Eating in Boston

I lived in Boston for a while and often asked to give restaurant advice to visitors. The following email went to a couple (friends of friends) in Boston for the weekend and staying near the Theater District. Now it is on the web for future reference:

I have been out of the loop for 9 months or so on the boston restaurant scene, but a couple of thoughts:

If they want to wander down to the south end, we always liked:

-The Butcher Shop which is a great wine bar with good food. It is next door to their oyster bar: B&G Oysters. Be prepared to wait if you want a table, but that’s ok cause you can drink wine and eat olives while you do.

-Given what I understand about the weather down there right now, the Hamersley’s patio would be a fantastic place to have dinner. Hamersley’s is a French bistro in the south end on Tremont street that has a really nice patio out front. In the evening it’s lit up with lights and is a really nice place to sit. They are known for their roast chicken. I have found the fish to be generally excellent there. It’s a little pricey. It's also across the street from the butchershop.

-Sage is a good, relatively low key Italian on Washington St.

Downtown and waterfront:

-Neptune is a downtown oyster bar that I have not been too but has gotten great reviews

-Sel de la Terre is a great place to get Sunday brunch (waterfront, not the new location in the Mandarin on Boylston

-the Barking Crab is a boston institution for fried clams, lobster, beer and general slobbery. Its cheap and fun. Big after work scene on fridays

Back bay:

-Casa Romero is a great Mexican place with a romantic patio. It’s a little tricky to find and you will definitely need a reservation to sit outside, but its good and not outrageously expensive.

Not so near where they are staying, the bar at the Liberty Hotel (called Clink) has a patio that will probably be mobbed. Place is upscale and fun. Will be a little scene-y (for boston at least), but would be fun for a couple of drinks.

Wild Card: there is a bar/restaurant called Jacob Wirth on Stuart Street not far from the hotel. Its weird, but sort of an institution. They have a great selection of beer on tap and there is frequently a guy playing piano and leading sing-alongs (I am not making this up). My recollection is that the burgers are pretty good too. Walk by, stick your head in and judge for yourself.

If they are looking for steaks or some kind of over the top dinner one night, let me know and I can make some other suggestions. Good luck

How to eat hot sauce

Umbrian Fish Soup

I have made this twice now, both times faithfully to the Epicurious recipe. On its own, it's not very exciting, but it turns out to be a really great way to eat hot sauce. So far I have used: Thai Chili Sauce (Sriracha), Outerbridge's Sherry Rum Pepper Sauce and Glady's Cafe Hot Sauce (from St. Thomas, I could not find an online retailer to link to). All were excellent. It also freezes well.

Link the soup recipe: here

Surf'n'Turf

Surf' n' Turf

'nuf said.

It's Friday...

Diabolique, Soda and Orange Juice

This is hardly new, but it is still one of my favorite cocktails. Diabolique is small batch spice infused bourbon from Boston. It's fantastic with some soda water, a splash of OJ and a lime.

Bourbon BBQ Pork Chop

Coffee rubbed pork chop with bourbon bbq sauce and grilled sweet potatoes.

A couple of weeks ago the snow on my deck finally melted and I was able to use my grill for the first time. I went down to Atwater Market and asked the butcher to make up a double cut pork chop for me. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite sides with pork. In this case I simply tossed a few slices on the grill next to the chop.

Cover the chop in rub and let sit. Grill covered over direct heat ~7 minutes on first side, then flip and grill ~6 minutes before adding the first layer of sauce. Coat the chop in a modest layer of sauce, cover the grill for 1 minute or so, flip and repeat several times until the chop is cooked and you have covered it with several layers of sauce. The general point here, is that the sugar in the sauce should caramelize on the chop to form a kind of glaze. If you put the sauce on at the start when the fire is hot it will just burn and if you don't give it time to caramelize at the end it will be "goopy".

Both the rub and sauce are Steven Raichlen's. His "How to Grill" is a very usefull resource for the basics of BBQ sauce and rub. It also contains a lot of information and instruction on fire-prep for charcoal grills and smokers which can be hard to find.

Rub (from "How to Grill"):
6T ground coffee
2T course salt
2T brown sugar
2T sweet paprika
2t ground black pepper
2t garlic powder
2t onion powder
1t ground cumin
1t ground coriander
1t unsweetened cocoa powder
-Mix ingredients in a bowl with your fingers.

Sauce (Bon Appetit via Epicirious):
2 cups ketchup*
1/2 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1/3 cup bourbon (I used Jack)
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
-Combine ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer over med-low for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Let cool. Save the extra for later in the season.
*The fancy market I was in only had Stonewall Kitchens' Country Ketchup. One jar was just shy of a 2 cups and it worked really well.