Standard of living

Came across this photo from a recent trip to Pennsylvania with college friends--do most college-age people eat this well? Compliments to the chefs: Evan and Dena. This meal for almost 20 people consisted of vegetable kebabs, seasoned corn, and chicken with a dry spice rub.

I started my day off correctly with a rib eye steak, diced vegetables, and two eggs over easy. I deemed it noteworthy. Compliments to the chef: Katie.

If you haven't checked out my photo blog yet--you should. Friends, like those mentioned above, and random people I meet on the street are posted on it. There's a good chance you could be on it . . . Paraphile.

Bella Luna - Jamaica Plain

I was recently invited to a bloggers' lounge party at Bella Luna. I graciously accepted the invitation knowing that refreshments would be on the house. I've always heard good things about Bella Luna from friends who live in JP and although I am familiar with their close neighbor the Milky Way--I had never been able to dine at Bella Luna.

Among the h'ourderves served were rosemary shrimp, fried mozzarella with prosciutto and arugula, and pizza with roasted fennel and mozzarella. I'm not a fan of sweets, but the cannoli and tarts intrigued me and were exceptional. I washed it down with a very dry Riesling.

The entire experience was quite amusing--as you would expect from a gathering of bloggers and web media folks the variety of people was staggering. The common internet nerd isn't usually the most outwardly social person. So it was interesting seeing what type of people are bloggers in the area. Unsurprisingly, most of the people there were food bloggers of some sort--and female. I think I met two or three men--all of which were not food bloggers; and around a dozen women who all blogged about food in some form. Hm.



Also, a girl spilled wine on my pants.





403-405 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, 617 524 606, www.milkywayjp.com/bellaluna.html

Family Gathering

These are chicken wings that someone in my family made. They are slightly burned, cold, and yet, somehow undeniably alluring and tasty.



Italian sausage with peppers and onions, penne, and a salad with olive, red onions, and cherry tomatoes.

This meal contains mysterious energies that hearken back to a time when young people crossed the "great big blue" with fantastic hopes and dreams for prosperity. None may dare to defy its enchanted properties--else they'd be consumed with ancestral guilt.





Oh, and this was the spread.

Hoi An - Tribeca

Hoi An is a port city in Vietnam where Japanese and Chinese trading boomed in the 16th and 17th centuries. That's cool, right? Do you like it when I tell you peripheral things about the restaurants I go to? Someone is thinking logically there, because--big surprise--it's a Vietnamese restaurant with Japanese traits.

The atmosphere was really nice here: small, candle-lit, open kitchen, and dark wood furnishings. Friendly staff and a comprehensive menu, albeit a little expensive.

We started with an appetizer sampler of mushroom fritters, edamame, spring rolls, and fish fritters. Each shelled item came with it's own delightful sauce making it a flavorful introduction to the meal. The spring rolls were crispy and flaky with a crumbling assortment of veggies and shrimp inside. The fish fritters weren't too fishy tasting, but a bit tough and chewy. The mushroom fritters were also a little firm, but not harsh--I enjoyed them the most of the four. Edamame is edamame is as good as sucking beans out of a pod can be.

For the main course we had a seafood hot pot. A generous amount of leafy greens, noodles, scallops, shrimp, squid, and tofu encircled a well of what I deemed to be soy-based broth.

Usually, I am not a fan of going to a restaurant and being charged to cook my won meal, but I made an exception here since I was in good company and in the mood for seafood. For newbies: a hot pot meal entails dipping the various ingredients into the broth in order to cook it to your liking and combine with other ingredients as you wish--the entire pot is served on a mobile hot plate to keep the broth at high temperature.

All of the ingredients tasted fresh and there was no uneasy feelings of undercooked seafood blunders. My tactic in shoving a large portion of everything all into the broth at once proved successful as the noodles formed a edible netting around certain items in order to create a tangle of brothy seafood. Sound appetizing?

The meal as a whole was great. The servers even scouted our burner once in a while to make sure we weren't boiling our broth or accidentally turning it off completely in my case. The hot pot was $23 which is expensive, yes, but not bad in terms of this sort meal. Throw in a few Brooklyn Ales along with the appetizer plate and the meal came to around $50. For two people, that's a lot, but worth it if you're looking for a nice date or an interesting meal.

135 West Broadway between Duane and Thomas St., New York, NY 10013, 212 233 1339, www.hoian-nyc.com

Phelps - An Olympic Eater

This guy made the French team eat their words. For that, I applaud him and for winning a slew of gold medals for America I applaud him again. There's something very dramatic about the Olympics--a sort of intense emotional connection any spectator can attain when a single person can represent an entire nation in competition. You may not be a badminton player or avid fan, but I can assure you that when the Olympics come around you cannot help but be amazed by two people slapping a shuttlecock back and forth over a net.

So I eat a lot, but I don't eat this much. Phelps may be a swimming legend foremost, but to eaters everywhere he has risen to a frightening level of gustatory stamina.

Petite Abeille - Tribeca

I get into the city around 8 p.m. and get dinner with my pal Dana. We choose between two small restaurants next to each other. It was an easy decision when I saw one with a sign that read "half off Belgian beer."

I love Belgian things. Have you ever been to Bruges? Go there.

My sense of nationalism is bold though--Petite Abeille ("the small bee") does America great justice in terms of culinary import. For a small, crowded, restaurant we were surprisingly seated immediately and our waitress was helpful, but not intrusive. This was a definite splurge: beer cream mussels, garlic and herb butter steak, and cheese croquettes (initially we had ordered crab cakes, but their stock was depleted). Light salads with mixed greens, tomato, and red onions and generous portions of fries seemed to accompany all dishes.

Ordering steak at a restaurant is a gamble. There's a lot that can go wrong with a steak: too much or too little seasoning, bad cut of meat, cooked too long or too little, etc. Petite Abeille showed the ability to balance and as I cut a sliver of the thick and juicy beef I nodded in aknowledgement of their success in steak equilibrium.

Although I must admit, the best steak is the one you cook for yourself. The nuances of a person's steak preferences tells of their character. Medium? A moderate who plays safe. Unabashedly rare? Extremist at heart. Well done? Stoic, stalwart, a reliable pillar in a world of turmoil. But enough of this, the steak here was good.

The mussels were small and the beer cream sauce wasn't overpowering. I enjoy a larger sized mussel--something I can sink my teeth into, but I hear that smaller sized mussels are more flavorful and of higher grade. I believe this is because the larger mussels are fed with grain which makes them so large and does not add much to the flavor of the mussels as a result. Suggestion: dip your bread or fries into the broth the mussels are served in.

I don't have much experience with cheese croquettes so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was expecting something made mostly of cheese obviously, but I feared something rich in dairy to the point that eating a fried piece of cheese would leave me feeling heavy in the stomach. Luckily, that was not the case. The croquettes were not of great weight and had a light crispy outer layer with a light, airy, filling that was firm enough to cut without having to pull massive cheese strings through the restaurant.

The peripherals were executed well. The fries were crisp and large and the salads were fresh and crisp with a generous amount of dressing. You should be willing to take out a good amount of cash at Petite Abeille. Steak $22, mussels $18, croquettes $8.50, and Hoegaardens were $3 each (at half off the regular price).

134 West Broadway between Duane and Thomas, New York 10013, 212 791 1360, www.petiteabeille.com

Mocca Cafe - Tribeca

I went to NYC for a short business visit and treated myself to some higher grade (ahem, more expensive) dining with my friend Dana while I was there.

Mocca Cafe, a somewhat upscale cafe known for its gourmet coffee and Mediterranean style dishes, was our lunch destination. The Romano Roast Beef sandwich caught my eye--nothing fancy, I just love roast beef. It came on ciabatta bread with honey mustard, mayo, swiss cheese, red onions, roasted red peppers, olives, and lettuce. The flavor was somewhat underwhelming, but I guess I was expecting something striking in the mix of ingredients--it all blended well together to make a filling sandwich with no gimmicks. Fries were large, thick, and crispy--not too salty.

I really appreciated the small side salad oddly enough. I think it was the effort they put into it. Most places simply slap a chunk of wet lettuce on the plate and here we had a mix of light greens and cherry tomatoes with a proportional amount of light dressing. Why am I so grateful of this? I'm not sure.

Washed it down with a strawberry mango smoothie; refreshing with a good thick consistency and not too sugary,fresh as advertised. A substantial lunch--but at what cost? The roast beef sandwich was $11 and the smoothie was $6.50--plus the fries cost an extra couple dollars as well. That's around $20 dollars without tip for a single meal.

Waitress did her job, although unsociable and scowling somewhat. Take that as you will.

Dana got a seared Ahi Tuna Steak for lunch. Damn.

Reade and Church St., New York, 10007, 212 233 7570

Shino Express Sushi - Back Bay

The popularity of sushi in the U.S. has skyrocketed, it has become one of the most trendy foods. Granted, many people seem to be lured in by very non-confrontational types of sushi like California rolls, which do not contain any raw fish, and Unagi--a roll that has broiled eel and lacks a fishy taste.

Now it seems that sushi is so widely available it is easy to find a sushi place, but often hard to find a good one. Shino comes to a compromise in this dilemma. Sushi usually takes a lot of concentration and time to compose by sushi chefs who are highly trained--you can find some very good, small, sushi places in Chinatown that take the time to execute their sushi dishes optimally. However, many places, like Shino, have trained Hispanic chefs to expedite the sushi rolling process and go for a more instant-gratification scheme.

And they do it well. Shino is cheaper than most sushi places and fast. Their sushi isn't amazing in any regard, but it's pretty good for the price. A roll of tuna, salmon, and a inside-out roll of unagi and avocado only brought me down $15. Nothing spectacular about the sushi; the tuna and salmon weren't too fishy tasting and the eel and avocado were standard as well. Shino is a good place for people who may have never had sushi before and want to test the waters before going to a nicer restaurant and ordering something of higher quality.

They boast the use of brown rice in all of their food, which is supposedly healthier because it is processed less and means they avoid rice that has been bleached--that's good. Though, I do love white rice and prefer it over almost any other type; finding white rice that hasn't been tampered with isn't too difficult either.

144 Newbury St., Boston MA, 02116, 617 262 4530, www.shinoexpress.com

Men Tei - Back Bay

Another trip to Men Tei had me feeling on the drier side so I declined the regular soup and rice dish and got their teriyaki chicken plate with an order of vegetable fried rice. Men Tei is a ramen place foremost, but their menu has no filler. The chicken was juicy with light flavoring--it wasn't inundated with teriyaki sauce or any weird congealing of the sort that many fast food Chinese places have. The vegetable fried rice was light and fresh, not greasy.

For a meal with a lot of carbs it didn't weigh me down that much and I felt great afterwards. Although it was more expensive than the dinner special at around $15.

66 Hereford St., Boston, MA 02115, 617 425 0066

B.Good - Back Bay

B.Good's success hinges on the expectation that people are willing to shell out a couple more bucks for food that is fast, but that isn't processed to hell or molested by machines. That's a pretty good expectation--I won't argue with that.

They have a wholesome family tone going on where if you sign up to be part of their "family" you can get gifts that I assume are basically coupons and invitations to eating contests and other events. I'm starting to like these guys--how about you?

With hunger heaving at my door I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out a burger at B.Good. I ordered a double El Guapo with cheddar. Note that it is extra to make it double and to add the cheese as well. The El Guapo is pretty standard with tomato, onions, and lettuce, but adds jalapeno-ranch dressing and bacon to the mix as well. By doubling it and adding cheese I made a $6.29 burger into a $8 burger. I have mixed feelings about this since that's a bit much to spend on a single burger, but in it's defense it did add a substantial amount of girth to it.

I was warned of their fries before, but I had to try them myself. Unfortunately, that advice should have been heeded--their regular fries are undesirable: a bit chewy, neither crispy nor soft with flavor that can only be described as bland. I hear their sweet potato fries are a much better option.

The burger was great though. The meat patties were definitely lean and cut out the grease that fast food chains dish out. The jalapeno-ranch dressing adds a nice kick too, but I don't think there was any bacon . . . that is I couldn't tell if there was any or not. The mystery of this ghost bacon perturbed me somewhat. My thoughts of it turned to postmodern meditation: if the bacon existed, but was not tasted--did it exist in my sense of reality at all? Did my mind's entertaining of the notion of bacon as an idea mean that the bacon was, in fact, there before I even began eating? Or perhaps they just forgot to put it on the burger--after all, they did forget to give me my fries at first.

Bacon meditation.

131 Dartmouth St., Boston, MA, 617 424 5252, www.bgood.com

McCormick & Schmick's - Back Bay

Cheap food does not always denote good food.

But that doesn't mean it has to be bad food.

My friend, Brendan, informed me that McCormick & Schmick's has a happy hour sort of deal between 10 p.m. and midnight on weekdays where they serve very cheap food. Very cheap, we're talking $2 cheeseburgers, $3 hot wings, $4 mussels and more. Naturally, my interest was perked and we ventured over to try several of these options.

I will start with the best: the cheeseburger. Worth $2? I'd say so. It's a 1/2 pound burger with lettuce, tomato, red onions and American cheese accompanied by a small amount of fries. No complaints here. For me, it was better than a fast food burger and the fries were standard. I'd suggest coming here and just ordering 2-3 of these burgers if you're in the mood for a good deal of food on the cheap side.

I also made the odd choice to order a shrimp cocktail--I imagined a glass a with maybe 2-3 medium to smallish sized shrimp with a dollop of cocktail sauce in the glass. I mean this is supposedly a good seafood restaurant or say they say. In reality, I was served a spoonful of canned shrimp drowned in cocktail sauce over lettuce. Have you ate lettuce and cocktail sauce? Well, don't. This one was $3--more than the burger. I don't know why either. I try to be objective and straightforward--so don't get this.

The hummus and pita chip plate seemed like a good idea. you can't really mess up two things that require no preparation whatsoever. But this is where McCormick & Schmick's served up another surprise. The pita chips were stale. I can go on record and say that you could bend the majority of them without having them break--so if origami interests you you may like these. The hummus did not look like hummus, which says a lot for a food that looks sort of like clay. Did I mention the hummus was hard? It was. This one was $2.

Lastly, I tried a hot wing and it was acceptable. Although for $4 they only give you around six or seven of them. But compared to the hummus and shrimp cocktail their quality astounds. When it comes down to the line though, the cheeseburger remains the champion of the night.

34 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA 02116, 617 482 3999, www.mccormickandschmicks.com

Sibling Rivalry - South End

I always walk by this place on Tremont and I've never thought of going inside. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because of the formal atmosphere and the smug, uppity, aura that places like this and the Beehive have been known to radiate in their time. I wouldn't say that Sibling Rivalry is a restaurant that is very suitable for a person like me. But it's still a pretty good place for brunch.

Yes, I went to brunch.

Surprisingly, I went for some lighter fare this time*. I ordered a cobb salad with toasted brioche. The salad was nothing to scoff at--it had a mixture of interesting features: large chunks of avocado, deviled eggs, bacon, olives, and grape tomatoes. It was a little expensive considering it was $10 for the salad and another $3 for the brioche. Although, the brioche did complement the salad very well and the deviled eggs were firm and not overpowering, the olives seemed to be much more flavorful than I like them to be.

The hostess had somewhat of an unfriendly air about her, but the waitress was very friendly and healthily sociable--but that might of been because she spilled a glass of water over the table. In the end, my thoughts of Sibling Rivalry has certainly been uplifted, but it still remains a restauant that I wouldn't be gushing to go to--especially on a busier day. Yet, for a sunday brunch why not give it a go? I hear the Beehive has a good brunch menu as well and it's just a stone's throw away, but we'll see soon enough.

* I supplemented my meal by eating substantial portions of everyone else's meals I was dining with.

525 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02116, 617 338 5338, www.siblingrivalryboston.com

On my break

I skipped breakfast before work a couple days ago and after fording the waves of hunger until my break five hours later I went home to sate the need to gorge myself.

Green peppers, mushrooms, red onions combined with two rib eye steaks and a generous amount of seasonings resulted in a sumptuous meal. Needless to say, I went back to work smug and content.

Men Tei - Back Bay

It is sad that ramen noodles' reputation will forever be tarnished by their stereotypical consumption by college students. On the contrary, I hardly ever ate ramen while in college, yet I ate it frequently as a child. Ramen brings back fond memories for me. My mother would make it for me for lunch often and she'd crack an egg in it sometimes as well. I remember distinctly coming back from an over-night field trip in middle school and as I wearily stepped off the bus into the warm embrace of my Korean mother I requested one simple thing to coax me back into civilization: ramen.

That said, Men Tei, Back Bay's only authentic Japanese noodle restaurant holds a dear place in my heart. I discovered its glory one cold and overcast winter day. I was sick with a terrible cold and I was so congested and miserable that I was distraught. After a long shift of work at the Prudential Center I walked by Men Tei on Hereford St. and went inside after looking through the windows and seeing people enjoying large bowls of soup. After indulging myself, I felt a new man--able to take on the world again. Revitalized witht he ability to breath clearly and through my nostrils I vowed to sing praise of Men Tei to all. Now I stand before you a humbled man.

Cheap prices, large portions, Japanese fare, friendly service--what must I do to convince you? Lunch and dinner specials? Quirky Japanese owner with odd music tastes? Waiters who also form the band The Ricecookers? I'm not sure what else I can tell you. I'd imagine if you aren't willing to go there by now then you're probably the kind of person that I wouldn't want to befriend anyways. Maybe you should just stay away then.

I usually get the dinner special with pork cutlet noodle soup and broiled eel over rice. The cutlet is crispy and tender with a savory dark sauce drizzled over it. The soup itself is served hot and with a generous amount of bean sprouts and firm noodles. The broth is satisfying and sans-MSG for all you sodium-haters. The eel is soft and tastes mild without the fishiness--a popular choice considering how nuts people go over unagi sushi--it's a comparable texture and taste.

The dinner special ranges between $10.95 and $12.95 depending on which soup you get. The portion is pretty large though and a single bowl of any type of ramen here is usually enough for any one person. I tend to splurge sometimes and get the aforementioned dinner special with an order of gyoza as well. Seeing all of that food laid out before me makes me feel . . . special.

Wakarimasse des ne?

66 Hereford St., Boston, MA 02115, 617 425 0066