A few notes on recent food experiences!

After a hard day of school, I knew I needed something to cheer me up on Friday afternoon. A dose of bubble tea, green tea with milk and pearl-sized, tapioca-like “boba” at the bottom, was called for.

The Red Lime Tea House, located in Amherst across from Town Hall at 50 Main St., opened last year and has been serving the drink which originated in Taiwan. After my recent visit, I decided they’ve really improved things.

I’ve always had my tea on the rocks, but today they offered it hot and it was amazing. The boba, which are slightly gelatinous and are sucked up with a fat straw, did not dissolve as I feared. They still had their gooey tenderness I love.

Red Lime has made some changes since it first started. They stopped table service and instead rely on counter service, a wise decision that speeds up service. The kitchen has been improved and the tea comes out much faster. There is also beautiful photography on display on the walls, taken by one of the owners.

The business is run by a group of young business entrepreneurs. Check it out!
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For the second year in a row, the Greenfield-based Real Pickles has been named finalists in the San Francisco-based 2012 Good Food Awards.

Last year, Real Pickles was a finalist and won the Good Food Award for its garlic dill pickles in a ceremony hosted by nationally-known restaurateur and cookbook author Alice Waters.

This year, Real Pickles got two of the four spots in the pickle category for the east region for their organic garlic dill pickles and their organic red cabbage. (Other categories include beer, coffee, cheese and chocolate.) The company will learn in January whether or not they have won a second time.

Other regional finalists include Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, George Howell Coffee Company in Acton and Vermont Smoke and Cure in Barre, Vermont.

The best part about the sandwiches at the Black Sheep at 79 Main St. (just down the street from Town Hall in Amherst) is the crusty breads they offer. To me, nothing makes a sandwich worse than soggy bread.

(Disclosure: The Black Sheep catered my wedding in 1996 and it was fabulous. I still remember the salmon and how reasonable the prices were. www.blacksheepdeli.com. The catering business is still in operation.)

I always order the half sandwiches at the Black Sheep. They are large enough to be a meal for me and they are just over half the price. They have a lot of specialty sandwiches, but my favorite is still the smoked turkey with the garlic/herb mayonnaise, cheese and roasted red peppers on some kind of crusty roll.

I also credit the Black Sheep with having the best hot chocolate in Amherst. They use the real cocoa powder and whole milk and that first sip when you get out into the cold is a peak experience.

Before heading to a recent High School of Commerce football game in Springfield, my son and I randomly stopped into Cal’s Wood-Fired Grill and Wine Bar at 1068 Riverdale St., West Springfield.

Geography was everything for us in our choice. It’s on Route 5 south just after you get off Interstate 91 south at the exit for the massive Riverdale Shops where Home Depot is located.

(www.calswoodfiredgrill.com, 1068 Riverdale St., West Springfield.) Plenty of parking and easy to get back on the highway.

Despite a drab exterior, the place is beautiful inside and the menu is varied, including fish, chops etc. I admit I was feeling cheap that night so we went with the pizza ($9.95-$11.95). I soon realized I could actually see into the wood-fired stove where our pizza was being prepared.

And for a Hampden County pizza place, the pizza was unexpectedly tasted with a rustic, not-perfectly round thin crust and tasty toppings. Cal’s is a good choice if you are going to that area and want to avoid the massive number of high-end chain restaurants that surround the shopping areas.
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Ginger Garden, the long-awaited restaurant in the location of the former China Dynasty restaurant on Route 9 near the Amherst/Hadley line, has finally re-opened.

The parking lot looked pretty business on a recent Friday night and I hope to check it out soon and have a full report. I expect the concept will be much different than China Dynasty which was a favorite place to bring the kids because they could get the buffet for cheap. The price for kids was 50 cents time how old they were (i.e. $5 for a 10-year-old.)