February 6th 2014: An Upscale Tasting Dinner at Clio, Boston

Today, I decided to get lunch at Shaker's Cafe and Restaurant, apparently the best brunch place at 296 Hamilton Street in Worcester. The place itself doesn't look like much, although the Lebanese Breakfast (three eggs scrambled with kibbee, made with ground lamb, pine nuts, onions, fine wheat, cheese and baked, with home fries and toast) wasn't too bad, especially the home fries which were crispy and flavorful.

Overall, just average in my opinion though.

After work, I had plans to treat my good friend who was going to leave for the other side of the country in a few weeks time to an expensive dinner at Clio, one of the most upscale restaurants in downtown Boston, located within the Eliot Hotel.

The restaurant itself is pretty nice as well.

Deciding to go all the way, we both got the 14 course tasting.

We got complimentary starters as a pseudo first course, pretty interesting bonbons to start things off,

giving us great expectations of what was to come next.

The first course was sort of a palate cleanser, a tomato watermelon martini with a frozen tomato lollipop on the side and a caperberry in the center.

Really tasty, although the caperberry was a little salty.

For our next course, we got the Hon Hamachi Toro (Yellowtail Belly, Black Truffle Vinaigrette, Pork Belly Croutons), which comes from Uni Sashimi Bar right next door. 

Really fresh and melt-in-your-mouth, although the vinaigrette wasn't too much to my liking.

Next up, the Beau Soleil Oysters (Cranberry Mignonette, Horseradish, Caviar). 

It was interesting to see the oysters arrive on top of a box filled with ice. It made me want to dig inside to try to find some hidden treasure after the succulent oysters had gone down into my system.

The fourth course came in the form of a covered plate, opened to release a cloud of smoke, revealing Szechuan Smoked Salmon, which was mainly raw, but presented really well.

Nothing Szechuan about it, but delicious all the same.

Nantucket Bay Scallops (Sea Buckthorn, Broken Egg, Reindeer Moss) were up next, presented on a really interestingly shaped plate that seemed like it had been picked out from the rubble of a collapsed building.

The reindeer moss was really strong in taste, and it kinda made the dish taste a little weird, but overall, still pretty good.

Course 6: The Cassolette (Lobster, Sea Urchin, Parsnip Milk, Candied Lemon).

The foam hid the best parts of the dish from view, but oh, the uni... need I say more.

The gastronomic experience was not to end there though, with the Maine Swordfish (Black Lime, Cipollinis, Shiso Relish, Umeboshi) arriving next.

I have never had swordfish which wasn't dry at all, and tonight was definitely my first time enjoying it. Perfectly cooked, to say the least.

Our next dish was vegetarian, called Roasted Beets (Sumac, Aerated Molasses, Bacon Emulsion, Hibiscus).

Once again, great presentation, but the molasses chips were a little burnt, and the sour yuzu sauce did not help either.

The weirdness did not stop there, with the Fricassée of Burgundy Escargot (Pickled Ramp, Sorrel, Crispy Duck Tongues) coming up next.

The sauce tasted really weird, although the saltiness of the tongue kinda brought the tastes all together to give something momentarily tasty, but it wasn't enough overall to save the dish for me.

Thankfully, all bad things come to an end too, with Course 10 being the Foie Gras Laquée (Milk & Honey, Piquillo Jam, Pickled Hon-shimejis). 

Once again, a great combination of diverse flavors to bring ecstasy to my taste buds.

Our final savory dish of the night came in the form of Smoked Beef Short Rib (Sake Lees, Shitakes, Rabe, Eggplant Relish).

Not too bad, although not the perfect ending to the salty dishes.

Next, the chef's Cheese Selection.

 You can't really go wrong with that I guess.

Finally, we managed to make it to dessert, both of us being pretty full by now, amazingly.

The first one was called Chocolate Sake, with the sake being poured over the chocolate nibs and other ingredients on the plate.

The semi sweetness of the chocolate simply made the dish marvelous, and made us wonder what the final dish would be.

The final course of the night was really surprising. The Au Coeur de L'Hiver (Purple Carrot "Chocolate", Parsnip, Maca, Sasparilla, Coconut, Carrot Sorbet) was completely made of root vegetable ingredients,

which tasted earthy and good at first, but some of the components made it bitter, and kinda ruined the dish for us. Overall, really creative though.

To say the least, I really enjoyed my meal tonight, although it cost a bomb as well, considering I treated my friend to dinner as well. I definitely want to try the late night ramen from Uni someday.

February 4th 2014: Lunch in Worcester, Dinner in Westborough

Today, I headed out for lunch, checking out Annie's Clark Brunch on Main Street in Worcester. This place is pretty much a simple diner located on the Clark University campus.

The Pilgrim's Pie (layer of mashed potatoes, layer of corn and layer of ground turkey burger) I got wasn't much to look at, and wasn't that great either.

At least I paid less than 5 bucks for it, and it was very filling.

After work, I decided to go to Westborough for dinner before the impending snow storm arrived late tonight, heading to Mirchi for some Indian food. This place has taken the place of Khatta Mitha and Ming III in the town of Westborough, both of which I had visited in the past.  This place, which has a few branches across the States, actually has much of the same decor, recycled from its predecessors.

For food, I decided to try the Punugulu (spongy dumplings made from rice and lentils) for appetizers, and the Gongura Mamsam (Goat cooked in traditional Indian curry sauce with ethnic leafy vegetable) for my main dish.

Punugulu

Gongura Mamsam

One thing about this restaurant is that everything had a significant amount of spice to it, even the starters and the sauces accompanying the appetizer. I guess I should have known, from the 2 chilis in the restaurant name. Otherwise, both dishes were actually pretty good, although the gongura leaves in the curry were a little annoying, as were the goat bones. Overall, not a bad experience at all.

Now to stay at home and out of the way of the snow storm that's coming my way.

February 2nd 2014: A Free Lunar New Year Concert in Boston

This morning, I had a meetup event to go for a free Lunar New Year Concert at the Boston Public Library.

Before meeting everyone for lunch at Thai Basil nearby, I decided to visit a few places in Shirley

Bow Brook Reservoir,
49 Leominster Road

Phoenix Pond,
Phoenix Street and Fredonian Street

Phoenix Park

Fredonian Nature Center

and Ayer.

Flanagan Pond, 107 Central Avenue

Balch Pond, 110 East Main Street

Shaker Millpond, 101 Littleton Road

From here, it was on to Boston for lunch. The restaurant itself is located in the basement, which took a little while for us to notice. The place usually opens only at noon, but was open a half hour early specially for our group. We were not able to sit altogether though, so we ordered separately as well. My table decided to share some appetizers, namely the Duck Wraps (Duck, mango, cucumber, lettuce and spring mix, wrapped with fresh rice spring rolls skin, served with mango sauce) and the Combo Appetizer (A platter of mixed satay (2 skewers), treasure bags (2 pcs), chicken spring rolls (2 pcs), beef golden triangles (2 pcs), winter shrimp (2 pcs), mee krob, served with cucumber salad, peanut sauce and sweet chili sauce).

Duck Wraps

Combo Appetizer

The duck wraps were just so-so, while the components of the appetizer I was able to try were pretty good, especially the triangles, the mee krob and the chicken spring rolls.

For my main dish, I got the Mandalay Noodles (northern Thai curry dish with mild herbs and spice on egg noodles), which were absolutely scrumptious.

Among other dishes, my friends got the Tum Yum Noodle Soup  (Rice noodles served with assortment of seafood, bean sprouts, scallions, and crushed peanuts in hot and sour seasoned with exotic Thai herbs broth), the Massaman Curry (Thai curry sauce with potato, peanuts, onion, and carrot) and the Crispy Pad Thai (assortment of vegetables pan fried with crispy thin egg noodles, egg, chicken, shrimps, and topped with crushed peanuts), of which I was only able to sample the last, which was pretty good as well.

Massaman Curry

Tom Yum Noodle Soup

Crispy Pad Thai

Overall, a pretty good meal. 

After a brief stopover at a Starbucks near the library, it was finally time to head in. I'm glad we managed to get into the Rabb Lecture Hall when we did, because the seats quickly filled up and the doors were locked once the concert started, leaving many people stranded outside. The performances started out pretty promisingly, with people dressed in interesting costumes and children performing as well, but it eventually got boring as it dragged on and on for more than 2 hours without a break. Which is probably why the concert was free. Pictures I took of the performances follow.

When the entire performance was finally over, we were just glad to be able to get out. It was not the end of the day for me though. I headed over to my friend's place in West Roxbury to watch the Superbowl XLVIII between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. I was hoping the Broncos would win, but they were trashed so badly from the get go that I could only watch their total destruction with utter despair, flabbergasted at all the mistakes the Broncos made throughout the game. And to end it all, the long drive back home. Oh well, at least my weekend was fun.