The King Restaurant/1894 Centre Street/West Roxbury, MA 02132

The King Restaurant

How do you not want to try a place with a name like "The King?"  All signs pointed to the food being good at this modest little spot on Centre Street in West Roxbury.  Pretty pictures of Lebanon on the walls, the entrancing Arabic Language music videos on the TV in the corner, and the two spits of Shawarma in the kitchen got my hopes up for one serious meal.  I wish I had better things to say about the food here because the guy running the place the day I went was nice as can be and extremely accommodating, its just that the food was, in a word: boring.

Lamb/Beef and Chicken Shawarma with Hommous, Pickles and 

Salad 

I realize that shawarma often lives or dies by the sauce that is put on it sopping through the pita bread, and I did get a meal and not a sandwich, but even pouring the tahina sauce on top of the overly dry and not-all-that-flavorful chicken, beef, and lamb didn't do much to help the overall experience.  Luckily, there are bottles of hot sauce on the counter that made the meat more bearable, but it only helped so much.  I count on the Lebanese to make the best hommous anywhere, but this hommous was more Greek that Lebanese--grainy, watery, and sorely lacking in tahini.  There is some good that goes with this story.  The pickles alone were almost worth going back for, the tomatoes seem to have been picked off the vine that day and the salad was quite lovely, but all in all the shawarma meal at The King is pretty disappointing.  I wouldn't refuse to go ever again if I were in the area, but I'm certainly not racing back anytime soon.  Although the music was pretty entertaining.

Cape Verdean Food/475 Dudley Street/Upham's Corner /Roxbury, MA 02119

"Restaurant"

There are times, albeit not often, that going to a restaurant feels similar to the IKEA commercial where the woman can't wait to leave the store and jump into her car as quickly as possible because after looking at the receipt she realizes that there is no way all of the stuff she just bought could have really been as cheap as it was.  That was how I felt today when I left the Cape Verdean restaurant in Upham's Corner which is called, conveniently enough, "Restaurant."  I will take a cue from President Obama and not comment on the wisdom of naming your restaurant "Restaurant".  Besides, judging a restaurant by its name would be analogous to a number of other things, none of  which I have the time or energy to think of or look up right now.  The point of the matter is that my absolutely beautiful dish (dish=styrofoam container) of Bacalhau, Cachupa, Seafood Rice, and Chickpeas weighed upwards of 6 1/2 pounds and cost me $8.50.  It would have been 7.50 but they charge $1 extra for seafood as opposed to chicken, beef or pork.

Bacalhau, Cachupa, Chickpeas, Seafood Rice

 Back in the day this place evidently had a much less clever name.

Disclaimer:  Anyone who spends any amount of time reading this blog will find that a lot of the restaurants I choose to dine in are not exactly your everyday pizza joint or sit-down/waiter type food establishment.  Where the vast majority of Americans go to lunch is not typically where you will find me.  Many of the places I go have no printed menu, no prices on the wall, and often no one that speaks much English.  With that in mind I will give the novice a rundown of what happens at "Restaurant" which is almost identical to what would happen in, let's say, a standard Dominican, Puerto Rican, or Salvadoran restaurant.  You walk in and everyone stares at you because you look like you are or could be lost and quite possibly scared that you will never make it out of the neighborhood alive.  You have already gotten over that because chances are you live up the street or drive by every other day.  I like staring back at everyone for an uncomfortably long period of time, but do so at your own discretion.  When you get to the counter there is a small cafeteria-type setup where the food has been prepared and is sitting in metal containers with covers and water underneath that is warm enough to keep the food steamy hot.  You choose a small, medium, or large plate (plate=styrofoam container) that are priced accordingly.  It's very interactive and quite a hoot when there is a language barrier.  You ask how much each size is and what you get with it.  Generally you get some sort of starch and two other entrees, but everywhere is different.  Many of these things you may have never seen before or understand what they are so sometimes you sort of have to go with it until you have been in a few times.  The very nice girl serving me spoke perfect English and no one stared today.  I was kind of disappointed to tell you the truth, mais c'est la vie.

I hate disclaimers.  This post is already too long, so let me sum up what I got.  Bacalhau, is Bacalao for you non-Portuguese (or Cape Verdean Creole) speakers, or Baccalà for the non-Spanish speakers, or dried salted cod for everyone else.  See, Bacalhau sounds much more elegant, doesn't it?  This is going to sound stupid, but the salt cod was a little too salty.  I ate it like it was ice cream because I love salt, but it did maybe need a few hours more of fresh water soaking.  Other than that, everything was perfect.  Cachupa is one of my favorite things to eat, mainly because you never quite know what will be in it.  It's pretty much hominy and whatever else the chef decides to throw in there.  Today's Cachupa featured white beans, beef (pork?), collard greens, and yams.  The chickpeas seemed like they were sauteed with a little onion and olive oil, and then there was the rice.  The Seafood Rice had mussels, calamar, and lobster in it.  There was lobster tail meat in the rice.  Need I say more?  There seemed to be some Krab (that famous California Roll "Crab") in the rice too, but I suppose these guys need to justify selling this food for so cheap.

Bacalhau Gomes Sa, Cachupa, Seafood Rice

I may find out the real name of this place sometime soon, but I would much prefer that its name really be "Restaurant."  Either way, it's great, cheap, and parking is pretty easy.  The only drawback as far as I can tell is that the food tends to be different every day.  That can be a plus for those of you that want something different seven days a week, but the Seafood Rice isn't made everyday, nor is the Bacalhau, and those dishes are the main reason that I have gone back once or twice.  Or three times.  The second food picture is actually what I was expecting to get today because I got it a little bit ago.  The Bacalhau is de-boned (and not as salty) and mixed with chickpeas and hardboiled eggs, and the Cachupa has no collard greens, yams or pork (beef?), and the rice had everything afore-mentioned plus shrimp.

Century House/ 235 Andover St. (Rt. 114)/Peabody, MA 01960

Unexcelled Food

Cajun Style Chicken Caesar 

Century House is one of those places that you went to with your grandparents as a child and wondered why in the world you grandparents liked such grandparent-like places.  If you walk into Century House on any given afternoon, many of the people sitting at the bar are the age your grandparents were when you used to go to these type of places with them.  And if you can find a seat at the bar on a Tuesday at 1:30 (you heard that right) your love for them will only grow whether or not they are still with you.  This place is...unique.  If you like a good stiff drink or four with your lunch, there are few places on the North Shore that are better than here.  The three martini lunch is alive and well here.  They also happen to have one helluva good lunch menu.  Unexcelled is not a word the last time I checked, but a place like this has the right to create its own words when they pertain to food.  Everyday is a difficult day to find a seat at the bar here, but Tuesday is arguably the most popular because of the $13 cut of prime rib.  The pictures here don't really do justice as to how much food you are provided with.  The "Regular Cut" of prime rib on this day was upwards of 20 ozs.  That's not a fluke here.  And if it were big and bad then it would not at all be worth mentioning.  This is old school write-home-about-it type prime rib.  The potatoes are big and perfectly cooked.  The coleslaw is good enough to order instead of whatever veg may me on tap, and the Caesar is formidable, especially with the "Cajun Style" chicken on top (although that is definitely a meal in itself).  This is a place that is hard to leave because the drinks are so generous.  Just be prepared to wait for a seat for 10 or so minutes if you want the full afternoon bar/lunch experience.

"Regular Cut" Prime Rib

Baked Potato and Coleslaw

Garden Halal Restaurant/96 Blackstone Street/Haymarket/Boston, MA 02109

Garden Halal Restaurant

     There is a good chance that for most people in Boston, Blackstone Street, on the edge of Fanueil Hall/Quincy Market, consists of three things: Durty Nelly's, Haymarket Pizza, and the joys of Haymarket on Fridays and Saturdays.  For those of us who like to venture into the literal basements of other worlds, there are some great Halal shops and food offerings that don't include getting yelled at by Vinny if you happen to touch the merchandise.  That being said, it isn't all that often that I go gaga over a place after trying it only once, but there are certain meals that are just THAT good and if need be, you never go back again just so you don't catch the place on a bad day.  Don't get me wrong, Garden Halal didn't change my life, and I was admittedly overly hungry when I popped in for lunch a few days ago, but I'm overly hungry a lot so I don't let that skew my opinions of what is clearly good and that which is somewhat shabby.  The Chicken with Olives and the Boiled Potatoes ($8) are superb here.  One of the best meals I have had in weeks.  I will most certainly try this place again just so that I can see what else they have on the menu.

Chicken with Olives and Boiled Potatoes

     Garden Halal is basically an Algerian restaurant.  They have yet to take down the old menu, so you can't actually get the advertised Somali food, and the prices and meals that you see above the cash register, pizza shop style, are not at all what the place actually has, but most of what is offered here is right in front of you to see.  This is my favorite kind of Halal Restaurant, because they also have pizza that some of the patrons were ordering with pepperoni.  Granted, I know that there is good beef sausage out there and you could certainly call something pepperoni that isn't quite such and not be sued, but I love when people take food more seriously than religion.  Other than tasteless My-Food-Is-Better-Than-Yours Amateur Chef shows, it causes far fewer problems in the world.  I don't know what kind of spices were on this chicken, and the owner didn't have a name for the recipe (he just called it Chicken with Olives) but it was quite impressive.

La Verdad Taqueria/ 1 Lansdowne Street/ Boston, MA 02215

Looks can be deceiving

The only day worth trying La V

There is no doubt that Ken Oringer is a bright man.  And word on the street is that he is a very nice guy.  That is a bit hard to believe, given the fact that he is a chef, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since I have never met him nor knowingly set eyes on him.  La Verdad is a great idea.  Put a taco place on the corner across the street from Fenway Park and next to Jillian's, and the drunks will come.  Not only will business be slammin' at least 81 days out of the summer, but add in the fact that the House of Blues just set up shop next door, and the proverbial recipe for success is yours.  For that I applaud him.  What is not as applaudable is the food at La Verdad.  Luckily, I happened upon La V. on a Tuesday.  I say "luckily" only in the sense that Tuesday is $1 taco day.  If that were not the case, the $2.50 tacos, $8.00 burritos, and $9 tortas would have probably sent me foraging for cornmeal and pigs somewhere else.  Some may call a $9 sandwich cheap, but if my lunch consists of 3 tacos for $7.50 sin tax, I'm gonna be expecting a Jarritos for free.  Although I never planned to find myself at La Verdad, its pretty pink sign called out to me after a breakfastless morning and I gave in.  With Tapatio and pickled vegetables on the tables, it seemed pretty promising.  I decided on one of each of the three $1.00 offerings-Chicken, Carnitas, and Pork.   I usually have faith in a place that serves its tacos with only onion and cilantro and no yellow cheese.  They looked and smelled good but it all went downhill from there.  The chicken tasted like old rotisserie chicken with some chilli powder on it.  The pork was dry as can be with little flavor.  The carnitas was the best of the bunch, and had some kick to it, but it was far from good.  I did like the teenie tiny handmade corn tortillas that the meat came in, but everything between the Tapatio and the tortilla was pretty sad, and I'm being generous when I say sad.  The Oringer Empire will not suffer because of La Truth, because drunk basbeball fans will pay for tacos and burritos that taste almost Mexican at slightly inflated prices.  People who like Mexican food, on the other hand, will have yet another Mexican restaurant in Boston that they wish were better.

Alex's Chimis/ 358 Centre Street/ Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

I think it is only fair of me here to make an admission:  Yucca is a very important part of my life.  That's not to say that I could not survive without it, but I would certainly be quite sad to exist in a world where yucca was unattainable.  That being said, the (boiled, not fried) cassava at Alex's Chimis is the best I have had to date in the Boston area.  For that reason, A's C will hold a special place in my heart for the foreseeable future.  The rotisserie chicken, on the other hand, was only OK.  I suppose I went in with inflated hopes, since it is the chicken that they are famous for, and the mandioca did help to sooth my disappointment, but the meat was pretty dry, not succulent, overly spiced.  Not spicy hot, just too many spices all mixed together without a ton of balance.  I would try this place again, but mainly to see if the manioc is consistently good, and to check once more if the chicken is juicier at, say 5 or 6 at night when they make a new batch.  The price is right.  A 1/2 Chicken with Yucca was $8.00.  I haven't given up on these guys yet, but I can't see them changing their secret spice recipe anytime soon, so I won't keep my hopes up.

I went to Alex's a second time for no good reason.  The chicken was much more dry than I remember from my first trip months ago.  The yucca is still scrumptious, but both myself and those who I sadly brought with me agreed that it was not worth a third trip for chicken.  The chicharrón isn't bad, but then, when is chicharrón actually bad?