Battle of the Boston Area Fast Food Joints: Chic Yuppie Lunch Places

I've been waking up at five in the morning for a new work assignment across town. I also spend a lot of time visiting elderly relatives and working on this blog.  Eric does a lot of volunteer work, and therefore our days and evenings can be pretty busy, verging on exhausting.  The upshot of this schedule is that by Thursday or Friday we're  feeling very little desire to cook, or sometimes even eat.  That is where these two restaurants come in:  they offer reasonably priced, relatively uncomplicated vegetarian meals, and they're big enough chains so that their food is easy to pick up on a half hour break or on the way home from work.

Cosi

(Full Disclosure:  Eric worked for the Cosi chain a few years after college and was really very fond of it. His fondness has probably unintentionally colored my keen critical senses.  You have been warned.) At six bucks for the cheapest vegetarian item on the menu, Cosi is probably the more expensive of the two restaurants I'm reviewing today.  It offers a reasonable amount of vegetarian choices: a full Cosi* offers flat-bread margherita pizza, tomato or (on Thursday) lentil soup, and a selection of three vegetable sandwiches (the fire-roasted veggie, the hummus and veggie, and the "TBM").  I'm completely in love with their "TBM", a cold tomato and basil sandwich containing mozzarella so fresh it verges on fluffiness, drizzled with a light balsamic vinaigrette containing just a hint of mustard.  The critic in me wants to try other menu items, but I just love the "TBM" so much I can't quite see my way to shelling out more cash for something that is not a  "TBM."

They also make their own iced green tea, the taste of which is reminiscent of real southern Sweet Tea (as drunk by me on all of my trips to Florida): just the right hint of lemon, and without being so nauseatingly over sugared in the way of so many northern attempts at Sweet Tea.


Boloco

Boloco (short for "Boston Local Company"), is a little too "crunchy granola" for my tastes, but it could possibly be the most vegetarian friendly restaurant I have ever set foot in.  I can't believe I had a store down the street from my apartment for the past year I've been living here, and I've been trying to position myself as a restaurant critic, and yet I'd never eaten there before last week.  They are wonderful for vegetarians because their burritos start out vegetarian and you can choose to add meat if you would like.  What a refreshing change from going to a restaurant and having to ask to have something cooked without meat!  Anyway, the burritos come in different types: all of which feature some combination of rice, beans, and a sauce or salsa.  They also have not one but two (an entire two!) vegetarian add in options along with their meat options: roasted vegetables and tofu.  Prices start from $3.95 for a "disturbingly small" standard burrito, and the price goes up depending on the size of the burrito and how much you want added to it.

I'm dying to try the Nutella shake, but I think that will be a different article.  ("Comparative Frappes" is definitely going to happen sometime this summer.)





* Full Cosi restaurants are open at night instead of simply for the breakfasts and lunches of city office workers.

Burritos with Rice, Peppers, and Pinto Beans

This recipe was born out of last night's demise of my plans to make my friend Jill's recipe for tacos.  Those of you who live in the Boston area probably know this, but Thursday is the worst day to try to go grocery shopping at the Foodmaster chain of grocery stores.  They get their supplies on Friday, so those who shop on Thursday are doomed to frustration if they try to find the simplest of things.  (The simplest of things in this case is heretofore defined as Morningstar Farms "fake hamburger".)  Luckily,  they are not Market Basket and their vegetable selection is usually halfway decent, so I made this instead.    

2-4 lavash wraps / tortillas

Olive oil

rice

1 diced bell pepper of each color: red / orange / yellow / green

1 small onion

Pepper to taste

1 can pinto beans

Habenero or pepper jack cheese (or, if you’d like, the regular cheese you have sitting around with a good dose of hot sauce sloshed onto it)

Cook rice according to the directions on the packet. 

Dice the onion and sauté it in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil heated in a large frying pan until the pieces are just starting to brown.  Add the peppers and let them cook down until they’re soft.  Drain the water out of the can of pinto beans, but do not rinse them.  (The salt in them will be the only salt you use to flavor this.)  Slowly stir the pinto beans into the  pan.  Fry this mixture for another two minutes or so.

Combine rice and the pepper mixture in the lavash / tortilla shells.  Top with cheese.