Hello February. I have a trip to London planned for this month and I’m looking forward to all the food I’m going to eat there. I’ve got reservations at two Michelin Star restaurants as well as the oldest continuous restaurant in the city. And of course I have fish and chips and afternoon tea planned. So even if I don’t eat anything else this is going to be an exciting month.
February 1
Kelly gave me a bunch of restaurant gift cards for Christmas and we used the first one tonight at Virsa de Punjab. We tried Chicken Fried Chilli Momo, a chicken potsticker in a spicy sauce with peppers and onions. I really liked it. I also had Lamb Saag and plain naan.
February 3
We went to Mario’s tonight. The last few times we have gone haven’t worked out. They have been out of subs or the line has been too long to get in. Tonight we got our meatball sub as well as a really good salad. We had a great time. This is one of my favorite restaurants in the area. I highly recommend you check it out.
February 4
We had friends over for dinner tonight and I made some mexican. I wanted a light appetizer, so on the fly I made tequila-lime shrimp cocktail. Then I made my signature recipe, green chili chicken. I turned that into tacos with mexican rice, sour cream, and cilantro. Of course that was served with margaritas. Georgina brought tiramisu for dessert and I made some rum old fashioneds to bridge the gap between mexican and italian.
February 6
I made pork tenderloin tonight. It is always one of my favorite meals. We were eating light so we had it with brussels sprouts and a little salad. The best part however was the quick sherry-mustard pan sauce I made for it. That was really good and I should do it again. I deglazed the pan with some sherry then whisked in dijon mustard and a little milk. Heavy cream would have been nice, but milk is all I had.
February 7
I ate at DeNo’s for the first time this month. I got a chicken parm which was very good. I like it because the chicken stays crispy. For dinner, I made spicy garlic-ginger beef with peppers, carrots, and onions. We opened a nice bottle of Crane sake that I got at the Concord Cheese Shop.
February 8
I needed a quick dinner tonight so I picked up subs from New London. As I always say about New London, they can be hit or miss, and tonight my roast beef was just ok. The bread tasted a little stale. On the other hand my wife and I agreed that my son’s chicken nuggets were really good tonight. Like blow away McDonald’s good. Lucky for me he leaves a lot behind and I ate those too.
February 9
We went to Karma tonight to celebrate Chinese New Year. We had gyoza, crab rangoon, and sushi, and duck bao. The crab rangoon was very good tonight. The sushi however wasn’t their best work. We needed some dessert after that so we got takeout blueberry-lemon cheese cake from Woods Hill. It’s is an amazing dessert, even as take out.
February 10
I celebrated Chinese New Year and the birth of Sophorn and Rina’s son with my Cambodian family tonight. We had Chinese food and American food. The Chinese was take out duck, noodles, and veggies. Sotheara and I made the American food. He made a nice steak with garlic and rosemary and I made mashed sweet potatoes.
February 11
Super Bowl Sunday! Let’s go Chiefs. It was a great game with the Chiefs winning in OT. The only thing I liked more than the victory was my buffalo chicken dip. I did a layer of black beans with cumin and garlic. Next was a layer of sour cream mixed with roasted red peppers. Then I topped that homemade buffalo chicken. Finally I covered it with cheddar-jack and cooked it in the oven. I garnished with my own pickled jalapenos and scallions.
February 13
Happy Mardi Gras! Last night I made my gumbo and I finished it today by adding the shrimp. We had a fun party with Hurricanes, Sazeracs, gumbo, and bananas foster. My gumbo turned out great this year and everyone enjoyed the massive flame in the kitchen as I prepared dessert. We did try a new mexican place in Acton for lunch, Sante Fe Burrito Grill. I got carnitas tacos. It wasn’t bad but not good enough that I would go back.
February 14
Today is both Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday so it required a little balancing. I just had a tuna salad sub at Deno’s for a light lunch. On my way home, I stopped at Formaggio Kitchen and got some cheese for Valentine’s dinner. I wanted some bluefish pate, but they were sold out. But on the way home I stopped at Wilson Farm and they had some smoked whitefish spread which was a good substitute.
February 15
I grabbed lunch today with my old boss. We went to Il Massimo as we always do. I had a caesar salad (with extra anchovies), pasta carbonara, and tiramisu. Everything was very good. I again recommend them and their cocktails.
Febuary 16
This is the most beautiful looking dish I’ve made this year, pan seared trout placed on sweet potato puree and topped with spinach and crispy shallots. It was excellent.
February 17
I had such high hopes for Yas Chicken. The menu looked awesome and there is little I love more than spicy chicken. Unfortunately, even though they are open, they are still under construction. We had to walk around a ladder to get in and then a third of the seating was under construction, another third, about eight seats, was taken, and the final third hadn’t been installed yet. Not ideal, so we took the food to go and ate it at the mall. The food was just ok. I wasn’t crazy about the fries and the chicken didn’t have enough sauce. Worst of all my extra spicy chicken was not spicy. I’ll give them a try in a month or so when they have things figured out, but unless there are some meaningful improvements that will be my last visit.
February 18
Marcie was kind enough to invite me to her birthday dinner. It was my first time at Rufina’s in Chelmsford, and it was really bad. In fact the only reason I’m including it was because it was exceptional in it’s unpleasantness. I got the fig salad and the veal saltimbocca. If you want the gory details read my google review. But don’t go there!
February 19
We are on our way to London! Kelly and I split a spring roll sampler at Davio’s in C Terminal at Logan. It wasn’t great. The buffalo chicken one was loaded with blue cheese and the marinara sauce on the chicken parm one wasn’t very good. On the JetBlue flight I got a chicken coronation wrap. The wrap wasn’t too good, but once I pulled the excess away it was better. It was served with a nice couscous salad and chocolate mousse.
February 20
We arrived in London around nine and checked into our hotel. We rested for a few hours and then visited Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. We didn’t eat lunch but we did stop in a McDonald’s on the way back to get food for my son. I have a habit of trying new menu items at foreign McDonald’s so I picked up a three pack of mozzarella sticks with salsa sauce which we all shared. I have to admit they were good.
Diner was at Rules. We had a 5:00 reservation because they told us they don’t serve children after 7:00, but we stayed until after 8:00, and they didn’t kick us out. Rules is the oldest restaurant in London dating back to 1798. I had and Indian-styled quail followed by steak and kidney pudding, which is just like steak and kidney pie but with a suet crust, and I assumed it is steamed. For dessert, I had sticky toffee pudding, but the better desert was Kelly’s Golden Syrup Sponge. I also tried some new gin, Isle of Harris Gin and Sacred Christmas Pudding Gin. For all the details of Rules read my travel bite.
February 21
We had plan for the day was to head to Kew Gardens for the Orchid Festival. We took the Tube their from Victoria Station. When we got off there was a woman selling pastries. We all bought one, I was going to get a sausage roll but instead chose the cherry crown (danish).
I really enjoyed the orchid festival and the cacti in the greenhouse. I also enjoyed the tram ride around the gardens. It was too rainy to walk. I bought a bottle of gin, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew Gin. I was hoping to try it at the restaurant there, but the host was so rude he wouldn’t even tell me how long a wait for a table would be. So sadly I haven’t tried it yet. But it is gin no. 095 of The Collection.
Dinner was at The Harwood Arms, a Michelin Star pub on the west side of London. I had three courses of deer starting with an amazing venison scotch egg with Oxford sauce which tasted like honey mustard to me. Next was tongue of red deer. That was followed by a more traditional preparation of Berkshire fallow deer. And finally, I had a apple parfait for dessert. I also tried three new English gins (Portobello Road, Hepple, and Martin Miller’s) and an Old English cordial called Lovage. Read more about our dinner here.
February 22
It was a rainy day in London. Our plans were interrupted, so instead of walking through markets (and eating as we went), we ended up at the British Museum. That was great, but by the time I got to dinner I was starving. Kelly and I ventured out on our own to Trishna, a Michelin Star Indian restaurant. We had a spectacular meal highlighted by Guinea Fowl, a Lamb Chop, and Brown Crab. What was most impressive was their amazing ability to pair wine with each course. In addition to the wine, I enjoyed two different gins from India, Hapusa and Stranger & Sons. For the complete story of Trishna, visit this post.
After Trishna we walked over to The Connaught Bar which is currently ranked the 5th best bar in the world. It was lovely and we enjoyed ourselves there. They make their own gin so I not only had to try it, but I had to buy a bottle, gin no. 096. I also had a Faraway Collins which was delicious.
February 23
We had two plans for food today. One happened and one didn’t. We started with afternoon tea at our hotel, The Clermont Victoria. The tea was massive. I couldn’t finish all of the sweets, but the scones, in particular, were amazing.
For dinner we were supposed to go to fish and chips, but we had lost item we had to search for. We ended up getting burgers and fries from the place at the end of the block, Bleecker Burger. It was wildly crowded and took forever and I just thought it was ok. But everyone else really liked it.
We ended the night with a final drink at the hotel bar, Reunion. I had a jensen’s old Tom on the rocks. It was gin number ten of my London adventure.
February 24
We made our way home from London. The plane food was pretty bad, but I made up for it by getting a buffalo chicken pizza from New London when we got home. That was delicious.
February 26
I made dinner tonight. It was my first time cooking in a while. I got some lamb steak and seasoned it with Middle Eastern spices and served it with spinach and spiced rice.
February 27
I found out Sotheara was getting married, so I took him out to dinner to hear the story. We went to Fishbones in Chelmsford. The food was very average the last few times I was there, but tonight I enjoyed it. The Parmesan Crusted Founder was excellent. Dessert was also good. The peel and eat shrimp were just ok though.
February 29
One extra day this February and I tried out something new. I saw Jacques Pepin make these pan fried cakes out of leftover bread and thought I would try it out. I just cubed up some bread ends, added milk and egg, some onion and parsley, and then pan fried them. They are a really nice addition to a steak salad.
Best of the month
This was a pretty awesome month. The best part was of course the trip to London, but we also had mardi gras, super bowl, and valentine’s day. With so much to celebrate I ate well.
The best meal that I made was my gumbo and bananas foster, but that was a special mardi gras event. So I’m also going to name a best non-holiday meal, and that was my trout. My buffalo chicken dip for the Super Bowl was also outstanding, and I really like the Jacques Pepin pan cakes I tried.
The best meal I ate in a restaurant was the Indian tasting menu at Trishna, but of all the meals I had in London, the restaurant I most want to return to is Rules. The best meal I dined out for back home was the meatball sub night at Mario’s that was a lot of fun, it was followed closely by the dinner at Karma (even though the sushi wasn’t their best) with takeout dessert from Woods Hill.
The worst meal I ate was at Rufina’s. That was terrible. Airplane food came in a close second but even airplane food is better than Rufina’s!
Links:
Mario’s
pork tenderloin recipe
DeNo’s Pizza & Subs
New London
Karma
gumbo recipe
Il Massimo
Rules
The Collection
gin no. 095
The Harwood Arms
Trishna
gin no. 096
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