Huh interesting, I definitely want to see this dish. I can’t recall eating this in the few times I’ve been to Toronto either.
Oh I suppose rather than just NE style dishes, Boston should do well in Italian/Irish cuisine no? Any thoughts?
On their menu it might be “pan fried sticky rice” (not “stir fried sticky rice” or "pan fried rice cake " which i think is nian gao)
I don’t think that is true. There is a lot of good stuff downtown but also around in the burbs and Boston neighborhoods. From my “new person” experience (again lots of generalizations) Bostonians are very sensitive to location - which can be a great thing and a hurdle sometimes . . . . When I first moved here I would call things “Boston” and would quickly be corrected with a more specific location (e.g. South End or Back Bay - which to me were, and still are, downtown Boston - but that is because I’m “from away”). You have a good list to go from.
Just remember we are a small city, we have a great breadth of offerings but will never have the depth that a NYC or SF can offer.
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I’m still getting confused with some of the neighborhoods and some of the repeating street names as I was reading around. But yeah I figured that there is a rather large list for well two nights, but just trying to figure out where to sightsee and eat is always a plus. Thanks everyone!
PS. I still consider SF to be a small city!
@Barleywino huh, I’ll definitely keep an eye on it. Rather random, but are there any places that does a good HK style lemon tea? Always in a mood to drink that (whether its healthy or not… eh…)
Unfortunately i don’t know the answer to your question about hk lemon tea. Perhaps Royaltea in Chinatown (have not tried)?
Its just a tea drink that’s found in the Hong Kong style cafes (usually if they have HK style milk teas, they’ll have the lemon ones). Royal tea is more like a boba shop from what I can gleam on yelp (which is more Taiwanese) but sounds like a nice place to take a rest if I’m around.
Thanks!
Maybe Double Chin? Their website lists hk milk tea , lemon tea, lemonade tea etc
I haven’t tried some of the newer places, but the one place that has always done a a good HK style lemon tea is Eldo Bakery. You’ll have to get it to-go unfortunately, since it’s really a bakery shop, and a pretty old, dated one at that. If you don’t want it to be that sweet, make sure to ask for it with less sweetness.
Hey everyone, I wasn’t in Boston for that long and pretty much endured a freezing rainy weekend (what luck…), but I had a pretty good time.
Started off with a lunch meal at Saltie Girl and had around 5 oysters, a clam chowder, and the fried clams. The oysters all had different tastes but… I’ll be honest I was never a huge fan of raw oysters haha. I wasn’t really impressed with the clam chowder (I thought it was expensive at 18 a bowl, but was thinking maybe it’ll really wow me). When it was served I was hoping the chowder would be piping hot and well, it was more towards the warm end for my tastes. Had chunks of thick bacon, clams (with shells), potatoes, and salsify (some sort of root veggie) but dunno, I expected a little more. The fried clams were quite good though! Friend had some smoked salmon bagel and I tried a bite and though they were good. Didn’t have room for crudo 
Went to Neptune Oyster for dinner though and I enjoyed that place a lot more even if I had to wait a little bit (I really wanted to have a huge bowl of ramen at Yume Wo Katare but that place was closed) and eventually wandered back towards that area. Had the hot lobster butter roll which was fantastic and five oysters as well. I really enjoyed that lobster roll with pretty much the lobster meat spilling everywhere onto the salad so I suppose I had lobster salad as well…
The following day, tried some cider donuts at Kane’s and the little mini ones at the Boston Public Market (friend brought some cider donuts from Apple Hill back in California so I just thought I can do a quick comparison). I think I preferred the little mini donuts more but that’s because I had them still warm. Perferred the sugar coated cider donuts vs the hard glazed ones at Kane’s. Also tried a sample of the blue fish pate (I thought it was quite nice! Though maybe I was blind, but they don’t really sell the whole blue fish?).
Wandered around that area up to Scampo for lunch though I really had no idea what to order. Waiter suggested scallops and I can’t say I can resist no to that! Thought the scallops were cooked quite well, but not sure exactly what people usually order there. Eventually wandered up from there towards Cambridge area (seems like a really bustling area as well for restaurants!) and tried Giulia. Started off with this beef crudo which was terrific. Had this octopus and smoked squid appetizer as well with chickpeas, tomatoes and a hint of citrus (I just presume lemon). Lastly finished up the main course with pappardelle with wild boar pasta. That sauce was delicious, and getting an extra piece of bread to sop up the sauce is pretty much the end goal. Saw another diner next to me order this hazelnut gelato and I had to try that as well. Excellent gelato is all I can say, nice smooth texture with a great hazelnut flavor.
On my final morning, tried Winsor’s dim sum for that dish that wasn’t even on the outside menu. Found it in the end and they call it pan fried sticky rice in English, but per my conversation it was a pan fried lo mai gai (lotus wrapped rice with sausage, pork, mushrooms, and sometimes egg). The rice of the item was crispy, and there was an scrambled egg that wrapped around it. I honestly never seen this before in the bay area so it was a new surprise. The other few items I ordered were the rice noodle shrimp roll, ha gau, siu mai, char siu bao, and xo pan fried radish cakes (this was a huge dish). I thought everything was fine, but i wouldn’t really say that it is a must visit. After that I got a slice of pepperoni and mushroom pizza slice from Regina Pizzeria.
Thanks for all the help, definitely missed a lot of places and a lot of items and I will want to checkout Boston sometime soon!
and if you’re uh hoping for pictures… I might eventually post them lol
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I’ve never seen that at Winsor either. Now I’m curious and will have to look for the that the next time I visit.
The other meals sound delicious! For someone who doesn’t like raw oysters, you certainly gave it plenty of tries. 
You were wise to opt for seafood, which is a quite different experience than Bay area seafood (both fantastic, but different); I certainly think seafood in Boston is one of its strong points in dining, and I know my friends or colleagues visiting for work cite their seafood dinners as usually the most memorable.
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Its honestly quite different, though for me, not especially that delicious (I prefer stir fried sticky rice).
Ha I forgot I only tired 3 oysters and 2 clams not 5 oysters at saltie girl. One larger one and one smaller (my photo had the names somewhere…). I figured that hey, I might be getting the wrong stuff and I’ll try it once more, but still not really my thing. Same thing goes for sushi, I’ll eat it, but I preferred the cooked stuff more often than not. Note, I did try to go to O Ya but realized they were closed on Monday -_-
But yeah, definitely enjoyed Neptune Oyster’s lobster roll. Wish I had room for their fried clams to do a comparison. Though I will ask, is there a reason why Saltie Girl’s chowder was 18 dollars, and Neptune’s was 13? Seemed remarkably expensive.
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I have not been to Saltie Girl yet. $18 sounds quite steep, but so is $13. Guess it’s been a while since I ordered clam chowder when I’m out, but I would hope you can get a good bowl under $10, unless it was super, duper special.
Yeah I was just thrown off and expected something super special like this one steak house in Portland, Oregon called Ox. They did this fantastic bone marrow clam chowder.
But honestly, it was mostly the temperature of the soup at Saltie Girl that made me sad. I really was expecting it to be pipping hot, maybe it just sat there too long
I’m thrown by the expense of most food items here in Boston. Wish I had a good answer for you.
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@digga [Coming out of hibernation.] Steve has sold the Red Dory to a fellow chef. Though, as usual, the new chef says he won’t mess with Steve’s recipes, hard to know from afar if this will actually be true. I dream frequently about the Buttermilk Lemon Cake. Mine is just never as good.
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I mean I’m sorta price blind with high prices coming from the bay area, but Boston seems especially high @_@
[Coming out of hibernation.] Steve has sold the Red Dory to a fellow chef. Though, as usual, the new chef says he won’t mess with Steve’s recipes, hard to know from afar if this will actually be true. I dream frequently about the Buttermilk Lemon Cake. Mine is just never as good.
smtucker
so good to see you back, smtucker! we never got to Red Dory while Steve was still there. I’ll miss him yet more times. I’m not surprised…he’s worked hard for decades and I hope he enjoys his retirement. I loved that buttermilk lemon cake, too, all of his tapas, and the cassoulet. Hope to hear more from you now. best wishes.
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yes, high food prices in Boston, but what amazes me more is the same level of prices elsewhere. I haven’t been back to my native NC in years, but online menus show prices very much like ours here, but they don’t have the high rents, high liquor license prices, and heat costs (they do have a/c costs most months). We just got back from Woodstock, VT. Okay, maybe it costs more to get food delivered there, but surely the rent and liquor license costs are lower than here? Maybe not. $18 for run of the mill cheeseburger and not so great pizza…
I’m no where near a industry insider, but I’m wondering the the margin profits are lower here than other places, and there’s more competition.
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Dang just getting this…so glad that you’re back in the mix! (?) We could use some more voices here on GBA. But no matter, hope things are ok (which is why you are back).
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