Luther's Profile
Porter Exchange Japanese Recommendations?
Mami: Curry with egg and cheese, wafu chicken cutlet. I don't recommend the gyu don. Overall the service and atmosphere isn't what it was when everyone was Japanese... but the food is still tasty.
Kaju Sundubu
I had a weeknight dinner at Kaju recently and I'd say it was decent, and at a decent price. I would characterize the banchan as fairly bland and overall average. I liked that the chigaes are balanced in flavor and not the salt/MSG bombs that you usually get. We got the highest spice level and I'd say it was just right, not super spicy, but satisfyingly so.
The beef and octopus has a fun texture, but the beef itself wasn't great quality- I had one large lump of beef that had the distinct flavor of old ground beef. I wouldn't be surprised if this was prepared by dropping a frozen lump of ground beef in to the chigae.
The clam chigae has a ton of little clams, which are nice but I'm not sure it's the greatest flavor combination as the clam flavor gets lost in the spicy.
A plate of bulgogi was brought to our table on a hot metal plate, but it either wasn't fully heated up or was no longer sizzling by the time it got to our table. The meat was overly tenderized to the point of being somewhat mushy and dry.
One of the pots of rice was nice and brown on the bottom, but another one didn't seem to have been sufficiently heated, so the final rice tea was much more bland in that one.
It's a very casual room with bright lighting and a TV. It's neither a "nice restaurant" nor drinking kind of vibe, and I wouldn't say it has that cozy/bustling atmosphere of Hanmaru. So you have another option for atmosphere among the many Allston Korean options.
Thai chicken noodle soup bowls
OP may also be looking for the fairly plain chicken soup with thin rice noodles that's served with ground chicken, crushed peanuts and cilantro at S&I. You can get it spicy or fix it up with the table condiments.
Chinatown Bakeries: Best Pineapple Bun
Wait, just noticed that you mentioned red bean filling in your OP. It seems you are thinking of something else. A pineapple bun 菠蘿包 is a baked pastry with a crunchy sugar top. It's never filled, though it is traditionally served by slicing and half and filling with butter when serving.
Chinatown Bakeries: Best Pineapple Bun
Bonus points if anyone can name a bakery that serves it with a slab of real butter.
Gene's Chinese Flatbread Cafe, Chelmsford
Biang biang mian (the one long broad noodle with tons of garlic) and most of the other dishes are traditionally associated with Shaanxi province, which is in north-central China. The Uyghur ethnic group is from Xinjiang, all the way in the NW corner of the country.
Qualitatively I'd say the two cuisines share their love of flatbread, cumin and lamb kababs. Uyghur food, due to its proximity to central Asia, shares more with that region such as the use of rice pilafs, and flavors associated with the Soviet republics.
Best Fresh Bagels In Boston?
Strongly agreed. Katz is somewhat better, though. I consider everyone else to be in a very distant second tier, Kupels included.
Super 88 Allston
Kantin has great 椒鹽 "ziu yim" salt and pepper fried stuff like ribs, tofu, squid, etc. Definitely the best thing they serve there. I quite like their dry fried ho fun but I always feel like it needs saltiness.
Mixx serves the from-a-kit frogurt and toppings you can get pretty much anywhere these days, so that's also not much of a destination.
Yi Soon has on multiple occasions served me stale (and in one case, spoiled) pastries. See if you can take a sniff or a sample before you buy anything that's been sitting in the fridge.
The chocolate-coconut macaroon at Clear Flour shouldn't be missed.
Maki Maki - AYCE sushi buffet, Brighton
I agree with your assessment. There are a large variety of rolls, but I can only eat so many salty/mayo concoctions before that gets tired. There are large piles of tasty raw fish but they are sliced in annoyingly small pieces. There are raw clams and oysters. The roast beef is good quality but drenched in A-1 sauce. If you hover around the fish slices and lobster plates, you can grab some tasty stuff when it comes out every 10 minutes or so (there's a feeding frenzy). Desserts are pretty sad but that's fine by me. Tempura shrimp of course have a pretty thick batter but are crispy and tasty nonetheless.
bánh xèo, ..anything?..anything?...Bueller??
I have fond memories of eating a non-crispy, omeletty version listed on the menu as "Vietnamese pizza" at that place run by the old guy on Brighton Av in Allston where Gitlo's was... anyone remember what that place was?
bánh xèo, ..anything?..anything?...Bueller??
Does Pho 2000 serve anything that's not far above average or excellent?
bánh xèo, ..anything?..anything?...Bueller??
virtually every Vietnamese place in Boston serves it. are you asking where the best one is? I don't order it often but I think the one at Xinh Xinh is passable.
April 2012 Openings & Closings
Unique Chinese Food (145 Harvard Av, Allston) has re-opened and there seems to be a paper menu in the window describing their (new?) noodle specialties.
Trying to locate bottled Num Prik Pla
It looks like someone has in fact refilled that jar with prik pon, dry crushed red chiles. Are you looking for this condiment or actual nam prik pla (fresh chopped chiles in fish sauce)?
The *NEW* East Coast Grill
No, though it is typical for a delicious pile of spicy tuna!
The *NEW* East Coast Grill
I guess, but Sriracha is not a Vietnamese style sauce, it's Thai. Huy Fong brand was started by a Vietnamese immigrant in Southern CA, but it's in the style of a Thai sauce.
The *NEW* East Coast Grill
I wasn't aware of a connection between banh mi and Sriracha, except that Vietnamese restaurants tend to offer cock sauce on the table. When you ask for "spicy" in a banh mi it should come from tiny hot fresh peppers...
The *NEW* East Coast Grill
I guess... mayo on a sandwich is not exactly Vietnamese specific though
The *NEW* East Coast Grill
Crunchy daikon and carrot are the only things in there (OK, and mayo) that make it in any way a "banh mi." Otherwise it bears absolutely no resemblance to a banh mi. More specifically, it gets its heat from some kind of hot sauce instead of hot green chiles, it's on an Iggy's baguette instead of a Vietnamese style baguette, it's full of eggplant, etc.
New Bostonian's wish list
NB the Strip-Ts "banh mi" is not a banh mi, it's just a sandwich that happens to include some pickled daikon and carrots. But it's a fun sandwich you should definitely try if you like fried tofu.
New Bostonian's wish list
Most of these are popular topics of discussion, you'll find a lot if you do simple searches. Also, to make a point that I'm sure somebody will, perfect fish + perfect rice is never inexpensive. There are a number of places that have decent value for money, though.
Nachos
El Tour de Nacho ranked Rattlesnake a bit higher than Rock Bottom.
http://nachopatrol.com/best-of-boston/
