Where?

I'm sorry for my absence. My life has gotten quite hectic as most normal adults' lives tend to be. I'm certainly not any different for sure. But I've been so uninspired by food in Boston as of late that I don't really feel much like talking about it. Even my old stand-bys have let me down considerably. Why, why, why?

Boston is a city with a considerably smart population of people that tend to eat out quite a bit. I think I eat out for perhaps, on average, 4 of my dinners a week. Sometimes out of sheer laziness but mostly because I'm trying to connect with various friends and breaking bread is a very good way to bridge the gap in terms of spending time with folks.

The best way to sum up my past month with food might be a quick list. A quick and very disappointing list.

1.) Oleana - The meal that mattered the most to me this past month. My parents were in town and meeting my betrothed for the first time. My mom wanted to go here because she enjoyed the carrot soup and thought the food to be fresh and nicely prepared. I made the reservation and was so excited to share E with my folks.

A few slips in terms of service. 1.) table wasn't ready, really no big deal, but didn't even offer us water or a seat at the bar while waiting. 2.) the server was a real pompous bitch. Understand it takes a lot for me to say that about any server. But when my Dad yelled out "waitress" (he comes from a different generation all together) I had to smile. Typically, I'd be mortified and correct my Dad. But this girl was so rude and so condescending that I didn't care. Typically, service doesn't really get to me much but this time it really bugged me. It also goes into my next gripe.

The food kinda blew. That carrot soup my Mom had been looking forward to wasn't on the menu and instead of being sweet about it being missing, our "waitress" (hahaa) kinda glared at my Mom and seemed to lack any sort of sympathy. I ordered a haloumi and squash blossom appetizer. The apps took forever to arrived and we had to beg for bread. When mine arrived it was aflame in ouzo (I think). It finally burned off or so I thought and I proceeded to dig in. Only to find myself choking on a mix of cheese and alcohol. The alcohol had not all burned off and it seemed that maybe the cheese had absorbed the alcohol. It was soaked in the stuff to the point where I couldn't eat it. Sigh.

I think we all liked dessert which took forever. It was the slowest meal ever plus one of the rudest I've had. It was such an awful experience that I'm now crossing Oleana off my list of loves and standards. The meal that mattered the most to me was a big huge f-cked up mess. It was stressful because of the server and the food. And instead of focusing on making this big meeting go as smooth as possible, I found myself focused on the slowness of the dishes to appear, the bitchiness of our server, the lack of attention to the amount of flaming alcohol on my cheese.
Sigh.

2.) Lockobers. My family went here for my Dad's 70th birthday. They told us that they could accommodate two four year old boys with a plate of spaghetti or a grilled cheese. They didn't and wouldn't. And for the amount of money my Mom blew on that place (four digits), it was the least they could do. Food was heavy and rich. Again, I was disgusted at what was a complete lack of customer service when it came time to make good on a promise to be flexible about a meal for my two young nephews. Not cool.

3.) Beacon Hill Bistro. Meal was eh. We sat at the bar and the bartender was a nice guy (no Lee for sure!) but not fantastic because he didn't seem to show much of his own personality. But he was capable and that seemed to be good enough. The skate I was ordered was a skate wing plopped on a piece of squash with some spinach and hazelnuts. It was the most disjointed meal I'v eaten in a long time. It lacked seasoning and connection. It was just weird. I think E's pasta was ok. She didn't really have much to say so that's not a great sign. We did order dessert b/c I was intrigued by the walnut tart (very good) and the peach pie (so late in the season but not very good).

4.) Eastern Standard. My absolute go to place! My last meal with my star employee and we both got the mac and cheese. It's usually gooey and cheesey with a crispy buttery bread crumb topping. It's everything a mac and cheese should be. It's rich and you kinda feel ill after eating it, but it so amazingly good, you kinda always have to order it! Well, they changed the recipe!!!!!! It now includes ham. You know, I love pork but I'm a mac& cheese purist and ham is not suppose to be in my mac and cheese! Plus it's not nearly as creamy and gooey. It was kinda on the dry side. It was disappointing and I wonder if they will ever change back to the way it was before. Sigh.

I was raised to believe that if you have nothing nice to say, well don't say it at all. It's painful to have to talk about how sucky I feel the Boston food scene has been of late. Perhaps it's the places I've been choosing. I dunno. However, I will keep the faith and hope that October marks a better month of food for me!

XOXO

My Past Week

I've been busy with the store and life and stuff and so I haven't had a chance to really update lately. I have still been eating and while I've had some fairly disappointing (#9 Park) meals and some not really worth mentioning because they were so average and blah (Casa Romero), I've also had some great meals worthy of discussion.

Okay so I had a bunch of asparagus left in my fridge and I pondered what to do with it. I thought about making cream of asparagus soup, but I wanted something that would take better advantage of the fresh green flavor of the asparagus. I had two egg yolks in my fridge leftover from some other recipe and so I decided I'd steam the asparagus a bit and make a basil aioli. I grated a clove of garlic and whisked olive oil into the eggs until they were the consistency I wanted. I added the garlic, some dried basil (didn't have fresh), salt and pepper.

This picture does my aioli no justice! It looks like raw eggs waiting to get scrambled. But the mixture was very glossy and had a thick and lovely consistency. The aioli was a bright, almost florescent yellow (oh, forget to mention I added a couple threads of saffron too). It was lovely to look at. And dipping my steamed asparagus spears thru the sauce was such a treat. Yum!

Besides cooking and eating out, I also love (and kinda live for) eating at friend's houses. My friend Jenn invited me over for homemade Korean food and Wii last Friday. It was a lovely offer all around and one I would have to be dumb to refuse. Behold the table ladened with yummy stuff!



We had bibimbap, kalbe beef and really nice homemade condiments, all courtesy of Jenn. The food was comforting and filling.



I love bibimbap! It's something I really should learn to make on my own. I can't imagine it's hard to make. It all comes down to the chili pepper paste for me. I love that stuff and maybe it's b/c I'm Korean but I always end up adding more than my fair share of the stuff. I love it so!

Dessert came courtesy of our friend Harin. It was a concoction of his own. It was like a fruit tart pizza.
Topping a pastry crust we have chocolate spread, kiwi fruit and whipped cream. Simple and yet very very tasty! Plus a cool dessert wine that Harin brough as well:
After dinner we played Wii and I learned I lack any sort of coordination to do well at DDR. Oh well, friends, dinner and Wii is always the best combination ever!

Monday was my birthday. I went to dinner with my friend Walter. I actually wrote a review about this meal and posted it on yelp. You can also find my review of #9 there as well. I don't really feel like talking any more about the #9 experience. But the Oleana experience was really wonderful and I will repost my review here for posterity's sake. And I apologize for the really crappy pictures. It was dim in the dining room and I only had my trusty camera phone.

One of my dear friends shares my birthday so we get together every year to celebrate our births. This year we chose Oleana. I had already been with my parents last year and while we all enjoyed the meal, it wasn't quite magical. But last night was fantastic. I ordered the two specials for the evening. A different take on greek salad and a stew with meatballs.


The spicing and flavors had me going "oh wow, oh wow" all evening. The food was divine. If I could have licked my plates clean, I might have done so. My friend and I love dessert and ordered three for the two of us to share.

A lovely baked Alaska,

bread pudding,

and a cold meyers lemon souffle.

The bread pudding was my friend's favorite and I loved the textures and flavors in the baked Alaska. Yes, the service was really nothing special and sure the busyboy did knock a full glass of water over so I ended up with a wet white shirt and wet jeans (ick) but no biggie. Stuff happens and at least it wasn't wine. They were sweet about it and gave us one of the many desserts we ordered on the house to make up for it. This is meal was probably one of the best I've had in Boston so far and I can't wait to get back in the summer and see what's new on the menu.

Overall, a great food week for me! And this Sunday is my bacon party, stay tuned!!!