Eating in Boston

I've been advised to say that you shouldn't read this if you are hungry.

One of Angel's and my favorite things to do is try new restaurants. We enjoy the settings, the feel, and the food that we can enjoy. Boston did not disappoint. While breakfast was standard (Boloco - a very good burrito franchise) and lunches were basic fare (Burger King or the food court at Fenieul Hall), we had some excellent food and fun at dinner. I am not one to take pictures of my food and so, with one very notable exception I have no photos to post here. All I have to say about the hotel's restaurant is that they wanted $18 for a hamburger and they charged the same for the continental breakfast.

The first night we took a walk into the North End, a portion of Boston that was the home to many Italian immigrants. The place is covered in small Italian restaurants, many if them initially started as family businesses. Italian food is some of my favorite. Pasta, pizza, and the Italian soups are so good and filling. We decided to try one called Antico Forno Pizza Restaurant in Salem Street. They specialized in brick oven cooking, using it for both their pizza and as a way of preparing their pasta dishes. Many dishes will spend time in the oven after being assembled as the final stage of cooking. I ordered the Rigatoni Salsiccia which consisted of rigatoni pasta with sausage, marinara sauce and ricotta cheese. My family knows how I eat - shamefully fast - and so it is no small complement when I purposefully put my fork down between bites to savor each and every mouthful. I describe this as "Put the fork down good." Interestingly enough, Italian dishes tend to have this effect on my more than others and this was certainly "Put the fork down good." The restaurant won a "Best of Boston" award last year in dinning and are well towards another. We left full and very satisfied.

The next day saw us trying two new places. The first was a chocolatier recommended to us by one of Angel's coworkers. L.A. Burdick is located just up from Trinity Church south of the Public Gardens. In addition to delicacies Burdicks sells some of the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted. Made from chocolate shavings it has a rich, full flavor that doesn't just taste like a melted chocolate bar (which I have tasted), but adds something additional to the flavor. I tried both the dark and the white chocolate flavors while Angel let me sample some of her milk chocolate. The dark was my favorite, as I really love a strong chocolate flavor. Angel enjoyed it so much that her souvenir of choice was a large cup and saucer with their name which included a bag of their hot chocolate mix.

That night we tried a recommendation of one of the other conferences attendees, a delightful restaurant called Fire and Ice on Berkeley street, not far from L.A. Burdick. The dinning experience is one on an experimental kitchen where you choose the ingredients and then they cook it for you. The name is derived from the ice that keeps the individual ingredients cold and the the large (8 feet across) circular grill where you watch your food being prepared i.e. where they fire it up. While you wait you can see what other people put together and can chat with those around you. The ingredients fall into four areas: American (beef, ribs, hamburgers and hot dogs, potatoes, BBQ sause), Latin (Curizo, fajita, lime, peppers, onions, chilies), Italian (pasta, meatballs, marinara, garlic, parmesan, scallions, oil and vinegar) and Asian (egg and rice noodles, bock choy, ginger, teriyaki, tofu, pork and sausage, calamari and shrimp). They also had a salad bar. Many ingredients were glutton free and it was easy to build a vegan or vegetarian meal if you wanted to. I mixed rice noodles with chorizo, Italian sausage, and pork then added onions, green peppers, scallions, mushrooms, and water chestnuts. For a sauce I used a Asian sauce similar to teriyaki but a little milder but then peped it up with a mix of chili powder, sesame seeds and black pepper. The over all effect was taste and left that tingle in my mouth from the two different sausages. It's buffet style so you can mix and match to your hearts content. As Angel pointed out, "if you don't like it, it's your own fault." While waiting for the food to cook she chatted with some Chinese exchange students hoping to get into MIT and I met a man who was celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary that night. The whole experience was a lot of fun, combining a chance to try new foods with a fun opportunity to meet new people. We both agreed that we would love to have a Fire and Ice here at home.

Our last dinner was the best. This was for several reasons. While I had been looking forward to trying The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant of no little renown, I didn't think that we would need to call ahead. When we tried to get a table the next available one would be available in three hours. We could have sat at the bar, but we wanted a more private table for our last night in Boston. A little discouraged we set off to fin something else. We ended up at a little place called Finale located in the Park Plaza building at the point of Columbus Street (my view out the window was looking right at the sign.) It became clear that Finale specializes in desserts, holding an award for "Best of Boston - whoopie pie." However, they had a respectable selection of entries as well. Ironically, we didn't get a secluded table, but we were both hungry and thought it looked good. About a year ago my sister and her husband ,EA and Jate, introduced me to Hell's Kitchen. While I just watched the one season I was blown away by the creativity and artistry of the chefs. Since then I've wanted to try a meal like they put together with different flavored, served in a deliberate and artistic manner. Finale provided that. I had a roast chicken with a cake of polenta covered in a corn and avocado salad. The flavors blended nicely and I found myself very satisfied with the flavors I could enjoy depending on what parts of the meal I combined. We ordered our meal as a special with dessert attached and I tried honest to goodness Boston Cream served on a vanilla cake with a taste of gelato and cherry almond florentines and three mini whoopie pies. It was wonderful, "put your fork down good." I completely understand how they won the whoopie pie award. The final complement to our evening that night was due to the proximity of the tables to each other. We had learned that many Bostonians are open and very friendly if your sharing space with them. At lunch we spend almost a solid hour in conversation with some people who shared our table with us. At dinner as we were waiting for our food the couple next to us commented that we must be newlyweds. It was fun to see their reaction when we replied, "Oh, no. We've been married seven years and have two kids." Again we were able to converse for ten minutes or so while we waited for our food and they finished their drinks. They were a charming couple who had been married for 25 years and had sneaked out for dessert and needed to figure out what to feed their 15 year old. We were both very happy with the food, the company, and the atmosphere. So without further words, here is the only picture of food I've had any desire to post for public view - the Boston Cream from Finale.