tdaaa's Profile
Any place to get a reasonably priced side of beef?
Houde family farm advertises $4/lb, hanging weight.
http://houdefamilyfarm.com/index_files/Page324.htm
I use them for meat CSA, $8-9 per lb, but have made a concious decision that I prefer knowing where my meat is coming from and how it is processed, as opposed to the $1.99/lb grocery store special (with pink slime, etc)
Plus, it tastes better.
Fundraising dinner for ~200 people, 100$pp or less, Video
FYI, this is for a Nepali healthcare charity, if that brings anything to mind.
Fundraising dinner for ~200 people, 100$pp or less, Video
My wife is in charge of a fundraising dinner for about 200 people. The venue needs to have capability to show a 40 minute video (which is professionally produced, and would benefit from large screen/great audio) as well as the usual speeches, etc. To maximize fundraising, would like to keep price less than 100$pp, preferably less than 75$.
Looking at State Room, have used Omni Parker in past.
Also would be interested in cheaper options/buffet-type catering with better projection facilities. I am thinking about something like ART in Cambridge - was there once for mount Auburn Hospitals "evening with your favorite authors" with light dinner afterwards (carving stations with sandwiches/ salad). Thanks for any help or experiences... this is way out of my knowledge base.
Bob's Lobster-Plum Island
Although I think it is "Bob Lobster" - a name that should probably end up on one of those grammar websites.
The scallops are always great there as well. My wife is always happy with the fish and chips.
Did your Valentines Day dining met your expectations? Do you rec it for next year?
Nope. Belmont.... the seafood counter was rockin' however - two people getting live lobsters and two others for fish in front of me. Rarely have to wait in line, although I normally shop late at night to avoid the crowds.
Did your Valentines Day dining met your expectations? Do you rec it for next year?
Called our local shaws at 4:30 to steam a 2 lb lobster, cool enough to handle by the time I picked it up an hour later. Picked it, chopped the tail, saved the claws for garnish. Chopped tomatoes, basil, cut the rind off of two wedges of brie and chopped the soft innards. Made crab cakes with extra crab left over from superbowl. Everthing in fridge to allow the whirlwind of picking up kids from various activities, checking homework and bedtime, then in 5 minutes flat boiled fettucine, tossed lobster, basil, brie and tomatoes with pasta in hot pot, fried crabcakes in butter and plated on pinkest plates I had (I kept the pink turkey plate for myself, roses for my wife). It was one of the nicest, quickest valentines dinners ever.
Did you grow up eating homemade Boston Baked Beans? [moved from Boston]
For me (born in 1970 outside of Boston) it was an occasional, special dish. I'm sure that I could get the recipe from my mother. My father's family are multigenerational new-englanders, and I am sure that the recipe came from his mother. In addition to the war-time stories above, my grandmother still prefers maple syrup in her morning coffee - sugar rationing made maple syrup a cheaper, more available sweetener.
Cookbook 101: List Some Fundamental Cookbooks (Suggestions Needed)
My most used general cookbook is also Joy of Cooking, although I find that the older edition is much better than the most recent one (I have both)... don't go too old, though, tastes do change markedly over time and recipes that were popular in the 50s and 60s may not translate well. My older JoC has lots of stuff on canning and preserving, as well as more extensive "american" dishes. The more recent one has more "international" recipes, none of which are very authentic or good. I don't like the better homes and gardens cookbook - it is very basic, uninteresting and seems to have a lot of processed food ingredients. On the other hand, if you are a beginning cook, it does have simple recipes to get you started.
Lovely Hospitality at Masa - Woburn
I stopped in (without reservation) last winter with my 10 year old, wanting tapas. The bar area was full, the dining area almost empty. After being seated in the dining area, was told that I could not have tapas in the dining area... that was only for the bar... and there were no available seats in the bar, and none would become available due to reservations (several tables were actually empty at the time). I walked out and vowed not to return - it is their perogative to limit the bar menu to the bar, but I also feel no need to patronize inflexible establishments.
Fresh Cheese on Fleet St., in the North End - tel no disconnected???
When you buy your milk, make sure that it isn't "ultrapastuerized" as this will not work. Made some with my son two weeks ago, compared whole cows milk with a mixture of cow/goat milk and they were both fabulous. Way better than anything I have bought, and easy to make.
Where to find Ommegang Witte
Belmont Craft beer cellar is very close to the Belmont train station, if you don't have transportation. Ommegang tastings are fairly frequent, if you want to sample the whole line of beers.
Meat CSA - Houde Family Farm
I don't actually care about humanely raised or antibiotic free, but do think they are a good value based purely on taste - far better than my local supermarket, and as good or better than the fresh pond whole foods.
Meat CSA - Houde Family Farm
sure looks that way from the website, but Belmont wasn't on the list when I started and they were perfectly happy to deliver there. They already go to Cambridge, so it would probably depend on where in Boston you are, and how long it would take. You also need a secure area to leave a cooler.
Meat CSA - Houde Family Farm
After reading about it here on Chowhound, I joined Houde Family Farm meat CSA 2 years ago. I have been really happy with them - they deliver once a month, direct to my freezer, and the quality is excellent. My family of four does 10 lbs per month, which works out to be about perfect for us. Approximately 50% good cuts and 50% items like hamburger, ground pork or lamb, breakfast sausage (the best I have ever had), etc. Extensive add on list, including eggs, which are excellent. They will also deliver chickens, but they are not currently included in the regular CSA. They had a higher than average non-renewal rate this trimester, and apparently have a few spaces available. Approximately 8$/lb, 4 month prepay. Certainly more expensive than the grocery store, but great quality and worth it, IMHO, to know where your food is coming from (not to mention delivery to the house).
http://houdefamilyfarm.com/index_files/Page324.htm
Restaurant web sites and outdated information
http://www.slate.com/id/2301228/
An explanation of why restaurant websites are frequently so terrible.
Star Market... a chow destination?
I have to say that I have been really unhappy with the Belmont Shaw's produce redesign - the same space now has markedly less variety, although it does have HUGE bins of apples of various types. Why I need 5000 apples of each type on display is beyond me, but that seems to be what took up the space that used to have a reasonable variety and quality. At the same time they stopped carrying all the flours that I used regularly (no rye, no bulk cornmeal, no white whole wheat, etc). If it wasn't less than a mile from my house, I would never go back.
Silk Road BBQ back in Belmont
Haven't seen this reported yet. I apologize if this is common knowledge, but on the way back from my run to fresh pond, I noticed the silk road BBQ truck on Concord Ave, across from clay pit pond, in a parking lot on the south side of the street. They were packing up at 8:30, so I didn't get to re-sample their wares, but they said they will be there 5-8:30, Tuesday-Friday. Still at the greenway for lunches, and it appears from the website that they go to the Waltham Farmers Market on Saturday.
http://silkroadbbq.com/index.html
FYI, this is just down the road from Golden Garden. Apparently, someone is thinking about opening a sushi place right next door to GG. This area of concord ave is quickly becoming the most chowish area of belmont (not that there is a lot of competition)
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Silk Road BBQ
Rowes Wharf Plaza, Boston, MA 02110
Golden Garden
63 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA 02478
which BOS location is the BEST of Legal Seafoods Chain??
I was there on Sunday night for a fast dinner - they did a nice job on grilled bluefish, had drinks and food out fast, and it made for great people watching (I think we were the only english- speaking table in earshot, lots of tourists trying to figure out lobster). Not fine dining by any stretch of the imagination, but good for what it is.
Where can I find Burrata?
Very nice version with candied pistachios at Il Casale in Belmont Center. We have to get it every time.
Morel season is starting!!
How can I recognize them and are there dangerous look alikes? I just last weekend saw three that I thought were morels but I don't have extensive (or even cursory) mushroom skills. I can forage for greens, berries and fruits with the best of them, but not mushrooms.
Andros Diner - Belmont - 35 years later and 84K owed to state
While it is (was) a neighborhood institution, it was not destination dining. The meals I had there were competent (greek) diner fare: cheap and filling, but nothing particularly special.
Whole Roasted Lamb
Sorry, mis-read the post. Thought it was for a whole lamb for roasting.
Whole Roasted Lamb
You could try houde family farm http://houdefamilyfarm.com/index.htm in VT - they deliver locally to CSA customers and do have lamb and advertise cow/pork bulk pricing (half or whole animal) on the website. Deliveries are scheduled this week.
Bobalicious - Newton
Thanks. BTW are you available for the coffee challenge in 2 weeks?
Bobalicious - Newton
I guess I should pay more attention to the opening/closing threads. Can anyone recommend a good bahn mi place in the near suburbs? I'm based in Belmont. Striperguy?
Bobalicious - Newton
Tried to stop for Bahn Mi on Wednesday night on my way to pick up the family at Logan. Was closed, brown paper on the glass. Anyone know if it is renovating, closed or if I just got there too late? I really liked their bahn mi, and I am occasionally in the neighborhood.
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Bobalicious
308 Watertown St, Newton, MA 02458
Golden Garden
I was trying to stay away from the americanized items. It wasn't bad, just bland. Maybe I'll add some ass blaster hot sauce and see how it is.
Genki Ya "Organic" sushi, Fresh Pond
Stopped in for a solo dinner sunday night as the family is out of town. Had avoided this place due to the "organic" - what the hell is organic sushi and why would I want to eat it anyway.
Started with a spinach appetizer (forget the name) - small balls of cold blanched spinach with a ginger dressing - perfectly cooked, excellent quality spinach. This was really good.
Miso soup had slightly more stuff in it than normal, otherwise unexceptional
Sushi and Sashimi platter - beautifully presented, huge pieces of fish. Came with spicy tuna roll, california roll, Nigiri of eel, shrimp, tuna, salmon and one white fish, Sashimi of tuna, salmon and a white fish. Was offered a choice of brown or white rice - Chose standard sushi rice. The rice was not right - too dry and chewy. Found it difficult to appreciate the rolls or nigiri because of the rice texture. The fish on the nigiri was way too big - there was almost 2 inches of overhang on both sides of the rice. Made it a two-bite proposition. The sashimi was also far too large - both thicker and larger than I like. It seemed to change the texture of the fish (and not for the better). Fish was all flavorful and fresh, knife work was adequate, except for size.
The menu was garish. Full color, blown up pictures of the sushi on offer, including many unique mixtures/combinations. The "Volcano" comes to mind as an example - a cone shaped tower of reddish fish with flying fish roe cascading down the sides. Didn't really appeal to me. Took a long time to find the combinations - I was tired and didn't really want to decide on a la carte items. Although I would have prefered a more adventurous/varied combination - spicy tuna and california rolls are not my prefered items.
It reminded me of sushi in Arizona - quantity and weird combos. I prefer a more traditional harmonious marriage between the ingredients. I would consider returning to try some of the non-sushi items based on the excellent spinach appetizer, but Toraya retains my loyalty for sushi.
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Toraya Restaurant
890 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02476
Genki
398 Harvard St, Brookline, MA 02446
Golden Garden
Stopped in early saturday evening and ordered way to much food for takeout. The cumin lamb was fabulous - spicy, tender goodness. The pork/leek/shrimp dumplings were pretty good. COuldn't remember which soup stripe had recommended so ended up with vegie/tofu which had a really rich broth and soft tofu but was boring compared to the lamb. Having it for lunch today instead.
I stopped in and ordered on my way back from the hardware store - only took about 10 minutes and they gave me a nice cup of tea while I waited. They were very nice, despite the fact that I was looking really rough.
