Hi-Rawkus

A couple of weeks ago, my husband surprised me with a birthday trip to Grezzo, Alissa Cohen’s vegan raw and living food restaurant in Boston’s North End. We were in town for a few days and visited the restaurant not once but twice! What an experience. [ginormous grin] I’ll apologize now for not taking many photos of what all we ordered. We were too busy gorging and relishing the experience to think much about snapping pics, but we did manage to fit in a few good shots of some goodies that I’ve posted below. I’m telling ya, you won’t be spending much time fussing with a camera once Grezzo’s delectable treats are placed in front of you. Trust me!

Let me start by saying that the restaurant was beautifully decorated and filled with warmth throughout. We were seated next to the window (pictured above) during our second time dining at Grezzo. You can see the menus spaced along the windowsill for passersby to view. We had fun people-watching between servings. In the following picture, you can see the cozy setting with gorgeous pictures hanging on deeply colored walls. Did you notice the artistic niche in between the two paintings? That’s where we sat on our first visit at the restaurant. It was like being next to a zen garden, very relaxing.

Do you see the draped doorway at the very back of the room? That was the entrance to the chef’s kitchen. The restaurant’s cute little restroom was to the left of the kitchen, so you had the opportunity to “unintentionally” peek at some of the goings on as you moved past the crew. I thought that was pretty cool. Ah, if I had only walked by a bit slower! [smiley squint] And to the left of the draped doorway was a charming bar. The overall atmosphere was very welcoming. Oh, and the staff! The Grezzo staff were very knowledgeable and most helpful. Everyone we encountered seemed genuinely happy to be there, and that made our experience even more enjoyable.

Right! Now, on to the eats! [kool-aid smile] On our first night, we each began with a Wild Raspberry and Thyme Sparkler with kombucha. Ooo-la-laa, yum! The bubbly infusion had the right balance of tart and thyme. I did well remembering to sip instead of gulp. [wink] Next we shared a Grezzo Mojito made of fresh lime juice, mint, agave and kombucha over ice. It was the best Mojito I’ve ever had, hands down!

Our appetizer was Gnocchi Carbonara made of hand-rolled dumplings, creamy rawmesan and fresh English peas with pea shoots and crispy eggplant bacon. Okay, this dish had us making noises akin to what you might hear during one of those foodie television programs. Seriously. If anyone had been watching me closely, I would have been embarrassed. Well, maybe! [laugh] We were blown away by the complexity of flavor and lovely texture. We even scooped up the remaining rawmesan with our fingers and then licked them with delight. One of our severs caught us in the act when they came to take away the empty plate, but we didn’t care one little bit! We both took one more swipe at the plate with our fingers and then giggled like children.

Our main dishes were brought out next. We shared Cold Smoked BBQ Pizzeta with feta (vegan, of course), pineapple, crispy eggplant bacon alongside a jicama corn and green apple slaw, and Native Heirloom Tomato Ravioli with house-made black olive boursin, mint, fennel, flat leaf parsley and truffle. The pizza was amazingly rich in flavor and went perfectly with the slaw. I actually at first kept eating away at the slaw before even trying the pizza. The ravioli was nice and mellow, perfect for tomato lovers. You’d think with all that food we wouldn’t have room for dessert. Wrong! [giggle]

I chose The Apple Pave á lá mode with sweet and tart apples, shortbread crumble, whole clove ice cream and lucuma caramel. We both instantly fell in love with the clove ice cream. My husband, aka Mr. Chocoholic, chose the Rich Brownie Sundae with house-made gelato, chocolate truffle sauce, and Brazil nut crumble.

Give up?? [blink] Okay! It was the Rich Brownie Sundae ooey-gooey numminess. Before we knew it our mouths were overflowing with chocolate, our eyes sealed shut, and soft moans escaped our lips. Did we experience mouthgasms? [laugh] We ordered the sundae two nights in a row.

On our second night, we each began with a “warm” tea made of steeped goji berries and fresh mint. The tea is currently the only item on the menu that exceeds Grezzo’s maximum 112-degree policy. After it cooled, I really enjoyed it. I often make goji tea at home, though not quite as “warm”.

I loved the house-made patties much like a cat “loves” catnip, or maybe how the alien creatures in District 9 loved cans of cat food. Either way, they were quite good and very filling. I kept nibbling until there were only crumbs left. And then I ate the crumbs! I could have easily been content if I had been only given a plateful of plain patties to eat for that entire night, but there was so much else to try. “Eep!”

Our next dish was a repeat from the night before, Gnocchi Carbonara. Yep! My husband was determined to have that scrumptious flavor in his mouth again, and I went right along with him. Then we shared a bowl of Vietnamese Coconut Soup with lemongrass and ginger consommé, mustard greens, mint and basil.

After the soup, we shared the California Maki Roll with quinoa “krab” salad, cucumber, avocado and spicy mayo (pictured below), and the Mediterranean Style Pressed “Lasagna” with summer squash, zucchini, tomato, shiitake ricotta and herb salad.

I don’t know how we managed to take even one bite of dessert, but somehow we did. Remember the Rich Brownie Sundae ooey-gooey numminess that I mentioned earlier? We ordered it again on night number two. Added to our list of sweet treats, but saved for later, was the Cheesecake of the Day, and the Chocolate Torte with a limey macadamia nut and cranberry crust alongside a lavender blue gelato.

The lavender blue gelato helped balance out each potent bite of chocolate, and the cranberries added a nice dimension. I can’t imagine any one person polishing off an entire piece. The two of us were unable to finish the one we shared! However, we thoroughly enjoyed it. But wow, watch out! [laugh]

Both visits to Grezzo were wonderful, and it was very special for me to share the experiences with my husband. We’ll definitely go back anytime we’re in Boston.

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A note to strict raw foodies and strict vegans: All of the dishes served at Grezzo are completely free of honey and any items that are not considered raw such as maple syrup, nutritional yeast, and distilled vinegar. Menu selections are seasonal. Inquire for more details when you call to make your reservations.

In a shaded area we found a red berry patch. Don’t they look a heck of a lot like red salmonberries?! My husband thought so. In fact, he at first figured we stumbled upon a patch of wild salmonberries just like those he foraged during his childhood. I’ve never experienced eating or even seeing a salmonberry, so all I had to go on was his detailed descriptions and instinct. After cautiously examining the berries, the bushes, the thorns, the leaves, etc., my husband carefully picked a berry and ate it. I watched with a horrified look on my face. He nibbled that one berry for what felt like forever but in reality was probably a minute or so. Then he said it didn’t taste exactly as he remembered (more watery and less sweet) but that it wasn’t bad. He picked another red berry, and then another and another. I was still not feeling as certain as him, but from what all I know of wild brambles the berries seemingly looked just fine. It wasn’t until my husband had eaten a few berries that I decide to try one.

He extended his palm full of berries and I took a deep red one and popped it into my mouth. The tart watery juice burst onto my tongue and I immediately spit it out, then laughed and said, “No way!” I watched him hover over a bush of mysterious red berries and told him that I loved him, as silly as that may have seemed at the time. My husband chuckled and confidently said the berries were fine. Several minutes later we explored more of the area.

Nearby the red berry patch, we found bunches of wild blackberries growing within some tall grass. I squealed and bounced over and started excitedly picking. Now those were berries that I knew really well! [kool-aid smile] They were all over the place, and of course the best branches were further in and covered with even heftier thorns. I didn’t care that I had on a skirt and no socks. I pushed the tall grass aside, peeked around for creatures and then went for it. By the time I finished I was christened by both mosquitoes and thorns. I would have left with a lot more blackberries if I hadn’t gobbled up two for every one that I put into my container. After exploring more of the area, my husband wandered back toward the red berry patch to gather more berries and I decided to take another opportunity to get more blackberries.

On this second round of foraging, I was more brave to try another red berry or two. This batch was sweeter though still watery. Unbeknownst to my husband, I saved a few…just in case. I had it in the back of my mind that even though we felt fine and exhibited no ill effects, if either one of us became unwell later I at least had a sample of what we ingested.

On the way to our next destination, I couldn’t stop thinking about the red berries. So while my husband drove I searched the web via my PDA, first looking for salmonberries. There I was halfheartedly holding a conversation as I scoured the internet, excitedly exclaiming a couple times about finding all kinds of salmonberry pictures. I compared the red berries I kept with the images and noticed many similarities but also some differences. My husband did a great job of humoring until I talked about it so much that he started to feel less confident. After we arrived at our next stop, my web browsing ceased and we enjoyed the rest of the day.

At home much later that night, my salmonberry search continued. The more information and pictures I came across, the more I questioned the shape of the leaves we saw to what I found on the internet, as well as the cluster of red berries we saw versus berries growing on a single stem. Then there were also the slight differences in each berry base. I read about other people who also assumed they had found salmonberries but later learned that they were thimble berries. “Thimble berries?” So then I looked up thimble berries. Those were much too broad to be what we had found, plus they grew differently. No, the red berries we ate were not thimble berries. And I was having bigger doubts that they were even salmonberries. Of course I was telling my husband some of what I discovered as I searched but couldn’t reach a conclusion. He said he’d do some digging as well. Probably after 45 minutes or more he said, “Ah-ha! I found it! They’re wineberries!!” The picture on his computer screen matched perfectly, descriptions and all. I let out a gasp of relief and amazement. “Yayee!” I asked him how in the world he found out what they were. He said that he searched for salmonberries on Wikipedia, looked under the Scientific Classification section and clicked on Genus. He then looked through each type of berry listed until he found one that matched. I peered into the container of berries, scrutinizing the red ones we then knew for sure to be wineberries. Exciting little things, those red berries!

Whenever foraging, you must be absolutely positive in what you know to be edible. Do not do what we did.