Text 13172, 140 rader
Skriven 2014-05-10 13:05:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: celebratory 617
=======================
Several circumbirthday meals

My friend Link took me to Qingdao Garden (I misreported this
as "Palace"), widely regarded as the pearl of north Chinese
cooking in the Boston area.

It's changed a bit - the old room is pretty much the same
no-frills thing, but there's an overflow/banquet area next
door that is quite a bit spiffier. Also, 7 days from
something like 11 to 10. Also a streamlined menu, with many
of the odder dishes no longer on - this doesn't affect me
much, because the people I dine with are not quite so
adventurous as I am, except for Nicholas, but he doesn't
eat much at all any more, as he's on a dialysis regimen.

Link, being a vegetarian, dotes on squid and pork fat, so
we got one of each.

Red-cooked pork was as before, except it used to be belly,
and now it's the different-tasting but almost as good
shoulder, cut into neat rectangular pieces as though in
imitation of belly. As before, a peculiar assortment of
vegetables had been added to the braise - celery, carrot,
lotus root, and this time red cabbage. Very good and almost
the same dish as I used to love here.

Our other dish was salt-pepper squid, which I was crushed
to find came without tentacles; also, it was not as spicy
as I remembered - it seems to have been dumbed down to
suit a normal American clientele; otherwise it too was good.

The interesting part was that for afters durian candy was
available, and it actually tasted rather like durian, or
what I imagine roasted durian would be, the flavor muted
and perhaps improved in a caramelly sort of way.

Sadly, the large assortment of guo teh dumplings (which had
been made in house) was no longer on the menu.

It was my conductor friend Bob and his wife Deb who actually
got to take me out for my real birthday. A year ago I'd
experienced a quite subpar meal at The Sole Proprietor,
Worcester's premier fish restaurant (whose success, I am
told by those who should know, chased Legal Seafoods from
the area) and had scored a substantial gift certificate
because of that. I gave it to my friends, as they are
local and I wasn't going to go back in the foreseeable
future.

Anyhow, they pulled the thing out and suggested we go,
and I said okay, not with any tremendous enthusiasm, and
so we piled into the car, and after a while, I noticed
that we weren't heading for Worcester. Ha, fooled me.
Turns out they'd decided instead to take me to a new
Mediterranean restaurant in what used to be Northborough
Town Hall, now chicly decorated and called Zem Han. The
place had only one other table occupied; along with a
hostess who was generally absent and a waitress who
seemed to be doing all the work, that was it - seven
people visible or audible through the meal.

A free amuse came - tabbouleh, or whatever the Turks call
it, mixed with plenty of cucumber, with excellent pide
bread on the side. I ate a few wedges of bread and tried
without success to pick out the cucumber. Other luckier
diners have reported that the freebie has been a falafel-
like fried bean patty, which I'd have preferred.

Though billing itself as Mediterranean, the menu is
almost wholly central Turkish with a few nods toward
the sea. In our nod to the sea, we got a squid appetizer.
This comes in two kinds - fried or sauteed with tomatoes
and peppers. I thought fried would be easier to share
around, plus it was a couple dollars cheaper.

It was pretty standard - rings (no tentacles here either)
in egg wash and crumbs, with a distinctly non-Tatar tartar
sauce on the side. Looking in retrospect and at the reviews
on the Web, the sauteed would have been a better choice;
this was perfectly fine but perfectly ordinary.

For mains, Deb ordered what was listed on the menu as
 Chicken in a crock bowl - 16.50 - Chicken breast with
 vegetables slowly baked in a Rock dish topped mozzarella
 cheese, served with rice
which was as advertised - essentially cacciatore in the most
heavy-handed American-Italian style, served in an ordinary
porcelain vessel, which I think took away from the potential
rustic charm of the dish.

Bob and I both got hunkar begendi, described as
 Sultan's delight (ottoman style) - 18.50 - The first one is
 that the dish was created for sultan Murad iv (1612-1640)
 and obviously he liked it. Where the dish was created--in
 the palace kitchens or in The kitchen of a moderate house
 that murad iv spent a night on his way back from a hunting
 trip--is not clear. The second rumor is that the same dish
 was served for empress eugenie, the wife of napoleon iii,
 in sultan abdulaziz's beylerbeyi palace in 1869, and she
 liked it so much that abdulaziz promised her to ask his chef
 to give Eugenie's cook the recipe. And the rumor goes that
 Abdulaziz's chef was reluctant to share his recipe I salute
 whoever shared the recipe later on. "sultan's Kebab" sliced
 lamb meat mixed with eggplant puree, Basil, thyme and bay
 leaf, red wine with tomatoes sauce.(opt-in beef or chicken)

What came: a plateful of white stuff with a blob of red stuff
and four 3 to 4 oz chunks of grilled medium-rare lamb leg
arranged on top. The white stuff was some of the advertised
eggplant folded into a dill-scented white sauce with about a
ton of melting cheese (possibly sheep's or goat's mixed with
mozzarella) on top, which totally outcompeted the "red wine
with tomatoes sauce." The eggplant cream tasted pretty good
when hot, but the dill (my second least favorite of the
umbelliferous herbs) began to overpower as the dish cooled, as
it necessarily did, because the serving was enormous - we
speculated that they'd made two dishes for two. No rice or
sides, but I suspect we could have got pilav or pide had we
asked. We took back as much as we ate, but I am sorry to say
that the dill totally dominated when the dish was reheated.

Though we were beyond full by this time, the hard-working
waitress and the description (below) were so engaging that we
got a rice pudding and three spoons.

 Sutlac - 3.95 - Rice flour thickened pudding, made sublime.
 By the deliciously burnt bottom.

I told the waitress that I had been seduced by the description
of the deliciously burnt bottom, and she chuckled deliciously
and said, it's really on top. Which it was. This was a relatively
standard rice pudding cooked on the stove with a bit of cinnamon,
nutmeg, and vanilla and then run under the broiler. It was good.

I didn't see the bill, but it was probably about 90 counting
drinks, tax, and a smile-and-cuteness-driven tip (plus she was
the only staff in the room for an hour and half).
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 bbs.docsnetservices.com (1:123/140)