Abacus

Abacus is one of those neighborhood restaurants that you wish were on the corner of your block, but since it isn't you're willing to work a few calories off by walking there. Upon inquiring on how the owner sees the menu, the response was "California Chinese". I prefer Pan Asian, since they offer items like sashimi, garlic noodles, and lamb chops as well as some familiar Chinese dishes. Fresh approaches to traditional recipes is what makes this California Does Asia restaurant worth repeat visits.

Seared ahi with a fresh mango salsa was a nice starter one evening along with pea shoot pot stickers with pork fillings. Both deserve their place on the permanent menu. The quirky combinations of flavors were delightful together.

Thai garlic noodles were as good if not better than any I've had at Thai restaurants and made a nice accompaniment to the Kung Pao chicken and Crispy Orange Beef entrees. I don't recall exactly, but on our first visit to Abacus the French cut lamb chops were cooked to a pink medium rare and the sauce was perfection and was a spicy mint concoction. I have to wonder if that may have been a Vietnamese influence on the menu. Every time we go to this restaurant is fills up quickly with locals but it's easy to get a table at 6 p.m. As you sit down to the modern decor you know you have found something different in Chinese cuisine.

http://www.abacussf.com/dinner.html

(415) 387-2828

2078 Hayes St

San Francisco CA 94117

Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco

My introduction to this restaurant was over 20 years ago. My main travel guide was a book devoted to shopping in Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome that listed hotels and restaurants almost as afterthoughts in each chapter. Now it graces the pages of most major travel guides, but you can always get a table at 6:30 p.m.

Whenever I travel to Florence, Italy I make a pilgrimage across the Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrarno section of the city to dine at The White Boar. This charming, old world osteria never fails to deliver a satisfying meal of classic Tuscan recipes including wild boar stew and ribolita. No matter how the times change, Cinghiale Bianco allows you to step back into the Tuscany of old where you are welcomed and treated like extended family. I proudly display one of their ashtrays in my kitchen. It was a gift to me by the owner Massimo as I was singing the praises of his restaurant, just after the ban on indoor smoking took effect. While celebrating my birthday there one year, he also brought me a piece of cake on the house, a generosity I would have expected to be reserved for regular customers from the neighborhood who frequented the restaurant weekly. Only one time did I miss dinner here, when I came for a day trip on a Wednesday.

When first traveling to Italy, I found the salads disappointing since they were primarily made with chicory and lettuce. On the right you can see that they have become more varied and colorful. Most times I skip salad in Europe and go straight to the vegetable sides, but on those occasions when you just have to have something raw and fresh, it's nice to know that there are now more options. The prosciutto pictured above is a standard on the menu and is made from wild boar. Much dryer than Prosciutto di Parma, wild boar prosciutto is stronger in flavor and pairs well with the unsalted Tuscan bread. Its color is as deep and rich, as its taste and we seldom fail to order it.

The main advantage of traveling to Italy in October is that it's truffle season and most good restaurants showcase fresh "tartufo". One year I ordered pasta with freshly grated truffle over a cream sauce here. This year I chose the burrata with tartufata (a truffle sauce sometimes mixed with porcini mushrooms and/or black olives) and fresh black truffle, drizzled with olive oil that had also been spiked with truffle. It may sound like overkill, but you can never have too many tartufo!

Was wild boar stew mentioned? That's it on the right, served up with polenta. A heartier dinner for a cool Autumn evening cannot be found. The meat is fall-off-the-bone tender and the sauce is just begging to be sopped up by the polenta as it usually is. Strozzapreti al Burro is pictured on the right, photographed as the parmigiano cheese was drifting down towards the plate. Strozzapreti meaning "priest strangler" is used to describe many different dishes in Italy, perhaps as many dishes as there are regional cuisines. There is even a pasta shape called by that name, but for me it will always mean the ravioli nudi (ravioli filling sans pasta) of Osteria del Cinghale Bianco. This ricotta and spinach dumpling literally melts in your mouth. I insist that everyone I know try this at least once in their lives. There are now 4 strozzapreti in an order, but when I first started going there were only two, but they were the size of billiard balls and most certainly would have strangled anyone trying to eat them whole.

http://www.cinghialebianco.it/

Borgo S. Jacopo, 43 r.

50125 Florence

Tel. Fax +39 055/21.57.06

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 18.30 - 22.30

Saturday, Sunday, 12.00 - 15.00 / 18.30 - 22.30

Closed on Wednesday

Lookout Tavern in Oak Bluffs

What was that I was saying about kitschy signs? No problem here, the parking was difficult, the restaurant was packed and we nabbed the last whole lobster in the place. This was the New England seafood we were after and the atmosphere was mom and pop perfection with a bit of blue collar thrown in for a rough around the edges feel. It really was a tavern.

Finding clam chowder on every menu in the state did not deter us from ordering this creamy rendition at the Lookout. It was simple with few items tossed in other than clams, cream and onion. A shake or two of paprika was not even necessary because the flavor was clean and strong with clams and needed nothing more, but the paprika did perk up the color and perhaps that's all it was intended to do.

Not wanting to pout or fight over the last boiled lobster, I ordered a lobster roll and ended up with more lobster than could be comfortably held by the "white bread bun" so common in Massachusetts. The abundance of lobster meat was eaten with a fork until the bun held just the right amount of lobster and mayonnaise for a bite, with lobster and bread in perfect proportion. The chips and pickle were an afterthought and seemed unnecessary as they really could not add taste of the lobster roll, but what could?

"Last one out of the water is...." an amazing seafood dinner. As we walked to our table we over heard another patron ask and then debate about ordering the boiled dinner. Since her waitress was telling her there was only one left, we ordered then and there without a menu. Her indecision was our good fortune.

8 Seaview Ave

Oak Bluffs MA 02568
Phone: (508) 696-9844

Barnacle Bill's Seafood in Buzzard Bay

"What's in a name?", you might ask, concerning dining establishments. For one thing, they may pique our curiosity and get us to walk in the door; for another, they set up for us a sense of "place". Since we were looking for a mom and pop establishment with good home cooked food, on our way back to Boston from Martha's Vineyard, and were looking for lobster, Barnacle Bill's conjured up the image of what we were hoping would suit us. They had lobster rolls, but we elected to get the 1 pound lobster for $14.99 with sides because it looked like a deal.

It was a "deal"...for the restaurant. I knew we were in trouble the minute our order arrived at the table on paper plates and both Styrofoam and aluminum bowls. It was not a small lobster as we had imagined, but lobster pieces with very little tail and no claws, just lots of spongy legs and they were breaded and greasy. Not greasy enough though, as we were served melted butter along with it, in a black plastic bowl. The cole slaw was alright, the onion rings okay, but the fried zucchini was not good either, having been fried in grease that had seen one too many fryings. The star of each plate was a plentiful helping of rice pilaf that seemed like an odd accompaniment, but it helped make the lobster palatable. This is by no means a restaurant I would recommend. It serves as a warning to all who would choose a restaurant based on a kitschy name. It's better to judge by the number of cars in the parking lot, or the smells as you walk in.

Legal Sea Foods

Every time we visit Boston, we make a pilgrimage to Legal Sea Foods. This is where I discovered that Blue fish is not to my liking, as it is too oily for my taste. This is also where I discovered a delightful salad of blackened shrimp over mixed greens that is no longer on the menu, but inspires me to try and recreate it one day. Although it is a chain restaurant, the menu is creative, ever changing, and the seafood always fresh and delicious.

Lobster bisque is a great way to start any meal and we find ourselves (credit goes exclusively to my husband here) making it as a first course for holiday dinners at home. It is delightful to have someone else do the work while we reap the benefit. The crab cake is less time consuming to make, but equally rewarding on the plate and beautifully paired with a spicy mustard sauce and a seasonal salad. the one photographed is the appetizer.

Once again, our appetites got the better of us and these photos were taken just minutes before finishing the lightly fried New England full belly clams with cornbread, an appetizer worthy of any entree, and a special that evening, a seafood ravioli in tomato sauce.

A trio of house made ice creams was a nice ending to the meal. You may select from a group and this was Kona coffee with macadamia nuts, Belgian chocolate and vanilla bean.

http://www.legalseafoods.com/index.cfm?cd=LOCATION&pid=11279&cdid=11833

255 State Street

Boston MA 02109

Phone: 617.742.5300

Fax: 617.523.0512
Sun-Thurs: 11:00am - 10:00pm
Fri-Sat: 11:00am - 11:00pm

Junior's

Perhaps the original was in Brooklyn, but this Junior's was in the belly of Grand Central Station. Who would think to look for food at Grand Central? It was merely a fluke that we even found this outpost of the Junior's branding. It was surprising to me that they had a shop devoted exclusively to bakery items, because I knew of it only as a restaurant. I had no knowledge then that Junior's makes "The best cheesecake in New York" . Having walked by it 3 times already, I just had to break down and buy a piece of cheese cake, to take back to the hotel.

The selection was mind boggling. Besides the regular cheese cake, they had raspberry swirl, pineapple, strawberry, chocolate swirl, and one that had a mountain of chocolate frosting on it. Most interesting and unusual were the hybrid cake / cheese cakes. The devil's food cake and plain cheese cake combination, with chocolate buttercream frosting and shaved chocolate, still sends shivers up my spine when I look at this photo. The carrot cake / cheese cake combo with buttercream frosting only makes my knees weak. Then I saw the red velvet and carrot cakes and almost walked away in frustration. How could one choose?

My inner struggle between buying what I really wanted vs. buying the least of all the evils lurking behind the counters, came to an abrupt halt as I walked out of the shop. During a momentary panic of  indecision I bolted, but then I turned. Standing before me was the only case I had yet to memorize. I rushed back in, before I could change my mind again, and ordered the smallest item in the shop for myself and a slice of the raspberry swirl cheese cake for my husband. With purchase in hand, I rushed back to the hotel and along the way, purchased a carton of milk.

  

The Tuscan brand milk was better than I've had in a long time, so I recommend it. I decided the red velvet bunt cake with only enough cream cheese frosting to fill the void, was probably my healthiest bet, but who really knows? About the cheese cake; I wish I had a Junior's in my neighborhood.

Junior's Website

Retail Bakery Grand Central Station Main Concourse near track 36 New York NY (212) 692-9800 Monday-Saturday 6am-10pm EST Sunday 8am-8pm EST

The Old Mill

Every time we travel to Massachusetts we make time to drive to Westminster and dine at The Old Mill. It's become a habit at this point, but not necessarily for the food. Originally we went there and ordered their boiled lobster dinner, but that has been off the menu for many years now. Perhaps we go back for the tranquility offered by the lovely, country setting and the mill pond complete with ducks; or the very rustic feel of the interior and the basic "meat and potatoes", all American, New England style menu that hearkens back to a simpler time. Memories of the pecan sticky buns, available from their bakery for take out, would be reason enough. We've packed those back to California a time or two.

Sometimes, when a restaurant has a standard menu with few variations like nightly specials, you risk being disappointed. That's what happened for me with the corn fritters, a staple at The Old Mill. I fell in love with them my very first time and keep a wonderful memory of them that did not match the reality of the same dish on this particular visit. They used to be made with corn batter studded with fresh corn kernels that created not only a wonderful contrast in textures, but added a fresh sweetness each time you'd bite into a kernel. That is no longer the case, although they're still served piping hot with maple syrup, and that is a treat in itself. The New England clam chowder is still rich, thick and creamy.

No, the photo of the prime rib is not distorted, it is actually that thick. Generous portions are the hall mark of this type of restaurant. Doesn't that half of a roasted duck look enormous? The stuffing underneath helps, but suffered in taste and the charred leg bone is a good indication of how well cooked it was. If I clicked my heels twice I wonder if I could get back to another century and find the same menu.


http://www.1761oldmill.com/

69 State Road East
Westminster Massachusetts 01473

The Green Table in NYC

Located inside food central, Chelsea Market in lower Manhattan, The Green Table was a small tasting room set up by the Cleaver Company to allow it's potential catering clients to taste samples of organic items prepared by and available from their facility. They ultimately decided to use it as a minuscule restaurant with perhaps 6 or so tables to serve the throngs of people walking through or working at Chelsea Market. A good use of space in my opinion. They also have a take out window for prepared meals.

I was fortunate to be visiting Chelsea Market after the lunch rush because I had no trouble getting a table, green or otherwise. Each item on the menu looked enticing and was described by not only ingredients, but by where the ingredients came from, mostly organic farms and dairies close to the city.

I had no trouble selecting blue corn pancakes served over a vegetable ragu. For very healthy food, this tasted better than I had imagined and lighter than I had expected. Cleaver company has a good thing going and I'm glad I went. Since Buon Italia, a purveyor of imported Italian food and condiments, is located in the same building, I'm certain I will dine here again.

http://www.cleaverco.com/

212) 741-9174
75 9th Ave

New York, NY 10011