The Accidental Discovery

All signs pointed in one direction, we just couldn't see it yet.

It was Saturday night. The time was approximately 11:30 PM when I stood perplexed with Matt and John, trying to think of a place to get some decent food. Laughing and joking as we reminisced about college for most of the night, we all realized we had completely skipped dinner. We asked a bartender at the Barking Crab for suggestions, but his response was that it would be tough to find a kitchen that stays open after 11. (Seriously Boston, what do you have to say for yourself?) A cartoon light bulb went off in my head as I excitedly told Matt and John about the Friendly Toast in Kendall Square. This eclectic, hipster joint serves breakfast all day long until 1 am (along with sandwiches, salads and burritos!).

As fate would have it, there was a sign on the door revealing that the Friendly Toast was closed due to a water outage. Gutted, we wandered over to the Cambridge Brewing Company to see if any locals could give us some direction. The bartender, in an extremely decisive fashion, advised us to go to Hungry Mother down the street.

Timidly we walked into what appeared to be someone's living room. The adorable restaurant was filled with 20- and 30-somethings drinking beer and eating late night snacks. After we put in our beer order, we perused the extremely short menu (literally consisting of 5 items). We asked the waiter for his opinion, and he told us to order the Carolina BBQ pulled pork sandwich.

To the right is a creepy picture of Matt and John with their sandwiches - mostly creepy because of the dark hue cast over the photo (thanks to my vintage iPhone that doesn't have a flash). Also a little creepy because Matt looks like he might lean over and take a bite out of the camera. As you can see, we were all really happy when the sandwiches appeared in front of us. And why wouldn't we be? Flawlessly BBQed, tender pieces of pulled pork were topped with crunchy cole slaw and slathered between two slices of homemade white sandwich bread. Sweet and salty flavors tangled together to satisfy a countless number of taste buds, while a heaping pile of fried onion strings complemented the sandwich perfectly. At 12:30 AM, this sandwich was exactly what we had all been craving.

We could have skipped dessert which was really talked up by our waiter. Sugar hungry, we ended up ordering some kind of honeycomb panna cotta. The panna cotta had a strange carbonated taste to it, and the over-salted honeycomb stuck in the crevices of our teeth. Regardless of dessert, Hungry Mother was a great, accidental find! The restaurant has a full dinner menu during regular hours too. Based on their late night pulled pork sandwich, I can't wait to see what else Hungry Mother has to offer.