The Hen House - Newmarket Square in Boston

Props to a kinda hidden restaurant near Newmarket Square.

The Hen House

I think they have been open for over a year now, and it's my new guilty pleasure when I want to indulge in an entirely unnecessary meal of fried chicken and a delicious cornbread waffle.

Ironically enough, I went there for a late lunch after my workout, where today I weighed in 24 pounds lower than I was when I started my diet on Feb 1st.

What better way to celebrate weight loss with fried chicken and waffles?!

I have been there three or four times, and the place is always empty, which makes me concerned for their business. It has nothing to do with the food - it's delicious. Amazing breading on the fried chicken, a great selections of dipping sauces, and to-die-for freshly made waffles with whipped butter and syrup. So good. So bad for you...but so good.

I think their location isn't front-and-center, and there's very little parking in the vicinity.

Eating at the restaurant is a better idea than bringing it home, as the one time I had takeout, the waffle was a bit soggy by the time I feasted, probably a result of the heat having nowhere to escape.

I'm sure there are better fried chicken places hidden throughout the city, and joints that serve better collard greens and mac & cheese, but The Hen House does an admirable job with their speciality - fried chicken and waffle.

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Why have I never heard of Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cookie Dough ice cream until now?

While my frozen dessert shop of late has been Coldstone Creamery, I found myself in a B&J last night after dinner on Newbury St.


Without fail, my eye is always drawn toward desserts featuring chocolate and peanut butter. It's an amazing combination that has followed me forever. I'm guessing that the 15 pounds I'd like to lose could be attributed to all of the peanut butter-based desserts I have eaten over the course of my lifetime.

Walking into the B&J wasn't an accident; we walked past on the way to dinner, and left room for ice cream afterward. Surveying the list of flavors, I found this one in mere moments. I didn't even need a free taste, but of course I ordered one.

Although chocolate-peanut butter desserts do it for me, I tend to gravitate toward vanilla-based ice creams when combining with peanut butter. At Coldstone, it would be cake batter or vanilla with peanut butter and Reese's mix-ins.

Here at B&J, they use malt ice cream according to their website. One word for the combination - delicious!

Fish Tacos

I really love fish tacos.

I mean REALLY love them.

Well, I love them when they are prepared a specific way.

The first time I ever tried a fish taco was at Rubio's, a chain of mostly Southern California fast food joints. I think I was visiting Brian and Allis back when they lived outside San Diego in 1999 or 2000. Granted, a fast food restaurant probably isn't the best place to have been introduced to such a delicious dish, but Rubio's actually has pretty good fish tacos.

In my mind, the perfect fish taco has lightly battered and fried fish, probably mahi mahi or something else light, inside of soft taco shells, covered in freshly shredded cabbage, a creamy sauce, and served with fresh lime. I'm sure that I'm forgetting a key ingredient, but this is the basic framework for, in my mind, the perfect fish taco.

Whenever I see fish tacos on the menu at a Mexican restaurant like we did tonight at Salsa's in Southie, I am immediately drawn to it, almost as much as any dessert that contains chocolate and peanut butter. The problem, however, is that more times than not, the fish tacos are not good. I had some bad fish tacos at Border Cafe in Cambridge recently, some marginal ones at Kalypso Restaurant in Kauai, and the best ones I've tasted recently at, of all places, Picco in the South End.

Tonight's fish tacos were OK, but prepared far differently from how I prefer them. Salsa's serves theirs not lightly battered and fried, but rather broiled with salsa. Instead of the light Pacific Coast feeling I get with my ideal fish tacos, I tasted a tomato-based fish dish, wrapped in a taco shell. Granted, I cleared my plate and did enjoy the entree, it just isn't how I love them.

New Lettuce Wraps Champion

I think the first time I had lettuce wraps was at a P.F. Chang's, probably a few years ago when that chain was new and still kinda cool.

Yesterday, I was invited to dinner at the P.F. Chang's in the Pru. We ordered vegetarian lettuce wraps to start. Oddly enough, for the second time in a row at that particular P.F. Chang's (dating back many months) we were served the regular chicken lettuce wraps. Good thing I asked, as the vegetarian among us (Karin) probably didn't want to chow on Foghorn Leghorn.

So the server didn't charge us for the chicken lettuce wraps and shortly thereafter brought the vegetarian ones.

I sampled both types of lettuce wraps and found myself wishing I was elsewhere. They weren't bad, but there's a new lettuce wraps champion in town.

Boston Beer Garden in Southie.

I must say...I thought the lettuce wraps were always a P.F. Chang's highlight, but after tasting the lettuce wraps at Boston Beer Garden, P.F.'s are quite inferior.

Maybe it's the sauces at Boston Beer Garden's version (chili sauce and peanut sauce). Or the portion size (huge). Or the actual iceberg lettuce used (far larger with a deeper cup). Or simply the overall package. Regardless, BBG's lettuce wraps are consistently delicious.

Since the owners of Boston Beer Garden have a few other places around town, all with strikingly similar menus, I would imagine that the lettuce wraps recipe is similar among all of the locations within their restaurant group. This particular dish is probably an afterthought for them, but it's definitely a winner.

28 Degrees - $1 Oysters

Last night, I headed over to 28 Degrees in the South End for $1 oysters, something they serve weeknights from 5pm-7pm. It's a great way to attract people into the place during a slower period and make some legit revenue.

Our $1 oysters quickly became a $40 tab per person!


You don't see too many places using normally $2.75 oysters as a loss leader, but if they can squeeze a few thousand weekly out of a normally dead couple of hours, AND have the reputation as the $1 oyster place, then good for them.

The rest of the menu looks good, albeit a bit expensive. The drinks certainly are on the high end. At Karin's suggestion before I left work, I had a blueberry basil martini, which unfortunately seemed more like a small glass of $13 blueberry slushie. When I'm having a fruity cocktail, I'd prefer to taste the booze somewhere inside. The $9.50 prosciutto and melon martini was certainly stronger, and tasted more like something I wouldn't make at home, which is something I seek when I'm out boozing (i.e. I don't exactly have beer taps at home, so I usually go for draft beer - something 28 degrees did not have).

It's nice to see somewhere in this city where I can have a dozen oysters for $12. I felt spoiled after my trips to New Orleans a few years ago, where oysters are usually less than a buck each. I do believe that I prefer the charm of New Orleans raw bars and cajun restaurants to the ones up here, but it's a bit of a hike to travel to Louisiana whenever the oyster urge hits.

Restaurante Montecristo in Eastie

After dropping Rosie off at the beauty salon on Saturday, I ventured into a part of Boston that I've seen so infrequently in my 7+ years here.

The mystical land of Eastie.

Sure, I've been to Logan Airport far more times than I can count. But I hadn't spent much time in Eastie proper, and knew very little about the neighborhood. Basically, I thought of it as Southie but much cheaper and much louder due to the constant sound of airplanes.

My journey to the "other side" of the tunnel was centered around my new FastLane toll tag. I finally switched over from EZ-Pass, motivated primarily by the Resident Tunnel program that allows me deeply discounted trips through both airport tunnels. All this time, my $3.50 trips could have been 40 cents.

I made it to the Tunpike Authority building at just the right time, as the line that grew behind me just 10 minutes after my arrival was pretty crazy. When I received my FastLane, I was told that I had to wait 30 minutes before using it.

Whether that's a racket to keep people in Eastie thereby supporting the local economy, or simply a technological fact, I hung out in Eastie for lunch (which was always my intention).

I went to my Urbanspoon iPhone app, shook it to see what came up, and it picked Restaurante Montecristo in Kelly Square.

So off I went. I found a parking spot on Meridian St. and quickly learned how Latin this area was during my brief walk to the restaurant - signs everywhere in Spanish. I was then anticipating a quick and authentic meal, exactly what I had hoped for.

And that's exactly what I received.

Inside, I turned out to be the only gringo. Mostly all of the other patrons spoke in Spanish.

The decor was unpretentious, simple, and practical, and the music they played was a mixture of cumbia, duranguense, and norteño - styles I relate to Texas actually, since I had once worked for a few Spanish-language music stations in Austin, McAllen, and San Antonio.

Since I had skipped desayuno, I was starving. I ordered the carne asada and a pupusa, my eyes a bit bigger than my belly.

Shortly, the server arrived with a ton of food. A bowl of three freshly made flour tortillas, the pupusa con queso with a side of dipping sauce, and a plate of carne asada atop a bed of rice, with a small side salad, avocado, salsa, and frijoles con cebollas.

Everything was awesome and reasonably priced. I grabbed a slice of their sweet bread for the road, and ended up spending $17 plus tip.

I need to research Eastie restaurants a bit - I hear it's mostly Hispanic and Italian food, possibly my two favorite types of ethnic cuisine.

Good Eats - Orinoco in the South End

Last night was the third meeting of the Boston International Dining Association.

We ventured to a place that I had wanted to check out for quite some time - Orinoco in the South End on Shawmut Ave. I have heard about this place and how busy it gets due to its incredibly small size, delicious food, and modestly priced entrees.

Definite two thumbs up. And Tuesday night around 7:00 PM is the perfect time to go - no waiting, not packed.

I selected a traditional Venezuelan Christmas dish called Hallacas, which was a meat dish inside of a cornmeal dough, mixed with olives and raisins, wrapped in a banana leaf and served with a piece of pan de jamon and a cold meat salad on the side (which tasted like an upscale chicken salad). We also tried some appetizers and friend plantains, and their molted chocolate cake. All delicious. Outstanding flavors.

My only complaint - which is a common one with many restaurants here in Boston - is that we weren't seated until out entire party was present.

While that's understandable if we were two or three people in a party of, say, six people total...we were three people waiting for the fourth, and either way were were going to be seated at the one empty booth that was large enough and available.

AND...a couple walked in a few minutes after us and asked about that booth before they were told by the hostess that they "reserved it for parties of three or four" and were shown a table for two.

It makes me wonder why we didn't just tell them that we were a party of three all along, or why they didn't just seat us since we were three of four people, and the table wouldn't have changed.

One Night - Two Franklin Cafes

I was able to milk one final birthday dinner out of this year, when Mike insisted that we headed out for dinner last night. Granted, today is Doug's birthday, and we're pretty well ensconced in the month of December, but I'm never one to pass up a free dinner.

My plan was to hit up the new Franklin Cafe here in Southie. I believe they just opened a few weeks ago, and are located in one of the new loft buildings by the Broadway T Stop.

We walked in around 7:30, and were greeted with an hour and fifteen minute wait for a table for two. Unreal! It's a Thursday night. We're in a recession. Everyone's out of work.

What the deuce?

We opted out of the wait, walked back to his car without a Plan B, and drove up Berkeley St. into the South End. I figured we'd hit up Dish or Joe V's - somewhere along Shawmut or Washington Streets.

Luckily we found a visitor spot on Shawmut a block away from...

...the other nearby Franklin Cafe.

Why not?

In we went, fifteen minute wait, not a problem. Had a round at the bar (which I picked up to make me feel better about having dinner purchased for me), then we were seated in the back corner.

Now Franklin Cafe appears to be the type of restaurant that neighborhood folks visit frequently - one of those restaurants that everyone knows the menu, knows what to expect, and doesn't ask questions.

I, on the other hand, had only been there once, and this was Mike's first visit. We were rookies.

I asked our server what he liked, and he mentioned a few entrees, but not the one I was considering (a bacon-wrapped salmon dish). He preferred the steak frites, which apparently people went to the Franklin Cafe specifically to eat. Mike had asked me what steak frites was, and I erroneously claimed that it was like an open-faced steak sandwich.

No!

It's a hangar steak on a bed of fries with a demiglaze.

I didn't know what a demiglaze was either, but it sounded good. We each ordered one.

There were two options for separate sides - beets or mashed potatoes. I saw that another entree had brussels sprouts as part of the dish, so I asked if a side of brussels sprouts was possible.

It was not. Apparently, they are shaved brussels sprouts. Huh? Fine. No side for me.

The meal arrived, and as the food runner was leaving, I asked for some ketchup. She had a word with our server, squirted some onto a side plate, and brought it to me.

Immediately, the server came over and asked if it was our first time eating the steak frites, because "most people use the demiglaze on their fries, it pools up at the bottom and it's delicious."

I felt like an idiot, of course. Not fitting in with the locals. A clear novice. Being judged.

I managed to soldier through the indignation and enjoyed the meal. All of it. Almost licked the plate, but that might have caused our ejection and permanent ban due to inappropriate outsider behavior.

Monster Beets from The Food Project

I must say that my weekly locally grown vegetable box from The Food Project has far exceeded my expectations this year. Never have I picked up a box that wasn't full, and many weeks, there have been items that didn't even fit in the box (melons, huge bunches of basil and dill, and squash, for example). It's awesome to have had prepaid fresh vegetables for months.

This week's box was yet another good one. Peppers, edamame, broccoli, red cabbage, hakurei turnips, garlic, onions, potatoes, tot soi, chard (of course...this year's weekly item that I just don't seem to use), and these Monster Beets.

The beets in the foreground were from last week or the week prior, and this week's Monster Beets are propped up in the background.

These suckers are huge.

I'm sure if I hurled them at passing cars, I would do some major damage - not that I often throw vegetables at vehicles.

Good thing I like beets. The ones I have cooked this summer have been sweet and delicious, either cold or warm.

I'm thinking of finding a recipe this weekend that involves something other than simply boiling or roasting the beets, though either of those methods seems to really bring the flavor out in the beets.

The Whoopie Pie

I rarely post during the workday, but my blood sugar is quite wacky at this moment.

Why?

The Whoopie Pie.

I decided to go to the cafeteria at work today and grab lunch there.  While waiting for my sandwich, I saw their baked good counter, which included a few of the largest Whoopie Pies I have seen.

I needed the Whoopie Pie.

It's now 3pm, and I'm still grazing on it.  This is all that is left, and probably represents 1/18th of the size of the initial Whoopie Pie.

My legs are bouncing and I feel lightheaded every few minutes.  I'm also a bit jittery.  Coffee at 7am, coffee at 11am, Coke Zero at 1pm, Whoopie Pie from 1:30-3:00pm.

No wonder.

Survived Another Cold

I think the fevers are finally behind me. We shall see this evening.

I made it through an entire day in the office. I didn't think I was going to, though. We had a 90 minute meeting in the mean locker...I mean, our conference room. I sat there with my hoodie on, arms intertwined up each opposite arm, hiding my hands from the elements. Soon after, around 12:45, a 101 degree fever hit, and my plan was to leave after lunch.

But I wandered downstairs for a bowl of soup and a chewy cookie, and after eating it at my desk, I felt renewed. The healing properties of soup are amazing. It got me through the remainder of the day, and another productive day is in the books.

My throat, however, is not 100%. I am munching on some leftover lasagna for dinner, and am looking forward to another evening of medicinal Häagen-Dazs.

My Delicious Brownies

To: All the haters
Fr: Jason, Baker extraordinaire
Re: My delicious creation this afternoon

Y'all can suck it. Brownies from scratch. I'm back in the baking game.

The Food Project Boston

Back in April, I joined a CSA program called The Food Project.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and The Food Project is one of the local organizations that operates in this manner. The Food Project provides for many summer jobs for inner-city and suburban youth (teaming them up and having them work together). Plus, much of what they grow is donates to local food banks and hunger organizations. Their goals are quite admirable.

Food Project members purchase a "share" of the crops that they grow, and in turn, they distribute the crops weekly. I believe the rate this year was $425 for a weekly box of what appears to be 20-22 weeks of pickups. The box usually contains between 4 and 18 pounds of produce.

Yesterday was the very first produce pickup, an exciting day indeed. At the orientation, they described how the crop tended to become much larger as we moved further into the summer growing season, and that the first pickup might be quite small (like simply some greens).

So, on my way home from work, I'm half expecting to detour through the pickup spot in Jamaica Plain to pick up a box with a head of lettuce inside. No problem, I thought. Gets me into the routine of Thursday pickups, and it's still a head of lettuce.

I was quite surprised when the box contained two humongous heads of lettuce (one green, one red leaf), two parsnips, four small parsnips, and a full bag of baby spinach. Wow! And this is week #1?

I did not know what to expect when I joined, and my gut tells me that I am going to have an overabundance amount of locally-grown produce for the next five months!

This is also a good reminder that I need to buy a salad spinner.

Dining Out - Burmese Cuisine at Yoma in Allston

Wednesday night, I was driving through Kenmore (source of this post about the bicyclists) for a meeting of the Boston International Dining Association.

This month, we had some delicious Burmese Cuisine at Yoma on North Beacon St. in Allston.

Burmese does have a better ring to it than Myanmarese. Nonetheless, the food was outstanding.

The restaurant is very small and casual. Probably ten tables in total. No booze. Sodas served from cans with cups of ice (you might have to ask for double ice if you want more than a cube). This week, Boston.com had an article about the effect of the cyclone on the Burmese community here in Boston, and they included a photo of Yoma's interior.

I even took a menu to remind me what we ate.

The flavors mixed amazingly. The highlights:

ThaYetTheeTho - a green mango salad with shredded cabbage, shallot, diced shrimp, ground peanut, garlic sauce, and cilantro

ShwePaYonTheeHin - sweet pumpkin with jumbo shrimp, tomato, ginger, shallot, lemongrass, and cilantro

AaThotSone - vermicelli, somen noodle, wheat flour noodle, rice, shredded cabbage, fried tofu, steamed bean sprouts, potato, ground peanut, chili flake, shallot, and dried shrimp

Coconut Rice - rice with coconut milk, jasmine rice, and shallot

I had never eaten Burmese cuisine before, but I'm always game for new dining options. When we sat down and reviewed the menu, we almost expected the food to taste like Thai. I can seem the similarities, but both Burmese and Thai are certainly distinct.

Yoma is having a benefit on Saturday from 12 noon - 4pm to benefit the victims of the cyclone in Myanmar. I'd go back if I wasn't wrapped up all day on Saturday already.

Game Night in Southie

Game Night finally landed in Southie last night, after months and months of me saying I should host it, but never quite following through. It started to become a joke that, if left unrectified, could have forced me off the CC list on the Game Night emails. Alas, I'm in the clear now for a bit.

Instead of a traditional board game, we opted for the Wii, namely Wii Tennis, Boxing, Bowling, and, of course Guitar Hero. The sports games in the Wii Sports package are easy to explain and play, and successfully portray the interactivity and simplicity of playing the Wii.

Guitar Hero, however, is a different story.

If you have never played Guitar Hero before, it's tough to pick up immediately. The basics are easy (hit a button along with the strum bar), but it takes a few plays before eye-hand coordination sinks in.

Not to mention the song choices available - I'm assuming that as time passes, song libraries available will become much more vast. For now, people seem to pick what they know of the list in the game, which usually amounts to hearing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" often (or... technically ...whatever percentage is played successfully before the booing off the stage occurs).

Nonetheless, it's always fun to watch the Wii Boxing. We determined that the black male Mii avatar and the white female Mii avatar represented Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick during the last gubernatorial race. It was fun to watch them assault one another, almost as they did during their campaigns.

I picked a few recipes from Food Network's website, and both were winners (I improvised the salad and mashed potatoes). Spicy Sausage, Chicken, and Bean Pot was a great comfort food dish, and Corrie's Kentucky Pie (as presented by Paula Deen) tasted just like a brownie in a pie shell. The recipe yielded two whole pies, and I decided not to reduce it, in case one of them burned (I tend to do that when baking). Nothing burned, and now I have a whole pie left, which contradicts by attempt at a less decadent lifestyle.

Cupcake Cake

Saturday was dinner at Brian & Kelly's. and for some reason, I had the idea to bring a cupcake-covered cake to complement their delicious French-inspired cuisine. Middle America meets Parisian gastronomy.

It was my idea, but Ryan did all of the work and decorating. I simply mixed the colors.

Naturally, when one was two boxes of cake mix prepared in the form of a double-layered cake and two dozen cupcakes frosted in pastel colors, one must break out the camera and throw down some close-ups.

Rosie knew what was going on....refined sugar on the counter within nose shot.

"Let me get a closer sniff at that. Yep, sugar." (This photo may or may not have been staged).

I still have cupcakes left. If I don't toss them, they are all going to end up in my belly, a place they don't need to be.

Basilico

Basilico, originally uploaded by southiejason.

I thought I was in the clear this flu season, but I seem to have caught some type of minor irritant. Nothing flu-like, but what started with a throat tickle last Friday night has turned into some congestion, some coughs here and there, and simply general blah-ness.

I have been sucking on throat drops for the past few days, and have enjoyed blissful sleep induced by the miracle drug, Ny-Quil.

I'm ready for the cold season to be over, and for the Spring to come.

Last weekend, I decided to print some of my photos for the frames I had purchased a while back. They were still sitting in their boxes almost a year later.

One of the photos that I framed was this one - a close-up of some of the sweet basil I was growing on my deck last Summer. I love using a shallow depth-of-field to emphasize the foreground and blur the background.

This reminds me of warmer weather, sitting on my deck, and taking in fresh air that wasn't 20 degrees or filled with sleet.

The Melting Pot restaurant

Last night, we ventured outside of the city for dinner, landing at The Melting Pot in Framingham. Good thing we made reservations - the place was PACKED, and tables don't exactly turn over quickly at fondue restaurants.

There were six of us, and we went all out - ordering their deluxe fondue package called The Big Night Out. With drinks, tax, and tip, it wasn't exactly cheap ($85 per person), but it was certainly an interesting experience, fun conversation, and good food.

As part of The Big Night Out, we had two cheese fondues, salad, two entree fondues, and two chocolate fondues.

Without question, the chocolate fondues were the highlight of the meal. Dunking toasted marshmallows, rice krispies treats, cheesecake, and strawberries in a chocolate-peanut butter fondue was just about the best dessert I have eaten in months. I would go back there just for the dessert. The server even asked if we needed any more dessert items for dunking (of course we did....more marshmallows and rice krispies treats!)

The cheese fondues were also excellent. We had the Mediterranean Cheese Fondue (with fontina and gruyere cheeses, garlic, dates, shallots, and truffle oil) and the Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue (being that Ryan was there, and he's a Wisconsinite). Both tasty and great ways to begin the meal.

By the time we were walking out, we had been there for 3 1/2 hours! Nobody rushed us, no pressure to leave, and, therefore, we left a good tip!

Someone Left a Cake Out

I grabbed my camera again this morning to see if I really did see a chocolate cake sitting outside on the street yesterday, and if I did, was it still there?

Rosie and I took a walk down the street on which I recalled having seen the cake. Sure enough, it was still there. And it's not a mini-cake or anything, it's a standard 8-10" round one.

I always wondered what the heck Donna Summer was singing about in MacArthur Park ...


Someone left the cake out in the rain

and I don't think that I can take it

'cause it took so long to bake it

and I'll never have that recipe again


I kind of still don't get the song, but can safely say that I truly never thought I would have a moment such as this. I suppose all we need is some rain, and the song would apply even more.

The Devil in My Salad

I was scolded by Karin for not posting today. My apologies, missy. I do have an excellent post forthcoming about the breed of dog that I believe I adopted (vs. the indeterminate "labrador retriever mix" I was told I have).

I went to Shaw's for lunch a couple days ago, and opted for their salad bar.

My 1.27 pound salad, with tax, came to $6.66.

I almost didn't consume it due to fear of demonic possession (there's evil in my three bean salad).

But hunger won. Again.

Or...did I simply succumb to temptation and make a deal with the devil?