Eating Guide to Boston's Neighborhoods - Part I

Boston has some phenomenal restaurants spread out all over the city and western suburbs with so many of them concentrated in the city's unique neighborhoods. Come with me on this multi-part eating guide to some of Boston's many neighborhoods then follow me west as I visit the 'burbs.

Part I - The South End
Boston's South End is a diverse neighborhood populated with its fair share of young professionals and an active gay and lesbian community. There are many art studios, dog parks and plenty of fantastic restaurants to keep you busy for a long time. Here are some of my favorites:

Tremont 647: Executive Chef/Owner Andy Husbands "serves up boldly flavored American cuisine, with inventive global influences." Chef Husbands believes in supporting local producers and purveyors and changes his menu every two months to keep up with whats freshest at the moment. When you go, try the Momos and the Banana Leaf Wrapped Halibut, two of Chef's signature dishes. Note that the banana leaf wrapped fish sometimes changes, I've had it with Chilean Seabass before, and it's always delicious.

If you really want to treat yourself, make a reservation for the chef's table and get the chef's tasting, you will not be disappointed! The chef's table is actually two seats positioned at the end of the open kitchen, right next to the grill station. Go for the wine pairing as well and have a good time. Go hungry, and take a cab. Parking can sometimes be a problem.

Tremont 647
647 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02118
Ph: 617-266-4600

Franklin Cafe: Executive Chef David Dubois has created a modern American menu that can stand up with the best of them. What I love about the Franklin Cafe is that its comfortable. When I go there I feel all warm and cozy sitting in the high back booths, enjoying a glass of wine from their limited but well thought out wine list, and a perfectly prepared dinner, whether its the olive crusted local cod, the bone-in filet or the miso grilled salmon. The menu changes frequently so pick something that sounds good and it will be. The Franklin Cafe has been growing in popularity over the years and they don't take reservations. Go early or be prepared to wait. Parking in this neighborhood can be difficult since most of the spots are Resident Only, see their web site for some tips. One more thing, they are open late serving dinner until 1:30am, the bar is open until 2am.

Franklin Cafe
278 Shawmut Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
Ph: 617-350-0010

Red Fez: Specializing in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, this is a great place to go with friends. The menu is divided into three parts, mezze (appetizers, or small plates,) salads, and entrées. The hummus and baba ghanoush at the Red Fez are great for starting things off. Don't miss the roasted beet salad with goat cheese and arugula either. Try the sheefa or the mussels for some hot mezze and you can't go wrong with anything lamb here, they know how to cook it well. There is a large bar with lots of TVs, usually showing local sports, and parking is a breeze with a large lot right behind the restaurant.

Red Fez
1222 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02118
Ph: 617-338-6060

Masa: Take a trip to the Yucatan without ever leaving Boston. Chef Philip Avilies is right on with this Southwestern, Tex-Mex establishment. With over seventy, yes seventy kinds of tequila and salsa dancing and lessons every Thursday night, it's actually not all about the food here. Although it could be. Start with the Mixto Ceviche or the Spicy Ahi Tuna Cabo Rolls and indulge in the roasted salmon with chipotle and horseradish crust or the southwestern style steak frite with chile dusted fries, chile lime arugula salad and Guajillo bourbon sauce. With all the tequila they have in house, they also make a fantastic margarita. Visit for brunch if your in the mood for a lazy southwest Sunday morning. Reservations are recommended.

Masa
439 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116
Ph: 617-338-8884

Some other places I've been to that you should check out:
28 Degrees One Appleton St Boston, MA Ph: 617-728-0728
B&G Oysters 550 Tremont St Boston, MA Ph: 617-423-0550
The Butcher Shop 552 Tremont St Boston, MA Ph: 617-423-4800
The Dish 253 Shawmut Ave Boston, MA Ph: 617-426-7866

And some places that I still want to try:
Bob's Southern Bistro
Mistral
Pho Republique
Toro

Coming soon... Part II - The North End

Neptune Oyster - Worth the Wait

Anyone who knows Boston knows that that North End, Boston's Italian neighborhood, is notorious for it's narrow streets, lack of parking, and great restaurants. The previous two attempts that J and I made to go to Neptune Oyster in Boston's North End ended in dizzying frustration from driving around the block looking for parking, and empty stomachs. Earlier this month we made our third attempt to get to the restaurant. The third time is the charm as some say. As soon as we pulled out of the Tip O'Neill tunnel, thank you Big Dig, and onto Hanover Street, we scored a parking spot before reaching the end of the first block. Finally, a parking spot in the North End; we were going to Neptune Oyster.


The restaurant is tiny and there really isn't much of a waiting area. When J and I got there, the place was packed. No room for us inside the door so we stood outside and waited.

The restaurant is longer than it is wide with an L-shaped booth-like bench stretching along the entire left side of the space and half of the back wall. Several tables were jammed together in front of the bench with chairs on the other side. With seating for twenty-six at the tables and another ten at the bar, which ran along the right side of the restaurant, this place might be considered large by some North End standards. The very front of the restaurant, just inside the etched glass window fronting the sidewalk, was the raw bar where J and I watched the show. Rows and rows of shellfish, and a woman shucking oysters like she was pouring water into a glass. Smooth, effortless, perfect.

After about ten minutes outside and another twenty minutes inside, we sat down at a table. J and I started our night off with two glasses of NV Borgo Magredo Prosecco and a dozen oysters. Four Wellfleet, medium sized, salty, and sweet; four kumomoto, small, sweet, plump, and creamy with hints of cucumber; and four Fanny Bay, medium sized, plump, low salt, sweet, and buttery with a melon finish. Neptune Oyster has a dozen different oysters to choose from as well as littlenecks, cherrystones, and shrimp cocktail braised in Harpoon beer.


Moving on to course two, we shared Neptune's Bottarga Salad. Bottarga is cured fish roe and is delicious. This salad was fantastic with Boston lettuce, red grapes, fennel, caramel onions, white anchovy, grape seed oil and a Parmesan dressing.



With dinner we drank a bottle of Carpe Diem Chardonnay from the Firepeak vineyard in Edna Valley, California. J ordered Neptune's Gloucester Cod Loin served with stewed tri peppers, oregano, mustard, freshly grated horseradish and a grapefruit vinaigrette. The plate was garnished with supremes of grapefruit.


I ordered the Fillet of Salmon with a sauté of crispy duck, pea tendrils, avocado, ginger and soy. Both of our entrees were truly spectacular, but J's cod loin dish may very well be the best dish of the year. The cod was cooked to perfection and the spicy horseradish was balanced so well by the sweet, tart grapefruit, the mustard and the oregano. The cod dish was definitely the star of the meal.


Now for the best part of the evening. We return to the car to find a carefully placed PARKING TICKET on the windshield! Sometime between the last time I was in the North End and last Friday night, Hanover Street converted all the on-street parking to Residents Only after 8pm.


Oh well. Neptune Oyster is awesome and worth a parking ticket. I'll make sure not to park on Hanover Street the next time I go.

A Milestone - Who Are You?

Today, at 1:04pm EST, One Food Guy had it's 2,000th visit. In honor of this milestone, please leave me a comment and let me know:

1. Who you are
2. Where you live
3. How you found my site
4. What you like, or dislike about my site and what you'd like to see in the future
5. Your favorite foods.
   

And remember, I'm just one food guy, thanks for reading!

Tuesday's Tasting - Seasoned Mahi Mahi Fillets

Tuesday's Tasting is back in a big way this week. I know I've been busy and slacking on Tuesday's Tastings for the last two weeks, but this week, we're talking frozen fish. Frozen, seasoned Mahi Mahi fillets to be precise. I'm usually a fresh guy, fresh seafood, fresh beef, fresh veggies. Trader Joe's has a large stock of frozen fish, seasoned and unseasoned, so when I saw these in the freezer case I thought I'd give them a try.

The Mahi Mahi is seasoned garlic, lemon juice, parsley, salt, black pepper, red chili flakes and olive oil. The packaging suggests baking, grilling or pan sauteed on the stove top. I chose the latter method and sauteed them on the stove top. I served them up for J and I with baked sweet potatoes and steamed asparagus. I liked the way it came out and I'd buy these Mahi Mahi fillets again. The seasoning was right on and the fish cooked up well. Not fishy, not rubbery, not bad. Really good actually. I'm glad I decided to take on the frozen fish category, and I'll be sure to try out some of the other offerings.

One food guy is back. As spring time approaches here in Boston I'll be busy playing outdoors. I'll be looking for healthy options from the freezer case, so stay tuned.

Food for thought

I've been pretty busy lately. Not so busy at the office, but busy enough. It's at home, in the evening, on the weekends that I've been really busy. Working around the house - I've been painting all the closet, bedroom and bathroom doors, installing recessed lighting, painting the hallway ceiling where I installed the recessed lighting, changing all the doorknobs on the closet, bedroom, and bathroom doors so they matched, and looked nice. I've been working out in preparation for the training I'll need to do this spring and summer for the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge.

All this busyness has meant no time to blog. I have even eaten at some great restaurants lately. I had fantastic guacamole prepared table-side at Anamia's Tex-Mex in Southlake, Texas. Kumamoto oysters and a salad with bottarga at Neptune Oyster in Boston's North End. I had some Wellfleet oysters and grilled spiced Mahi Mahi with beans and rice, pineapple salsa, fried plantains and a grilled avocado at East Coast Grill & Raw Bar in Cambridge, MA.

So as you can see, I've had no shortage of good food to talk about, just no time to talk about it. Even tonight, I'll be going to Tuscan Grill in Waltham, MA. It's been about a year since I've been there, but what I can tell you from past experiences is that their gnocchi are little little pillows of heaven that melt in your mouth. I can't wait for dinner.

I'm hungry. Have a great day. Oh yeah, and Tuesday's Tasting is postponed again. Sorry readers. I promise that Tuesday's Tastings will be back soon, I have lots of new stuff in my freezer to try!

I'm just one food guy, thanks for reading!

Don't mess with Texas

If you came looking for Tuesday's Tasting this week, it's been postponed until next week. I was in Dallas, Texas for the last couple days. I hope you enjoy these pictures I took of the view from my hotel room at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport and some longhorn cattle grazing on my client's land in Westlake, Texas: