Super 88

kind of artsy for a cell phone pic!

Super 88 is Allston’s own Chinatown. It’s split into two sections, so you can head to the back and immerse yourself in Asian ingredients or stay in the food court and overwhelm yourself with meal options. It’s a buzzing mecca of varying Asian cuisine.

Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Chinese and Thai food are at your disposal, and the only way to eat at Super 88 is aggressively. You can wander around for a while, assaulted by competing smells, extensive menus and laminated pictures of most dishes, or you can dive right in. After eating there for three years, I’ve narrowed down my three favorite vendors:

Pho Viet's

1. Pho Viet’s is my pho go-to. They have several varieties to choose from, and all are flavorful, large and under $7–a hard combination to beat. My personal favorite (predictably) is the Pho Dac Biet or “Special Beef Noodle Soup.”

Pho Dac Biet

It comes with slices of rare steak, well done flank, brisket, tendon and tripe, scallions, onions and cilantro. All soups are accompanied by a plate on the side of bean sprouts, asian basil, green chiles, and lime to add as you like. I enjoy throwing them all in. My perfect bite has plenty of the sweet & salty broth, a piece of tender meat, some chewy noodles, scallions, onions and cilantro.

2. Smile Thai has amazing duck pad see you. Though it doesn’t offer duck as an option on the menu with see you, you can easily ask for it. It’s a sweet stir-fry of duck, wide noodles, chinese broccoli and egg. A perfect complement to the salty pho.

Lollicup

3. Lollicup Tea Zone is a smoothie, milk and bubble tea franchise–its defining characteristic is the chewy boba, or tapioca balls, it offers at the bottom of each drink to be slurped up through an extra-wide straw. A great flavor to try is the Taro Milk Tea, a sweet, purple, frothy drink that’s perfect for dessert.

The final positive to Super 88? Its low prices. Although, when you walk out, you tend to feel a little greasy. But it’s worth it.

Super 88, 1095 Commonwealth Avenue, Allston, MA

The Lobster Pool

The Lobster Pool

After a charming day in Rockport, a picturesque sea town in Massachusetts, I was naturally hungry for some good ol’ New England fare: a lobster roll. Taking the advice of my freshman year roommate, a Rockport native, Will and I headed to The Lobster Pool for some seafood. It was a quick, but pretty drive outside downtown, and when we pulled up, seemed like the right decision from the outside. But that’s always been a problem of mine: I tend to judge books by their covers, meaning I set my expectations high for this one.

The menu, hung above the cashier, was straightforward. Fried, fried and more fried seafood. Plenty of lobster, calamari, oysters, clams, shrimp, haddock, sole, scallops and more prepared any way you want, that is, if you want them fried. We chose to get our seafood fried, and settled on the “Mini Fisherman,” a plate full of assorted fried seafood, and a lobster roll. After ordering at the counter and paying, we waited patiently for our food to arrive.

A no frills supper

It looks great, doesn’t it? We thought so, too, so we eagerly dug in. And that’s when it all slowly went downhill. The seafood would have been great, had it had flavor. The fried food wasn’t even salted, making it as bland as could be. And though the seafood tasted as fresh as could be, the thick batter masked those fresh flavors. The lobster roll, while impressively made of mostly lobster meat and no fillers, lacked sweet, lobster flavor. The meal’s only saving grace rested in its tangy, sweet tartar sauce. After dousing the seafood in it, everything seemed to taste better. Except that’s not how it should be.

Maybe The Lobster Pool is better in high season. Or maybe we were there on an off night. Or maybe my expectations were too high, and I set myself up for disaster. Or maybe, as much as I don’t want it to be, The Lobster Pool just isn’t that good. I’d be willing to go back, because I want to love it. That is, if I’m ever in Rockport again.

The Lobster Pool, www.lobsterpoolrestaurant.com, 329 Granite St., Rockport, MA, 978-546-7808

Clear Flour Bread

Warning: you will read nothing even remotely negative in the following review.

when that neon sign is lit, it draws me in like a fly

I’m obsessed with Clear Flour Bread in Brookline. In fact, I think you can call it an addiction. While some parents tell their daughters to lay off the shoe shopping or bar hopping, mine tell me to stop charging Clear Flour onto the credit card. My solution? I pay cash.

I trek there morning, noon or night nearly every day. And by trek, I mean walk out my door to the building next door. Yes, I’m lucky enough to share the same street address as this pastry and bread mecca. You can’t really blame me when no matter what time it is, be it 12 noon or 12 midnight, the smell of baking bread wafts through my window.

Breakfast is always the hardest choice. Two pastries will fill me up, so should I pick the currant donut (my favorite breakfast treat) and the chocolate croissant? Or the morning bun with walnuts and cranberry currant scone? Or what about the pan aux raisins and the gibassier? Luckily I can always come back tomorrow…

For lunch I usually choose their divine olive sandwich roll, an airy, chewy roll with a satisfying crunchy exterior dotted with lush, juicy green olives. I enjoy toasting it and filling it with peppery tuna salad. Today for lunch, though, Will and I decided on a a picnic for the season’s first hot day. In a roast beef mood, I thought the traditional sandwich roll would pair best. I filled it with rare, thinly shaved roast beef, crunchy red onions, mild provolone cheese, mixed greens and, the kicker, beet horseradish mayonnaise. As Passover just came to an end, I have an excess of beet horseradish in my refrigerator (a classic pairing with Gefilte fish). Mixing it with mayonnaise created a spicy, deep purple spread.

A beautiful sandwich, if I do say so myself!

To complete the picnic, we brought juicy, sweet red grapes and my favorite potato chips, Cape Cod Robust Russet. For dessert, more Clear Flour. I chose a chocolate chunk cookie and my all-time favorite Clear Flour treat: the chocolate macaroon.

check out the strata

TO. DIE. FOR.

While this happens to be an exceptional chocolate chunk cookie, it pales in comparison to the chocolate macaroon. Divine is the only way to describe it. It’s absurdly fudgy and coconuty, and with those two traits, you just can’t go wrong. Thankfully The Boston Globe did a feature on how to bake the cookie, or I’m not sure I’d be able to move out of Boston…

No matter what you walk away with at Clear Flour, you walked away with the right thing. I didn’t even begin to touch on what they offer–there are just so many varieties of bread and pastries that change daily that a trip everyday (or two, or three) is truly necessary (seriously, Mom!).

a sampling of their stunning offerings

Clear Flour Bread, www.clearflourbread.com, 178 Thorndike Street, Brookline, MA, 617-729-0060

Giacomo’s Ristorante

On a recent (lost-filled) foray into Boston’s North End, my boyfriend and I were fortunate enough to snag two seats at Giacomo’s Ristorante as soon as we got there. All the reviews say be prepared to wait, as Giacomo’s does not accept reservations, but does entice a steady crowd. But as we are obviously VIP’s (or maybe it was the combination of 20 degree weather and no indoor area to wait that only crazy people would endure), we were immediately shuttered to the back corner and plopped down at a table positioned half an inch away from the next. Rose Marie, our delightful server immediately welcomed us and explained Giacomo’s endless choices.

Best chalkboard lesson ever!

Because I have (sigh, again) lost my camera, you can’t really see what’s written on their chalkboard menu in my phone picture, so I, your faithful foodie friend, will obligingly describe. Giacomo’s doesn’t hand out menus; rather it has everything written out on the wall–a method we really enjoyed and that added to the bustling, warm atmosphere. In addition to its hearty Italian appetizers, pasta and chicken & veal entrees, Giacomo’s specializes in seafood. For around $15, you can pick your choice of shellfish over linguine with either pesto, fra diavolo, red, scampi or giacomo sauce.

Neither of us took advantage of this, as we weren’t in a seafood mood, but I can’t wait to go back and try the giacomo sauce, a lobster-based red sauce. I chose the veal parmigiana and Will went with one of the day’s specials, a portobello mushroom and spinach ravioli in a pesto walnut sauce with grilled red peppers.

succulently saucy

the rav

My veal was perfect: juicy on the inside, with a crunch from the breading, tangy tomato flavor from the sauce and great texture from the divinely melted mozzarella cheese. Will’s pasta was equally great–how can you not like those perfect dumpling rounds stuffed with umami-filled portobello mushrooms oozing cheese and topped with salty, fresh pesto?

Our favorite part of Giacomo’s, aside from the food, was the unassuming atmosphere. You go there getting no-nonsense service and no-nonsense food. Hearty, Italian fare from friendly servers in a warm, tiny space filled with people wanting just the same thing as you–a delicious dinner. Don’t mess up Giacomo’s system, though. To be prepared, remember the following pointers:

1. Cash only!

2. No reservations.

3. Only open ONE DOOR AT A TIME!

Giacomo’s Ristorante,
http://giacomosblog-boston.blogspot.com/
, 355 Hanover Street (North End location), 431 Columbus Avenue (South End location), Boston, MA

Myers + Chang

I’m a huge Joanne Chang fan. So when after my meal at Myers + Chang, my hip server informed me he could introduce us, I had a mini flip-out, followed by immediate heartbreak when the server came back to say she had JUST left. At least the food was good…

With Diner’s Club at BU, a club for food and hospitality lovers that organizes affordable outings to taste quality restaurants around Boston, I had a 9 course tasting menu that allowed me to get a good feel of the food at Myers + Chang.

We started with three appetizer courses: tea-smoked pork spare ribs, crispy spring rolls and mama chang’s pork and chive dumplings. All delish! The spare ribs succulently fell off the bone, the crispy spring rolls were exactly that–crisp–and the dumplings were salty, moist and tender.

Next we moved on to sides: tiger’s tears, a thai basil salad with grilled skirt steak, lime and khao koor, thai ginger chicken salad, a cellophane noodle salad with chicken, lemongrass, napa cabbage and ginger, and dan dan noodle salad with peanut sauce and sambal.

Tiger's Tears

Chicken Salad

Let me just start off by saying that I’m obsessed with the Tiger’s Tears salad. The steak is beautifully tender and rare, the basil is so fresh and the dressing is sweet and citrusy. There are pockets of heat and the khao koor (powdered fried rice) added the perfect crunch that I love in a salad. I didn’t try the dan dan salad, because to be honest, I’m not a peanut sauce fan, but the chicken salad was satisfying. It also had khao koor which added a nice bite, but was a little bland compared to the Tiger’s Tears.

Finally, our entrees were wok charred chinese greens, which was exactly that with chicken, red pepper flakes and garlic, wok roasted mussels with black pepper and lemongrass butter and beef and broccoli chow fun with seared flank steak, wide rice noodles and onions.

Wok Charred Chinese Greens & Chicken

Lemongrass Butter Mussels

Beef & Broccoli Chow Fun

I want to end on a good note, because the meal was great overall, but the wok charred greens with chicken was truly painful to eat. Once it was placed on the table, I started to wonder if someone had just come in from a cigarette break when I realized it was the intensely smoky smell coming from this dish. Taking a bite made me feel like I was on a cigarette break, something I never do, so having it in food was disgusting. I’m not sure if they added a bit too much smoky flavor or if that’s how it normally tastes, but I certainly will never order that again. Otherwise, though, the beef and broccoli chow fun was good, just your normal sweet chow fun, but the steak was a nice quality, which really enhanced the dish. Then, the mussels. Truly the star of this meal. All that’s used to make them is lemongrass infused butter and some black pepper. I think everyone fought over the broth on the bottom–it was decadent soaked into bread, poured over rice  or simply spooned into your mouth. This is a must-order, just as Myers + Chang is a must-try.

Myers + Chang, myersandchang.com, 1145 Washington St., Boston, MA, 617-542-5200

Toki (Shabu Shabu)

Toki is one of those restaurants that has gradually become a fixture in my life. I originally tried it because I found a 15% off coupon in the vestibule of my apartment building, which, to a girl in college, is plenty reason to go.

The first time I went with a friend and we were completely bewildered as to what to do. Not entirely confident, we ordered gyoza, a spicy tuna sushi roll, a chicken heart skewer, seafood shabu shabu and rib eye shabu shabu. We had no idea what to expect, but decided to just go with it.

The gyoza came first and was perfectly crispy and juicy, with a great soy-type sauce to dip the wontons in. The spicy tuna roll was fresh and chunky; it was different from other spicy tuna rolls I’ve had – a little bolder. The chicken heart skewer was new to us, yet very delicious. It tasted like *haha* chicken!

Then came time for the shabu shabu. Up until that point, we were well-versed in how to eat everything presented to us. But shabu shabu was a novel concept. The table we were sitting at had a hot plate built into its center. The server brought out a big metal bowl of broth split into two chambers, placed it on the hot plate and brought the broth up to a steamy boil. She then brought us our seafood and rib eye shabu shabus. The seafood plate included calamari, clams, scallops, shrimps, salmon carpaccio and shrimp paste. The rib eye platter was the tender steak sliced paper thin (carpaccio style).

Here’s the catch – all the food was brought out RAW. We then took each piece of food and cooked it in the boiling broth for an absolutely amazing dinner. A vegetable platter with lettuce, various mushrooms, tofu, bamboo shoots, watercress, noodles, scallions, baby corn and more accompanied each entree, along with either udon noodles or white rice. All of that (except the rice) came out raw as well and was cooked in the broth.

Crushed raw garlic, chopped scallions, red pepper paste, pickled peppers and a few other spices were provided to add to the broth if desired. I personally enjoy adding garlic and scallions, making each piece of food flavored to my liking. Ponzu sauce, sesame sauce (had a peanuty flavor) and ginger sauce (a salty taste) are also brought out to dip the food in after it’s cooked. Depending on your palette, you pick your favorite and dip, dip away.

When we were done eating, a hostess came up to us and asked how we liked our meal. After our overly enthusiastic response, she inquired whether or not we knew what shabu shabu was. Even though we had just devoured our food, we still had no clue. Well, here’s the answer: shabu shabu is a Japanese form of hot pot cooking. Shabu shabu, when translated into English, means swish swish. All at once, it clicked – you swish swish your raw food in the hot pot for not only a delicious meal, but also an entertaining experience.

After cooking all that food in the broth, Toki poured our leftover, flavorful broth into a soup bowl and we happily slurped our way to utopia. I really can’t praise Toki enough. Whether with a friend, family or on a date, Toki is a must-dine experience in Boston. I went once and I just can’t get enough.

Toki, www.shabutoki.com, 121 Brighton Avenue & Linden Street, Boston, MA, 617-254-8888

UBurger

UBurger in Boston’s Kenmore Square is my ULTIMATE guilty pleasure. While back in Beantown for the weekend, my first stop for dinner was naturally this fast food burger destination. In fact, in the days leading up to my visit I actually looked forward to biting into UBurger’s juicy, flavorful UCheeseburger – the (almost) only thing I order when I go.

UBurger could not be a better burger joint. When you walk into the small, basic restaurant, you order with the cashier from the chalkboard menu above. There’s a range of typical “fast food” choices – burgers with assorted toppings, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, salads, milkshakes and more. A regular UBurger comes with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles and – what makes it truly special – UBurger’s “special sauce.” I don’t know what they put in it (when eating, you can definitely taste ketchup and mayonaisse, but who knows what else!), but whatever it is, it’s DAMN good.

After ordering and paying about $6 for a burger and fries, you’re given a number and within five minutes, your number is called and it’s time to eat. During baseball season, most of the restaurant is filled with Red Sox fans, as Fenway Park is about three blocks away. It’s a very casual atmosphere; everyone just wants to eat their amazing UBurgers.

All of UBurger’s food is cooked to order, making the food quality very high. The fries are hand cut very thin and fried to perfection. The milkshakes, or “frappes” as UBurger calls them, are thick and delicious. I once, for some odd reason, decided to try a salad with mesclun lettuce, walnuts, cranberries, gorgonzola cheese and balsamic dressing instead of my normal, satisfying UCheesburger. Big mistake. The salad was only okay and not very filling. But I’ve learned my lesson, and I’m sharing that lesson with you: go for the UBurger!!!

UBurger, www.uburgerboston.com, 636 Beacon Street (Kenmore Square), Boston, MA, 617-536-0448