Sampson (HO founder) and I had a call yesterday. He patiently listened to my concerns and explained how the system works. Unfortunately you cannot block someone from seeing your stuff, you can only not see theirs which is counterintuitive. Sampson said he’d look into it for me. Like a lot of us, the future looks unclear. I have some ideas how to keep HO afloat financially and technically but like Sampson says this is a hobby for most of us.
So I am thinking about coming back from retirement I am not sure.
Just some brief updates since I last posted.
Ana Sortun worked at Aigo Bistro in Concord, I think some of you were trying to figure that out. I actually met her in the 1990’s. She happened to be catering a work party and was good friends with a couple of co-workers. They told me she had been in professional kitchens since age 16 or earlier. I was very impressed and although I never tried Aigo, years later I had a memorable meal at Casablanca. I told the waiter to say hi and she gifted us a very nice dish although she didn’t have time to come out. My friend dining with me was David Dellinger, a good friend and somewhat infamous for being part of the Chicago Eight. I’ve been to Oleana of course, Sarma which she inspired, Sofra, and back to 80 Thoreau I think one of the chefs was a Sortun alum but I’m not sure, maybe she worked for Jody Adams I can’t recall. Anyway it’s an honor to have known one of Boston’s greatest chefs for so many years and she will always have my respect. (As an aside everyone thinks I’m some zoomer foodie but no I’ve been at this game longer than most.)
A Lee 88 announced on WeChat that they will close their doors at the end of this month. You have one more week to get your Mongolian Shumai fix in. The plan is to move to Belmont Center in May. I kinda was telling you without telling you but it’s official now. I will let you know how plans progress, I have become friends with Tao Li, the master chef, and his lovely new wife, they literally got married on Tuesday of this week, Szu Wang. I will let you know, if I come back for real, and if ppl are nice to me and search deep within themselves for a sense of…humor. Send me bitcoin? (That’s a joke.)
Now that Wang’s is gone, the best place to get frozen dumplings is Golden Garden most likely. They were quite comparable to begin with back in the 2000’s but I always thought Amy and her hubsband’s “PSL” or Pork, Leek with Shrimp Dumplings, officially, were the trump card. That combo is just killer and Wang’s didn’t have that. The original GG was in Belmont and I arranged a chowdown there. Amy might be persuaded to assemble a bag of 50 or something if you bring that up, the old days. She was grateful for all the attention we gave her. Golden Garden moved to Malden and it’s on my list of places to revisit.
I’ve been eating all kinds of interesting stuff, including the best sushi omakase in NYC that didn’t get mentioned on Eater’s latest best sushi in NYC listicle (kinda like 3 times in a month lol), Korean Black Goat suyuk style in ssams, amazing old school Canto with beer snob craft brews (Robert Sietsema wrote about it but ordered wrong and didn’t get any beer, he’s still the greatest, but he missed on this one.) and other stuff I guess some of it is on instagram.
Alright, all you haters behave!