Boston 2010 - Privus Lounge - Bonchon Chicken

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

My posting schedule is a little thrown off by the long weekend but it's ok. It's not like I'm getting paid to write these reviews anyway, har har. I hope everybody enjoyed their weekend. There won't be another long weekend until Labor Day in September so for all you working folks, here's to keeping you entertained during the work day.

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 The end of our short stay in Boston included hitting up a spot from my MUST SEE/DO/EAT list - Privus Lounge for Bon Chon Chicken. As I mentioned briefly before, the Boston train system does not take you to enough places. Therefore, to get to our destination, we took a train, transferred to another train, and then took a bus ride past Boston University (pretty cool campus spread out across a few blocks). We finally arrived at Privus Lounge standing out in a long main street of other college friendly businesses. Arriving way ahead of schedule, we walked around in the rain a bit and still ended up eating an early dinner.

Peace from the East!

(little did I know the waiters inside were watching us take this picture and greeted us at the door with jokes about it.)

The night started slow for Privus as you can see. The employees were just hanging about, although that guy on the left gave very good service. He also had an uncanningly deep voice for his slender build and only looks-wise, reminds me of our friend JT. Notice the very nice modern decor.

Here is my attempt at an artsy fartsy photo. Foreground: strawberry soju mojito (very good)

Background: Hefwenweizen?
Back-background: Philip-sshi

Seafood scallion pancake. So good. You can never go wrong with it. A little Lam told me they sell the batter at the Korean market so I bought some and made my own at home. It's very easy and delicious. Not hard to mess up at all. Even if it doesn't look like a pancake, it will still taste good and the dipping sauce is easy to make. One of my more successful home cooking adventures.

So this is Bon Chon Chicken. I did fly across the country for this one and it delivered on its reputation. Bon Chon chicken wings are fried to have a crispy skin and slathered with their sauce. We ordered both regular soy wings and also the spicy wings. Pictured above are the soy ones because I remember my hands being too dirty by the time the spicy wings came out. I LOVE CHICKEN WINGS! My love for chicken wings far outweighs my hatred for burritos. However, as good as these were, 99 Chicken in Santa Clara beats Bon Chon by a narrow margin of better sauce and home field advantage. Like Han Sung BBQ, I go to 99 Chicken for good times with friends and to satisfy the monthly chicken wing craving. Bon Chon brings no such nostalgic feelings. Also, the perfectly balanced sweet and spicy love wings sauce at 99 Chicken is unbeatable! and also, 99 Chicken didn't make me do a mad dash through the New York subway the next morning in search of a bathroom. so yeah...

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS [on the end of New York/Boston trip and blog entries]

So here we are, 2 months after my trip and I've finally finished blogging about all my food adventures on the East Coast. It was an awesome trip full of some of the best meals I've ever enjoyed in my life. For a brief moment, I felt like a savvy, quick, on-the-go New Yorker. While I picked up none of the ill reputed Boston attitude (believe me, it's there), I did feel like I increased my street cred just walking around in Boston. Depending on your vacation style, if you're anything like me, you should definitely travel to New York and Boston. Don't book a tour, don't buy a New York sites to see book from Borders; just look up some places on yelp or ask people for their recommendations. You also can't go wrong with having no plan and just walking around. New York has so much for everyone and Boston has great seafood so you'll surely enjoy any seafood restaurants. I miss it so much, I want to go back, but now I'm home being a California girl...we're irresistible...fun fresh fierce (tee hee Katy Perry's summer anthem).

Privus Lounge on Yelp

Boston 2010 - Samuel Adams Brewery

A map of Boston's weird train system that doesn't go to enough places. After our lunch at Neptune, we boarded the train again to head to our next planned destination. Where could we possibly be going?

Ta-dah! Samuel Adams Brewery for their beer tasting tour. Loyal blog readers will recall that this reviewer has not had such a good experience with the last beer tasting.

Sam Adams has changed my mind. This was a very legit tasting with an actual brewery tour. Here I am, so excited, holding our free tour tickets and checking out the historic Sam Adams displays.

We didn't go in here but the other tour pictures were of boring steel containers. The tour was quick and short and I'm sure everyone was there for the free beer at the end. We got to taste dry hops and barley, all of which tasted nasty but it was an interesting experience.

At the end of the tour, we each received a Sam Adams tasting glass and gathered into the tasting room. Phil me up buttercup!

Sam's original Boston Lager. Not bad.

We had two more types of beer, a winter beer and a summer beer. I forgot the names of both. None of them tasted too great but they were still better than the nasty ones at Central Coast Brewery. Plus, we got to keep those tasting glasses, yay!

On the way back to the train, we stumbled upon Not-Michaelangelo's David. This cool art gallery made some nifty statues from old industrial parts. There was even a slutty statue which we were too afraid to photograph because the gallery managers(?) were there.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I had alot of fun at the Samuel Adams Brewery Tour. The best part was that it was free and we got to keep the cups. We were only allowed 3 pours but they passed a pitcher down the table and there was always extra so we could have drank more if we wanted. I was impressed with the service, the tour, the atmosphere, and if I liked beers, the Boston Lager's pretty cool. Definitely recommend people check this out.

Samuel Adams Brewery on Yelp

Boston 2010 - Neptune Oyster

We had arrived in Boston in the late afternoon so we didn't get to take the obligatory front of hotel pictures. This was quickly remedied the next day. Here we have the South Station Boston Marriott.

Remember how we were lost yesterday and stumbled to The Red Fez? Never a pair to give up, we set out again to find the oyster house. Again we got a little lost but finally found it down this tiny street. Well duh if you build a street this tiny, how are people supposed to find it?

But alas, we arrived at the famed Neptune Oyster House, a small restaurant on a small street.

This was lunchtime on a Thursday, mind you. Hence the wait and the patrons dining on their lunch break. I'm not qualified to make this guess on the decor style but it looks so 1920's. I liked.

Say, "CHEESE I'm hungry it took me a long time to find this place and more to wait for a seat and now even more to wait for my food so hurry up and take this picture!"

The oyster menu. There was a good selection of different types of oysters, and yes, you can tell the difference between species.

Referring to the menu above, in this picture, starting at the lemon on the left and working clockwise, the oysters were placed in order from top to bottom of the menu. The last thing on our list was Cherrystone clams and that's what ends the circle.

I think the bluepoint and the second one were my favorites. The raw clams were something new. They're definitely different. A little sweet and tasted too briny for me. They're also tougher and more chewy than oysters.

My lobster caprese salad. Everything about this salad was perfect except the bleu cheese. Knowing that I don't like bleu cheese, I didn't ask for no bleu cheese because I wanted to enjoy the dish as it was meant to be eaten. Big mistake because the salad was oh so close to being perfect, with light sprouts and plump lobster tail on a bed of crispy cabbage. And then there was bleu cheese......

Phil's Fried oyster burger. He said it was "good and the fries were good too."

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Neptune Oyster is a quaint little diner with excellent food. Literally a hole in the wall of a small street. It really was worth all the walking and getting lost we had done just to find it, including the previous day's trip where we were so off that we ended up at The Red Fez. My only regret is not ordering the lobster roll, but is it my fault their other items sounded so good? Seafood lovers rejoice! Neptune Oyster is definitely a must-eat at diner. Freshest oysters, clams, and big juicy lobster tail!

P.S. 2 MORE DAYS TO VOTE IN THE POLL

Neptune Oyster on Yelp

Boston 2010 - The Red Fez

Once upon a time, before taking a 4 hour bus ride starting at 2AM on this Lucky Star bus to New York....

...we were on this 5 hour Virgin America flight to Boston. As my Boston pictures were stuck in a memory card for a while, I blogged our trip out of order but in reality, we hit up Boston first.

"Are we there yet?!?!?!" cried the baby.

On our way to the nearest subway station to find somewhere for dinner since the $9 crackers and cheese on the airplane didn't quite do the job, I found my first Boston tourist attraction, albeit relatively unattractive. James Blake House, the oldest house in Boston.

Not knowing how to work the subway system, we got lost on the way to an oyster house and found ourselves somewhere in the middle of somewhere. My stomach at this point was extremely upset that it had not had sustenance since the AM so we walked back to the subway and found this hidden little gem on the way. The Red Fez, Middle Eastern food. [I should learn to take better pictures]

Csar Phil tried the 312 Urban Wheat Ale. A very light, mild tasting beer.

As usual, I got a glass of white wine, forgot which one.

Instead of a bread basket, we got a basket of flat bread and a Mediterranean version of oil and vinegar. This was really interesting. I liked it alot. The bread was so light that it didn't ruin my appetite for dinner. The oil and vinegar had something sweet in it with alot of spices.

Mussels in a rich and sour sauce. Very good. We asked for another basket of flat bread to dip in the sauce.

The turf to our surf. Lamb burger. Tasted like a regular burger to me but Phil loved it.

mmm seared scallops in another delicious tomatoey sauce. EXCELLENT! Scallops are my enemy to cook because I made it wrong once and have been traumatized from making it again.

Took the subway back to the hotel. Having arrived in Boston in the late afternoon and getting lost on the way to the restaurant, there pretty much was no time left to do anything else. We didn't know where to go out for nightlife and more importantly how to get there and what time the subway stops running. End of day 1.

PLEASE VOTE IN MY POLL ON THE TOP LEFT CORNER. I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

The Red Fez on Yelp