Boston

A couple weeks after my NY trip, I went to Boston for a conference. My sister and her family also came up and my cousins live there so it was a lot of seafood and a really good time. I probably overindulged as is my norm, but you can't miss out on seafood when it's the high season (October!). Not a lot of pictures because sometimes, I do feel weird pulling it out. I'm not including every meal because I did eat at the conference and some meals that aren't worth mentioning so the timeline is a little weird.

When I first got into town, I was tired and starving. It had been so long since I had flown that I forgot if you skip lunch before you flight, when you get to your destination like six hours later, you are close to pass out level. My hotel was in Kendall Square, about a block down from a Legal Seafoods. I checked in, dropped my stuff in the room, and ran down there for a bowl of New England clam chowder.

Now everyone talks about Legal like they are so great, but I'm not a big fan of their chowder. It's thicker than I like, but that's not the problem. The problem is that the thickness is bland. It just tasted like seasoned flour, not very clammy at all. So my soup was okay, but not great.

One night, we headed out to The Blue Room, One Kendall Square, Cambridge. It looked like my kind of place, faintly reminiscent of Woodfire Grill before it went to hell. In retrospect, it was okay, and the prices were definitely Boston but not over the top.

I started off with the grilled sardines which were served with olives and golden raisins, capers, balsamic. I've always had a love affair with sardines, one of those things that I really want to like but I'm not sure if I really like them. These were pretty good with a deep fishy taste and a lot of bones. They are definitely an acquired taste. It's probably time for me to give up on sardines because I feel these were prepared well, and they are just not for me.

For my main, I had the duck breast, served with a fig beurre, potato puree, and lentils. Though I ordered it medium rare, it arrived a touch over medium but it was still tender. I was disappointed in this dish. There are rosemary sprigs all over it and the heaviness of the rosemary really overpowered the entire dish. I guess I am frequently disappointed when we have duck out, but this was definitely nothing special.

We split desserts and I felt they were all blah. This is not a place that I would return to.

Another night, we started the night with drinks at the Alibi at the Liberty Hotel. The Liberty used to be a prison back in the day and remained that way even into the 20th century. It was renovated and expanded into a hotel and the Alibi is their bar. The space is actually pretty cool though all the brick and ironwork makes one think that it's something from much longer ago than to have been in use less than 50 years ago. We had martinis at the Alibi. Mine was really strong and definitely added a stumble to my normal gait.

For dinner, we headed into Back Bay to the Atlantic Fish Market, 127 Waterman Ave, for a great dinner. Seemingly white tablecloth and frou-frou, I was really pleased by my dinner here. We started off with fried whole belly clams. Now, if you live outside a waterside city like I do, when you think of fried clams, you think of thin clam strips that you would expect at a Friendly's (I admit it; my mother used to get these when I was little and that's why I think of them. Second confession: I liked their NE clam chowder and big beef cheddar 'n onions. This probably explains why I have bad taste in chowder.) Anyhow, whole belly clams are common in New England, I was to learn, and they are offered everywhere. As you can see in this picture, whole belly clams are big and meaty and offer an excellent clammy taste. These clams were the best I had the whole trip (and I had a lot, almost too much)m lightly fried and delicate. With a squeeze of lemon, they are perfect. No additional sauces needed. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

I've recently departed from my immediately decisive "I'm having this for dinner" at new places and have begun turning to the server for recommendations. If you know me well, you know how weird this is. J was confused the first few times, but it's turned out rather well in the long run. Unable to decide on the menu, my server steered me away from the a la carte fish dishes that he said were so great and directed me at the redfish in lobster broth. It was served with tomatoes, smashed red potatoes, and herbs with olive oil. It was delightful! The fish was light and tasty, sweet. The lobster broth was rich and made everything delicious. Everything down to the potatoes were delicious.

I do feel a little bad for gushing over my dish as I have. My cousin got a fish a la carte and it was dry.

My sister had researched places to go while in Boston, and she came up with Gran Gusto, 90 Sherman St., Cambridge. My sister and brother-in-law engaged in lively discussions in Italian.

We started off with a seafood salad, a light mixture of squid, mussels, clams, and shrimp. It was quite tasty.

For mains, we all got pizza, though I think we were all very boring and got the same funghi pizza. No matter, it was very good, tasting very simple and light. You could taste the olive oil in each bite.

For my last night as part of the conference, I ate alone at Legal. I had debated going out to try something in Harvard Square, but I was lazy as one gets after four days at a conference and wanted something close by.

I started off with a dozen beavertail oysters from Rhode Island. The server had recommended them as being close to duxburys and blue pointes, and they did not disappoint. They were awesome. I also got a tuna "sashimi" in which the tuna was seared and blackened. It was pretty good and served with a spicy sesame sauce. Not good enough to get it again though.

For my main, I got the fried whole belly clams. I did mention before that I almost had too many on my trip, right? These were good, but couldn't compare to the ones at the Atlantic Fish Market. They were a bit greasier, a bit chewier, as well as larger than the ones I had had. The cole slaw it came with was nasty.

One night we did a quick dinner in Chinatown at Hong Kong Eatery, 79 Harrison Ave. Nothing hits the spot like a good bowl of wonton noodles with roast duck. It was delicious. I wish we had a noodle spot like this in Atlanta.

A separate trip to Chinatown brought us to East Ocean City, 25-29 Beach Street. Another overindulgent dinner. We started off with boiled fresh shrimp. These are the shrimp from the tanks at the front of the restaurant, which I see as solely a Chinese thing. One pound of fresh shrimp with a light, sweet soy sauce. Delicious.

This is where we get out of control. We had the dungeness crab with black beans (one of my favorites) and twin lobsters with ginger and scallions. I've had these two dishes so many times that it's hard to really describe them except that they are fantastic and very pleasing. I thoroughly enjoy them every time we have them. For a vegetable, we had foo yuur oong choy. I only recently learned that it's illegal to grow oong choy in the US because it grows so fast that it overtakes swampy and water-edged areas. Many restaurants apparently pass off potato leaves as oong choy because they are so similar.

We finished off that night at Toscanini's, 899 Main St., Cambridge, which was apparently named the world's best ice cream in the world by the New York Times. I had the raspberry, and it was good. While we had ice cream, I annoyed some team leads back in Atlanta who were deploying a project that we had been working on for six months. I was sad to not actually be on site for the deployment, but probably couldn't have contributed anyway. And so I enjoyed my ice cream.

On the Saturday of that trip, my cousins generously took me up to Maine -- my first time! -- for lobster rolls. We went to Robert's Maine Grill and Market, 326 Route 1, Kittery, ME.

To start, we got the oyster sampler which included deer meadows (ME) (too briny/salty), duxbury bays (MA) (delicious, as you have heard me rave), and long island sound (CT) (okay). It's always nice to try new oysters because you never know what you are going to like.

Other starters were steamers in beer and garlic, which I found to be good, but probably not my kind of thing, and whole belly fried clams. Yeah, again. They are still delicious.

For my main, I got a large lobster roll. This closeup should show you how wonderfully delicious it was. A large was only a couple dollars more than a regular but the large was ... probably 10 inches long. It was soooo good. Just lobster, mayo, and herbs on a toasted, buttered split hot dog bun. So good.

To finish off my last night in Boston, we went to Tuk Tuk. I tried penang, which the owner told me would be more grown-up than my normal massaman. It was good. And look, I grew up!