I recently visited The Waban Market in the Waban neighborhood of Newton and Waverly Market in Framingham and figured I’d report here.
The Waban Market is a small grocery store that is owned by a Russian family and offers some imported items and a fairly broad selection of prepared foods. My original reason for stopping at the market was to pick up frozen sour cherries for a Thanksgiving pie, but I was drawn to the wide array of food at the deli counter. I picked up a few vegetarian items for dinner to share with my son and we both found everything to be fresh, flavorful and well-prepared. We really enjoyed the knishes, though I must add a disclaimer that we are definitely not experts in the school of authentic knishes. These seemed more buttery and almost croissant-like than others that I’ve had, and probably quite different from the ones at Barry’s Village Deli next door to the market. They were very fresh and reheated well. We sampled potato, cheese and cabbage. We also had cabbage pie and spinach and cheese rolls. They offered beef stroganoff and other meat dishes as well. Prices were quite reasonable and service was helpful and friendly. The cashier even threw in a good-sized Russian chocolate/orange bar that was quite tasty. I’ll definitely hit this place up again when I want a quick dinner.
Last week I made a trip to Waverly Market in Framingham. This place is a small family-run Italian market that has many house-made items in the freezer case and a small deli with meats, including several cooked porchettas and a few prepared foods. I think the main draw here is the freezer case. I picked up some excellent frozen egg linguini, grated frozen Parmigiano (which held up quite well to freezing and was really flavorful), some potato gnocchi, a quart of bolognese, and a cryovaced porchetta. They also had meatballs, house sausages and a few other items. The foods are well-sealed and easy to pop in the freezer to pull out for a quick dinner. We had the bolognese and linguini that night, which made for a tasty and quick dinner (once I simmered the sauce to reduce the amount of liquid). The pasta was flavorful and had a very nice texture. I still haven’t cooked the porchetta but am looking forward to it.
