Grotto

With my new "diet" restrictions (somewhat Paleo with frequent dairy stops), dining out hasn't held the same appeal for me it once had. Menus are a little tricky to navigate, and my weakness for empty carbs in the form of bread and pasta have been well documented. So if I'm gonna blow a night on food, it better be damn good. That said, Grotto did not disappoint on the food end of the bargain. But that's really only half the story. Perhaps it's best to start at the beginning.

E saw that Grotto had a lobster pasta special but upon closer inspection of the menu on-line, we realized it was part of the regular menu line up. The menu looked fantastic though with plenty of offerings for both of us. So E made a reservation a week in advance and we both put some effort into our attire that day. For me, it meant actually combing my hair and for E it meant looking like her usual cute self.

We arrived to the small basement space and had a very awkward first encounter. Neither of us was certain if she was a hostess, manager, server. But the first person who greeted us wasn't anything other than harried. She waved her hand to two tables off to the side of the door and in the middle of the dining room and told us to take either of these two places. And she went off, not to be seen again. Um, ok. E was not pleased. She had called and made this reservation a week prior and wasn't happy 1.) that the tables were in a really akward place in the dining room 2.) we were kinda waved off. We stood there for a bit, pondering if a change of tables would be possible. We were told by a waitress (we think she was a server) that those open tables in more optimal locations were already reserved for larger parties. So we sat. And a choice had to be made. Either I could move the table back so E wouldn't get constantly bumped by the people at the table behind her or we could leave it were it was and I wouldn't get bumped constantly by the people who worked in the restaurant trying to serve the table behind me. We made the choice to move the table towards me which resulted in me being bumped on the back of my seat thru-out my meal. It wasn't really a big deal for me (which is why I made the choice to kinda take one for the "team") but I did reflect with E on the fact that I'm not a big person. I'm 5'2 (ish) and weigh 120-125 (ish) so if I was any bigger, this table and seating arrangement would have not really worked well.

Regardless, I was ready for a nice meal and looking forward to having some tasty empty carbs! One of the things about the menu was that it was kinda heavy for the summer. Fondue, cheese garlic soup all of these things were listed as appetizers. And a lot of rich sounding pastas and heavy meats for mains. For our appetizer I ordered the garlic, parm and truffle soup and E ordered the only summer sounding item on the menu, the mozzarella, tomato and arugula salad. Only thing was that it ended up not being all that summery afterall. The server let us know before the dish came so we were aware but I was really surprised at how the dish was described compared to what truly arrived. It was basically a grilled cheese sandwich with some nice sundried tomatoes and dressed greens. It was a nice dish but again fairly heavy. The soup was lovely. Rich and creamy. I wish that it had a bit more truffle going on but eh, it was still pretty darn good. E also ordered a fairly reasonable wine. She said it was usually over $100 but at Grotto it was only around $60. Seemed like a good deal to me but I don't really drink so I had a few sips but as to how good it was, well, that's really lost on me.

For our mains we ordered the braised short ribs with gorgonzola and gnocchi (me) and spaghetti bolognese (E). Again, heavy dishes but really nicely executed. The pastas were both clearly homemade. The gnocchi was feather light and the pasta for the bolognese was cooked perfectly al dente. I loved both dishes. But by then E and I were stuffed from our appetizers. So we only had a few bites before dessert.

And of course we got dessert! Well, I should say I had dessert. I ordered the banana bread pudding and E ordered the molten chocolate cake for me to eat, of course. The desserts were very good. Not especially note worthy but good and a nice ending to a really lovely meal.

We still had an entire bottle of wine at the end of the meal and were relaxing and talking a bit after our dishes were cleared but I clearly got the sense that the staff was a little stressed and were really wanting us to go already. I can understand that in such a small place it's hard to maneuver around the tables or turn tables when there aren't that many but making us feel rushed after I was bumped into constantly wasn't cool. Even if someone had just said to us, here is your check, please take your time and poured us more wine, I would have thought, "well how very gracious". It wasn't the case.

So overall, I enjoyed the food quite a bit and found it to be an excellent value but the space lacked "romance" for me and the service seemed a little all over the place. I would absolutely go back to Grotto but next time, I think we'll specify that we want a corner table.

Tidbits

March is one of my favorite months. To me, it's always been the beginning of spring. Here in Boston, it still feels like winter (except for the past few days but it was a bit of a fluke, a lovely fluke but a fluke nonetheless) but I don't care. March = Spring in my book.

Also, March is my birthday month. Let me be clear about exactly what day my birthday falls on, Saint Patrick's Day!

When my family adopted me, my mother and her side of the family were all filled with glee. Why? Well they're hardcore Irish Americans and any child born on Saint Patrick's Day was meant to be theirs.

I grew up with the luck of the Irish always on my side! Or least always with birthday cakes with green frosting and every Saint Patrick's Day birthday card ever produced given to me at least twice.

This March I was extra lucky and gifted with a new Nespresso maker from my very thoughtful parents. This is the model they got me:



Granted it's not the fanciest of all the models but since it's mainly me using it, I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. Oh man, I love this machine so damn much. The espresso is fantastic. We're talking crema on top and amazing flavor. And the milk frother is straight out of the Jetson's. It froths and warms my soy milk in what feels like seconds. And the container never gets hot. If you like espresso based drinks, I recommend giving Nespresso machines a shot. There is a Nespresso store here in Boston and it's really a relaxing and being zen lil spot. I went there to get new coffee capsules and was treated to an espresso while I shopped. It was lovely. The entire experience of owning this machine and visiting the store has been awesome thus far. I'm fairly certain that my new espresso machine and I will have a long and happy relationship!

This year for my birthday dinner with my friend Walter (who also has a birthday on the same day as me), we opted to go to Lineage. It's a place I've been to before and never been disappointed with the service or the quality of the food. It was a nice meal with two of my favorite people, E came along this year. Since this year our birthdays fell during restaurant week, we opted to order off the RW menu. We had a steak with a salsa verde that had me absolutely come close to licking the plate clean. I also enjoyed the parsnip soap that I ordered as my starter. But it was almost too rich and buttery for me. Luckily Walter and E were there to help me finish it off. The 4 desserts we tried were good but fairly unmemorable. Overall a lovely birthday dinner!

And lastly, E and my friend Ed had arranged to have a pizza party at Picco for me. As is well documented here in this blog, I love pizza and I love Picco. Plus they got me a birthday cake from Eldo cake house in Chinatown. I really do have great friends. Thanks you guys!



A great time was had by all!!!

Bye Texas!

I already miss you. Thanks for the food memories!

Dallas Parent's Style

My parents made the move to Dallas when I graduated from college. So even though I sometimes go to Dallas to see them, it's far from my "hometown". Infact, I'm so unfamiliar with the city that sometimes I'm shy to tell people where my folks live, because they always say "which part of Dallas?" and honestly, I haven't the foggiest idea. I do know that GWB and Laura Bush are neighbors (ick) and that my Mom and Dad are very happy in Dallas. And honestly the latter is all that matters to me. They've really embraced this town and culture. Infact, as I'm sitting here typing this the family is sitting around watching a Johnny Cash Live in Concert DVD. No lie.

I enjoy visiting my parents very much. It's something that I don't get to do very often. It's a visit that always includes good food and a long soak in my mom's amazing jacuzzi tube.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my Mom was a very good home-taught cook. Even with my entire family coming in for a visit, she made some awesomely tasty meals with a white chicken chili the first night including a cold bok choy salad (I need the salad recipe!), holiday cookies and chicken on the grill the second night. The third night my parents' hosted a small cocktail party complete with my Mom's sweet and sour meatballs (yum) and shrimp cocktail, which is my fave. It was a good time with a hired guitarist singing some tunes for the guests' enjoyment. It was a lot of fun.

Our last night in the big D, my parents wanted to take us to Fort Worth so my nephews, both 5, could see the Longhorn sauntered down the street and then take us all to the restaurant Reata.

The restaurant is a favorite of their's for the food and decor. Inside it pays homage to the movie Giant. A fantastic movie that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys epic old movies. It has Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean in it...Seriously, that should be enough said.

My parents reserved a large glass room for the fam to sit in. The room happened to be in the center of the ground floor dining room (my Dad later told me that there were actually 5 floors to this restaurant) so we were able to look out at the decor which included movie pictures, a wax statue of James Dean, plenty of horse saddles and various other cowboy and other Giant memorabilia.

I ordered the chicken fried steak with black pepper white gravy. One of my favorite meals that I can't often get in Boston for sure. I also got a field salad as a starter but it wasn't really worth mentioning. However, the chicken fried steak came and it was immensely. It came served with mashed potatoes and crisp garlic green beans. It was delicious! I felt a little guilty about going to a "fancy" restaurant and getting something that isn't fancy at all. But it was really quite good. The crust was good and crisp and the gravy was flavorful and rich. The greens were fantastic and not to be a disregarded side. The potatoes I also liked however they were not as amazing as the rest of the meal. Plus they had been flavored with blue cheese as was the mac and cheese (a side that was ordered for the entire table to share). And even though I'm a huge fan of blue, I know that it's strong flavor doesn't agree with E at all. So it seemed odd that the menu gave no mention of blue cheese in either the mac and cheese or the potatoes. Oh the mac and cheese! First of all it had blue cheese (yum!) and there were shards of bacon strewn in it as well (double yum!).

Overall, I was very pleased with my meal choice but sadly too stuffed to even consider dessert but if I had been interested in dessert, I would have asked for the Texas pecan pie. I had a feeling that it would be have been amazing and possibly had chocolate involved somehow.

A very nice end to our week long stay in Texas. Sadly, we head home back to Boston tomorrow and while it will be nice to get back to our home, etc. I will miss seeing my family and being able to spend time with them. Oh yeah and the close to 70* weather isn't bad either ;)

Austin!

I took a week off from the chill of Boston and headed west to see my folks in Dallas. E and I decided to take a couple of days and visit Austin. I'm in Austin right now. I'm loving this lil town. And culinary wise, it's been really good to us.

We arrived at the Austin Motel last night. A place I highly recommend for people looking for a bare bones, reasonably priced lodge. It's in a really great location with plenty of fun shops and good eats all around (more on that in a bit). The service is friendly and warm and since they were the first people in Austin to truly greet us, my initial impression was a good one.

We were excited to finally arrive and wanted to experience some good BBQ. In Boston, we have a couple of decent BBQ joints but nothing that is really crave worth in my book.

So after doing some Chowhound research (Yelp reviews are completely not useful. The level of snark and meanness just makes me think all places sux inclu. my own lil amazing shop, but I digress..) we found two places that sound promising: Mann's and Rudy's. So off we went. Unfortunately we arrived at Mann's only to find that they had closed. They close at 8pm. Eeek too early for us. Oh well so off we set to Rudy's.

Rudy's is a little overwhelming at first glance. It's set up almost cafeteria style but with three stations where you order your meat choices. When it was our turn: we already decided on ribs and brisket, we were helped by a young man by the name of Brad.

Let me just say service means everything to me and Brad was great. He was really into making sure we made the right meat choices. And started us out by giving us samples of everything including the sides. He patiently told us what each thing was and asked what we thought. He was a knowledgeable and really personable guide. We decided on the moist brisket, St Louis Ribs (based on Brad's rec), creamed corn, coleslaw and pinto beans. Unfortunately the St Louis ribs were sold out and so we went with the baby back ribs. After filling out our massive order of food, Brad topped it off with what had to be half a loaf of white bread.



We got all this food plus a soda for myself and beer for E for less than $30! Quite the bargain. And how did it taste? AWESOME! Ok so the babyback ribs were not a fave for either of us but they were absolutely smoked properly with a wide pink smoke ring and a good amount of char on the outside. But the most amazing part of the meal was the moist brisket. The white bread came in handy as I made myself a lil sandwich with the brisket, a little BBQ sauce, coleslaw and pickles. Oh man, I really had died and gone to meat heaven. The brisket was so delicious. It was melt in the mouth tender but with burnt bits that provided a bit of good texture change.

I decided that I wanted to marry the moist brisket.... Yeah, I liked it that much.



A great evening overall.

Today we woke up and went to check out but before we did so, we thought to ask the motel staff for a breakfast place recommendation. They said the placed next door had great food that included grits. Say no more! E wanted grits. Sadly, I don't remember the name of the place but it's right next to the Austin Motel and is very cute with a modern 50's motif.

The service was friendly and helpful especially since plain grits were not something on the menu. They typically put goat cheese and herbs into the grits and well E wasn't down for that. The server said that she didn't see them having a problem making them plain for her and so we ordered. Simple eggs, bacon, toast and grits for E and shrimp and grits plus a side of bacon for me. We also shared a fruit bowl (pineapple, grapes, cantaloupe) that was nice too.

Behold!




Everything was super delicious and there was a ton of it too. That seems to be a overarching theme to food in Austin and dare I say Texas? Food servings are very large...Not something I'm complaining about!

E and I spent a really nice day wandering around and getting a feel for the city. For snacks we got cupcakes at "Hey Cupcake". This place is nothing more than an air stream trailer. Actually, we saw that there were plenty of food trucks and rv's. It was kinda rad to see so many food carts. In Boston we hardly have any. The cupcakes were $2.50 (Boston people who complain about the price of cupcakes take note, it is a fairly standard price). E opted for a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting and I got a red velvet one. Both were really fantastic. Moist with plenty of tasty frosting. Another plus for me? The chocolate one didn't have a butterceam frosting but a really nice sugar and milk frosting. I tend to not enjoy buttercream so I was really into this. Also the red velvet one had an exceptionally well done cream cheese frosting. Later, we also split a slice of pizza from a place called Home Slice. It came recommended to us by a local who told us that they annually take a trip to NYC to study the pizza scene. Neat. We got a slice of the Marguerite to try. It was very good. The crust was nicely executed. Crisp and chewy where it needed to be. Good air bubbles in the crust but not enough char because the crust was a bit blonde and could have been cooked a bit longer. The toppings were good and we were pretty happy with the rec.

We were suppose to head back to Dallas tonight but we opted to try and stay for one more night. Asking the good folks at the Austin Motel to hook us up with a room. We made a bit more and got upgraded to the "Mediterranean" suite. It's a bigger room with one side of the room wallpapered in a cliched Mediterranean scene. It's a little campy and fun.

For dinner tonight we decided to do Tex Mex and again used Chowhound as a resource. E said that Jorge's looked good. She was able to make a reservation on Open Table so this time, we knew it was open ;)

When we arrived, E told the hostess that we had a reservation on Open Table and she kinda shrugged saying that sometimes it didn't work for them. Seemed odd but she looked anyway and sure enough there was our reservation. The hostess lead us to a table but quickly accessed that we'd be sitting next to a huge table of crazy acting children and their passive parents. So she led us away to a corner table that was perfect. We were given menus and looked over while we munched on very good chips and salsa.

We did sit for quite a bit of time and noticed that not only did we not have any silverware but we also didn't seem to have a server. Drink orders were not taken, nothing for literally 10 minutes. E finally got up and spoke to the manager who very quickly took care of the problem. But honestly we were upset about it at all. We just wanted to order.

E got a sampler entree and I got the chicken enchiladas. Again the portions were huge. And again the food was massively tasty. I didn't really love the taco that was part of E's dinner because the shell had been fried and the grease from the beef filling had made the taco a bit soggy. I tend to enjoy steamed corn tortillas for my tacos so it's more of a personal preference than anything else. But I really enjoyed my chicken enchiladas. I got them in a red sauce that was very flavorful as were the refried beans and rice that came with our dishes. We were both very satisfied. As witnessed here

We got our check and saw that they had given us a 50% off discount for the wait we had. It was a very pleasant surprise and one that we weren't expecting.

Overall, Austin has really embraced us and we're kinda enthralled. Infact so much so that we've been contemplating if a move might be possible for us. Let's just see what happens.

Marliave Restaurant Week

Imagine yourself coming home after work on a Friday night. You plop down on the couch next to your partner in crime. "What do you want to do for dinner?" "I dunno, what do you want to do?" Imagine that this conversation gets played out over and over again over a period of 30 minutes. Sad. I know. But sometimes when you've live in a place long enough, you get so bored with everything and this includes meal options.

Luckily I remembered that a friend on Twitter had recently tweeted about her RW meal at Marliave and I've heard good things about it from my partner in crime as well. Typically, I avoid restaurants during RW because I've never had a stellar experience. The quality of the meal is average to sucky and the quality of the service really blows too. Infact, the service is why I avoid RW all together. When I go out to eat, I'd rather not be viewed with unveiled distain. I get it though. You get the odd assortment of people coming to your fine dining establishments acting like they're rock stars when infact all they are are a bunch of hacks. We sometimes get people like that in my shop as well and let me tell you, serving them is not pleasant. It's not about the cost of the meal but it's more about a certain mentality that seems to go with it at times too. So I can't imagine having to work RW for 2 weeks twice each year.

So after 30 minutes of our played out convo on the couch, I checked Open Table and saw that we could book a reservation for 9pm. Perfect. It gave us enough time to get ready and hope on the T. I decided it was time to bust out my new Manolos (see above!) and take them for a test drive. Luckily I didn't have to do much walking because walking in these shoes was not easy at all. It wasn't that they're painful but because they are so high, they pitch me forward a little too far. So walking because an interesting endeavor. I'll have to figure out how to exactly "fix" the situation with my shoes because I love them so much and refuse NOT to wear them. If I had to chose my true loves in life, I'd list: food, premium denim, insanely expensive lingerie, make-up, E and stupid expensive shoes (not in that order but close to).

Slowly, very very slowly (due to my heels) we made it to Marliave. Luckily we got there by 9pm. I have to say that I thought it was odd that I was able to get a last minute reservation on a Friday night so easily.

Hmm...sadly, E and I should have taken it as an indication of what we should expect. I was going to write up an entire review of our meal but E beat me to the punch and already did a fantastic write up here. I'll let you read her take on it because she use to work in the restaurant industry and her observations seem so keenly on point with Marliave.

Here's the thing. I wanted to like it so much. I'd heard so many wonderful things about it and their RW menu was beyond expressive in its number of offerings. But what I got to experience didn't feel like Marliave in its prime at all. Even the space felt a bit run down and not looked after too caringly. The food was decent but the attention to the experience overall wasn't good. Perhaps it can be best summed with my dessert that came to my table looking like a giant boob. I suddenly felt like E had gotten me a gag dessert from Sweet Nothings.

However it was fun to try Marliave. Although I won't be jumping at the suggestion, I'd definitely give it another shot at some point. Besides any excuse I get to show off my expensive shoe collection is always good by me!

How We Do Leftovers at 184 B-

Lately, Elizabeth and I have been trying to economize and eat out a bit less. We try to be careful with our limited funds, but even still we enjoy eating well. Since we both had Monday off, we decided it would be nice to try the $17.50 lunch at Sel de la Terre. I love Sel de la Terre. I had never been to the new Back Bay location but I was familiar with the waterfront locale. My friend, Beth, enjoyed the food there and so we'd sometimes go for dinner, splitting the fries and loving the in-house made bread. I had fond memories of the first Sel de la Terre but only ever went for dinner, never went for lunch and thought it'd be fun to try.

Elizabeth and I walked from our apartment, one of the perks of city living, and found the day to be beautiful but really chilly. The next day it was 93*! Oh Boston! What a strange spring you have. Anyway, we opted to sit at the bar. The bartender was nice and competent enough. Elizabeth was able to get her sazerac and I tried something from the bar menu called "London Calling" it's a gin based cocktail that was light and refreshing. We both decided on the $17.50 prix fixe lunch. It changes everyday but when we were there it was a starter of salmon croquettes and then duck meatballs with harricot verts and potato puree. We also opted for a side of french frieds. Yum!

The bread from Sel de la Terre is really good. My favorite bread in the bread basket was the olive bread. It had a chewy crust and the flavor of olive was very prominent.

The salmon croquettes came and were clearly made ahead of time, taken out of the fridge and seared on each side for a nice crust. They did arrive a bit on the cold side, which I was cool with, but E wasn't so certain she was down with it. The little side salad that came with the croquettes are lovely. It wasn't your usual mixed green salad and included flowers and pea shoot leaves. It was nicely dressed and I really appreciated that they treated the salad as important as the croquettes. I really enjoyed the first dish because they took me back to the days of my Grandma E's salmon croquettes (her's will always be tops in my book!!).

I was pretty much full after the first dish but we still had duck meatballs and french fries coming! The meatballs were very good and came with an accompany compote of some sort. It looked like a bit of caramelized onion and since E doesn't do onions, she handed hers over to me. I prompted ate it and realized it was onion but citrus of some sort. Elizabeth tasted some and realized it was blood orange, her favorite fruit! She was crushed that she didn't know. It was a lovely accompany to the rich meal. The pureed potatoes were really just a pool of butter with a bit of starch for show. The french fries were wonderful. Hot and not too skinny for me but still skinny enough for Elizabeth.

All in all, it was a HUGE lunch. Both of us were stuffed and only finished half of the meatballs on our plates. We decided to take it home and do something fun with the leftovers.

I was hankering for some Greek food as I often do and thought the meatballs would be really good in a sorta gyro sandwich. I mentioned my craving to Elizabeth and told her I was thinking soft flat bread with a yogurt and cucumber sauce. Pita bread wouldn't cut it. How about naan? But would the grocery store even have anything like naan?

So last night E and I took a trip to the Shaws across the street in search of ingredients. And guess what? They did have naan. Elizabeth spotted it in the fresh bread/bakery section and it was the last one too! I was really impressed that they had it at all and that it was the last package. We also got some Greek yogurt (again so happy but so shocked that they had it at Shaws).

Elizabeth put together the sandwiches which consisted of the leftover meatballs and beans. These she put on the naan and threw into the oven. On top she put shredded carrot, roast red pepper and oil cured olives. She chopped some mint and cucumber and mixed it into the yogurt and when the meatball topped naan had warmed thru, she put everything on top.

It was a delicious meal and a great way to use the leftovers. I was so happy that I mentioned my idea to Elizabeth because it truly was a very yummy dinner. It was so yummy that I was 1/3 of the way thru and then took the picture. Sorry! (burp)

So if you're stuck with leftovers, don't ever be sad! Just think about something you're craving and see where that takes you.

March Food

I'm become such a sloth when it comes to blogging lately! I won't even bother to say much about these photos except this kinda sums up the food I ate this past month.


I'm sad the picture of this pizza is so small. It's from Picco in the South End and it's one of my favorite places for pizza in the city. The crust is perfect...not too thick or thin and the perfect char on the bottom. I should have done an upskirt pic but I'm an amateur so you're left with this crappy photo. Trust me, the pizza is good stuff. The service is hit or miss. Sometimes I get nice people who are very attentive and other times I've had servers that I wanted to throw knives out. But go for the pizza and the home made ice cream!





For our anniversary, E made triple battered chicken for me. I love fried chicken and I tend to love a thick crust. She did a great job getting a thick crust. How she got all that crust to hang into that poor little drumstick is beyond me. It had good flavor and made sure the chicken was juicy but it was a little too thick, even for the likes of me! But A+++ for effort.

In keeping with my needs for Korean food, we went to a place in Chinatown that was eh. But sometimes when you crave something you just have to have it no matter what. But seriously, can someone come up with an amazing Korean place in Boston already?!?

RIP

A fire earlier this week destroyed the restaurant block of Peterborough St. In total seven businesses including six restaurants and one dry cleaning business were destroyed. If Fenway Park is the heart of my neighborhood, well this block was certainly the stomach. I have so many fond memories of meals with friends on this block in the smmertime. Plus, at least a few of my weekly meals came from either Rod Dee or El Pelon (both of which I've mentioned on this blog).

One of my employees worked at the Sorrentos located on this block and everytime she walks past it (she also lives in Fenway) it makes her want to cry. It's pretty sad to see the black charred remains of what was once a vibrant and thriving space. It was a block that everyone in the neighborhood knew and to say that it will be missed is an understatement. The owner of the property said that he will rebuild but I guess it's now a question as to what will go into the spaces. I hope El Pelon and Rod Dee come back!

El Pelon suffered from a fire about 13 months ago and that forced them to close and rebuild, but they were able to reopen in the summer. I'm not 100% certain how fire insurance works but to have a fire again 13 months later, well it might be a case of the insurance company not covering the entire cost to rebuild. But I don't know. In any event, a big black hole is now part of my 'hood. Sigh.

With a Last Name Like Mine, Well the Burger Better Be Good!

I'm sorry that I've been so light with my posts these days. Busy busy busy. And by the time I get around to thinking about writing something either a.) I've forgotten exactly what it was that I ate b.) I don't have any pictures or any motivation to really pull something together. Sadly, my lazy ass ways get in my way too much in my life. But anywhooo....

Well, what sort of things have I been eating lately? A lot of homemade meals for sure. With the economy as poor as it is, E and I spend our monies buying groceries that allow us to not only economize but eat well too. Since we're both food lovers, going out for meals can sometimes be costly endeavors. But cooking at home allows us to enjoy some lovely meals for a fraction of the price of dining out, plus we end up with really fantastic leftovers for lunch.

Most of the meals we've eaten have already been documented here...homemade pasta and bolognese, pork chops but this week E made a really nice chili in the crock pot.




While the chili sauce/broth didn't really thicken up as much as what I'm use to the favors were still very good. And what really brightened up the flavor was a pear and orange pepper salsa that E used to top the dish. With cheddar cheese and fresh corn bread crumbled into the bowl, this dish was delicious, comforting and filling! I could barely finish my one bowl of chili. Maybe E will share the salsa recipe with you, or maybe not. But it's a great idea. I like the kinda homey comfort food chili paired with the freshness of raw pears and peppers. Sounds odd but trust me, it was very good.

As well as we've been eating at home, we certainly have been missing our stepping out for meals. Or at least, I have on occasion! I enjoy the act of sharing a meal at a bar or a restaurant with friends. And so last night E and I met our friend J and A for dinner. We decided to meet at Eastern Standard because they had some business to conduct as well as wanted to stop in for a pre dinner cocktail. I arrived and was famished. Since I hadn't had anything to eat, I decided to hold off on a drink right away. E arrived shortly after and we went back and forth about where to go for a nice meal. While E and I had a lovely quick conversation with Garrett Harker (I really do adore that man) and A + J called over to Tommy, the head bartender of Craigie on Main, to see if they had room at the bar for four. A and J have been raving about the burger, and well, I'm always in search for a good one. It turned out Tommie had room for us and after a short cab ride over the river to Cambridge, we arrived at the new Craigie Street.

What use to be a medium sized mediocre Italian restaurant had been transformed into a lovely cozy bistro style dining room with an open kitchen complete with a "chefs table" of a counter top and bar stools at the entrance. I didn't get to see much of the dining room portion of Craigie because we beelined it over to the bar to the right of the entrance. A little, fairly dark lit space, it oozed the word "cozy". We had a bit of a wait but soon enough we got seats and were able to properly greet Tommy. A and J know Tommy well, but I only know him because of his work at Eastern Standard. He would often take care of me and E. And when he first started she called him Dennis the Menace (a term of affection). Tommy was a very good young bartender. A pro at his craft with an easy manner and a very charming smile...he's a really good guy.

We ordered four burgers off the bar menu (all of them medium rare expect for me. I tend to like my meat as rare as possible) and an order of pate to share as a starter.

The pate was lovely. It was served with small dollops of grainy mustard, minced gherkin pickle, minced shallot, salt and black peeper and a tiny salad of frisee and baby greens on the plate. We all got served good sized bread points (toasted and big!) so we could spread the pate on. I was a little cautious at first and just took a little bit in case I didn't like it. Too bad that wasn't the case! It was absolutely delicious. It was meaty, fatty and creamy. The texture was both smooth but not so smooth that you didn't think it was house made. If I could have toast always spread with this stuff, I'd probably never eat anything else ever. That pate was so good and it truly didn't need any of the other stuff on the plate. I guess the salad was there to break up the meaty fatty richness of the pate but I didn't eat any of it and didn't want it. I was fine with fat and meat pulverized and spread on my toast!

The burgers came soon after. And they were lovely to behold. The buns were so perky and the sea same seeds looked as though they had been lacquered so the bun appeared to be almost looked fake. The burger came with fried sweet potato threads and more of that frisee salad. Tommy said that the buns were made in house especially for the burgers.

Okay so first thoughts: I wasn't happy that traditional french fries weren't served with it. I also wasn't happy that we weren't offered ketchup or mustard. I also forgot to ask for bacon for my burger for which I'm sure I would have been stoned by the chef. Anyway, all that aside...

The burger was very seasoned with salt. I liked that but I could see how that might be off putting for some people. I mean, I like salt and have been known to add salt to potato chips at times so that should tell you something. The meat was very loosely packed almost to the point of falling about too easily for it to truly be a "burger". While I don't love a dense pack, I do like a burger that holds together well. The meat was almost fork tender in terms of texture. Apparently it was a mix of lamb, beef, marrow, fat. It had a very good meaty mouth feel and I liked the amount of fat they used. The taste was everything a burger should be but the texture of the patty threw me a bit. I was pretty happy with it and thought it was so delicious that I didn't need mustard or ketchup but like the pate we were served prior, at least the grainy mustard was on that plate so I'd like to offered those staples.

The fried sweet potato fries or threads were very good but not my favorite. They got very cold fast and I actually found them hard to eat. I gave most of mine to Elizabeth (who loved them!) who traded me the other half of her burger. The little salad was a nice touch and I enjoyed it as a way to break up the meatiness of eating one and a half burgers. At this point, I also order a regular coke so I could enjoy the sugary sweet carbonation against the backdrop of the burger. I get a little nostalgic when I eat burgers. It reminds me of Dad grilling burgers when I was young. And the drink of choice back then? Well, regular coke, of course!

Overall, I enjoyed the burger quite a bit. I felt that it was well made and actually worth the $19 price tag. Yes, I would go back for the burger and definitely rate it higher than the Radius burger hands down!

However, is it possibly the best burger I've ever eaten? No. Burgers serve all sorts of different purposes for me from the nostalgia of Dad grilling to my poor college student days at Mr and Mrs. Bartleys eating a triple "Clinton" burgers elbow to elbow next to my fellow starving student friend to a relax burger at brunch with friends just because I can! I think that Craigie's burger certainly has its place and is possibly one of the best in Boston for sure. But I also think it shows the caliber of Craigie (it was very thoughtfully made and well executed) and made me more hungry to try other things on their menu. I want to go back for the chef's whim menu and some of those Nova Scotia smelts (think they're better that New Castle, PA smelts?).

But what made the evening so great was being able to share the meal with E, J and A and Tommy too. I will definitely rate that evening at Craigie very highly for the company and the food. So everything combined, the evening rated a perfect 1o for sure!

And on closing, I will say I finally had a drink after my meal. Tommy mixed what I think was called a 50/50 with this beautiful Vermouth I think that was called Doylton. It was a perfect end to a lovely night out with friends and loved ones.

Sage

This past Monday night, I had plans to attend the Boston Magazine Best of Boston Dining Party. It was happening really close to the shop and was easy enough for me to make a quick visit. Who am I to say no to free drinks and food?

Actually, as I've gotten older, I've gotten less enamored with such events. A lot of times, the drinks are horrible, the food is mediocre and sparse. The crowd doesn't seem very interesting. Mostly moochers and "style writers" of Boston who all think a little too highly of their selves and their opinions. Not really my scene.

So as I was waiting for Elizabeth to arrive so we could go to this shin dig, I started to think more and more about how I really didn't want to go. What I wanted was a quiet evening with the woman I love. E arrived and was cranky about having to get thru all the Red Sox traffic to get to me. So our fate was decided. Bail on the party and find a nice, quiet place for dinner together.

We headed off to the South End and decided to try out Sage. Elizabeth's friend D.. from Brix had given her the recommendation and said it as his favorite gnocchi in town. That was absolutely worth seeking out!

To our delight, most of the restaurants in the South End on a Monday were ghost towns. We really could have had our pick of any of the places that are typically hard to get into. But Sage was our destination.

We arrived and it was very, very quiet. We both quickly noticed that Sage didn't look all that different from Umbra, the restaurant that was in the space before it became Sage. I didn't mind the lack of decor change because I always liked the space plus it had cork floors which E was delighted to discover when she walked acrossed the dining room in search of the bathroom We decided to sit at the bar and let Vanessa take care of us.

I had had a fairly tough day and was ready for a nice cocktail. I would have loved an Eastern Standard Boxcar but alas. However, Vanessa was game for trying to make one for me. It was a fine attempt and one I very much appreciated. However the vodka tonic I ordered later was a bit better. I did notice that they had Hangar One vodka and that got me really excited. Very few place in this city carry Hangar One and I'm a big fan. Usually I take it as a good sign if such a thing is sitting on the bar. E has a different test...a specific brand of cognac that she loves.

We placed our order and bread with an odd little tomato, olive oil mix came with it. It resembled and tasted like gazpacho but I think it was meant to used with the bread. The bread was standard issue Italian focaccia, which I happen to love, and so I thought the bread was great on its own. No odd gazpacho needed.

E ordered us a cured meat, pickled veg and cheese appetizer to start. The cheese included was only a parm reggiano and E wanted to swap it for an interesting sounding asiago. The cheese sub didn't happen and we didn't want to cause a problem so we ate the cheese that arrived. But Vanessa went and got us a little slice of the Asiago to try. It was lovely. I liked the starte quite a bit. But I found the pickled eggplant to be the most compelling part of the dish. I think the eggplant hadn't been cooked. It was thinly sliced and picked. Since I love all things pickled, I loved the eggplant. It was a nice way to begin.

I ordered two appetizers as my main. I got the duck confit panino and a mixed greens with blue cheese salad. The duck was indeed appetizer size, but it was quite good. The bread was very buttery and golden and the duck was pretty plentiful in those tiny little triangles of bread. It also came with a watercress and pear salad, so I had plenty of roughage that evening.

E's gnocchi with rabbit came and it was amazing! It was everything a gnocchi has to be. Tender, light as air and fluffy. She was kinda enough to give me a bite and I instantly wished I had ordered the gnocchi.

We ate with us pretty much being the only people at the bar. It was a lovely way to dine. We had a competent and attentive bartender, the game on the TV and each other....Oh, and the gnocchi. It was perfect.

And considering my crappy Boston dining experiences, it was just what I needed. Sage very well might become our date place. So if you ever want to see us, stop by Sage on a Monday night, you'll probably spot us there :)

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

Ufood

One of my shops happens to be downstairs from my apartment so often when I'm working I will just put a sign on the door, close the shop, run upstairs to make myself some lunch and amble back down. But I do like the lunch options in Fenway. My staff is kinda tired of the selection so it's a good thing a new Panera bread, Chipotle and a sushi join opening up. Our area of Fenway has a fairly ordinary demographic of a lot of offices in the area. Sure, more people and families are moving in but for the most part, the population tends to be desk jockeys.

Across the street from me and the store is a place that was once called Know Fat. As the name would imply, it was a fast food place devoted to "healthy" fast food. The signs were done up in such a way that it always made me think of Time Square or the Vegas strip. The sign seemed like it should say something like "Chicago on Broadway" or "Live Nude Girls". It was big and bold and lit up with big colored light bulbs. Sadly, despite the huge sign, I'd always forgot that Know Fat was there and even an option for food. I think I had it in the back of my head that it wasn't a food place. So I never had a chance to visit and try it. My staff had and they didn't love it but they did have good french fries and that seemed to the consensus.

Two weeks ago outside of Know Fat, stood two people dressed up. One as a giant froyo in a cup and the other as giant French Fries. The Froyo and the French Fries definitely did their job because they caused me to take a second look at a place I'd grown so accustomed to seeing in all it's neon glory. But wait! It wasn't there!!! And in the place of the "Know Fat" sign was a much more subdued sign saying "Ufood...feel great. eat smart". Hmm, looked like they changed their name and their sign.

Honestly, I'm not sure that Ufood is much better that Know Fat. Neither name really get me salivating much. But I was intrigued by the idea of a place that served tart froyo. This is probably the point at which you tell me, "Leah, just go to pinkberry".

Um, gladly, if Boston HAD one. And we don't. Seriously, please believe me when I tell you that not only is Boston slow to pick up trends in clothing but also slow to pick up on trends in food as well. Tart froyo is light years away from hitting Boston. Sigh. People are just beginning to infuse bacon into various things like bourbon, vodka but from what I've heard, New Yorkers are already ovah that!

So since our sour frozen yogurt places are few and far between aka we don't have any, I decided to give Ufood a whirl.

The place is set up so that if you want just a smoothie or froyo there is a stand for you in the front. If you're ordering more substantial things you go up the stairs and to the back of the place. The girl at the froyo stand didn't look like a very happy camper for some reason or other. Even those there was just one other person in front of me ordering. Hmm...I decided maybe I'd get a sandwich with my froyo just to avoid Cranky Pants in the front.

I was glad I made that move because the woman at the cash register was loving life. She was sweet and nice. She repeated the order back to me and even smiled several times. When my reciept printed out, she seemed really happy that I got a free coupon for a small froyo. "You can come back tomorrow and get it", she smiled at me. Omg, only if I get to interact with you! She was so sweet. I got my order to go so I could go back and man the store but also because the place kinda reeked of chlorox. And while I like knowing that anyplace involving food is clean, I don't really enjoy eating it in a place that smells like a public pool.

So how was everything? The portabello mushroom sandwich was expensive and kinda bland. It was very fresh and the bun was nice and squishy but eh, not great or memorable.

The frozen yogurt on the other hand. OMG!!! Okay so a small with fresh raspberries cost me $3.50 and if I wanted it plain it would have only been $2.50; seems like a bargain to me. And it was fantastic. The flavor was perfect and the machine it was pumped from ensured that it would be perfectly smooth. Overall, it was a reasonable price to pay for really tasty Pinkberry type yogurt. It might be my newest food obsession. And all thanks to people dressed up as giant containers of froyo and french fries.

A Day in the Life and Rachel Ray, This is How You Do $30 a Day!

"I had a very good food day" I im-ed to E late last night. "Really? Tell me about it." She im-ed back. And I did

And thus is my life with food. I think about food quite often through out the day. But some days aren't such good food days. The days when I forget to eat at the store and end up scarfing down a handful of nuts and a lone cup of water. Yeah, I know.

I have a true love/hate relationship with food. I know what I should eat and how much of it I should be eating but I can't stick to such things. If I was good, I'd keep to a protein shake in the morning, salad at noon and a big serving of steamed fish and veggies at night. I'd work out everyday and be all fit and shit. But I don't have the will for such things. I once asked a very cut male stripper at a gay bar, still wearing his g-string, if he ever ate chicken wings. The answer was no. And my response was "I don't want to live in a world without chicken wings". And that pretty much sums it up for me.

Like most women I struggle with thinking "life would be so great if I lost 10-20 lbs!". It's an uphill battle kids. Uphill! But what I've found is that the more I embrace the notion of good food for myself (and that DOESN'T include protein shakes) in any manner or form, the better off I am. I'm happier, more content and yes still motivated to work out and take care of my body. It's only when I veer off in either direction - starving myself (which I have done and it's not fun) or binging a bag of potato chips washed out with a huge chocolate shake that things don't work for me. I start hating my body and well, that's not good.

So yesterday was a nicely balanced day of food for me. It started with the perfect little latte and chocolate croissant. It had been freshly made and it was delightful. The layers were perfect and there wasn't just one but two long strips of dark chocolate folded into the center. I got my breakfast goodies from a place called KooKoo Cafe in Brookline Village. The line was a bit long for such a small place but it moved quickly and the person who was there working the register and getting coffee orders was so nice that I got my goodies and left a couple of bucks in the tip jar.

After that, I was off to run errands and such. Around 2pm I was getting hungry and was around the downtown area. I decided that since it was a very dreary rainy day, I needed soup. But not just any soup. I needed something with homemade noodles and veggies too. I went to my old tried and true spot in Chinatown - Taiwan Cafe. It's a restaurant where lots of additional menu stuff is written in Chinese on the walls. It's a place that served stinky tofu (it's 100% more stinky that durian folks) and makes no apologies for it. I've always loved the food there. I've had clams in a spicy black bean sauce that were so good, I was practically licking the plate, soup dumplings that were piping hot and sufficiently soupy in the middle.

Yesterday when I went, I was spoken to the entire time in Mandarin. When I opened my mouth it was clear I was so Americanized. But liked being treated like an "insider" for a bit. I reviewd the menu but what I wanted was comfort in the form of soup. And so I ordered the spicy beef noodle soup with spinach.

Since I was there quite late, I got to watch the wait staff clean and prep bags full of beautiful fresh green beens. They all sat at one table and did their work, clearly enjoying each other's company. It was nice to see. My soup came out very quickly.


This picture does the soup not nearly enough justice. The broth was very rich and spicy. The noodles perfectly toothsome and long. The beef was marbled with fat and just melted in my mouth. It was the perfect lunch. On most days I wouldn't have been able to finish such a big serving but I was really hungry and ate it all!

When I was finished I watched the people sitting around and loved the diversity around me. An older Asian couple finishing up some clams. A group of three giggling young Asian women dripping in Louis Vutton paying their bill and planning their attack at Saks. Finally I asked for my bill, but not before I was asked in Mandarin if I was done (or so I think I was asked hah!). The bill came to $6.50 and that included my diet pepsi too. Alright so this got me to thinking between my breakfast and my lunch, if I was Rachel Ray and on $30 a day (which we all know she's not b/c she makes 18m according to Forbes), I'd be pumped. But I'd also not give any sort of tip. I'd tip maybe 25 cents. Ugh. So thinking this, I had to overcompensate for that level of evil, I left a ten dollar bill and called it a day.

Later I hit the gym and worked on building up to 50lb kettlebell swings. Oye, one day I'll do a full swing! I was so pleased with my workout that I decided to reward myself with a nice veggie sandwich made on my George Foreman grill. That grill is fantastic for grilled panini sandwiches. I roasted up some peppers and eggplant I got from ghetto shaws and later layered them on top of some Italian bread that I had slathered with my homemade pesto. I added fresh local mozzarella (leftover from this insanely good dinner E had made a couple weekends ago) and green olives.

It was a great sandwich. Melty and crunchy due to time spent on the Foreman grill. I know, I know it's suppose to "knock out" the fat, but come on, it makes a fantastic grilled sandwich any day of the week and that is truly the only reason I still have it lying around.

I think the veggies sent me back around $10 and I bought enough so I could have roasted veggies for the rest of the week as well. So stuff that in your pipe and smoke it Rachel Ray!

Overall, I think I ate mostly locally made foods and fairly whole foods. Okay so the noodles, bread, cheese and croissant are really "whole" but they were all local and really lovingly made. Plus, I get my butt moving at the gym so I ended my entire day feeling really good.

A good food day indeed!

Places I'd Like to Eat at in the Next Few Months

1.) Hungry Mother
- Hitting it on Tuesday with E and friends.

2.) Salt
-I want to order the roasted duck a day ahead. And as someone said to me "anything you have to order a day in advance has to be good". So true!

3.) Oleana
-I love this place! It's my special dinner place. I never get to sit in their garden and I really want to be able to do that.

4.) Shiki
-Friends raved about this place and I've been dying for some good soba noodles. I don't mean that mass made crap but authentic homemade buckwheat noodles.

5.) Ten Tables
- I've been there twice before and I think I enjoyed it each time. But that was two years ago. Sadly, I don't remember the meals . I do think they were very good, but it makes me want to go back and see if it's truly as good as I remember. Most meals that I loved, I remember. This includes my birthday dinner from when I was 5. Mom made zucchini in a cheese sauce and I ate every damn bite, even though I'm not a huge zucchini fan.

6.) Craigie Street Bistro
-For years I've been meaning to try this place but the truth is I never made it out that far into Cambridge and when it comes time to decide on a place for dinner, it always goes forgotten. I've heard the Chef is a bit of a prima donna but has the chops to carry off such attitude. I wanna see for myself!

The Best Burger in America?

At this year's South Beach Food and Wine Festival, sponsored by Food Network, a competition over the best burger was waged. It was a contest hosted from Rachel Ray. She's a food personality I have very little tolerance for. Over exposed and irritatingly (and fake) perky, her speciality seems to be telling America how to not tip when working with only $40.00 a day and how to "figure friendly" hamburger stew is. Yum-o and sammie are not words and yet RayRay seems hell bent on always using them. Ugh

So since she was the host of this competition, I have very little belief in it's true validity. In any event, the burger at Radius was name #1. And I've been kinda curious about it ever since. It was only after meeting the bar manager from Radius that I decided a trip had to made to see for myself. I dragged E and a few friends along for the ride.

As an aside, I had been to Radius before for lunch during Restaurant Week about two years ago. I thought it was going to be a really fantastic little treat for myself. A lovely lunch to myself. The best thing about the meal? The space was unique and interesting. But the meal? Perhaps one of the worst I've ever eaten. I had an "spice" encrusted fish fillet. The spices were left whole. Have you ever tried eating whole coriander seeds, cumin, black pepper? After a few bites, my tongue actually went numb. It was an awful experience and I hated the fish. The dessert I chose was the german chocolate cake and it amounted to a very dry little lump of cake with caramel and coconut on top. It was like it came from a box mix. It was absolutely lame and I left very disappointed. I chalked it up the overall suckiness of Restaurant week in Boston and vowed that I would never do another restaurant week experience ever again. I feel like people in the food industry hate Restaurant week from the chefs to the servers. Why places participate and always do a half ass job is beyond me. If you don't want to do it, don't!!

And so I was a little wary of returning to a place where I had one of the worse meals of my entire life. But like I said before, curiosity got the best of me.

We met our friends at a table considered still part of the bar but big enough for all six of us. It was nice because it was still located in the bar section but was still part of the main dining room. The bar menu looked decent enough. Nothing too crazy...burgers, fried things...the usual. The only unique sounding thing on the menu was something called "low country" eggs and bacon. Hmm, when we asked about that appetizer, it was explained. It was deviled eggs. Too bad, E and I thought maybe it mean grits would be involved somehow. I was hoping white or red eye gravy. Oh well.

Our friend Avery ordered them. And I ordered the crispy oysters to start.

My oysters:

Avery's "low country eggs":


My oysters were fantastic. They were panko breaded and covered with perhaps $30 worth of saffron stems. The saffron did nothing for the overall taste but did look nice. The oysters were apparently local. They were quite small. I wish they were a bit bigger because much like fried clams what I love about fried oysters is that kinda creamy inside that tastes of the ocean. These oysters didn't have that but they were light and very well seasoned. I did enjoy them.

Avery said the eggs didn't suck but they certainly weren't the best he had ever had. We all loved the whimsical presentation of the bacon. Like a bouquet of bacon!

E, being the expert on alcoholic beverages ordered a lovely champagne for us to share. What the heck it was, I haven't a clue. I think it was rose in color. And it was expensive and special enough that the bartender scolded me when I tried to leave without finishing my glass. I passed the 1/3 left to E and she downed it for me. It was lovely and tasted crisp and bright. I did enjoy it but I'm such a lightweight when it comes to adult type drinks.

Onto the burger. E and I split one and the kitchen was kind enough to cut it half and give us our own plates.

Here is mine:

The burger cames with the cutest little copper pot of french fries. I have thoughts on both the burger and the fries. First the burger.

We ordered the burger rare. It was well cooked but very, very densely packed. Infact, I almost thought for a second the burger had been medium rare but it wasn't. The bun to burger ratio was decent.

Cheese and horseradish were already on the burger. Since I love horseradish I was ok with this but I think it's odd to make that choice for a customer right off the bat. It kinda reminded me of people who put liption french onion soup in their burgers. I don't know why but it felt like a very odd presumptive move. Plus the cheese really did nothing for me. It seemed almost tasteless or lost against the horseradish.

No lettuce, no onions and no pickles are offered. I guess for a $20 burger they're kinda making the statement that this burger doesn't need such things. But I love condiments and I love the way they enhance a burger. And since it is summer and produce is so great, a slice of heirloom tomato or a crisp leaf of local lettuce would have been a welcome addition for me.

The french fries were on the pale side. I like my fries with a little bit more golden. And while they were fried just fine, they weren't seasoned! It was a very obivious blunder after the intense seasoning applied to the burger. No salt, no truffle oil, no pepper, nothing! It was kinda odd.

Alright, so clearly Radius doesn't get my vote for the best burger. It was decent and by far much better than my earlier experience with the restaurant but overall, a bit pretentious and not completely well executed.

My favorite burgers in Boston still go to Eastern Standard (homemade pickles!!!), Aquitaine (anyplace that put creme fraiche in their mustard and boursin on their burgers is alright with me!) and U-burger (cheap and fantastic "fast food").

However, I was pleased to finally try the burger at Radius and look we even got two fantastic desserts as well. A goatcheese panna cotta thingie and something we all dubbed the chocolate unit.

Both were fantastic! As was the company for that evening. We had a great time and ended up being the most ruckus causing people in the joint. What can I say? I roll with some very fun peeps.

Disappointed.

This week has been a very sad one for me and fine dining. Yes, I had great success with my return to India Quality. But the other three nights I went out for dinner this past week, I was incredibly disappointed in my experiences.

Being that I'm a small business owner myself, I try to keep my whining about other small local businesses to a whimper. If I had a bad meal, eh, it happens. But all three times I went out this week I was left feeling not only disappointed but also a little embarrassed because it was I who suggested we all go to these places.

I use to think Boston was ok with sub par food but some places made me really differently about that. One of them being Oleana and another one being Rendezvous, back when it first opened. I found dining in Boston wouldn't ever be in the stratosphere of New York but it would be fresh, decent and well executed food. But lately, my theory about Boston dining has been challenged and I'm left feeling a bit cheated. So it's with a heavy, heavy heart I offer up my most recent opinions on these places. I won't go on yelp or foodbuzz with these negative criticisms, but I do want to air them and so I will keep them here.

Our first dining experience this week happened at Tremont 647. I had heard about a "grilling social" that was suppose to occur and I had two friends and E pony up $40 each. The chef Andy Husbands has a rep of being a great BBQ-er and so I was excited to think that maybe we'd get a sampling of his work. Nope. Not even close. I won't go into excruciating detail on this one because E already did a very comprehensive overview of the evening on her food blog. Here:
http://resonance.typepad.com/hedonism/

All I will say is that since it was my idea to go, I felt responsible for how much the event/food/experience sucked. Needless to say we're not going back anytime soon for dinner.

My next dining out experience happened on Wednesday. I talked E into going to dinner at Burton's Bar and Grill downstairs from my apartment and around the corner from one of my shops. She agreed to give it a shot. I had gotten a recommendation from customers of mine who said they even liked Burtons better than Eastern Standard. Whoah!

So we gave it a whirl. Burton's is a local chain and it was pretty much chain style food. Everything was fairly bland and over buttered or oiled up to taste good. Even the sugar snap peas that came on the side of E's crabcake dish were bathed in oil. And sugar snap peas are so sweet and tasty on their own that to coat them in butter or oil with no sort of seasoning was kinda unnecessary.

My tuna dish was perfectly cooked with a rare middle. But the tomato sauce surrounding it did little to enhance the flavor of anything. And the artichokes, capers and peppers were sparse and yet again did nothing to help up the flavor ratio. Luckily E was able to turn our leftovers into great little salad fixings for lunch the next day. Another place crossed off the list of possibilities.

And lastly, one of my friends (and future Maid of Honor) Mark was in town for the weekend. So yesterday we had dinner at the Franklin so Mark would have a chance to meet E. We opted to sit at the bar and eat there. The drinks were great and the falafel appetizer E and I shared as we waited for Mark was very nicely executed. Since none of the main dishes appealed to me, I opted to get two appetizers as my entree, but I couldn't choose between the scallops or the mussels. E persuaded me to get both and she's help me eat it all. So I got the fish taco, mussels and scallops. Both Mark and E got the trout.

The first sign of problems was when they wouldn't let E switch her side of spinach to asparagus. Hmm...yeah we're finding that more and more restaurants in Boston refuse to be accommodating to side swap requests. Even if one offers to pay more, no dice. It's not only strange but a little frustrating. From now on I might have to resort to my Mom's line of "I'm allergic to tomatoes".

The second sign of issues was that the kitchen messed up and put my mussels out first. Our bartender, Nathan (who seemed like a nice enough guy) covered the mistake by telling us he thought we'd like them first because that way there wouldn't be too many dishes at once in front of us. Hmmm.....

The mussels were smoked and decent. They were served with melted butter and since I like butter I was okay with this on the side. The salt and smoke were great on the mussels and I kinda wished that they had done a little broth on the bottom to really utilize both aspects of what made the mussels good.

Finally the mains/rest of my appetizers came out. I was really bummed out by both of my dishes. The fish taco was really a deep fried fish quesadilla. The taco shell had been deep fried and it was still a bit greasy. The filling was covered in cheese. E commented, "I can't taste the fish". And she was right. Everything that I love about a fish taco...the light summer feel of it. The crisp cabbage, the freshness of the fish wasn't there. It was kinda awful.

The scallops were overcooked. E had them sent back for me. I hate sending food back but on this one it was the right call. With only three scallops to have all three overdone seemed more than a bit lacking. The dish came back and the scallops were perfectly cooked this time. I don't remember much about the accompany salad on this dish or anything else so I guess it was okay or perhaps forgettable. I like scallops a lot so I liked this dish but would I ever go out of my way to order any of the dishes from that evening. No. No. No.

E gave me a bite of her trout and while it was well cooked, it was still kinda bland. It seemed under seasoned and uninspired.

For a meal that was an important meeting of two people in my life, I was hugely let down yet again. The dinner wasn't great. It was okay but certainly not something I'd come back for anytime soon.

Sigh. Looks like I'll be cooking a lot more at home these days. Certainly not a bad thing but still it'd be nice to have a reliable mid range dining experience.

India Quality finally learned to look me in the eye and it was delicious.

About a year ago I stopped going to India Quality around the corner from one of my shops. Actually I stopped going to quite a few places around the store. Ankara, couldn't deal with the grumpy 'ttude and they increased the price on my usual sandwich even though I had been getting the same sandwich every week and the price on the board was less as well. Petite Robert, an employee from that place bragged and announced that she had gone to an industry party in pants she bought at the shop and wanted to return them after she had worn them out to an event.

India Quality was a place I stopped going to because of what happened to me the last two times I went. Both times it was late in the afternoon (I don't eat lunch until around 3pm on most days) and all the servers tend to congregate by the bar where one picks up his/her take out orders. In I walk and as I wait for my change, I feel three sets of eyes on my chest. I'm wearing a tank top, sure but it's certainly not that skimpy and I'm less than an A cup. It skeeved me out and I quickly dashed out with my food. When it happened a second time, I decided I couldn't go back. Even standing there waiting for the 3 minutes to get my lunch and change is kinda agonizing when your chest is gawked out.

And so India Quality's fate was decided. I wasn't going back. But this past rainy Wednesday, the store was fairly quiet and I was in need of something delicious but I wanted something with heat as well. I wanted comfort and spice. Hmm....the options were limited for sure. I decided that since a year had passed since Chestgate 2007, I should give India Quality another shot. The food there is so damn tasty. They're known for having great Indian food. Their goat dishes are fantastic and their vindaloo is plenty hot enough for the likes of me. I went ahead and placed my order for chicken curry with a side of raita. What's a little sexually inappropriate behavior when there is hot and well seasoned curry to be had?

I made my way over and found the place to be very busy even late in the lunch service. There wasn't the usual gaggle of servers at the bar. Infact, the man behind the bar was an older gentleman and he smiled and looked me IN THE EYES when I spoke to him. I was shocked and didn't want to press my luck too much. I tried to get in and out as quickly as possible, shouting over my shoulder "have a lovely day, thank so much, bye" before I left. Afterall, I wanted to try and be polite still.

Once at the store with my lunch, I unpacked everything. The picture on the post of this post (minus the limeade big gulp) is from my lunch special! What I love is that they are thoughtful enough to put a disposable plate into the sturdy white lunch bag. And the plate is pretty darn sturdy too. I got a huge container of rice...white basmati mixed with saffroned basmati and tiny specks of fennel seeds too. And the chicken curry is a very good sized portion too. I asked for it hot and it was the perfect amount of heat for me. My nose was good and runny by the end of my meal and that's a good sign to me. The chicken was tender and moist and there were huge chunks of it in the container. The meal comes with complimentary little papadam crackers. India Quality has nice ones. They don't skimp on the course ground pepper baked into the crisp wafers.

The meal was perfect and exactly what I wanted. By the end I was a bit stuffed and probably should have saved some of it for a snack for later but it was all just too good. It made me want to go back again for dinner sometime soon and get the lamb vindaloo and goat dishes. It made me really happy to know that perhaps they went thru sexual harassment training or that there is at least one person there not fixated on boobs, because it's nice to have a fantastic Indian restaurant back on my food roster.

Koreana (or Me Pretending to Keep Its Real!)

I'm Korean American but was adopted and raised by a pretty fantastic family. White, middle class and living in the 'burbs, they didn't know much about Korean culture, let alone food. The closest I ever got to "my roots" cuisine wise was the occasional meal of sweet and sour pork at the local Chinese restaurant with my family. At the time, these poor little places had to appeal to a very pedestrian palate and so dishes were often of the egg foo young genre. Even the sweet and sour pork came with canned pineapple on top. Don't get me wrong though, I ate it up and love it. I mean, really can anything that is pork and fried be so very wrong?

It wasn't really until college that I even had Korean food. The first time I ever tasted kimchi, it was like a little light bulb went up over my head. I always loved pickled foods and here was the ultimate in pickles, plus in Korean culture kimchi can appear at every meal if you want. Omg, I had found my people! Later I would slowly be introduced to other Korean dishes but the one thing I really adored, besides kimchi, was Korean BBQ.

Korean BBQ crossed into so many food cultures. Who doesn't understand beef or pork sizzling away on a grill? I mean, really now?! So Korean BBQ was my ticket to the familiar and the new. It reminded me of my Dad at home grilling Tbones that had been marinated overnight in terriyaki but the notion of grilling at the table was a new one for me. Even so, I find myself sometimes craving Korean style BBQ so badly and so deeply that I swear it's something that flows through my blood.

In order to get my fix in Boston, there are very few places to go. And even less great places. Even in my limited Korean BBQ experience, I know great BBQ when I see it. A couple of places in New York's tiny Korea town (aka street) fit the bill. Sadly, I don't know their names but I know them by sight and by location on the street. But here is Boston Korean BBQ hasn't really ever caught on. I don't understand why not. A lot of Koreans and Korean Americans come to Boston for school but eh, who am I to dissect the Boston restaurant scene.

So it was one these cravings that led me and my finacee (the spelling on that word looks odd to me, but oh well, I'll chock it up to being newly engaged.) to Koreana for a date after work. Of course we had a couple of friends in tow. Korean BBQ is better with others.

We arrived around 8pm on a Tuesday night and it was packed! We got handed a buzzer, much like the ones one gets at the Cheesecake Factory, and went to sit at the bar for a bit. That proved to be a comedy of errors.

At first glance, the bartender seemed to be in the weeds getting drink orders for the dining room. But actually he was pretty unresponsive in general. At one point, out of shear frustration, E said to the young man "look up, eyes up, hello?". It was pretty ridiculous. The bar was only big enough for 6 stools and there was only 1 other man sitting there besides ourselves. Um, a rule of thumb at any bar should be acknowledge people when they sit down there.

Finally, after a good 30 min wait, we were seated. We ordered three dishes for all four of us to share: galbi, spicy pork bulgogi and bibimbap. We thought if it was too much food, well the leftovers would be tasty the next day.

Our waitress was very sweet, patient and attentive (they should put her at the bar!!). Often when I go out for Korean food with others who aren't Korean, I am looked to as the guide for what to do. Seriously, being that I was raised by white folks, I haven't the foggiest idea. So it was kind of a relief when our sweet waitress just started cooking the meat for us. Maybe my pronunciation of our order was a dead give away.

Everything was very, very tasty! The short ribs were left on just long enough to get charred and sweet caramelized bits to them. And the stone pot for the bimbimbap produced the perfect crunchy rice crust. Yum! I really liked that they brought over a huge squeeze bottle of the chili pepper paste because I really like to go to town with that stuff. Heck, if I could squeeze it onto toast I would!

Some points during the meal, I tuned out everything going on around me and concentrated on getting my fillings into my red lettuce leaves. I think I went through three wicker baskets of the lettuce, pretty much on my own!

The traditional sides were very tasty and when requested, were quickly refilled. The one side that I noticed missing was potato salad. I was a little sad but I guess it isn't all the traditional. But I sure do like the excuse to indulge in mayo and potatoes.

We finished all of the food laid before us. I mean really, who can say no to freshly grilled yummy tidbits of meat? Surely, not me. Again, not an "I'm blown away meal" but definitely good enough to come back for when I need my Korean BBQ fix. I was very happy by the end of the meal. Craving satisfied! And once again, I got to pretend to be "down" with my bad Korean self. Um yeah.