Thursday, June 18, 2009

Vinh Sun, Boston, MA

So I always thought that Boston had the oldest Chinatown in USA but apparently that's not the case? I now hear the one in San Fran is probably the oldest one. Anyway, a little pet hobby of mine when I go traveling is to check out the Chinatown, I've had pretty good food in Boston's Chinatown about four years ago, so we went to check out the place and ended up at Vinh Sun.

We started off with deep fried whiting, whiting encased in a crisp and light batter, this was a pretty good appetizer.

On to more substantial protein; the beef short-ribs with green peppers were pretty tasty as well. The meat was fall off the bone tender but still retained a nice a chew. A tad bit oily, but that's the norm for this cut.

And of course, the lobster feast continued, 2 lobsters straight from the tank cooked Chinese style with ginger and spring onions.

D

Monday, June 01, 2009

Atlantic Fish Co, Boston, MA

I do apologize for the lack of updates, I've been so busy moving out of my previous apartment. I was also in Boston a few weeks back and boy was I lucky to have arrived when lobster season was just starting. Is it possible to get sick of lobster? After this series of posts from Boston (I had lobster every single day), you tell me.

A quick query from the concierge pointed us towards the nearby Atlantic Fish Co. as the place where the locals go for good seafood nowadays, so off we went. Not making reservations meant we were seated in a little table right in the middle of the dining room, not the most comfortable location but we were hungry so we weren't going to complain. We started off with a simple Caesar salad; crisp leaves, grated parmesan and toasted croutons. Fresh but otherwise unremarkable.

The clam chowder provided a much more substantial start. Rich and creamy, the generous chunks of clam flesh still had a decent bite.

Our first course was a plate of mussels steamed in butter and white wine. The simplicity of its preparation allowed the freshness and flavor of the mussels to prevail.

Very tasty and possibly the plumpest mussels I've ever eaten.

Here's a cute little bib that was given to me just before the main course. A bit of a novelty, I saved my as a souvenir.

Here we have it, the seafood platter of little neck clams and a 2.5lb lobster.

Did I mention I'm glad we came just when lobster season started? The massive claw almost spanned across the entire plate. Claw meat is not too bad but I still prefer the body meat which I think is the sweetest and most succulent.

After the devouring the massive crustacean we were introduced to the dessert trolley and we picked out the signature chocolate cake, which was really only ok. Somehow it was really heavy and thick but perhaps wasn't the thing after all that lobster and dipping melted butter.

The Boston cream pie was way more welcoming. I think the light sponge cake and cold cream made it the more refreshing dessert. It helps that I like cream pies as well.

Atlantic Fish Co. definitely raised the bar for good lobster. I'll have to see if the other restaurants match up over the next five days.

D