BarmyFotheringayPhipps's Recent Activity
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Looking for Assorted 'British' foods and a Rant :)
The chips are okay, but the fish is an abomination.
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Desperately seeking cheap Mexican *in* Boston...that's not Anna's etc.
Picante in Central Square would satisfy the cheap guy, and it's a straight run up Mass Ave on the Route 1 bus for the homebody. It's not great, but it's not awful, and you're not gonna get great with such parameters.
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Russo's Turkeys
I brine a fresh turkey every year, with consistently excellent results. Go for it.
Russo's was less of a madhouse than I expected this afternoon around 4: we did all of our Thanksgiving shopping and were in and out in just a hair under 20 minutes.
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Twice Cooked Pork
Sichuan Garden's version of this is exquisite, and Brookline Village is easily reachable via the 66 bus.
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Shake Shack Possibly Coming to the Common (Competing with another Proposal)
Make Mumbles think it's his idea and figure out a way to make sure his thugs get their cut and there'll be a Shake Shack on the Common by noon tomorrow.
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Hungry Mother
I'm with hcybg on this one. In particular, I don't understand the ad hominem attack on the restaurant's clientele, since I have never seen any indication that its target demographic is "young foodies having this food for the first time." (How young do you have to be to not have had bistro-style comfort food before, anyway?)
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The best and worst of Brookline?
I eat in Michael's a fair amount, and I've never had anybody STAND OVER ME. Wonder why that is. Oh, right, because I've never played cards while I'm eating my chicken salad club.
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Bar Tools in Boston
Strongly seconded, as soon as the Davis Square location is up and running. High quality at excellent prices.
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The best and worst of Brookline?
Michael's Deli has, what, three tables? I can understand the desire to play a game of cards at a place that's a) not busy, b) has enough empty tables so that other people can sit down and have their food, and c) is conducive to sticking around and possibly ordering something else later, like a bar or a coffeehouse. But no, sorry, I'm with Michael on this. There is not enough space in there to encourage dawdling, so that table is yours only for as long as it takes to eat your sandwich. Playing cards there is just rude -- not to Michael, but to the other customers who'd like to not have to stand on Harvard Street and eat their sandwich off an electrical pylon.
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Local lamb?
Call Blood Farm in Groton: (978) 448-6669. They usually have lamb, but having it in roast form might require a little advance notice. I have always been quite pleased with the lamb there, however.
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11/09 Gitlo's Dim Sum : Don't Bother
Too bad you never got there back when it was good.
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Super 88 - Bankruptcy
I still don't yet see a reason to go all the way out to Burlington when Hong Kong Market/Super 88 is right here.
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I'm looking for good NY Style Knishes here in Boston
Well, yeah, but as I said, NYC-style deli is not what they do, nor do they claim to.
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$100 weekly grocery allowance for two, what are some options for dinner?
Nonsense. I live in Boston, and as a freelance writer (a pretty feast-or-famine profession), there have been weeks on end where I can and have kept the family food budget under $100.
Basic rules: buy as few processed foods as you can, and learn to cook from scratch as much as possible. Keep an eye on the supermarket circulars, and when things you like are on sale for cheap, stock up as much as you can hold: the idea is to build a larder. (If you have room and you can lay hands on a small extra freezer, those are very useful for long-term storage.) As others have said, ethnic markets can be much cheaper on some products: spices are stupid cheap at Indian markets, for example, and decent quality, too.
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Most memorable cafeteria food
I went to high school in Lubbock, Texas, the corporate home of Furr's Cafeterias. Up until about 20 years ago, they were a consistently satisfying experience: to this day, the best meatloaf I have ever had. But they went to an AYCE format and the quality plummeted. My very last Furr's experience ever happened about 10 years ago, when I got a plate of the meatloaf and discovered that someone had managed to dump the creole sauce onto a pan of COMPLETELY UNCOOKED meatloaf slices and send that out to the serving line. I don't mean underdone, I mean pink and refrigerator-cold.
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What brand of eggnog is your favorite?
For milk, cream and other products, yes, but given a choice between the two for eggnog, I go for the Hood. It's the only Hood product I prefer to its Garelick counterpart.
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I'm looking for good NY Style Knishes here in Boston
I'm fond of the Empire eggs if I'm in the mood for a big breakfast, they do an entirely acceptable whitefish salad bagel plate, and I get occasional cravings for the salami and eggs. Although frankly, the best thing there is the cream cheese and olive spread you get at table.
Basically, the less you think of it as a proper Jewish deli -- which it isn't -- and the more you think of it as a casual neighborhood restaurant that happens to be in a way-Jewish neighborhood, the more you'll enjoy it.
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Good Cocoa Powder??
Second Penzey's -- both their natural and Dutch process cocoas are excellent and not expensive.
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Super 88 - Bankruptcy
Nothing is closing. The food court is fine, Hong Kong Market is thriving. Don't worry about it.
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I'm looking for good NY Style Knishes here in Boston
There are actually some things I quite like at Zaftig's, but the knishes are awful. I don't rate them at all.
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Killer Guava Juice at Hong Kong Supermarket (Old Super88)
You remember where it was in the store?
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Favorite dish in Boston area - under $15
This is primarily hard because most of my favorite dishes are under $15 -- the aforementioned banh mi at Pho Viet is probably my single favorite thing to eat in the city of Boston -- but right at this moment, I'll say the arancini at Galleria Umberto. Heck, you could get one of everything on the menu and pay less than $15.
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Chain items that are addictive as crack
Second on Whataburger, although I usually stick to the single. Always the first stop whenever I fly back home.
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11/09 Anyone Seen Coffee Coated Peanuts in A Can at CMart etc?
Yes, the food court remains the same. There's a dim sum stall in the food court, but not in the market. If I remember to do so, I'll have a look for the peanuts.
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Dim sum- the drill or bad interpretation?
China Pearl, on Tyler Street in Chinatown. Ideally, you want to be there sometime between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on a weekend for the best balance of carts and customers. Hint: the more people you have in your party (we're usually somewhere between 6 and 8, although it can range from 4 to 12 depending on who's in town that weekend), the less likely you are to have to wait for a table.
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11/09 Anyone Seen Coffee Coated Peanuts in A Can at CMart etc?
Honestly, I've heard nothing about H-Mart that makes me inclined to go all the way out to Burlington when HKM is about 100 yards from my front door.
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Durkee spices
I think -- emphasis on think -- I've seen institutional-size jars of Durkee spices at BJ's. We're making a BJs run this weekend and I'll be down that aisle anyway, so I'll see if I'm right and report back.
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11/09 Anyone Seen Coffee Coated Peanuts in A Can at CMart etc?
No, I'm afraid we have a case of misinformedchef. The store is not only not closed, it's stronger and more fully stocked (especially in terms of snack foods, which they've added an entire new section of) than it's been in years.
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Toronto Foodies coming to Boston - Recs please
Hm. You say the staff yells at and berates its customers. I say it's the sort of place where the waitresses call me "hon" every time they stop by my table. Either we're going to different restaurants or we're very different customers.
