Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 98

G-14 PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1996 Food MASSACHUgT The Bay State serves up wonderful food, even if the Boston baked beans are hard to find By Marcia Bennett assachusetts is famous for so many things the Pilgrims and Plymouth RocMjzzie Borden, Boston's Old i North Church, witches, the House of i -r 'Iter! 1 1 wi stit iT II iii mw II i 1 mi 1 fr pared in a little bakery in the rear. The stools were occupied by "on-a-first-name-basis locals," so we commandeered two tables. The "special" that morning was a sausage patty, one egg, juice and coffee for $2.49, but the price was slightly higher with the addition of a freshly baked cruller or muffin. In Salem Then it was on to Salem, which boasts several major attractions, The Salem Witch Museum and The House of the Seven Gables, made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne, among them, plus a flock of restaurants and cafes. We chose the Lyceum Bar and Grill for lunch.

The Lyceum movement had its origins in England and was designed to offer a forum to mechanics (read, the laboring class) to present new ideas on practical problems they encountered with the onset of the Industrial Age. The American version, created in 1830 in Salem, was different in nature, inviting discussions, lectures and debates on most everything from science to literature. Among those appearing were Daniel Webster, James Russell Lowell, John Quincy Adams and Frederick Douglass. It was here that Alexander Graham Bell gave his first public demonstration of the telephone. With the exception of the fish chowder we had, I doubt any of them dined on the special we had that day.

Our lunch included a slice of focaccia topped with grilled portobello mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula and melted moz-zarella cheese. It had a wonderful smoky flavor and was served with a side order of peanut slaw, which, briefly, is common, garden-variety slaw, topped with salted peanuts not a show stopper. In Boston Boston is a lovely city, reeking of historical "oldies," so, of course, we fit right in. Among its treasures is the Omni Parker House, the nation's oldest continuously operating hotel, and our home for two days. Located in the heart of downtown, it reminds one of Pittsburgh's Westin William Perm and Chicago's Drake hotel spacious lobby, handsomely appointed rooms.

It, too, can boast of famous guests, such as Charles Dickens, Willa Cather, Sarah Bernhardt and John Wilkes Booth and they did eat Parker House rolls and Boston cream pie. A "must" for eating while in Boston is Ye Olde Union Oyster House, which not surprisingly, is the nation's oldest continuousW operating restaurant At one time, the building the restaurant occupies was a silk and dry goods store. Before that it was the first official pay-station for the Continental Army. This is where the first toothpick was introduced to diners, and the owners still maintain "The SEE BAY STATE, PAGE G-15 the Seven Gables and wonderful food, like lobsters, scrod, cream pie and, at one time, Boston baked beans and brown bread Regrettably, you can almost forget the last two. Even in Boston's expansive Quincy Market to which we rode in the Red Bean Trolley only one eatery listed baked beans on its menu, and no one could tell us anything about Boston brown bread.

(Howard Johnson, where are you?) So it is with great anticipation that one travels to the Bay State, no matter the time of year. In Rockport Rockport, named for its awesome coastal rock formations, is a picturesque New England town where every homeowner seems to have a sailboat and masterful garden. Its streets, many of which are more Ike lanes, are lined with specialty shops and galleries. Once we checked into the beachfront Cap; tain's Bounty Motor Inn, our principal pursuit was what we had talked about all day, lining up a lobster dinner. Our choice was The Blacksmith's Shop, an intimate little dining room, not far from the motel, which overlooks the modest but colorful Rockport harbor.

The ownermanagerwaitress, who just happens to live upstairs, offered us the choice of steamed lobster, lobster pie, lobster cake or lobster salad. What, I asked, was lobster pie, and how did it differ from lobster cake? "Both are made with chunks of lobster, marinated in sherry and topped with buttered Chinese bread crumbs and broiled. The pie has diced green pepper, and the cake does not," she explained. Chinese bread crumbs? You know I had to ask! She proceeded to explain that they were of a coarser qualify than traditional bread crumbs. There were two orders of lobster pie and two of lobster cake, and we all agreed that the choices were very good.

As we were about to leave the restaurant, the ownermanaeer-waitress brought out a bag of Chinese bread crumbs "to go." Back at the motel we checked out the mysterious crumbs. They looked like saltine cracker crumbs, they tasted like saltine cracker Breakfast in Rockport was a surprise, a delight and something right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The little coffee shop resembled a small hall about 12 feet in width and about 50 feet in length with about a dozen stools at a counter and five mini-tables along the wall. But it was the aroma that grabbed our attention; the smell of freshly baked rolls and buns, which were being pre Klf f'l: iV2 feuiiy 7S1ihii 5, fT it Rift -mSf OT 1. -Mela Ye Olde Union Oyster House in Boston is the nation's oldest continuously operating restaurant.

In life, as in granola, Betty Bienen believes in mixing it up The high school counselors who claimed we would change careers at least seven times in our lifetimes can take a long look at Betty Bienen. What's unusual about Betty B's life changes are their range. ModeL Radio show commentator. Twice a wife. Single mother of two.

Bluegrass music promoter. Disc jockey. Hiking columnist. Food Network spokeswoman. Breast cancer survivor.

Maker of Hers is a hands-on operation, she said, pointing out that she even designed the packaging and packs the granola herself. "This is real grass-roots, a single mom trying to make it work," she said. Betty B's Original Granola is the one that once wowed relatives as her and her kids' homemade gift, and the Bluesberry is named after a New York blue-grass festival she coordinates called Winterhawk. She is a proponent of Cinnamon as an "aphrodesiac it's a musty erotic thing, a love potion," she said, and it's tough to tell if she's kidding. The raspberry flavor is "my new favorite," she said, immediately launching into a tale about how raspberries used to be all white, but when Nymph Ida was trying to calm down a crying baby Zeus with raspberries, she scratched herself on the "unfriendly thorns of the raspberry bush." The raspberries became red with her blood, and the raspberry's botanical name "rubisidaeus" means "red belonging to Ida" Figuring out the price was a challenge.

Hers sells for $425 a pound, but "I could have gone the SUZANNE MARTINSON New York yuppie route at $9.95 a pound. On this day in Pittsburgh, bedecked in Southwest jewelry, Bienen, 50, dresses simply but carries herself with the flair of a fashion model She and her children, Katie, 15vand Michael, 12, are visiting from their home in Falls Church, Conn. Over the years, her jobs have covered the spectrum, including eight years as a full-time disc jockey, handling the news, sports and weather from 5:30 to 10 am Each Sunday, she is host for a four-hour radio program that features bluegrass and Americana music on WQQQ-FM in Lakeville, Conn. "We do the show live," she says. "Some of the performers are bad, but so sweet Last Sunday, a man from Ecuador walked in and wanted to sing He loosened his tie and began to sing.

No guitar. Aren't people funny?" Two days a week, she commutes to New York City for her job at the Food Network She had approached the cable network yet to come to TCI subscribers, although it is available in communities with different cable services to do a musical show about cooking and playing acoustic music. "I thought music and food would be a nice combination," she said. "I thought we'd go into the musicians' kitchens, into their favorite restaurants with their favorite cooks. "Musicians have always told me that food is the anchor in their lives.

Because they're traveling and per-forming, sitting down to eat is their treat" It was the same with Betty growing up. "My mother was a really good cook My sister is a fabulous cook." The Food Network didn't buy the program, but they liked her. She anchored the network's "Getting Healthy" show, which was canceled, and this year she was host for a Thanksgiving special at her Connecticut home, where Michael Lomonaco, former chef at New York's 21, made turkey, pumpkin ravioli and polenta. Betty the TV food personality is as amazed as I am at the gadzillion cookbooks produced each year. Who buys them all? we wonder.

Do they make money? It's the same for CDs, she said. Although she fits in some listening time on her two-hour commute to New York, she receives about 40 CDs a week and hearing them all is impossible. As for her now almost-famous granola, she has hired a small baker in Deerfield, to make it under her supervision with her recipes. "I'm up there with a hair net on," she said. granola.

Granola? 'Td go to the Food Network, and there was never anything to eat," the former Pittsburgher says. In a cable TV environment fueled by coffee, not food, she started bringing in the homemade granola she and her kids have made for years. It wasn't unusual to go through 10 pounds of granola over the two days a week she works as anchor for the network, which is based in New York City. "Hey, got any more of that granola?" someone would ask. "Hey, you oughta sell that stuff," others said.

A year ago she began to do just that Recently, Betty B's Granola was accepted by the Williams-Sonoma company. So far it's in the Westport, and Beverly Hills stores and may appear in the summer catalog. She also ships granola in bulk to restaurants like the Four Seasons in New York. Here in Pittsburgh, Amy and Louis Weiss, her niece and her husband, sell it at their Shadyside shop called Weisshouse. Betty her radio handle and nickname grew up in Squirrel Hill, the daughter of the late Kathleen and Nat Riesberg.

She was in town recently visiting her sister, Sandy Sterner, and her aunt Dorothy Nadler, both of Shadyside. "I love being back in Pittsburgh," she said. She got her start modeling for Kaufmann's and after graduating from AUderdice High School, she attended the University of Pittsburgh and later New York University. "I wanted to be an actress; I became a model," she said. "The money was amazing In those years, I was earning $75 an hour, working eight hours a day." Hey, Ive seen $l5-a-pound granola.

That's crazy." Her next food project is "Celebration," a Cracker Jack-like product that will be "very rich, fattening and delicious," she promised. Betty B's (the is a little music note) label says it all: "This is not the lowest-fat granola, nor is it the highest-fat granola." Quickly, she added, "It's just the best" So far, the granola business is good, but this may not be the end of Betty B's career exploratioa Tm working on going to Nashville and having an Americana TV cooking show," she says. "Or, it'd be fun to move back to Pittsburgh," If you want to order Betty Bi-enen's granola, call (800) BETTY Bs. jinn llt WlliHIlT IIBWIMMill Willi TonyTyePost-Gazette Betty Bienen with some of her granola..