Souvenirs de Boston

I'm back home en la France! Actually, I've been back 2 days, arriving Wednesday morning after a pretty bump ride across the Atlantic. Recall my last blog update rating AA and BA? Well, maybe they read it, because on my transatlantic flight my wishes were answered! There were no less than 5 pretty hot looking male flight attendants. Super friendly, service-oriented, and easy on the eyes too. And the fun didn't stop there - since the flight was very light, I even got an entire row to myself....it was so good to stretch out. I fell asleep watching Eat, Pray, Love.
 

Another cute moment captured...

What a great trip to Boston - extending the trip by an extra week was so worth it, allowing me to spend more time with friends and family, including the littlest loves of my life (my 2 nephews with their Mom andDad), and eat Mom's home cooking. As an early birthday celebration, my sis and nephew I baked me some dinosaur cakes. Yum.











EATING WELL
During my month in Boston, I dined at some great new-to-me restaurants and revisited old favorites. I thank all my friends and family who dined with me...the best way to pair great food is with great conversation and company.

Revisiting restaurants

• Sapporo Ramen with SD. A fine bowl of spicy miso ramen. I want more!
  
• Redbones with J and M and his parents. I have been dreaming about the Barbecue Belt plate..a small mountain of moist, delicious, smoky meat with delicious crunchy coleslaw and grilled vegetables. 4 different sauces. Finger licking good.
  
• Bloc 11 with R. Coffee made by the calmest baristas in town, unless you get a mean lesbian one. The nice lesbian ones are great..but not so much the mean ones.
  
• Maggiano's with sis and family and the Devers family; this was an awesome family style restaurant. The place was packed with families having their holiday dinners. The over the top Christmas decorations got me into the holiday spirit.
  
• Burdick's with McPolack; one of the coziest places to have tea and cake in Cambridge. Their hot chocolate drink is decadent. I dropped half my little tea cake trying to share with Ms. M who suggested the 5 second rule could apply here! I begged to differ!
  
• Gourmet Dumpling House with R; okay, I had to have my Schezuan eggplant fix and this place was so good.
  
• Flour Bakery with C2. Soup and a sandwich from Joanne Chang, a former Monitor Group consultant turned professional baker. What a wonderful transition! A good role model for those of us who want to do the work we *love*. If you buy her new book, look out for a good looking back - it belongs to my friend Val's coworker who keeps Flour in business several times a day.
  
• Cheesecake Factory with J&M, Sebastian, and Eddie. Fun times over huge lunch portions. Eddie may be heading to the Middle East soon - and I want to go visit!
  
• Le's Restaurant with C and R. A big bowl of aromatic beef pho on a cold winter's day feels right.

Trying new restaurants

• B and G Oyster with S. Amazingly fresh seafood. With our oysters and cherrystone clams, a good German wine. The salmon was cooked perfectly but didn't like the vinegary pied de moutons so much. Stellar service. Better company.
  
• China Pearl Quincy with sister, mom and family. Pretty good branch of the original one in Chinatown, though my sister thought they could improve on their hygiene. Can I say...blowing your nose into the sink is gross.
  
• Hotel du chocolat with R. Dark chocolate reindeer and chili penguins. Cute, delicious with amazing chocolate flavor and not too sweet. Definitely not Hershey's.
  
• Shanghai Gate with SD. I've heard Asian friends raving about this little spot in Allston for years. So I was rather disappointed by their Shanghai rice cake and Lion's Head Meatballs...for awesome Shanghai rice cakes (chewy disc like noodles), head over to Taiwan Cafe. To acquaint yourself with authentic Chinese food, read Fuschia Dunlop's Shark's Fin and Schezuan Peppercorn.
  
• Foundry on Elm with Rich, Beth and R. Same management as Audubon. Pretty decent food but crazy wait for a rainy Wednesday night.
  
• Oga's Sushi with mom. I was disappointed because I had high expectations, but it was decent.
  
• Genki Ya with sis, mom and family. This was excellent..a little hideaway in Fresh Pond. Yeah, now that I've told people...I may regret it if their quality suffers. Service was not great though..they started taking away food as I was still eating it!! And it seemed like they were trying to rush us out..but maybe that had more to do with Aidan who was cranky and screaming his adorable little head off.
  
• New Banh Mi place with R. Okay...I still have yet to find a banh mi place that has the right mixture of cha lua vs sweet and sour crunchy vegetables vs pate vs mayo vs soy sauce. Maybe I should open up my own place one day.
  
• Taiwan Cafe with SD and V. Heavenly meal of Shanghai rice cake. I think this place is as good as Gourmet Dumpling House, maybe even better with their braised pork shoulder and mantou dish. That may be because this place is the predecessor of Gourmet Dumpling House which was opened by the former head chef of Taiwan Cafe.
  
• MFA Cafeteria with CD, A and I. Basic cafeteria...a good option for people with small children.
  
• Pasha Turkish in Arlington with R. It was just ok - apparently they changed the chef there recently because a fellow client commented that she thought the dishes that night were "off" and not as good as previous visits.
• Thailand Cafe with J and R. Cheap "Thai" food but they had hot and sour soup. And it was hot..so spicy I could not eat more than a teaspoon of it. I wouldn't return unless I had to.
  
• Za's with M and R. Healthy pizzas..but I still like Emma's in Cambridge best, despite the mean lesbian waitresses I've encountered there each time.
  

And what does a good Asian ex-pat do when traveling abroad? Stock up on Asian and American food to tide me over until the next trip back home, or to a major city like Lyon. When I unpacked my suitcase, I found a note informing me TSA had opened it. Merde! But not to worry...my 4 boxes of tofu, 2 jars of Teddie peanut butter, seeds, Chinese lap cheong, stinky turnip, dried shrimpies and oysters, etc, etc made it sans problemes!