We had some dance workshops in Washington Square, Brookline today, and we were starving at the end of it. We looked at the cheap sushi place, then decided we'd rather the fireplace at The Fireplace, but that was an hour wait, so we bailed and walked up the street to see what else was around. The Publick House had lots of belgian beer signs in the window, so we figured what the hell and went in.
Yay for us, because it reminds me a lot of my beloved Hop Leaf in Chicago. The food is not quite as great, but very very good nonetheless. The mac and cheese is in fact all that. The mussels are very nice -- we had the ones with smoked beer and fatty chunks of bacon. Squash soup was well executed. And the frites... I was picking bones with the frites because I prefer mine much crunchier, but they were quite tasty, and then I started to notice just HOW tasty, with the delicious whiffs of animal fat coming off them. So I snagged the barman and asked what they fry in, and he grinned at me in a knowing way and said "Lard."
HOT DAMN.
I have forgiven them for not being crunchy.
And please, if you like beer, you'll love this place. Tons of Belgians, exotica of every sort, and this particular barman took my vague mutterings of "german beers, marzens, dark lagers" and in about 3 seconds brought me a hoppy little octoberfesty sort of thing that was just exactly what I wanted.
Snug, brown, woody, and gezellig, as they say in Holland and I assume they also say in Belgium. We will be returning.
I have developed an odd pattern of craving PB&J sammiches every morning for breakfast. Not sure what to make of that, other than that possibly I am morphing into tallasiandude.
Two nights ago we ate dinner in a Chinese restaurant and somehow managed to order only exactly enough food and we left without any carryout boxes. Miraculous!
To use up the last of the season's bumper crop of pears, my mom made us a pie (nom) and a poundcake/upsidedown cake sort of thing that was quite lovely in both taste and appearance. I should get her to type up the recipe so i can post it.
While we were away for the weekend, the cats for some reason jumped onto the table and started chawing on the lotus seed mooncakes we left there. They didn't do too much damage, so maybe they didn't like them after all?
Things are busy with work, so I'm not spending much leisure time at the keyboard. Hopefully it'll mellow out soon.