FoodNerd!

three meals before departing

I've been away on vacation since the middle of May, so my apologies for the lack of posts... but i have been eating my way across northern California with insane gusto, so there's an avalanche of posts to come. MonkeyBoy has advised that I get a mini tripod to help out with those low-light restaurant photos, and I think I will take that advice, because an alarming number of the restaurant photos look like complete and total crap.

In any case, we had three lovely meals before we left, all at hometown favorites.

The night I hit Boston we stopped at Taiwan Cafe and got my favorite fu-chou fish ball soup, a tilapia in spicy sauce that tallasiandude had stumbled upon during a prior visit, and a plate of sauteed green beans that had me bouncing in my chair with the sheer pleasure of them. They were perfect, just the right doneness, and with a very clear, forward saltiness that came at least in part from the tiny dried shrimp. If you get nothing else at Taiwan Cafe, get these beans. Yum!

Another night we went to the Blue Room (watch out, link has &@^#%@ music!) to have dinner with one of tallasiandude's classmates, and to sit at a table attended by another of his classmates. We had a lovely meal -- the Blue Room is nothing if not reliable -- with standouts being some grilled octopus, some liver-rific raviolis, and the bizarre but wonderful raisin-caper mash on top of my halibut.

And the night before we left, we joined up with littlelee and spleen for some korean kimchi treat in the fancified new Wu Chon House. I suspect some change in chef, due to minute variations in dishes, though the food is still as fantastic as ever. We had kimchi bokum of course, and a plate of bulgogi and another of kalbi. One of the pan chan was a braised beef that was just terrific, and the fresh kimchi was one of the most delicious i have ever eaten. It was nice to be home.

Posted by foodnerd at June 4, 2006 02:26 AM