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Musical Mondays

Where is Adam's Blog? Well, we're getting ready for Season 2!

Until then, visit my other project: www.southendfoodies.com

And, since its Musical Mondays, here is a clip for you. Fast forward until about 6:30 and enjoy!

South End Fatties 3: Bangkok Bistro

I am rather reluctant to write this food blog because I don’t want to reveal this hidden gem to the Boston Food World-at-Large.

Bangkok Bistro: Thai Cuisine. Do not be fooled by the restaurant’s décor. Outside the restaurant is pink. Inside, the walls are a turquoise green, there are fish tanks everywhere, pictures of Bangkok, etc. Endure this, and you will be rewarded with the best Thai food I have ever tasted. Seriously.

If you can make it to the restaurant for lunch (they are not open for lunch on Monday, but these specials apply for the weekend as well), then you should order off of their lunch specials menu. For $8.95 (the price has gone up recently) you get a bowl of Tom Yum Soup (the best version of the soup I’ve ever had), an entrée and a side appetizer. Even at $9 it is still worth it.

Even though I’ve had the Tom Yum Soup multiple times, every time I eat it I am still hit by the spices and immediately have a coughing attack that lasts for a minute exactly. But I can’t help myself…the soup is too good to let a little tickle in my throat stop me. The lunch version of the soup contains 2 pieces of chicken and 1 shrimp. If you order it separately you can specify chicken or shrimp and then you get more meat. They add mushrooms right before serving and, even though I’m not really a mushroom fan, I love them in this soup. A tip if you are ordering this soup to take-out is to ask them to include the mushrooms on the side and then they do not shrivel up in the hot broth! I know my stuff.

For the appetizer sides, I highly recommend three: the spring rolls, the golden triangles, and the chicken wings. The spring rolls are crunchy and delicious…but after one of them I am usually satisfied. So what I like to do is ask for 1 spring roll and 1 golden triangle: the best of both worlds! The golden triangle is also crunchy but contains a vegetable puree inside that nicely offsets the sweet dipping sauce it is served with. While the chicken wings look very similar to a chicken wing you would order at a Chinese restaurant, the spice rub they add gives them a unique taste—I would say a little curry and a little cumin might be used.

The entrée portion at lunch is nicely sized. I have 2 favorites—Pad Thai and Yellow Curry with either beef or chicken depending on my mood. The Pad Thai is slightly sweet and contains big pieces of chicken and small shrimps. They do not overload it with too many peanuts or bean sprouts—something I appreciate very much. The Yellow Curry is served with a generous portion of rice. The sauce contains potatoes and pineapple. Mostly I order the yellow curry because I like the pineapple and potatoes it comes with—there are many other curries (red, green, masaman, basil, “wild wild wild,” choo chee, mango, panang…) and they are served with other vegetables (eggplant, peppers, bamboo, onion, carrot, baby corns).

I love the people that run Bangkok Bistro. I frequent the restaurant so much that they have come to recognize me when I come in. Their customer service is wonderful, and on occasion, they have provided us with a sampling of some of their favorites dishes: their shumai (shrimp dumplings) are tender little bites of goodness, the satay (both chicken and beef) are well flavored and come with cucumber sauce and peanut sauce. Tip: If you order the Bistro Sampler you get the best of all of their appetizers. Finally, their Thai iced tea (although too sweet for me) is a favorite with many other visitors.

I have also been to the restaurant for dinner, and while you don’t get the same deal as the lunch special, the food is just as good at night! My advice for dining there at night is this: bring a friend or a date who will have a good sense of humor about the décor, order the Tom Yum Soup (if you cough like I do when you eat it, it will be a great ice breaker), order a sweet dish and a spicy dish (they can make their drunken noodle dish VERY spicy on request) and share a great evening of food and fun!

Bangkok Bistro gets a A

South End Foodies 2

Gaslight
http://www.gaslight560.com/
560 Harrison Avenue
Boston

A welcomed edition to the new restaurants of the South End is Gaslight, a posh French bistro with an excellent brunch and dinner menu. The restaurant décor reminds me of the kitchen from Clue the movie: Walls lined completely with white tiles (reminiscent of a metro station) are met with shelves lined with bottles of Pernod making the dining room an aesthetically pleasing place to enjoy a meal.

I highly recommend ordering from the raw bar. The oysters and shrimp are superb, and the cocktail sauce that accompanies a shrimp cocktail is perfectly balanced with just the right amount of horseradish for a pleasant kick. I've enjoyed oysters on the half-shell several times, and they have been consistently fresh and delicious. While the items from the raw bar are set at market price, they have always been incredibly affordable with oysters usually ranging from $2-$3 per oyster and likewise for the shrimp.

My favorite thing to do at dinner was to pair either oysters or shrimp with the duck rillettes appetizer. However, on my most recent trip to Gaslight, I was saddened to see that this item has been removed from the menu. Subsequent trips to their website have confirmed this as well. If the chefs at Gaslight happen to be reading this, please bring this appetizer back.

Gaslight makes enjoying French food in Boston affordable. Hors d'oeuvres like, pâté de compagne ($7.50) and escargot ($8.50) are not only delicious but nicely priced. The pâté is served with toasted baguette (and this is in addition to the warm baguette and fresh butter every table receives upon beginning a meal) and wonderful Dijon mustard. The only disappointment are the warm slices of pickles that they include instead of cornichons (but you can--and should--ask for a jar of cornichons instead.) The escargots--as expected--are very well done in an herbed butter sauce. Those wishing to try snails for the first time will not be disappointed by Gaslight's presentation.

Dinner entrées range from the simple croque monsieur ($9.75, which is served w/ french fries even though it did NOT say so on the menu. Points have been taken off because when we ordered a side of french fries to go along with the sandwich, the waiter did not inform us that french fries would already be coming with the meal....the menu now reflects that fries come with the dish--thank you) to more sophisticated dishes including duck confit ($17.50) and steak frites ($19.75). The duck was perfect and served with beautifully delicious herbed potatoes. The duck leg was served over warmed greens. The steak frites (order rare to medium-rare) can be served with herbed butter or bernaise sauce but is such a good and flavorful cut of meat that it does not need any help. This meal--as the name suggests--is also served with French fries--and Gaslights' fries do not disappoint. I am slightly disappointed by the dessert selection. Luckily, you can finish your meal by sampling a selection of Gaslight's cheeses (selection of artisan cheeses: $10.75).

While Gaslight offers a very fun experience at the bar as well, it must be noted that while the portions of drinks--like wine, champagne, and cocktails--resembles a smaller, European size; the prices remain American. I have not been disappointed by Gaslight's wine list (I spent my birthday there downing glasses of good champagne), but their cocktail list, full of specialty concoctions (including some drinks made with Absinthe) does not necessarily appeal to me.

The quality of the food and the atmosphere both outweigh the small fact that the drinks aren't as big as in other Boston restaurants. You can feel confident bringing a date (although I highly recommend reservations if you are on a timetable) or a group of friends to the restaurant. My advice: sample a few appetizers, don't miss out on the raw bar, and make-up for the fact that the drinks are small by having two or three and enjoy a leisurely dinner just like the French.

Gaslight gets an A-/A.

(For a review of Gaslight's brunch, go to BostonChomps)