I Hate Traffic

Especially Friday traffic. Why is it always so bad?!

I feel awful today - I'm getting into the holiday spirit super early, thanks to my rubbed-raw red nose. But, a girl still needs to eat. And this girl doesn't like cooking on Fridays, or when sick, so...

Off to Kayuga we go. Another staple for us.

Avocado salad - I love that theirs isn't mushy. Chunks of avocado with imitation crabmeat, cucumbers, and roe. 

Sashimi sampler - this is probably tuna, salmon, and yellowtail. It was okay, but not as fresh as I'm used to from Kayuga.

Agedashi tofu - so filling. But the broth is so comforting and flavorful, and the tofu had a nice crisp on the outside. My two blocks of tofu were almost a meal though (a Vy-sized meal).




 

Spicy salmon, volcano, and caterpillar makis - the topping of the volcano tasted a bit odd/stale; the unagi in the caterpillar left an unpleasant aftertaste; the spicy salmon was my favorite of the bunch today, but sadly that's not saying too much.




 Boo! What happened to you, Kayuga? Of course, I will be back. But I am hoping next time is better.

Park Your Car in the Dang Lot, Not the Harvard Yard

Weekends bring dining companions and great times, but also stupid drivers and even stupider traffic.

Of course on the day I make dinner plans for right after work, work gets crazy. That's just how it is, isn't it - Murphy's Law and all that. So we battle our way into Harvard Square, don't even bother with street parking and go right into the lot, and show up fifteen minutes late. Oops, sorry Rosa and Wei.

But on to the restaurant, because Park is totally the kind of place I could see myself frequenting. Hip and trendy, but laid-back and not at all pretentious. With a bar area that looks like it's part coffee-shop, part pub. And chalk-board art that made us all a bit envious of the awesome penmanship on the board. 

The drink menu has the now standard old-made-new cocktails, you know the ones with elderflower and rye and all. 

My drink - the Delgado. Kind of like a berry lemonade with a slight hint of black licorice.

Tai and Wei each got the honey wine flight. The left was dry, my favorite of the three. The middle to me tasted like cough syrup. The right was blueberry - I didn't taste blueberry, but it was ok.

Rosa's punch. My drink looked more like a punch, but who knows.


















I'm not sure we even got a good look at the entree menu, but the appetizers all looked delicious and different from what we usually see/eat, so we ordered a bunch and called that our dinner. 

Instead of bread and butter/oil, Park serves cheese and crackers (actually pita chips), which are both right up my alley.

Bacon 3 way - the french toast with bacon bite was my favorite of this dish; the crispy poached egg was good, but was more egg than bacon; the blt bite was decent, but not memorable after the french toast. So maybe save the french toast bite for last.

Duck spring rolls - I'm not usually a huge fan of duck but I really liked this. Warm and soft and subtle. That dipping sauce was also fantastic.

Baby kale salad - the perfect fall salad with apple, blue cheese and walnuts. The dressing was sweet and light.

Cider steamed mussels - meh. I really wanted to like this dish, but it was not tender enough, not flavorful enough, not much of anything but mediocre.

Lobster and crab dip - amazing. Definitely the star of the night. Cheesy and with huge chunks of lobster, but not heavy, as you would expect that combination to be.

Salt and pepper shrimp - here's the thing. You say salt and pepper shrimp to Asians and we're going to expect something battered and fried. And this wasn't. The shrimp was delicious, had great flavors, was cooked well, and the peppers were a great addition - we were just expecting something different. 

NE clam chowder - what a disappointment. Just no. Watery. I had no idea how I was supposed to eat that "cracker." Did not have enough meat, potatoes, etc. This was left mostly untouched.

Confit chicken wings - hellooooo, salt. What a pleasure to see you in all your glory. Sadly, these wings had a great flavor and a really good kick to them, and would have been so good minus about 2 pounds of salt. 






I'd definitely love to come back. For that lobster and crab dip alone probably, but I also want to try the brisket entree. Parking is free in the parking lot Sunday through Wednesday with validation from the restaurant, so there's that. And of course, there's the great atmosphere and vibe. The company didn't hurt either ;).

Who Has Room for Dessert?

A weekday off of work and I shop. Sadly, that's not unusual at all.

But before I shop (and Tai follows me around aimlessly), we eat. And if you're at the mall on a weekday afternoon, why not go to Cheesecake Factory, where you won't have to wait in line, and you'll be amongst lunching retirees.

No appetizers because it's lunch, and Cheesecake's portions are ginormous as is.

 I do treat myself to a hot chocolate though.

And who can resist this bread? (Yes, Tai broke off a piece before I got to take a picture. He so kindly put it back to make the picture complete.)

Tai's Cheesecake Factory go-to - the cajun jambalaya pasta, with extra cajun spice. Not sure how it compares to authentic NoLa food, but Tai approves.

My shepherd's pie - flavorful and oh so comforting. I would have liked the meat broken up a bit more, and the carrots a bit softer. But otherwise, a pretty decent shepherd's pie.






I love Cheesecake Factory. You know what to expect, and they're super consistent. Oh but why do they always make you feel bad for not leaving room for dessert, when their portions are two, if not three, full-sized meals? I would love to eat dessert, but if I don't go there and order just cheesecake, I am not going to find any room for it. Sorry.

Mojo Jojo?

No, apparently not the villain from the Powerpuff girls. Hojoko, a throwback to the Howard Johnson that used to sit on Boylston, now the home of the Verb hotel and its rock & roll izakaya restaurant.

The inside was a lot more spacious than I had expected. Very modern and fun and funky.

The menu was interesting? I know, such a cop-out word. But really, I wasn't sure what to make of it. I'd like to go back with more people and order more off the menu. 

In true Japanese form, they bring out napkins to clean your hands before your meal. And of course, they're super cute and expand from this:

 

To this, after dropping the tablets into the water:

 

 Now that your hands are clean, you're ready to eat.

This was my drink - the 5,6,7,8. I know, I felt like I needed to start breaking out some dance moves after ordering it too. Pretty good. More alcohol in it than you would think. Not sure about the mango foam on top - it was sweet at first, and then it kind of just sat there for a little while, not moving. Rather bizarre. I did not have a second.

Richmond's drink - the Toyko tea. I tried a sip off the top and only tasted seltzer, so I'm no help here.

'Weed,' only not that weed. Seaweed. And cucumber. This was light and refreshing. A good start.

Spicy hamachi roll. I'm not even sure what it was in here, but something really overpowered this roll for me. And not in a great way. Would not eat again.

Housemade foie gras "spam" roll. I think this has dehydrated foie gras? Again, not sure about this. It was different and interesting, but not memorable.

Salmon belly robata. This was really good. With a nice hint of lemon. I could eat this all day. 

The okonomiyaki. Also really good. A bit heavy handed with the bonito flakes. But overall very tasty. The sauce had a great tanginess to it; the mushrooms provided the meatiness; and the bacon, well, who doesn't love bacon? :)

Soy and garlic chicken wings. These were huuuge. I generally like my wings smaller (seriously, I ate half of one of these), but the batter on this was really good. Very thick, but very good. And such a good flavor.

My peach sake. Sweet. Not overly sugary sweet, but a nice light candy sweetness. The jelly in there was a bit weird for me, probably because I couldn't see it. And yeah, it kind of looks like hand sanitizer. 
















I really liked Hojoko. I guess I was expecting bolder flavors, and when I did get it, I wasn't sure I liked it. But I will be back. Probably to try that dogzilla. :)

Side note: beware, the bathroom is downstairs and really smelled like fish. Like, "I'm at a fish market" smell.

A Day in Newton

I've been meaning to return these dresses to Bloomingdale's for ages. Finally got around to doing it today. 

First though, of course, is food. Richmond and I went to Comedor in Newton Centre for brunch. It features Chilean-inspired cuisine and is a small plates kind of place. Pretty cute, has an open (and rather small and kind of slow) kitchen.

I had strawberry lemonade (pretty tart) and Richmond had madres, which is a mixture of their fresh squeezed orange juice and their homemade cranberry juice, that he really liked.

For food, we had:

Latte doughnuts with spiced hot chocolate. Pretty good. I'm a sucker for fresh, warm doughnuts. The hot chocolate was too thick as a drink, but decent for a dipping sauce.

Fruit salpicon with whipped ricotta. I really liked this, but what a pain to eat out of this jar. I was spilling huckleberries everywhere.

Tomato ricotta griddlecake with a sweet corn salad. This was also really good and had a nice kick. That corn salad made this dish for me.

Smores french toast. I really wanted to love this. I enjoyed the french toast a lot. And the meringue was pure sugar and perfect. But the chocolate ganache was so overpowering for me. Maybe if it had arrived at the table earlier, I would have been more up for eating more of it.

But look at how that chocolate oozes out of there so perfectly.

I really enjoyed Comedor - small, light dishes are right up my alley. I left content and satisfied, and not bursting at the seams. I'd love to see how their dinner dishes compare. 

BONUS:

Gelato at Chestnut Hill Mall, after returning my dresses. Yay! 

Seth Sucks

How a 30+ year old oversleeps lunch, I don't know. But I'm sure Tai has some insight *coughvideogamescough*.

So Bb and I, minus Seth, went to Outback Steakhouse, again at Assembly Row. I should just head back tomorrow and make it 3 for 3.

It must be pretty newly opened - the servers and hostesses are green. Friendly, but definitely lacking experience. The door also didn't want to open for me, when I tried to walk in. Thankfully the manager was standing right there and unlocked it (it had jammed?). 

Onto the food. No apps, because it's lunch. And really, it's me. 

The bread. Not super appealing to look at, however, it wasn't bad. Not the best bread, not the worst. Serviceable, I guess. Butter was good though.

Bb's rib eye melt. Sounded really good on the menu. He said it was good. Again, not much in the looks department. I guess that isn't Outback's thing.

My steak tacos. I was full at 1.5 - Bb made me finish the second though. Steak was on the dry side. The slaw (really, what is with these places and random slaw) at the bottom was not great. I'd take plain romaine over this slaw any day.

Not super impressed with my first visit to Outback. Not sure if it's the newness of the place and they haven't found their groove yet. Or maybe I'm just not an Outback kind of girl.

BONUS:

Almond croissant from Paul bakery - delicious!

When Tai is away...

Vy will play blog? 

Since people are always asking where and what I eat, I might as well share (let's see how long this lasts).

Sorry for the potato quality of some of these (and future) photos, but my dining companions are generally not very patient when hungry.

For Tai's meal before Japan, we avoided the Japanese and went to Legal on the Mystic at Assembly Row in Somerville. It's a pretty decent space (as is expected with these newer Legals). Food and service are both solid.

To start, the steamers: 

Sooo good! The clams are actually cooked with white wine, garlic, and thyme, making them so flavorful. And they're pretty clean - I had just one that had a bit of sand.  

Also for an app, we had the sweet and spicy ribs:

These were more sweet than spicy this time, but very tender. The slaw underneath was meh.

These were followed by the white clam pizza (for me) and the crab roll (for Tai):

The pizza was way too greasy. As in, puddle of grease pooling in the middle of and underneath the pizza. Even greasy still the next day when I had a slice cold. Really detracted from anything else (although the crust was pretty good).

I didn't try this so you'll have to trust Tai, who said the crab meat was fresh and good. But then he also went on to say he probably won't be ordering crab rolls again. So, if you like crab rolls, it's a good one. If you want something meatier, go for the lobster roll. 

Overall, not bad. We generally enjoy Legal and know what to expect; I just won't be ordering that pizza again.