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Eating Boston – Juicy Spot

Nov29

Restaurant: Juicy Spot Cafe

Location: 16 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111. (857) 378-9220

Date: October 21, 2017

Cuisine: Rolled (Thai) Ice Cream

Rating: Looks cool, tastes just okay

After dimsum in Boston we went down the street to get some Thai rolled (stir fried) ice cream.

Enter juicy spot.

It’s downstairs half in the basement.

You select your flavor and they (slowly) make it up for you.

Basically they pour the ice cream mix on a very cold refrigerated disk.

They spread it out thin and it freezes against the surface.

Then they scrape it into rolls.

Here is a cookies and cream being made

Cookies and cream ice cream. They add whipped cream, chocolate sauce etc.

My friend Mike shows displaying the goods.

Making mine, chocolate hazelnut.

Ferre-roll rocher. rolls of chocolate with Nutella and Nutella drizzle and hazelnuts. It looks great, and the sauce is fine, but the ice cream rolls are very hard, chewy, and crystalized. The cold plate isn’t an ideal way to freeze ice cream as it’s very cold and there is no smoothing or aeration so it develops very large crystals.

Cool process (if slow) but the result doesn’t actually taste that great (coming from an ice cream/gelato geek).

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Boston, Dessert, eating-boston, Ice cream, Juicy Spot

Eating Boston – Hei La Moon

Nov27

Restaurant: Hei La Moon

Location: 88 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111. (617) 338-8813

Date: October 21, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Quite good, lots of variety

Because it would be unconscionable to visit a major city without sampling its Chinese Food, during my Boston trip some of my friends brought me into Chinatown to:

Hei La Moon, their favorite local dimsum joint.

It has 2 floors and this is just part of one of them — yeah, that’s pretty typical Cantonese.

As is the red and good auspicious colors.

This is a cart place, but a good one as we shall see.

They have a bunch of stations too. Not sure what they are doing at them.

We didn’t manage to get much in the way of sauces, just the chili paste.

Then the carts came in spades.

Including interesting ones like this “drink” (with jelly, etc) cart.

Pork Shiu Mai. Pretty usual. Good though.

Kimchee shiu mai. Hadn’t had these here in the states. Like the first, but a little spicer.

Shark Fin Dumpling. Always one of my favorites (I hope it isn’t real shark fin) and missing these days in LA.

Chives dumpling.

Chinese Broccoli. Colon sweeping required.

Pan fried rice noodle (chung foon). Heavier than the usual rice noodle.

Taro cake. Never my favorite.

Sticky rice with peanuts and Chinese sausage. Good stuff.

Mussel stuffed with crab. And maybe cheese? It was odd but good.

Pan fried shrimp cake. Love this very greasy beast.

Pepper stuffed with shrimp. Hadn’t had this one.

Fish shiu mai with sausage. Some kind of what fish.

Fried shrimp cake with sweet mayo. Another new one. Basically that packed shrimp cake fried, then drizzled in mayo.

Bean curd. Stuffed with mystery meat.

Pumpkin and cork and pea dumplings. Really good, light, and very interesting.

Shrimp rice noodle (chung foon). The usual, but a nice one.

Fried sesame and rice balls stuffed with red bean. The usual dessert balls. I like them, but they don’t like me.
Baked egg custard tart. Decent but eggy versions of the classic.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find this an excellent dimsum place. It was cart based, so not quite as fresh as the best “cooked to order” places in Los Angeles (SGV) but still very fresh (it was crowded and huge) and the variety was tremendous. Lots of interesting and new stuff. Way way better than the place we tried in New York.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Boston, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, eating-boston, Hei La Moon

Eating Boston – Loyal Nine

Nov24

Restaurant: Loyal Nine

Location: 660 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02141. (617) 945-2576

Date: October 20, 2017

Cuisine: Modern Colonial

Rating: Really good kitchen and very interesting

My Boston friends chose this extremely interesting farm to table place — modern — but focused on colonial Massachusetts ingredients. At Loyal Nine, their focus is on direct relationships with farmers and artisans. They show a dedication to ethically sourced coffees and teas, and in our restaurant with a true focus on New England culinary traditions.

The space is the typical new hard surfaces, paper menu kind of thing.

We opted for the “supper” (i.e. shared tasting menu).

I had this very bretty cider.

And interesting cocktails.

Some even non-alcoholic.

Ma Oysters and Me Oysters. Dressed with anise hyssop vinegar and smoked porter vinegar. Nice vinegary punch.

Salt-rubbed cucumbers. Egg custard, horseradish vinaigrette. A bit like Chinese cucumbers but with this almost cheese-like custard.

Mashed soldier beans, radish, clams or mussels. Interesting.

Grilled surf clam. Broccoli, parsley broth. Really awesome flavors and texture. Nice and chewy/crunchy with any almost ham-like quality. Fabulous dish.

Sourdough bread with scallion cheese and whipped solider beans. I liked the cheese.

Hand rolled sallet, cider vin, kohlrabi, aged goat cheese. Like a rolled salad spring roll. It was covered in dressing too. Tasted just like a nice salad. It was weird eating a dressed lettuce with your hands though.

Roasted russet apple, cured pork belly, fresh cheese & herbs. Very nice take on pork and apple. Lots of good smokey flavor.

Fried clams, whole belly with piccalilli aioli. Awesome fried clams. Cornbread fry was super nice and crunchy.

Poached ri squid. Shisito peppers, sunchokes. Very tender.

Crispy steel cut oats, garden turnips, spinach, garlic. Nice flavor — particularly for pure veggies.

Pan roasted duck breast, glazed golden ball turnips, mustard greens. Very rare and tender duck. Smoked almost like pastrami. Very nice.

A kind of chocolate bread pudding with expresso ice cream.

Covered in chocolate syrup.
Then house made butterscotch.

Plus some toppings. This was an awesome dessert. Any kind of cake/pudding with butterscotch — always awesome. Pretty much like a sticky toffee pudding.
Mint tea to finish.

Overall, this was some really fabulous and very distinct cooking. The technics and style seemed pretty modern but the ingredients and combos also extremely Massachusetts. Kudos for really mixing it up.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Boston, Cambridge, cider, Clams, Colonial Food, eating-boston, Farmer's Market, Loyal Nine

Eating Boston – Shaking Crab

Nov22

Restaurant: Shaking Crab

Location: 203 Adams St, Newton, MA 02458. (617) 795-1630

Date: October 19, 2017

Cuisine: Korean Cajun

Rating: Solid and spicy

During my Boston visit some of my friends took me to Shaking Crab, a “cajun” seafood joint. Interestingly, it’s EXACTLY like the LA area Boiling Crab.

The menu.

My MIT friends.

Onion rings.

Salty shisito peppers. This batch wasn’t very hot.

A sort of long island ice tea kind of thing with Bourbon.

The meat of the meal is all served in plastic bags. Seafood soaked in garlicky chili sauce. You can chose from 4 sauces and various heat levels.

This was Dungeness Crab. A bit hard to break into.

Lobster tails. Hard to get out.

“Blue Crab” and cajun sausage. Max spicy. It wasn’t that spicy, the sausage was small, and I’m pretty sure that isn’t blue crab. Still, it was pretty tasty (shells and all).Shrimp and clams. Really liked the clams. The shrimp tasted good but were a touch annoying to peel. We paid extra for no heads – worth.

This place is tasty, and reasonable (for all that seafood). But it is a mess. They give you bibs, gloves, etc. And the staff was very helpful. He helped crab the crab and shuck some stuff. Still it’s messy. One of my favorite parts was the garlicky slurry with the Dungeness Crab. It tasted just like XO sauce.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Boston, Cajun, crab, eating-boston, Korean cuisine, Shaking Crab

Eating Boston – The Helmand

Nov20

Restaurant: The Helmand

Location: 143 First St, Cambridge, MA 02142. (617) 492-4646

Date: October 18, 2017

Cuisine: Afghan

Rating: I miss real Afghan like this

During my quick trip back to Boston I had a night by myself in Cambridge. Google turned up a well reviewed Afghan place and since our LA “go to” Afghan went out of business (sigh) I had to try it out.

Over not far from the Science Museum.

The menu.

A cute and classic interior.

They bake their own bread in a tandoor-like oven.

Afghan bread. Fresh out of the oven.

Left to right: yogurt, tomato based sweet chili sauce, mint sauce, and butter.

I put them all on the bread. I love the combo of these 3 sauces.

Because I was alone I ordered a bunch of appetizers.

Aush. Homemade noodle soup served with beef sauce and mint yogurt. Underneath were noodles and beans. I didn’t know about the beans. Good stuff. Very tangy with nice herby notes.

Bowlawni. Brick oven baked twin pastry shells, one filled with pumpkin the other filled with spiced potatoes. garnished with yogurt and mint. The yogurt is basically lebneh (love it) with that thick texture. These were surprisingly great. Thin crispy bread with savory stuffing, not unlike a flat samosa.

Mantwo. Homemade pastry shells filled with onions and beef. served on yogurt and topped with carrots, yellow split peas and beef sauce. I asked for no split peas.

But I added the sauces on top. Great dumplings. The Mongols brought these to Afghanistan but they have a uniquely central Asian flavor profile.

Aushak. Afghan ravioli filled with leeks and scallions, served on yogurt-mint topped with ground beef sauce. Flatter dumplings. Similar sauces. A bit more meat in the sauce. Great texture and bright tomato/yogurt flavors.

Sheerberaing. Rice pudding, served with pistachio and cardamom. Pretty much exactly the kind of rice pudding I was looking for. Very firm (I hate it too runny) with that pistachio and cardamom (and maybe a hint of rose water) flavor.

Overall, I didn’t have that many dishes but what I had was excellent. I saw all these nice kabobs and stews going to other tables too — but with only one person the huge portions would have been too much for me. Service was very nice and attentive too. Clearly a well run family restaurant.

For more Boston dining reviews click here.