Project Takeout ANTONIO’S BACARO
I miss the casual pre-COVID-19 scene at Antonio’s Bacaro — friendly, unpretentious, and always a sure bet to bring authentic northern Italian cuisine to the table. Owners Joe and Sonia Garufi have hung in there, along with their outstanding chef, Anthony Haley, so this Hyde Park gem, reasonably priced, remains a gourmet-level lifeline and my go-to place for a pasta fix to-go.
It’s not a stretch to say that the Ragu ($21), a rich combination of pork, beef, and veal with tagliatelle in a thick tomato sauce, has sustained my spirits during the pandemic. Much simpler, but equally delicious, is the Pomodoro (a first course at $9) — the thick pasta bigoli with tomato sauce and mozzarella.
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The Sausage and Chicken Tagliatelle ($18) in a mushroom cream sauce has been a good change of pace, and when I stray outside of pasta it’s usually the Chicken Milanese ($21), mashed potatoes trapped under the breaded chicken, which is topped with spinach and smothered in a hearty brown sauce. But the real treat is the Prosciutto and Mozzarella ($12), decadent rolls of prosciutto stuffed with mozzarella and then slightly fried.
I asked Joe about his favorite dish. “We have a Venetian pasta with an anchovy sauce with caramelized onions,” he said. Most people tend to hate anchovies so it doesn’t sell as much, he said. “But it’s never coming off the menu. That dish is the essence of Venice.”
Antonio’s Bacaro, 5 Fairmount Ave., Hyde Park, 617-272-3028, www.antoniosbacaro.com. Appetizers: $9-$18, entrees: $18-$28.
MARCELA GARCÍA, op-ed columnist
CHA YEN THAI COOKERY
There is something very sweet about Cha Yen Thai Cookery, a small storefront in Watertown. It’s not just the diminutive size of the place (17 seats), or the gracious staff, or the way they entwine the handles of the brown paper shopping bag that holds your carryout as they hand it over. On Facebook, they call the clientele “beloved Cha Yen customers” and they seem to have a devoted following.
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Their version of larb is outstanding. It’s a salad of ground meat (chicken or pork, but you can also get it made with mushrooms) with chiles, crunchy toasted rice powder, fresh cilantro, and mint. It’s topped with sliced red onion and spooned onto kale. Larb is a surprise the first time you have it. You’re eating a salad made with ground meat and few vegetables. And yet you can’t stop eating it; the meat is deliciously spicy. The dish comes from the North of Thailand and owner Manita Bunnagitkarn says she grew up on it, that it’s on every menu in her home country.
Bunnagitkarn, a Todd English alum, opened Cha Yen in 2014, when it had eight seats. She eventually took over the space next door to double her capacity. Three years ago she opened Kala Thai Cookery on Hanover Street in Boston, across from Boston Public Market.
The Cha Yen menu has the classic Thai specialties you’re expecting, all well-made (Tom Yum Soup, curries, Papaya Salad, Pad Thai), but the dish that shows off the kitchen’s attention to fresh vegetables is See Ew (pronounced “you”), which is like Pad Thai without the peanuts and sprouts. Just wide, chewy rice noodles bathed in sweet and salty soy sauces, tossed with egg, Chinese broccoli, regular broccoli florets, zucchini, and carrots. You can order it with chicken, pork, tofu, or vegetables.
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House Fried Rice, which is made with white and brown rice (brown is lovely and nutty here), is a treasure, a big stir-fry with both tiny specs and large slices of carrots, tomatoes, onions and scallions, broccoli florets, peas, zucchini, and summer squash.
The location is superb. Cha Yen is on the same block with the popular Middle Eastern and Armenian market Sevan Bakery, and across from Red Lentil Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurant and the nut and chocolate shop Fastachi. Windows in another storefront beside Cha Yen, a former tailoring business, have been papered over, and Bunnagitkarn has her eye on the place.
Cha Yen Thai Cookery, 613 Mt. Auburn St. Watertown, 617-393-0031, www.chayencookery.com Starters, soups, salads $6.25-$10.25; grills, curries, stir-fries, noodles, entrees $6-$15.
SHERYL JULIAN, food correspondent
SHEGER CAFE AND ETHIOPIAN RESTAURANT
About six months into the pandemic, I was searching for something — anything — to look forward to. Having walked past Sheger Cafe on Mass. Ave. many times, I decided to try it for takeout one night. It immediately became my Wednesday night ritual, making each workweek far more bearable. With its fluffy, spongey, fermented injera bread and delicious curries, the signature dish by the Porter Square Ethiopian restaurant is the perfect comfort food my fiance and I never knew we needed.
Sheger has two wonderful combination platters that offer a sampling of their best dishes: the veggie combo and the ultimate combo. The veggie one includes five mini-dishes: collard greens, a flavorful yellow cabbage, onion, and potato curry, and three different lentil curries — yellow, green, and red. The ultimate combo comes with the five vegetarian dishes, as well as several meat-based curries, including stewed beef, chicken, and a hard-boiled egg. Both include plenty of the aforementioned injera bread, which has a slight sourdough-esque flavor. Both platters also come in two portion sizes: for one or two people. Pro tip: order two extra injeras, as the injera plated under the curries may get a bit soggy on its way to your home.
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As far as appetizers, I can recommend the lentil samosas, which are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
The restaurant, where majestic Ethiopian portraits adorn the yellow walls, is named for Ethiopia’s capital city, where owners Misrak Gandi and her husband, Zemene Afework, were born and raised. The couple immigrated to Boston after winning America’s immigration lottery in 2001. She worked as a hairdresser for several years, cooking their traditional food at home only, until they decided to open a restaurant in 2017 to share her cooking with the public.
“We get a lot of customers, and we’re happy to show them our traditional food,” said Afework, who works as a hospital lab technician. With the pandemic, business has gotten tougher. “We lose our customers, our revenue, but still we are surviving.”
Sheger Cafe and Ethiopian Restaurant, shegercafeandethiopianrestaraunt.business.site, 2376 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140. 857-706-1139. $20-$100.
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NAOMI MARTIN, education reporter
Marcela García can be reached at marcela.garcia@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @marcela_elisa. Sheryl Julian can be reached at sheryl.julian@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @sheryljulian. Naomi Martin can be reached at naomi.martin@globe.com.