Christina's Homemade Ice Cream

Today my visiting pals and I decided to head over to Cambridge for an Irish breakfast which ended up being rather disappointing. To boost our spirits again, we stopped over at an ice cream shop about a block down the street called Christina's Homemade Ice cream (next to Christina's Specialty Foods Shop)


Pictured below is John and his pistachio ice cream: clearly satisfies the kid inside

I chose malted vanilla: don't worry folks - those manly-looking hands are NOT mine. Dave was kind enough to hold my cone for me while I snapped the shot

Overall rating: 6.5/10

1255 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

Rincon Limeno

Today 2 of my pals from Seattle arrived in Boston for a visit, and after picking them up from the airport - along with 2 buddies from NYC - we decided to have Peruvian food for lunch at Rincon Limeno in East Boston.

The inspiration was Food Network - a favorite channel of mine to watch after work - where they did a feature on a South American restaurant near New Haven on Guy's show: Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives

This restaurant was one of the first suggestions that Google provided when we typed in "South American Food, Boston," so we assumed it must be pretty good. The place was rather empty when we arrived at noon on a Saturday, so that wasn't too reassuring, but the food ended up being decent.

I ordered the tostones (sliced and twice-fried green plantains) as an appetizer, which came with two sauces: one green and one red - both of which were spicy. Oddly enough the green had more of a kick than the red. Tostones are yummy in small amounts, but tend to be pretty heavy as they're rich in starch

Liz ordered the Lomo Saltado: marinated chicken with fried tomatoes, vegetables, and rice

John and I both ordered the Plato Montanero: grilled steak with rice, egg, fried pork, salad, fried sweet plantains, and beans. I hate hate hate beans, so I asked to swap my beans for more plantains, which were yummy and totally the best part of the meal.

The fried pork was over-fried and very dry, and the steak was thin and also a bit over-cooked.

Jenn ordered the Pescado Saltado: fried fish strips with vegetable and fries

Dave went slightly healthier and got the Ceviche Mixto: containing fish, squid, and shrimp - all marinated in lemon juice

Although not amazing, the food was pretty decent, and the plantains were some of the best that I've had, so definitely worth a visit from those of you looking to be in the area - only a 5 minute drive from Boston Logan International Airport

Overall rating: 6.5/10

409 Chelsea Street
East Boston, MA 02128

Perry Street

Perry Street's Amuse Bouche ("To please the mouth"): a tasty little pre-appetizer that was similar in concept to cheddar-filled French fries

This weekend was spent in my favorite city and amongst some of my favorite people. It's been a while since I've taken part in NYC's fine-dining scene, so on Saturday Yu and I decided to visit Jean Georges' Perry Street near Chelsea Piers.

The atmosphere was right up my alley - clean and modern on the inside, with a color scheme primarily consisting of white, black, and silver. The dining area was busy enough to speak well of the restaurant's reputation and the quality of the food, but not noisy enough to drown out conversation with friends.

Yu had already been to the restaurant once before and had good memories of the salmon entree, however it's hard for me to resist the tasting menu in any restaurant that offers one, so that's what we ultimately decided on.


After the Amuse Bouche pictured above, the tasting menu began with an appetizer of rice cracker-crusted tuna with Sriracha-citrus emulsion: this was probably my favorite dish of the entire meal. The rice cracker crust was a perfect texture-paring with the raw tuna, and the Siracha-citrus emulsion had the nice balance of sweet and sour

Next were the crab dumplings with market peas, spicy ginger, and carrot broth: the spicy ginger sauce and carrot broth reminded me of a type of sweet and spicy Vietnamese chili sauce that was often used in my home for accompaniment of fried chicken dishes when I was growing up

 The entrees began with the sourdough-crusted Scottish salmon with Fava beans and herbs:

 Next came the grilled lamb chops with black olives and fried artichoke hearts: the lamb was cooked a medium-rare (which in my personal opinion is the only *proper* way to prepare any sort of red meat), and was tender. However, I'm not normally a fan of black olives, and my artichoke hearts were over-fried to the point of tasting burnt. Those accompaniments I could have done without, and been happier

 [By this point in the night the sun had set and the restaurant had gotten dark enough that my camera was refusing to snap pictures without supplemental lighting, so I finally had to venture into the previously-avoided territory of photography with flash. I'm still not a fan...]


Dessert was Perry Street's chocolate candy bar, which had a texture similar to a thick chocolate mousse. It was delicious, but by this point I was too full to clean my plate. Although I'm usually the one with the biggest sweet-tooth out of my all my friends, I have a feeling that this was Yu's favorite part of dinner

Afterwards, I asked him what he thought about his second Perry Street experience, and either a) his palate has become more refined with time, b) the quality of the food has deteriorated, or c) the tasting menu did not appropriately reflect the chef's true skill level, but he was slightly disappointed

From my standpoint, I thought it was an enjoyable experience, and definitely better than my other run-in with a Jean Georges' restaurant (see my post on Mercer Kitchen) although the dishes were by no means perfect. So....

Overall rating: 7/10


176 Perry Street
New York, NY 10014