The Hungry Mother : chos eat boston part 4

roasted chicken with grits

grilled blue fish with tomato jam

squid with hominy

fried green tomatoes with arugula, red remoulade, and bacon

ciabatta with olive tapenade and green tomato preserves

The more I recall this meal, the more fondly I'm feeling about it. My experience with southern foods is pretty limited and I suppose there something strange about having the best southern meal I've ever had in Boston.

Now that the initial laudatory comment is over with, I have to say that Saeyoung and I were basically scolded for being 20 minutes late. I promise we were there on time! Believe me, I understand the value of timeliness. We just had a hell of a time trying to find parking. Upon arrival, a very sour man told us that he was expecting us at 7 and that they had another party of two coming in at 9, "but they'd try to move a few things around." I definitely got the sense that he was trying to make us feel guilty. The whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth. But, to be fair, The Hungry Mother was very busy, fully packed on a Tuesday night, which I suppose says a lot about the popularity of this restaurant. Later I think the same sour man felt bad and made several stops to see how our meal was going. But I'm not one to get upset about quality of service. Whatever, as long as my food is good, much is permissible. And also, our server was very nice.

We started off the meal with a starter of 3-olive tapenade and green tomato preserve on grilled ciabatta. I lurve olive tapenade. The tomato preserve was very sweet and was pretty fantastic with the saltiness of the tapenade. I have a thing for the combination of salty and sweet.

For our starters Saeyoung and I shared a grilled squid dish and fried green tomatoes. I think my favorite was the grilled squid and Saeyoung's favorite was the green tomatoes. The fried green tomatoes were alarmingly ungreasy and they smelled amazing. I was almost happy to just smell the dish.

I've never had bluefish. It was very mild and they grilled it so that it was almost blackened on one side and really melty in the center. Very delicious. Nice and clean.

Saeyoung ordered the roasted chicken, which was similarly nice and clean.

It was nice to have clean flavors since the appetizers had so much kick.

Also, pretty much everything came with bacon. Really delicious thick cut bacon. Is this typical in Southern food?

The Hungry Mother

233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave

Cambridge, MA 02141

617.499.0090

http://www.hungrymothercambridge.com/

The Friendly Toast : chos eat boston pt.1

breakfast sandwich with home fries

egg white omelette with corn salsa, lime avocado sauce, marinated red onions and yellow peppers

hansel and gretel waffle

I flew back with Saeyoung to Boston to help her move in to her first apartment. I think we knew that this wasn't going to be a leisurely trip-moving is always something of an obstacle course. But for all our hard work we agreed on eating enormously well. I mean, I think we do that anyway but we sort of made a point of it in Boston. You know how heavy full-table breakfasts are a rare treat? How usually breakfast is a cup of coffee and a piece of toast or a bowl of yogurt? No, in Boston we ate every morning like that was all we were going to eat the entire day, which obviously was not the case.

We arrived in Boston at 5 am, really haggard from not sleeping on the plane and knowing that we had a whole day of the business of moving. After checking into our hotel and putting our heads down for a miniature nap we went to the Friendly Toast, which was within walking distance from our hotel. I had found THIS article about the Friendly Toast and we especially interested in the anadama bread.

The restaurant reminded me a lot of North Park in San Diego actually. It had that feeling, kind of aware of its unpolished hipness. Apparently this ambiance is very typical of Cambridge.

Saeyoung ordered the breakfast sandwich. I ordered an egg white omelette with fillings of my choosing (lime avocado, corn, roasted yellow peppers, marinated red onions). And we also shared a hansel and gretel waffle which is a gingerbread waffle with pomegranate molasses. Saeyoung's sandwich, while good, was nothing exciting. It's a basic breakfast sandwich. My omelette was quite delicious. I was a fan of the marinated red onions. I think the best part was the waffle. Where does one even get pomegranate molasses. It wasn't as sweet as you'd expect, actually it had a very nice sour bite to it. Oh, and the anadama bread was only okay. They slathered it with too much butter and I felt like all I could taste was butter.

A very nice start to our Boston trip.

The Friendly Toast

Ste. B3101

1 Kendall Sq

Cambridge, MA 02139-1595

617.621.1200

thefriendlytoast.net

Honda Ya-Tustin

sashimi bowl

takoyaki

synchronized eating

steamed crab shumai

chicken salad with mayo cod roe dressing

seared tuna with ponzu

zaru tofu

ika sashimi

When asked what cuisine I couldn't live without, my answer comes out pretty readily. It's Japanese. I mean, Spanish is pretty exciting, French is wonderful, Vietnamese is my idea of comfort food. But when it comes down to it, if not for Japanese food, there would be a great big gaping black hole of culinary misery in my life.

What I find really great about Japanese food is that there is a duality about Japanese cuisine--the elegant minimalist side most obviously embodied by sushi and sashimi, which is probably what it most popular. Whoever first decided that fish can be eaten raw, well that person is just miraculous.

But just as wonderful is that Japanese food also includes saucy fatty gluttonous foods that often include all sorts of mayo, deep frying, and big flavors. I'm not sure but I think a lot of Japanese bar food may have developed with the onset of Westernization (think: mayo).

And also presentation: Japanese food is just so beautiful to look at. Japanese sweets are unbelievable. I can hardly eat them, they're so delicately made.

That's not true. I can eat them.

When I was in Japan last Winter we saw these tiny candies (the size of a pinky toenail) with really detailed faces painted on each one.

My family loves Honda- Ya because we can get both sides of Japanese food at once.

We always order takoyaki there, which I think can be qualified as Japanese street food) are these doughy balls of octopus and bonito flakes. I have fond memories of going on a road trip in Japan with my mother's side of the family and stopping at the Japanese equivalent of a truck stop and ordering takoyaki from a street vendor and passing around the styrofoam plate around the car.

My mother always orders the chicken salad at Honda-Ya, which is okay but I think the mayo cod dressing is a little heavy on the mayo for my taste.

Sashimi, of any kind: always good.

Anything with ponzu sauce I will inhale.

Not pictured:

bitter melon, bacon, and stir fried tofu

tanuki udon

side note: it looks as if I may be going to Japan this coming Winter! It's my grandmother's 80th birthday and to celebrate she wants to take a trip to Japan with all her daughters and their daughters. no boys allowed. We're still trying to decide between Vietnam and Japan. I might be rooting for Vietnam since I've never been.

Honda Ya

556 El Camino Real

Tustin, CA 92780

714.832.0081

Thai Bros

seafood salad

chicken stuffed chicken 

steamed orange roughy

pad thai

 I have two favorite Thai restaurants in Orange County.  One is Siamese Express for pure comfort.  Affordable, convenient, no fancy pants garnish, and tamarind paste all over the place.  The other is Thai Bros in Laguna Beach.  And while Thai Bros is probably too pricey to make me a regular, I have to say I've never had a bad dish there.  

My cousin Patricia and I had dinner at Thai Bros the other night.  She's visiting from New York and we've only just realized that we've never had a meal together, just the two of us.  We're usually swamped between aunts and uncles and cousins at enormous productions of family dinners, so it was quite pleasant to have an intimate dinner together.  

My favorite of the evening was the seafood salad with glass noodles.  It's the lime dressing.  I'm  a sucker for limes (ha!).  I think Patricia might have liked the chicken the best.  I've had these chicken stuffed chickens at other Thai restaurants and I've always thought there was something slightly grotesque about them.  First, ground chicken is not the texture that I like my chicken to be.  And also, it seems a little comical to reconstitute them by stuffing them back into their skins.  Oh! I've just realized why I find them grotesque.  It's like Frankenstein's monster!  Kind of.  Well, I guess not really. But a little bit.  

It tasted good.  It's just something I find a bit perplexing.

I ordered the Orange Roughy because I needed something clean, something simple tasting.  The steamed Orange Roughy accomplished that. I was satisfied. 

I have to say though, the best Thai food I've had has been at Jitlada, just around the corner from my apartment in Hollywood.  Patricia, Saeyoung, and our cousin Whun plan on having dinner there next week.  It will be fun.  I already know this.

Thai Bros

238 Laguna Ave

Laguna Beach, CA 92651

949.376.9979

Mo-Chica

salad of the day : beets and arugula 

arroz con mariscos

seco de cordero

ceviche del dia

First of all, let me apologize for the quality of these images.  I forgot to bring the "good" camera.  

I've had Peruvian food a number of times, each time was mediocre.  I always got that "I'm more full than satisfied" feeling.  This was, I am fairly sure, the best Peruvian food I have ever had.  And the best part was that it was enormously affordable for what it was.  Ceviche for $5? A braised lamb shank with white beans, rice, and cilantro beer stew for $13?  Arroz con Mariscos that was generous with the seafood for $13?  Excellent, very excellent.   I assume that they can keep their prices reasonable because the location is a bit odd.  It's in something like a food court in downtown.  It feels like a big warehouse space that several restaurants made a collective out of and are sharing a communal space.  But that's okay, affordability is more important than ambiance. 

I also liked that they seemed to have a rotating menu of specials.  It seems their ceviche changes pretty regularly.  When we went they had sea bass, which was served with Peruvian corn.  The salad of the day was beets and arugula and if you know me, you know that beets are a dear dear love of mine.  

I ordered the seco de cordero, which is not something I would typically order but the idea of cilantro beer  stew was very exciting.  My meat was maybe slightly overcooked but delicious nevertheless and the stew was wonderful.  I don't think there was a drop left on my plate. 

Saeyoung ordered the arroz con mariscos, which I guess is more or less like paella.  And really, you can't go wrong there.  

And to top things off, everything was beautifully plated.  Things like plating are important to me.   It's true, things taste better when they're pretty.  

I'm not really someone who gets hung up on service.  As long as my food is good, a lot of things are permissible but I do appreciate good service.  The server was wonderful and at one point the chef came out to ask us how are food was.  And I asked for more pickles thinking I'd get a few slices but was met with a bowl full of them.  

I recommend. I recommend highly.  In fact, I'll go with you. 

Mo-Chica

3655 S. Grand Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90007

213.747.2141

http://www.mo-chica.com/

Pepin

vegetarian paella

paella valenciana

cured salmon with capers

eggplant, goat cheese salad

beef and tomato empanadas

crab and arroz negro croquetas

mushrooms with escargot

sherry mushrooms

sangria

On our last night in Scottsdale we went to Pepin Spanish restaurant for some tapas and paella.  

The restaurant was a bit on the campy side with a flamenco dancer but otherwise the food was quite good.  I was especially impressed by their vegetarian paella, which I'm not sure that I've ever encountered before.  Meat and/or seafood always seem to pretty integral to paella.  The paella was a bit buttery for my taste.  It was sort of swimming in broth which gave it an almost stew-like quality.  I like mine a little crisped at the edges and I like to taste more saffron than butter. 

Not pictured but also delicious were the sweetbreads in a wine sauce.  On the sweet side but the sweetbreads were very tender.  

Pepin

7363 E Scottsdale Mall

Scottsdale, AZ 85251-4414

480.990.9026