Making Pho

I unsuccessfully made pho yesterday. My friends say it’s good; but ya know, I have a tongue too. It could be alot better; and I think I figured it out on how to make it taste the way I want it to.

Beef Pho

It’s been about three years since the last time I made beef pho. I can always get it to smell right.. but the flavor is just not quite there. After some Googling, I think I will get it perfect next time.

I totally can’t help it. I’m a perfectionist. Perfectionist to my own standards, of course! Oh yes, stop laughing!

Going to get a couple more spices and off to another try of making the perfect beef pho! I promise, I will try hard to make this broth clear this time. I was messing around yesterday and oops!

After this mission is accomplished, my next mission is massaman curry. I’m sure there are going to be plenty of blizzards this winter so I’m stuck at home thinking of how to twist recipes. This is my blizzard syndrome!

Maybe I will start my own recipe book – Iron Chef KittY!!

Little Duck in Quincy

So I asked, “Is there any good Thai Restaurants in Quincy?”

“Little Duck”

Off to Little Duck we went. I actually stepped foot in here before to take a quick peep and to snag a take out menu. It didn’t catch my attention enough to try it out because the setup is like a pop’s pizza joint. I thought it was a self service establishment.

The handful of table is actually full service at Little Duck Thai Restaurant. Well, at least they try to be. They need more help that is for sure. The service is wicked slow and they run around like headless chicken. Take out might be a wiser choice when coming to Little Duck.

Massaman Duck Curry

The taste of the dishes I tried here were pretty good. The flavors are well balanced. Very well made fried rice – I can taste the ‘fire.’

The Massaman Curry was very tasty. I devoured alot of rice with the curry sauce. I did wish there was more of a kick to this curry dish. I must learn how to make this southern Thai curry!!

Next time, I will try their Pad Thai. I like my Pad Thai a certain way so I’m crossing my fingers that they make it my way!

If you haven’t figured, I only do two entrées in Thai restaurants – Pad Thai and Massaman Curry. I don’t really care for other Thai dishes. You can say I’m boring but I already tried Thai food in Thailand and I’ll just stick with my favorites.

Shabu Zen

Shabu Zen could be so much better if there was service. Good service. How about any kind of service?

I see the busboy just standing at random spots in the hotpot restaurant watching the football game on TV. Seriously, I’d love his job for getting paid to watch TV! My tea never got refilled by anyone. My broth was almost on dry so I didn’t even bother taking a sip of the MSG water.

I ordered the A1 – prime beef and my bff ordered the A3 – short rib. Along with the dinners, I ordered some sides – Enoki mushroom, shrimp balls and fish paste. With a feast on the table, shabu shabu!

Hotpot is one of my favorite ways of eating a meal. It’s relative easy and healthy if I don’t use too much sauce. I did wish that they had topped off my shabu pot so I would have a better experience.

Prime Beef

If this restaurant didn’t have the best ventilation and the best sesame sauce, I would probably boycott this because all the employees look like they didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to smile, didn’t want to provide service. No wonder why this place is dead on a chilly Saturday evening! We left at 7pm and the restaurant was not packed. Gone are those days!

Not only all that – we ordred a Sauteed Beef Tongue but out came a Sauteed Baby Clams. The server must have hearing problems. Not really, probably just careless on punching the POS. We didn’t want to complain and wait longer so we just ate it.

Guess how much tips we left? ~11%. I’m sure they heard our Chinese; but don’t blame me for not tipping well. I don’t give away money for free. You have to earn it. This is the worst Chinatown service ever.

Umami Asian Fusion

Doesn’t it seem like Asian Fusion is trending? Here in Brookline, there’s Umami that popped up I think this year. Certainly, this name is fitting. Umami – the fifth taste that is usually described in Asian foods.

I came here for a birthday dinner. We all never tried this out so it was an experience for all of us. I had a taste of the Sweet Potato Fries – Awesome!! It must had be yam!!!! The wings were pretty tasty as well – they must had marinated for at least a day or two since the meat itself was very flavored with umami.

Chilean Sea Bass

For dinner, I decided on Chilean Sea Bass since you can’t really screw that up. I was definitely playing it safe. It was definitely very well created. It blended very well with the sweet potato pomme puree. Simmering the sea bass in sake and miso is definitely a wise choice for the palette. This dish really made me want to go get a bottle of sake and start experimenting further in my kitchen.

Beaconsfield

The mixed cocktails here are definitely worth a try as well. I tried the Beaconsfield and it was very very interesting. I already had an idea that it would taste like lavender since it has Absolut Boston in it.

I would definitely come back to Umami in Brookline Ma again and try the rest of the menu.

Ichiro Sushi

Best sushi in the Hood; but not the best in the region. Ichiro Sushi in East Milton (Lower Mills) is very satisfying for the price and convenience.

Unagi lunch box for less than $10. I’m not going to comment much about the unagi cuz you can’t really screw up something that is pre-made from the frozen aisle. What I can tell you is that the lunch box is generous with variety. It comes with soup, salad, shumai, cali roll, steamed veggie, rice. Pretty yummy lunch box.

I also had an avocado salad for around $3. Pretty good price for a decent scoop of salad. It’s been a couple yrs since I’ve been here, so it was nice to stop by again.

I forgot how the sushi is like here. I will have to come back for a sushi dinner to see if this is still better than the rest of the surrounding Sushi restaurants.

Le’s Chestnut Hill

For a matter of convenience to meet up with a buddy for pho, this is happy medium distant wise.  Other than that, bleh! I couldn’t believe he dragged his friend from Foxborough all way to Atrium to have bleh pho.

They surely are not generous with their portions. I could finish a small pho with no soup left.. doesn’t that say something! On top of that, their soup is not steaming hot. Luke warm at best.

Nothing worth admiring. Personally, I don’t prefer coming here because there’s no cell phone service for T-Mobile  on this floor and majority of Atrium Mall. You know how addicted I am to my cell phone after hours!

The entire Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill is dead tonight. Coming in here, it surely does not feel like the holidays are around the corner. Le’s is a bit busier than the last time I was here 2 weeks ago. Regardless, it does not change the quality of the food. Mediocre at best.

Next time, we’re dragging his butt down to Randolph for pho!