CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS??

Every once in a while, I will actually read the local paper and get a food tip. That's how we ended up at the all you can eat sushi place in Berkeley, and it's also how I heard about a Turkish restaurant in Berkeley. Now Tom and I had just been talking about how we missed Family Restaurant in Brookline, with it's casual atmosphere and giant plates of tasty, cheap food, we really hadn't found anything like it around our new home, so we were quick to try out our new find, Turkish Kitchen.

Unfortunately, everyone else had also heard of Turkish Kitchen (at least 2 people I'd talked to at work had planned on checking it out), so even though we arrive a little after 6 on a Friday night, the place was packed and not a seat was free. Actually, it looks like the place has been here for a while, and with its key location right near the Berkeley campus and it's low prices, it's a popular place for students. Luckily, the tables turned pretty quickly, so we only waited about 10 minutes before we were seated. The staffed seemed friendly, but really overwhlemed by their new found popularity and it looked as though they were just struggling to keep up.

Tom and I decided to start with a shared hummus, which was actually quite good.

Tom then ordered a dish that had been recommended in the review I'd read. It's basically chicken, wrapped in a lavash bred and topped with a special sauce. Unfortunately, they give him the lamb version, rather than the chicken one that he'd ordered. But it was so busy, he didn't bother to return it, and just ate it. He actually enjoyed it, except for the special sauce that they'd put on top.

Meanwhile, I had a really great chicken kabob platter. The pieces of chicken were cooked perfectly and were totally tender and flavorful. I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall, I thought out meal was pretty great, though in the future, I think we'll be ordering take out, rather than battling the crowds. After dinner, it was still pretty early, so I thought we'd visit a childhood favorite, Foster's Freeze. Foster's Freeeze is a lot like Dairy Queen and famous for it's dipped ice cream cones. I hadn't had one in like 15 years, so I wanted to give it another try. I thought it was kinda funny that they had these display models of what the ice cream should look like. They even had little diagrams one wall pointing out the shapes of the ice cream, which was kinda funny when you see what my cone ended up looking like. So I ordered a chocolate ice cream dipped in chocolate...

But when the guy handed it to me, this is what it looked like....

I made Tom hold it while I took a pic, but I was laughing so hard it was kinda difficult. Anyhoo, the chocolate on the exterior of the cone wasn't so great. There was so much cocoa butter in it to make it harden instantly that it was just waxy, though the interior ice cream was pretty decent. Next time, I'll order it without the chocolate shell.

RANDOM MUSINGS

What's up with the food at Fenway?
I made my second trip to Fenway park yesterday to watch the Red Sox lose to the Tigers (sigh) and I've now decided to boycott all food at Fenway. I really do feel that this year, they've gone too far with seeing how far you can push customers price and quality wise. On my first trip to Fenway, I'd discovered that they'd gotten rid of my beloved chicken sausages (they've decided to replace them with a chicken breast sandwich). I got ice cream instead. But I also had a pretzel later in the game and discovered that they've started serving much smaller pretzels (like 1/3 of the size smaller) but are still charging the same price. Bastards.

On this trip, I had just come from work, so got the chicken strips and fries. And I seriously think they give you fewer chicken strips this year. For $7.25, you get two pieces of chicken on a pile of fries. WTF. I'm still shocked that they charge $4.25 for a 20 oz. bottle of Coke. How do you come up with that number? I mean, I know that you expect to get ripped off when attending sporting events, but when you're also paying for the highest ticket prices of any ballpark in the U.S., you'd think you could pay just a little less.

Family Restaurant, Brookline Village
I am now a fan of the Family Restaurant in Brookline Village. It's just located on Washington St., next to Beacon Hill Athletic Club, but I had never noticed it before. But Leah had a great dinner there (they serve Turkish food) and said that I had to check it out. So when my friend, Noel, came into town (with our high school math teacher in tow), Katie, Dustin and I took showed them a bit of Brookline and lunch at the Family Restaurant.

The menu is actually quite big and we all decided to order sandwiches. I got a sandwich that had ground chicken and it was great. It was served on a big bun (which I thought was a little strange, I had expected pita), but the chicken was really well seasoned and cooked. I think we all enjoyed our sandwiches and lunch cost less than $10/person. I've got to go back for dinner sometime.

Truly Jorg's is now open
Ok people, the patisserie is open, so stop asking me. Due to the location of my store, and since I'm friends with Jorg, EVERYONE has felt the need, over the last 3 months, to ask me when the new patisserie will open. So my friend Jorg just opened a second location here at the hotel. (it's in between the bank and the wine shop) and i think it looks great. I think he makes some of the best pastries in Boston and he has beautiful stuff. Plus he and his wife are super nice people. Check it out and then come up to buy some chocolate from me!