Amsterdam Cafe - South End

OK, this is not a "coffee shop." There will be no jokes of the 4:20 kind. So, just don't.

This cafe is painted very bright shades in accordance with it's artistic theme. The sandwiches are even named after somewhat famous painters like Van Gogh and, in this case, Rembrandt.

Blah blah blah, I'm smart and know about artists if I look them up on Wikipedia--but I'm not going to do that, because I'm honest.

Russian dressing, cole slaw, hot pastrami, corned beef, and swiss on your choice of bread (I chose multi-grain) in the architectural styling of a double decker. Well done, chic cafe, way to stick to a theme and execute it well.

Damage: $6.50. I'm not really seeing any reason why you should pass this up. Are you? Maybe I'm missing something.

I wonder if the Dutch Golden Age included sandwiches.

517 Columbus Ave., Boston 02116, 617 437 6400

Ham Steak's Revenge

You probably don't remember, but I bashed on ham steaks on an earlier post. Whatever.

My friend Ben told me he purchased one from the Copley farmer's Market and invited me over for dinner. He cooked the ham steak in a pan with maple syrup from his family's place in Vermont with pineapples. I contributed with peppers and onions also purchased from the farmer's market that I fried with a meat marinade he had laying around--it came out pretty good. I brought over garlic cheddar spread and whole wheat toasties from Deluca's Market on Charles St. too.

We poured the veggies over some brown rice and patted ourselves on the back for accomplishing a great meal. Mojitos made with fresh mint complemented the sense of gratification and content.


However, our friend Emily contributed nothing. Bitch.

Common Ground - Allston

Beer and pizza make great companions. I imagine them traveling together and making great allies wherever they roam. Pizza, mounted upon a fiery steed, with beer plodding closely behind on a mule, they approach a town trodden with depression--the peasants see them approach. They hoot and cry out as the duo enters town and after much merriment the two heroes depart in search of new friends.

Seriously though, they have pitchers of beer and cheese pizzas for $14 at Common Ground in Allston (also known as "Kid Nation" in lieu of the amount of free-willed college students that abide there). So before 10 p.m. on Tuesdays the deal is a pitcher of the sweet and smooth Brooklyn Brown Ale and a moderately sized cheese pizza for $14. I think they don't always serve Brooklyn Brown with this deal, but it certainly makes it more than worth it when they do--a pitcher of Brooklyn Brown by itself costs $17.

This is a test now. Do you get the pitcher and the pizza for $14 or do you get just the pitcher for $17. Please pass this test. Please don't make a fool of yourself. If you're not hungry, call me and I will eat your pizza. Hell, call someone.

Don't you have friends?

83 Harvard Ave., Allston, MA 02134, 617 783 2071, www.commongroundbarandgrill.com

Toro - South End

I am generally against tapas bars because I love large portions of food, but Toro is where I go for cheap drinks. Can you say $1 tall boy PBRs? Plus they have great sangria and a good range of other drinks. I'll admit I have tasted a few of the tapas here and they are great, but I would not come here on an empty stomach unless you have a full wallet--after all it is a Ken Oringer restaurant.

I suggest the smoked duck "drumettes" with rhubarb and the seasoned corn, both make great bar snacks. beware of the hummus though, it was too cold and served with a few tough slugs of bread.

Toro is an ideal place to go after a meal in my opinion. You can split a pitcher of sangria or take turns buying rounds of PBRs for a cheap night of drinks. My friend Mike visited from New York recently and it was a good place to catch up on things.




704 Washington St., Boston, MA 02118 617 536 4300, toro-restaurant.com

Two things I made in a frying pan

1. Spaghetti and cheese and spinach ravioli with extra virgin olive oil, sweet green peppers (from the Copley Farmer's Market), green onions, chili powder, onion salt, soy sauce.


2. Fried rice with sesame oil, soy sauce, chili powder, onion salt, snow peas, yellow peppers, spring onions, green onions, and fried eggs . . . do you see a pattern forming?

Boston Beer Works - Fenway

Beer Works. They boast a large selection of micro-brewed beers--that's cool, I guess.

So if you want to pay a bit more for a beer made in a very large and touristy restaurant then this might be a good place to go. This was my first time there, but I have a feeling that this is where a lot of people from outside Boston go before, during, or after Red Sox games and where tourists go on scheduled tours of micro breweries--because that's what tourists do apparently.

I am willing to give anything a shot though. I ordered a "Victory White," which I assumed was a Belgium-esque smooth white and which it was to a certain point. It was light and crisp, not very smooth though. I have been craving southern fried chicken as I often do, since it's so difficult to find fried chicken around Boston that isn't Popeye's or KFC. So when I saw "Old South Fried Chicken Dinner" on the menu my decision was made quite quickly.

Unfortunately, when the meal arrived I was a bit disappointed. I'm not sure if the plate was huge or the portion was small, but it was not very filling and I had to clean up my friends' lukewarm stir fry and artichoke dip (complete with bottom-of-the-barrel tortillas) to tame my stomach.

The chicken was very thin and was probably frozen. The mashed potatoes and gravy were probably the highlight as they weren't too creamy or too chunky and the gravy was light and savory. The broccoli was steamed so it was typically underwhelming. Altogether the meal was underwhelming actually. This was an example of price not matching quality. The small meal and single beer cost around $20 and that's not including the meals of my friends that I intruded upon in order to fill the gap in my belly.

61 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215, 617 536 BEER, www.beerworks.net

Equator - South End

Thailand is 15 degrees north of the equator.

I'm not sure if that is relevant—but they do have linguine with duck; that's cool, right? The exterior of the restaurant is a bit deceiving. The window reads: “A Thai Restaurant.” But if you open the menu there's Korean, Indian, and Italian inspired dishes. It's more of a fusion menu although there are some Thai dishes.

The important thing to note here is that this place is a good restaurant. Yes, good restaurant—that's what we're looking for. Quiet atmosphere, friendly staff, and moderate prices make this a great place for a date. I've never been disappointed by the food and the drinks are reasonably priced as well. Every friend I have bought here has enjoyed it thoroughly.

I tested out their bibimbap, a simple Korean dish of vegetables and beef laid over rice that you mix together with chili pepper paste. The beef was tender and savory—not overly seasoned and the vegetables were cold and crisp. After mixing, it was a pleasant, warm amalgam of carrots, sprouts, beef, zuchinni, mushrooms, and spinach. I suggest bibimbap to anyone looking for a large, filling meal that is on the lower end of the price spectrum. It came with a small portion of hot miso soup as well—traditional with bits of tofu and seaweed, it made a great introduction to dinner.

To complement the bibimbap I got a Kirin Light and an order of fried crab shumai. The dumplings were good, nothing spectacular, but it's hard to mess up dumplings anyways. The combination of hot dumplings, vegetables, beef, and rice made for a great meal with varying textures and temperatures. The savory beef, crisp sprouts, fluffy rice, and firm shumai sated my void of a stomach and my palate as well.

The crab shumai, bibimbap, and Kirin together came to around $25. A little on the pricy side, but well worth it for a meal in such a nice atmosphere in a great neighborhood in the South End.

1721 Washington St., Boston, MA 02118, 617 536 6386, www.equatorrestaurantma.com

Nana's cooking

So like I said, I come from a family of that is centered around food. Every family gathering I've ever been to has been fueled massive quantities of food that has been cooked by the best chefs--namely the mothers, aunts, and grandmothers of the family.

I visited my Nana (yeah, I call her my Nana, so what?), and she made me a staple spread: home made tomato sauce, ziti, chicken Parmesan, meatballs, spare ribs, and salad. Desert was simple, but a perfect clincher: lemon cake with strawberry yogurt ice cream. A few things to note here:

1. Spare rib?
2. Fanny's
3. Italian grandmothers are bomb

You might think it's weird to have spare ribs in this meal, but it's not so much weird as it is delicious. My grandmother cooks the spare ribs in the sauce with the meatballs so that they are inundated with the flavor and juices of the sauce. My mother does the same, but subtracts the spare ribs and cooks sausage in the sauce--my favorite. Try it, honestly, you could probably throw anything in a pot of sauce and it'll come out better than ever--sauce makes everything better.

If you're ever in the the Framingham, MA area then you should head over to La Cantina. It's the birthplace of Fanny's Italian salad dressing and the home of a great prime rib.

Seriously, I will drink this salad dressing.

Lastly, I think we all know Italian grandmothers are bomb. I scored some awesome old family photos too:


Sauce.

No Cash, Eating In: We like it hot.

My roommate and I teamed up for a pretty good dinner tonight:

Boneless buffalo chicken and stir fried vegetables.

An unlikely combination, but surprisingly a good one and easy to make. Brendan baked the chicken breasts after lightly breading them and then soaked them in butter, hot sauce, and four drops of Mega Death. They were very spicy--but we love spicy.

The vegetables were simple. I sliced up some red peppers, onions, mushrooms, and broccoli put them in a skillet with olive oil, chili powder, onion salt, soy sauce, and a little bit of spicy szechuan sauce.

The end result was quite delightful. And spicy.

The Other Side - Back Bay

The Other Side is a great place because:

A. It's a casual place to grab a bite to eat
B. Lots of sexy bike messengers congregate there
and
C. They have $2.75 Brubakers

As a cyclist, I have a natural inclination for the Other Side. Simply seeing all of those bikes locked up outside makes me happy to be a patron. And the simplicity is what makes it. A simple menu of sandwiches and breakfast meals
alongside a good selection of beer means you can't go wrong. Plus, I've never had trouble with the servers there and they've always been pretty awesome.

Recently I went there for a break with a couple co-workers and it was smooth sailing per usual. A classic BLT and PBR draft for a cool $12? Yes, please.

BLT was pretty standard and could have used some, thicker, nicer, bacon, but I'm not going to complain. It's satisfactory for the $8 bucks it costs. The $3 Pabst or $2.75 Brubakers more than make up for it. The sandwich wasn't completely lacking either. It was drenched in Thousand Island dressing instead of the standard mayo and the lettuce and tomato was crisp and fresh as well. Chips replace the usual fries as well for this number.

So let me get this out of the way:

The Other Side is pretty good, not amazing, but good. For it's location it's still cheap and a laid back place, but it used to be a lot better. BLTs for $8 is decent, but try $3 grilled cheeses and much lower prices in general before. Maybe it's the economy or maybe the rent went up--either way, I'm not sure what happened, but that shouldn't dissuade you from going there now.

Hell, if you're not hungry it's still a great place to get some drinks.

407 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02115, 617-536-8437

Back in . . . the "Bean" --OK, there, I said it.

Who calls Boston Beantown? No one. Tourists maybe.

Anyways, I apologize to those of you that are:

A. Xenophobic
or
B. Yankees-haters

But I'm back in town and we can continue to be friends. Please?


Alright, fine.

Gee Whiz - Tribeca

Ok, listen for a minute. This is serious.

I love steak, rib-eye steaks, enter a couple over-easy eggs into the equation and I'm more than content.

So why did you order a ham steak? Why, Sean?

Let's give me a break and chalk this one up to the fact that I thought:

Hm, ham steak? I should get that because I very often eat steak and eggs and this could be a break in the horizon towards something new and potentially great.

I was wrong. It was OK for the first couple bites and then it felt like lead in my stomach and too buttery on my tongue. Which is something to say for someone who can down an entire rib eye with the works without breaking a sweat. The menu proclaimed this Virgina ham steak to be accompanied by potatoes, toast, and eggs anyway you want. And to their credit: french fries certainly are made of potatoes.

After glancing over our table after the food had arrived I noticed that the majority of the items we had were fried. I don't often make it a point to think of what I eat as unhealthy, but this was definitely one time where I felt a little 'greasy.' And for someone eats a lot that is a dark place to wander during a meal.

I'll give them kudos for the over-easy eggs though, no broken yolks here. Large portions and decent prices? check and check. Staff was nice--although I guess I should mention that our waitress was a bit out of it. She got our ordered fine and everything, she just seemed a little . . . off kilter? Strong Eastern European accent, glazed over eyes, and seemingly half-asleep. I don't think she was high. Anyways, I thought she was cool.

Pros: good prices, large portions, friendly and mysterious staff.
Cons: greasy and fried diner food, Sean sucks at ordering things he likes sometimes.

295 Greenwich St, At Chambers St, New York 10007, 212-608-7200

Veselka - East Village

This Ukrainian restaurant had a lot of press so we thought it would be a nice place to stop for brunch. The word Ukraine comes from a Slavic term for 'borderland,' which partnered well in my head since I was on the fence when determining whether or not I liked this place very much. Maybe I was expecting more since it seemed so well publicized.

Fondly remembering some dining experiences I had in Europe I went for the nostalgic smoked salmon on bagel--which might have been a bad idea, because, well, the East Village is not in Europe or the Ukraine for that matter. So while I imagined my smoked salmon to be light and drizzled with a yogurt cheese of some sort it was a bit disappointed to taste a salmon a bit more "fishy" than I like it and a simple stub of Philadelphia cream cheese next to it. It wasn't bad by all means, but the potato salad it came with was. At one point I actually think I may have bit into a grain of sand in my potato salad. Um, yeah, the pickle was great. And the thimble of cole slaw tasted more like tartar sauce to be honest.

The waiter was a great guy, very sociable, but more than likely a pretense which I can't blame servers for putting on when their income depends on their attitude--at one point while we were trying to get the check we saw him walk out of the restaurant for a smoke break or something. One of my friends coffee had a unopened packet of sugar stewing in it when he got it, which they replaced easily enough.

The main idea here is that the entire experience was mediocre. Nothing particularly interesting or delicious and decent waitstaff certainly does not make up for that. Prices weren't very good either as they were on the higher end.

Now,I'm not a narrow-minded guy so don' take this as a bashing--perhaps it was just one bad experience--the moons and planets were not aligned in my favor for this brunch. It happens. So maybe you should take a trip down to Veselka and let me know how it goes. Luckily the group of people I was with had a sense of humor and we weren't taken too far aback by the whole ordeal.

$11 for the smoked salmon bagel and $2 for a bottled tea. Our total for 4 people came to around $60 without tip.

"Ukraine's glory has not yet perished, nor her freedom"

144 Second Ave, At 9th St, The East Village & Noho, 212-228-9682

Hangawi - Koreatown

OK, so you remember when I said I was half Italian? Well I am, but I'm also half Korean, which makes for an interesting mix and for good conversation, but even better food.

Wandering around the small, on-the-rise, Koreatown area of New York bordered by 31st and 36th Streets and 5th and 6th Avenues, we found a large, intimidating, wooden door with old cast iron ring handles. Naturally, I thought this would be a great place to dine.

Upon entering we found it to be a vegetarian restaurant with an antique interior. Slipping our shoes off and dipping into an inset booth that made the illusion that you're sitting on the ground made for a relaxing atmosphere along with dim lighting and antique fixtures--even the servers were in traditional garb.

I went for bean curd with the Korean staple: kimchi. If you don't know what kimchi is then I suggest you just try it. My mother grew up on a farm in Buyo, Korea and just to let you in on the brilliance that is kimchi imagine: radish, cabbage, roots, and other vegetables packed into a mason jar with chili paste and other spices and then buried in the ground.

Yep, buried to allow it to ferment. Legit kimchi is pretty high on the hot factor when it comes to fermenting in hot chili paste, but most places in the states don't go as far to burn the tongues of gringos.

The bean curd was cut into large cubes and drizzled with a spicy chili sauce. Firm and chilled they offset the warm kimchi (kimchi is often served cold as well) well. The kimchi was the best had ever had in a restaurant. The spiciest I've had (that wasn't homemade) and a good mix of vegetables and green and it had mushrooms as well--awesome.

Steamed vegetable dumplings made a good companion to the meal which were pretty standard--who doesn't love dumplings? A very tall OB beer came to quench all thirsts and did so unrestrained.

A great dining experience, but certainly high on the price meter. It was $17 for the bean curd with kimchi, $8 dumplings, $8 beer. For the two of us? $63 without tip. A nice place for a date--especially if they are vegetarian.

Kamsa hamnida.

http://www.hangawirestaurant.com/
12 East 32nd St., New York, 10016, 212-689-0780

Thai Terminal - East Village

Airports suck. I mean they used to suck, but now they really suck. Everyone's rushing around trying to make flights; finding out their flight was delayed or cancelled; missing their luggage, etc.

Luckily, this terminal had no lines or delays. A more uniquely designed restaurant, Thai Terminal is a narrow, er, well, terminal. What makes it stand out is the white tile floor and walls that are dimly lit with candles and on nice nights the storefront is left completely open.

We started off with an average appetizer sampler of steamed shrimp dumplings, spring rolls, wings, and peanut dumplings. Basic stuff, no interesting twists other than the peanut dumplings which were new to me and surprisingly good with a soft steamed outer layer with a mellow, nutty, paste inside.

I got the Cashew Chicken with sticky rice and I thought I'd make it a point to tell you that Caitlin's dish was called "Chicken Breast Festival." Yep.

The chicken was juicy and sliced into moderate-sized chunks and buried in a healthy amount of onions, cashews, celery, and peppers. Could of used some more chili paste, but it was still adequately spicy I suppose. The vegetables were great and had a good amount of snap to them and still retained the flavors of the curry--I'd say the vegetables out shined the chicken here. Average sticky rice, which means great sticky rice.

Entree with choice of rice: $8 (nice!). One Sapporo: $4. Great deal for a nice meal in an intriguing environment. Our total for three people with appetizers, 3 entrees, and drinks came to $57 without tip.

Chicken Breast Festival.

http://thaiterminalnyc.com/
349 E 12th St., East Village, New York, 10003, 212-614-0155