GrowingBoy's Profile
Roy Moore's, Rockport
We were there today. Chowder, smoked mackerel, and those excellent stuffed clams. Nothing exotic but the quality is always there, the price is always right, and you're in and out in a hurry.
Midway Between Newton and Springfield
Made a reservation at Cedar Street Grille. The other option was The Vienna. Did we choose well?
Midway Between Newton and Springfield
My out of town boss will be working in Springfield for a few days. I live in Newton, so we're looking for a good place for dinner halfway between the two. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks.
How does Johnny D's make oatmeal so yummy?
I use the Alton Brown recipe. You can find it on FoodNetwork.com. 1 cup steel-cut oats, toasted in 2 Tbsp butter for 2 minutes. Add 3 cups boiling water. Simmer, untouched, on low for 25 minutes. Stir in 3/4 cup milk + 1/4 cup buttermilk and simmer for 10 more minutes. You can adjust the milk amounts and fat quantities based on your preferences. The recipe makes for fairly soupy oatmeal that thickens up if you keep it overnight in the fridge. I make mine on Sunday and have it all week,
Auburn/Opelika
Back from our trip. We went to Cock of the Walk, Jimmy's, and Country's Barbecue in Opelika. Jimmy's was the highlight of those three. We were the only group in the place (they stayed open a little late for us), the service was great, and the food was excellent. For some reason the bread pudding stood out for us. They really couldn't have been nicer. We went to Cock of the Walk because we were invited there by some business associates of one of the folks in our party and I thought it was pretty good, I had all fried food and generally, what's not to like about fried food unless it's been ruined by bad oil or overcooking? I had fried dill pickles for the first time and I really liked them. Country's was OK. We tried to go to Chuck's but they were out of ribs. The waitresses put up with our bad jokes and general craziness and the food was good but not great. We arrived at 9:00 PM and they were running out of food (low on ribs!). They had to give us a kiddie-sized portions of sausage to try. I wish there had been more of that. I think our meals came out to less than $20 a person, so they've got that going for them.
We also hit Brewster's(?) for ice cream. Excellent road-side ice cream stand..
All-in-all food was very good and the people we met couldn't have been nicer.
Auburn/Opelika
We're heading to Opelika for four days of golf starting this Thursday and I'm looking for dinner suggestions. Coming from Boston, we're most interested in barbeque, Southern Regional cooking, etc. From looking around on the boards here, Chuck's BBQ in Auburn, and Jimmy's and Cock of the Walk in Opelika seem to be places to check out. What are the don't-miss places? We're looking for reasonably-priced choices.
We're staying at the Grand National in Opelika if that makes a difference.
Lewis' Restaurant; Rosenfeld Bagels; Flatbread Company
The red-sauce place on the corner is known as Mario's. It's still there but I haven't been in there for 15 years, though I live a 2-minute walk away. Same for Dunn-Gaherin's. I used to stop in there when it was Lewis's and it was kind of a scary place but it did have great grilled meats. D-G seems to have expanded in the last month - looks like they added space upstairs. I always have found it too cramped, with too small a bar to justify mediocre food. I'd rather go to O'Hara's or the Biltmore.
Business dinner in Newton -- Biltmore? Bokx 109?
Skipjack's in Newton has a private room that seats 10 or so people that would be great for a meeting. It's quiet and the food is pretty good and reasonably priced. The Biltmore would be a poor choice due to the noise level.
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The Biltmore
1205 Chestnut St, Newton Upper Falls, MA 02464
ISO farro?
It's in the pasta section but it's hard to find. I don't know if it's pearled or not. I picked up some whold grain when I was at the Chelsea Market in NYC a couple of weeks ago and it looks different from the WF stuff. Haven't tried it yet. They had farro-based pasta there as well. Haven't sampled that yet, either.
source for sourdough starter?
Michael Ruhlman (http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/07/simple-sourdough-starter.html) had a great post on an easy starter last week.
WHERE TO BUY MUSSELS?
I make mussels every other week or so and I've always been satisfied with the ones from WF (Newton). Quality seems to be fairly high although some are quite small. My most recent 2-lb bag ($5) had no rejects. I've had as many as 1/2 dozen rejects in a 2-lb bag, mostly from cracked shells. I always give the open ones a tap and let them sit while I'm rinsing the others to give them a chance to close. I also have bought from Roche Brothers and Sudbury Farms, who are much cheaper at $1.79/lb. They seemed to have a few more dead ones, with less cracked shells, since the fish guy hand-picks them.
Marliave-RW- anyone go yet?
Went there for Saturday night RW. We ate upstairs. Service was not a problem, prompt and friendly. Maybe they're finally getting things right. They had most of the regular menu available as RW choices (sames as the online menu). We had the antipasto, Rarebits, and mussels as appetizers. The mussels were slightly disappointing (a little bland) but the other apps were fine, with the antipasto being the real winner. For main courses we had the pork (tasty, menu said it came with brussels sprouts but it came with gnocchi which were very good), the "pot roast" (incredibly flavorful, almost too rich, like candy meat), and the lobster pasta, which seemed to be the overall winner. Desserts were also fine, we sampled the panacotta and the chocolate cake. I don't each much cake, being a diabetic, but this was worth the carbo-loaded splurge.
I'll go back.
Where can I find farro?
Diabetes-wise, the results on the farro are mixed but still supeior to the ones I get from rice. I'm definitely going to give it another shot.
Where can I find farro?
The Newtonville Whole Foods had it. They had to show me where it was (with the pasta?) but they had it. I made some over the weekend. Very tasty, kind of creamy, I'm going to try a faux-risotto with it.
Thanks all.
Where can I find farro?
I'm diabetic and am looking for some high-fiber grains. I want to try to make some dishes with farro to see how I do. Where can I buy some farro grain? I live in Newton so anything in the area would be helpful. I assume I could get it in the North End but where?
Looking for the best cornbread in Boston
Gotta agree on the Blue Ribbon cornbread. Plus its consistency is too cakey. A little icing and you have yourself a nifty cupcake. The Redbones version is satisfying, if a little dry. I've been making my own, using the Alton Brown Creamed Cornbread recipe, mixing fine and coarsely ground corn meals, and adding diced chilis. Much better for my tired pancreas.
Alabama (Mostly) Eats
So I'm in for a disappointment due to my long-term Blue Ribbon consumption? And what has Redbones done to me?
Alabama (Mostly) Eats
Any thoughts on the Olde Auburn Ale House? We're kind of a brew-pub-centric group.
Alabama (Mostly) Eats
Well, Chez Fon Fon looks a little out of our range but Dreamland is cllose to where we're staying and looks pretty good from the web.
Alabama (Mostly) Eats
We're flying into ATL early and then we're playing Silver Lakes in Anniston the first day. We'll be staying in Birmingham (Best Western Carlton Suites) that night. We're playing 18 on Ridge and 18 on Valley at Oxmoor the next day and moving on to Auburn where we'll be staying that night (at a Microtel, yes I know it's ambitious). The next day we're playing 18 on the Links and 18 on the Short Course at Grand National in Opelika, and staying in Stone Mountain, GA that night. Final day, 18 at Stonemont, 18 at Lakemont in Stone Mountain. Flying out of ATL late.
We're looking for reasonably priced places. Hopefully not "family dining". Steak places, barbeque, Southern Homestyle, and the like would be perfect.
Alabama (Mostly) Eats
A group of us from the Boston area are going down to play some golf on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama. We're going to be staying one night each in the Birmingham and Auburn areas with one night in Stone Mountain, GA and we're looking for good chow in the following places:
anywhere between Anniston AL and Birmingham
anywhere between Birmingham and Auburn
anywhere between Auburn and Atlanta
Do any of you have any compelling barbeque/soul food/steakhouse/other regional specialty recommendations? We'll be playing 36 holes/day except for day 1, so we'll be looking for relatively relaxed, informal joints not too far off the beaten path.
Thanks.
Between Springfield and Boston
My boss is going to be in Springfield for a few days and wants to take a bunch of us out for dinner. We're all in the inside-128 area, so what I 'm looking for some reasonably priced decent places for dinner that are approximatley midway between Boston and Springfield.
Recommendations?
La Casa de Pedro - First Look at Pedro's New House
We went to La Casa de Pedro at his new location tonight. It's in the space vacated by Red Sauce in the Arsenal. He has four times the space the old place had, a full bar with seating, and live music (though we missed that). The food was terrifc as always. My wife had Salmon Pedro Martinez, which she thought was excellent and I had Parillada Caraquena, which was great. The new space is great, really elegant. Pedro was checking in with all the tables as he did in the old place. He's going to put on a lot of miles in the new layout. Service was a little spotty, some tables got bread, our's didn't, they forgot my beef empanada appetizer but they brought me two for one when I reminded them (I can live with that).
Pedro must have raked it in at the old place or come up with a hell of a business plan because the new place is an incredible step up. He should have a built-in crowd with the New Rep next door along with his old loyal customers. There's plenty of parking in the area as well.
Hopefully Pedro can have better luck with this seemingly-cursed location than the Naked Fish/Red Sauce folks did. As an aside, the job that's been done to renovate the old Arsenal is really great. Whoever was responsible for planning it should be commended for the wonderful mix of retail/office/living/arts spaces.
Nuking Squash Question
We always split and clean acorn squash, then microwave them, covered with plastic wrap, filled with a couple of pats of butter and brown sugar. They come out great in about 10 minutes. You won't get the carmelization, but the ease-of-prep tradeoff is worth it.
Anyone know of anygood restaurants that make Scallon Pancakes?
Peking Cuisine on Walnut Street in Newton makes tasty ones.
recommendation around dover - Sat 10/14?
Fava in Needham Center is good (though it's been a while since I've been there). Blue on Highland just opened a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how it's doing. I like EuroTaste in Needham as well. Getting further up towards Lexington, Solea, in Waltham, is a great tapas place.
I need to find killer buffalo wings
The wings at O'Leary's in Brookline (Beacon St. at St. Mary's where the T goes underground) are terrific. Large wings, I think double-fried, they're crispy and well-sauced. They make a good burger and have a decent selection of beers on tap as well. I don't know what the one here is like, but I've enjoyed the wings at Hooters (sorry) down south.
birthday recommendation and, is quincy really a culinary wasteland?
If you want to stay close to home, for steak, I like Alba Bar and Grill on Hancock Street in Quincy Center. Good service, great Ceaser salads as well. We also had a really nice rare seared tuna there.
Their website: http://www.albabarandgrill.com/index1.html.
Kitchen Renovation
rainey, you're much better off dropping a few bucks on a designer or letting someone at Home Depot or one of those kitchen places suggest a layout. They have computer programs that let you see what the kitchen will look like with different configurations of appliances, cabinets, etc.
