For boat's chef, some thrills and spills

Keeps crew happy with comfort food

By Debra Samuels, Globe Correspondent

September 23, 2009

GLOUCESTER HARBOR - The schooner Roseway, a 137-foot former fishing boat, lurches through the waves, and doors flap to the rhythm. time,announces Jessica Reale, who quickly secures the kitchen cabinets with bungee cords. The 26-year-old chef works quickly, holding a door closed with an elbow while hooking the cord under the cabinet before another wave knocks her and everything in the cupboard off balance. The next lurch pushes her into the electric stove, which has pot braces for the burners. A huge pot of clam chowder is practically stirring itself.

The hardest part of cooking on a boat is when I am feeling seasick,says Reale. A brownie batter in a large baking pan has pooled at one end.
Reale, an East Bridgewater native, cooks three meals a day for the 10 crew members of the Roseway, which docks in Boston Harbor during the warm months when guests aren't onboard.

The boat is used by the World Ocean School for education programs for schoolchildren. Today, there are 30 passengers - the Roseway is racing other tall ships out of Gloucester - and all will have lunch with the crew.

The chef was up an hour before the crew, preparing homemade blueberry pancakes and coffee. One by one, sleepy crew members climb the ladder from their bunks in the fosle (boatspeak for forecastle) into the cramped galley. Deck hand Margo Vanderberg, 30, grabs coffee and walks the five steps to the other end of the galley, descends into the dining area, piles pancakes on her plate, and tucks in.

We love Jess,says chief mate Andrew Kaiser, 23. Hey Jess, he asks, did you grind the flour for the pancakes?
Reale, who has a head of brown curls and a contagious laugh, is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef. She had managed and cooked at restaurants in Florida and Maine, but had never been on a sailboat before this job. The galley is her domain and also the universal pass-through to sleeping quarters, dining room, engine room, deck, shower, and the only toilet. Storage in the kitchen is under floor boards and behind stairs; two portholes have ever-changing views.

The boat's food budget is meager. Reale spends $5.50 per person per day. You can do a lot with that if you shop smart,she says. The crew likes meatloaf, soups, and homemade breads. brought my professional books but find myself mostly using the only cookbook in the ship library, The Joy of Cooking,she says.

The Roseway sets sail for St. Croix in November. know staples will be more expensive down there, but I am looking forward to the challenge. Off the Massachusetts coastline, the crew dines on chowder. The chef uses canned clams when fresh ones aren't available. She sets a pot of creamy chowder beside ham and cheese sandwiches on homemade baguettes and adds a platter of oddly shaped brownies (they baked on a sea-induced angle).

Hours later, the Roseway, which finishes in fourth place in the race, returns to Gloucester.
On a typical day, Reale would prepare dinner now. She bought chicken earlier in the week and cooked it to make fajitas with corn tortillas and her own guacamole.

Tonight, Reale catches a break. All the crews have been invited to a potluck dinner.
Fajitas are on tomorrow's menu. Hopefully, so are calmer seas.

To learn more about the Roseway, go to http://www.roseway.com/

To hear Jess talk about her role as a chef and meet her mates watch the video taken by Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki

http://www.boston.com/video/viral_page/?/services/player/bcpid19067533001&bctid=41478825001

The flavors of Sicily, topped with tradition

Concetta checks the pizza sponge as Angela makes the sauce.

Twice a month, Concetta Cucinotta and Angela Molinario spend the day making pizza for their family in the kitchen of Cucinotta’s home in Dedham.

By Debra Samuels

Globe Correspondent / August 12, 2009

DEDHAM - The old yellow plastic tub, covered with a soft, well-worn blanket, sits on Concetta Cucinotta’s kitchen table. You can almost see the blanket moving. Under it, a mound of yeasty, bubbly dough is spilling, like molten lava, over the sides of the tub. Lively Italian folk music is coming from a CD player and Cucinotta periodically breaks into song.

It’s pizza day for Cucinotta and her sister, Angela Molinario, a ritual that takes place twice a month. The sisters spend the day shopping, cooking, and feeding their families - along with anyone else who shows up. The crowd is rarely fewer than 15.

Cucinotta, in a flowered apron, starts to tame the dough. With a flick of her wrist, she scatters flour onto a big board and kneads the mass into submission. When you start with 10 pounds of flour, this is no simple feat. She makes quick work of forming six pieces for bread, six for pizza, and at least one mound for the Sicilian calzone called scaciadda (ska-cha-da).

The sisters immigrated to the United States in the early 1970s from the village of Saponara near Messina, Sicily. Their mother, Maria Gangemi, always made pizza for the family; the daughters have continued the tradition for the last nine years. Molinario is a seamstress in Lexington; Cucinotta, now retired, worked on the housekeeping staff of Children’s Hospital Boston.

Today, they’re making sauce and toppings that include sausage, onions, peppers, and pepperoni. Molinario sautes two huge onions in olive oil. When they begin to brown and release their aroma,
she lifts them out of the skillet and stirs tomato paste and two large cans of ground tomatoes into the pan. “That’s the secret,’’ says Molinario. The tomato mixture sizzles and splatters and absorbs the onion flavors left behind. Eventually she returns the cooked onions to the skillet with dried oregano and basil, black pepper, and water.

An ornery stove that’s seen better days doesn’t always deliver consistently high heat, so the sisters jack up the temperature to 550. Somehow it turns out crusty masterpieces with an occasional burnt loaf.

Cucinotta hands off pieces of the dough to her sister, who lays one on a worn rimmed baking sheet. She presses and stretches the dough to fit the rectangular tray. Molinario grates bricks of mozzarella and lays the toppings within easy reach. “They are like a machine, these two,’’ says Enza Hart, Cucinotta’s daughter. Each pizza is spread with sauce and scattered with toppings.

One is cheese only, another pepperoni, and so on. The diminutive duo - both sisters are under 5 feet - make the pies they know their family likes.

Still singing, Cucinotta lets the loaves rise on a floured bed sheet spread on the table, covering them again with the blanket. Her calzone goes into a rectangular baking dish. She rolls a piece of dough and sets half of it in the dish; the rest hangs over the edge. She heaps on onions, potatoes, sausages, and escarole, then folds the soft dough over the top, crimping the edges shut.

Cucinotta’s husband, Giovanni, comes in through the side door. He’s been shopping in the North End and sets down his haul of groceries. Giovanni gets the first hot slice. He pours himself some potent homemade wine. Giovanni points out a photograph of himself, standing in a hard hat on an empty, soon-to-open Zakim Bridge. His daughter explains: “My dad was a construction laborer for 30 years, and he worked on the bridge. His grandkids call it Nonno’s bridge.’’
Those kids are trickling in, along with some nieces. Aunt Angela gives 13-year-old Jennifer Hart a little knot of fried dough dipped in sugar. The phone starts ringing. “Is it ready yet?’’ ask the callers.

Everyone who knows the sisters knows it’s pizza day.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Feast day calls for a special sweet

photo by: Debra Samuels Zeppole with vanilla cream and amarena cherries

By Debra Samuels
Globe Correspondent / March 18, 2009
In Italy tomorrow, men named Joseph and women named Josephine will hand out zeppole, a Neopolitan pastry of fried dough filled with cream, to family and friends to mark the feast of San Giuseppe. Closer to home, this patron saint of families is given his due at Italian bakeries in the area.
At Modern Pastry in the North End, baker Dago Ortez has been making zeppole for 19 years. Ortez uses an old-fashioned scale with free weights to measure his ingredients; the dough is fried twice and fillings are made from scratch. "I make these with my heart," says Ortez. Originally from El Salvador, Ortez was taught the art of making zeppole by Giovanni Picariello, whose son John, a sixth-generation baker, now owns the bakery with his sister Rosaria and mother Josephine.
Like many labor-intensive pastries, zeppole are no longer made by the women in the household. "My mother-in-law is from Sicily and she used to make them, but she doesn't do it anymore," says Paul Ursino, owner of Salem Foods, an Italian deli in Waltham. So Italian bakeries have become the surrogate nonne (grandmothers), and their pastry chefs work feverishly during the weeks leading up to the feast, known here as Saint Joseph's Day. Ortez says he can make, and sell out of, 400 zeppole a day; as Saint Joseph's approaches, he sometimes makes up to 1,000 daily.
Zeppole vary from region to region but are basically made of a choux paste (cream puff) dough. At Modern Pastry, Ortez's movements are like a choreographed dance sequence. He brings a huge pot of water and fat to a boil, then pours it into a commercial-size mixer. Then he adds the measured flour in one movement and sets a large paddle to work combining this into a paste. Ortez has ready a 2-quart metal pitcher filled with 160 eggs that he rhythmically cracks - klink, crack, klink, crack, klink, crack - adding three at a time to the paste. Using only his eyes and experience, he knows when to add the next three, and the next three, until the paste is a perfect consistency. There is no rushing this process.
Next he scoops the paste with a rubber spatula into long pastry bags fitted with a star tip and pipes large rings onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Two cauldrons of hot oil are ready. Ortez slips the rings from one sheet into one of the pots. Picariello explains: "We fry the rings in two different vats of oil. One at a low temperature - it helps the zeppole rise. The other, very hot, where they cook, expand in size, and fill the entire surface of the cauldron."
In constant motion, Ortez sways back and forth between the two vats swirling the zeppole until they are perfect. With a wire basket he scoops these amber jewels from the bubbling oil and sets them on a baking sheet. Piled high atop a glass case, they wait to be plucked and filled to order with a vanilla custard made from whole milk on the premises and studded with sweet and sour ruby red amarena cherries, also freshly made, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Other fillings available are ricotta cream or chocolate custard; the zeppole sell for $3 apiece.
Teresa Scialoia is on her way back to Florida and is stocking up on some favorites at the bakery before heading to the airport. "I used to work here so whenever I come back I stop by. Too bad I can't take the zeppole on the plane."
She is joined by her sister-in-law Carolina from Medford and a friend from Saugus named Fran Contino. Both have family members with the name Joseph. "This is the only place I come" for zeppole, says Contino, eyeing the pastries. Carolina will return with her 21-year-old son, Joseph, who will buy a dozen. "It is our tradition," she says.
"People want me to have the zeppole all year round," says Picariello, "but then it wouldn't be special."
Modern Pastry, 257 Hanover St., Boston, 617-523-3783 and 20 Salem St., Medford, 781-396-3618; http://www.modernpastry.com/
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Gifts that keep on giving

Gifts that keep on giving
In the right hands, cookware makes for happy returns

By Debra Samuels, Globe Correspondent December 22, 2008

If you're still looking for a holiday gift, think outside the mall. In fact, think outside all your usual places. The Institute of Contemporary Art's museum shop offers many ultra-hip selections (including an index of chopping boards so you don't mix chicken with veggies). Or head to the North End to Salem Street True Value Hardware, where ravioli molds are nestled beside pizzelle makers. If the person on your list is practical, you might find something at BMS Paper Co. in Jamaica Plain. It's not just paper, but all manner of objects for the sweet and savory professional or home kitchen.
The ICA's gift shop is just a few steps down from the glassed-in lobby. Artful displays range from a funky Banana Bunker ($4.95) to store in your briefcase or knapsack, to the graceful Asian-inspired porcelain teapot ($165). Hard plastic Solo drinking cups ($1.99) are playfully arranged and based on the undulating soft Solo cup landscape in an exhibit by artist Tara Donovan. Retail operations manager Victor Oliveira draws inspiration for his products from ICA shows. U+, the high end of the Umbra kitchen line, is a favorite throughout the store. The company's elegant salad set, called Ensalada ($99), includes a thick glass bowl (red or white) with a pair of magnetic stainless servers that fit together like a puzzle. Chilewich's op-arty white vinyl dots come as placemats ($6.95) or table runners ($24.95).
The Knot Wine Rack ($138) is beautiful even when empty. That pesky business of keeping poultry away from other kitchen tasks is solved with the Index Chopping Board System ($75), which integrates four colored boards in a sleek storage unit. Off kilter and in neon, Hula Vodka and Tumbler Glasses (four for $29.95 and $39.95) may tickle a friend with a sense of humor.
Ken Rothman's family has owned the North End shop Salem Street True Value Hardware for 44 years. In the window, a kaleidoscope of enamelware colanders ($16.99 to 29.99) is your first clue that there's more here than plungers. Mindful of his location, Rothman stocks a selection of hand-cranked pasta makers ($69.99), wood gnocchi boards ($6.99), ravioli stamps ($7.99), and pizzelle makers ($69.99).
Bialetti stovetop espresso makers range from one cup ($21.99) to the larger Mukka Express ($89.99). You'll also find espresso cups and saucers, available in singletons or sets of four ($4.99 to $8.99). (When you're done, walk a few paces to Polcari's at 105 Salem St. for a pound of beans to go with the new coffee maker.) True Value also carries Terra Allegra, an earthy 5 1/2-quart clay baker ($89.99) with a deep red glaze for beans, soups, and cassoulets. Use this pot directly on the burner with a heat diffuser under it, in the oven, in the microwave, or on an outdoor grill. Gloveables ($14.99), those fun rubber gloves, are for friends who want to be fashionable at the sink; glass storage containers and spice jars are for filling before you give away; and a selec tion of cast iron, the longest-lasting and most practical cookware, is for giving away and buying for yourself too.
Don't be misled by the name BMS Paper Co. Paper products are only part of what's in this cavernous treasure chest of a store. The place also sells restaurant and baking supplies, industrial-size jars, canned and frozen foods, and spices. Owner Bob Harrington says people come into his Jamaica Plain store and "wander around for hours." To that end, they might find a 100-quart stock pot ($149) a more practical 8-quart size ($25), and every capacity in between. Whatever you see comes in incremental sizes. Ladles, for instance, go from 1 ounce ($2.29) to 32 ounces ($7.99); mixing bowls start at 3/4 quart ($1) and go up to 16 quarts ($12.75). Whisks, slotted spoons, tongs, and spatulas hang together in a collage. There's a whole section devoted to old-fashioned diner supplies like thick white American-made dishes and mugs. You can even buy those stainless steel cake stands with plexiglass tops that house mile-high frosted confections ($25.99 for a top and stand). Long-handled wood pizza paddles range from $18 to $30.
It's a good bet people will be cooking more at home next year. Your gifts may play starring roles in the months to come.
BMS Paper Co., 3390 Washington St., Jamaica Plain, 617-522-1122.
Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave., Boston, 617-478-3163, www.icastore.org.
Salem Street True Value Hardware, 89 Salem St., North End, Boston, 617-523-4759.

Bap till you drop

Bap till you drop
By Debra Samuels, Globe Correspondent November 5, 2008

In Korea, some foods trickled down from the Imperial palace and others have humbler origins. Bibimbap seems to be somewhere in the middle - a dish thought to have been introduced to Korean monarchy by the court of China, but also served to farmers in their fields.
This layered specialty consists of rice, meat or seafood, and seasoned vegetables, topped with an egg. It's as much a part of the Korean table as risotto is to Italy or paella to Spain. Unlike those dishes, bibimbap isn't made with uncooked rice, but rather with the cooked grains, which makes it more akin to Chinese fried rice. In this country, look on the menu of any Korean restaurant, and you'll find at least one version of bibimbap. In Korea, there are restaurants that specialize in the dish.
Ingredients vary according to region and season. Bibimbap can be served hot or at room temperature. A stone pot version, called dolsot bibimbap, is made in a well-seasoned stone bowl ($25 at Korean markets), which produces a crisp, crunchy bottom. When it's done, the rice continues to cook and crackle from the heat of the stone. Whatever the cooking pot, the dish always contains vegetables, which might include bean sprouts, carrots, cucumber, and spinach. After cooking, the ingredients are combined with a flourish and finished with sesame oil and spicy red pepper sauce. Hence the name bibim (mixed) bap (rice).
Every Korean mother prepares the dish. "Making bibimbap was a way for my mom to clean out the fridge of all the leftover side dishes," explains Kiki Oh, owner of the Bibimbab Cafe in London, made famous by Margaret Drabble's novel "The Red Queen," which starts in 18th-century Korea and ends with Drabble herself enjoying a bowl of bibimbap in Oh's cafe.
At home, bibimbap is a project. Unlike Chinese fried rice - where all the vegetables are stir-fried together and mixed into the rice - bibimbap's vegetables are cooked separately before they're added to the grains, which accentuates individual characteristics such as sweet, crunchy, salty.
Some cooks think mixing the dish at the end of cooking is important to how it tastes. At Seoul Food restaurant in Cambridge, the servers want you to enjoy the dish properly, so you may find your spoon pulled out of your hand and your dish folded together with the runny egg by one of the staff.
Boston University graduate student Kelly O'Leary is besotted with Korean food in general and bibimbap in particular. O'Leary, chef at the Bayridge residence in Back Bay, is in the Master of Liberal Arts program in gastronomy. "I just love the beauty of the dish," says O'Leary, who is writing a paper on bibimbap. "I eat a dish and then deconstruct it." Recently she attended a Korean food festival in New York, where a 500-pound bowl of bibimbap was served to hundreds of passersby in Manhattan's Koreatown.
To make the dish, use an old-fashioned American cast-iron skillet, which gives the rice its nice texture and holds in the heat as you serve it. Consider the presentation more relaxed than royal.
Debra Samuels is coauthor with Taekyung Chung of "The Korean Table."

*For photos on how to make bibimbap go to: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/gallery/05bibimbap/

RECIPE
Bibimbap Recipe
Serves 4

Make bibimbap in a deep cast-iron skillet, which produces a crispy crust on the bottom, or a nonstick skillet. The dish consists of rice and toppings, including an egg. Here are instructions for bean sprouts, carrot salad, cucumber salad, spinach, beef, and a tangy red pepper dressing. Use about 1 cup of each. This recipe has one egg, but you can also make one for each person. Add them to the bowls after serving.

SPROUTS
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces soybean sprouts
2 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, salt, and sprouts. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and steam for 5 minutes.
2. Strain the sprouts and transfer to a bowl. Add the scallion, sesame seeds, and sesame oil.

CARROTS
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
4 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1. In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the carrots and salt. Stir-fry for 2 minutes.
2. Remove them from the pan.

CUCUMBERS
4 Armenian or pickling cucumbers or 1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons red pepper dressing (see below)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1. In a large bowl, toss the cucumbers and salt; set aside for 5 minutes. Gently squeeze the liquid from the cucumbers. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Add the dressing. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
RED PEPPER DRESSING
2 tablespoons Korean red pepper paste (from a Korean grocery)
1 tablespoon rice or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon apple juice or water
2 teaspoons sesame oil

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pepper paste, vinegar, honey, juice or water, and sesame oil.
2. Set the dressing aside.

SPINACH
1 pound fresh spinach, rinsed and stemmed
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt

1. In a pot of boiling water, cook the spinach for 1 minute. Drain and rinse with cold water. Squeeze out the water by the handfuls. Chop coarsely.
3. Transfer the spinach to a bowl. Add sesame seeds, oil, and salt.

BEEF
2 ounces beef rib eye, cut into strips (or use ground beef)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar

1. In a bowl, combine the beef, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar; marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Heat a small skillet. Stir-fry the meat for 2 minutes; set aside.

ASSEMBLY
2 tablespoons sesame oil, plus more for sprinkling
3 cups cooked white rice
1 egg, fried sunny-side up
3 tablespoons red pepper dressing (see above)

1. Set a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. Heat for 1 minute.
2. Add the rice and spread it around the bottom of the pot to form an even layer. Cook for several minutes or until the rice begins to brown on the bottom and you hear the grains sizzle.
3. Carefully arrange each of the seasoned salads on top of the rice, grouping them like the spokes of a wheel. Set the beef in the center. Continue heating for 2 minutes. Set the egg in the center.
4. To serve: Add the dressing and fold the rice, vegetables, egg, and meat together, scraping the bottom of the pot to distribute the crust. Serve in individual bowls, sprinkled sparingly with sesame oil and extra dressing. Adapted from "The Korean Table"

What's a Sox game without dried squid and beer?

TOKYO - Peanuts! Popcorn! Squid jerky, anyone?

The manekki nekko (beckoning cat), its paw raised in welcome, is the theme for this shop, which has cute, expressive cats from floor to ceiling, most handmade.
The Boston Red Sox play their season opener nine days from now at the Tokyo Dome, once home field to their relief pitcher Hideki Okajima, a former member of the Yomiuri Giants. And instead of those sausage and onion subs on Yawkey Way, fans will be munching dried squid, soy beans, fried noodles, and sushi along with their burgers and corn dogs.

If anyone wants a beer, young women come around with backpack kegs and fill a cup for about 800 yen ($7.50). And there's the organized cheering, replete with complicated clapping rhythms, chanting, and hand motions. Sox fans can start their own: "Gambare Reddo Sokkusu!" (Let's Go, Red Sox!)

Shopping for Major League Baseball paraphernalia? On the main concourse is a rare place where Yankee and Red Sox gear is laid out side by side, as are posters of two of Japan's current elites playing Stateside: Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Matsui.

The stadium, part of the Tokyo Dome City entertainment complex, is anchored on one end by the Tokyo Dome Hotel and the other by a spa and multilevel outdoor shopping mall. From one end to the other there are family friendly restaurants and amusement park attractions. Thunder Dolphin, an erector-set-like roller coaster, slips its screaming passengers through a hole in one building before it descends precipitously and through another hole in the colossal "Big O" Ferris wheel. But it is not all "Fear Factor"-type rides. There are plenty of mini-thrills for young children, like whirling cups and a carousel.

The popular "takoyaki" - big round pancake balls stuffed with octopus and topped with seaweed shavings smothered in a savory sauce - are available at the shop Tsukiji Gin-daco. Visitors can snack while watching the Water Symphony, a shallow pool with a chorus line of water jets shooting high into the air synchronized to arias and Broadway tunes. On the sixth floor is one of Japan's greatest natural resources, the "onsen" (natural hot spring), at Spa LaQua. Natural hot springs bubble up through the earth's core right into the pipes of the indoor and outdoor shallow pools. Aches and pains can be kneaded out at one of the many massage venues.

At the end of the day, The Artist's Cafe on the top floor of the Tokyo Dome Hotel is a great place for drinks. Here patrons sit on the stools at the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and look out over the capital sparkling all around them.

From that lofty height, with Tokyo's glamour on display, one wouldn't guess that there are areas nearby that still retain their old neighborhood flavor. Sugamo, just three subway stops from the Dome on the Mita Line, is a deeply urban section considered a fashion and lifestyle haven for seniors. Don't be put off. This place, with its temples and bargain shopping, is interesting for any age.

Sugamo may be Japan's capital of red wear. Red is an auspicious color in this country and the Japanese believe the center of a person's well being resides in the stomach region. Protect and keep this area warm they say, and you will gain strength and happiness. So seniors flock to shops like Maruji, one of many along Jizo Street, for "akapantsu" (red undies), also fondly referred to as "power pants." This is not Victoria's Secret lingerie. It's cotton over-the-belly wear and it's available along with red belly warmers, red boxers, red long underwear, even red socks.

Health is serious business in Japan and Sugamo is usually crowded with shoppers and wellness seekers. Before the start of Jizo Street is the temple Shinseiji, site of one of the six largest jizo statues in Tokyo. (A jizo is a guardian saint in Buddhism.) With an umbrella-like hat fanning out over his 9-foot frame, this jizo sits atop a pedestal amid the smoke from lighted incense sticks. This is the place to pray for health.

Beyond the temple, through the arches, is the main shopping street, Jizo Dori. The aroma of roasting soy sauce wafts from a shop selling handmade rice crackers piled high in an old wooden display case. Inside patrons sit at the rear on one of the wooden benches surrounding a charcoal pit. There's no charge for a warm cup of green tea.

Farther down the street is the gate of Koganji Temple, where the middle-aged and elderly come in droves to fix what ails them. On the temple grounds are stalls selling talismans, antiques, old kimonos, and even salted pickles. Inside the temple a priest chants above the steady beat of a drum. But the big attraction at Koganji is the statue of Kannon, a female saint who represents mercy and salvation. Families stand in a snaked line awaiting their moment with the saint. They carry white towels, available for purchase, to wash and dry the part of the body that ails them or a loved one. The cloth is then taken home to rub over the afflicted area.

The shops along Jizo Street are always bustling, but on the 4th, 14th, and 24th of each month the atmosphere is festive. That's when outdoor stalls set up to sell food, roots, trinkets, spice, and herbal mixtures. At the spice stall buyers choose their own blend of black and white sesame seeds, shaved seaweed, and cayenne pepper. For souvenirs there are "daifuku," sweets made from rice flour and bean jam, and sesame cookies with imprints of the jizos

Fuyusha stocks crafts made from Japanese fabrics: stuffed folk animals, mobiles, handbags, hair clips, and pocketbooks. There is no shortage of Japanese tchotchkes here - and none is terribly expensive.

With its good humor and boundless vitality, Sugamo never gets old.

Not far from Sugamo, at Nippori Station on the Yamanote rail line, is the more tranquil Yanaka, which escaped damage from the Kanto earthquake in 1923 and the fire bombs of World War II. The neighborhood has retained many of its old wooden structures, including the tile-roofed homes of merchants and more than 80 Buddhist temples. During cherry blossom season the next few weeks, Sakura Dori (Cherry Blossom Road), bordering the Yanaka Cemetery, becomes an arborway of pink.

Although the area has a vibrant main shopping street, Yanaka Ginza, it is the side streets that are the most fun. They are filled with small temples, antiques shops, folk crafts, and artisanal food. One shop sells handcrafted "tenugui" (handcloths) with folk designs.

The Asakura Choso Museum is closed on Monday and Friday. The exterior of the famous Japanese sculptor's home is Art Deco modern, the interior traditional Japanese, with a beautiful garden.

Farther along is Space Oguraya, a gallery for visiting artists in what was once a storehouse for family treasures. Its museum is housed in a former pawnbroker's old wooden shop. Takao Ito, the owner, displays his mother Toshi's paintings of early-20th-century Tokyo. Her scenes from daily life between the world wars depict women and children sewing, folding origami, drying persimmons, and playing games. Ito sells colorful postcards of the paintings in the shop attached to the gallery.

On a street near Yanaka Ginza is Jomyoin Temple, famous for its 84,000 jizo stone statues stretched out row after row. Beyond the temple, shops along the narrow road sell traditional wooden sandals, fashionable clothing, bedding, and green tea. Most are on the ground floor of old wooden structures, some in better condition than others. The area is home to the distinctive architecture of old Tokyo. Here the aroma of grilled chicken attracts a crowd purchasing food to take home for dinner. Another group gathers around a shop known for its potato and meat croquettes.

At the end of the street are steep steps leading to Nippori Station. It's a tough climb at the end of a long day wandering some of Tokyo's old neighborhoods.

Debra Samuels, a freelance writer in Lexington, can be reached at debrasamuels@yahoo.com.

Thinking inside the box

More people than ever are packing a lunch for work or school. The number of ways to carry the meal have grown, too.
Are you still brown-bagging it? If so, it may be time for a change. Lunch has evolved beyond the sandwich, and lunch containers have kept pace. They keep your salad crisp, your dressing separate, your drink cold and soup hot, and your taco intact.

JoAnne Anderson, marketing manager for Pacific Marketing International -- the parent company of Aladdin, the lunch box manufacturer, and Stanley, the thermos maker -- says research indicates more people than ever are bringing their lunch to school and work, for economic, nutritional, and environmental reasons. What they bring that lunch in now includes reusable sandwich wraps that wipe clean, bowls outfitted with yogurt-holding ice packs, and containers with serious style.

Kids' lunch totes are still adorned with superheroes and princesses, but instead of metal and hard plastic boxes, they are soft, insulated sacks with pockets for cold packs and elastic bands for securing bottles. Betsy Block, author of the newly published "The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World," says that "if the cheese gets wet or the x chips soggy, my little daughter, Maya, won't eat."

But as Block shops for containers that forestall those disasters, she is also concerned about safety. She cautions that consumers need to know what containers are made of. "Look for ..... 1(PETE), 2(HDPE), 4(LDPE) and 5(PP) in the recycle triangle," says Block -- these are OK. "Even if the risk is small, why take the chance if you have choices?" She recommends the National Geographic Green Guide website (www.thegreenguide.com/doc/77/plastics) as a place to educate yourself.

Deborah Hamilton, creator of the website www.lunchinabox.net, spent nine years in Japan and became besotted with bento, the Japanese portable meal that is the ultimate in compartmentalized lunchboxes. Healthy food arranged attractively for both kids and adults is serious business in Japan. Her website illustrates the lunches she packs for her young son. "Basically I am too lazy to make him something different from what we eat at home," says Hamilton, "so it is all in the packing." She has a collection of cute Japanese-style lunchboxes for her son with all manner of sauce containers, appealing muffin holders, and cartoon-character-shaped molds for rice balls or sandwiches. Her website has recipes, excellent tips for making food in advance, product reviews, and information on bento boxes. Although some might be intimidated by the lengths she goes to for her son's lunch, the site has practical information and is occasionally inspirational. Tokai Japanese Gifts (617-864-5922) at the Porter Exchange in Cambridge has bento boxes for adults. (They are also a great way to practice portion control.)

Several new products help reduce the amount of disposables. Wrap-N-Mat is a square of fabric lined with plastic (the good kind) that closes with a Velcro strap to wrap sandwiches or cookies. When opened, it doubles as a place mat. Wash and dry overnight and use again and again. (Bye bye, baggies.) These are available in a variety of colors and designs (www.wrapnmat.com). Check out the www.reusablebags.com website, which offers items for toting all manner of things around, including food.

Today's containers are often designed with specific foods in mind. There is, for example, a hinged plastic container for a banana (www.bananasaver.com). Fit & Fresh (www.fit-fresh.com) has compartmentalized containers with snap-in, fitted cold packs. There is a carrier for salads with a lid that contains the dressing. Flip open a cap and the dressing drizzles onto the salad. The Breakfast Chiller comes with a doughnut-like ice pack that surrounds a container for milk or yogurt.

Among local stores, Target seems to have the largest variety of lunch solutions. You will find them in the housewares, back-to-school, and outdoors departments. A young cashier got really excited as she scanned a bunch of saladware. "Wow! I stopped bringing salad to work because it got all mushy. These are way cool."

Get healthy, be frugal, and go green. If you can make it, you can take it -- in safety and style.