I had the stuffed mushrooms and lobster ravioli.  The lobster ravioli was not nearly as good as D'Amelio's, more cheese filler and drier.  When I got a perfect bite, with the right amount of sauce, lobster and pasta, it was great, but there was too little sauce and lobster, and too much pasta and cheese.  The stuffed mushrooms were great and full of meaty mushroom flavor, so I'd definitely get that again.

The bottom line is, we waited 3 hours on a Monday night, and it just wasn't worth it.  Go to D'Amelio's or Limoncello for great Italian seafood.

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via nytimes.com

I'm ok on the bread, but the pork and cheddar soup both sound delicious. Alton Brown has a great beer & cheddar soup recipe too...

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via stuffboston.com

Heard about this place a while back, glad to hear it's actually tasty!

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via yfrog.com

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I'm not sure if working my way backwards is the right thing to do here, since that means I might never actually get around to reviewing the places I went to a long time ago, but I want to capitalize on the opportunity to write the best reviews possible for the restaurants I've been to recently.  In any case, I was too hammered by the time we got to eating at Tremont 647 to remember much about the food on Friday, so back we go to D'Amelio's Off the Boat in East Boston, or EaBo as the gentrification-inducing realtors like to say, or Eastie as actual residents I know say.

An administrative note: we tried to go here on a Sunday night once, and it was closed.  They're apparently closed Monday nights as well.

Located near the entrance to the Sumner tunnel in East Boston, the front of D'Amelio's doesn't look like much, just another storefront amongst typical Eastie row houses.  Inside isn't anything special either - a typical Italian restaurant mural on the wall (in this case, of an ocean view) and tables crammed awkwardly in too small a space.  Of course, none of this matters if the food is good, right?

While there is a growing trend amongst restaurants of all types to carry at least a token selection of craft beers in addition to the wine list, Italian restaurants are naturally a bit behind, and it's not surprising that an old-school Italian place such as this didn't have much to offer in the beer department.  They do offer a sangria, though their choice of fruit chunks was a bit off - mostly apple, rather than the typical berries, kiwi and peaches mix.  I stuck with a Chateau Ste Michelle chardonnay, something I knew and reasonably priced by the glass.

The menu here is odd.  Reading the pasta courses, it quickly becomes difficult to distinguish one dish from the next.  Most include a some combination of shellfish, including scallops, clams, shrimp and calamari, possibly with crab or lobster meat, but there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to which dish includes which types of fish.  Mostly you need to pick your pasta and sauce, and get whatever fish comes with it.  In our case, we skipped the pasta menu entirely, as we started a crab cake special, Leah ordered a lobster and crabmeat ravioli special and I ordered the mixed grill.

The crab cakes were good, though not overly memorable.  When they came out, I was worried by the fact that you could only see breading and not crab out the outside - I prefer light to no breading, and just pan frying the crab itself.  However, the crust was nicely crispy and thin enough that it didn't detract from the overall crab flavor.  The one complaint I have is that the crab used was on the small side, definitely on the "Special" special side rather than "Lump". (for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_meat#Grades)

Now, before discussing the main courses, I'll point out that it's not that I believe that everything in life needs to be a competition.  In this particular case, however, one of us won and one of us ... did not.  My mixed grill was a sad disappointment.  The ingredients were clearly wonderful, but they had been mostly overcooked and the grill's flavor was not entirely pleasant, leaving something of an acrid aftertaste.  I had such high hopes for the simplicity of fresh, grilled seafood but the execution was off.  The worst was the calamari, which was too chewy, and had essentially no flavor beyond the aforementioned less than awesome char.  The grilled lobster tail fared the grill much better, however with only a bit of lemon as the seasoning, and no butter and no salt, it too was a letdown.

Leah's lobster and crabmeat ravioli, on the other hand, singlehandedly made the excursion worthwhile.  I'm often skeptical of dishes that come WITH lobster, but are not simply whole lobster or lobster tail.  We've all had that lobster mac and cheese or ravioli dish that has wonderful, salty lobster flavor but only just two or three significant chunks of actual lobster meat, and often of the smaller, claw variety, or worse - just bits and pieces that you can't even stab with a fork (I'm looking at you, Legal Test Kitchen).  Not so here.  The ravioli was overstuffed with crabmeat, and floating in the sauce were huge pieces of tail meat, in fact the tail meat chunks usually needed to be cut into bite size pieces.  The sauce itself was a gloriously rich, creamy vodka sauce that you just wanted to sop up with every bite of ravioli and lobster.  It was plate-licking good.

Moral of the story: if you make it to D'Amelio's, get pasta with lobster.  Vodka sauce for the guaranteed win, although I have heard that their other sauces are just as good, depending on your preference.  And definitely skip the grill.  I'm giving this one a qualified "Worth the Trip".

D'Amelio's Off the Boat, 28 Porter Street, East Boston

Website: http://www.offtheboatseafood.com/

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After a long night of drinking and eating to celebrate a friend's last day at her old job and moving on to bigger and better things, Leah and I met up in Davis Square to contemplate our evening.  Her friends had decided to brave Newbury Street on the weekend with the most number of graduations in the Boston area, a decision we found ... questionable.  In any case, we decided to grab a beer in the square while we figured it out.  

We started discussing places in Davis, but with Tufts graduation the next day as well, Davis Square was packed, and we'd hit up most places in the area already (except Istanbul'u and Gargoyles on the Square, the former just wasn't striking our fancy at the moment and the latter I'm sure was packed / you usually need a reservation there anyway.  So to escape the hordes, we thought, how about Inman or Union?  I texted my sister who lives in the area, who immediately responded suggesting The Druid and Tupelo, which was exciting since I haven't been to either!  In fact, I hadn't even heard of Tupelo, so I quickly replied "Druid!"  I then proceeded to look up Tupelo, saw it had 4 stars on Yelp, found brisket and jalapeno mac and cheese on the menu, and quickly we had changed our minds.

Inside Tupelo, there's a small bar that seats 6.  While we were waiting, we grabbed a couple beers from their bottle list.  In keeping with their southern theme, they feature a large selection of Louisianan beers, particularly a number of Abita bottles including their flagship Turbodog, as well as Dixie Brewing's regular lager and their "Blackened Voodoo Lager", a dark lager with stout and smoke flavors.  On tap they featured local seasonal beers from Cisco and BBC, so all in all a good, if not particuarly wide, beer selection.  Also it's interesting to note that since they do not have a liquor license, they decided to offer a cocktail list, with the alcohol base made from beer and wine rather than liquors.  The shandy, made with lager, ginger and lime, tasted, as one might expect, almost exactly like a ginger beer.  The michelada, a traditional Mexican drink that sounds absolutely terrible to me, is made with lager, tomato juice and some assortment of spices.  It was good, according to my sister, though I didn't try it.  How adventurous do you feel?

Once seated, we quickly strategized on the food, and since no one was getting a dish with the jalapeno mac and cheese as a side, we got a side to share with the table.  On special that night were fried boneless chicken thighs and a "cheeseburger" meatloaf, apparently so-called for the cheese sauce that comes over it.  While I immediately imagined some horrific bright orange sauce with a Velveeta-like consistency (thinking back to Fabio's Top Chef cheeseburger disaster), the cheese sauce actually looked quite reasonable, and according to my sister's boyfriend, the dish was delicious, although as a general theme the portions were gigantic.  It occurred to me during the meal, why does comfort food make us feel so uncomfortable? :: rimshot ::

We started with the fried oysters, which were excellent: moist, salt, and crispy all at once, and came with a creamy, slightly spicy dipping sauce.  For my own meal, I ordered the beef brisket with mashed potatoes.  I was really hoping the mashed potatoes would be lame so I wasn't tempted to try and cram them in in addition to everything else, but the were (un)fortunately well-seasoned and a cut above your average mashed potatoes, though I still only ended up bothering with a few bites.  The brisket itself was like none I had ever had before - it was completely blackened on the outside, giving it a nice contrast in texture with the chewy bits.  It was clearly well and slowly cooked, as it fell apart quite nicely, and was topped with something I had never considered would go well with brisket - not a sweet barbecue sauce, but a tart sour cream-based sauce, something like what you commonly find with fish tacos.  It was an innovative choice, gave the dark brisket a refreshing note, and surprised me - something I value highly when eating out.

The fried chicken thighs were also tasty, and if you're at all uncertain about what to get, get them so long as they are on the menu or on special.  I especially enjoy that they chose to make them with thigh meat, which is just empirically better tasting than breast meat, and I really don't understand why people waste their time with chicken breast.  There's just no way to make it taste good, or if you do you've most likely done it by negating any possible health benefit you might have gotten from eating a leaner cut. In any case, the breading was crunchy and well-seasoned, and the meat was moist.  You can't ask for anything more.

The side of jalapeno mac and cheese was disappointing.  The spice level was low to medium, and suffered from a common issue when cooking with chilis: the spice level was largely dependent on whether there was an actual slice of jalapeno in your particular bite.  I also prefer the cheese in my mac and cheese to have a stronger flavor, and in lieu of that for there to be some seasoning in the mac and cheese, but it was overall just bland.

While we didn't save room for dessert, their desserts are provided by neighboring Petsi Pies, which I've heard is delicious, so if you somehow manage to make it through a whole meal here with some extra room, first of all let me know how you did it, and second of all go ahead and do it.  Maybe you're a competitive eater or something.  I couldn't possibly imagine, we practically had to roll ourselves home.  Walking back to Central at least helped us stretch our stomachs and feel like we were working off one or two bites of the cheese grits. Max.

On the scale of "Avoid", "If You Find Yourself In The Area", "Worth a Trip", and "Go Immediately Right Now OMG", I give it a "Worth a Trip".

Tupelo, Inman Square, 1193 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA

Website: http://www.tupelo02139.com/

Twitter: @tupelo02139

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I've been to a lot of restaurants recently but haven't bothered to write up full reviews of any of them.  Sometimes I've taken the time to at least tweet a thumbs up / thumbs down sort of note, but I'd like to try and take the time to write down some more significant thoughts.

Places I've been recently, and their associated Twitter reviews to be expounded upon in the near future:

• T.W. Food
• Tupelo

Twitter-review: "Awesome brisket, fried oysters, fried chicken and cheese grits. So-so mac & chz. A few good beers. Fun, quirky decor."

• D'amelio's Off the Boat
• Drink
• Local 149
• Russell House Tavern

Twitter-review: "Thumbs down @5napkinburger slow service, a mediocre burger & unseasoned sides - tater tots were the highlight"

• Tremont 647
• 5 Napkin Burger 

Twitter-review: "Thumbs up to @RussellHouseTav for great duck leg, the unique Christmas in Rotterdam cocktail and a stiff martini"

• Stoddard's
• The Walrus and The Carpenter (Seattle, WA)
• Marco
• Central Kitchen
• Daedelus

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I've been hitting up the twitters so I haven't been posting here so much.

I keep saying that this restaurant or that restaurant is "on the list" of places I need to try.  I was challenged last night to actually make a list, so here goes:

• Istanbul'u
• Bosphorus
• Bergamot
• Scholars (maybe?) (edit: confirmed, nope!)
• Island Creek Oyster Bar
• Rino's (not worth the wait, folks!)
• Menton (who wants to get in on the 12 seat chef's table?!)
• No. 9 Park (I guess you kind of have to, right?)
• Craigie on Main (How I haven't been here yet, I cannot say)
• Salts
• Toro
• Coppa
• Ten Tables
• Gargoyles on the Square CLOSED
• Rendezvous (? maybe?)
• Dali
• Citizen Public House (TODO: Get a group together for the suckling pig dinner?!)
• The Abbey (Brookline)
• The Druid
• Green Street (Central)
• Bondir (http://www.thefeast.com/boston/restaurants/FEAST-EAT-BOS-Bondir-Makes-the-Cut-as-One-of-Bon-Appetits-Best-New-Restaurants-127832043.html)
• Red Lantern
• Cuchi Cuchi (per Jack in the comments)
• Catalyst
• Abigails (http://stuffboston.com/feed/archive/2011/10/31/bbq-d-pork-shoulder-sandwich-a... )
• Journeyman

To be amended in the future, I'm sure. 

Updated 10/26 (Crossed a bunch off, added Catalyst)

Updated 10/31 (Crossed off Salts, added Abigails and Journeyman)

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via smittenkitchen.com

My sister made this last night, posting it here so I don't lose the recipe, and also to incite jealousy.

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Ben Nelson gets it exactly backwards:

“The last thing we need to do is start changing rules, with 51 votes and simple majority, and make the Senate a smaller version of the House," Nelson told the Omaha World-Herald.

In a world where legislation has to be passed by two distinct legislative bodies with very different compositions, an executive veto and judicial review, Ben Nelson thinks it's too easy to enact new laws.  Of course, his preferred solution is to give himself more power in the process by ensuring that any legislation that passes will require his vote.

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Me: nope
I mean
it'll garbage collect later
garbage collection is nondeterministic remember

Stuart: your mother is nondeterministic

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If you believe, as I do, that a given programmer can produce roughly the same number of lines of code per day independent of the language used, you can see how this reduction of lines of code can translate into a substantial increase in productivity and a faster time-to-market.

Do people actually believe this? It seems to me the time spent typing actual lines of code is dwarfed by an order of magnitude by the time spent thinking between writing each line or method, cut and pasting for refactoring, etc. To borrow Fred Brooks' terminology, I think the most common languages at this point - certainly Java, Ruby, and Python - are at a high enough level that we spend an order of magnitude more time on fundamental rather than incidental complexity.

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via tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com

w00t. Jon Stewart has to get a ton of credit for this.

Update: I need to read the fucking article, not quite the total victory I thought it was - a single senator from the greatly-impacted-by-9/11 state of Oklahoma was able to force a reduction in the bill's funding from $6.2b to $4.2b.  Thanks, Coburn, you dick.

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