We have been here and there since early November. Its going to be kind of long!
Started before Thanksgiving, tickets to the Titian paintings at the Gardener Museum on a Friday, which was amazing as is the house. We had dinner at Little Donkey that night. New to us, it was very lively and fun. Food was excellent, first time I had lamb bacon but hopefully not the last.
Four small plates, in order of preference…BLT wraps with the afore mentioned lamb bacon, pimento cheese, tomato jam and pickled red onion-my favorite of the night, Shrimp Louis was light and bright really liked the dressing, pork rib chaat masala which was also very good, sticky spiced messy small riblets and Manti which my DH enjoyed more than I, it was a heavy flavor. Good cocktail and wine choices and the staff was very efficient. We ended the evening discussing Sarma with our server who had been the first time a few days prior.
We stayed in Boston that night and after a coffee and a walk headed to Quincy for dim sum at Windsor Cafe, We had about a 20 minute wait which wasn’t too bad. There was a lot of take out getting picked up!
Food was excellent, dumplings, pork buns, pork with noodles, this is when I wish there were more of us so we could get more variety. Fun to see the big family tables full with lots of laughter and food.
We need spot like this north of Boston.
We had a Friendly Toast open in town so DH and I had lunch. Fried chicken sandwich for me and Huevos Rancheros for him. And it was fine, the fried chicken is done with rice krispies so it is very crunchy, had a good spicy aoli and some pickles. Huevos Rancheros were fine too, but nothing was outstanding. The space is fun and they can accommodate large groups. It would be perfect for a group meet up. And they do have boozy milkshakes. I would go back to try the eggs benedicts.
My favorite breakfast food and there are many options.
We found Pablo’s Taco & Burrito truck in Lawrence for take out. Excellent flautas, tamales and gordittas for very reasonable prices. We will visit them often.
We managed to snag a Sunday night reservation at Sarma recently, we usually sit at the bar but a table felt a little better to us. We sat in the back corner which gave a us a great view of the whole space. And the food was excellent as always. Only one special on the trays, fried chicken which we passed on. Spicy lamb stew on eggplant with garlic butter. We added pita with this one (now at a cost), it was so good. Rock shrimp on sweet potato grits, chicken musakhan which is hard to explain…a thin crispy crust with chicken thigh, peanuts, leeks and apricots. We also had monk fish dish that was very good. So nice to be there in person after 2 years.
Closer to home we ate at Bueno Malo in Andover. Tequila cocktails, gauc and chips. A BIG chicken burrito that was also lunch the next desk was chock full of beans, rice, chicken, sour cream and pico de gallo. I would of liked more of that but I always do. There was also a spicy shrimp over roasted corn, bacon, peppers, onion salad that was the best dish on the table.
We’re not sure how much we will be out in the next month or so. Watching the numbers including for the flu. But it was really nice to sit in restaurants feeling safe to do so and enjoying the normalcy.
Sorry for the long post! Be safe and have a Happy, Healthy New Year-GP
