Owners Yeanie Bach and Phi Pham started out with a dream: to share the beauty of Vietnamese coffee with Boston by doing a few area pop ups, before finding their dream home in Fenway last summer to open Café Phinista. A month earlier they also opened a bánh mì shop, Bánh mì oi, in West Roxbury. At Café Phinista, they only use coffee beans in their Vietnamese Coffee from a farm in Vietnam (they are the world’s second largest grower […]
Underdog Hot Chicken (first location with another in Fort Lee, New Jersey) is a recent entry in the former Kim Tofu’s space located in Allston to serve hot chicken. They have a simple menu of three kinds of combos: Hot Chicken Sandwich, Chicken Tenders and the 3 wings and 3 drumsticks all come with one side and a drink. They do have a simple array of sides. They take inspiration from the Nashville Hot chicken which gets their spicy heat […]
A phoenix is rising from the dust of the old Suishaya restaurant in Chinatown. Closing in March due to the pandemic, Suishaya was in many locals’ Chinatown rotation for Korean staples and sushi. Henry Wong, owner of Hong Kong Eatery, took the opportunity to reimagine what this space could be. The new ramen and sake restaurant is in its “soft opening” phase, giving the manager, Dixon Leung, the opportunity to hire and train staff to run the sleek new concept. […]
Photo courtesy of Ten Second Noodles As Chinatown begins reopening, we’ll visit restaurants who are shaping Chinatown’s future. This is the first installment. In a food-obsessed country, Yunnan is a destination. It is tucked in between enormous mountains, and many rivers flow through it. It’s home to a number of indigenous populations unknown to most Boston diners, possibly even to many people in China. Twenty-four distinct peoples live in Yunnan. The characters for Yunnan include the “South of the Clouds” […]
While visiting Lowell, we went to the cozy and casual dining spot Laos Thai Kitchen in downtown Lowell. They do take out and have six tables available for dine in service. We started out with Thai Iced Tea ($3), the classic black tea drink made with sugar, condensed and evaporated milks. Then came the Beef Jerky (Lao marinated beef strips, $8.95) a popular snack and food with refrigeration not widely available in Laos. This sweet and savory jerky version came […]
(請點這裡閱讀中文版。) Tora Ramen 99 Harrison Avenue Boston, MA 02111 857-233-4860 Last fall while in the pandemic, the team of Kenix Wong and Patrick Zhong who brought Tora Japanese Restaurant to Boston bravely opened their second Chinatown restaurant called Tora Ramen. This new hole in the wall ramen joint sits on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Kneeland Street. COVID-19 protocols were observed but there was limited dine in seating. For starters we got the Tofu in Goma Shoyu $4 which […]
(請點這裡閱讀中文版。) The most popular item in the earliest Chinese restaurants in the U.S. was chop suey, a mixture of meat and vegetables in a brown sauce. The origins of chop suey are murky but the dish certainly had a strong impact. It was such a popular term that it was even co-opted by others, to apply to non-Chinese foods, such as the Chop Suey Sundae. A Chop Suey Sundae? Meat, vegetables and a brown sauce over ice cream? No, this […]
(請點這裡閱讀中文版。) Noah’s Kitchen 18 Harvard Street Brookline, MA 02445 (617) 383-5848 M-F 11:30-9pm Sa-Sun-12-9pm Takeout and delivery/ Limited indoor dining and RSVP Noah’s Kitchen, with an emphasis on homey, Chinese, mainly Sichuan cuisine, quietly opened last year in the former ChoBee Hoy Realty space in Brookline Village. The restaurant has a mix of East meets West modern and simple décor. Their use of thoughtful touches is seen from their table setting to their use of a traditional metal teapot and […]
(請點這裡閱讀中文版。) Have you ever tasted Chifa cuisine? In the Greater Boston region, there’s about ten Peruvian restaurants, many with a couple Chifa dishes on their menus, usually Lomo Saltado and Arroz Chaufa. However, Peruvian Taste Restaurant, located in Charlestown and having opened in September 2020, has the most extensive Chifa menu of all, with easily over a dozen dishes available. But what’s Chifa? Around the 1850s, many Cantonese Chinese left China for the U.S. while others traveled to Peru, commonly working on sugar and […]
(請點這裡閱讀中文版。) Beverly continues to become a compelling culinary destination, and one of my new favorite spots is Soall Viet Kitchen, a Vietnamese restaurant which opened in October 2020. This is actually their second location, the first being the Soall Bistro in Marblehead, which opened in March 2012. The owners are Sa Nguyen and Mia Lunt, close friends who desired to offer authentic Vietnamese cuisine, to highlight the culinary delights of their homeland. The name Soall is actually a combination of Sa’s mother’s name, Soa, and the first letters […]
