I have not been myself, but it is on my list. Apparently, at Porter Square in Cambridge is a Japanese shopping area with a bunch of stores and eateries.

I mentioned this place in the Best of Tucson thread, but this place is so outstanding that they deserve their own thread. I am still painfully full while I write this, but I don't want to forget to do it like I did last time.

We have been twice in the last six months (as we have only been in Tucson twice in the last six months). This is a family owned place. The father is a sushi master, the mother works in the kitchen and their son waits tables.

The sushi is amazing. I have lived in NYC, DC, Boston and Atlanta and this is as good as their best and way better than most. He cares about the quality of the fish and takes tremendous pride in his work which puts out such an extraordinary product. I will try to remember everything...

He cures his own salmon. It is incredible. I was told a story once about thieves breaking in and only stealing the salmon. It is that good.

Every time we went we have had fluke, fluke wings, urchin (uni), cured salmon and perfect tamago (omelet kinda thing which he excels at). Some of the specials (on the board behind the sushi counter) we have had are jellyfish, raw squid (ika), scallops (from japan) monk fish pate (home made), spanish mackeral (aji), baked green lip mussels with a spicy mayo on them and rice.

He will serve omakase if you sit at the bar, tonight we were at a table and he made me a "chef's plate" as we were at a table. I received a "blackened" scallop which was a raw scallop hit with a torch and given just a little bit of color, toro (with a little gold flake, so cute), sea eel (which I am embarrassed to admit I have never tried before, but was excellent) and lastly a different cut of tuna. His passion and drive for quality make this place top of its class (in any city).

Another thing that is amazing here is the ramen. They get fresh made ramen noodles somewhere. It is not dried ramen! They have three stocks to choose from the but pork stock is light and flavorful and amazing. It is the one the son recommends. This ramen is the best ramen one can get without going to Japan directly. Amazing.

We had a curry udon tonight. It was a nice bowl of soup. A little sweet a little spicy, thicker than I expected, but very good. Yellow tail cheeks/ collars (I think yellow tail). We loved these and got them the last two times, comes with a nice little dipping sauce similar to tempura sauce. I can't remember if it was on the menu or not. We had tempura plate tonight for the kids, it was fine, typical. Lastly, we had fried ice cream. It was fun and good. They only have a few a night because it takes up too much room in the freezer.

Talk to Yuki (sp?). He is the son, working the front. He knows his stuff and he knows what is good and he will tell you. He is awesome. This place is awesome. Tucson has no idea what they have here in their back yard. They have been there for near three decades and they might retire soon! I say go eat there now! And often! And a lot!!!

I am coming out next week. Hide your chicharrones! And your 4x4 Animals!

This is killin me. I will be out of town for the next two saturdays! Nooo!!!

His version was a loin wrapped in belly. The belly was better than the loin and I think saved by the fat in it. The loin was a little drier. He did throw it in the oven and it was very crispy and the best part but maybe doing it that way overcooks the loin just a bit.

What a thread! Firstly, thank you everyone for the awesome response. We had an awesome time, despite we were all recovering from colds. We also had great food, which honestly I didn't expect. Here is the report.

Friday:
Lunch at PB's. Croque monsieurs, my first one and definitely the best one I have ever had, frankly if they get better I won't be able to handle it. Cheesy, hammy, a bechamel with rosemary in the middle or something runny and amazing like that. Holy crap I ate the whole thing and then a delicious chocolate eclair.

Dinner at Pizzeria Barbone. I didn't think we find food as good as lunch, but damn we came close here. Suveed and broiled wings with an amazing garlic cream sauce. That sauce was so good I would put it in cheerios, we wiped out every last drop with the homemade foccacio, which good, but denser than I am used to for foccacio.

Then we had the special porchetta which was nice, it was also my first porchetta, but I wanted something a little more out of it. If it is just meat wrapped meat and that is it, then it was great for what it is.

We also had the Potato Pizza with bacon and scallions. It was unusual and delicious. We thought the crust was great and the flavors worked perfectly. I suppose it is like a loaded baked potato pizza.

Lastly, we had carrot cake, which my wife loved. I had the ice cream sandwich. The cookies were very hard and I thought too thick. The vanilla ice cream was amazing, clearly homemade and rich and delicious.

Service was great. I was also lucky to talk to the head chef/owner I think. He was amazingly friendly, we got on topic about food and suvee's and he took me into the kitchen and showed me all the porchetta's in his suvee. We talked about the awesomeness of the skin which he left on the pork belly.

Excellent meal.

Saturday:
Horrific breakfast at the Tidewater Inn's Helen's diner, but we were staying there so we tried it. Avoid at all costs.

Lunch:
Impudent Oyster. This was a little fancy and a lot blue haired, but certainly worth the visit. Wife had a delicious tomato bisque and I had the chowda. I will not profess to know a lot about NE chowda, but I can say that this was the best one I have had to date. It had a nice, almost gritty, texture, like they used ground up potatoes to thicken it, it was perfectly seasoned and lots of clams.

Wife had the meatloaf, she seemed happy. I hate meatloaf so I didn't even try it. Her mashed potatoes were excellent though. I had the scallop sandwich. The bread rocked and the scallops were cooked perfectly, but (and yes this was my fault for not reading completely) it was drenched in a very strong tartar sauce which for me way over powered the scallops. I would have preferred a light aioli or something.

Service ok. Not great, we waited a while for attention, but overall we were very happy with our meals and that doesn't happen a lot.

Dinner:
I had my heart set on PB's for dinner, but devastatingly I could not get us in. Booked solid. So we went for fried! Sesuit was closed, so Marathon in West Dennis. It took us a while to find it as my GPS got lost. I had the giant fried combo plate. My wife had the souvlaki. The food was disgustingly delicious. No point into really going into it other than saying we enjoyed it. The owner and her husband were amazing! They made it such an incredible meal and were so hospitable (I will certainly give my 1 year old daughter credit for engaging with her adorabilitiy...). I think that a plate of fried deliciousness at Marathon is a must once every year or two.

Sunday:
We found a cute little shack on the side of the road along 6A (somewhere in the NW Cape, we were meandering back) that made good coffees and pastries. I have no idea what it was called though.

Lunch:
As our less adorable baby woke from her nap she desperately wanted out of her carseat and the first place we saw was Marshland Seafood and Sundaes (or something like that) in Plymouth along 3A heading north. I expected the worst, but it was decent. Staff was very nice. I had a lobster bisque which as sour and too flour-y. Not good at all, but my wife's French onion soup was delicious. Fried haddock sandwich was good, my patty melt was cooked a perfect medium rare and very good on their home made sourdough. So we got lucky on that last one.

Thanks again everyone for the great recs. We look forward to exploring the Cape a lot more and, oh, yeah: Hangar B!!!

I want that.

Thanks everyone. Will report back next week.

Heading down for a long weekend tomorrow morning. We just moved to Boston so this is our first trip out to Cape Cod. I have been reading a bit on CH and thought I would get a bit more input. We love food made with passion, whether it is a shack on the side of the road or a abuela and her pickup truck or a french bistro, if they really care about the food they make then we usually love it. Oh yeah and cheese, lots of artisan cheese.

So here are the things that I have put in my list so far.

One of the two bakeries by Villette. (How is the bistro side?)
Hangar B for breakfast.

The Brown Bag for cheese.

Ocean House for seafood if I want to spend the money.

Baxters for cheesy fried seafood?

PJ's for lobster roll. (whatever, I like Duff)

Any thing I am specifically missing or anything here to specifically avoid?

Thanks very much!!!

Thank you very much! This is great!

I am looking for goat meat and mutton in the Boston and Metrowest area. Anyone know of butchers or farms that supply?

Thank you!

I just found pu-erh tea at Wegmans! The small individually wrapped discs. 79.99 a pound, I got 6 for five bucks.

We just went to Fasika and we loved it. I have lived in New York and DC for the last 20 years and Fasika is as good as (better than many) any Ethiopian in either of those cities.

We had rare kitfo special, it was warm, spicy, and buttery tossed with peppers and served with mitmita and delicious. We asked for the homemade cheese that it normally comes with, but they were out much to our dismay.

We also had doro wot. We ordered it mild for our one year old. It was rich and full flavored with a little spice. It came with TWO drumsticks which I have never seen befor, but that was great because the baby got her own and loved it.

We ordered yebeg alicha which was mild as well (baby loves lamb). The sauce was rich and delicious.

Lastly, we ordered the tegabino which is what they call their shiro wot. This is my favorite Ethiopian dish and it was no let down at Fasika.

We also had the coffee which was prepared traditionally, which we rarely see and were pleased about that.

The service was typical for Ethiopian restaurants. I think it is just not that important to them. So that for me is a wash. However, the owner came out from the kitchen and talked to us for a while. That was very nice.

At many Ethiopian restaurants there is usually one dish that stands our and the rest are relatively bland. It was an unique experience at Fasika because everything we ordered was so very flavorful and delicious. Every dish we ordered we ended up digging at the injera at the bottom of the serving plate to get that last bit of juicy goodness. We loved this place and can't wait to return.

The most basic recipe I have found online so far is salt pepper and marjoram.

Thank you all for the responses.

Fish sauce is an excellent idea. Thank you.

I am wanting to make some beef jerky at home. I was wondering if anyone had knowledge as to what the minimal ingredients one needed for jerky. Is it just beef and kosher/sea salt? Then dry that?

If it is only salt and meat, what is the minimal amount of salt to keep the sodium levels down?

Also, I was wondering about dehydrator suggestions if anyone has any. I am going to try Alton Brown's HVAC filters and box fan method this first time, but if I like what comes out I may get a dehydrator down the road.

Thanks!

This post never really kicked off, but it happens. We decided to go to McMahon's. I have never been there, but prime aged beef sounds like a good krismas meal.

Has anyone tried Contigo? Looks nice from the website, but good web design has nothing to do with good food.

http://www.eatatcontigo.com/

We will be in Tucson over the coming holiday. We are considering going out. I was just re-reading one of my older Tucson threads and thought Yamato might be awesome for Krismas dinner.

What other places do you think would be interesting and fun and delicious and open. We are not very interested in American food.

Is there a churrasscuria in town?

Thanks!

We rocked Darbar today for lunch. Goat karahi, beef nihari and goat paya. All three were excellent. I think it is one of the better nihari's I have had, rich and spicy. The karahi was also outstanding, I got two marrow bones! I brought home a goat foot paya for dinner. It smells amazing. Great rec, thank you!

Is that the little place in Super 88? I had a great som tam there after sending it back to make it spicy and boy did he rock it. Nucular!

Awesome. This is what I really love. Thanks!

Holycrapwhatafind!!

We went up to Lowell on a recommendation for Super East Asian buffet or something, but once we got there it just didn't look good. It was dead and really run down. I did a quick double check on the ol' CH boards on my droid and sure enough its heyday was a decade ago. We were starving and I ran across a recommendation of Cambodian food which neither my wife or I had ever tried so off we went.

It was a very nice place inside. Beautiful huge bamboo plants, nice fish tank, elegant. I was honestly surprised as I was kind of associating it with Vietnamese places which are generally dives. I don't know if this is the standard or an exception as it is my only Cambodian trip...

They have a huge menu and it looked great and we went a little crazy so we ordered: Sach Ko Ang, Ye-Heu Bumporng, Hot wings, Som-Law Ma-Ju Kroung Sach Ko and Bai/Loc Lac.

Sach Ko Ang, Beef skewers. Firstly, they came out rare. This made me very happy, wife less so, but the flavor was amazing. We both love kaffir lime and it was loaded with it.

Ye-Heu Bumporng, fried calamari and jalapenos with some chilis and fish sauce and these amazing, amazing pickled vegetables. My wife said that she was loving the pickled veggies and I was like whatever, just pickles, but after I tried one I couldn't stop, they are light and sweet and sour and amazing. The squid was great and it came with a little bowl of lime juice with salt and pepper in it. A killer dipping sauce.

Hot wings. Sweet and hot. Very very crispy. It was like bon chon, but frankly better.

Som-Law Ma-Ju Kroung Sach Ko: This was such an amazing soup. I am an avid soupfan. I think it is a mark of a great cook and culture how good a soup can be. This was incredible. It was almost like a mix of a thai soup and a vietnamese soup, but then just topped off with a little something extra that said I am Cambodian and I rule them all. It was sour and rich and spicy. It had wonderful greens it which I couldn't identify, the beef was tender and beefy. It had great thai eggplant in it and I just can't wait to have it again.

Bai/Loc Lac. This was similar to Bo Luc Lac, the Vietnamese "shaky" beef. It was again cooked rare. It was delicious. It came with two deep fried and runny eggs all on some rice. Very good dish.

I had such a great meal here. It is everything that I always want Thai food to be but it never is. It was such balanced food, sweet and salty and spicy and sour. I told my wife that it is like they took the best of Vietnam and the best of Thailand and then added their own thing to it and made it better. This is easily my favorite southeast asian cuisine and if there are better Cambodian places than this, I don't think I am going to be able to handle it. But I am going to try and try a lot.

Goat vindaloo at Super 88 was awesome. An excellent and fiery dish. They also served us the worst chicken tikka masala I have ever had. It was watery and bland and it had huge pre-cooked squares of chicken in it, a dreadful dish.

Next door at the Korean place we also had an amazing spicy squid and pork belly. It came with rice and a little pickled bean sprouts. It was rich and spicy and a little sweet and salty. A great balanced dish.

Haha! I just remembered a funny story thinking about walking in circles. We saw a guy eating a beautiful pozole out of a plastic quart container. We asked where he bought it. He said he wouldn't tell us, but he would go get us one for 10 bucks. It was great. We walked away laughing, but still a little sad on the inside as it looked great.

We are long back. I have been busy and not written anything yet. We went down for a wedding and it was just too too busy to really explore. I will write about the few places we got to.

Los Portocales in PDC. Decent taqueria, but nothing mind blowing. They had freshly made arrachera and chorizo and those were great. Also had like a gallon sized horchata.

El Rey Del Mondongo in Tulum. This was recommended to us. We had great octopus and shrimp tacos and fantastic arrachera.

Cocotte in Cita in PDC. This is a tiny French place near Mahekal. We went one night because it was the first place we saw. We almost walked away when we saw it was french, but luckily the owner said hi and kinda forced us in to chairs. It was an incredible meal. He makes everything. We had fresh made bread, egg in coccotte, fois gras, duck in orange, filet mignon and a chocolate souffle-ish thing. It was an excellent meal and a tremendous value compared to the same meal in the states. It was one of those rare places where the passion for the food shows in the food. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.

Sadly, as you can guess I had no pork. I failed on both chicharron and kastracan and believe me I asked a lot. Often we would end up walking in circles and never find the place and just end up somewhere else.

Thank you both so much for your great help in this area. I hope I get to go back someday just do have more time to explore the food in the region.

-C.

I already see myself there tomorrow night. Thank you very much!

Muchas gracias senor!

Those sounds awesome. Any clues on finding them?

We are finally moved out here. Yay! We got out to Dorchester last weekend and tried Shanti. We had the goat curry and the lamb tikka masala. The curry was excellent. I think it could have been bolder, more fragrant, but it was an excellent curry. The lamb tikka masala was great too. I have never had it with lamb and we really enjoyed it.

I also just realized that one of the recommendations is for Super 88. I will have to find Kantin. I had some awesome and super spicy som tum today for lunch, talk about spicy!

I'll keep reporting my finds.

Thanks!