Note: Each week, one of our various Market Scene correspondents from around the country checks in with what's fresh at the farmstands in a particular region. Today, Penny Cherubino (Boston Zest) drops by from Boston. The Brookline Farmers Market has been a part of the Coolidge Corner shopping experience for thirty-one years. It's a place of full-flavor shopping with produce, cheese, eggs, ice cream, bakery, specialty foods, beef, turkey, pork, lamb, and fish vendors. It's a busy market, with long lines forming at favorite vendors like Clear Flour Bakery. This family-operated, artisan bakery specializes in creating the authentic breads of Italy, France and Germany. Clear Flour always appears in any list of the best bakeries in the Boston area....
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Barbara Fisher of Tiger & Strawberries has an excellent post this week on fresh garlic, ginger and scallions, the three pillars of Chinese cooking: "It is a rare savory Chinese dish which does not contain at least two and very often three of these pillars of flavor in some form or another. When stir frying, these three intrepid aromatics are usually the very first ingredients to hit the hot wok where they bathe in the sizzling oil, flavoring it intensely, so that the ingredients which follow their lead are kissed by the scent and savor of ginger, garlic and scallion." She does a great job of explaining both why these ingredients are so important and how to cook with...
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