9.04.2004
it lives!
Restaurant week continues, well past its stated objective of lasting for one week. I have no problems with this: I'm always up for trying some new restaurants.
Thursday lunch: Spire. It's interesting that the first steps in their directions are, and I quote: Traveling from London and Moscow: Get on a plane and arrive at Logan Airport. (See traveling from Logan Airport below). Whoever designed this website has a sense of humor. The same cannot be said for the ice-cold waitstaff. I'm sure they have nothing to do with website design. I had an heirloom tomato salad, which was outstanding - it's tough to get good tomatoes in a supermarket, what with them being bred for shelf-stability and not flavor. This was delicious: the ricotta was a creamy and cool foil for the basil and vinaigrette. Second course was a wild american snapper, pan fried and served over a "gazpacho" of cucumbers, zucchini, tomato, and green onion with smashed avocado. I don't know what the preoccupation is with smashing foodstuffs nowadays. They're not mashed potatoes, they're smashed potatoes. This was a smashed avocado. And several years ago, smashing pumpkins? jk. The snapper was very well cooked and with lots of flavor. The chilled hibiscus and champagne soup I had for dessert was new. And by new, I mean odd. It had a deep red color one normally associates with red wine or pomegranite, but was very refreshing. Unfortunately, it was poured around a shortcake upon which had been piled wild berries and a sheep milk yogurt sorbet. I'm sorry; the sorbet tasted like lime, not sheep milk yogurt. And the soup was soaked into the shortcake. My mom had an excellent sweet corn soup, followed by a three-day brined pork loin, and then the heirloom stone fruit cobbler. Briefly, the corn soup was amazing: sweet and creamy. The pork loin was disappointing - it had plenty of flavors, many conflicting with each other. It was vaguely Asian tasting, but I really could not place it. The cobbler was OK, except that one expects a crumb topping on cobbler: this was served with a biscuit on top, and was accompanied by lemon thyme ice cream.
Thursday dinner: Julien. Holy moly this was incredible. Restaurant critics have named this dining hall the "embodiment of elegance". This was truly an outstanding experience: the service (especially when contrasted to the nimrods at Spire) was outstanding: the entire staff was friendly, knowledgeable, attentive, and courteous. Wow. My only gripe with Julien was that they charge extra for adding things to their restaurant week menu. You can have the native and heirloom tomato salad, but if you want the blue cheese flan that's really supposed to go with it, you need to give us another $8. Boo. For the record, the tomato salad was even better here than at Spire. I had a pan seared sea bass on a zucchini and saffron risotto with pinot noir essence. I certainly didn't taste the pinot noir essence, and had a hard time identifying that there was saffron in the risotto at all. In fact, the risotto was chalky and bland, no what would have been naturally expected. We also ordered the other entree, the roasted breast of chicken with organic herbs, garden beans and marcona almonds. This was tender, juicy, and very well balanced, flavor-wise. Of course, we could have added lobster in the risotto for an additional $14, or sauteéd Sonoma foie gras to the chicken for $16. Dessert, like the appetizer, was pre-determined. This was a lemon crème brûlée with native blueberry compote. While a bit on the sweet side, this was outstanding: the service was wonderful and the entire experience was fantastic. I hope I'm wealthy enough to return outside of restaurant week.
Last night (yeah, so my family went a little restaurant-week crazy) was a chic restaurant called 33. This was nuts: located in a forgotten part of Boston almost facing the Mass Pike (one of the few things standing in the way of a truly unobstructed view of the Pike is a large construction pile) and close to the culinarily and cultural bereft Hard Rock Cafe, 33 is a bizarre restaurant and bar with ultra-chic touches here and there. Not a place I would have gone ordinarily, but then again, that's what restaurant week is all about. I had an asparagus with shaved parmesan, mache salad and truffle dressing. I have, in the past two weeks, eaten more asparagus than I usually do in a year. The parmesan was bright and tangy, while the asparagus was a tad flavorless. We also tried the leek and potato soup served with a little island of crab flan. The soup had a curry/cumin hint to it, while the crab flan was almost entirely devoid of taste in every way. My brother had the sirloin of beef with grilled asparagus (there it is again!) and foie-gras jus. He ordered it rare, they brought it out medium-rare. I have *never* sent back a meal, and would have difficulty doing so. Especially having read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, which is a terrifying look inside the kitchens of America's top restaurants. I ordered a torchon of salmon with vegetable relish and lots of other things. This was excellent, though I am getting quite sick of salmon. It's difficult, of course, to cook salmon poorly, which is why I cook and eat so much of it. Toxins in farmed salmon being as they are, though, I'm starting to re-think that. Dessert was, for me, a warm chocolate cake with crème Ânglaíse. This was rich and delicious: exactly what I was looking for. My mom and brother had a medly of vanilla ice cream or sorbet. The thing is, that both the ice cream and sorbet were presented, and it was difficult to distinguish between the two.
Overall, restaurant week is a great excuse to go out and try new things. Believe it or not, we're doing one more, on Sunday.
Thursday lunch: Spire. It's interesting that the first steps in their directions are, and I quote: Traveling from London and Moscow: Get on a plane and arrive at Logan Airport. (See traveling from Logan Airport below). Whoever designed this website has a sense of humor. The same cannot be said for the ice-cold waitstaff. I'm sure they have nothing to do with website design. I had an heirloom tomato salad, which was outstanding - it's tough to get good tomatoes in a supermarket, what with them being bred for shelf-stability and not flavor. This was delicious: the ricotta was a creamy and cool foil for the basil and vinaigrette. Second course was a wild american snapper, pan fried and served over a "gazpacho" of cucumbers, zucchini, tomato, and green onion with smashed avocado. I don't know what the preoccupation is with smashing foodstuffs nowadays. They're not mashed potatoes, they're smashed potatoes. This was a smashed avocado. And several years ago, smashing pumpkins? jk. The snapper was very well cooked and with lots of flavor. The chilled hibiscus and champagne soup I had for dessert was new. And by new, I mean odd. It had a deep red color one normally associates with red wine or pomegranite, but was very refreshing. Unfortunately, it was poured around a shortcake upon which had been piled wild berries and a sheep milk yogurt sorbet. I'm sorry; the sorbet tasted like lime, not sheep milk yogurt. And the soup was soaked into the shortcake. My mom had an excellent sweet corn soup, followed by a three-day brined pork loin, and then the heirloom stone fruit cobbler. Briefly, the corn soup was amazing: sweet and creamy. The pork loin was disappointing - it had plenty of flavors, many conflicting with each other. It was vaguely Asian tasting, but I really could not place it. The cobbler was OK, except that one expects a crumb topping on cobbler: this was served with a biscuit on top, and was accompanied by lemon thyme ice cream.
Thursday dinner: Julien. Holy moly this was incredible. Restaurant critics have named this dining hall the "embodiment of elegance". This was truly an outstanding experience: the service (especially when contrasted to the nimrods at Spire) was outstanding: the entire staff was friendly, knowledgeable, attentive, and courteous. Wow. My only gripe with Julien was that they charge extra for adding things to their restaurant week menu. You can have the native and heirloom tomato salad, but if you want the blue cheese flan that's really supposed to go with it, you need to give us another $8. Boo. For the record, the tomato salad was even better here than at Spire. I had a pan seared sea bass on a zucchini and saffron risotto with pinot noir essence. I certainly didn't taste the pinot noir essence, and had a hard time identifying that there was saffron in the risotto at all. In fact, the risotto was chalky and bland, no what would have been naturally expected. We also ordered the other entree, the roasted breast of chicken with organic herbs, garden beans and marcona almonds. This was tender, juicy, and very well balanced, flavor-wise. Of course, we could have added lobster in the risotto for an additional $14, or sauteéd Sonoma foie gras to the chicken for $16. Dessert, like the appetizer, was pre-determined. This was a lemon crème brûlée with native blueberry compote. While a bit on the sweet side, this was outstanding: the service was wonderful and the entire experience was fantastic. I hope I'm wealthy enough to return outside of restaurant week.
Last night (yeah, so my family went a little restaurant-week crazy) was a chic restaurant called 33. This was nuts: located in a forgotten part of Boston almost facing the Mass Pike (one of the few things standing in the way of a truly unobstructed view of the Pike is a large construction pile) and close to the culinarily and cultural bereft Hard Rock Cafe, 33 is a bizarre restaurant and bar with ultra-chic touches here and there. Not a place I would have gone ordinarily, but then again, that's what restaurant week is all about. I had an asparagus with shaved parmesan, mache salad and truffle dressing. I have, in the past two weeks, eaten more asparagus than I usually do in a year. The parmesan was bright and tangy, while the asparagus was a tad flavorless. We also tried the leek and potato soup served with a little island of crab flan. The soup had a curry/cumin hint to it, while the crab flan was almost entirely devoid of taste in every way. My brother had the sirloin of beef with grilled asparagus (there it is again!) and foie-gras jus. He ordered it rare, they brought it out medium-rare. I have *never* sent back a meal, and would have difficulty doing so. Especially having read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, which is a terrifying look inside the kitchens of America's top restaurants. I ordered a torchon of salmon with vegetable relish and lots of other things. This was excellent, though I am getting quite sick of salmon. It's difficult, of course, to cook salmon poorly, which is why I cook and eat so much of it. Toxins in farmed salmon being as they are, though, I'm starting to re-think that. Dessert was, for me, a warm chocolate cake with crème Ânglaíse. This was rich and delicious: exactly what I was looking for. My mom and brother had a medly of vanilla ice cream or sorbet. The thing is, that both the ice cream and sorbet were presented, and it was difficult to distinguish between the two.
Overall, restaurant week is a great excuse to go out and try new things. Believe it or not, we're doing one more, on Sunday.
