A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

Playska is the newest restaurant by Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann (TW Food and Bronwyn). Chef Tim’s sandwich shop is his nod to the Balkans.

The shop is small with only a few tables to dine in at, but it’s comfortable and relaxed.

As we are browsing the menu, trying to figure out what to order, we can’t help but drool over the display case.

Kolaches can be sweet or savory – I picked up some sweet ones to go in flavors like almond and apple. Savory options include herbed feta and paprika, tomato feta basil and bacon sauerkraut.

We HAD to get a sample of the pickled vegetables – the honey jalapeno carrots, the garlic pickled pear, the cauliflower and golden raisin, the beets and the daikon root.

The garlic pickled pear ($2.75) was by far my favorite, such an interesting flavor.

The beets were crunchy, which I really liked (admit it, no one likes soggy beets).

The honey jalapeño carrots ($2.95) had a nice little kick to them.

I love, love, love cauliflower and I also love golden raisins. Sounds like an odd pairing but it was a little sweet and a little tangy…really good all the way around.

The Korean daikon root ($2.50) was simple and straightforward.

The challah bread that the sandwiches are made on is simply delicious, and light as air. The first sandwich we tried was the pickled pork shank ($12.50) with chopped bbq style pork served with an apple pickle cabbage “slaw”, kardizi pepper and bbq sauce. It hits all the taste buds on your tongue, a little sweet, a little savory, a little tartness…yum!

Next we tried a vegetarian sandwich, the Urnebes cheese ($12.50) that comes with a spicy feta and paprika spread, tomato, cucumber pickle, lettuce and toasted walnuts. Sounds at first like an odd combination but it totally worked, and that spread was out of this world.

We finished our meal off with a “snow white salad” ($6.99) that came with Balkan cucumber, walnuts, garlic and yogurt. This salad was a really nice change of pace for me. Not something I would have ordered on my own necessarily, but I ate plenty of it since it was at the table :).

You can’t leave the table without something sweet so we had the sheet cake which was so light and so delicious. Take a look at the generous amount of frosting too!

Playska

243 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA

http://playska.com/

Tags: cambridge, casual dining, inman square, restaurant, takeout