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Dinner, Coffee, and Ambiguity
By The_Sagest on Thu, May 8, 2008 12:11 am
del.ico.us
reddit!
We started with a bowl of Texas chili and the veggie special of the day, grilled artichoke hearts with tartar sauce. The chili was alright, with a kick brought on almost certainly by chili powder and maybe a bit of cayenne. It was definitely Texas style with no beans, and it wasn't runny or filled with veggies, but the flavor just seemed too pedestrian to merit much fervor. The dry corn bread and overlarge slips of greens (chives? cilantro?) didn't help matters.
The grilled artichoke hearts were much better, smoky flavor and tender texture throughout, and a nice large portion. Combine that with a spiced tartar sauce (either paprika or cayenne pepper and diced bits of pickle in a looser than normal sauce). I don't normally go for artichokes in any way, yet I found them delightful.
The entrees were each hit or miss in their own ways. My Rueben, on French Bread, just didn't have the spicy zip it would at a place like Sammy Lagrassa's or the All Star Sandwich Bar. maybe the dressing wasn't zippy enough, or the bread was too flaky, or the meat wasn't as seasoned as it could've been. It just felt like another entry into the almost-but-not-quite sweepstakes. And the shoestring fries, which seemed handcut, and fresh, were just too mushy to enjoy thoroughly. My girlfriend's pasta Bolognese had plenty of meat and a tight, non-watery sauce, but the noodles used were wider and thicker than suited the dish. It felt chewy, even though it wasn't overcooked.
We took a look at the dessert options, more to please our server than anything else. The chocolate pudding with roasted nuts seemed like a fine idea and turned out to be another pleasant surprise. Served with whipped cream and a soft chocolate on chocolate chip cookie and garnished with a mint leaf, it was a dense and satisfying end to a merely average meal.
It's a shame the food at HK was unremarkable in the main. The space is a neat blend of elegant and casual, including a better than average juke box (Charles Mingus AND The Pogues?). The service was attentive and circumpsect. And while there was nothing blatantly wrong with the food, it just didn't wow like it could have if the cuisine were pushed a little further.
After dinner, and some Davis Square window shopping, we stopped into the True Grounds Coffeeshop. We ordered a couple of coffees and a slice of coffe cake. My Vietnamese iced coffee was good, if a little sweet and undermixed. My girl's mocha (she's totally embraced her mocha addiction BTW) was good, if also a bit undermixed, as evidenced by the chocolate sediment visible when she began to see the bottom of her cup. The coffecake was the surprise star, thick, moist, and filling, we each only managed a bite before packing it away for later.
So all in all, it was an uneven dining evening, with highs and lows in oddball places. Chalk it all up to experience, I suppose.
The S is certainly a chili buff, with the chili cookbooks to prove it. Nothing ever excuses mediocre chili... not even great chocolate pudding.
Ice Cream for Free? Twice (but just for me)!
By The_Sagest on Thu, May 1, 2008 2:25 pm
We ate our cones in store and noted how many people would get a cone, take a lick of it, and then get back in line for their second, third or fourth cone! It just didn't seem like a good idea before dinner. Between coffee bliss and workingman's rage, I had no ideas for dinner so the GF directed me to the Cheesecake Factory.
Note that I'm not linking it. I think the place is okay. But between the noise, the low lighting, and the tries-to-do-too-much-without-doing-much-very-well menu, it's just not my favorite place.
The next day, I had off, so the girlfriend and I took advantage of Baskin Robbins 31 cent scoop night at one of their Dunkin/B-R hybrid stores in Harvard Square. Since we had a bit of trouble finding it, I managed to extort a promise from the girlfriend of free ice cream for me regardless of eventual location. So my dessert day was made. I got two scoops and she got one, all for less than a buck. Between the ice cream and the staff in fireman hats, it was a fun time.
Like good kids, we had had dinner first on Wednesday, and since we were talking the long way to the square (from the other square) we happened by Zoe's. Now, I've heard a lot about it. And I like breakfast for dinner, and they apparently do great breakfasts and brunches there, but we just didn't feel like it that day.
We felt like Greek food, and they do that damn well. We shared an app of pita bread and molten cheese, which I can't find on their online menu. Then the girlfriend went for a gyro and I went for a mixed kebab with beef and lamb. The main parts of the entrees were good to great. My kebab meat was tender and spiced but not overly so. Her gyro was hearty and its meat thinly sliced.
The sides we got with our meals were a bit more uneven. She chose fries, and they were cooked well, not too done and golden enough to come out of fresh oil. I had their mashed potatoes and veggie. The potatoes were okay, but lacked skins and could have been a bit creamier. The waitress brought me okra in a red suace for my veggie. I can never find okra when I want to make a non-seafood gumbo, so finding it at all was a treat, if an oddball one. So it was a good meal overall, reasonably priced, and in a fun if subterranean setting. Maybe we'll do brunch or breakfast there someday soon.
The S is a fan of ice cream, but he usually only screams when upset or angry.
Hot Times, Cool Deeds
By The_Sagest on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 12:36 am
1. I had ice cream on Friday afternoon. Not just any ice cream, but a twisty cone. And not just from your run of the mill run-and-gun ice cream parlor, either. I got a cone from a genuine Frosty Ice Cream Truck! Boo-yah! There's just something fun and envigorating about reliving that youthful pastime, the Ice Cream Truck. It's good stuff.
2. I ordered an ice coffee Saturday morning with my lunch. It was the first such beverage of the year, and probably the first since September. It felt sweet and good to enjoy a chill beverage as the sun beat down on my lily white skin out of a harsh cloudless sky.
3. I wore shorts out of the house Tuesday. I had on a light jacket, and a black T-shirt (just in case) but even the attempt at shorts proves I think it'll be warm enough to be outside most of the day. And it was.
But where did I go and what did I do? It was the old stand-by, dinner and a movie with the girlfriend. Dinner was Bub's BBQ Chicken Pizza at Upper Crust. Now, I hesitate to say this, as I'm not a fan of hate mail, but this particular pizza was horrible!! I have been to UCP before and enjoyed it. I like the occasional thin crust pie, and their ingredients have always seemed to be par or above to me. But this was an awful pizza and for one singular reason: the worst BBQ sauce ever.
It was as though someone decided to dump a metric ton of molasses with hints of pepper and garlic all over the pie. Overwhelming would be an understatement, more like ruination. Normally, when the gf and I split a pizza, it's gone. I eat about 75% to her 25%. I had two slices of the thing, because I needed to eat before the movie. Really, if the pepperoni genie had appeared before us and changed that thing out to the most unoriginal non-cheese pizza imaginable, I would have gratefully grovelled before it. No such luck.
We then went to see the 6:30 show of The Forbidden Kingdom. It was a good flick for any martial arts fan. It had funny dialogue, great choreography, and the occasional breathtaking vista. Oldschool fans got to see Chan revisit Drunken Master and Li do his intense quiet thang. We also get multiple roles for each martial genius, and Jet Li even laughs in this one, as unbelievable as that is.
It also had the worst example of Boston thugs ever. I don't know who scouted the city for verisimilitude, but a bunch of toughs decide to knock over a Chinatown pawn shop, and they're all white street punks (possibly from Southie, but their outfits would get them killed there)? God knows, it's just a movie, and as a white guy, I can't really comment on race without instantly becoming a tool, but there are many similar targets closer to or in Southie... did the guys just pick up Michael Angarano's character and chug him four stops on the Red Line from Andrew Station to D'town Crossing with a knife to his ribs? What?!! And like every mid-budget flick set in Boston, the accents are atrocious.
It's a good thing they spend almost the whole film outside the city limits.
Still, it was a good day overall, signalling many fine summer nights to come.
The S can't stand a bad BBQ sauce, but can tolerate a badly rendered setting if the fisticuffs are good enough.
Three New Restaurants this week!
By The_Sagest on Sat, Apr 12, 2008 1:46 pm
Bangkok Blue was a pleasant surprise. Between the intimate seating, large portioned entrees, and reasonable prices, it was a good value, especially for Copley Square. I had the wild boar basil and it wasn't as spicy as some Thai dishes can be, but it was delicious and the giant mound of rice served on the same plate sopped up the sauce perfectly. The girlfriend had drunken noodles with chicken, which were spicier, and tasted well enough compared to the many other places we've sampled them.
The impromptu trip to the All Star was preceded by a long overdue trip to Carberry's (which I am still trying not to type in as Cranberry's...). Everytime we'd try to go there in the past, they'd already closed. Eight PM is too damn early for a coffeeshop to close, especially in a bohemiam hood like Central Square! But because we were more meandering than questing, our timetable finally permitted a visit. In a fortuitous coincidence, they had just begun selling gelato, and the local sales rep was there giving out free samples and talking up his product. We, for once, weren't about to spoil our dinners, so we each had a spoonful before I ordered coffee. I hadn't yet had any that day, so I was more than ready for it.
I ordered their house blend and it was good. It wasn't diner coffee, it had complexity and substance, but there was no aftertaste or ashy bitterness. I'd order it again. They also offer an ultra dark roast, which is something I'll probably report on in the future, schedule permitting. Our impending meal kept us from trying the many pastries on offer, but their huge selection and visual appeal did beckon to us quite strongly. And we couldn't help but sit and sip while enjoying their incredibly oddly shaped space. So I'd call that a good if truncated visit.
The All Star Sandwich Bar was a much cozier and less hectic affair than its big brother store down the block, but the food didn't disappoint in the slightest. The Texas State Penn Chili was truly Texas style (no beans) and the sour cream, cheese, and lime wedge complimented the serving I ordered without getting in the way of its flavor. The Rings of Fire (which aren't on the online menu) were fried in a spicy batter and then coated with Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. They weren't Habanero Death Duck spicy, but they were eye opening, and our timid waiter certainly warned us effectively. Glutton for punishment, as well as meatloaf, I ordered the Atomic Meatloaf Meltdown, which featured more of that same sauce. The girlfriend ordered a turkey melt.
The sandwiches were well worth the price, possibly being two meals for those of us with normal stomachs (i.e. not yours truly). My meatloaf was satiating in the way only fatty and well-spiced meat can be. The sauce and cheese made it a more adventurous experience, for sure, but it still felt like home cooking done right. My girl's turkey melt, though double stuffed, was a bit dry. It was noticeable, but that was the only real tarnish on it. The sides of slaw and pickles were above average. The slaw was tasty, if a bit too wet for our liking. The pickles, a must for any aspiring sandwich shop, were crispy and not too sharply flavored. The free food upon exiting (oreos!) certainly made up for that lapse. And of course, they have many rotating sandwich specials to try, making return visits necessary
So all in all, three new places to eat resulted in three good to great experiences. It pays to stray outside your established routines, I suppose.
The S has a strangely cranky comfort zone, but it can be distracted by good food.
Free Coffee at Starbucks? What the ?#*!
By The_Sagest on Tue, Apr 8, 2008 2:00 pm
They were giving away eight ounce sample servings of the brew today at noon. I went in at about 12:50 and slid in just under the wire. I felt bad about it (as giving me free caffeine is a bit like setting up a five cent smack stand outside a methadone clinic) and bought some dark chocolate graham crackers to go with it.
How was it? I'd go with decent. The signage said those particular beans had been roasted in York, PA just over a month ago. It did taste fresh; they are apparently going to brew this blend every half hour instead of the company's previous practice of every hour. Other signage (if T-shirt logos can count as signage) highlighted PPR's smooth character. It was smooth, but nowhere near as smooth as their Guatamala, or Brazil Ipanema bourbon blends. I could see how this newer, user-friendly blend (meant to be had every day if you believe the marketing) could be enjoyed repeatedly without burning out on its flavor. Compared with some of the company's more extreme flavors, like Gold Coast, it was postively welcoming and perhaps even tame.
But that does raise a certain question... will Starbucks brew fewer blends per day at its locations now? If so, does this signal the beginning of the end of coffee snobbery and a return to a more relaxed, friendly, and inclusive philosophy? Or are they just trying to woo more people away from NE franchise behemoth Dunkin Donuts? Something to keep an ever-open eye on, java junkies, something to keep an eye on.
The S will buy Starbucks beans, but usually goes indie for his coffee to go. He needs at least three cups a day to stay sane. And it's not a small mug.
The Breakfast Club...
By The_Sagest on Mon, Apr 7, 2008 3:37 am
My girlfriend, who eschews stools but loves booths, was happy to wait the seven or so minutes until a table became available. We sat down, and before I even perused the menu (I had gotten The Criminal on our first trip) I knew what I was going to have. The special of the day was a Cajun three egg omlette. I was a bit hungry, due to being overtired, so I added in a couple of blueberry pancakes. The girlfriend, who had a better night's sleep and a smaller apetite generally, ordered the spinach and feta omlette (The Zorba?).
While awaiting our grub and sipping our beverages, we noted a couple of things. First, they had two types of hot sauce at the table, which rates double bonus points for me. Second, they had three types of jam, and in equal proportions. This was grand, since the girlfriend has a fruit allergy and can't have certain things. And yeah, they play the cheesy eighties hits, god luv'em.
My omlette (featuring sausage, green peppers, onions, american cheese, and cayenne pepper) was fabulous. It was spicy and neither greasy nor over or under done. The home fries that came with it passed muster. The blueberry pancakes were good, even if the berries came out of a can that morning. And our waitress did make an effort to keep my coffee cup full.
The price for this grand feed of 2.5 breakfasts? $22. I call that a bargain in any decade. Did you know there are a billion similar named establishments across the country? Well, if you follow the linkage, you will now!
The S notices the html tags are working, but the spellcheck and autotoggles are gone from the blog! It's ANARCHY!! and of course it's all running together in an annoying mish-mash!
My Thai? Who's Thai? The King and I's Thai!
By The_Sagest on Wed, Apr 2, 2008 1:57 am
Music? What's that?
By The_Sagest on Thu, Mar 27, 2008 3:05 pm
Last night, in a blatant attempt to make up with my girlfriend, I went to Club Passim for the 10 PM show headlined by Glen Phillips with opener Jonathan Kingham. She's a fan of his old band. My American musical proclivities pretty much dead end in the late sixties/early seventies with odd exceptions, so saying I was out of touch with the impassioned small crowd was putting it mildly.
But, I had a great time. I thought both guys were good performers. JK's initial set was good, and true to folk, he gave us the titles of his songs before he sang them, and even did some freestyle in the middle of a certain cover tune that was more hilarious than most stuff you'd overpay to see in the Comedy Connection. I mean it was gold, and it was about the Mass Pike and Tolls. If a folk singer from CA can make that funny, there ought to be a lot of commodians looking for work. His sound system was mixed a bit oddly though, with obvious preference to his guitar amp over his microphone. It wasn't jarring enough to bug me, but I noticed it.
Glen Phillips did some cool solo stuff (with a better audio mix than the opener, but maybe a bigger budget just leads to better equipment) including a tune that will be on a CD that "with his new band will be released this Fall, maybe". He had a few moments that were funny, but couldn't integrate them as well as JK did. But like a true pro, he admitted (twice!) when the logorrhea had gotten to him and he'd gotten off-track. GP then plugged his new solo CD which was inspired by the advent of privatized space travel.
Yeah, I didn't believe it either until I visited his myspace AND the two musicians teamed up to do a song about solar flares. JK stayed on stage for a bit, joining in on a TtWS tune or two as well as a cover of Huey Lewis's I Want a New Drug that had all the 80's joy intentionally leeched out of it.
Glen Phillips went on to do a few more songs solo, and when the intimate crowd demanded an encore he and JK teamed up for a Van Morrison tune and then Glen finished the crowd off with Thankful and Randy Newman's Political Science before bowing out.
Jonathan Kingham isn't signed. Someone really ought to fix that.
The S certainly isn't the most experienced music writer in the world, but at this point he is one piece above the inexperienced ones!
Apocalypse OW!
By The_Sagest on Wed, Mar 19, 2008 3:37 pm
Monday Night I went back to the East Coast Grill & Bar for another try at Hell Night. I had been called out, and I ordered and attempted to eat their beyond infamous PASTA FROM HELL! It wasn't on the menu, but I knew it was out there waiting for the truly insane to request it.
I managed about 55% of the dish.
How bad-ass is this particular appetizer? Let me quote from the release form I signed, "made from the Naga Jolokia Pepper. This is the hottest pepper in the world, clocking in at over 1,000,000 scoville units. In India this pepper is used by the police in pepper spray." Other side effects that were mentioned (just in case) included, "hair catches on fire like Michael Jackson's did while he filmed the Pepsi Commercial.", and even "nipples get hard and stay hard for days". It was serious serious business.
Our waiter calmly tried to talk me out of it. He told me I'd be wasting my money, and that only one other person had requested it. But with honor on the line, I had no real choice. I ordered the PFH and my three table-mates (including the girlfriend, a cool person from a notable Boston weekly publication, and her friend) got other appetizers including the wings of ass destruction, ceviche, Thai stixx, cornbread, and some stuffed clams. I stayed away from the clams (allergy) and never managed a bit of the ceviche, but the other stuff was good.
How does one describe the torment that is the PFH? I'm not sure it can be adequately explained in words. There was the stuff one would normally associate with eating something ridiculously spicy: burning lips and gums, hiccups, hyperventilation, sweating, dilated pupils. After a few forkfuls, the pseudo-hallucinations began, more intense colors, time dilation, and an inability to carry on conversation. I kept forgetting to reply to the statements of others, including the frightened/impressed patrons at a neighboring table. It's not that my throat burned so that talking would've been painful, it's that the pain was so intense I kept forgetting to reply to statements made to me. Very trippy.
After making enough progress on the PFH to be declared the winner (and not some poseur) I sat back and tried to recover. Lots of liquid was imbibed. A second serving of cornbread was devoured. And I recovered the ability to participate in dialogue. Our foursome decided to part ways. On the way home I had a thick frappe, hoping to balance off some of the excess acidity my stomach was dealing with. I got home around midnight and collapsed into bed.
I did promise to blog about the aftermath of the PFH, but in an effort to keep the quease-factor to the minimum, I have decided to just give a statistical overview.
In twenty-four hours:
Number of trips to the bathroom: 6
Percent of trips that were planned: 66%
Percent of trips that were emergency in nature: 33%
Average amount of time in pain after each trip: 15 minutes
Doses of Pepto-Bismol Taken: 4
Percent taken the late Monday Night/before sunrise Tuesday morning: 50%
Hours before a full meal was attempted: 22
Hours spent at work in a useless (yet barely functional) state on Tuesday: 8.33
All in all it was a longer lasting experience than the habanero duck leg, but not necessarily a more painful one, if only because I knew to eat things to prepare and then settle my stomach around the PFH. I don't think I can recommend the experience to anyone, but I survived it.
The Sagest has fought the hottest dish in the world to a draw. He can still sleep peacefully at night.
Dinner and a Movie
By The_Sagest on Thu, Mar 13, 2008 1:58 am
Hello again faithful readers, now that I've gotten over the pile of the bile that was Tuesday's torture I can share the good things that occurred before and after it with you.
I met the girlfriend Tuesday afternoon, at half past three. Since we had three and a bit of hours before our unknowing doom we decided to swing by the local theater and see if a show coincided with our time to kill. One movie that either of us hadn't seen did. So we watched The Bank Job. It was alright. It was too lighthearted to truly be considered noir, and a bit slow moving for a caper/getaway movie, but it held the attention and was a decent time-waster. A couple of things for you less than durable audience members: there is one incident of onscreen torture and there are about two dozen half naked women in the film. And for those of you who really need everything spelled out for you there were quite a few oblique British government terms that might be puzzling until the plot catches up to them. But the gang of misfit thieves were all quirky enough to cause the occasional cracked smile, and there were a couple of well-placed double-crosses. So it wasn't a snoozer, but it wouldn't be worth it to buy it on DVD. Rent it when it it appears ON DEMAND or at the local video store.
After our uneventful debacle at the Pint and Pen Announcement Party, we were famished and needed nourishment. If the annoy-a-thon had ended a half an hour earlier, we would have just gone a few doors down to The All Star Sandwich Bar but it closed at 9 PM. Several other restaurant shopfronts were perused, and I think we watched the lights get switched off of one place right before we knocked, but we managed to find a place that was still seating, spice & rice. It was billed as a Thai place, but the ginormous menu didn't see to play favorites over any style of Asian cuisine. There were whole sections of the dinner menu devoted to Korean and Japanese dishes as well as a huge sushi list. We were the last people seated that night. We even watched the waitstaff share a meal after our entrees had been served.
Overall, it was a very positive experience. My Korean BBQ beef and chicken combo plate was smoky and very flavorful. And the side salad and bowl of miso soup that preceded it were just large enough to hold me over and just small enough not to take away the spotlight of my meal. The girlfriend's drunken noodles were delicious... and the peppers used in it were extremely fresh. The gyoza we ordered were flavorful if a bit limp, but maybe we should have simply chosen fried over steamed. The waitstaff was attentive without being obtrusive. And the decor, while invoking something out of a Punky Brewster design firm, seemed less garish with just us, one couple having a business dinner, and two police in the place. The beer was even poured into proper glassware. So while no one menu item knocked our socks off, it was all well done and professionally delivered. And since they prevented an incident of berserker rage you gotta hand it to them.
So not everything went wrong on Tuesday.. but man it wasn't an easy day off by any stretch of the imagination.
The S can salvage a horrible catastrophe with a decent meal and some Magic Hat #9.
