DUCK, THE OTHER RED MEAT

as many of you may not know, i am a non red meat eater. i also don't eat pork. or many other things, cause i'm damn picky. but as the temperature drops, i start getting weird cravings. ok, let's be honest here. i have weird cravings all the time. for fried chicken, sushi, chinese food, etc. when i lived in new york, i went through a period when i craved biscuits. luckily i had a kfc 3 blocks away and took care of that. and i've learned to satisfy my craving. cause if i don't, i'll just keep craving. the feeling doesn't go away. it just intensifies. however, with the cold weather, i'm craving red meat, and for me, that means duck.

so there i was, craving duck and thinking of where i could get some. i didn't want chinese duck, i wanted a duck breast, cooked medium rare. but i didn't really want to go to a restaurant because duck is expensive, and a serving normally costs over $20. maybe i could cook it myself? but i'd never done it before. how hard is it to cook a duck breast? as i was mulling over all this, i was watching martha. i like the new and improved martha. she seems much more fun and relaxed now. anyhoo, her guest was the owner of d'artagnan and they were doing a cooking segment.

now, for those who don't know, d'artagnan is a very famous specialty foods purveyor. they started out specializing in fois gras and expanded their repertoire to include many other items. when i worked at gotham that's who we got the fois gras from and many other high end restaurants use them too. so there's the owner with martha and for their cooking segment, they cooked duck breast. it was a super simple recipe. anyone could do. and thus i was inspired to make marinated duck breast with sauteed potatoes.

just so i don't bore you with too much text, here's the finished product:

here's what you need for the recipe:
1/2 c of olive oil
1/4 c of balsalmic vinegar
2 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed
a few sprigs of rosemary
a few sprigs of thyme
a duck breast
and a couple of potatoes (not the crappy russet ones, i bought yukon gold)

so duck is not the most common or easiest meat to buy. i had to go to wholefoods to pick it up and when i got to whole foods, they only had one breast. luckily, it was pretty big, so i got that, plus the other ingredients for the recipe and the whole thing cost around $20.

so here's what you do. first, take the duck breast and score the skin. basically, that means taking a knife and making a cross hatch pattern in the fat. however, avoid cutting all the way to the meat. then mix the olive oil and balsalmic vinegar together. throw in the garlic and herbs and the duck breast and marinate covered in the fridge overnight. turning ever so often. i started this things around 6pm. before i went to bed, i turned the meat once. the next morning before i left for work, i turned it over again.

so this is what it looked like when i got home the following day, right before i cooked this sucker. ok, remove from marinade and discard that. then pat breast dry with paper towels. season the breast with salt and pepper. heat pan to medium. (or so martha said).







and this is what i looked like with the scoring


i laid the breast, skin side down, in the pan and it's supposed to cook for 8 min. here it is below. this part is called rendering the fat. basically, duck has a crap load of fat, so cooking it this way eliminate a lot of the fat while making the skin crispy. ok, so this is the part where i ran into some problems. basically, the skin started smoking and burning after only5 minutes, so i had to flip the breast over. onto the meat side and continued booking for another 5 minutes. after that's done. you move the breast from the pan, and let the meat rest for 10 minutes.

meanwhile, you make the potatoes. you take the potato and cut it up into little cubes. now, you have all this fat left over from the duck breast. and did martha throw that away? nope, you use it to cook the potatoes. luckily, i'd just gone to the dr. and had my cholesterol checked earlier in the day, cause this entire meal would've made it shoot through the roof. so carefully pour the oil from the duck breast pan into a skillet. heat to medium and toss in the potatoes. season with salt and pepper and cook until the potatoes are soft, turning frequently, i also threw in some rosemary and thyme.

so it turns out, that wasn't so hard afterall. and the meal was so filling that i ate less than half of the entire breast. (so total cost of duck meal at home $10) i used a 4 year aged balsalmic vinegar that i had bought in italy and that added a lot of sweetness and tanginess to the meat. i wish i hadn't burned the skin, but really, i ate it anyway, cause it added that bbq flavor. why do carcinogens taste so good?? in conclusion, watching martha really is helpful. tv can be educational and if you're ever in the mood for some red meat, think of duck next time and make this super easy recipe.

ARE WE IN JAPAN? NO, JUST HAVING DINNER AT THE PORTER EXCHANGE

So last night, Arti and I decided to get dinner. She requested something cheap, and since she's rather new to Boston, I decided to take her to the Porter Exchange. Now, for those who have never been, the Porter Exchange is like Boston's version of little Tokyo all in one building. there are all these little stalls of various Japanese resturants (i think like 6-8) and they're all super casual and super cheap. Plus there's a cool japanese market where i like to pick up fresh fish and rice balls.

A perennial favorite of everyone is Cafe Mami. And that's where Arti and I chose to go. But i'll get back to that in a second. Now, the cool thing about the porter exchange is that you have other choices too. so if you're in the mood for ramen, you have 2 ramen houses to choose from. and if you want eat sushi, there's a sushi bar. you get the idea. the only thing that's missing is a yakitori bar, boston could use one of those, btw.

ok. so at Cafe Mami, we're talking about super casual. there are just 2 folding tables with some seats scattered about and a couple of stools at a small bar. the kitchen is tiny and there's only one waitress. but it works. be prepared to share a table. perhaps with students (cause lesley university is housed in the same building, so you'll see lots of them) or with lots of japanese ppl. the porter exchange is where you'll see the greatest gathering of japanese ppl anywhere in boston. honestly. i took a good friend there once (who happened to be japanese) and she was like, i never knew there were so many japanese ppl in boston. but hey, that's one of the best signs of a good restaurant.

onto the food. the funny thing with all the restaurants in the porter exchange is that they all like to put little pictures of all the food on the menu. or on boards in front. so if you don't know what something will look like, that can help you pick. Cafe mami is really good at having set courses. so i ordered the chicken tasuta set (which is basically japanese fried chicken) and that came with rice, a salad, a little potato and a miso soup. arti got the chicken tatsuta curry. basically the same thing as mine, but with curry and she got a fried egg on top.

here's the miso soup. i found it kinda salty.


here's my dinner

and here's arti's dinner

my food was great and i think arti really enjoyed hers too. mine had 4 big pieces of fried chicken. i found the dressing on the salad kinda oily, but i was eating fried chicken so whatever. also, the fried chicken came with a little side of mayo and hot sauce. i don't normally eat mayo, but for some reason, it worked really well with the fried chicken. much better than the chicken tatsuta that i had at blue fin the previous week (also in the same complex) and all this food cost me a whole $8! with tax and tip, my dinner was $10. and i couldn't even finish it all. i had to end up taking half of it home, as did arti. arti also really liked the red pickles that came with her curry, but it sucked that they charged her an extra $1 when she asked for more. that was kinda lame. in conclusion, definetly check out the porter exchange for good, cheap japanese food that won't leave you diappointed or broke (as many of the ones in boston tend to do). and if you like it, you can make your way through the entire food court, trying out each place and picking your own favorite.

Quickie snack

ok, this is a quick post. i must wax about one of my favorite snacks that i don't have all that often. but it's super easy to make.

here it is:

basially, you're looking at a piece of toast with some gruyere chesse and fresh black pepper. (pre toasted)

here's what you need:
some good bread
black pepper
cave aged gruyere
good quality olive oil

ok, to assemble, sprinkle some olive oil on the bread. then shave off some of the gruyere and pop it on the bread. then stick it all in the toaster for a few minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and melted. finally finish it all off with some cracked black pepper. yummy.

See, i don't eat this all that often cause it's not exactly healthy. i mean, it's not exactly unhealthy either, but i try to avoid eating too much dairy and cheese. but i was at whole foods market and they always have blocks of cave aged gruyere sitting around. normally, i avoid the temptation to buy. but this week i went on a sunday and they were giving samples away. FREE SAMPLES! and after having a tiny nibble of my favorite cheese, i decided that i had to buy a slice. (i'm such a sucker for samples) not cheap either, but at least i have something to look foward to when i go home tonight. that plus new episodes of ncis and house. i love tuesday night tv.

A NIGHT IN THE SOUTH END, DINNER AT CAFFE UMBRA.

As many of you know, I often have a number of restaurants i want to visit at any given time. with my cousin and friend in town this weekend, I decided i'd like to once again attempt to make reservations at either ten tables or craigie st. bistro and as usual, i was foiled and unable to do so. luckily, there are still plenty of places i wanna check out, so i made reservations at caffe umbra on washington st. in the south end. i'd heard good things about this place and i haven't eaten in the south end for a while, so it seemed like a good opportunity to check it out.

as usual, i looked at the menu online and picked out what i wanted before hand. i wanted the corn soup with crispy leaks and grilled scallops. unfortunately, i was a bit under the weather this weekend. so even though i ordered, i didn't eat while at caffe umbra. fortunately, everyone else was feeling fine, and they ordered plenty of things for me to blog about. i liked the setting. big window right up front, exposed brick walls. nice lighting. allright, so my cousin jeany started off by ordering a ton of appetizers for us to share. she got the olives, a lamb dish: Braised Lamb Riblets with Ginger, Orange, Sherry &Soy & Thin Scallion Pancakes (taken off their website) and mussels with a side of frites. My friend juliet also ordered a duck prosciuto, which she said tasted like peking duck. Leah ordered a salad. I think in general, everyone enjoyed the appetizers. And the frites that came with the mussels were definetly a winner.

Here's the mussels:

And the duck prosciutto:



then we got our entrees (i'm copying the descriptions straight off their website). Leah and I both got the Grilled Sea Scallops with Sweet Corn ‘Risotto’, Roasted Scallion and Porcini-Shiitake Jus. Leah also got a side of onion rings. My cousin Jason got the Grilled Skirt Steak with Crispy Potato Galette, Bullhorn Pepper Purée, Sherry- Soaked Currants and Escarole, Juliet got Grilled Lamb Provençal with Eggplant Zucchini Tian, Banyuls Vinegar and a Phyllo ‘Purse’ with Dried Apricots, Feta and Leeks and finally, Jeany got the Pan Seared Gulf of Maine Hake with Wellfleet Clams, Celery Root , Pear and Smoked Haddock. all very pretty descriptions. Now as i said, i didn't have much of an appetite. so i kinda poked at mine and took a couple of bites of the corn stuff. the corn stuff was yummy. i like that. but i could tell just by looking at the scallops that i wasn't gonna be happy. normally when i order scallops, i like them to be pan seared so you can see the caramelization on the scallops. (so it's juicy and a little crunchy). as you can see from the pic, these scallops have the grill marks, but not much else to them. they even look a little dry. and that was kinda disappointing. and in general, that's how everyone felt about their entrees. they were ok. not good, or great. just ok. oh, they also got jason's steak and juliet's lamb mixed up, so that wasn't cool. and jason's steak was way over cooked. jeany didn't really like her fish, but said the clams were good. and neither leah or juliet like the onion rings. they said that the sauce it came with was weird, as was the texture of the coating. so in general, those entrees were pretty damn expensive to be just ok.

Here's the scallops:

And the onion rings:


Juliet made a good point. if these entrees had cost in the mid-teens, then we really wouldn't have had a problem with them. it's kinda like petit robert which i've blogged about before and went to eat at last night. (well not really eat, i had a soup and some bread, still recovering here) see with petit robert, everything costs under $20, and because you know that, you'll also know that you're not getting the top quality ingredients and you're not getting top quality service. that's what you get for dinner at that price. actually, looking over at my friends entree last night, the scallops at petit robert looked better than the ones at caffe umbra and cost 2/3 of the price. and juliet definetly enjoyed her duck confit at petit robert more than her lamb at caffe umbra. (and again, at like 2/3 the price) . so entrees were disappointing.

and again, i've said this so many times and you're gonna hear it from me over and over again. i just feel that bostonians don't demand enough of their servers and their chefs. new yorkers are picky pains in the butt. but at least they end up with great food and service, because that's what they demand and expect for their money. bostonians are just too accepting of mediocrity. but damnit, we pay just as much as diners in new york, san francisco and los angeles and there are better things out there.

on to dessert. i perused the dessert menu. but didn't find it very interesting. leah asked me why, but i don't know, i just tend to be hypercritical and nothing interested me. (this is true of desserts in boston in general, except for the metropolis cafe in the south end, i like their desserts) but my cousin jeany ordered the warm chocolate cake with peanut butter for the table to share. and i think everyone did enjoy the chocolate cake. juliet gladly finished it off. oh, and here was another disappointing aspect of the night, my cousin jason ordered a cappuccino, and they didn't have an espresso machine! dear lord, it's an italian restaurant. how can you not have an espresso machine?? they only had french press coffee, which isn't bad. i mean french press is better than drip. but jason didn't like it. i mean i'm super picky about espresso (i use illy, i spend hours training my employees) so maybe the owners chose not to serve espresso if they knew what they'd end up serving is mediocre espresso. in my book, no espresso is better than mediocre espresso any day. and espresso drinks in restaurants do normally suck, cause they don't bother training ppl. but really. i do expect better.

Juliet and i basically concluded that dinner was a bust. only made up for the fact that we both thought our waiter was super cute. so here's a tip. i went to stella, which is another italian restaurant just 2 blocks from caffe umbra on washington st just a little while ago. i wish i'd blogged about it, but maybe next time. at any rate, though when i ate there, i did feel a bit let down by the place- i could've made a better tomato salad with tomatoes from the farmer's market and the desserts were just plain sad, at least their food was definetly better, the service was more attentive and it basically cost the same. so next time, when you're in the south end looking for an italian restaurant to spend lots of money at, look up stella, and skip caffe umbra.

Quest Fulfilled!

Yes, it was a long tough battle, but finally, i have achieved success. Leah and i were able to get our $1 cones at Baskin robbins last night. But before i tell you about that, allow me to review the place we went to for dinner, Roh Dee 2 on Peterborough St.

So I love the restaurant row on Peterborough street. It's a grouping of 6-7 different resturants, all with different cuisines. There's a thai place, an italian place, a mexican place, an american place and there used to be a chinese place that's now closed. The thing that they have in common is that all of them serve pretty excellent food at very decent prices. and it's close to work and home. also, it's great to visit in warm weather cause you can sit on their benches outdoors and if you and your companions can't agree on one cuisine, you can order from all different places and still sit together. I frequent el pelon, the mexican place, i occasionally get delivery from umi, the japanese place and last night, we went to roh dee 2, the thai place, for dinner. Now, knowing that I was gonna go to peterborough street for dinner, i scraped together all the quarters i had in my apt yesterday morning and came up with $7. Including the extra $3 that i found on my nightstand, I had a total of $10 to spend on food yesterday. (so i'm gonna be like rachel ray on her show $40 a day, except i've only got $10)

Early in the morning, I spent $1.50 on a coke. so breakfast was $1.50. I ate cheezits and a salad that i brought from home for lunch. Katie suggested that I crumble the cheezits on top of my salad like they were croutons, claiming it'd be "cheez-tastic" but i voted that one down. Cheezits just don't belong on salads. lunch $0. That left me $8.50 for dinner.

Leah picked me up for dinner and we headed over to peterborough. i was in the mood for some thai, so we visited roh dee 2. now, for those unfamiliar with roh dee, the original one is actually located over in brookline on beacon and summit ave. that one is super small, with like 3 tables. the one in fenway is much bigger. but both are the same in concept. super casual thai food, cooked up real fast and real cheap, with no frills. you bus your own tables and get your own water. After perusing the funny faded pictures of dishes (helpful for those unfamiliar with thai dishes, hilarious for everyone else), i picked the pan fried noodles with duck. Leah got the pad see eew with chicken with a side of fried spring rolls. Total cost $7. Leaving me $1.50.

So here's the pic from dinner. I've stated before in this blog that one of the hardest things for me is remembering to take my camera and then remembering to take pictures before i gobble down my food. well yesterday, i actually remembered my camera and i stopped leah in the middle of eating saying "wait! i gotta take a pic for the blog". i whip out my cam, snap a pic of leah's plate, get ready to take a pic of my plate, and of course, the battery dies. Damn it! it's always something. At any rate, my dinner looked very similar to leahs, except mine had darker chunks of meat since i was eating duck, rather than chicken.

As you can see, the portions are very generous and both of us ended taking our left overs home. yummy. a little greasy, but sometimes, you're in the mood for grease. post dinner, we were off to the baskin robbins. so we walked to the baskin robbins at st. mary's and as we perused the ice cream selection, the ice cream guy was very helpful in pointing out that it was $1 cone day (like duh! why do you think i'm standing there). i got a very generous scoop of rocky road ice cream while leah got a not as generous scoop of mint chocolate chip. leah said it was karma since 2 weeks ago, i went to baskin robbins and got the world's smallest ice cream cone. no kidding it was like a quarter of the regular size. it was like the first time scooping ice cream for the girl serving me. ask leah, she was there. anyway, cost $1.04. leaving me with $.46 that i dropped into the red cross hurricane relief fund. and then we sat outdoors, watching ppl walk by while enjoying the still warm october evening and licking our ice cream cones. See, i came in under budget, and you thought that was impossible in boston.

The Hunt for the Elusive $1 Cone

That's it people. Today's the day. The day that I will finally get my $1 Baskin Robbins ice cream cone. I may even get two. Yes, after weeks! WEEKS! of being denied my cone, I will triumph today, at 6pm. Let's recap my recent futile attempts at obtaining the $1 cone.

Week 1: the first day of $1 cones. We were denied by a couple of college/high school students who had no idea what we were talking about. Idiots. They now have a huge sign up proclaiming $1 cone day.

Week 2: i just forgot. my bad.

Week 3: leah was out of town. how could i buy a $1 cone without leah?

Week 4: leah came by to take me out for the $1 cone. but i was sick and went home early. i probably missed her by 10 minutes.

Week 5: Finally. my day of triumph. Leah and i are going to dinner on peterborough street. We're thinking of grabbing a cone first at the baskin robbins next to our stores and then after dinner, hitting up the br on st. mary's. just to make up for all these coneless weeks. find out if we succeed on tomorrow's post.

A GREAT SLICE AT THE UPPER CRUST



My goodess. It's been so long since I last posted that I didn't even read Leah's entry until today. It's because my meals during the last week have been quite uneventful. I've been suffering from a bit of a cold and a bit of exhaustion these last few days, so I've mainly been nuking stuff that I happen to find in my fridge. Basically nothing worth blogging about, but luckily, yesterday I had dinner with my friend Katie at the Upper Crust in Coolidge Corner.

Now, as most of you now, I'm from California. So I've often found it strange how you eastcoasters (fine, i'm an eastcoaster too, but for a few seconds pretend that i'm not) like to debate so much about who has the best pizza. Is it NY? Chicago? Boston? and then which resturants serve the best. In Boston, that'd be Regina's? Bertucci's? Uno's? and whatever else you can possibly come up with. Well, I've tried many in Boston, but my favorite pizza place is the Upper Crust. If we were in LA, my favorite pizza place would be CPK, but for some reason, I find the CPK's out here kinda crappy. It just doesn't taste as good as the ones back home. I think it has to do with the fresher ingredients we have out west.

Back to the Upper Crust. So when I lived on Beacon Hill, I'd often go down to the orignial Crust to grab a slice before heading home after work. The Crust on the hill is a great place to grab a quick bite, but if actually want to sit, the Crust in Coolidge Corner is a much better spot. It's got more seating and is bigger. Plus it has a liquor license and they can serve wine and beer. It's also closer to me now that I live in Brookline and my friend Katie lives just a few blocks from there, so we sometimes go there to grab a slice of pizza.

So at the Crust, you can either get a slice or order a whole pizza. The cool thing is that everyday, the upper crust has a "slice of the day" option, which is what i normally get. it can be basically anything, and last night, it was a portabello mushrooms and roasted red peppers. yum. otherwise, you gotta pick just cheese or pepperoni for your slice. See, the thing i like about pizza at the crust is that they specialize in thin crust pizza. So if you're a fan of the deep dish thing, you may not like this place. But i like how it gets crunchy towards the crust. Also, i really like their sauce cause it's got actual chunks of tomato in it.

the other cool thing about the crust is that it's a cheap meal. the slice of the day is $2.75 and the regular slices are $2.50. and the slice are pretty generous. so i can be full on just one. sometimes i feel bad and feel like i need veggies, so it's nice that the crust now offers a combo deal where you can get a slice and a side salad for $5. still a pretty great deal.

here's one warning though. sometimes, restaurants just need to stick with what they're good at. and this is the case with the uppercrust. some time ago, the brookline location started serving pasta dishes. so one night, i figured i'd give it a shot and ordered the lasgna. bad idea. it was pretty crappy, basically a pile of noodles with some cheese, and when they went to nuke it to reheat it, it wasn't warm in the middle. and for $7.50 (or somewhere around there) I could've happily gotten 3 slices of pizza. the second warning is, the coolidge corner location is often crowded. with lots of ppl waiting for their pizzas. so be vigilant in grabbing a table. it can be sort of an art. just look at when ppl are starting to dispose of their plates and sneak in before anyone else does. sometimes you gotta be ruthless, but it's worth it, to sit down and enjoy your slice of great pizza.

Dinner at Vicki C's and Farewell to Little Ed


Ok, I admit that i've neglected my blog for a good week. but i'm making up for it by posting a lot this weekend. and look! with tons of pics. that should make you all happy. plus, i think i've finally figure out how to put the pics between text, so i'm not just sticking all the pictures at the beginning of the post.

So last night, the whole crew (all 13 of us) headed out to Victoria Seafood on Comm Ave for dinner to say goodbye to our good friend, little ed, who's moving down to florida tomorrow. victoria's (or vicki c's as leah likes to call it) is well known for it's excellent chinese food, fresh seafood and super low prices. i've never made it there for lunch, but one day, i'm totally gonna take advantage of their super cheap lunch menu. but dinner is also very well priced. where also can you get twin lobsters cooked with scallion and ginger or $9.95? Here's the one warning though, Victoria's does authentic chinese food very very well. it does not do americanized chinese food well. so if you're looking to order general gao's chicken or something ridiculous like that, don't go here. you'll be sorely disappointed. so the next tip. make reservations. especially if you're showing up with a large party and plan on arriving around 7. otherwise, plan on waiting. when we arrived yesterday, there were at least 20 ppl waiting to get into the place. luckily, i had already made reservations, so we breezed past all of them and arrived at our table, where our friends were waiting.

so on to the food. i promised lots of pics and here they are. we ordered a ton of food. at least 10 courses (and i didn't take pics of all of them) that's one great thing about going with lots of ppl, you get to order anything you want cause you'll actually eat all of it.


this is the fried shrimp with salt and pepper. yes. those are the heads that you see. and yes, you eat the whole thing. (katie is freaking out right now) totally tasty and very crunchy. leah had never eaten the shrimp with the head on and she totally loved it. see, the head is where all the flavor is (or so my parents always told me) so go ahead and gobble down the whole thing.

ok, here are the twin lobster. we actually ended up getting 3 orders (so that's 6 lobsters who sacrificed their lives for our dinner). we normally get it with scallions and ginger, but you can also get it steamed or with the spicy salt and pepper. yummy.


here's the soft shelled crab. again, fried with spicy salt and pepper. i had actually ordered rock crab, but i think that was lost in translation. and this was tasty anyway. the only reason i don't order the soft shelled crab is cause i always feel like the portion is small. much more lettuce on the plate than crab. but oh well. are you noticing a pattern here? victoria's seafood isn't called that for nothing.

ok, here's some meat for you. that's a fried porkchop.

and the last pic of the day. many of you will recognize me as the girl on the far left. and i agree with you, my hair does look better now that it's shorter. but really, the reason why this pic is up is cause you can see a few more dishes. there's the fried race with fish and chicken in the middle, the fried tofu with shrimp right below and some sauteed pea shoots to the left.

and what else could we have ordered? a beef hot pot, another order of veggies, pan fried house noodles and i actually did order a steamed sea bass, but luckily that didn't show up cause we were all stuffed by that point. dinner is concluded with a healthy helping of dole pineapples straight from the can and fortune cookies. don't expect dessert here, you won't get any. but you'll be so full that you won't really care.

and what was the grand total for this dinner of seafood excess?? $15 per person, including tip. (oh crap, i just remebered i owe leah money) that's right ppl. 6 lobsters, 10 courses and that's all it cost. amazing. that's why we love vicki c's. so whenever you're in the mood for excellent chinese food and don't want to fork over a ton of money, check out victoria's, you thank me later.

The Brazilian Place
so i think i've mentioned the brazilian place across the street before in this blog, so i'm finally gonna review it today (having actually taken pics this time). it's not actually called the brazilian place. that's just what leah and i call it. it's actually called restaurant sol. but it's often mixed up with cafe belo which is this other brazilian restaurant chain that has locations all around boston and used to be in the same location as where restaurant sol is now. and we sometimes also call it cafe belo, just to confuse you even more.


so now that i've thoroughly cleared up the name, i'll actually review the place. the setting is a little weird. the place obviously went through a phase when it was a nightclub. which explains the bar up front, the leopard print booths and the strange blue lighting in some areas. but that just makes the place a little quirkier and more endearing. we're really here for the food. the brazilian place serves american breakfast in the mornings. they do an excellent job of making eggs, omlettes, french toast and all your typical breakfast stuff and all at cheap prices. we often go here for breakfast rather than any of our neighboring restaurants in kenmore square cause the food is better and it costs a third of the price. oh also, the ownership is very friendly here.


for lunch and dinner, the brazilian place specializes in buffet and brazilian bbq items. i mainly go for the buffet food (which happens 1-2 times a week). as you can see in my take out pic, for lunch today i grabbed chicken legs, some fruit, a bunch of different vegetables and salsa. some of the items in the buffet change everyday, especially the entrees. but you'll always find fresh fruit and veggies. some of my favorites are the collard greens and stewed chicken. leah likes the plantains. it's best to get there earlier in the day if you can, when the food is fresher and hasn't been sitting out too long. if you got in the late afternoon like i often have, you may find some of the food too dried out, so you want to avoid those items.

after you've hit the buffet, there's a counter at the end where you can also get different bbq items. leah always gets the beef, very rare. i once got some chicken thighs, but it was late in the day, so they were totally dried out. i haven't tried anything else since. then you get your plate or take out box weighed. take out costs $6/pound, which turns out to be a good deal. also at the back, you'll find a varied selection of cakes and flan. i've never tried any of these, but i leah's had the flan and i think she likes it. after the weigh in, you're given a little check which you take back up to the bar area where you pay for your meal and off you go. i like this place cause it's never crowded and i can grab my food quickly (now knowing what i like and where it's located). i was in and out of there under 5 minutes with my lunch today, and it beats waiting 15 minutes for someone at brugger's or ankara to make you a freaking sandwich. so if you're ever in kenmore square for lunch and in a hurry, avoid the obvious places like mcdonald's or burrito max and have a yummy and healthy lunch at restaurant sol.

Dinner in Paris? Not really. A trip to Petit Robert Bistro.

Yesterday, my sister and I decided to have a cousins dinner. So we chose to go to the Petit Robert Bistro. This place has gotten rave reviews for its reasonable prices and food. It's opened by the former chef of Maison Robert which closed last year. And I felt that I should give it another try after my first disastrous lunch there. Especially after Leah gave a praising of the place having taken her father and friend to dinner there last weekend. So off we all went to Petit Robert.


Well first, I'm going to recap my disastrous lunch at Petit Robert a few months ago. Maybe disastrous is harsh. I think disappointing bordering on crappy would fit better. So I had gone there for lunch and all the entress there are very reasonably priced. On the express lunch menu, everything's under $10. And i picked the Avocado California Crab Roll, listed under the sandwich menu. I imagined that this would be a crab cake sandwich, with slices of avocado. Why they chose to call it California? I don't know. Maybe they describe everything with avocado on it as California. So i looked foward to my sandwich, and was very disappointed to see the arrival of 4 slices of very poorly made California roll sushi, with a pile of greens in the middle. At first I was confused, thinking they had brought me the wrong item, but then someone else at the table had ordered the exact same thing and they also had the 4 pieces of sushi. Well, that turned me off from the whole Petit Robert thing. Here was a restaurant that claimed to be the purveyor of the authentic french bistro experience in boston (look it up, it's on their website) and what do they serve me for lunch, but sushi. really really poorly made sushi. so i said, never again would i go to petit robert.

But Leah had a very positive experience there. and since i was too lazy to be creative and think of somewhere to take my cousins. i decided to give petit robert another shot. when we arrived, there were ppl waiting outside for a table, so i was relieved that i had made reservations. and we were promptly seated in a very full dining room. the first thing i noticed was how noisy the entire restaurant is. so be prepared not to have quiet conversation. what also annoyed me was that they played music ontop of the already noisy atmopshere. my sister was sitting right below one of the speakers and she thought the someone's cell phone was ringing. anyway, we all perused the menu. the thing with petit robert is that they are totally into having reasonable prices. so all the entrees are under $20. (except for one, the duck margret, which is what i ordered) and since i was already on my way to having a heart attack, i also ordered the lobster bisque to start. Our menus were taken away and we were served some nice warm baguettes. well, not really baguettes, but at least bread shaped like baguettes. those were tasty. and then the waiting began. so another problem with petit robert is that service is incredibly slow. the meal isn't served in a timely manner and you're often left waiting, for your appetizer, entree or even waiter to show up. However, i've found this to be pretty common among many restaurants in boston, so maybe it's just a boston thing.

back to my review. my lobster bisque arrived and it was totally tasty. not overly salty like many of the bisques i've had before. and i was happy to find a nice chunk of lobster floating in it. unfortunately, i forgot to take pictures before i had polished it off (my cousins suggested that i take a pic of the empty bowl, but i thought that was silly) but i have pictures of the next two courses. and so the waiting began again. eventually our entrees showed up. the duck margret i ordered was a duck breast, cooked to medium rare and sliced thingly and it was served with chantrelle mushrooms and a light sauce. it was also served with a very tasty side of fresh mixed veggies and mashed potatoes. I think my entree was pretty good. i was in the mood for duck and that satisfied my craving. however, i don't think i would characterize it as the best duck i've ever had. and i found it a little pricy for the size of the portion. (i don't think the portion should've been bigger, but the price should've been lower) and that's the thing with petit robert. by having lower costs, they also serve smaller portions. this is actually something i like. cause i think serving smaller portion sizes is healthier, especially for americans who tend to overeat. however, it's just nice to know before hand that you should definetly think about getting an appetizer in addition to your entree since the entree might not be enough.

ok. and lastly, we had to finish off our dinner with dessert. luckily petit robert had quite an extensive dessert menu. and they're all under $5. for those who just want to go for dessert, they have a dessert bar in the basement. I ordered my all time favorite dessert, apple tarte tatin, which i shared with my sister. now i love tarte tatin. the puffy pastry, the caramlized apples, everything about it. so i'm gonna be pretty picky about it. plus, as a former pastry cook, i tend to be ultra critical when it comes to dessert. and so as you can imagine, i wasn't totally thrilled with the apple tarte tatin that i was served. the apples were just way too sweet. and kinda chewy and the crust was a disaster. totally chewy and not flaky and puff like it should've been. i had two bites and let my sister finish it off. she seems to enjoy it though, and it was definetly a generous portion since it was enough for the two of us to share. so in conclusions, i'd say that petit robert is worth trying, but i definetly wouldn't make it one of my regular places. The prices and food are totally reasonable, but i'd prefer some better, quicker service.

A Tasty Sandwich from Flour (ok, i can't come up with witty titles. sorry.)

Leah and i both got into work early today. so we decided to go for a quick breakfast. normally we go across the street to the brazilian place, but i had my car, so we decided to go somewhere we typically don't go. unfortunately, we didn't know where we should try, not normally having the option of a) eating breakfast, b) cooked by someone else, and c) outside of kenmore square. i said we should try flour bakery in the south end. i had read a review of them serving dinner, so why not breakfast? when we got there it was packed. but after a quick survey, leah pointed out that there were no eggs. everyone was eating pastries. so we decided to try somewhere else. luckily a woman overheard our dilemma and suggested mike's diner, just two blocks down. now, this is a not a review of mike's. cause i have no photo to accompany a review. but suffice it to say, it was definetly tasty, cheap and well worth a visit for breakfast. who knew there was a diner where the waitresses calls you honey and gives free coffee refills located on washington st, just two blocks from mass ave.

anyway, i digress. back to my sandwich. after mike's, leah suggested we go back to flour and buy sandwiches for lunch. excellent idea. she got a lamb sandwich (which hopefully she'll find the time to review) and i got a chicken sandwich with avocado and jicama. while we were at flour, we saw joanne chang, the owner. i gotta say, it's always nice to see a successful business owner with a huge staff still working away at their store. i hope i can do that some day. anyway, when we got our sandwiches, we noticed that they were kinda small for $8 sandwiches. but i suggested that they could be the greatest sandwiches ever. so off we went back to work.

ok, so now i'm on lunch break. and leah was right. the sandwich is damn small for $8. mine's pretty tasty though. the jicama adds a nice crunch and sweetness to the sandwich and the avocados (which i adore) adds moisture and another texture to the sandwich. plus the chicken is well seasoned. often when you don't add condiments ie. mustard, mayo, etc. to a sandwich, it just feels too dry and lonely. but this one doesn't need any. however the bread is a little dry along the edge. overall pretty yummy. but for $8? i think i'll save that for a breakfast at mike's.

crap!!!!!!!!!! i forgot about $1 cone day yesterday. i guess with the whole shoplifting thing, i just wanted to go home, eat ravioli and watch house. ah well. next week then. i'll make it up to myself by going to mcdonald's and getting a sundae for $1....

The Shoplifting Consolation Chocolate Cake

So as you all know, i own a little chocolate shop. and due to the size of my store (tiny) and the fact that i'm selling a perishable product, i never ever thought i'd be shoplifted from. after all, this is an item that has no resale value. it's not like you can go and sell it on the street or the blackmarket. and of course teenagers and children often steal candy from stores, but not a boutique chocolate shop that sells gourmet chocolate. so i was shocked when i experienced my first shoplifting incident today, by a middle aged woman who stole chocolate from me. can you believe that? so i'm feeling a little down. not so much over the value of the chocolate, but because of the actual act of shoplifting. so to make myself feel better, and this being a food blog after all, i am eating some chocolate cake with whipped chocolate frosting, courtesy of betty crocker. yup. a little ugly, but still tasty. i've also spoken of my sheer capacity to eat lots of chocolate in an earlier post, but even for me, it's a consolation food. i spent last night making 6 dozen mini cupcakes for third thursday, this special event that we do at the hotel once a month. but at the end of it all, i still had all this cake mix left. so i decided to pour it all into a pan and make myself a chocolate cake. this morning, i found some left over whipped chocolate frosting (so maybe it's a few months old, frosting never really goes bad does it?) and spread that all over the slice of cake which i brought to work today in my little tupperware container. and thank goodness i did, cause now it's making me feel better. so what's the lesson here? take a slice of chocolate cake to work with you every day. it'll make you feel better, whether it's to make up for a bad day, or to make your good day even better.

Dinner at Big Ed's

I've discovered that this food blogging thing is harder than one might think. mainly cause i always eat my food before i can take a pic of it. and then i can't blog about the meal i just had cause everyone demands a pic. so it's great when someone else cooks and then takes the photos for me. all i gotta do is show up, eat and write my blog. which is what happened last night. my friend big ed had a dinner party at his place and convinced arti (in green shirt) to cook. well it turns out that that was a good plan (big ed, you're smarter than we give you credit for) cause arti turned out to be an excellent cook. in the pic you can see two of the dishes she made. one was this chicken curry with a cashew base. and that was fantastic. creamy, spicy and totally yum. it was so good that i would take little breaks between bites, let my mouth cool down, and resume eating. i'm a weakling and can't take much heat, but that chicken cashew curry was worth it. the other dish arti made was a chicken and potato dish. i didn't try it cause i was warned by others that it was super spicy, and i was already sniffling from the chicken cashew curry, but heard that was tasty too. little ed was there too (that's him in the photo doing the blowfish imitation) and made a yummy potato and pea curry. and harin (in the white shirt) finished off the night by bruleeing some fruit, and serving that with ice cream and cherries. you can see it in the second group pic, he just loves his brulee torch. it's not one of those tiny pathetic ones you getting at cooking store, but one that would be used in a pro kitchen. a plumber's torch. you can get one at home depot with the nozzle for less than $20. leah and i were lucky enough to show up and start eating, a lovely treat after you've been working all day. so thanks to all my friends for cooking dinner, we'll have to do it again sometime. how's next friday for you?

The Manager's special.

hey everyone. look! i've got two. two! pictures for you today. ( i hope this makes up for my lack of pics on early postings and apparently, the graphic i used yesterday, which my friend big ed claimed really wasn't a pic since i didn't take it). the first pic is one of my store mascot, choco cat. my buddy big ed gave it to me when my shop first opened. as you can see, he's sporting a red sox cap, cause he's a big sox fan, just like me. apart from other names not being available, this blog was also named in part for my store mascot, cause leah said the choco in minty choco chip was for choco cat. the second pic is of the manager's special. as i mentioned in an earlier post, leah is nice enough to bring me a donut a few times a week. if i'm especially lucky, she picks me up a manager's special from dunky d's. it's a chocolate cake donut with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. yummy! i had to stop myself from wolfing it down before i took a pic, but i'm happily munching on it now as i type this post. i realize that i own a chocolate shop, but my capacity for chocolate consumption is astonishing, even to myself. in this case, i think there's something special about the sprinkles. they add texture. one time the dunky d's next door had run out of my regular donut, so leah had them improvise and make one for me. they took chocolate jimmies from the ice cream station (this being one of those dunky d/ baskin robbins combos) and sprinkled them on a regular frosted donut. it was extra special just for the effort. ahh, it's the simple things in a life that make me happy.

ok. i clearly have more time on my hands than leah. she has actual customers. and really, you can rearrange a 28 sq. foot space only so many times. so this posting will be a gripe posting. (no new food today. i would review the brazilian buffet place where i picked up my lunch, but again, no cam, and i love that place, so i'll wait until i can give it a proper write up.) so last tuesday, leah, my friend, jayna, and i were excited to go over to baskin robbins for $1 cone tuesday. check it out here. http://www.baskinrobbins.com/. leah and i had been planning on going for a week, after i received an email from b.r. alerting me to this very special day. i was gonna print out the email and take it with us, just for extra insurance. but then i checked the b.r. homepage and there it was! and i made sure the closest b.r. was participating. plus, i heard an announcement on the radio about the offer, so they couldn't possibly not know about it. so the three of us showed up at the strangely empty b.r./dunkin' donuts next door. (it was 7, right before the sox game, so i know we made it at the right time) we told the two teenagers standing behind the i.c. display that we were there for $1 cone tuesday, and they were like what are you talking about? so we went into a full description of the offer. they still didn't know what we were talking about. at first, we all thought that they were just being teenage boys, messing with three older (and wiser) ladies, and that they'd eventually give us our damn i.c. cones. but to no avail. they genuinely had no idea what we were talking about. so we walked away from b.r., coneless and sad (ok, i wasn't that sad, i was about to go to a sox game, but disappointed), but determined to return. this time with a copy of the stupid email. we'll update you this coming tuesday on whether or not we actual got our $1 cones.

hmmm. i was gonna title this posting MOOS! but since i'm new to this whole blogging thing, i can't figure out how to title my post, and i'm too lazy to figure it out, so oh well. so i haven't eaten much today (it happens sometimes when you're running around) but I did receive a long anticipated product for my store called moos. so i sampled those and took a pic with my camera phone (the digital is still out of batteries and i promised a pic, so crappy as it is, at least it's a pic). anyway, the blurrgy image that you're looking at can be described as a chocolate pocket. it contains homemade marshmallows, caramel and cookies. all covered with dark chocolate and decorated with white chocolate. (see in the pic, the white chocolate makes up the spots and looks vaguely cowlike (though in reverse now that i think about it.) this moo was quite tasty. i liked the fluffiness of the homemade marshmallow and i'm always a fan of caramel. however, it was a little too sweet for my taste. i'm ok with a little wedge, but i'd never finish that whole thing off. ah well. maybe the rest of you will enjoy it. so i promise not to blog too much about stuff from my store. i just didn't want to disappoint my one reader, leah, by not posting today. ah well, at least now she can come visit and try out the moo.

Hallo all (meaning Leah, the only one reading this). Welcome to our new food blog! How did this blog come into being you might ask? and why is it called minty choco chip? well first, i was commenting to Leah after reading several of my favorite food blogs on how those people who write food blogs seem so cool. and i wish i could meet them. and leah suggested that we start our own food blog. i found this quite fitting since she introduced me to food blogs in the first place and because i have vast amounts of time to burn between serving customers at my shop. so here we are. and why minty choco chip? cause mint chip and mint chocolate chip were already taken. but really, because leah and i love mint chocolate chip ice cream from baskin robbins. no other ice cream maker makes as perfect an ice cream as the mint chocolate chip from baskin robbins. the chips from other ice cream makers are always too big and chunky. the ones in the baskin robbins ice cream melt just so perfectly. i love it! i apologize that there's no pic on today's blog. i was gonna put a pic. i swear. it was gonna be of my chocolate frosted cake donut that leah bought me for breakfast. (isn't she sweet, she does it several mornings a week) . but then my camera died. and i had to eat my donut (can't let the donut wait until tomorrow when it'll be stale). plus i'm hungry. and i wanted to eat my donut. so pic will come next time. promise.