Boston Review

Picture from Carlton Hill, Edinburgh...


Someone doesn't like me mentioning Oishii... I wonder who he/she is... man, it makes me hungry just thinking about it. Other things that make me hungry are all the places I got wined and dined at this weekend. Oh, Boston, how I miss you; nostalgic again; Boston is a pretty nice city when it's warm... which was odd given that it's already December. Anyway, the important stuff... chronologically:

Grafton Street - yummy recommendation from the cooking stories. She never disappoints. The seafood was excellent: I ordered a pan seared salmon that was cooked to perfection while cooking stories ordered a scallop dish that was so good it beat my dish. Good start to the food in Boston. The dessert menu included pecan pie... but somehow we resisted that temptation. Passing by Bartley's was cool too, I smelled the grease and was almost tempted to go in for a burger and a milk shake. Oh, the milk shake. It was closed, so I saved my body a little bit.

Mentei - lunch with an old friend. This little noodle shop is tucked away in the middle of Newbury Street (if that's possible) and is always popular with Japanese students in the area. Excellent noodles as usual. The pork cutlet was excellent, and the noodles were nice, although the soup base was a bit salty towards the end.

Oishii - sorry, I can't resist. But... I also wanted to clarify a bit that my dinner, while excellent, was not as good as I expected. The fatty tuna sashimi made my day, but I have to say the other items were not as good as I remembered.

The Palm - although The Palm is everywhere (there's one right beside my home), I've never been there. The lunch didn't disappoint at all. I took a sliced tenderloin that turned out quite surprising. The sauce was some peppercorn variation and it complimented the beef very well. The "The Palm's Famous Cheesecake" was the common choice over the other dessert option and it was very good. The slightly sweet crust was expecially tasty.

Fleming Steakhouse - Supposingly the best steak in Boston, they served a medium to me rather than the mediem rare that I wanted. Didn't complain or ask for a change. Anyway, even the medium steak was pretty good. At the end, I took a slice of medium rare and that was much better. Arg. Should have asked for a change. As a result, I can't comment on the steak; my imagination says it's really really good. Is it Gibson good...? Have to compare on dessert.

Dessert was interesting... I ordered the creme brulee, still my personal measuring standard for steak house dessert. (Shula's still has the best - from 3 years ago) And had a great discussion with one of the offerees on the quality of this one. We agreed on everything: the creme was too think and the crust was not heated enough for the sugar to melt, resulting in little sugar crystals getting stuck in between our teeth. Needless to say, my current comparison places Gibson's over Felming.

But this brings me to another point. I love having food with other people who appreciate food. I'm no food expert or connoisseur (maybe just on a few food items), but having the creme burlee discussion with the other offeree was fun. Maybe it's too hard on the food, but at least someone knew how to evaluate the food we were eating and not blindly submitting to the price.