Belated Thanksgiving Dinner

This Thanksgiving was my first away from a) my family, b) my relatives, and c) my childhood friends. Instead, I spent it at the hospital: a) trying to determine if the large smear of brown nastiness in the hallway was human fecal matter, b) dispensing pain medications, and c) monitoring hourly urine output on post-kidney transplant patients.

My friend from home - Jenn, worried that I wouldn't get to have a real Thanksgiving dinner, ended up ordering me a large catered meal from Whole Foods for this past Saturday (Saturday after Thanksgiving).

Included in the meal was:


Rosemary and sage turkey breast

Stuffing:

whole wheat dinner rolls, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie (not pictured).

Here's a pic of Aaron's completed plate:

Additionally Jenn had ordered us crab-stuffed Portabella mushrooms which the catering department of Whole Foods managed to misplace.

To my surprise (although I probably shouldn't have been) the food was pre-cooked, but subsequently re-chilled to accommodate my PM pickup time, and required re-heating once we got everything back to Ameeka's apartment. That meant I got the opportunity to do some "cooking" - which basically meant I tossed a few things into the oven, microwaved the microwave-able items, and stirred up mashed potatoes in a big pot over the stove.

Clayton, our awesome PGY-4 senior surgical resident, volunteered his services to slicing up the turkey, Paul made drinks (after one of his "special" drinks my face was more flushed than a person with red-man syndrome... damn my Asian female genes and enzyme deficiencies!!!),

and our lovely hostess was very attentive.

Yay to our hospital families! ...Who we now see more often than our real families...

Eastern Standard

Last night my pal Arthur and his band played a gig at a restaurant-bar in Boston's South End, and a large group of us turned out for a night of alcohol, soul-food, and music. The weekend of course, wouldn't be complete without post-alcohol brunch, so this morning a smaller group of us decided to try Eastern Standard in Fenway.

Most of us have already been to Eastern Standard before - at some point or other - for after-work drinks or dinner. Per report though, brunch is supposed to be pretty decent and worth a visit. Added to the fact that it's close to home, it was hard to pass up

I decided on the Eggs Benedict, given that I've been sugar over-loaded recently and was in the mood for something savory

Although the biscuit was delicious (they used a biscuit as a base rather than an English muffin) the eggs were inconsistently done. One was over-cooked, and the other was a bit too runny.

Everyone else was starving and didn't want to play the "let's wait until Victoria finishes taking pictures of all of our food before we can eat" game, so the only other person's dish that I was able to photograph was Louis'.  He ordered the pork hash with poached egg:

He's still smiling even though I stole his food... and it took me close to 5 minutes to even get a decent shot due to lighting

Although not photographed, Ammara and Arthur got the cinnamon French toast with fresh fruit, and Jason got the buttermilk pancakes. According to them, the food was decent, but not amazing

Overall rating: 6/10

528 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

Mistral

This weekend one of my favorite people came to visit from NYC, and per our usual behavior we had a food-fest. After scouring the internet for reviews on popular brunch places in Boston, I finally decided on taking Daniella to Mistral, in Boston's South End.

Mistral has been voted one of Boston's top 50 restaurants, and during the week is one of those places that earns the "$$$$" symbol on Yelp. However, their brunch menu is remarkably affordable and delivers the same caliber of food that you would expect during dinner time (except maybe minus the truffles and gold flakes...).

To start off, I couldn't say "no" to the hot Callebaut chocolate with hand-crafted marshmallow: while it looked delicious though, the marshmallow ended up being too sweet and too large - filling up about a third of the mug (hard to appreciate in the picture because most of it is below fluid level. Or perhaps I should more accurately say - below foam level)

Pictured next is the complementary apple cinnamon cake that came with each of our meals: the top was nicely crispy, and the inside was warm and fluffy

After asking our server for recommendations, Daniella and I also ordered the pear bignets. Per our server, they "melt in your mouth." He wasn't joking. This little babies were amazing,  and the caramel-pear sauce served on the side wasn't too shabby either

For an entree, Daniella opted for the smoked salmon benedict with citrus Hollandaise sauce. While the eggs were perfectly prepared, she wasn't actually a fan of the citrus in the Hollandaise.

I decided on the rosemary ham and Gruyere omelet with shallot confit: this was probably one of the best omelets that I've had in a while. The creamy-appearing confit had a hint of sweetness to it and was a surprisingly perfect pairing for the rest of the dish

Our entrees were accompanied by a side of the Pommes Lyonnaise (home fries): again these were very well prepared, but unfortunately we were too full to make much headway with them

Based on our brunch experience, Mistral is near the top of my re-visit list - next time for dinner.

Overall rating: 8.5/10


223 Columbus Avenue
Boston, MA 02116