NOT-SO-SQUARE MEALS
Eating out in Boston?
Grab your passport, lose your preconceptions,
and get ready to be dazzled.
By Maureen Muenster
Over the years, wistful Northeastern alumni have always had fine restaurants
to choose from when they visited the halls of their alma mater. If you
haven't spent much time in Boston recently, though, you might not realize
how fundamentally the city's dining scene has changed.
Okay, I confess my palate memories from the year I graduated (1986)
center largely around bar food, such as that served at Joe's American Bar
and Grill, Danny's Deli (on Huntington Avenue), Commonwealth Brewery, and
Pizzeria Uno. (College student, remember?) Still, the gastronomic adventures
available in Boston today are astonishing compared to those of even five
years ago.
For a long time, a mere handful of chefs maintained Boston's gourmet
profile. No more. The restaurant scene has exploded. Older chefs have expanded
existing restaurants or opened new ones. Younger chefs have swept into
town. A new group of ethnic restaurants have opened, adding their own culinary
excitement.
Recently, I made a gastronomic pilgrimage through the Boston area, eating
classic meals at five restaurants that are high practitioners of food magic.
Whether you're traveling in from the 'burbs, from New York, or even from
Spain, I would recommend any of these places in a minute.
Sunday Brunch: Ooh la Brasserie!
On Huntington Avenue (and around Northeastern in general),
dining out is pretty much a mixed bag. However, Boston's first and only
French brasserie-featuring timeless favorites as well as casual regional
fare-sports a Huntington Ave. address. Brasserie Jo is exceptional, and
a must for Sunday brunch.
Chef/owner Jean Joho's showcase of food, wine, and beer from his native
Alsace, Brasserie Jo opened in Chicago in 1995 to critical acclaim and
standing-room-only crowds. Quickly becoming Chicago's hot spot, it won
the national James Beard Foundation Award for best new restaurant in the
country.
Its sister restaurant opened at the Colonnade Hotel in spring 1998.
This is a remarkably useful option for the Symphony-Prudential crowd, rewarding
those who happen by for breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, or a late bite.
Visually, Brasserie Jo is perfect. All the details are right: banquettes
imported from France, mirrors, cherrywood and marble accents, high ceilings,
spacious tables-it's clean, elegant, state-of-the-art.
On a Sunday morning, our breakfast consisted of croquemadame with mushrooms
(think toasted ham-and-cheese sandwich with mushrooms and fried sunnyside
egg on top-a real delight) and a ham-and-cheese crêpe, along with
an assortment of muffins and croissants.
Breakfast fare also includes the usual variety of eggs, waffles, cereals,
fruits, and yogurts, but always with a European flair. Crêpes, gourmet
sandwiches and salads, as well as the plats principaux (entrées)
bouillabaisse, macaroni and fromage, and steak tartare are all excellent
choices. The menu also highlights onion tart Uncle Hansi, a delicious warm
tart made of caramelized onions in a flaky crust, and hanger steak in red-wine
shallot sauce with crispy, golden pommes frites.
Brasserie Jo features Hop La, the restaurant's signature beer brewed
from Alsatian hops and served on tap. The beverage menu also includes an
extensive list of French beers and wines, each chosen by Chef Joho to complement
Brasserie Jo cuisine.
Lunch? Maybe a Few Vegetarian Samosas, Maybe a Couple of Barbecued Prawns
. . .
Sometimes, preconceived notions can be a stumbling block. You might
expect Saffron, from its name alone, to be your typical Indian dining experience.
However, once inside, the aroma of the dining room, the expression on
the other diners' faces when they first taste their meals, and your waiter's
nod as you make your selections all indicate that an unusual and refreshing
experience is about to occur.
A relatively new addition to the ever-growing ethnic offerings on Newbury
Street, Saffron's somewhat cold, ornate décor, with handcarved tables
and woven cushions from Bangkok, is striking. And the food was love at
first bite for me.
Like Manhattan's Tabla Restaurant on Madison Avenue, on which it's based,
Saffron has many contemporary American touches. Unlike Tabla, though, Saffron
doesn't use the term "Indian fusion." Instead, the menu is divided
into "traditional" and "nontraditional" dishes, according
to the restaurant's general manager, Anish Ramdev.
Saffron has many well-prepared dishes familiar to Indian-restaurant
habitués-standbys like chicken tikka, chicken vindaloo, shrimp curry,
and aloo gobhi. But, really, this is a place to enlarge your repertory.
For the curious at heart, main-course selections include steamed wrapped
red-snapper fillet, served with wok-fried herb vegetables on a cumin, saffron-infused
celery broth; tandoori marinated rack of lamb, served with lentil sauce
and sautéed herb apples; and crushed cashew-nut chicken breast,
served with bok choy, mascarpone mashed potatoes, and a mango curry-leaf
sauce.
Since the menu doesn't change for lunch or dinner, I can tell you that
you are in for a memory-making experience, any time of day. The vegetarian
samosa, served with a variety of sauces, is the best I've ever had. On
the more traditional menu, everything is wonderfully spiced, providing
not merely heat but a clear amplification of the flavors.
More timid diners may prefer the milder choices we sampled. My saag
paneer was a prize. A mix of Indian cheese-a cottage cheese-and spinach,
it's comfort food but with real personality. Some saag paneers are mushy;
this one is creamy and lush. Others may prefer the quiet pleasures of chicken
tikka masala. This popular creamy dish is as soothing as it is familiar-my
mother's kind of curry.
After lunch at Saffron, my tastebuds are happy indeed.
For Appetizers and Drinks, Cuban Brio at a Cambridge Bistro
Here's a place that will charm you despite its understated, dark interior.
On a Saturday evening at 6, we just wanted a fun drink and appetizer to
hold us over until dinner. We decided on the bar at Chez Henri in Cambridge
on the basis of some word-of-mouth reviews and the lure of the ever-popular
Cuban sandwich. You will not be disappointed.
It's clear Chez Henri takes its bar seriously. Zagat's entry says, "Devotees
declare it's 'so very Cambridge' of this 'dynamic' bistro to spark 'innovative
French food with Cuban influences.'"
Well, I don't know about all that. What I do know is that after a few
sips of my daiquiri (fresh lime, sugar, and rum with a twist) and after
sampling my husband's mojito (a mint julep made of lime juice, sugar, mint
leaves, white rum, and soda water), I was feeling pretty good. Other choices
on the inventive cocktail list include a "Dark and Stormy" (Jamaican
ginger beer, rum, and lime juice) and the periodista (triple sec, apricot
brandy, rum, sugar, and lime juice, served with a twist of lime).
When our choices from the bar menu arrived, we were ready for something
to complement these great drinks. The exotically seasoned conch fritters
with a lemon-chile aioli were absolutely delicious. Also arresting were
the Cuban-style empanadas filled with chicken.
Chez Henri's menu is a Cuban-French fantasy, a freely improvised list
of nuevo latino dishes with French accents, like halibut steamed in banana
leaf, with plantain; mussels and shrimp, with a saffronstar anise
vinaigrette and coconut rice; and the wood-grilled pork chop, with ginger-roasted
peach glaze and basmati rice with almonds and parsley.
Crimson and gold touches all around, you feel the perfect marriage of
restaurant and neighborhood in the cavernous main dining room, where middle-aged
couples, young singles, a sprinkling of older diners, and the occasional
couple with small children create a joyous cacophony.
Dinner That's Over the Top: Fish with Flourishes
Forget everything you think you know about Faneuil Hall
restaurants. Of course, you can join the thousands of tourists who frequent
the crowded Quincy Market food stalls serving everything from calzones,
to gourmet soup, to frozen yogurt, and have a pretty good meal. But one
restaurant in a corner building, Kingfish Hall, is different. Would you
expect anything less from restaurateur and chef Todd English?
Kingfish Hall is over the top on many levels-from the décor to
the dazzling presentation of the food. Flamboyant mobiles of papier-mâché
fish, along with copper and aqua sea glass, hang from the ceiling, creating
a whimsical atmosphere. Diners seated at a high bar in front of the chef
can actually see their fish being cooked on rotisseries. This image, plus
the beautiful displays of fresh shrimp, lobsters, clams, and more, is mouthwatering
to say the least.
One appetizer entitled "Not the Clam Chowder Your Mother Made"
is precisely that. I don't know about your mother, but mine never made
any fresh clam chowder, never mind one that included baby clams still attached
to their shells for added flavor. This was beautifully presented and purely
delicious, with lovely flavors. Chef David Kinkead (previously the chef
at Brasserie Jo) also has a fun side; he presents his fried big-belly clams
and yummy tartar sauce in a box that you'd expect to see at a greasy-spoon
stand at the beach.
Although the entrées are decorative enough to mask their basic
simplicity, the strength of Kinkead's cooking is the way he allows pure
flavor to dominate. His pan-griddled sea scallops, served with basmati
rice and surrounded by coconut butter and mango salsa, is a perfect example.
And the three-clam perciatelli-which includes littlenecks, mahoganies,
and manillas, with toasted garlic, hot cherry peppers, pancetta, and lemon
essence over spaghetti-is gorgeous.
Don't miss the desserts. Selections include chocolate-pecan tart, fruit
crumble with vanilla ice cream, caramel banana-bread pudding, and an old-fashioned
root-beer float with fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. Top honors go
to the cheesecake trio, a sinful mound of chocolate on chocolate crust,
pecan praline on pecan-cookie crust, and lemon on graham-cracker crust.
This one is almost too precious to eat.
When You're Hungry for an Evening Bite, Get Surreal
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who
decide at 6 that they want to go to dinner at 7, and those who reserved
tonight's table sometime last month. Neither has a perfect system. Dalí,
located between Harvard and Inman squares, will unnerve both sorts, but
in a good way.
Since Dalí doesn't take reservations, getting a table is an exercise
in patience. But after hopeful diners idle at the bar and perhaps indulge
in one of the restaurant's exotic Spanish wines, what do they get for their
suffering? A meal that's as good as it needs to be.
Just as you can't absorb Salvador Dali's paintings passively, you may
want to leap into the party atmosphere here, maybe even start dancing to
any of the recorded Spanish or Latin songs playing (rather loudly) in the
background.
A perfect meal is a choice selection of tapas and some great wine or
sangria. There are some forty tapas and ten entrées to choose from,
and many really stand out. The garlic shrimps are delicious, as are the
lobster and crabmeat ravioli with langostino sauce. For meat eaters, the
albondigas dalescas, or "aphrodisiac lamb balls," will keep you
coming back.
Like the painter himself, Dalí relies on layering multiple imagery,
creating an exotic impression you sense the minute you enter. Owners Mario
Leon-Iriate and Tamara Bourso have made this a romantic place; subdued
lighting, rich colors, huge Salvador Dali prints, and dried vegetables
and flowers over the bar provide an ambience right out of an old Spanish
movie. (The same family also runs Tapéo, at 266 Newbury Street,
between Gloucester and Fairfield streets, in the Back Bay.)
Somerville residents should consider themselves lucky to have such a
great place in their town. Packed nightly, this perennial favorite has
served authentic Spanish cuisine reminiscent of fare in a mom-and-pop operation
in Salamanca since 1989.
The clientele is a mixed bag of locals, students, travelers, university
literati, urban- and suburbanites. We saw two birthdays being celebrated
at tables next to us, and I have to say this place seems especially suited
for birthday, wedding, and anniversary evenings. The bubble gun is particularly
delightful, exploding as the entire restaurant belts "Happy Birthday"
to the lucky victim.
The list of Spanish wines is extensive and very nicely presented. If
you've never ordered an after-dinner cordial, do it here. The Gran Torres,
an orange-flavored liqueur, will warm your heart.
To sum it all up: Only a decade or so ago, Legal Sea Foods set the epicurean
horizons of most Bostonians. Now, the flavor of change is sweeping the
Boston scene, and the atmosphere and menus of the restaurants listed here-and
many others-positively roar with the city's new cosmopolitan energy.
Maureen Muenster, BA'86, is a news assistant for the New York Times.
She writes the "Good Eating" restaurant column for the Sunday
City section and the "On the Towns" guide to goings-on in New
Jersey for the Sunday New Jersey section.
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