My Thai Vegan Cafe

 We have always wanted to go to this vegan place in Chinatown and we finally did! It was about a month ago, but blogging is hard to do.

Everything is vegan, and the menu is huge. They have a lot of fake meat stuff, which is not really our thing but I guess it would be good for some people.

We went after work and it was deserted.

G. ordered a giant slice of chocolate cake. The waiter brought 3 forks, as if he were going to share with us. Nope. 

 I got crispy triangles and bubble tea. They were ok, but I wish there were more vegetables inside.

N. got some sort of curried noodles. She says they were good but she doesn't really remember.

The bubble tea was the best part! Not sure if I would go again since most normal Chinese restaurants have enough vegetarian stuff already.

Restaurant Review: The Real Deal

I bought a Living Social to The Real Deal a while ago!  It was $15 for $30 worth of food, a fact I had forgotten when P. and I decided to go try it out.  When we arrived I actually looked at the deal and we began compiling what we were going to order.

The menu at The Real Deal is extensive.  SO MANY OPTIONS.  P. and I had to go sit down to formulate our plan:

• The Zombie Burger (P.)
• Carmela Soprano (Me)
• Spicy Curly Fries
• Mozzarella Sticks

We placed our order and asked what our total was.  $26!  In a pinch we added on two cupcakes, chocolate cake with white icing for me and chocolate on chocolate for P.!

When our food was ready we brought it back to the table and stared at it in amazement.

S. insists that the curly fries here are the best, and since the grease was already soaking through the bag it seemed promising.

This shot shows almost all of the food, you can see the cupcakes in the plastic container.

P. and I focused our energy on the fried foods as they tend to not heat up well.  We polished off the mozzarella sticks with only a little trouble and ate a decent amount of fries although both of us only took about two bites of our paninis/burgers.

We then walked the leftovers home and ate the cupcakes.  They were GOOD!  Like really good, surprisingly tasty!

The next morning I used S.'s cast iron panini press to warm up my sandwich and stuck the remaining curly fries in the toaster oven topped with BBQ sauce.  I would say that the food was even better left over.  Initially I hadn't been too taken with my Carmela Soprano but reheated it was delicious!

Overall I would definitely return to The Real Deal.  I'd love to try their pizza and would definitely reorder the Carmela Soprano if only to let it sit in the fridge for a day before eating.  If I saw another Living Social I'd buy it but then bring maybe 5 people versus only P. so that we don't have to look like such pigs!

-N.

Restaurant Review: Bhukara

A while ago N. and I went to Bhukara, an Indian restaurant near our house, for lunch buffet.
It was a pretty good deal - we ate garlic naan and some sort of fried vegetable thing many other delicious items I don't remember the names of.



We ate soooo much.

I tried rice pudding for the first time, and it was not too terrible.

I would definitely go back again, if I ever have a week day off of work again. It was pretty much all I needed to eat all day.

3/6 De Facto Roommate Night

S. and I are now both off on Wednesdays!  I really love having a weekday off because I can do things that require normal business hours, plus it breaks up my work week.

We both woke up pretty early and did some computer work/reading before heading to yoga at the Blissful Monkey for their $10 lunchtime yoga.  Now it has been about 9 months since I last did yoga and I was fairly nervous to fall from downward dog or something, but it ended up being just fine!

Next I dragged S. with me to the library and then Polka Dog Bakery for a cat treat.  I love that I can complete all my errands by walking here in JP!

After eating lunch we headed out by bike to Trader Joe's.  Unfortunately it decided to start raining midway but luckily it was more of a refreshing sprinkle rather than a drenching downpour.  We parked, picked up our ceramic creations and then commenced grocery shopping!

The 'quiche pan' that I painted at the Clayroom!

If you have ever been shopping with S. and I you know it is a fairly long process, and when the wealth of Trader Joe's is in front of us it is even longer.  Plus you have to figure in we are carrying everything by bicycle.  Thus we made a couple rounds in the store, picking things up and dropping them off, contemplating organic or not and in general figuring what we need to live off of for the next week.  Eventually we checked out and departed!

Unfortunately S. had gotten a flat tire somewhere on our journey and with no tools on us we decided to walk our bikes to Landry's and get it fixed.  Everyone there was really nice and we were soon on our way, with a new ladybug bell for S.'s bike Francine!

I also downloaded the app Runtastic Roadbike in an effort to track my cycling journeys!  I actually haven't biked since Wednesday due to the snow, but I was pretty impressed by how well it worked on our return journey!

Despite our plans for a lazy night due to such a productive day, Z. managed to convince us to join him for dinner.  We ate at the Miami Restaurant in Hyde Square.  S. and I weren't really hungry so she got fried plantains and I had rice and beans.  Z. got goat stew which came with fried green plantains, rice and beans.  So much food!  The rice and beans was really good and I'm sad we forgot the leftovers!

Convincing us to leave the house took some work.

Mmmmm plantains!  (Maduros)

Z. enjoyed his goat tremendously.

This may look bad but it was delicious.
So delicious I have a suspicion that chicken
broth was used in the rice...

Roomie Night 3/4

N. and I had some grand roomie night plans for this week. Unfortunately, they involved biking around the city and when we got off work it was snowing, windy, and cold.

So like any sane person would do, we cancelled our plans and went to McDonalds instead.
Because it is Shamrock Shake season!!
Warning: If you plan to eat a shamrock shake, take care NOT to look at the calorie count. It will make you sad.
We drank them with joy while listening to the crazy and homeless population of the city yell and get into fights around us.

Then we headed home and got dinner on the way back. I had to resist the lure of New York Pizza (the best pizza ever anywhere). We passed both of the locations on the way home, but I held out until we got to Acapulco.

We had never been before, but we greatly enjoyed the decor. We were cold from biking in the snow, and I considered asking to borrow a mexican hat and a poncho from the wall to wear.

This painting of a bullfight was great.

Up close, the people look like skeletons. 

There were only a few other people there, and only one waiter. And free chips and salsa! We didn't have to wait too long, which was good because we were cold and we had other important things to do that night (aka blogging and watching TV).

I got nachos with refried beans and cheese and N. got a enchilada/tortilla combo. They were both pretty good, but not spectacular. We agreed that they were lacking in flavor. We have the theory that you could order anything off the menu and it would taste pretty much the same, but who knows.

The best part of the meal was when N. whipped out her jar to put the leftovers in.

And then some tupperware to bring the rest of the chips home!

\

(The waiter was occupied and the other diners didn't notice, so we got no strange looks. A first for us!)

When paying the bill, N. wrote the most beautiful "3" she has ever written. She would not let me take a picture of it.

N: It was a beautiful 3.  And here's Sadie!  We are definitely becoming pro-bloggers.

Roomie Night 2/25

Mondays are Roomie Nights! This week I met Natalie at the bike shop after work and we biked to Coolidge corner. We got dinner at Paris Creperie. There were so many options to choose from! 

Mine had cheese, broccoli, asparagus, and some other vegetables. N.'s had salsa and egg. 

They were pretty good, but not spectacular. Kind of lacking in flavor. I think the sweet crepes are probably better. 

Then we went to the Clayroom for pottery painting! This was our 3rd attempt, but every other time we got snowed out. It took us at least half an hour to decide what to paint. N. went with a quiche dish and I chose a small bowl. I was pretty tempted by the cat-shaped sponge holder, but I resisted. 

The guy who runs the place was wicked nice. We decided that we want to have a job like his someday. He just sat in the back and watched a movie, and came around once in a while to see if we needed help.  

While painting, we planned our biking trip around Cape Cod, scheduled to happen in July. Hopefully we will actually do it this year! 

There was only one other couple in the place. They were very intense about the spoon rest they were painting together. We saw them making multiple sketches and spent at least an hour choosing paint color.

My bowl features a cat.

I can't wait to see what they look like after they've been fired!

Ghazal Review

Groupon time!  $12 for $25?  Sign me up.

S and I walked over to Ghazal Indian Cuisine on Centre St. for a lovely Monday night dinner today.  I was very hungry and looking forward to some tasty food.

We were seated in the small restaurant with only 4 or so other tables, and promptly served water and those thin lentil cracker things.  I quickly began eating in hopes of filling up on the free stuff so I could take home more of the actual entree.  Unfortunately it didn't work.

Indecision struck again and we sent the waiter away a few times before actually having made our food choices.  We got Aloo Samosas for an appetizer, and ordered Shahi Aloo Gobhi and Aloo Chhole to share.  Have I mentioned we are both vegetarian?

The waiter tried to persuade us to get some naan,

"Have you had naan before?"

"Yes"

"And you don't want any?" 

I probably would have caved (I do love naan), but together we stayed strong and resisted.  There are cheaper sources of carbs than $3 for 2 pieces after all.

The food was good, but not excellent I'd say.  S's Shahi Aloo Gobhi had great spices with the cauliflower and potatoes, but both of wished it had been more saucy.  My Aloo Chhole was saucy and tasty but just didn't amaze us.  The Samosas were very good, but served on a weird bed of slightly dressed lettuce.

At the end I attempted to tell the waiter I'd brought one tupperware but we needed a few more.  But he insisted that he'd wrap it up nicely so that it would stay hot (??) so I stopped fussing and let him box our leftovers.  Not really sure what that was about, but our food made it home safely. (S: I think the waiter was just confused by the weird girl with tupperware in her purse)

Here are the boxed up 'hot' leftovers.

Overall, decent, but I probably wouldn't return unless another Groupon comes out, here's hoping!  On another note I have had their lunch buffet before and recall that it was quite a good deal and very tasty although the Mango Lassi seemed a little off.  But that was two years ago.

-N

La Summa

N and I got off work at the same time the other night, so we decided to go for a romantic dinner in the North End.

Although we had all day to think about it, we still hadn't decided where we wanted to go by the end of the day. We were both starving, and I really just wanted a cannoli. We ended up going to La Summa on Fleet Street, which had a much shorter line than all the restaurants on Hanover. We only had to wait about 15 minutes, and there was a bench to sit on! The hostess was very nice and gave us updates on the wait time as well.

The restaurant was pretty small, there was appropriate Italian music playing, white tablecloths, and candles. It was not too fancy though, there was a family near us with children and we ourselves were wearing dirty jeans [N: my jeans were NOT dirty!] and matching bike shops t-shirts.

The bread they gave us to start was ok. Nothing special, but we were hungry. Sadly, it was not warm. I ordered some sort of pasta in a cream sauce with sundried tomatoes. It was good, but I had hoped for more tomatoes. N got fettucchine alfredo with peas. She said it needed more peas (she is also oddly obsessed with peas). Price was reasonable for the area - we paid about $21 each.

Overall, it was a good experience. I would definitely recommend it. Would I go there again myself? Probably not, just because there are so many restaurants to try in the North End, and I really wish the bread had been warm...But the short wait and nice staff were a plus! And there were leftovers, which N added more peas to [N: Thanks for bringing them S!].

After dinner we swung by the shop and the crew was outside, just having closed. So we joined them and biked to the Sevens for a drink! My boss did not allow us to ride the tandem bicycle. We will have to work on convincing him to lend us one.

-S