the reservation will simply shorten your wait). Once seated, you'll be ceremoniously presented with the whole bird—head and all—which is then whisked away to the kitchen and returned in three courses. First up: chunks of meat with layers of silky fat and crackly bronzed skin, plus steamed pancakes, fanned scallions, and hoisin. Next: a stir-fry of pulled meat (ask to upgrade to the version made with thick, springy chow mein noodles for a few bucks more). And finally, a palate-cleansing duck-bone broth with Napa cabbage, wobbly soft tofu, and slippery glass noodles.

For Hand-Pulled Noodles: Gene's Chinese Flatbread Cafe

Until Gene Wu opened up shop, the closest Bostonians could get to Xi'an-style biang biang noodles was New York. Nowadays, noodle nuts flock to the tiny dive-y café on the outskirts of Chinatown, where the jagged, ropy straps of dough are slapped-and-pulled to order (take advantage of the open kitchen and watch the process). They appear in multiple dishes, the most basic of which might be the best: boiled noodles bathed in a chili oil vinaigrette and loaded up with raw garlic and fresh cilantro.

Other must-tries include the liang pi chilled noodles—a weekend-only special of wide, slippery ribbons and cubes of the spongy wheat gluten tossed with chili vinaigrette—and the cool, composed salad-like bowl of springy, ramen-esque cold noodles, julienned carrots and cucumber, bean sprouts, chili oil, and a sliced tea-steeped egg. (A note about the café's tricky hours: The original Chelmsford location just closed and is rumored to be reopening in Woburn; the downtown café is only open weekdays for lunch and early dinner, and does not serve the liang pi chilled noodles.)  

For Non-Traditional: Myers and Chang

There's classic Chinese cuisine at the root of Myers and Chang, but chef Karen Akunowicz's menu at this hipster-y South End spot is anything but ordinary. There's tea-smoked ribs with smoked, marinated, and peppercorn-crusted meat so tender, it tugs easily off the bone; crispy Brussels sprouts; and an exceptional version of nasi goreng that's smoky and savory, thanks to homemade terasi (shrimp paste) and a good dose of wok hei.

A few other reasons this is place is a standout among local Chinese restaurants: First, this is no dive; the indie dining room is funky, polished, and features a big open kitchen with a bar for wok-watching. Those traits make it a great for-two spot, as does the Cheap Date Night deals on Monday and Tuesday nights, where a couple can choose from one of five for-two themed menus (The Pig Out, The Healthy Date) that cost $45. And the most obvious perk: This is Flour Bakery chef/owner Joanne Chang's place, so there are killer desserts like lemon-ginger mousse and coconut cream pie.

Technically, Robert Hopkins was found guilty of second-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree assault because he landed on and seriously injured a fan below, but this is as close as you can get to being convicted of being an idiot.

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The NY Times has a bunch of photos by Seth Casteel of babies undergoing infant survival swim training.

Zoe was being introduced to "self-rescue," in which babies are taught to hold their breath underwater, kick their feet, turn over to float on their backs and rest until help arrives.

The self-rescue idea is pretty amazing. You take kids who can't talk and can barely walk and teach them how to float on their backs. I didn't really believe it until I saw it:

Bonus summer PSA: drowning doesn't look like drowning.

Tags: photography   Seth Casteel   video

Another fun interactive from the Times: Can you guess where the ball should be in these World Cup photos?

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Men's shorts are OK. (Women's shorts are also OK, but they are much more obviously OK, and not what we are talking about.) Summers get hot around this part of the solar system; why swaddle those vast swaths of leg-skin behind fabric when you could use them, sensibly, to radiate your body's internal (and rising) heat?

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Q: What does it mean for Lake Superior to have had its greatest ice coverage in 20 years? A: Memorial Day sunbathing on the beach, with icebergs.

When considering the future of fashion, we typically imagine hyper-connected wearable clothing embedded with all the latest widgets. But Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga has gone against the grain by releasing a collection of cellphone signal-repellant clothing.

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Recommendations for the week of May 20.

Yes, that is a real front page, from the May 16 edition of the Gaffney Ledger in South Carolina. Note that the headline isn't a quote, but an editorial decision to use "LASAGNA WAS EVERYWHERE" in huge font above the fold. The full story describes the high-octane lasagna accident in necessary detail.

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Montreal has sold out the Bell Centre for tonight's Game 7. A game that's being played in Boston. 21,000-plus Canadiens fans have bought tickets, at 12 bucks a pop, to watch Habs-Bruins on the jumbotron. That's nuts. This series has been nuts. Tonight's going to be nuts.

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The return of Jesus occurred at TD Garden, of all places. He showed up at the Red Wings-Bruins game, blessing everyone with his presence.

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Now that it's cool to care about the Boston Marathon again, Fittish would like to familiarize you with the runners at the front of the pack. This afternoon's elite: Ryan Hall.

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Impatient fan at tonight's Rangers game. pic.twitter.com/DdrOcsGPSp

— Ben Reiter (@SI_BenReiter) April 9, 2014

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If a “dog year” is equivalent to seven human years, then time passes seven times more quickly for dogs than for humans. So in 1990 Rodney Metts invented a novelty watch that reflects this by advancing at seven times normal speed. This is a reminder as much to you as to your pet:

If a dog is kept locked in the basement of a house during an eight or nine hour day, for example, while its owner is away, the elapsed time on the dog watch will be 56 to 63 hours, or approximately two and one-half days. A one-hour ride in an automobile will register seven hours on a dog watch. Thus the value in dog time of a human activity will become quickly apparent.

That’s the actual patent figure. Part 10 is “dog.”

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This, more or less, is what Magic Mille (milleaccendini) is doing in this video:

We’re gonna use a condom, but this time it’s gonna be mango-flavored. Let’s start. First thing: let’s take some Nutella and put it on the top of the bottle, creating some kind of Nutella cap that will be fundamental for the Nutella-Coke-Mentos reaction. Good, now we open our condom and we put Mentos in it. Not just one, two or three, but five Mentos, since we found out during previous experiments that 5 is the best quantity of Mentos in terms of maximum reaction. Now we’re going to seal everything with some tape. Perfect: Nutella, Mentos… now we’re gonna let the Mentos drop on top of the Nutella, and that’s enough for… and here’s the reaction!

Stick around for the climax, folks.

Vans and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty (ASPCA) teamed up on a line of cat shoes! (thanks, Carlo Longino!)

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

This week, in our continuing quest to answer the all-important life question "Will it waffle?", we've had a number of deep failures, a couple of meh, I'd eat thats, and one rousing success.

A couple failures: frozen pierogi (they end up tasting like pierogi, only dryer and harder) and White Castle cheeseburgers (waffling somehow brings out the flavor of the meat, which is not what you want with a White Castle slider.

Our big success? Falafel. Wafalafel, if you will.

Actually, come to think of it, falafel was our biggest success and our biggest failure. It all depends on how you waffle it.

There are plenty of folks out there who have waffled raw falafel mix to great success, but our goal with this series has always been to keep things as simple as possible, minimizing prep, and sticking to things we can throw together or buy in just a few minutes.

In that light, we tried waffling cooked falafel balls from Taïm, the finest falafel joint in the city.

They utterly failed to pass our basic "does this create a bite that's better or at least different-but-equally-good?" criteria, unless you're the kind of person who prefers dry, burnt-out shells of formerly glorious falafel sadness to fresh, moist falafel.

Then we thought, what if we waffled a whole falafel sandwich?

Now we're cooking.

The pita bread provides enough of a barrier to prevent the falafel from drying out or burning, all while crisping up into crackly, easy-to-hold wedges.

Anyone who's ever tried to eat a falafel sandwich while wearing a tie or fancy boots like those my wife enjoys knows that it's a perilous endeavor. If someone were to hold a contest for "worst shape and texture to put into a sandwich," soft, spherical falafel would be high in the running. They squish around, they fall out, they drip, they spill; traditional falafel and fashion don't mix.

But smash that same sandwich into a waffle iron and you have a snack worthy of the runway.

Especially when it's dipped in tahini and Taïm's awesome hot sauce.

To waffle your falafel, brush your falafel sandwich with olive oil and slip it right into a preheated waffle iron. Cook it until crisp and serve with pickles, tahini, and any other condiments of your choice. And put on your best boots while you're at it.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

Next up, searching the area for extremophile life forms.

In remote areas of Vietnam where there are no bridges across rivers, people are loaded into plastic bags and swum across by men strong enough to brave the current.

(via quora)

Tags: video   Vietnam

bellytimber
n. food, provisions

magirology
n. the art or science of cookery

gastrosoph
n. an expert or skilled eater

I hope you enjoyed your life over the past month and a half; Flappy Bird is coming back to the App Store after its removal earlier this year, according to the game’s developer Dong Nguyen. Gawker spotted the dev’s tweeted response to a question about whether or not it would ever return, which is an unequivocal “Yes.” @painfullpacman Yes. But not soon.— Dong Nguyen… Read More

Today on stage at TED2014 magician and puzzler David Kwong blew minds when he pulled an audience member onstage, asked her to color in a few animals, and then revealed he was so sure he could predict her behavior that he had her choices written into the day’s New York Times crossword. Hm: What’s a seven-letter word for boldness? Not only did Kwong need to be extremely sure of himself before his performance, but he also needed to convince the Editor of the New York Times crossword, the King Cruciverbalist himself, Will Shortz, to run the puzzle.

Shortz is no stranger to crossword stunts: His most famous appeared in the 1996 Election Day crossword, in which either BOB DOLE or CLINTON could work as the answer to the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper (!), with 43-Across.” In 1998 he ran a marriage proposal hidden in the puzzle. But a live performance at a major conference carries its own risks – so why did Shortz say yes? I caught up with Shortz – the only person in the world to have a degree in “enigmatology” – over the phone to ask him why he would agree to such a stunt – and what he finds delightful about the art of puzzling others.

Q. How did this collaboration with David Kwong happen?

A. I’ve known David for a number of years, and he’s been contributing crosswords to The New York Times. He spoke at an event on words that I directed a year ago with words and magic. He’s had in mind doing a grand trick involving a crossword for some time, so he asked if I would be willing to be part of it. Of course I said yes.

Q. Why “of course”?

A. I love to do new things, new twists, and this is a great one. Plus I would do anything to help David.

Q. Is there a long history of words and magic going together?

A. I don’t think so….Well, they sort of go together because crossword makers and magicians both want to trick people. We both want to deceive people. The difference is, I want people to figure it out in the end. The solver gets to say, “Aha, how smart I am,” and has the great feeling of figuring it out. Whereas with David, he doesn’t want you to understand how the trick is done. You’re left in awe, and that’s also an interesting, nice feeling.

Q. Why do people love to do puzzles? Why crosswords in particular?

A. The reason we like puzzles is it helps us bring order to life. You are faced with problems every day in life. Most of them don’t have clear-cut solutions, and in most of them we’re only involved in a portion of solving the problem. If you’re trying to figure out what’s the best way to help your kid with homework, or what’s the fastest way to run errands downtown, you just muddle through the best you can and move on to the next thing. With a puzzle, you find the perfect solution, and you’ve achieved perfection. That’s something we don’t often get in life. It’s very tidy. You feel in control.

As far as crosswords go, they are, I think, the best, most flexible form of puzzle ever created. First of all they can be made in any size and difficulty level; they incorporate virtually everything in life; any word or name can be incorporated into a crossword; and there’s something appealing about the pattern of black squares. They say that humans like to fill empty spaces. I think that’s true. Those white squares are just beckoning for you to fill them in.

Q. What’s the difference between what you experience when you make a puzzle for someone and when you solve a puzzle?

A. Well, I enjoy both, but I enjoy creating puzzles even more than making them, because it’s my way of entertaining people. Most entertainers are on stage, singing, playing piano, doing magic. My act is done in my office, creating a puzzle for others to solve.

Q. What’s your favorite thing about making puzzles?

A. Just the creativity of it. I love coming up with new ideas. I love the richness of the English language. I have puzzle books and magazines from all over the world, and I think we have the best language for creating word puzzles. You can do things in the English language you can’t do in other languages. And I love the people I come in contact with through puzzles. Puzzle solvers tend to be interesting, smart, well-rounded, often funny people, and I just like being around them.

Q. Did you meet David through his puzzle submissions?

A. Yes. Now we’ve met a number of times. I’ve watched him perform several times. He also came to my table tennis club a year or two ago, and after we played table tennis, he put on a magic show for everyone. It was very nice.

Q. Do you interact with a lot of magicians besides David?

A. No, not at all. I’m fascinated by it, but I’m always fooled. I watch, and I look, and I say, “I have no idea how that was done.” That’s how it is with David. I am so easily fooled.

"The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office."

Is what a particular GIF means to me the same as what it means to you? GIFGIF, an astonishingly-addictive GIF sorting game from MIT's Media Lab, aims at finding out.

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