Belly Love

During the 4 month span when Liz and I temporarily suspended our blogging, we visited a handful of restaurants that I would be reluctant to write about in full but I thought deserved  a brief comment.

In early December, Liz and I spent a long weekend in Maine for our birthdays…

Hugo’s in Portland, ME.  We were totally impressed by Hugo’s. Got the 12 course chef’s menu (you need to order this ahead of time – there is  also an 8 course blind tasting offered without pre-notification) and it was as good as if not better than the best tasting menus we’ve had in Boston (no.9, L’espalier, Craigie, Salts, Clio).  The chef, Rob Evans, is formerly of French Laundry and it shows. Innovative and  tasty, but in a comfortable, laid back setting. It’s a shame it’s so far away, but if you make a trip to Portland you really shouldn’t miss it. We did not try Fore Street, the other well known fine-dining restaurant in Portland, so I can’t recommend one over the other. Here is what we had:

Amuse:
SNACK TRAY (fried cracklins and other homemade chips)
OYSTER, beet, horseradish
COD RAVIOLI, fresh sage
WILD PIGEON CONSOMME, squash and foie gras agnolotti      (AWESOME)
Prosecco, De Faveri, NV, Veneto

1st
“CEASAR SALAD” coddled farm egg, iceburg leaves, white anchovies, bottarga
Pinot Grigio, Marco Felluga, Montgris, 2007, Collio

2nd
LOBSTER CARPACCIO, fine herbs, puffed spice rice, meyer lemon mousse   (ALSO AWESOME)
Pinot Blanc, Hopler, 2006, Burgenland, Austria

3rd
PAN SEARED MAINE SEA SCALLOP, truffle butter, sunchoke, preserved lemon, fried capers
Soave Classico, Inama, 2005, Veneto

4th
ATLANTIC HAKE “BOUILLABAISSE” aged chorizo, egg battered croutons, saffron & tabasco     (STILL AWESOME)
The Villager White, Oyster River Winegrowers, NV

5th
Mulled Cider & Calvados Ice

6th
SMOKED FOIE GRAS, acorn squash, kumquat, toasted brioche       (…..AWESOME)
Reisling Spatlese, Leitz, 2006, Rheingau

7th
BREEZY HILL FARM GLAZED PORK BELLY, pumpkin gnocchi, maple, quince and rutabaga mostarda        (Liz hit a wall here so I had double meat portions. AWESOME)
Syrah, Clos Mimi, Petite Rousse, 2005, California

8th
BEEF, BEEF, AND BEEF, horseradish-potato puree, charred onion, white miso
Cabernet Sauvignon, Tahbilk, 1999, Australia

9th
SHELBURNE FARMS AGED CHEDDAR PARFAIT green apple marmalade, allagash beer buggles, pumpernickel
Cotes de Gascogne, Dom La Hitaire, 2004

10th
LEMON SORBET FLOAT WITH THYME SODA              (again. AWESOME)

11th
RUM ROASTED PINEAPPLE, ginger cream, tamarind caramel, coconut sorbet, warm pound cake
Late Harvet Gewurztraminer, Aresti, 2006

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Duck Fat in Portland, ME.  Same owners as Hugo’s. The fries are SICK. So outrageously delicious. Sandwiches were solid (mostly of the pressed panini variety with some higher end ingredients e.g. duck confit) as well as the shakes. We went here for lunch on the same day as Hugo’s. It was a good day. There’s also a very cool food bookstore close by, Rabelais Books (and they have a blog too) . I highly recommend taking the time to sift through it.

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Arrows in Ogonquit, ME.  We had been wanting to go to Arrows for several years now so we knew we were going to try it out if in the area, but were concerned about the recent bad reviews it had been receiving. Chowhounders were making claims of its decline ever since the owners expanded the franchise and opened up a new place in Beverly, MA, called SummerWinter. This being our first time to Arrows we can’t speak to its quality relative to the past, but we were happy with our meal and I remember being particularly charmed by the setting. Very attractive structure and grounds.  Definitely several steps above the White Barn Inn in nearby Kennebunk, ME in terms of food, and several steps below in pretentiousness (i.e. you won’t pee your pants a little at Arrows if your fork clinks too loudly on your plate).

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Angela’s Cafe Angela’s Cafe II

Beacon Hill Bistro

B&G Oysters

Beehive

Bina Osteria

Blue Ginger

Blue Ribbon BBQ

Cafe Polonia

Clio

Craigie on Main

Erbaluce

Franklin Cafe

Garden at the Cellar

Gourmet Dumpling House

Gran Gusto

Hen House

Henrietta’s Table

Hungry Mother Part II

Kingston Station

KO Prime

Legal Seafoods

L’Espalier

Lobby

M&M BBQ

Maurizio’s

Mike and Patty’s

Niche Catour

no. 9 Park

Oishii

Rendezvous

Rocca

Scampo Part II

Sel de la Terre

Sensing

Shelburne Farms

South End Buttery

Speed’s

Sportello (dinner)

Sportello (lunch)

Stir

Stix

Sweet

Ten Tables

Ten Tables (Cambridge)

Toro

Tupelo

TW Food Part II

Wagamama

After having two bad experiences at L’Espalier, I had assumed I’d never go back, but Monday night I found myself there for L’Espalier’s weekly wine night. The other two bad experiences involved their parallel weekly cheese night in early 2007 and then a birthday tasting menu dinner in late 2007. I don’t remember anything about the food and wine at Cheese Night; all I remember is being forced to pretend to sing and Carlo leaning over and whispering, “Which of our tablemates is most likely to be a serial killer?” We couldn’t decide; it seemed that they all had potential. After having time to recover from that, Carlo and I decided to go there for a tasting menu for our shared birthday in December. We had just done the same at No. 9 Park two weeks earlier so it was hard not to compare. No. 9 had better food, better wine, and better service. We thought the food at L’Espalier was boring and dry, and to top it off our cheese plate, which they selected for us, to our chagrin, had been sitting so long that all of it had congealed to the plate and hardened.

So like I said, I was surprised to find myself back there. This time, it was for a work event. Despite my misgivings about L’Espalier it is not so bad that I would pass up a free visit. Plus, I knew I would know everyone at the table and they don’t sing on Wine Night, so it didn’t seem that it could be that bad. It wasn’t. It wasn’t that good either, but I had fun and didn’t pay for it so all was not lost. The $60 menu, which was called “Summer Sippers” was as follows:

2007 Fairhall Downs, Sauvingnon Blanc, Marlborough, NZ paired with Chilled Melon Soup with Duck Confit

2007 Gai’a, “14-18H”, Rose, Agiorgitiko, Greece paired with Squash tagliatelle salad with feta, almonds and tahini dressing

2006 Montinore, Pinot Noir, Williamette, Oregon paired with Raspberry barbequed chicken with collard greens and potato salad

2006 Burgaud, “Vieilles Vignes”, Morgon, Beaujoulais pair with L’Espalier’s cheese course: Manchego, Taleggio and Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese from Vermont

The best thing I can say about this menu is that the pairings were done well. All of the wine and food together were more than the sum of the parts. That said, the parts weren’t all that good. The Sauvignon Blanc was the best stand alone wine and it was nicely chilled and probably would be good with any sort of light food in the summer. Still, it was not very complex or interesting. It was a little grassy, a lot of tropical fruit and citrus, etc–everything you’d expect in a decent NZ Sauvignon Blanc. It went well with the soup, though the soup was just so-so. I don’t know why: the mix of the duck and the melon just didn’t work. It didn’t even look that good.

Next, we had the tagliatelle, which for the record, was not tagliatelle. It was shredded squash with a pretty good dressing. And as for the rose, it was like sickly sweet candy. And I’m not saying that because I’m a rose-hater. In fact, I tend to like roses and I’m always excited to try Greek wines. This just wasn’t good. Maybe it was meant for food and again, together the squash and wine were pretty good. I was still mad about the tagliatelle though. I thought I was getting pasta with squash, not squash unsuccessfully mimicking pasta.

Next, the barbequed chicken was good, moist, but maybe not something I’d expect to get at L’Espalier. I know they are trying to show they are versatile and can do barbeque just as well as they can do duck confit, but they didn’t really impress me. Throwing raspberry on barbeque doesn’t make it clever.  The wine was okay. I normally love Oregonian Pinots, but this one was just okay. I can’t really remember much about it, and my distaste for it might have been caused by having three wines in quick succession. Together though, the food and wine blended well.

Finally, the cheese was good. But I love cheese and I would think it was good in almost any form. The thing I didn’t like was that the portion sizes varied considerably. I probably only noticed this because mine was considerably smaller than everyone else’s, but whatever, it wasn’t fair. The Beaujoulais was like the perfect table wine: quaffable, nothing challenging or sharp. Pleasant plain red wine.

And finally, we had some petits fours to send us off, for those who didn’t stick around for dessert. I ate two chocolate ones. One was okay, a sort of tiramisu cake with a hint of raspberry. It was kind of soggy but tasted good. The mini chocolate cake I ate was dry and flavorless. I didn’t try the others, an orange thing and a madeleine, but one of my colleagues said jokingly that the orange thing ruined what had been a great night. So there you have it. L’Espalier is overrated despite their charming quintessential Boston townhouse location, which they are soon leaving for the “grander” Mandarin Oriental. Don’t waste your money. Go to No. 9 if you want to drop your paycheck on a fancy meal.

Food and Wine just came out with their 2008 restaurant “Go List”. According to Food and Wine, it has eliminated restaurant guesswork for food-obsessed travelers. Luckily, I live in Boston, which has eight restaurants on the list so I can easily pass judgment on whether this list makes any sense and whether I should follow it when traveling to other places. The Boston restaurants on the list are: Craigie Street Bistro, Hammersley’s Bistro, Harvest, La Verdad Taqueria, Myers and Chang, No. 9 Park, O Ya, and Radius. I’ve been to six of the eight, having tried neither La Verdad Taqueria nor Myers and Chang, so I feel comfortable making an assessment. Verdict: Ambivalent.

I am happy to see No. 9 Park as it is miles above any other restaurant in Boston, and often gets shafted in “Best of Boston” style reviews. And I’m glad to see places like L’Espalier and Aujourd’hui left off of the list as they are so frequently and undeservedly on top of Zagat’s lists. Also, O Ya is amazing, and no “go list” of Boston restaurants would be complete without it. Craigie Street Bistro is also worthy of a “go list” spot. It’s no No. 9, but it’s as close as anyone in Boston gets.

All that said, what are Radius and Harvest doing on this list? Radius is soooooo bad. I have never heard anyone say anything good about Radius. It’s the kind of place that investment bankers and lawyers take important clients to show them that they can afford to spend a lot of money even on mediocre food. Harvest is pretty mediocre itself. Granted I haven’t been there in nearly 3 years, but I had been several times prior to that and it was never that interesting or great. It’s not bad per se, but I hope no one travels to Boston to go there.

I like Hammersley’s Bistro, but it certainly should not edge out places like Ten Tables or Oishii. It’s solid upscale bistro cuisine, but there are so many restaurants in Boston just like it and it doesn’t set itself apart in any meaningful way. I mean, can anyone really point to substantive differences between places like Hammersley’s and Mistral and Acquitaine and Icarus? They’re good. Sometimes they’re really good, sometimes they’re mediocre. It depends on what you get and the night you go. There are two restaurants right across the street from Hammersley’s that are both unique and delicious, namely B&G Oysters and The Butcher Shop, so where is their spot on the “Go List?”

It seems to me that the “Go to” places on this list should reflect the characteristics of the city that they’re in. Rather than splitting hairs and making impossibly subjective decisions like who makes a better foie gras, Food and Wine should try to represent as wide a range of cuisine and neighborhoods as possible in the city. If a tourist were to adhere to this list they would skip the North End, Chinatown, Charlestown, South Boston, and Jamaica Plain. It’s deceptive and a waste of readers’ time to generate a list of the places to go in Boston if the only criterion is where the Food and Wine critics happened to enjoy their meal most.