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Insights, tips, and restaurant reports from CHOW editors and Chowhound.
Boston

Tiger’s Tears and Two Soups

Southeast Asian food is big business in Boston, where you can’t fling a pair of chopsticks without hitting a Vietnamese or Thai place. But Cambodian food, which uses many of the same ingredients as Vietnamese or Thai food and hews to a similar sweet/sour/salty/hot balance, was new to a crowd of hounds who swung by Floating Rock in Revere for a nibble.

fredid raved about a number dishes, including spicy pork with chiles, chicken with ginger, and two soups: the combination vegetable soup (somlah kako) with pork, squash, green beans, and thai eggplant in a lemongrass broth thickened with ground toasted rice, and the sweet and sour (somlah macho yuon), with chicken, tomatoes, pineapples, and tiny lotus roots in sweet tamarind broth. The table also loved two beef salads: board favorite tiger’s tears, made with thinly sliced beef and bird chiles; and beef salad with mint (pleah saiko), which has minced beef with lemongrass, mint, basil, bean sprouts, and red onions in a dressing laced with lime.

NoNatto seconds fredid’s emotions, calling out the “wonderful blend of flavors of textures” in the tiger’s tears, and the “satisfyingly addictive” spicy pork, which needed a side of rice to tame its heat. The only dish the crowd seemed iffy about was the curried pickled fish with coconut milk (prahok k’tiss), which SuzieCK nervously calls “truly funky.”

Make sure you take some time for neighborhood exploration when you visit as the surrounding shops are a wonderland of specialty Southeast Asian foods such as kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil, curry leaves, and fresh bird chiles at $1 for a big bag.

Floating Rock [Revere]
144 Shirley Avenue, Revere
781-286-2554

Board Link: Floating Rock - Whew!

Edit Post / Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Boston

What to Order at Modern Pastry

rep123max wonders why there are always long lines at Modern Pastry, a North End bakery that belies its name by specializing in old-school Italian treats like cannoli. Every time I go to the North End, I tell myself to get something from Modern, but I instinctively go to Mike’s.” Avoid both, says RichardinJP: “Both Modern and Mike’s lack authenticity and are there for the tourists not the folks who appreciate real Italian bakeries.”

chicken pot pie has hated everything at Modern: “There is nothing worth getting at Modern aside from cannolis,” says chicken pot pie, who has tried the chocolate mousse cake, cheesecake, and strawberry shortcake. StriperGuy strongly disagrees, advising chicken that anything American is to be avoided at Modern. “Do yourself a favor and try something ITALIAN at the ITALIAN bakery,” he snaps.

So what does one try? Various hounds call out their favorites:

• florentines
• almond macaroons
• torrone
• zeppole di San Giuseppe, a deep-fried, filled doughnut topped with cherries and/or cherry jam that’s made only around St. Joseph’s Day (March 19)
• ricotta pie, particularly the Easter season version made with wheat berries
• pine nut cookies (amaretti con pignoli)
• chocolate truffle bars
• the small, round lemon cookies packaged in clear bags in front of the store

But most everyone agrees that the lines at Modern are terrible, and the setup makes things move more slowly. “Once you can finally see what they have, you can’t tell what it is. So you have to wait until your turn to figure out what everything is and then decide,” sighs rep123max. Be a better line-waiter: Have your order ready when you step up. The people behind will thank you.

Modern Pastry [North End]
257 Hanover Street, Boston
617-523-3783

Mike’s Pastry [North End]
300 Hanover Street, Boston
617-742-3050

Board Link: Modern Pastry

Edit Post / Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Stockholm Doubles Its Count of Two-Star Restaurants

Sweden’s got a second two-star eatery, according to the most recent edition of the vaunted Michelin Guide. The Matsalen restaurant in Stockholm picked up the honor, which celebrates the restaurant’s daily menu inspired in part by fresh local ingredients. The restaurant’s got no shortage of ambition, if its website is to be believed:

“[Chef] Mathias [Dahlgren] aims to create a new Swedish identity—a theme which not only resonates through his offering in cuisine but also through every detail of the restaurant’s design, a result of leading British Designer and Creative Director, Ilse Crawford’s interpretation.”

The New York Times review of the restaurant praises its refined, market-driven menus but focuses not on its fine dining wing, but it’s more casual food bar:

“Though you eat on a tray and the menu includes such classics as deep-fried hake with lemon and tartar sauce, this is no overpriced cafeteria.”

Edit Post / Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Alice Waters Annoys Everyone Again

Anything Alice Waters–related usually provokes criticism and cries of elitism, but it seems that her recent 60 Minutes appearance caused even some of her fans to question her grip on reality.

There’s the Chowhound discussion that’s gotten 100 replies in a couple of days, ranging from: “I took Waters’ comment to say whatever discretionary income you have, be it $100 a week or $1 a week, think about where it’s going … Then again, I was eating a Wendy’s-TM junior cheeseburger while watching the segment,” to “What I came away with was a sense that AW is an idealist and a visionary, and as such, can never be an actual model for how we normal, non-idealists and non-visionaries live our lives.” Bonus: an interesting digression comparing Waters to Jesus.

I have to agree with the Eat Me Daily blog, which wondered why she didn’t use her prime-time slot on 60 Minutes to demo an easy affordable sustainable meal for American families instead of “an incredibly time-consuming luxurious breakfast, with heirloom tomatoes (likely $5/lb) and an egg cooked in a long metal spoon that has to be hand-held over the fireplace in her kitchen.” Sure, I’d love to eat that breakfast, and I totally envy that in-kitchen hearth, but at this point her approach to food may be doing more to alienate than to inspire people.

Edit Post / Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

The Mixed Blessing of Zinging Your Pizza

So Good tries out Pizza Zing, the Parmesan cheese, oregano, and red pepper flake combo meant to kick pizza flavor up a notch. The verdict: Don’t apply it to good pizza.

“It’s powerful stuff, and the 7 spices completely overwhelm the 2 ‘hearty’ cheeses the bottle advertises. I mean, throwing red, jalapeno, and cayenne pepper into the spice-blend is one thing, but adding in habanero as well?”

Image source

Edit Post / Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

The Atlantic Launches New Food Channel

The Atlantic, the monthly magazine known for its erudite political and cultural commentary, has launched a new Food Channel. The site features words, photos, and videos from such luminaries as the Zagats, Marion Nestle, and Chef Grant Achatz. What they’ve written looks quite bloggy, joining Atlantic food writer Corby Kummer’s blog, Corby’s Fresh Feeds.

Other content is longer and quite beautifully written, as befits the print magazine, one of the last few bastions of long-form journalism. For instance, this excerpt from the article “Dining in DC with Larry David”:

“The chestnut soup sounded wonderful. But when Mr. David was told it came with small marshmallows, his hands waved around ordering them away. But the homemade, small, square marshmallows slowly melted into the soup. Their slightly tangy flavor balanced the sweetness of the creamy chestnut soup. After the rest of us ‘oohed and ahhed,’ Larry motioned to the waiter to bring back his marshmallows.”

Nice, eh? How about this paragraph culled from “Starting a Traditional Turkey Flock,” a short, lovely behind-the-scenes look at a poultry farm by the Nimans.

“When we decided last spring to start raising turkeys here, we knew we wanted hearty, old breeds and the best lineages available. In our view, this meant that there was only one place to go: Lindsborg, Kansas, to the farm of Frank Reese. As a young man, Frank had befriended some of the nation’s best turkey breeders and, at a certain point, committed himself to maintaining the superior poultry lines they had long labored to preserve. In a rented car, we placed 225 newly hatched baby turkeys (called ‘poults’) on the back seat and raced toward California. We took turns driving and headed west through five states with only brief stops for food and bathroom breaks.”

Well, Atlantic, pretty cool addition to the food webscape, thanks.

Edit Post / Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

People in China Don’t Eat Fortune Cookies

Before watching this short film by New York Times writer Jenny 8. Lee, I thought fortune cookies were as ubiquitous in China as toy manufacturers. But not only is that false—it turns out General Tso didn’t even own chickens! Lee debunks many Western illusions about Chinese food in her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (spoiler: Panda Express isn’t in every mall over there), and in this film induces Chinese folks to try fortune cookies for the first time.

This film was also part of a short-film fest I run called the Disposable Film Festival and premiered at the ’09 event in San Francisco last month. I realize this is now a shameless plug, but if you like this film, you can watch the whole 2009 DFF program online here and possibly even win the robotic dinosaur PLEO!


Introducing Fortune Cookies to China from Disposable Film Festival on Vimeo.

Edit Post / Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Los Angeles Area

The Best Tacos Al Pastor in LA?

Tacos al pastor at Yxta Cocina Mexicana involve pork in chile sauce, with some grilled pineapple, a little red onion, cilantro, and a small slab of fresh pineapple, in handmade tortillas. “A bite… another bite to convince the brain that the first bite was not a hallucination… a couple more bites to ensure scientific method is followed and… damn, I’ve finished it. It was astounding,” says Das Ubergeek. “It was INCREDIBLE. It was juicy it was spicy it was sweet it was tangy it was sharp it was JUST ABSOLUTELY PERFECT AND I NEED ANOTHER ONE STAT!”

“I’m telling you, those tacos were the VERY best tacos al pastor I’ve had in LA — and I’ve eaten a lot of tacos al pastor in my ten years in SoCal,” says Das Ubergeek.

Maracha tacos are also delicious, says estnyboer—superjuicy shredded and chopped beef, with rich, smoky flavor. Other menu picks: squash blossoms stuffed with Mexican cheese, especially with a dollop of salsa cruda on top, and the pineapple flan.

Yxta Cocina Mexicana is brand-new, and from the same folks who run El Arco Iris. It’s definitely aiming at the upscale, multiethnic audience, with a full bar and an open kitchen. It’s on a bleak corner of east downtown, near some other excellent places to eat.

Yxta Cocina Mexicana [Downtown]
601 S. Central Avenue, Los Angeles
213-622-5540

Board Link: REVIEW: Yxta Cocina Mexicana, Downtown

Edit Post / Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Los Angeles Area

Goodness on a Stick

Torihei, a yakitori-ya, is the dream of chef-owner Masataka Hirai. He learned his craft from his mother, a yakitori chef in Tokyo. Hirai came to the States with his number two chef, Masakazu Sasaki, a specialist in oden, a type of Japanese stew with a dashi broth. Thus, we have Torihei: a place for masterful versions of two totally distinct Japanese specialties.

Torihei’s yakitori—chicken skewers—are the work of a “true yakitori grill master,” says exilekiss. The yakitori is mostly prepared shio, a salt-based style that’s moist and pure in taste, with a pleasing texture. Torihei offers the full yakitori assortment, with skewers of breast, thigh, liver, wing, and every other tidbit of chicken you could imagine.

The house specialty is jikasei tsukune, ground chicken mixed with shiso leaf and other spices and roasted over proper bincho-tan charcoal. Most tsukune is dry or mealy, explains exilekiss, but Hirai’s is “juicy, moist, and bursting with flavor! Light notes of shiso and pepper and other spices combine with a fresh, pure chicken taste.”

The other specialty of the house is Kyoto-style oden, a variety of small items stewed together. At Torihei, you get them item by item, alongside some delicious soup. Daikon topped with dried bonito shavings is “clean and pure, tender, completely permeated with the made-from-scratch dashi broth,” says exilekiss. “The dashi broth was truly a thing of beauty: completely focused and pure, with notes of konbu (kelp), katsuobushi (dried bonito), and special shoyu (soy sauce) worked in harmony to bring about a broth that was so soothing and soul-warming that all I could do was smile.”

Other must-orders: the hanjyuku tamago, a creamy flash-boiled chicken egg yolk filled with cod roe; the roasted fatty pork; and the stewed beef tendon.

“Torihei is a stunning development in the L.A. landscape: One restaurant that houses *2* master chefs and 2 styles of cooking that rise to the top of the list in their respective areas,” says exilekiss.

Torihei [South Bay]
1757 W. Carson Street #A, Torrance
310-781-9407

Board Link: The Newest L.A. Treasure! The Stunningly Delectable Roast Chicken Skewers of Yakitori Master (*and* Kyoto-Style Oden Specialist) Torihei! [Review] w/ Pics!

Edit Post / Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Los Angeles Area

What’s in a Name?

What was once NRN Noodles is now Happy Kitchen. It has a new owner but the staff and the menu are the same, says ipsedixit, which means that Happy Kitchen is still one of the only restaurants in town specializing in food from the Lizhou region of China. Oh, and Happy Kitchen’s noodle soup broth is still made with water snails. Really. They have pictures and everything.

Don’t stop at the soup, though. Happy Kitchen also makes a great beef roll, says Chandvakl.

Happy Kitchen [San Gabriel Valley]
301 W. Valley Boulevard, San Gabriel
626-284-2619

Board Link: The Name Has Changed But The Snail Broth Is Still There

Edit Post / Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

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