After a single year of living in Cambridge, the undergraduate will have become intimately familiar with a short list of Square delicacies. Their tantalizing images may haunt the 3 a.m. mind of the hungry undergraduate, but very few of us know exactly what goes into that steaming Bertucci’s roll or creamy Bartley’s frappe. Determined to unshroud the mysterious recipes of Harvard’s favorite Square foods, FM investigated the kitchens of popular establishments and reports back.
Bertucci’s:
Rolls
21 Brattle St.
No Bertucci’s meal is complete without a healthy number of piping hot rolls. Kitchen Manager Mike Guerra says that “people come here for the food, but the first thing they ask about is the rolls.” The famous rolls are light, mealy and always fresh from the oven—each is created in the kitchen on location during the 12 hours before it is served. The recipe is a Bertucci’s trade secret that has remained essentially the same since 1983. Jose Cano, “the dough guy,” devotes his mornings to making 560 pounds of dough every day for the Harvard Square Bertucci’s. That dough then becomes both rolls and the pizzas.
While the specifics of the recipe could not be revealed, the staff could reveal the general process of creating the beloved rolls. Cano starts by mixing flour, soy oil, yeast, sugar and salt. His dough is refrigerated at 39 degrees for up to 12 hours. To make rolls from the dough, he lets chilled dough rise at room temperature for an hour and a half before dipping balls in cornmeal and baking them at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
The Hong Kong:
Scorpion Bowl
1236 Massachusetts Ave.
The Hong Kong is a must-stop on many a 21st birthday pub crawl, and Scorpion Bowls are by far the elixir of choice. The exact contents of this colorful drink, however, remain shrouded in mystery. According to Manager David Hayes, the secret recipe for the Scorpion Bowl is actually patented. He will divulge that the brew is composed of orange juice, pineapple, sour mix and nine different alcohols, including rum. The mix, which is stored in mini-kegs on the third floor, has been perfected by trial and error in a process which creative mind Billy Lee first dreamed up in the 1970s. In a single weekend, the Kong serves up at least 500 bowls of scorpion mix, and the number can reach as high as 700.
Darwin’s Sandwich Shop:
The Hubbard Park Sandwich
and Jungle Jumble Soup
148 Mount Auburn St.
Darwin’s vaguely resembles the cozy coffee shop “Central Perk” from Must See TV classic, "Friends". It’s got the same sqooshy chairs, dim lighting and eclectic music. The baristas and sandwich-makers, however, are more Toscannini’s than Jasmine Sola.
Beyond the atmosphere, Darwin’s is famous for its unwieldy sandwiches named after the streets surrounding the shop. David Wood, the Darwin’s manager universally nicknamed “Woody,” estimates that his restaurant sells 330 sandwiches on an average day—about a third of these are Mount Auburns or Hubbard Parks. The latter is a light vegetarian sandwich of carrots, tomato, sprouts green apple slices, hummus, avocado, a splash of homemade honey mustard dressing and a slice of cheddar if desired.
Darwin’s soups, on the other hand, would be near impossible to create at home, since the restaurant never makes the exact same soup twice. Rather, the soups are created according to the vagaries of soup chefs such as Christiano Andrade and Mary Bott. According to Woody, “they throw in whatever they see in the walk-in [fridge].” The soup of the day when FM visited was called Jungle Jumble soup, and Bott had scratched its recipe on a yellow post-it note. She wrote, “onion, garlic, black beans, beef broth, apple cider, cumin, tarragon, green pepper, tomatoes, almonds,” with no particular measurements assigned to them.
Nine Tastes and Spice:
Pad Thai
50 JFK St. and 24 Holyoke St.
The chefs at Nine Tastes could probably make Pad Thai in their sleep. Pad Thai is the most popular dish at both Spice and Nine Tastes—the sweet and sour noodle dish makes up about 40 to 50 percent of all orders. Manager Nancy Jitjaruek estimates that they dished out over 200 servings during Valentine’s Day weekend alone.
The secret to the restaurants' pad thai is that it consists of fresh ingredients cooked quickly and served immediately. To replicate the dish, heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil, crack in an egg and sauté for a few seconds before throwing in a handful of well-soaked rice noodles. After a minute more of stir-frying, add one tablespoon each of vinegar, sugar and fish sauce, a teaspoon of chopped turnip and a bit of water. A few scallions or green onions and a handful of bean sprouts go in last because they cook quickly. Jitjaruek dares the reader to “try making pad thai at home,” but warns that it won’t be the same without the Nine Tastes touch.
Mr. and Mrs. Bartley’s:
Oreo Frappes
1246 Massachusettes Ave.
Bartley’s frappes are potent comfort food. Served up by the happy, grandmotherly figure of Joan Bartley, they are delicious concoctions of milk, cookies or candy, soft serve ice cream and syrup. The frappes have gained nationwide attention in addition to a loyal local following. Just last week, Bartley said, her “legendary” products attracted Adam Sandler, Jesse Ventura and oodles of tourists.
Although Bartley herself prefers peppermint shakes, she says that the most popular frappe is the vanilla Oreo frappe. She places two crushed Oreos, about four oz. of vanilla or chocolate syrup and 12 oz. of milk into a frappe shaker, then fills it up with vanilla soft serve ice cream. All ingredients are whisked together in the special Bartley’s blender and served. Be warned that using hard ice cream or Dairy Queen-style soft serve won’t create a frappe with that smooth, creamy Bartley’s texture. Their frappe is special because the Bartley’s fountain pumps air into the soft serve ice cream, which is made of fresh local ingredients.
L.A. Burdick:
Hot Chocolate
52 Brattle St.
Sipping from a steaming mug of Burdick’s rich hot chocolate while talking about food, love, dreams—such is the commonly-shared vision of an ideal date. Burdick’s pervasiveness in Harvard’s dating scene is contrasted, however, by the uniqueness of its recipe. The chocolate, which is brought in from Walpole, N.H., is “the only one of its kind in the country,” says Manager Julie Harrington. “It has a low sugar content, so it’s not movie theater chocolate—it’s real food.” This hearty-enough-for-a-meal delight comes in many forms, but Harrington highlights the store’s hot chocolate as the most popular offering. To create a hot chocolate (each is made ready to order) the chef steams one cup of two percent milk in an espresso machine, stirs in two-thirds of a cup of shaved Burdick dark chocolate and then runs the mixture through the steam machine again. The entire process is completed within a minute.
