Did Somebody Say Arepas?

Just a quickie on some truly awesome taste sensations that found their way into my mouth last weekend while we were in NYC.

Cheese Dusted Sweet Fried Plantains

Our friend Marion was insistent that we get dinner at Caracas Arepa Bar in Brooklyn cause I guess she's a big fan of the other location in the city and wanted to try the new outpost, and of course I never argue with someone who wants to force some meat filled corn pockets on me. Man this place rocks. Everything we had was really phenomenal and would have only been better if accompanied by beer.

Empanada

An arepa is a Venezuelan delicacy made of corn-flour and resembling a pupusa in many ways. They are small and round and come stuffed with a delicious assortment of vegetables, meats and cheeses or can be eaten plain. They are sliced down the middle, almost like a pita pocket so the fillings can be added and the result is a savory, little snack that's filling enough to serve as a meal. Corn-flour gives arepas a nice gritty texture and hearty flavor that makes them taste particularly wholesome.

Chicken & Chorizo Arepa

My chicken, chorizo, avocado and chimi-churri number was bursting with meaty, juicy goodness and our starters of empanadas (including de cazon - small Caribbean shark) and fried plantains sprinkled with cheese rounded out the meal so that one arepa was plenty.

This Might Be the Same Thing...

It was an awesome and cost effective meal at around $20 for more than enough food and variety. Check it out if you're in the area... but drink a few beers before you go.

The Scene at the Show

I should probably add that we were in town for a show that Dana and Kenji had a piece in at the Artbreak Gallery in Williamsburg (The Great Out Doors) so before we went to the gallery we stopped at a bar that was having a happy hour special. That's right folks... two for one drink specials. What's wrong with this puritanical city that we can't lure people into bars with free booze? It makes those special afternoon stops at your local watering hole feel like vacation! Don't we all deserve a little vacation??? Boston is so backwards in some ways.

Dana & Kenji's Piece

Anyway, I had a gimlet as I have been known to do and got a round of T.C.'s for the group but switched after my first drink cause that bubbly and refreshing mix of gin, lime and sugar is so hard to pass up... hello summer.

Obligatory Gimlet Shot

A Handsome Crowd at Artbreak Gallery

Another very NY phenomenon is the french fry option with breakfast. I like this alternative and don't know why more people don't offer it. As a matter of course, a lot of restaurants will ask if you want to sub your home fries for french fries and in my opinion - why the hell wouldn't you???

We ate breakfast so late on Sunday that only a cheeseburger and Guniness would do... for strength of course. It was pretty delicious.

Breakfast Burger

Kenji's Eggs Bene w/ FRIES!!!

Anyway... I always like visiting NYC. We get to see so many people in a short amount of time and it's fun to run around and stay up until dawn but I am always so happy to see the Boston skyline as we cruise through the Allston/Brighton tolls on the Mass Pike. It's like coming home... oh wait, it is coming home. And I'm gettin too old to stay up till dawn. I end up needing to sleep till 6pm which starts a viscous and confusing sleep cycle.

Amsterdam Part 2: Things I Ate, Stuff I Bought and The Occasional Beverage I Consumed

Well, it's been a few weeks and I know I've been a very bad blogger. I was busy livin it up during my last week of freedom and gettin back on the wagon. That's right folks... I got a j-o-b. I'm pretty happy about it all things considered. It's a job I think I will like a lot, find interesting, challenging and that should be a good fit for my introverted and timid personality.

I am a little sad that there will be no more marathon sessions of watching reruns of No Reservations or anything on the Travel Channel for that matter (have you seen Dhani Tackles the Globe??? YUMMMM) and I am seriously contemplating setting the DVR to record Ellen so I can watch it at night but Dana has expressly forbidden me from doing so.

There's a big debate going on about whether or not I will keep up with all the blathering, I mean blogging now that I'm a working girl once again and my response to all you doubters is... don't be so quick to judge just because I abandon every other project the moment I get way too wrapped up in my career aspirations. This time will be different! But seriously... it's not like I'm gonna stop eating so as long as I can carve out a little time to post flicks we should be good. Maybe the result will be much shorter posts and everyone will win!

Anyway, I wanted to get part two of the Amsterdam post up lest I rob anyone of some perfectly amazing photos of food and drink. If you haven't read part one, I highly recommend it (photos of cute kitty) but then again, I'm a little biased.

In case you're wondering about that sandwich up at the top, I'm not going to talk much about it but it did photograph well. It looks better than it tasted. They were trying to do too much with it and the bread was a bit hard. When these people put cheese on something they go all the way so it had about a 4 ounces of goat cheese, walnuts, roasted eggplant, eggs, olives, plus all the stuff you can identify. Good in theory, a little hectic in practice.

So without further verbal amuse bouche - on with the show!

Day 1. A Proper Dutch Breakfast.

I arrived at around 7:30 AM on a Wednesday and by the time I got to Amsterdam Central, Dana had already left for work so I dropped off my bags (I slept the whole way from Boston and was pretty well rested) brushed my teeth and went looking for nourishment. I ended up grabbing a Dutch breakfast in the heavily touristy area just off the Damrak and reading a book for a while with this furry little guy... You know they'd have the board of health shuttering this place in minutes in the U.S.

Dutch Kitty Cat

Most Memorable Meal Award

Our first dinner in Amsterdam was by far the most memorable. We ate at a cozy little place on a canal in the Jordaan called Proeverij 274 Restaurant that served really great "continental cuisine" (i.e. anything not indigenous) with a focus on fresh ingredients, delectable cuts of beef (they seemed to only serve wagyu) and creative seafood preparations.

Many Forms of Flickering Light

We really lucked out because we just stumbled upon this place and ended up having an incredible meal. Proeverij, I learned, is the the Dutch word for "tasting" and this lovely little restaurant didn't disappoint. We started out with a thick potato soup which we shared and then moved on to the main event.

I had an AMAZING codfish fillet served with mussels and wagyucetta (basically a thin sliced wagyu almost like prosciutto) in a white bean and tomato stew. I can't describe how good this dish was. It was simple but really hearty without being heavy. I make a Brazilian inspired fish stew with cod, coconut milk, scallions, tomatoes and cilantro and it's simillarly wholesome in that it stands on it's own without a lot of spices. Just the commingling of ingredients is a taste explosion.

Fish Stew Bonanza

Dana went for the straight up wagyu fillet with some kind of potato cake which I didn't photograph until he had eaten most of it. I probably gross people out with these pictures of half eaten meals... I'll try to stop doing that.

Dana's Wagyu Fillet

Creature of Bad Habits

As I have mentioned before, I tend to find places I like and quickly become a regular. This was the case with the great little cafe on the corner outside the hotel where I ate breakfast (if that's what you call your first meal of the day even if it's at 2PM) pretty much every day. I snapped the gloomy photo below on my way to the airport when it was raining but it's a bright, sunny little spot that serves breakfast all day, a wide variety of delicious sandwiches and croissants, amazing coffee and Dutch pancakes.

My Favorite Breakfast Spot

I did my best to sample everything on the menu which included things like a fried egg sandwich served on french bread with cheese and lots of mayo. Very healthy and quite yummy. The first morning I woke up in Amsterdam, it wasn't morning at all. I somehow slept until 1PM even though we were in bed by 12:30 after going out in Leidesplein to the Alto Jazz Cafe to see some music.

It was a very tame night so I don't know why I was so sleepy but I decided to go for the spicy chicken sandwich for breakfast and I wasn't disappointed. Rather than a grilled chicken breast, it was shaved chicken with a spicy sauce, grilled tomato and cheese on a delicious baguette.

Spicy Chicken - It's What's For Breakfast

I won't recount all the other great stuff I ate there but I will post some photos. I severely miss the enormous cup of coffee with steamed milk I came to depend on each morning and the leisurely way I was able to enjoy it but I guess that's life. It can't be spicy chicken sandwiches and giant cups of amazing coffee all the time... unless you're Anthony Bourdain. I know I have an unhealthy fixation. I'm just really envious.

Egg Sandwich on Croissant

Scrambled Eggs on Toast with Cheese & Ham

Cafe Addict

If I spent my mornings eating baguettes stuffed with eggs and cheese and consuming gallons of coffee, I spent my afternoons drinking Dommelsch, snacking on pea soup and rye and reading on the terrace at the Cafe Luxembourg while watching the pedestrian traffic from within the cozy glass bubble. I spent an awful lot of time here and really appreciate the quintessential European tradition that is the grand cafe. A place where you can sit for hours, drink coffee and people watch.

It was still chilly in early March so I would usually get a coffee when I first sat down and move on to the hard stuff later. I really couldn't get enough of the nice strong coffee that is served everywhere.

First Course

Normally I would stay long enough that I'd get a beer or two and in the Netherlands, this means a Dutch pour. They primarily pour shorties which are filled over the rim and then leveled with a spatula type utensil so that the top inch or two is comprised of foam.

Proper Dutch Pour

If I got hungry, I would snack on some soup or a sweet and on the Sunday afternoon that Dana and I spent an hour lingering over our beers, we sampled a local treat of bitterballen. Snert is a very thick split-pea soup that includes sausage and is served with roggebrood (rye bread) and pork. Bitterballen is a yummy little meat-based snack that's made of chopped beef, beef broth, flour and butter, parsley, salt and pepper and then battered in a breadcrumb, milk and egg mixture and deep-fried. They're served with mustard for dipping and are a great bar snack.

Erwtensoep or "Snert"

Bitterballen

Snack Attack

As I have said, I did a lot of walking or cycling around on my own and would occasionally stop for a snack, less because I was hungry and more just to kill some time. I sampled local cheeses, tried the various beers brewed in Holland and Belgium and had some lovely indigenous chocolate, but my trip wouldn't have been complete without a stop for some Vlammase Frittes.

There are lots of stands and take away shops that exclusively serve french fries, the primary condiment being mayonnaise. I like to mix ketchup and mayo but this stand also had curry which was hard to pass up. Frittes are a staple in The Netherlands and it's hard to find a place that doesn't serve them which is alright by me. I remember when I took the photo below the fritte stand guy thought I was seriously deranged... like, this poor girl on holiday alone is so pathetic she's taking photos of her fries.

Cone of Frittes

Fritte Stand Options

Good Old Fashioned Cocktails

The weekend Dana and I had together was really nice because we spent the time liesurely cycling around, shopping and stopping for drinks. He took me to a place his coworkers had taken him and it was just my kind of spot. An old fashioned cocktail bar called Harry's where the barmen are dressed in crisp white jackets and have on hand the fresh ingredients to mix just about any kind of cocktail. It was lovely. I had a fresh lime gimlet (which is making it ever more difficult for me to drink one with Rose's) followed by a bellini. When you're in Amsterdam and get sick of light tasting beers and fruity Belgian's... go to Harry's.

Obligatory Gimlet Shot

Saftey First - Continental Dining Abroad

Sometimes when travelling in Europe to places that aren't Spain, Italy, Portugal or France, you might be tempted to opt for Continental cuisine if you haven't had a lot of experience with the local fare. I mean, there aren't a whole lot of Dutch dining options in the U.S. and in all fairness this isn't stuff you'd want to eat every day. Lots of mashed veggies, sausage and other hearty but somewhat bland options.

However, there are also an abundance of great Thai, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Indian options in most Western European cities that influence the choice to select one of these cuisines and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. We were staying right along the Prins Hendrikkade which is a veritable culinary melting pot with a million different cultures represented. It's also a pretty little area with shops and bars and it was nice to stroll down the street and decide what kind of food we wanted. We chose The Little Thai Prince one night and a Malaysian Restaurant on our last night there. Both meals were very good but I'm a sucker for these cuisines. Just add curry or coconut milk and I'm happy. We also had a great Italian meal at Casa Di David that was a pleasant surprise.

Thai Chicken Cooked in Banana Leaves

The Remants of Pad Thai & a Spicy Chicken Dish

Malaysian Chicken Rendang

Chicken Masaman Curry

Fried Bananas w/ Coconut Ice Cream

Italian Bread - Tapanade/Bruschetta & Valpolicella

Hot Caprese w/ Roasted Egglpant

Remainder of a Very Good Osso Buco w/ Polenta & Dana's Spaghetti Carbonara

Cool Food Hoisting Pulley

Eat, Drink, Party - Don't Ever Leave the Building

On Saturday evening we were invited out to dinner with a collegue of Dana's from Converse, a lovely British girl who is living in Amsterdam and a large group of her ex-pat friends who were from all over. We rode our bikes a ways outside central Amsterdam to meet them at a bar and then went to a dinner club called Canvas. It was one of these places where you have dinner and then at around 10:00 they pull up all the tables and it seamlessly turns into a nightclub.

The Scene During Dinner

They were a very nice group of people from the U.K., Australia, other parts of the Netherlands and beyond and we had a good time eating, drinking and being merry... merry enough that riding the few miles back to the hotel at 3:30 in the morning was a little scary.

A Pre-Meal High Five

We had a pre-fixe menu because our party was so large and it was entirely in Dutch which proved to be pretty funny. The guy sitting across from us while dedicated to learning Dutch, had not mastered the language so there was some guess work in translating the menu. Everyone concluded the main ingredient in what I ordered was pumpkin but I'm quite sure there was no pumpkin in it.

A Salad With Smoked Chicken & Pesto

Salad With Goat Cheese & Pine Nuts

Dana's Beef Filet

A Sea Bass - I Think

My Mystery Meal - Spinach, Pastry, Cheese, Pesto - No Pumpkin

It was a fun night but like most European nightclubs, the music was all electronic which these days I have a hard time getting into. We stayed pretty late nonetheless and really liked everyone we met including a hysterical girl from New Zealand I couldn't help but grill about Flight of the Choncords.

Shop Till You Run Outta Cash!

There is some GREAT shopping in Amsterdam and I was happy to have the time to explore the shops and find some really great independently owned stores and boutiques. There are great second hand and vintage stores where you can find high end labels and classic pieces in good shape for cheap. I bought three vintage handbags, one from the 50's in absolute mint condition and two clutches from a bit later but also in great shape.

I also bought a great pair of shoes (below) made by United Nude which was started by Dutch architect Rem D Koolhaas and shoe manufacturer Galahad Clark. They are made out of the same stuff as Crocs I think so they're very light and comfortable which I appreciate now that I have to navigate the cobble-y walkways in Fanueil Hall every day.

The Mono Jane

Another cool purchase was a very special pair of denim from Denham, a custom jeanmaker. They make some standard styles in a few different washes - I got the waister - but they will also custom make you a pair and you can pick the wash, the hardware, etc. It's like getting a suit tailored only they're jeans. I might do this when I get back to Amsterdam because it's a worthwhile investment. The standard issue jeans are also an investment at over $200 a pop but they fit great and the denim is super soft. Dana got a raw denim which isn't so soft but that's his jam.

You should check out the blog which has photos of the shop because it's very cool. The retail space is very clean and the way they merchandise is really special. There were a few shops that did a great job merchandising. I also liked 290 Square Meters which is more of an urban clothing and footware retailer that carries both men's and women's lines. Concrete which was sort of the same deal and carried the Maharishi women's line which I had never seen before. And Droog a Dutch housewares and high end concept store/gallery that has other outposts but the Amsterdam location is its flagship and the space is extra cool.

By and large, shopping in Amsterdam is a great experience. Lots of independent retailers, lots of cool concept stores, plenty of creative Dutch and Nordic housewares. The exchange rate doesn't exactly work in our favor but you can find special things that will last are worth the investment.

Last Week of Freedom

Well... I did live it up quite a bit during my last week of unemployment (Southie St. Patty's Day parade, Celtics game in the Converse box, dinner at Hammersley's, drinks at Beacon Street, etc.) so I'll get that post up soon and I still owe the world some photos of an awesome pupuseria and a superb dumpling house in Chinatown. I'll get on that at some point. I know, I know. You'll believe it when you see it.

Dim Sum Roundup! Living Like a Bachelor or How to Gain Five Pounds in a Week

"What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. ... I certainly do not deny that I still recognize an imperative of knowledge and that through it one can work upon men, but it must be taken up into my life, and that is what I now recognize as the most important thing."

—Søren Kierkegaard, Letter to Peter Wilhelm Lund, August 31, 1835

Man... those European existentialists were heady guys. I think I have figured out the answer to this question for myself of course, because I believe one can only deal with the whole crisis of human existence for ones' self. I think God really wishes me to be inspired by the things I see and find pleasure in the things I eat. Therefore, it is my mission to always seek out new and interesting things, experience different cultures, imbibe freely and taste heartily.

I have clearly been watching too much Anthony Bourdain lately and wish I could somehow rig a Freaky Friday (the original with Jodie Foster not the new one with what's her name) life swap with the guy. Anyway, if Nietzsche or Heidegger didn't think traveling around, seeing new sights and eating yummy food doesn't give life plenty of meaning, they were born in the wrong century or didn't appreciate the fine art of consumption enough.

Maceo Has Made a Bed on My Desk

Dana just spent roughly three weeks in Amsterdam working in Hilversum and before I went over to meet him for a brief but delicious tryst in one of my favorite old European cities, I spent a week living like a bachelor and eating all my meals out. At the time, I was also reading three books concurrently and aggressively interviewing for jobs so I found myself out in the city quite a bit, looking for places to kill an hour or two and knock off a few chapters.

While I'm at it, I will highly recommend The Radical Leap by Steve Farber who turns a lesson in leadership into parable and makes business books fun! As well as Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl which I have sadly just read was optioned by a major movie studio. Boo. It's a fun read (maybe a tad over stylized) that channels many great works of the Western Cannon and keeps you up late with an underlying whodunit. I also started reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie but then I broke down and bought the new T.C. Boyle book, The Women about the many sorted and tumultuous love affairs of Frank Lloyd Wright as told through a Japanese protagonist who goes to apprentice with the legendary architect and philanderer in the 1930's.

I really couldn't resist. The idea that I would wait the year until this book came out in paperback was preposterous because Boyle is my favorite and every time I passed a book store it was as if the novel was mocking me and making a joke of my masochistic exercise in self control. I'll spend $200 on a pair of jeans but I want to wait a year so I don't have to pay $28 for a hardcover book? The hardcover thing is a slight deterrent. They just don't travel as well. I immediately started consuming this book, swallowing chapters in big gulps like downing a raspberry smoothie.

Gettin' Comfortable

Boyle has perfected a genre I'll call the fictional biography. There may be an actual literary term but I don't know what it is. He constructs these vivid portraits of real people and introduces fictional characters to interact with his subject matter, whose perspective the story is told through. Of course there is fictional dialogue and many embellished facts but the result is always a facinating portrait of a truly memorable historical figure.

He did this with Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle or a little differently with John Harvey Kellogg in The Road to Wellville. The latter was also a movie starring Mathew Broderick, Bridget Fonda, John Cusack and Anthony Hopkins as the aforementioned Dr. Kellogg, a health pedalling fanatic who claims to be able to cure all that ails you at his sanatorium in Michigan with a steady diet of corn flakes, colonics, strange laughing exercises and cold naps.

Lord have mercy. I am totally off topic and I haven't event started yet. Quickly then, on with the food. This will be quick, lots of pretty pictures and snappy little comments. Nothing too cerebral. I'm not joking when I say I gained five pounds in a week. Okay, it was more like 3.5 pounds in 10 days but still!

EXHIBIT 1: 303 Cafe; A Good Place to Read

So this is my neighborhood spot. It's right up the street, does a nice breakfast/brunch, as well as lunch and dinner and has a limited but fairly inventive beer and wine menu. This place does simple fare best. For breakfast, it's Eggs Benedict all the way, which I had already devoured when I took this photo. This was the day after Dana left. Notice my two books. I do that so people will think I'm wicked smaht and so they won't try to strike up a conversation with me. What you see here is the remnants of my mimosa and coffee. We like 303 but they sometimes over complicate their dinner dishes and their sandwiches are a bit heavy. I also always leave there smelling like food.

EXHIBIT 2: Ole - Inman Square; Later That Same Day

On that rainy Sunday night, Christie was still in town after the wedding reunion extravaganza at Enormous Room so we saw a movie (I will not admit which one in a public forum) with our friend Michelle and then went to Ole in Inman Square for some Mexican. I like this place. They do classic Mexican dishes very well and some more interesting/authentic stuff as well but I always feel a little bad shelling out $18 for an entree when I can get great Mexican in my neighborhood for like five bucks. More on that later. There are two meals from this week of gluttonous debauchery which I will save for its very own showcase and one is a Salvadorean/Mex joint in my hood.

Mole, Mole, Mole, I've got Love in My Tummy!

They do this giant guacamole made to order in a molcajete right at the front of the restaurant. It's good... I'd like a little more cilantro and a little less lime. On this particular evening I was famished having eaten nothing but my eggs bene and some popcorn which I brought from home in an effort to not eat the fake butter laden stuff at the theater, so I went with the braised pork enchiladas mole (poblano).

Put mole on anything and I'm happy. That blissful comingling of cacao, ground nuts and sprices makes me drool even when it's not prepared well. I guess I just like drowning my meat in chocolate. You can get their enchiladas with chicken or vegetarian and with ranchera sauce instead of mole... but why would you??? That's the one thing about the "Mexican" places in East Boston. INo one in East Boston is really from Mexico so these places are really Colombian or Salvadorean and serve versions of Mexican favorites, but none of them do any kind of mole... not a rojo or verde, but it's the chocolatey poblano that makes me salivate.

EXHIBIT 3: Old Man Bar; Another Good Place to Read

This is kind of funny and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it but I love old man bars. Places with a lot of wood panelling, bottles of scotch and guys wearing trench coats, rubber shoes and fedoras. I have become quite fond of The Last Hurrah which is the bar at the Omni Parker House on Tremont. This place is super stodgy in a really nice, old Brahmin kind of way. You can almost feel the ghost of a Cabot floating around.

I spent an afternoon there reading my many books, enjoying a properly constructed vodka gimlet and gorging myself on their trademark bar snack - WARM MIXED NUTS!!!! It's pretty much the best thing ever and makes you never want to eat a boring ole room temperature nut again. They serve the good mix too with macadamias and Brazil nuts and they must have some kinda little warming machine behind the bar cause these puppies come out all toasty and delicious. Maybe it's just a microwave but I like to imagine a special, old man bar nut warming device. Hmmmm. Best of all (well, the nuts are the best part) they bring your business out on a little silver tray like you're Heloise at the Plaza!

EXHIBIT 4: Melted Cheese Skillet at Beacon Street Tavern

I'll admit it. I'm a creature of habit. I find places I like and I return again and again. Beacon Street Tavern is one of those places but I will say that my last few meals there haven't been as spectacular as previous delectable encounters with this establishment. They still mix a nice cocktail and the food is still good but I have noticed a slight decline. Certain dishes seem overly greasy, seasoned or heavy. Maybe I'm just being fussy. I hope it will go back to normal because this is just a great spot. It's a wonderful room with good, solid food at decent prices.

I was there with two girlfriends so we split the cheese skillet - baked brie with caramelized onions, granny smith apples, toasted hazelnuts and served with grilled ciabatta. Of course they never give you enough bread to dip in there, but are happy to supply more if you just ask. This is a highly addictive little starter but not on the level of the Gouda skillet the B-Side used to serve. That was the bomb. I won't talk about it though because it just makes me sad.

Looks Can be Deceiving

I had the confit chicken sandwich - Gruyere cheese, baby spinach, slow roasted tomatoes, and honey dijon aioli with some sweet potato fries which ended up being the highlight of my meal. This dish photographs beautifully but was too heavy, greasy and fell apart when you picked it up. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't that good. Not like the fish taquitos Beacon Street used to have on the menu that were superb! I think those should be a constant...

Something Devilish Done to Brussels Sprouts

We also shared some brussels sprouts that were quite good. Shredded and sauteed and seasoned nicely. Just enough savouriness to balance out the bitterness of the brussel sprouts. At the end of this fat laden meal, we indulged in a decadent slice of tres leches cake that was insanely sweet but that's just the nature of the dish so I won't complain too much.

Tres Leches Will Make Your Teeth Fall Out

This dish combines heavy cream, milk, condensed milk, oil, a lot of eggs... plus the stuff you need to make a cake - flour and whatnot. The result is a belly bomb. This could have put 3 pounds on me alone.

EXHIBIT 5: Sushi with the Faux Asian Kid at Douzo

So, I always enjoy getting some sushi with Kenji... mainly because he knows nothing about Japanese cuisine which I find endlessly entertaining. I think he must be in the witness protection program or something cause no one can grow up in Japan and know less about sushi than this kid. He likes tuna and salmon. That's all he knows. Anyway, Douzo, like Beacon Street Tavern is a mainstay and a place I frequent regularly.

If I want something on the budget end, I head to Snappy Sushi on Newbury or Ginza in Chinatown (even the sushi cooler at Whole Foods is a good choice) but if I don't mind dropping a little dough, Douzo is the way to go. I have tried them all. Oishii (overpriced and overdone); Haru (it's a chain not worth the prices); Fugakyu (love it but a little gimicky and always a mob scene); O Sushi (like it but there's always a wait and Douzo is better)... I have not yet been to O Ya and am planning this as my birthday meal. I will report back on my findings.

There are a million places one can get sushi in this fair city but if you want the somewhat upscale experience combined with truly top notch sushi, I like Douzo. It's solid. Always fresh, consistent, and they have a great variety of dishes if you want something beyond sushi. We had my favorite starter - sashimi naruto - tuna, yellowtail and salmon rolled in cucumber, and then this AMAZING miso yaki - sea bass with a sweet miso sauce.

Sashimi Naruto - Even Kenji Likes It!

We then had a bunch of amazing maki and some king crab sushi which I just can't resist when it's available. Of special note is the snow mountain - shrimp tempura topped with lots of snow crab and the dragon roll - sweet potato tempura wrapped with eel and some unagi. Love that one. Kenji likes things that taste like Big Macs so we got a volcano roll which is basically like a California roll, toasted with spicy mayo - it's the one on the right and it even looks like fast food.

Big Mac Sushi on the Right

This was a nice meal and Kenji refused to let me pay which was totally absurd so I owe him many shabu-shabu meals at my house. Kenji does shabu like no one else and I can always count on him to polish off those last pieces of beef and bok choy.

EXHIBIT 6: Me & Sam Adams Enjoying a Beer

This was a tasting night at the Sam Adams brewery in JP. If you're a friend of the brewery, you get alerted to these events and if you RSVP within minutes, you get on the list which gets you three samples and something to eat. On this night it was a rather soggy but quite large pretzel. Thank god I had a salad at Cambridge One before we went.

They were showing off their Imperial Series so you could try any of the three beers in this holy trinity. My mother would be horrified if she knew I was talking about beer like that. I had the stout and the double bock and they were exactly what you'd think - really strong!

Artistic Inspiration at Sam Adams

I also had a red ale which they had on tap and is being sold exclusively at a few Boston area bars... places I would never go so I'm glad I tried it. It was good but after having two out of the bottle, one off the tap was nice and probably made it taste better than it really did.

The Crew - Chillin in the Brewery

Cora (far left) gave me her last ticket so I got to sneak one more beer and I'm so glad I did cause it was a special treat. One of the rooms had a few bottles of the Chocolate Bock. Wow. This stuff is liquid dessert. It's really quite amazing though you couldn't do more than a pint and even that seems extreme.

There are two amazing meals missing from my week long binge but they will get their own post on budget dining. Shortly after all this gorging I did a short fast because I felt pretty gross. I was leaving for Amsterdam and didn't want to go over there all full of food and not be able to adequately sample the local fare so I took three days off and ate nothing but fruits and veggies. I was feeling good as new by the time I got to Holland and ready to put back some delicious cheeses, heavy soups and a few beers.

But as I'm sure you're done reading or stopped long ago, I'll pick that up later.