For those who are ignorant of Rijsttafel, as I was...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijsttafel

Now I'm hungry... sounds like quite an event.

Stopped in about 45 minutes before posted closing time a few weeks ago - was greeted by an overwhelming odor of cleaning fluid, wet floors, and a register that had already closed.

My son got a slice of cake to go (not made in house, but he reported it was very good).

They have a very limited menu - basically coffee and pastry/cakes. Nothing made in house.

There is really nothing to draw me back, and I have a problem with places that post hours but do not follow them. I too really hoped for a good alternative to the chains and banks that occupy belmont center, but this is not it.

Doesn't look like Stillmans have any spots available for home delivery.

Both the Chestnut Farm pickup locations are really convenient, but I am concerned about the apparent rigidity of pickup locations/times. Makes it hard to commit.

My beloved Houde family farm is getting out of the meat CSA business. Do any other meat CSAs deliver to homes? Pickups are difficult due to irregular work schedule.

If I do have to pickup, any suggestions for meat CSA that would be convenient to Belmont?

I got all pissed off at paying 10bucks for a single skinny dried out bean at the grocery store, and went to amazon, where I got 1/2 lb of beautiful, fragrant, plump beans for about 20 dollars. Sealed some in plastic for future use, gave away handfulls, and put a bunch in a bottle of vodka just for fun. I still have the grocery store bean in its glass bottle just to remind me of what a rip-off it was.

My wife just ran an event with "Lavishly Dunn" for 120 people that ran about 80pp - I thought they did a very nice job and were certainly willing to work with her regarding menu, service, etc. to keep the cost down. Hotel catering departments are much more expensive, and always seem to have a bunch of charges that get added at the end, without adequate prior notification.

FWIW - I thought the 16th anniversary Ale was one of the best beers of the year. So good I bought a case, which I rarely do given all the great craft beers out there. A matter of taste, I guess.

Muddy, undifferentiated flavors. Lack of imagination in the menu.

I just gave a bottle of this to a friend from singapore, so she can cook "real chinese food".

Although I grew up here and only discovered it in the last year.

Houde family farm advertised them on the extras list 2 months ago - 6$/doz - they were all snapped up before I emailed, so I can't comment on quality. My cholesterol levels are happier this way, but I did want to try them.

I made one trip to Kathmandu spice, and have to say that the food was better than what I ate when in Nepal, but was still bland enough to be impressively bland. Worth a visit to see what Nepali cuisine is like, but not really worth a revisit. I believe arlington and somerville have moderate Nepali populations, which may keep them in business.

Houde family farm advertises $4/lb, hanging weight.

http://houdefamilyfarm.com/index_file...

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.

FYI, this is for a Nepali healthcare charity, if that brings anything to mind.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How expensive?

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.

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.

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.

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_file...

http://www.slate.com/id/2301228/

An explanation of why restaurant websites are frequently so terrible.

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.

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

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.