Yay, a real restaurant has opened in my neighborhood! Until this point all we’ve had has been two pizza-and-sub places and a café. There are real restaurants one neighborhood over — take your pick of directions, a couple to the south, the west, and the north, and even more if you go two neighborhoods north or south— but not right where we live. The Sea Breeze Mexican Grill has changed all that. Barbara and I waited a couple of weeks for it to settle in, and then had dinner there last night, along with our friend Jane. On the whole it was definitely a positive experience. We will return.
After the obligatory chips and salsa that appeared immediately at our table, Barbara and Jane started with fresh guacamole, made right at our table with a mortar and pestle. They report that it was delicious. I wouldn’t know, since I can’t stand avocado. Then Barbara had mussels, which were unfortunately unsuccessful, being small and overcooked. I had ceviche de camarones, which was served on small, crispy taco shells or something similar. It was excellent, though blander than I might have liked.
For our entrees, Barbara had quesadillas with mushrooms, Jane had an assortment of three different enchiladas, and I had Acapulco chimichangas with pork. All three were excellent, though not especially spicy. I think I’m detecting a theme here. Barbara also reports that her mango smoothie (smoothy?) was delicious.
The entire restaurant has only six tables, four for two customers and two for four. They do not yet have a take-out license, so several potential diners had to be turned away. (We got there at 6:30, which was early enough to be able to grab a table for four.) They also have not yet been able to acquire a license to serve alcohol, a deficiency that will surely limit their appeal and their profitability; I hope they manage to get it soon. Right now they’re open for three meals a day, seven days a week, presumably in an attempt to gain both customers and income, but they’re going to need to be able to serve at least wine and beer (and some people want margaritas for some reason). Service by the gracious co-owner was just fine, even though she and (presumably) her husband had to manage all by themselves until 7:30 since two other staff members had called in sick. (I don’t know whether they eventually showed up or whether it was a pair of substitutes who arrived.)
Once again we had delicious dim sum at Chau Chow in Dorchester…but one thing was different this time. Usually it happens that either Barbara and I are the only non-Asians in the place or else maybe there are one or two others. But this morning the restaurant was a hotbed of ethnic diversity! We saw a table of Latinos, a table of blacks, a mixed black-white couple, a table of people who were even whiter than we are…still of course an Asian majority, but it’s great to see such a diverse scene at a Dorchester restaurant. (Ashmont Grill, incidentally, is also becoming more and more diverse every month.) Let’s hope this trend continues.
Come to the Taste of Dorchester on April 28! The food is from Ashmont Grill, Big Moe’s M&M Ribs, Blarney Stone, Butcher Shop Market, Inc., Dot 2 Dot Café, Down Home Delivery & Catering, Flat Black Coffee, Freeport Tavern, Gerard’s Restaurant, The Ice Creamsmith, Irie Jamaican Style Restaurant, Ledge Kitchen & Drinks, McKenna’s Cafe, Pat’s Pizza & Catering , Phillips Candy House, Pho Hoa Restaurant, Restaurante Cesaria, Shanti: Taste of India, and Tavolo — and it’s all for a good cause. (This is an unsolicited and uncompensated ad!)
Mixed feelings about the American Lamb Jam held yesterday at the Charles Hotel:
On the one hand, the food was excellent and plentiful. Seventeen restaurants, mostly from the Boston area, provided a huge variety of lamb preparations and side dishes, all to be sampled in small portions. Also on the plus side was the company. Although Barbara was not interested, as she eats lamb only under duress, my friends Phil and Meredith accompanied me and we had a great time together.
On the other hand, there must have been 800 people there, so it was ridiculously crowded. Everyone was jammed into the Charles Ballroom, which made it almost painful to move around. Even worse, there were only five or six small tables (plus a couple of high stand-up tables), so there was no place comfortable where we could sit and enjoy the event. Fortunately I was able to approach one of the staff and explain that we needed chairs since Phil is elderly and Meredith is disabled; he quickly produced three extra chairs and we crowded around a table for four that already had three people sitting there. Then of course it was a continual up-and-down as we got small plates of food from various stations.
It was a good way to end one year and start the next. For New Year’s Eve, Barbara and I went out to eat at dBar; then, for breakfast the next morning, we went to Chau Chow for dim sum. I’ve written about dim sum at Chau Chow enough in the past, so there’s nothing new to say on that score — except perhaps for the fact that it was very busy and the clientele was almost entirely Asian; I think we were the only non-Asians there. But dBar is worth describing in detail. Unsurprisingly they had a very limited (and special) New Year’s Eve menu, from which we had no trouble selecting delicious meals. Barbara had the following [capitalization verbatim]:
- Three Oysters Chilled on the Half Shell with Champagne Grapefruit Sorbet
- Adam and Larry’s Scituate Lobster Bisque Lightly Frothed & Perfumed with Saffron, Ginger & Lemongrass
- Premium Angus Beef &, Sunchoke & Potato Gratinée, & Chantennay Carrot, Crispy Mushrooms, Sauce Bordelaise infused with Bone Marrow
- Dulce de Leche Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust with Winter Fruits
I managed to have an almost completely different dinner, despite the limited choices:
- Herb Crusted Wagyu Beef Carpaccio, Roasted Cipollini Onions, Cornichons, Rosemary-Mustard Aioli, Manchego
- Warm Salad of Forest Mushrooms & Duck Confit with Frisee, Truffle-Sherry Vinaigrette, & Blood Orange Supremes, Fine Herbs, Cranberry Port Sauce
- Perigord Black Truffle Stuffed Giannone Chicken with Goat Cheese & Potato Croquettes, Sautéed Baby Spinach, Parsnips & Salsify, Crispy Beets & Sauce Perigeux
- Dulce de Leche Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust with Winter Fruits
Highly recommended to all for next year…but why wait? The regular menu is great too!
Just got back from another excellent dim sum at the Dorchester branch of Chau Chow. If you live anywhere near Dorchester, come here for dim sum! Unlike Chinatown, parking is easy in their own lot and the overflow lot across the street.
We particularly like one offering that we don’t always see on the carts. The solution, of course, was to take a photo and show it to the servers on my iPhone, since most of them don’t speak English. We eventually found out, from one of the English-speaking employees, that we’re talking about Shanghai Dumplings:
We happened to be seated where we could gaze out at the one remaining Corita Kent gas tank, a.k.a. Rainbow Swash. It was a good angle, as long as you could ignore the used car lot, its prominent lighting, and the Expressway exit sign:
As we had an about-to-expire Groupon for the Back Bay location of Sel de la Terre, Barbara and I had dinner there this evening. We’ve been to the original Long Wharf location many times, so it seemed appropriate to try out their newest incarnation. This is my fourth review of Sel de la Terre, but my first review of this location.
Capsule summary: food was excellent (almost the same quality as at Long Wharf); service started out hectic but calmed down; atmosphere was…well…a bit too young and trendy for us.
Barbara started with an Aviation (including the canonical crème de violette, unlike Mark Bernstein’s version) and a huge portion of curried chickpea purée, served with olive oil and “yummy breads.” She pronounced this appetizer excellent but had to take home half of it. I started with a small flatbread pizza, which came with mushrooms, onions, and feta cheese; it was good, but nothing special. For her main course Barbara had roasted monkfish with littleneck clams, cranberry beans, and brussels sprouts, all of which she liked; I had duck breast with fingerling potatoes and red cabbage. The duck was supposed to come medium rare, but it actually came rare — fine with me, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be fine for some other people. It was well-prepared and delicious, as were the sides. (The potatoes were there because I said I didn’t want the puréed squash that was supposed to accompany the duck; Erika, our server, volunteered the potatoes as a substitute, without my having to ask.) We had the same wine we had ordered 21 months ago at Long Wharf: Les Arbousiers Domaine La Remejeanne 2005 Cotes de Rhone. We enjoyed it just as much this time, and paid the same $40 we paid then. Erika encouraged us to aim a bit higher next time: she enthusiastically recommended a Regusci Cabernet at $80 a bottle. While this is distinctly above our price range — and our facial expressions must have shown that — she claimed that it was a steal as it would cost $120 anywhere else. Maybe so. Hmmm….
Speaking of our server, service was a tad inconsistent overall. The place seemed understaffed and overworked when we arrived at 6:32 for a 6:45 reservation. We were seated in six minutes (pretty good for a promised five-minute wait!) but then had to sit at our table for another eleven minutes before anyone came over to take our order for drinks. Since Erika was so busy with others, including a large party at another table, it was someone else who spotted us sitting there and stepped in to help. A third server came over at another point, as did the manager. So in the end we got plenty of attention and good service, but it didn’t match the calm atmosphere of the Long Wharf location. Valet parking works well in both places, as on-street parking would be a nightmare at either one and garages would cost more than the valet parking while being less convenient.
We would go back, but on the whole we prefer Long Wharf. It’s more relaxed, and for this kind of money we want a relaxing dining experience. The style fits us better.
Barbara and I used to go to 224 a lot, but we haven’t been there very often in recent years. This is partly because of a couple of meals that were only OK (but overpriced), and partly because Ashmont Grill and 88 Wharf are not only closer to us but also more attractive for various reasons. But things may change.
We’re happy to tell you that we just had an unquestionably excellent meal at 224. Barbara had a first-rate Caesar salad (not so easy to find as one might think) followed by crabmeat sliders, which she describes as delicious and perfectly prepared. I helped her with a few of her generous portion of French fries — crisp and thin the way they should be. But I think I had the better meal, if I do say so myself. I started with a lamb chop “appetizer,” which turned out to be an amazing trio of grilled rosemary-and-garlic-marinated baby lamb chops atop a combo of cipollini and balsamic-dressed greens. Then came the main course (fortunately a bit smaller than the appetizer): pan-roasted sea scallops with a coulis of corn, smoked applewood bacon, shallots, and basil, topped with micro arugula and plum tomato concassé. Without my specifying, the lamb chops turned out to be medium rare and the scallops slightly undercooked, just as they should be. Yum!
Barbara and I just got back from our first time at Gaslight Brasserie du Coin, and it won’t be our last. Mostly excellent food, excellent service, and free parking — in the South End! — what more could one ask for?
Cheaper prices, I suppose. Gaslight is definitely on the pricey side… but no more so than any other first-rate restaurant in Boston.
We arrived 35 minutes before our reservation time and were seated immediately. The restaurant has a very French ambiance. Though surprisingly large, it immediately feels welcoming. Our server, Lily, was both friendly and professional — just the right combination. It was (surprisingly) not too noisy, considering that a group of 14 arrived halfway through our dinner to sit at the next table. Many reviewers have reported that Gaslight is too loud, so maybe we were just lucky. Or maybe it was because we were there on a Tuesday.
Barbara started with a shaved beet salad, which she found a bit stronger than she likes, partly because the beets were raw and partly because the dressing contained a lot of horseradish. Not being that much of a beet fan, I can’t comment. But I started with a first-rate French onion soup, unquestionably the best I have had in years. It was rich and hearty, probably because it contained some shredded truffled short ribs.
For our entrees, Barbara ordered steak frites medium rare, and I ordered duck confit with roasted garlic potatoes and an interesting salad. The steak turned out to be rare, not medium rare; our server graciously agreed, whisked it away, and returned in a couple of minutes with the steak appropriately unrarefied. My duck was great, as were the accompaniments. We also ordered a side of haricots verts to share; they were excellent too. While portions were on the small side, we had more than enough to eat, unlike some of the Open Table reviewers.
I ordered the crème brulée for dessert. It was perfectly prepared, though the crust was cold and they were out of the promised fresh berries that were supposed to accompany it. The server compensated by providing a lovely disk of candied cherries, figs, and kumquats. My dessert was also accompanied by a well-made double espresso.
The whole thing came to $154 including wine, tax, and tip. As I say, not cheap — but not outrageous either. By the way, that free parking is in a supervised parking lot.
For April vacation we decided to visit Baltimore — partly because we wanted to see the city, partly because we knew a couple of people there, and partly because it was an excuse to ride on the high-speed Acela Express. We splurged on first class, which provided us a helpful attendant dedicated to our car, food and drink service at our seats, and (most important) wider seats with extra legroom. The food was merely adequate, and first class was occasionally bumpy (just like regular “business” class, surprise, surprise), and we didn’t really take advantage of the unlimited beverages (a glass or two of wine doesn’t compete with the four Bloody Marys consumed by each of the guys in front of us), but I suppose the more comfortable seating made it worth paying the extra fee. In any case, the Acela was mostly a very enjoyable experience — certainly much better than flying, and not just because I like trains. Avoiding all the security hassles at an airport is the #1 advantage, but there are many others; in general, going by train is just the civilized way to travel, and it’s a real pity that it’s dying out in North America. My only complaint is that the free WiFi service was pretty lame, being slow at the best of times and cutting out altogether at others.
Speaking of splurging, we decided to stay at the Hilton in the Inner Harbor neighborhood, mostly because we already have a relationship with them as we always stay at the Hilton Garden Inn when we go to Elmira. This particular Hilton provided several advantages but also many disadvantages. The biggest plus was the view from our 18th-floor room (of course they called it the 19th, since they skipped floor 13):
I suppose we would have appreciated this view even more if we had been sports fans. (The tourist info person at the city’s Visitor Center told us that Baltimoreans always appreciate visitors from Boston. “We like to take their money,” she explained, “since they always spend a lot when they come here to watch the Red Sox beat the Orioles.”) Anyway, the room was comfortable, the quality of the furniture matched the view, and the location couldn’t be beat.
Those are the advantages. The disadvantages all sound petty, but they added up when compared to the much less expensive Hilton Garden Inn: this regular (“full-price”) Hilton charges for WiFi, serves disappointing breakfasts, provides no fridge or microwave, has a sink that’s set back six inches and can be used easily only if you’re tall and skinny (neither of which we are), and features a shower head that’s too high for me to reach (and much too high for Barbara, who’s 4′9″). All of this for a single room that costs a lot more per night than our suite in Elmira. Now of course this is partly (largely?) because of the economic differences between Elmira and Baltimore, but it would be interesting to see what the Garden Inn costs in Baltimore (yes, there is one, in an almost-as-convenient location).
After walking around the Inner Harbor area, we stopped at the aforementioned Visitor Center, from which we took a 100-minute guided tour of the city on one of those fake trolleys. Despite the many errors made by our guide, a retired podiatrist, I’m really glad we took the tour and always recommend these things to newcomers to any city. They’re the best way to get an overview of the city and an orientation to what’s where. Then you know what to do for the rest of your visit.
I mentioned that our guide made many errors. Here are five of them:
- He claimed that the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore is the oldest Unitarian church in the United States. It was established in 1817. Dorchester’s First Parish Church was established in 1630. Not much of a contest there.
- Speaking of churches, he identified one as a “Lithuanian mosque”… and then compounded his mistake by observing that it’s a “Lithuanian Catholic mosque.”
- Another religious one: when we passed the Holocaust memorial, the guide referred to the “one million Jews killed by Hitler.” It’s not that I want to play a numbers game here, but one million is far from six million.
- On a non-religious matter, he pointed out the house of Wallis Simpson, who married “King Henry VIII.” Edward, Schmedward, let’s call him Henry.
- Finally, when we passed the building where Homicide: Life on the Street was filmed (see picture below), the guide observed that this wonderful TV series was directed by John Waters. Not even close!
The guide was also rather clueless about the response of one tourist while driving through the nearby German and Polish neighborhoods. “The Polish immigrants were unwilling to live next to the Germans,” he remarked.
The woman in the back of the bus said, “Gee, I wonder why.”
“It’s because the Germans invaded Poland before World War II…” the guide started to explain.
“She was being sarcastic!” interrupted another tourist.
After the “trolley” tour, we mostly got around on foot, especially when exploring the fascinating Mt. Vernon and Fells Point neighborhoods. We had to try out the light rail at least once, and we often took advantage of the wonderful new Charm City Circulator, which provides free and frequent bus service in a loop throughout the downtown area. With two routes still to go, the first route has been open for only three months and is already a tremendous success. At one point we needed to take a regular city bus, as we were going to the Baltimore Museum of Art (see next paragraph), which is outside of the downtown area. Not being completely sure of where the nearest bus stop might be, I whipped out my iPhone and checked the Maps app, which not only located the nearest stop for the #3 bus but even told us that the next bus would be coming along in four minutes! (I know, I sound like an Apple ad, but it was incredibly convenient.)
We visited three museums during our brief visit, and can highly recommend all of them:
- The Walters Art Museum has an extraordinary eclectic collection. We focused on the Egyptian artifacts, the Islamic manuscripts, and the special exhibit of Japanese cloisonné.
- The B&O Railroad Museum is perhaps of more specialized interest, but it has a fine collection of vintage locomotives and railway cars that visitors can explore (many cars are restored to their original condition), as well as a couple of well-done model railroad layouts.
- The 600-pound gorilla is the astonishing Baltimore Museum of Art, which has to be one of the top art museums in the country. Most fascinating was their temporary exhibit about Cezanne and his influence on American modernism, which I found both enjoyable and informative. The Antioch mosaics, the European art in general, and especially the Cone Collection all deserved more time than we had. If you’re ever in Baltimore, don’t miss this museum!
Finally, we can’t go anywhere without mentioning restaurants. All in all, we were a little bit disappointed in the food we had in Baltimore, and I’m sure we could have done better. Although we were told that it was silly for us as Bostonians to go out for seafood, it seemed sillier not to. Why go somewhere and avoid their specialty? So we mostly — but not exclusively — ate seafood. One dinner we ate at Phillips Seafood, which started with two strikes against it because of being both touristy and a chain, but it turned out to be perfectly adequate. We also ate at the famous Bertha’s Mussels, still touristy but at least local; it was good, but definitely not gourmet. On the gourmet side we did have an excellent meal at the Marie Louise Bistro, but we concluded with an overpriced and unimpressive experience at the LDS restaurant our last night. We went there because it was raining and we were exhausted from all our walking, so we found the closest restaurant to our hotel. At first we thought that the sign meant that it was a Mormon restaurant, but it turned out to stand for “Luna del Sea.” This hybrid of English and fake Italian turned out to represent the cuisine all too well, and neither the service nor the ambiance made me comfortable. Don’t bother going there the next time you’re in Baltimore.
Oh — two more things. First, it’s worth noting that there are many instances of public art in the downtown area. Here are a couple of examples:
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| Finally, on the right we have what purports to be the narrowest house in Baltimore: the visitors’ info claims that it’s only nine feet wide, and it certainly looks to be no more than that. If you look carefully, you’ll see from the brick that there are different row houses almost immediately to the left and right of the doorway. |
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I am sure that we are going to return.
Julie and Julia has gotten so much publicity that I’m not sure I have much to add. It was a good movie to watch on New Year’s Eve — but watch it anyway if you haven’t seen it yet, New Year’s Eve or not. In this fictionalization of a true story, Meryl Streep is surprisingly successful at portraying the great Julia Child, Amy Adams does a great job as the irritating Julie Powell, the food looks delicious, the scenes in Paris are inviting, and Queens looks like…well…Queens. Paul Child and Eric Powell are played as unendingly supportive husbands, as they apparently were in real life. (Maybe that’s why some reviewers consider this a chick flick.) There are no surprises here — just a well-made, charming, and entertaining movie. Don’t listen to those who tell you it’s too long (at 123 minutes); it isn’t.
Our quest for new dining experiences in Dorchester continues with Harp & Bard, a follow-up to our recent visit to Ledge. Barbara and I — this time with our friends Al and Melanie — enjoyed our meal enough to be willing to return. Like Ledge, we have a renovated bar turned into a real restaurant that appeals too much to kids while still being too much of a bar, both features resulting in too much noise. (Is this some kind of trend?) But the food was more consistent, and all four of us were pleased with our dinners. The one real exception was the French onion soup, which I had to try in order to compare it with the same item at Ledge. Unfortunately someone had goofed massively in the kitchen, as I fished out six — count them, six — bay leaves in my one cup of soup! After performing the essential laurelectomy I was able to enjoy the soup without being overwhelmed by the scent and taste of bay leaves, which shouldn’t have been left in the soup in the first place even if there had been only one of them; six was a ridiculous quantity.
Oh well, enough of that rant. My companions report excellent corn-and-bacon chowder; we also were pleased with the Caesar salad, the high-quality sliders (an entree-sized appetizer), the perfectly prepared mussels, and the excellent prime rib, which was cooked exactly as ordered (very differently for Melanie and for me, an indication of success on their part). Wine was OK but disappointing. Finally, I have to say that I’m impressed with their new logo:
So, on the whole it’s a thumbs-up for the Harp & Bard, despite a few reservations. (No, not that kind of reservations. It’s not that sort of restaurant.)
Barbara and I, along with our friend Mary, were disappointed with Ledge, the newest restaurant in the up-and-coming Dorchester dining scene. It would probably be a fine place for lunch, but we were unimpressed with our dinner there. The most jarring thing was the atmosphere — oddly both too much like a bar and too full of young kids, neither being conducive to the quiet dining experience we had expected. Service was correspondingly erratic. The food — this is beginning to sound like a theme — was of inconsistent quality, featuring steak of mediocre quality, adequate onion soup, routine mac and cheese, and excellent vegetables. Probably one could put together a good meal here if one knew what to order, but there are too many other better dining options around to make it worth returning to Ledge.
I’ve written about dBar twice before: on January 17, 2006, and on February 15, 2008. It has maintained its high standards. Barbara had mussels, followed by steak tacos, and she reports that both were excellent. I started with a scrumptious duck confit with lentils — how could I resist? — followed by a perfectly prepared tuna ceviche.
As our appetizers were being served, the entire experience was enhanced by the entrance of two men, accompanied by the Wedding March: they were holding their wedding reception right there in dBar! (It’s all one big room, so there was no private space, although the bar area is marked off by a half-height wall.)
The southern half of Dorchester is becoming known for its new restaurants, especially if you extend the southern edge a bit into Milton. As you know from my brief review of Mrs. Jones, I’ve already written about one of these new restaurants. We still haven’t tried Ledge or Abby Park, but yesterday Barbara and I had a first-rate dinner at 88 Wharf, located unsurprisingly at 88 Wharf St. As you can see on the map, this restaurant is actually in Milton, but it’s only about 200 feet from the Dorchester border as the crow flies. Or, if you happen to have a car rather than a crow, you’ll have to venture a little further (about 500 feet) into Milton. But don’t worry; it’s not scary. Here’s the map:
Anyway, the atmosphere was slightly elegant but still welcoming and comfortable. Service was perfect: prompt, attentive, and appropriately chatty, but never rushed or overbearing. (Are you beginning to sense a theme here?) When we ordered a bottle of wine that they turned out to have run out of, the waiter offered us a choice of two somewhat comparable but higher-priced wines for the price of the one we had ordered. So we got a Zaca Mesa Syrah for the price of a Seghesio Zin. Both Barbara and I really liked the perfect Caesar salad, even though at first I didn’t taste the promised anchovies, which turned out to be a subtle ingredient of the dressing. Barbara then had an excellent short-ribs stroganoff, which was served over papardelle noodles, along with a side of properly cooked green beans. I had the lamb shank — why is it so hard to find lamb in restaurants these days? — which came with barley and kale. The flavors of all three merged wonderfully to produce a memorable dish.
I wasn’t intending to have dessert, but I couldn’t pass up the “traditional crème brulée,” balanced by a large cup of strong, black coffee. The crème brulée was indeed traditional; more to the point it was smooth and perfectly prepared. A fitting end to a fine meal. As General MacArthur and his wife said, “We shall return.”
After several enthusiastic recommendations from friends, Barbara and I decided to try the take-out from Mrs. Jones, a small restaurant at 2255 Dorchester Avenue in Lower Mills, Dorchester. We are pleased to report an enthusiastic thumbs-up. For an exceptionally reasonable price we got two dinners of fried chicken wings with assorted sides — cole slaw, candied yams, stuffing, mac & cheese, and cornbread — which provided not only Sunday dinners for the two of us but also another meal’s worth of leftovers for two. Almost everything was delicious (other than the overcooked macaroni), so we are recommending Mrs. Jones to all our friends. Aside from a tiny counter, with maybe four seats, it’s entirely take-out. For more details, check out the reviews in Hidden Boston and Yelp.
I’ve had lunch twice so far at Pasha, a new Turkish restaurant in Arlington Center. Although I don’t know anything yet about their dinners, I can highly recommend it on the basis of the two lunches. If you’ve never had Turkish cuisine, you have to try it! Unsurprisingly it resembles Greek cuisine quite a bit — it’s unsurprising since the majority of Greek foods were originally Turkish, presumably in part because of the geographical proximity of the two countries but more because of the Ottoman Empire. Anyway, the very extensive menu includes a wide variety of meat, seafood, and veggie dishes, with the expected emphasis on lamb and eggplant. At our recent lunch we shared a perfectly done babaghannouj as a cold appetizer (though oddly with an Americanized French bread instead of pita), an unusual mucver as a hot appetizer (that’s fried stuffed zucchini with garlic yogurt sauce, accompanied by a small salad), and the delicious Sultan’s Boat as an entree (described as “beef and lamb marinated with Turkish spices, roasted with mashed potatoes and mozzarella cheese, served with bulgar and house salad”). Despite the bread and the mozzarella cheese (and the presence of lasagna on the menu), Pasha seems very authentic, if I can remember correctly from my visit to Turkey all too long ago — I think it was in 1978. And they do serve wine and beer; even though Turkey is an ostensibly Muslim nation, it’s a thoroughly secularized one.
My only complaint is a linguistic one. Because they chose to use a font that doesn’t include such essential Turkish letters as the undotted i (ı) or the ş and ç with cedillas — all distinct from the dotted i, the plain s, and the plain c — many of the Turkish words were incorrect. Somehow I suspect that that won’t bother very many of the patrons, but it bothered me.
First of all, if you’re one of my students, you should not read this post, since you’re under 21 and know nothing about wine.
Yesterday afternoon we were introduced to “Dorchester’s best-kept secret,” the Boston Winery, at a fundraiser for the Dorchester Historical Society (DHS). You probably never knew that there’s a winery in Dorchester — in fact, you probably never knew that there was one anywhere in Boston. I, at any rate, never knew that. But in fact the Boston Winery has been around for a few years, and not only makes its own wines but also provides customers with the opportunity to make their own.
The fundraiser consisted of a tour of the winery and a tasting of several varietals, including Syrah, Cabernet, Zin, and Merlot. I was quite surprised at the high quality of the wines. That may be due to the fact that the grapes come from California (in contrast, say, to the undrinkable wines from upstate New York). The winery is owned by the family that owns the Venezia Restaurant next-door, and is located in a beautiful, renovated old factory. Check it out; it’s located on Ericsson Street, which you’ve probably never heard of — but that’s appropriate, since you’ve never heard of the Boston Winery either. It’s right on the waterfront, in the Port Norfolk section of Dorchester.
This evening’s Taste of Dorchester event was a great success. When I moved to Dorchester in 1985, I never would have guessed that there would soon be a couple of dozen good restaurants in this part of Boston — and with such a wonderful diversity. Among the places providing all-you-can-eat (actually, more-than-you-can-eat) food at the IBEW Hall were Chau Chow (Chinese), Saigon Seafood (Vietnamese), Shanti (Indian/Bangladeshi), Ashmont Grill (local gourmet), Tavolo (Italian), Blarney Stone (eclectic, no longer Irish as the name suggests), Greenhills (I guess they’re still Irish), Cesaria (Cape Verdean), Irie (Jamaican), Belle Cuisine (Haitian), Big Moe’s (ribs) — I could go on, but you get the idea! Come to Dorchester and try them out. As we like to say, it’s no farther from Arlington to Dorchester than it is from Dorchester to Arlington.
What do you do if you’re at a restaurant and there’s a celebrity at the next table? I’m told that Europeans ignore celebrities and let them enjoy their privacy, but Americans all too often have to say hello, get an autograph, and so forth. I’ve written several times before about the Ashmont Grill — see my posts of 12/31/06, 7/19/08, and 12/23/08, for instance — and that’s where Barbara and I saw Governor Deval Patrick and his wife sitting at the next table yesterday along with two other couples. Fortunately, the other patrons in the restaurant were all polite and paid no attention. No one came over for an autograph, no one came over to complain about taxes or the Mass Pike, and I even resisted taking advantage of this opportunity to lobby for Metco.
Incidentally, even before spotting the governor, I realized something unusual about the clientele at the Ashmont Grill these days. Although Dorchester is racially very diverse, that has not usually been the case with its restaurants. Typically customers at any given restaurant are either 95–100% white or 95–100% black. It’s not exactly segregation, but it’s painfully close to that. But the Ashmont Grill is cheerfully mixed. I didn’t do a headcount, but it was very clear that the black/white ratio was somewhere between 1:4 and 1:2, a much healthier balance than I usually see.
Speaking of which, go to A Taste of Dorchester on April 30! The mixture of restaurants at that event will certainly guarantee a diverse crowd.
Chalk up another plus or two for Dorchester.
Over the past few weeks, a number of my sophomores have been trying to figure out my birthday. All they knew was that it was somewhere in February. Even though I had told them that one of my students (now a senior) had figured it out two years ago in five minutes through clever Internet research, and even though several of them read this blog, they were getting nowhere. It all turned into a game: they would come in every day and ask, “Is today your birthday?” And every day I would say, “No.”
They made sure that I promised that my birthday was not on a weekend, nor in school vacation week. Finally, after several hints about research techniques (especially from a colleague, who pointed out that this is a searchable blog), Irene, Seena, and Tricia figured out my birthday with two days to spare.
So, today really was my birthday. Barbara and I just got back from dinner at Sel de la Terre, our favorite birthday spot. Earlier I reviewed this restaurant for Barbara’s birthday last year and for my birthday three years ago. Sel de la Terre continues its excellent and nearly perfect tradition. We were worried that they might be spreading themselves too thin, since they now have a third location, but our worries turned out to be unfounded. Barbara started with mussels with ceci (which I call chick peas and Barbara insists on calling garbanzo beans); these came in a delicious tomato-y broth but with too much fennel for her taste. I started with a competent French onion soup; it was very hot and rich in flavor, though the cheese could have been more melted. For her entree, Barbara had tiny crab cakes with rosemary whipped potatoes. Both the crab cakes and the potatoes were first-rate. I chose rack of lamb with lima beans, scallions, and whipped potatoes. The lamb was luscious and flavorful, cooked rarer than the medium-rare that I had ordered, but that was fine with me: I love rare lamb. We had a nice bottle of a big red wine, Les Arbousiers from Domaine La Remejeanne, a reasonably priced but high-quality 2005 Cotes de Rhone. For dessert we shared a yummy chocolate espresso molten cake with espresso ice ream and cocoa cream; I think they took the calories out before assembling it, at least I hope so. After presenting us with the check, which was somewhat lower than last year’s, they gave us a freshly baked scone and corn muffin to take home.
I particularly want to commend the waitress for being consistently careful to ensure that neither the breads nor anything I ordered contained tree nuts, after only a single mention of my nut allergy. And they put a birthday candle on the cake, without needing any reminder: my birthday must be in their database, since they send me a certificate every February for 20% off.
Business was surprisingly slow for a Friday night. It must be the economy, since neither the food nor the service can explain it. Maybe that’s no surprise after all: apparently the high-end restaurants are all hurting, even if the cheaper ones are still doing all right.
While I suppose this probably isn’t news to anyone else, it was to me. Yesterday Barbara picked up a granola bar labeled Kellogg’s® Special K Bliss™. Note that Special K comes with “a variety of delicious options to kick-start a healthier new you!”
Lose 1 inch from your waist in 2 weeks with The Special K Challenge™. Turning wight [sic] loss goals into success stories has never been easier with the wide selection of delicious Special K® products.
On the assumption that what they’re really promoting is weight loss, I turned to the ingredient list. As we know, “food manufacturers are required to list all ingredients in the food on the label. On a product label, the ingredients are listed in order of predominance, with the ingredients used in the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts.” So let’s check out this healthful product that wants to promote weight loss. I’ll excerpt the intimidatingly long list of ingredients with highlights, but I am not changing the order: “multigrain cereal (rice flour, wheat flour, whole oat flour, sugar, salt), sugar, corn syrup, bran flakes (wheat, sugar, …), rice cereal (rice, sugar, salt, high fructose corn syrup,…), …, glucose syrup, sugar, …” What’s wrong with this picture?
No, not two dogs. No, not two students whose last name is Chow. I’m referring to two Chinese restaurants: Chau Chow in Dorchester (discussed previously in this blog on 7/23/2008, 9/1/2006, and 5/9/2006) and Great Chow in the Wollaston section of Quincy (discussed only once in this blog, on 2/4/2006). Anyway, I just wanted to report that Barbara and I had a first-rate dinner at Great Chow the other night; we ordered far too much food, as all six of the special entrees were irresistible. Well, we had to resist, so we limited ourselves to three — which of course was still too much food. So we had leftovers to take home; nothing wrong with that. I highly recommend all three of the specials that we tried: lightly fried shrimp with garlic green beans, lobster with ginger and scallions, and roast duck with green beans.
Go to Chau Chow for dim sum, but Great Chow is definitely the better choice for dinner.
The waitress at the Legal Seafoods branch in Harvard Square was nervous and very apologetic. “This is my first time opening a bottle of wine in front of a customer,” she confessed. Of course she wasn’t allowed to rest the bottle on the table, and everything was supposed to be perfect.
We assured her that it was OK to put the bottle on the table, and we coached her through the process. The cork came out smoothly. The waitress was just so grateful: “Most people would be upset with me for not knowing how to do this.”
I replied by saying that I’m a teacher and that I believe in being patient while people learn. Doesn’t sound so unusual to me…but then again, I’m a teacher. We left a good tip.
We had lunch today at Beijing Garden, a reasonably good Chinese restaurant in Elmira. Why were we the only customers using chopsticks? Why was everybody covertly looking at us?
And why wasn’t this restaurant open yesterday (Christmas Day)? I guess there isn’t much of a Jewish population in Elmira anymore.
I’ve written a couple of previous posts about the Ashmont Grill — two years ago and five months ago. Since the latter post, Barbara and I have visited several times, mostly for the Monday Night wine club, which I highly recommend (though not, of course, for my under-21 readers). Each evening features a four-course dinner (admittedly of four small plates), with wines paired with each course, for an amazing $30 per person. The food is almost uniformly excellent, though occasionally the restaurant takes this opportunity to try out new dishes which of course aren’t necessarily successful. (Presumably the reason that they can achieve the $30 price point is that the wines are donated by a winery or retail outlet each time.) Here are four recent examples to whet your appetite:
From September 8
From October 27
From November 3
From December 22
I’m looking forward to Tuscany! (Who wouldn’t?)
A related event was a wine tasting benefit on August 4 at the Ashmont Grill for the St. Marks Area Civic Association, featuring wines from Albert Winestein, a retail wine-and-cheese store in Hyde Park.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Wine Club is not the wine nor even the food, but the fact that guests are arranged family style at tables that seat four to eight. As a couple, Barbara and I are always seated with strangers, something that would usually have a high probability of making me uncomfortable. I’m not particularly extraverted, and I tend not to be very sociable with people I don’t know yet. But the fact is that we’ve met lots of interesting people with a surprising number of things in common with us — not just providing the obvious conversation topics such as food, wine, and Dorchester. We’ve met a manager at a local independent bookstore (one of the few that remain), a physics professor, an architect from a neighboring town, and a woman who knew one of the very few Weston families to be distinctly countercultural.
So, if you live anywhere near Dorchester, try it out! Reservations are advised; you can call the restaurant (617-825-4300) to make inquiries and to be put on their email list. They usually don’t know the menus until a few days in advance, so don’t expect a lot of notice.
As locals know, the current incarnation of the Ashmont Grill is the creation of Chris Douglass, a neighborhood resident who is best known for his South End restaurant, Icarus. Barbara and I usually go to Icarus only once a year (for our anniversary), since it’s extremely expensive. The Ashmont Grill is still a bit overpriced, and not in the same league as Icarus in terms of cuisine and service, but at least it’s the sort of place that one could go to once a month, even without the exceptional value of the Wine Club. Read my July 19 review for more of my point of view, or check out the many reviews on Yelp for a variety of opinions, some reasonable and some wrong-headed. (I’m reminded of Tom Lehrer’s remark that the trouble with folk music is that it’s written by the people, and my friend Brian’s observation that you have to be wary of the general public’s opinions of restaurants, since McDonald’s is the most popular restaurant in the world.)
Before we leave the subject of the Ashmont Grill, I need to write a bit about Tavolo, Chris Douglass’s latest restaurant, catty-corner from the Ashmont Grill and right at the Ashmont Station on the Red Line. The theory was that this would be a third price point, with Icarus at the very high end, Ashmont Grill in the Middle, and Tavolo at the low end. As a pizza-and-pasta joint, Tavolo should be informal and inexpensive, while still serving high-quality food. Barbara and I have been there a couple of times, and we’re not impressed, though we really, really want to like it. The food is perfectly OK (nothing to write home about, but then again that’s not what you would expect), though there were a few flaws. For instance, while Barbara’s salad came with the dressing on the side, as she had requested, it was so heavily pre-salted that she couldn’t eat it. (Why pre-salt a salad at all?) And the carbonara was a bit too eggy, at least for our taste. We really liked the mushroom pizza. Service was fine, including cheerfully willing replacement of the salted salad. But our big problem was the wine prices. For a purportedly inexpensive restaurant with a $40 ceiling on wine, why does the lowest-price red go for $32? (My friends who are beer drinkers don’t have similar complaints.) For instance, a nice Sicilian Nero d’Avola that can be purchased retail for ten dollars is priced at $36 at Tavolo! I know that there are lots of reason for significant mark-ups, but if the otherwise pricey Birch Street Bistro in Roslindale can charge $24 for similar wines, why can’t Tavolo?
The Savin Hill neighborhood in Dorchester is conventionally divided into two parts, at least by real estate agents. The “better” half, according to some, is “Savin Hill over the Bridge,” namely the portion to the east of the bridge that crosses the Southeast Expressway. Dorchester is changing so rapidly that this decades-only terminology may now be out of date; read what people have to say on Yelp if you want some local opinions on the subject.
Anyway, immediately to the west of the bridge — practically on the bridge itself, but not quite “over the bridge” — is C.F. Donovan’s Restaurant, one of our favorites in Dorchester. Simple, unpretentious, not trying to be upscale or too gourmet, Donovan’s is where Barbara and I go when we’re driving home and it’s too late to start cooking dinner. Always reliable, Donovan’s has a large menu, prices are good, the food is always of high quality, the service is friendly and accurate, the portions are large, and the wine list is both decent and reasonably priced. What more could one ask for?
Try the Savin Hill scallops (“Jumbo Sea Scallops sautéed with sage butter, served over baby spinach and garlic mashed potatoes”), the French onion soup, the prime rib, the onion rings, the chicken bella boca, the grilled asparagus, and the burgers. In our experience, you can’t go wrong.
Following up on yesterday’s footnote, I need to mention another linguistic annoyance: the misuse of the word “Spanish.” Yes, it correctly describes the language that is spoken not only in Spain but also in much of Central and South America, but it’s not the right word for the culture, the food, or the people — unless, of course, you’re talking about Spain itself. For the Western Hemisphere we have the perfectly good words “Hispanic” and “Latino.” Anyway, my local neighborhood convenience store changed owners recently, and now it advertises “Spanish & American Foods,” as you can see in this picture. (I couldn’t find an angle that would avoid the intrusive stop sign, but you can still read it pretty well.)
Needless to say, I found lot of Latin American items inside the store but very little food from Spain. They do, however, primarily carry the Goya Foods brand, and it’s of interest that Goya was indeed founded by a couple from Spain. Goya, however, clearly uses the words “Spanish,” “Hispanic,” and “Latino” correctly on their website.
Two years ago I promised a review of the dim sum at the then-new branch of Chau Chow in Dorchester, but I don’t think I ever wrote one. So here, at long last, is that review.
Barbara and I ate dim sum there this morning (for what must be at least the sixth time — so you can see that we like it). Chau Chow serves traditional dim sum, where the servers roll carts around the restaurant and you order small quantities (Chinese tapas?) by pointing, not from a menu. There are, of course, both advantages and disadvantages to this system: aside from being authentic and just generally cool, the rolling-cart method has the advantage that you can see what you’re getting; it has the disadvantages that the food can sometimes come in very rapid succession, and you don’t always know what you’re getting, especially when the server speaks little English or very heavily accented English. At Chau Chow there are several servers in this category, but they’re all friendly and willing to try. The food is quite delicious, at least to these moderately educated Western palates. I don’t know what customers at the extremes would think — either the extreme of wanting totally Americanized food or the extreme of wanting nothing familiar. Perhaps both of those groups would be disappointed.
There are several dishes about which Barbara and I can agree: we’re both very fond of them. This morning we had scrumptious pork-and-shrimp shumai, unctuous eggplant that’s probably bad for us, yummy ground pork dumplings, the always delicious fried taro cakes (with a bit of shrimp in them), two different kinds of lovely shrimp-and-scallion dumplings, some not-to-be-missed lobster dumplings (yum!) — all of those were items we both loved. Do you begin to detect any themes there? In addition, we had scallion dumplings (which Barbara liked more than I did, since I’m put off by the flavor that steaming imparts to scallions) and stuffed mushrooms (which I love, but which have a texture that doesn’t appeal to Barbara). Needless to say, this was too much food, so we took quite a bit home to reheat for breakfast and/or lunch tomorrow. The entire bill came to $42.00 including tax and tip, which sounds like a lot for breakfast or brunch but was actually quite reasonable when you consider all the leftovers it provided.
So go to Chau Chow, especially if you have a group of more than two people, so you can sample more choices. Maybe you’ll try the chicken feet.
It was too hot to cook today, so Barbara and I went to the Ashmont Grill, along with our friend Cheri. This was our third dinner visit there in the past six months or so (in addition to a couple of brunches). I didn’t post anything about the previous two dinners, since I was waiting for a tie-breaker, and now we have one.
First of all, what happened two visits ago? We had been disappointed at that time, because earlier experiences at the Ashmont Grill had all been wonderful; but that time everything was mediocre. Vegetables were somewhat overcooked, meat was a bit dry and not hot enough, and service was haphazard. Next time would be better, we hoped. And indeed it was. So which was the real Ashmont Grill? I am pleased to report that the one disappointing experience was an anomaly, and all seems to be well. The three of us sampled a variety of items on the menu, and there wasn’t a false step among them: crisp, light calamari, whisked to us from the fryer without spending time under a heat lamp; plump, fresh, garlicky mussels in a red pepper sauce; a top-quality hamburger cooked exactly to order; fall-off-the-bone short ribs in not too much sauce; excellent home-made cole slaw; hot, thick, sinfully rich home-made onion rings; hot, fresh, cornbread; and a nice bottle of Côtes du Rousillon.
The prices, of course, are significantly lower than those at Chris Douglass’s other restaurant, his flagship Icarus, which is one of the very best restaurants in Boston. But it still seems a bit expensive for an informal, low-key, neighborhood-type place. Oh, it’s still definitely worth it, but don’t expect cheap. The food and service are great; now if only the prices were a little lower…
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