Allstonian's Recent Activity
Chowhound Post
Just Curious - Turkey Prices Paid
You might call Stillman's Farm and see if they're continuing their Saturday market in JP. Last winter they ran it well into the winter, but I don't know how that went for them or whether they plan to do it again. In any case they may not be doing anything this Saturday!
Chowhound Post
Baked Bean Pot
Yes, they do, and so does Polcari's, a tiny bit further down Salem Street. I would have mentioned that myself but for the wrong-side-of-the-river thing...
Chowhound Post
Just Curious - Turkey Prices Paid
Fresh from the farmer who raised it (Stillman's) - roughly $5.25/lb.
Chowhound Post
Thanksgiving dinner in Boston
My understanding it it's turkey and all the fixings, and they seem to have been doing it for at least ten years - also free Christmas dinner.
(What I don't understand about the recent troubles at the Kells is that the owners are apparently good guys and very much involved in a lot of Allston civic organizations.)
Chowhound Post
Russo's Turkeys
Clearly, as we had suspected, it paid to get there late in the afternoon! Not empty, by any means, but nothing like you describe.
Chowhound Post
HELP! Dessert/Coffee Back Bay/Newbury area suggestions needed for Wed 11/25
How about one of the places that serves afternoon tea - the Bristol Lounge at the Four Seasons, the Park Plaza, or the Taj?
Chowhound Post
Looking for Assorted 'British' foods and a Rant :)
Here's a thread from last fall:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/566287
The common feeling is that the fish is fine, at least some of the time, but the batter coating is horrible.
Chowhound Post
11/09 ISO Shrimp Taro Cakes and more, from Shanghai Gate Days
Not anything to do with Shanghai, then - Golden Palace.
Chowhound Post
sushi for 8th graders
Well, there are less expensive sushi places that are also pretty good - for instance, only a few blocks from Fugakyu is Mr. Sushi. They may not have a fully private room (though I do seem to remember that there's a room at the back that might do - again, it depends on the unknown size of this group) but they're not as spendy as some places and I've never had a bad meal there.
Chowhound Post
sushi for 8th graders
Where exactly are these 8th graders, and how big is the group? How do you plan to get your group to the restaurant, and how free are you to travel distances? And are you thinking about a dinnertime outing or more in the after-school time range? Answers to all of these questions may help to guide recommendations and make them more useful to you.
Chowhound Post
11/09 ISO Shrimp Taro Cakes and more, from Shanghai Gate Days
I don't think you mean Shanghai Gate, which is in Allston, but rather Shanghai/ New Shanghai on Hudson Street in Boston. I never got to go there much for dim sum, as my friends all favor traditional Cantonese style which they did not serve.
I know that you recently had a disappointing experience at Gitlo's, which unfortunately is not as good as it was when it first opened. However, as far as I know they are currently the only game in town for the Silver Needle noodles, which I also remember being offered at all the usual dim sum places in a glass bowl inverted on a plate - now all one ever sees in that format is fried rice.
You would probably do much better at Gitlo's if you ate there rather than getting takeaway - I know that lots of people do it but dim sum can't help but suffer by not being eaten fresh.
Chowhound Post
Help Finding Asian Noodles
FYI, your link doesn't work. There's a warning that the site I'm using is stealing nitrolicious bandwidth instead.
Chowhound Post
Thanksgiving dinner in Boston
There's The Kells in Allston - hopefully the place won't get stabby on Thanksgiving! Free 3-course dinner 11am to 3pm.
Chowhound Post
The best and worst of Brookline?
I'm puzzled about your comment re: windows at Mr. Sushi - are you possibly thinking of a different place? Mr. Sushi has a full frontage of windows, pretty much like any place around there on Harvard Street.
Chowhound Post
Karl's Sausage Kitchen Trip
It must have come down in price then - which would be lovely! My visit to Karl's was quite some time ago (looks like over 2 years!), and imports were running very high in price because of the lousy state of the US$.
Chowhound Post
Karl's Sausage Kitchen Trip
Yep, that's the stuff. I was browsing around a little grocer's shop and got Barmy a small jar as a gift the last time I was in Germany (too long ago!) and I really loved it myself. Was very happy to find it at Karl's though the price was kind of stunning (I wanna say 6 or 7 dollars for a pretty small jar.) Still, it's worth it - Loewensenf is one of my very favorite mustards.
Chowhound Post
Onigiri in Boston?
Yes, Cafe Japonaise has them - there are also locations in Brookline near St. Mary's (where the C line comes up from undreground) and on Comm Ave near Packard's Corner, where Kapow used to be. (I still need to stop in there!)
Also the Japanese market in Brookline Village - called something like Japanese Village Market - reportedly has onigiri.
Chowhound Post
Karl's Sausage Kitchen Trip
Actually, while I love the grainy mustards, my favorite one that they carry is the Lion brand (Loewen) which is a smooth, sinus-clearing HOT mustard.
Chowhound Post
Toronto Foodies coming to Boston - Recs please
Haven't ever been to Locke-Ober myself; do a board search for more info. However, if you're looking for both quintessentially Boston and upscale, they should definitely be on your list.
Boston doesn't actually have a great culture of street vendors, with the exception of Speed's hot dogs, referenced above. There are apparently some good carts downtown, but they're weekday/midday only.
Cheap and cheerful/holes in the wall abound in Allston. One you might be interested in because it's an unusual cuisine - YoMa offers Burmese food, which I don't think you will find anywhere in the GTA. Jo Jo Taipei and Shanghai Gate, both referenced above, are also in that area; there's also Thai, Korean, Brazilian, shabu-shabu, and a great pan-Asian food court connected to the Hong Kong Supermarket/Super 88 at the intersection of Brighton and Commonwealth Avenues. Oh, nice little Turkish place near that intersection as well.
Another good neighborhood to explore for cheap & cheerful, with a heavy emphasis on Latin American, is East Boston - Angela's and Rincon Limeno, both referenced above, are in that neck of the woods.
The big drawback is that neither Allston nor East Boston really offer much to tourists *except* for great eats - they're not scenic neighborhoods, there's no museums or shopping or other attractions - so it's hard to recommend them to a first-time visitor to Boston with a limited amount of time in town.
Chowhound Post
THANKSGIVING HELP FOR THE NON-THANKSGIVING INCLINED
No, the new "other related threads" function has been just selecting threads with related keywords, and they're not sorted by date at all - if you go browsing down among those be VERY careful to look at dates!
(Thanks for the explanation - I did wonder how ((and why!)) you pulled this old thread up in the first place. It's a warning to us all!)
Chowhound Post
Where to get fruitcake ingredients???
Make your own! So easy, and the results are SO much better than most that you can buy. Plus it gives you complete control over ingredients - what types of fruit, types of nuts, proportions, which liquor to use, and so on. All it takes is time. (Back when I made fruitcakes regularly, I liked to bake them the weekend following Thanksgiving, which leaves about 4 weeks to let the cakes age before Christmas. Longer is even better, but 4 weeks is fine.)
Chowhound Post
Where to get fruitcake ingredients???
In that case you might consider trying them again - I've never had that problem with their candied peels, and I order them regularly (or buy them at the shop in Norwich, VT, on my annual visit.) They also now sell a diced candied ginger that I love - really good in baked goods and easier to work with than most crystallized ginger.
Chowhound Post
THANKSGIVING HELP FOR THE NON-THANKSGIVING INCLINED
It's also not clear how much help this advice will be for a poster who was looking for recommendations a year ago.
Chowhound Post
Where to get fruitcake ingredients???
Unfortunately, if you read the original post, gimlis1mum specifically says that she was not impressed with the quality of KA's products. Which kind of surprises me, because I've been ordering from them for years and am always happy with their candied fruits, etc., but there you go.
Chowhound Post
11/09 Anyone Seen Coffee Coated Peanuts in A Can at CMart etc?
No, it's not closed.
Chowhound Post
Bedford/MIT/ LL area restaurants
It took me forever to figure out this cryptic abbreviation. The penny just dropped, and it also made sense of the Bedford-MIT connection which had puzzled the heck out of me: DChunger doesn't mean MIT main campus, they mean MIT *Lincoln Labs*, in Lexington.
Chowhound Post
Local coffee roasters?
Yes, JP Licks sells their own beans at all of their shops. I buy them at the Brigham Circle store for my office coffeemaker. They are pretty decent, but I don't believe they're marked with roast date, which may be an issue for you.
Also, I prefer Asian coffees - Celebes has long been my favorite - but JP Licks always seems to be out of Sumatra (except in decaf) and I find myself settling for African (Ethiopian or Kenyan) instead.
Chowhound Post
wanted: kid-friendly breakfast restaurant for pre-BSO kids concert midday Saturday
I'll strongly second Brasserie JO as a nice, slightly fancy place for breakfast very convenient to Symphony - ideal for your purposes, it seems.
Also extremely convenient - it's right on the E line of the Green Line, at the Prudential stop, which is the stop just before Symphony when coming from downtown. (Don't bother taking the subway from Prudential to Symphony unless the weather is horrible, though - it's really not much of a walk - about 1/3 of a mile - and you can enjoy the view of the Christian Science Church plaza along the way.)
Chowhound Post
Jamaica Plain Brunch
Your mention of Mike's Diner has auto-linked to a place in Canton. Is that the one you meant, or do you mean Mike's City Diner in the South End?
