gltsoi's Profile
Best Bolognese in town
Sweet Basil in Needham. Hint of sweetness from the carrot and port - delicious!
Post Your Three Favorite Things You ate in Boston in 2011
Combo Banh Mi at Hong Cuc (Lowell)
Spaetzle with ham, toasted hazelnuts, chanterelles, porcinis and comte at Foundry on Elm
Truffle pizza at Gran Gusto
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Looking for glass bottles? Help please
I got great glass bottles for homemade vanilla extract at http://www.specialtybottle.com/
The bottles are cheap, but shipping will kill you.
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Fried Clams in the Winter?
I've always thought of fried clams as quintessential summer fare, but I have a friend visiting and he has requested fried clams.
I assume there is a season for clams. It is not worth having in the winter? Should we make the trek up to Ipswich for the Clam Box?
Thanks!
Arlington grocers
Russo's in watertown is not that far and has an amazing selection.
Max and Leo's. Real pizza just off exit 17, Newton.
I went this weekend and shared a L'enza (sausage and mushroom). Excellent crust - really enjoyed it. There's more details on my blog.
Thanks for the alert about this place!
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Upscale dining near Sturbridge, MA?
I just had dinner at Cedar Street last night. We had the Veal Saltimbocca w/ mushroom risotto, corn fritters, fries and the veg of the day (broc and carrot). The Veal was flavorful and tender and the risotto was creamy with meaty mushrooms. The corn fritter were also improved greatly by the maple butter. The veggies were awful - mushy mushy mushy. The service was good and prices affordable.
I really won't consider this place "upscale" in general, but one does need to take in account the culinary wasteland that is Sturbridge.
Hope this helps!
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Best sliced to order deli meats...
Russo's in Watertown has excellent cold cuts including a house roast turkey. I also love the Niman Ranch Ham.
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Torrone ice cream or gelato?
Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows of a restaurant or ice cream shop that serves Torrone ice cream or gelato? Thanks!
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Parson's Table & Beacon Grille Bar
I was a fan of Catch, so I suggested we try Parson’s Table for our annual Easter outing.
Our large group of nine ordered an array of appetizers including mussels in saffron chorizo broth, grilled flatbread with smoked chicken and grilled clams. I enjoyed the mussels; I thought the broth had great flavor and the mussels were plump and tender. The flatbread was also delicious. The clams were fine, but small and only half a dozen to an order.
My rainbow trout was delicious; it had a nice crispy skin and delicious mustard sauce. I would have liked a green vegetable instead of the two small cippolini onions and fingerling potatoes. My husband, R, had the burger and it was cooked correctly and it came with homemade pickles that were too salty and shatteringly thin chips that weren’t salty enough. We had creamed spinach and overcooked mac and cheese for sides. I liked the nuggets of thick bacon in the spinach, but it was not enough to save the dish from the wateriness. I also sampled the fettuccini with smoked chicken and thought it was quite tasty. I believe it used to be on the Catch menu.
Dessert offerings were sad: Espresso affogato (I would be up all night), cinnamon rice pudding (my least favorite dessert), blackberry sorbet (as R says, “it’s a palate cleanser, not a dessert) and chocolate fondue.
We went with 3 chocolate fondues, which was an epic mistake. The chocolate itself was not very rich, nor flavorful, even though it was touted as Taza chocolate. There was a nice assortment of blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, but the pound cake was awful. It was so dry, the cubes of cake crumbled when you speared them. It was like eating slightly sweetened sawdust. What where they thinking, sending that out to paying customers? Entenmann's would have been a better alternative. Parson’s Table: find yourself a pastry chef, do it NOW.
Our service was awful. I understand, buddy, we are a pain in the ass, a table of nine on a holiday weekend, and you get your 18% regardless, but how about a smile and a wine refill? I did enjoy the small rolls in the bread basket. They had a nice crust. I believe the bread is from Mamadou’s, a bakery in Winchester.
As I was leaving the restaurant, my thoughts were fairly negative, with dessert and the poor service fresh in my mind. But as I was thinking about the whole meal for my blog, I realized there were definite high points (mussels, trout) and that maybe I should not write off Parson’s Table completely. However, with so many restaurants (still 17 to go on my 2010 list!) and so little time, I doubt I will be back.
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Parsons Table
34 Church St, Winchester, MA 01890
Calling all Reno experts. . .
I'll be in Reno for 10 days this month, staying at the Grand Sierra Hotel. Please save me from 16 meals at port o' subs. I need advice on a bunch of meals including:
1) Breakfast/lunch places within walking distance of the hotel (no rental car).
2) 2 or 3 nice dinners (willing to cab it).
3) Any not to be missed regional specialties/ restuarants/diners/dives
4) Any thoughts about sezmu vs. lulou v.s 4th st bistro
5) Charlie Palmer vs. Harrah's steakhouse for a great steakhouse meal. (keeping mind that Palmer doesn't involve the hassle/cost of a cab.
6) Is the burger at the Nugget worth a cab ride from the grand sierra?
Thanks in advance! Chowhounds rock!
Gloria
Who won the burger bash?
I was at KO Prime's burger bash tonight and had an excellent time sampling all ten burgers. Toro's and Bristol lounge's were favorites. However, we left before the judging and I was wondering who won. Thanks!
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Source for boneless short ribs
I second Costco, quite inexpensive and well marbled.
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Dining Options nr Wardman PK / DC
I agree. We were staying in the Dupont Circle area and the tournament guide had very few listings (including subway and bertucci's).
Do I know you, CookieLee? There are only so many young women bridge players from Boston, who travel to Nationals (and love food).
It seems like we hit similar places; I really enjoyed the Lebanese Tavern and had 3 breakfasts at Open City.
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il Casale in Belmont Center - why no buzz?
We went on Saturday and had a fabulous menu. We ordered the 5-course Ferrari family meal. It was unbelievable - we sampled 17 items from the menu. I loved all but 2 of the dishes. My favorite was the black pepper panna cotta. More details in my blog.
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Looking for chocolate molds for chess pieces!
I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions where I could buy candy molds to make a full set of chess pieces. Verna's cake decorating supply doesn't exist anymore and Michael's doesn't have them.
Thanks!
Lobster prices
I got two 1.5 pounders from the Market Basket in Woburn on Monday for $5.99 a lb. I didn't want to wait the 30 minutes, so I took them home and steamed them myself. They were quite good.
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korean fried chicken
I finally got to Privus last night and the chicken was unbelievably good. The crust is thin and ultra crispy, it’s almost like a chicken skin shell. You bite through the delicious crust and you get a mouthful of tender, moist succulent chicken. The wings are lightly glazed, almost painted on, so that the crust doesn’t get soggy from a thick, gloppy sauce. The hot wings were too hot for me, but the garlic soy glaze was delicious; the perfect balance of sweet and savory. The drumsticks were gynormous. The wings came with a bowl of picked daikon. It was a good foil to the uber-spicy chicken.
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Need hours open for dim sum Chinatown
You have an excellent point. We were having a quick lunch and they only handed us the lunch specials menu, so I didn't even see any other options. I'll have to give it another try, next time I'm in the area. There's another post about Sichuan Gourmet in Billerica futher back in the blog and I quite liked their dan dan noodles.
That said, please don't think I'm looking down on American Chinese food. I'm a Cantonese girl that loves a good pupu platter.
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Need hours open for dim sum Chinatown
Does it have to be Chinatown? Because Gitlo's serves dimsum 11am -10:30pm everyday and I've never had a wait. The scallop shuimai is the best!
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Amici! Great meal at Gran Gusto
We just had dinner at Gran Gusto on Saturday and the artichoke ravioli I had was fabulous. The pasta was soft and tender with a delicious artichoke filling. The sauce was sublime; buttery and luscious, with sage, a squeeze of lemon for balance and topped with crispy bacon. It was truly an excellent dish. DC had the rigatoni with sausage and porcini. He reported that his pasta was also excellent. He thought it was cooked perfectly with a nice blend of flavors.
Gltsoi.livejournal.com
Who Serves the Best Pasta with Bolognese Sauce
I enthusiastically second this! I crave Sweet Basil's bolognese on a regular basis.
Cookie night at 75 Chestnut?
This looks like fun, but I wanted to hear from anyone who has actually gone to one.
Thanks!
Peach Picking
Their U-pick hotline says that they are picking ginger gold apples and nectarine, but that peaches aren't ready yet. . .did you actually pick peaches?
Festivals This Weekend
I went to the Watertwon Greek Fest last year and the lamb was awesome. It's probably my second favorite Greek fest.
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Tasty Island Creole in Malden
Tasty Island was not so tasty, they should probably rename it bland and overcooked island. It does looks like it should be a hidden jewel. The kind were you go in and it looks kinda sketchy, but the potions are huge and there's lots of people of the ethnicity of the food sitting around and enjoying it. Well, Tasty Island has the sketchy part down. We walk in and there are two Haitian women serving food. There is no menu on the wall where the lit box is, but a xeroxed sheet. All the food is in large disposable foil pans on a steam table in front. However, it's all covered with more foil pans as lids, so I can't get a good look at any of it. We puzzled over what to get. Another customer smiles at us and the baby and I asked her what's good. She tells me it all good and I can't go wrong. I decide on fried beef and rice and pigeon peas and DC goes with chicken and sauce and white rice. We also got fried plantains.
My fried beef was so dry, I think beef jerky may be more tender. DC's chicken was more moist, but was surprisingly bland. The fried plantains were fine, not as crispy as I like them. I did like my rice, which is a good thing, as they gave me a ton of it.
Maybe we didn't order the right dishes, and that if we knew what to get Tasty Island would be a whole different experience, but I don't think I'll be there again.
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Toscanini's vs. Christina's
Christina’s is definitely my favorite; their banana cinnamon is the best and the Grand Marnier is terrific with dessert.
As for the service, I don’t understand where the negative comments are coming from; the staff has always been friendly. I moved away from Inman Sq, but I still go back to Christina’s to get quarts of ice cream and they always wrap it in foil to stay a little colder for the trip home.
Disappointing....B & G Oysters
We went to B&G for my birthday on Saturday and also found it to be a disappointment. We shared the fritto misto, a bowl of lobster bisque and their infamous lobster roll.
Apparently, if you take a fisherman’s platter and call it fritto misto, you can charge $45 dollars of a small assortment of fried oysters, clams, grey sole and calamari. I don’t know who was on the fry station that night but they had no clue what they were doing. The temperature on the oil was clearly too low, the batter on the seafood sucked it up like a sponge. They served it on a platter lined with brown paper which was saturated with oil. Greasy, oily and gross. Pescatore Seafood in Somerville charges 1/3 the price and is easily three time better.
The bisque was okay, but it was strangely rust colored, yet I tasted no tomato or anything else that would make it that color. It was a little gritty and the potato croquette in the middle did not work for me all at.
Lastly, the infamous lobster roll; it was another disappointment. I guess at $29 a roll, you are setting yourself up for high expectations. The lobster meat was plump, sweet and fresh, but there was a seasoning in there I didn’t like (celery seed?). It just threw the whole thing off for me. And, big surprise, the fries that came with it were greasy. We barely touched them.
I realized that for my birthday last year we went to No. 9 Park, another Barbara Lynch enterprise. I had basically the same opinion of it that I have for B&G: over-hyped, overpriced and disappointing.
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