Boston,MA~Viva Mi Arepa

On my last stint in Boston in March, I decided to venture off into a small suburb in Massachusetts to check out a Venezuelan hole-in-the-wall restaurant. When I happen to have some spare time to venture off, I usually search for eating places on Yelp.com.  I stumbled across Viva Mi Arepa, read the reviews and decided to check it out. 

The counter staff was really friendly and helped me make my selections.  I knew that I wanted an arepa (which could be ordered grilled or fried).  I asked if the grilled or fried arepa was better and the lady responded with, "They both have a unique flavor, but fried is good."
 "Fried it is!"
While I waited for my order a couple of people stopped in and ordered beans and rice.  I contemplated purchasing a plate of beans and rice, but thought it would be wasteful to order all that food.

The arepa does not look like much, but it was made to order and was delicious! An arepa is basically a deep-fried corn cake that can be sliced in half and filled with a meat, cheese, fruit, or vegetable filling.  The outside of the arepa is like a crunchy corn bread/shell with a hint of sweetness.

See all that chicken filling? Yum! The arepa came with this garlic cilantro sauce was just the right mix of bright green notes and creaminess.  I did not finish the arepa in one sitting and even 45 minutes later-the arepa still still tasted good!
Unfortunately, I now have arepas stuck in my head and have been trying to seek out restaurants in Dallas that serve arepas, gorditas, sopes, or pupusas. (Yes, I know, those foods are all not the same even though Wikipedia classifies these fried corn/masa products in the same category).   I haven't been able to find a restaurant that comes close to what I ate in Massachusetts and I've checked out a few.  I'm afraid that Mike thinks that I have become obsessed with these arepas!

Cheese empanada-Deep-fried sweet corn dough surrounding cheese.  This was delicious too, but not as good as the arepa that I am constantly thinking about.

Viva Mi Arepa
5197 Washington St
West Roxbury, MA 02132
(617) 323-7844

Boston Restaurants~Toro

For those of you who did not know, I spent about 1.5 months in a city south of Boston earlier this year. Sometimes some co-workers and I were scheduled for the 1st shift and drove up to Boston to enjoy the great food in the city. 

According to the Boston Magazine, Toro is rated in the Top 50 restaurants in Boston.  It was also voted as the reader's favorite for tapas in the Boston Phoenix. A couple co-workers and I tried to eat here earlier during our travels, but at 8pm we were told there was a 1.5 hour wait for three people (Toro does not take reservations).  Armed with this information, a couple of weeks later, a few of us arrived a couple of minutes after the restaurant opened.

Escalivada Catalana-Smoked eggplant, onion, peppers, and tomatoes with sherry vinegar and olive oil

Gambas al Akilo-Griddled garlic shrimp

Costila de Bourguigon-Braised beef short ribs with bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions

I was looking at the menu online and I do not remember what drink I ordered. All I know is that it contained gin and grapefruit juice. The drink that did me in. I had to give my drink to a friend to finish because less than a third of the way through, I felt kind of funny. 

Lamb Sausage-One of the specials for the day

Valenciana Paella-Shrimp, mussels, clams, chorizo, chicken, and Calasparra rice.

This was one of our least favorite dishes.  The texture of the rice was a little undercooked, but when I told Mike this he said that he read that traditional paella contains undercooked rice. 

Calamar-Marinated grilled squid with fresh chickpeas, preserved bergamot, wild greens, and mint

Another tapas containing lamb.  (how descriptive!)

Corn-By far, the favorite tapas of the evening. This was the only dish that we ordered seconds of! Look at all that mayonnaise and cheese!

Toro
1704 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 536-4300

Boston Travels~Lobster

I just finished reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin and I realized that I do like blogging.  Sometimes, however, it feels like a chore to blog when I become backed up with old pictures and posts that the task seems quite daunting. I always seem to come with some excuse or another why theses posts are not as frequent as I would like (i.e. I've been traveling for 3 months straight, my puppy chewed my laptop power cable and I have to wait for my new cable to come in, I need to cook dinner or clean the house).  So....I have made it one of my small goals to post at least once a week. That way I can catch up on all the food pictures from Boston, Michigan, Las Vegas, and Texas. Wish me luck!

***This is a post I started a couple of months ago and forgot to post***
After reading all these posts about the food we were consuming in Boston, one would think that all we did was have lavish meals between our multiple naps each day. The work travel at times were brutal and all the team members worked their tails off.  I'm just highlighting the few times we splurged and had notable great dinners.
At the end of one of the big milestones for our project, we were invited over to a colleague's house near the water.  We arrived at his house to the sight of this bowl of lobsters!

The night started off with this HUGE bowl of lobsters.  I think 2-3 lobsters were budgeted for each person, so I bet there were at least fifty lobsters in this bowl!

Too bad Mike wasn't there to see it. He loves lobsters!

The bowl of lobsters at the end of the night.

Fresh Clams.

Hummus Dips

Appetizers

It was a great night full of food, fun, and good company. 

Boston Bakeries~Flour Bakery and Cafe

Flour Bakery was another Boston restaurant that I wanted to check out.  Joanne Chang of Flour was named as one of the "Outstanding Pastry Chef" in the 2011 James Beard Awards. 

This is a picture of the Cambridge location.  I am not the best driver in the world, so it took me a while to arrive at this little shop. Luckily, my Driver's Ed training came in handy as I easily parallel parked in coveted street parking.

I ordered the grilled roast chicken, brie, arugula, peppers, and caramelized onion panini.  Yummy.  When faced with a multitude of choices at restaurants, the key food items that I gravitate towards are "caramelized onions," "arugula," and "brie."  Although, if I were to go back to the cafe, I would probably order the intriguing "roast  chicken, avocado, and jicama .sandwich. 

I read a bunch of yelp reviewers and people raved about the sticky buns with sticky caramel and pecans. I thought it looked better than it tasted. 

Mmmm...now this lemon raspberry cake was good! I would recommend this cake over the sticky bun.  It was lemon pound cake, tart lemon curd, raspberries, and buttercream. 

On another trip back to Boston, a couple of co-workers and I checked out another location of Flour. I saw a bunch of people ordering the "house made raspberry seltzer" at the Cambridge location, so I decided to test it out. Yum yum! This soda was tasted like fresh raspberries...it was so good that I decided to make my own syrup and soda at home.  My only complaint about the seltzer was that it was too sweet for my tastes, but most beverages are too sweet to me.

Lemon lust-creamy, tart lemon curd. Let's just say that the "Flour" bakery makes a superb lemon curd.  This is the same stuff that was in the lemon raspberry cake. 

I also tried  the dark chocolate chunk cookie and that cookie was delicious too. Full of chocolate and not too sweet. 

Ooey-gooey caramel nut tart

Flour Bakery and Cafe

190 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge MA 02139

Boston Restaurants~East Coast Grill

Once in a while (when the schedule allows), I do take advantage of the perks of work travel.  One night, while we were working in a city south of Boston, a few of us drove up to Boston and had a nice dinner at an eclectic restaurant in Cambridge, MA called the "East Coast Grill."

Creamy Clam and Corn Chowder with chiles and sweet potatoes

Deep Fried mahi with sweet chili and herb salad. This dish was so good that I tried to replicate it at home.  I thought that an herb salad containing cilantro, thai basil, mint, and other green herbs was different from your typical salad containing lettuce.

Grilled vegetables

Grilled Spice Crusted Mahi Mahi with rice and beans, pineapple salsa, and fried plantains

Grilled cumin-encrusted shrimp with sweet potatoes, papaya salsa, and jicama slaw. This is the dish I ordered.  It was tasty, but the fried mahi appetizer I ordered was so much better than this dish.

Grilled Steak with sweet potatoes

Banana Split sundae with mango ice cream

I think this was a chocolate coffee pie.

Chocolate and peanut butter pie with a side of candied bacon

East Coast Grill

1271 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02139-1338

(617) 491-6568

Boston~Minstral Restaurant

***I was scanning my blogspot dashboard and saw that I had forgotten to post about this restaurant that we ate at in Boston.***

On Sunday morning of our Boston trip we had a delicious brunch at Minstral Bistro in Boston.  How did we select this restaurant with all the numerous eateries available in Boston?  Well, the restaurant "chose us."  The bed and breakfast we stayed at had a deal that if you booked a room for more than 2 nights you could receive a $50 gift certificate for the Minstral.  As Mike has mentioned in previous posts, I like deals. 

The meal started off with a lemon coffee cake muffin. 

 

Thien we ordered:

Sticky Buns

Smoked Salmon, Creme Fraiche Whipped Potatoes and Scallion Pizza.

This was my favorite dish I thought it was unique to hae a pizza "sauce" composed of creme fraiche and potatoes.  I am going to attempt to replicate this one day. 

Lemon Poppyseed-Ricotta Pancakes with Rhubarb and Strawberry Salad. 

This was my least favorite dish. Pancakes are one of my least favorite breakfast foods, but the description of the pancakes sounded delicious. They pancakes were cooked perfectly and I'm sure a pancake-liker would enjoy them; they were just not for me.  It also didn't help that Mike mentioned that the taste of the pancakes was similar to Costco's lemon and poppyseed muffins.

The pancakes were served with Pommes Lyonnaise.

Niman Ranch Bacon, Lambs Lettuce, Oven-Cured Tomato Sandwich on Corn Toast, Rosemary Frites.

This was Mike's favorite dish.

All of the food was delicious and plated in a cute yet classy way.  We loved the ambience and the service at this restaurant and had a great experience.  We ordered WAY too much food and took about half of it home.  We felt like "richies"(reference to a South Park episode) because we rarely order one appetizer and entree per person.  It was nice to live it up for a leisurely brunch on our Sunday morning in Boston.   

Minstral Bistro
223 Columbus Avenue
Boston, MA
(617) 867-9300

Boston Highlights Part II~Union Oyster House, Parish Cafe

Mike wanted his seafood fix again, so we checked out America's oldest restaurant, the "Union Oyster House."

We arrived at 5:30pm and tried to get a table in the restaurant for dinner, but since we were there on Memorial Day weekend, we would have to wait for at least two hours for dinner. We then decided to eat in the bar for quicker service. 
Mike ordered a cold seafood platter ($13.95) that included shrimp, raw oysters, and raw cherrystone clams.  He loves all kinds of seafood, so enjoyed the whole plate of fresh seafood to himself. 

I, on the other hand, like my seafood cooked. I opted for a bowl of clam chowder. 

Union Oyster House
41 Union Street
Boston, MA 02108-2494
(617) 227-2750

We finished off one of our days with lunch at the Parish Cafe, which is known for sandwich creations from many chefs from popular restaurants in Boston. This restaurant was also recommended by my friend.

We were really full from all the eating that we had been doing, so we shared a sandwich. Mike let me order the sandwich and I chose the "The Schlesinger" ($12.50) which was created by Chris Schlesinger from the East Coast Grille in Cambridge, MA. On our flight over to Boston, the guy sitting next to us recommended the "East Coast Grille" for it's eclectic menu. Since we didn't have a chance to make it to the original restaurant, I settled for a sandwich created by the owner.

The Schlesinger was eclectic indeed! It was composed of monterey jack cheese and smoked ham on top of a warm banana nut bread and served with mango chutney and pickled ginger red cabbage. When I first took a bite of this sandwich, my mouth and tongue were a bit confused. There was the salty taste from the ham and cheese, the sweet and sour taste of the chutney, the acidic/pickled taste of the slaw, and then the sweetness of the banana. Tack on this sensory overload to the assortment of textures that accompanied this dish (viscous chutney, gooey cheese, crunchy slaw, crumbly slightly dense bread). The sandwich was quite quirky, but the funny thing was that all these tastes and textures actually combined to make a sandwich that worked. I thought it was pretty good, but did not like it enough to order it again. It was one of those sandwiches that you like after the first few bites, and then after a while you realize you cannot stomach down the whole thing.
Parish Cafe
361 Boylston Ave.
Boston, MA 02116
(614) 247-4777