Second Fermentation Festival
The Somerville Fermentation Festival, exploring all kinds of microbial foods, returns in August bursting at the seams. In preparing this second free event at the city’s Armory arts building, organizers have added hours, entertainment, education and vendors and are doing everything they can to fit it all in, founder Flora Spivak said. The event was a success upon its launch last year, drawing more than 2,000 attendees.
This year, a stage is being broken down and packed away to make room for more than 25 food purveyors and artists offering samples and selling locally made fermented foods (kimchi, kombucha, pickles, miso, soy sauce and fish sauce, chocolate, fresh bread and tempeh, to start) alongside a fermentation help desk (with “a panel of seasoned experts ready to look, sniff and advise”) and a new crafting table, book swap and a returning culture sharing table where people can exchange sourdough starters, kombucha Scobys and other items.
In addition to the free stuff, the year brings a 10 to 11 a.m. early access hour with a complimentary swag bag ($35); a tasting series that explores cheeses, wines and how to incorporate brines into alcoholic drinks ($35-$45); and an educational speaker series of specialized panels and lectures led by fermentation experts ($16 each, or $12 an at early bird rate).
To make more room inside for all this, an expanded Kraut Mob – in which participants chop, salt and jar their own sauerkraut to take home – moves outside, weather permitting.
Pagu, Oi-No Tacos and the Boston Dosa Party are among sellers of ready-to-eat foods at the event, and live acoustic and Americana music is planned for throughout the day.
The organizers’ pitch: “Whether you are a seasoned fermenter managing complex active cultures at home or a novice looking to try your first sip of local kombucha, the second annual Somerville Fermentation Festival offers a unique opportunity to deepen your relationship with food, the environment and the local community.”
Somerville Fermentation Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Center Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville. Free with paid add-ons.
Season to Vegan is Thursday
Fine dining restaurant Season to Taste brings back its “Season to Vegan” event Thursday, with chef Robert Harris going wholly plant-based for the night with matching desserts by Nüssli118° owner and chef Angela Hofmann.
It’s an argument for meatless dining as some dedicated vegan restaurants struggle to survive, organizers said, and a celebration of the 1 Million Tables concept championed by Cambridge resident Marla Felcher and co-founder Debra Alexander – that a plant-based meal is a small win against climate change that adds up when enough people take it.
They’ve brought the idea to upward of 39,950 participants in 170 countries and territories, from monasteries in China to a research station in Antarctica, they say. Still, when the first Season to Vegan six-course tasting menu with wine pairing sold out last year, roughly 85 percent of those 120 diners didn’t even identify as vegan: “Diners came, according to feedback, simply because they wanted a great meal.”
“Events like Season to Vegan, hosted by a trusted, mainstream restaurant, demonstrate that there is clearly a demand for high-quality plant-based food,” Felcher said, and offering vegan foods can make good business sense. The “veto vote” held by vegans in a dining party “gives restaurants a financial reason to take plant-based options seriously,” she said.
Harris said he’s challenged by getting rid of “rich, easy things to use like butter and meat” while making dishes that are satisfying and delicious for all diners, but Season to Taste already sources locally and seasonally as much as possible. “I’m an omnivore chef,” he said. “That’s what’s so cool about this dinner: No one is going to leave thinking, ‘Gosh, I wish I had a steak.’
Season to Vegan, 5 or 8 p.m. at Season to Taste, 1678 Massachusetts Ave., Neighborhood 9, Cambridge.
New rotation at Nibble Kitchen
The City of Somerville’s Nibble Kitchen announced on Monday a new rotating lineup of Peruvian, Guatemalan and Ethiopian cuisine.
The micro-restaurant space – not much larger than an apartment dining room – sells from a walk-up counter where diners can watch the chef of the day prepare their meal. Diners can use the counter or sit under the trees in Bow Market’s courtyard.
Chiqui’s Kitchen by Krysia Villón serves Peruvian from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. Dishes include pan con chicharrón with yuca frita, and a variety of empanadas. Always available vegetarian options include roasted sweet potato empanadas and Jalea de Champiñones, a mushroom dish inspired by a Peruvian seafood classic.
La Todosantera Guatemalan & Mayan Cuisine by Benita Ramirez serves noon to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and specializes in handmade tortillas alongside traditional dishes such as tamales, roasted chicken tacos and huevos rancheros. Drinks include jugo de mango and limonada. The naturally gluten-free menu is built almost entirely around ingredients indigenous to Ramirez’s hometown in Guatemala.
Zufan’s Kitchen by Zufan Dirisa serves Ethiopian food from noon to 8 p.m. or until sold out on Sundays. The menu includes spiced lentil and beef sambusas, keye siga wot, misir wot, freshly made injera and homemade baklava.
Nibble Kitchen is the restaurant and business incubator of the Nibble Culinary Entrepreneurship Program run by the city’s Arts & Culture Division. It offers an opportunity for immigrant and women entrepreneurs to turn culinary skills and traditions into food businesses by offering professional kitchen access, business education, mentorship, vending opportunities, technical assistance and a chance to show off their best dishes in Bow Market. Some cooks have spun off from Nibble into ongoing businesses, including Carolicious, which serves Venezuelan arepas at three locations in Somerville and Cambridge.
“I’m using Nibble Kitchen as a test kitchen and an opportunity to explore what’s next,” Villón said. “I want to see how people respond to different dishes and concepts as I continue building Chiqui’s Kitchen. I’m trying to figure out how to live in my art, and this – food – is my art.”
Nibble Kitchen at Bow Market, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville
Bar Enza’s ‘predusk’ prix-fixe
Bar Enza has a rotating prix-fixe Pre-Dusk Menu from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday for $55. It launched July 17. “The menu will evolve regularly based on seasonal products and what’s in-house, making every visit a little different from the last,” Bar Enza staff said.
The Italian-focused options let diners begin with choices such as the Enza Salad, featuring watermelon “steak,” radish, avocado curls and green goddess dressing; a classic Caesar with anchovies; or handmade Paccheri Carbonara with fresh peas, bacon and parsley oil. For the main course, the choices are Brick Chicken served with mashed potatoes and crisped zucchini; Corn Agnolotti tossed with crisped Brussels sprout leaves, brown butter and toasted hazelnuts; or a salmon filet with frites and summer succotash. Dessert is a chocolate cremeux on thin brioche toast with peaches and cream.
Bar Enza, 1 Bennett St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
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