Bondir and Bronwyn

The golden rule: when exam/reading period starts, everything else but studying becomes so interesting and intriguing. For instance, uploading and adjusting pictures from a month ago. Typing out laborious details of that dinner. It goes from that trying to find the most efficient way to upload pictures, a search for that one picture to a full-blown reorganization and timelining the whole album, and just reminiscing the glory of those days when we had the time to eat and chat our hearts out. And you just give a blank look to those piles and piles of books and outlines and all the other horrifying materials and review sessions you are compelled to ignore. 

Bondir is a small, homey restaurant in somerville; it is hard to notice that it is a restaurant if you're mindlessly passing by. Inside is warm and welcoming, yellow light engulfing the ten or so tables covered in tablecloths with small bouquets of live flowers. They start you off with an interesting plate of snacks - dried kalamata olives, mini breadsticks dipped in garlic sauce, fruit jellies adorned with herbs. 

It was followed with a bowl of carrot soup topped with fennel, a bowl of miso seaweed soup, and housemade bread and butter.

One cold and two warm appetizers: a salad with lamb meatballs, int and roasted cabbage; and a washed rind tartine with shallots, potatoes, and crispy quinoa. There was a lot of herbs used in these dishes which made them simple but flavorful, and many interesting ingredients (having a hard time remembering the details at this point) for the tongue to explore.

Another warm appetizer was the pasta

Brownyn was at my birthday 2014. Oh my... I am just going to post these pictures for now.

Dine Out Boston 2014 March

Busy times have come and blogs have been deserted. No more postponing, photo bomb time is overdue.

I'm always down for excuses to check out new restaurants. Boston Restaurant Week (renamed Dine Out Boston this year, yet everyone still calls it restaurant week) coincided with spring break, and I got overly excited (as I always do with food), rounded out some friends (the more people, the more menus I can try we can share), and made a bunch of reservations (even two reservations on the same day to choose according to what I want my friends' preferences), and of course ended up spending way more money than I intended to (which goes against the spirit of restaurant week, but I am hopeless at saving money when it comes to food).

First on the bat, the Butcher Shop by star restauranteur Barbara Lynch (who also owns No.9, Menton, Drink, and many other well-known Boston establishments; she was also featured in the NYTimes as one of the top women chefs; recently was nominated for the distinguished James Beard Award for outstanding restauranteur), a trendy 'butcher shop' and restaurant focusing on--surprise!--meat.
As I firmly believe that good food should be accompanied with good wine/beer/whiskey, we popped a bottle of fruity spanish wine. Cheers to A, who's always down to enjoy drinks with thirsty moi.

Appetizers consisted of charcuterie, baked goat cheese topped with tomatoes with olive tapenade crostinis, and pork meatballs. Entrees were: poulet grandmere (chicken thighs braised with mushrooms, potatoes), flat iron steak, and braised pork shoulder. The chicken thighs were juicy, but I couldn't taste the sauce when eating the inside part; the pork shoulders were tender, steak a perfect medium rare. Enough said. You feed us meat, and we are three little happy carnivores.
Dessert was lemon and raspberry cake, and chocolate mousse. Never can get picky with dessert.

Round 2: Top of the Hub. As can be told from the name, it is located on top of the prudential tower, overlooking the city. Floor to ceiling windows leave you in awe when you walk in. At this place, we mixed up the prix fixe menu with item on the everyday menu. 

Started off with sriracha deviled egg with sweet potato paper, entree was short-rib ragu papparedelle, chili-glazed salmon with brussel sprouts and black eyed peas. Standard flavors, nothing was oh-my-god amazing or complex. I say, people pay for the atmosphere. We picked an Italian Chianti Classico to accompany our meal and spice up the conversation. A caramel creme brulee graced the end of our meal, always a safe choice. 

 

 I'm on a roll now. The Elephant Walk, a slightly upscale Thai restaurant (compared to the other take-out concentrated thai restaurants in the area) with my Amherst buddies. Now I am getting lazy, and am turning this into a guessing game.

 

A few other Amherst friends stayed over for the Spring Break weekend, and T.W. Food was discovered. A tiny restaurant around ten tables with white table cloths. 

Start off with rustic house-made bread with creamed butter. Live flowers give the table a fresh touch.

Amuse bouche to refresh the palate before the meal, cold spring onion mousse with slivers of mint. Comte tart with figs. A malbec from France which was earthy and slightly smoky.

 



















 
Star of the meal-foie gras creme brulee (you heard correctly, this menu was a revelation), toasted brioche and pear preserves. You crack the surface of the creme brulee, spread the foie gras on the brioche, and you die. Crunch from crackly top, smooth and fatty, and bread oh-so buttery. This was our favorite dish of the meal.



Raviolo stuffed with ricotta, spring onions, and roasted artichoke and broccoli.

Smoked Salmon fettucini, topped with pan-seared scallop, this scallop just melted in our mouths.

Roasted lamb shank. Super juicy, super tender, and a huge chunk of meat. And man, that was a lot of meat.

Dessert-chocolate budino(similar to mousse) topped with roasted hazelnuts, grapefruit and coconut sorbet with sesame broth, and a TW sundae.

 

The grand prize goes to T.W. Food. Results may not be contested. 'Twas a happy week with happy food, happy people.