JP Kitchen - in Jamaica Plain

The first time I went to JP Kitchen, I ordered the seafood special. It came with a bread roll instead of rice. Whatever. When I got home, I was a little surprised to see that it was deep fried, which is not a bad thing but I was expecting that it was cooked in a wok. Whatever. There were a few chunks of fake crab and the jalapenos kinda threw me off. I liked the squid and shrimp though. It was tasty but I wanted to try something else. This is the kind of dish that needs another dish to go with it.

Salt & Pepper Seafood

A couple of days later, I tried their combo #34. It included lobster sauce, which is actually made of pork. I really liked the fact that it came in a separate container with a lid, within the box. At some places, they just  put it in one of the dividers of the box so it spills all over the place. JP Kitchen's lobster sauce is also unique because there are scallops in the sauce! At first, I was wondering what that round white thing was and was pleasantly surprised to find not just one, but 3 scallops! The rice was good and had plenty of shrimp. Not too salty either. I'm usually ambivalent about crab rangoon but these were actually quite good. I'd actually order this combo again in the future. As you can tell in the picture below, it's a lot of food and enough for at least two meals. You might want to add some sauteed veggies to make it a healthier meal though.

Combo #34 - shrimp fried rice, crab rangoon, and lobster sauce

The lobster sauce has scallops in it!

If you can't finish the lobster sauce, save it to use for cooking some vegetables such as Chinese cabbage or spinach. It's a tasty sauce that you can put in a frying pan, add your chopped veggies, and make a nice side dish in about 10 minutes or less. Or, if you're just really lazy, make some rice and pour the sauce on top for a meal.

More dishes from subsequent visits (to be updated with each visit):

 Click on the pictures for a larger image.

Blue Nile (in Jamaica Plain, MA) - Finger-lickin' good, literally...

This was my first experience with African food, not counting African coffees like Kenya AA and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Blue Nile is an Ethiopian restaurant located in Hyde Square, on Centre Street. It's right beside Food Wall, which is the go-to Chinese takeout place in Jamaica Plain. The motivation for trying Blue Nile was actually an episode of The Simpsons. Remember when Marge, Lisa, and Bart became foodies after they ate at an Ethiopian restaurant?

Yeah, that episode inspired me to try Ethiopian food! I wish I were making this up but it's true. I really didn't know anything about Ethiopian cuisine except that they grew wonderful coffee beans. Anyway, I'm very glad that I tried Blue Nile because Ethiopian food is delicious!

Tikil Gommon (top left), Shiro Wet (top right)?
Siga Wet (bottom)

I had the Nile combo, which includes a meat dish and 3 vegetable dishes for takeout. When she gave me the box, it was quite heavy! It came with 2 rounds of injera bread. One was used to line the box and one was placed on top of the meat and veggies. It was a lot of food! I couldn't eat it all in one sitting and the leftovers lasted for about 2 more meals. It was very tasty with all of the different items seasoned just right. I had the Siga Wet (Beef), Shiro Wet, Tikil Gommon, And Yatakilt Wet. Check out their menu. The combo is definitely enough for at least 2 people. Here are some pictures of my first meal from Blue Nile:

When you open the box, it looks like this. 

The beef and vegetables are under the injera bread.

Everything was seasoned perfectly. Plenty of injera bread to scoop it all up!

The brown stuff is the Siga Wet (beef).
The veggies (bottom right) is Yatakilt Wet.

I'm not sure this is the right way to scoop
but it sure tastes good!

Anyway, try this place! They do take-out and your food will be ready very quickly. If you're going to the new Whole Foods in JP, Blue Nile is on the other side of the rotary so you can just pick up some takeout on the way home.

Another place to get Ethiopian food:

A couple of months ago, I was at the South End Food Emporium and was tempted to buy a package of injera bread. However, there were a 

lot of them in one package and I wasn't sure I could eat all of them so I just bought some green Ethiopian coffee beans and went home. Now that I know that I like injera bread, I'll probably go buy a package of it at the South End Food Emporium the next time I'm there to buy more green coffee beans (they have roasted beans too). Injera bread can be used to scoop up anything resembling a thick stew or dip.

I need more practice...

This is when I had to stop eating because I was full!

Soul Fire (Allston, MA) - Review of the Pitboss Sampler

Barbecue is one of those things that is best eaten at a restaurant or ordered take-out because it takes a long time to make it well at home. If you live in Boston, Red Bones in Somerville is probably one of the more well-known places to get tasty barbecue. However, if you live in Boston (and not in Cambridge or Somerville) and don't want to haul your butt over there, Soul Fire (in the Allston area) is a pretty good place too. I had a Living Social deal that was about to run out and finally got some take-out there. For a more thorough review of everything they serve, check out the pigtrip blog (it has pictures of most dishes).

Since I didn't know what to order, I got the Pit Boss Sampler, which includes a bit of a lot of different things for about $43 with tax. I thought it would be enough food for about 2 days. It's a lot of food and supposedly feeds only 2 or 3 people - umm, yeah, if the people are big football players! I think it feeds at least 4 or 5 people (who are not football players). There was plenty of food for at least 5 meals and I'm not a skinny person. There are 7 different meat dishes in the Pitboss Sampler: pulled pork, spare ribs, baby back ribs, brisket, a hot link (sausage on a stick), fried chicken, and spicy hot wings (with sauce on them). All of the meats were cooked very well and the brisket was especially good. That explains why the 2 guys who ordered after me both chose the brisket. There was enough seasoning to not need any sauce but dipping is part of the fun of eating barbecue, right?

7 different meat dishes in Pit boss sampler

hot link (top), pulled pork, spare ribs (left), and baby back ribs (bottom)

yummy brisket chunks (on top of a slice of bread) hiding under the rack of baby back ribs!

As if the big pile of meat were not enough, the Pitboss sampler comes with 6 different sides, cornbread, and all the sauce you need. The guy said I could "load up" on sauces but I took only a small container of each of the 3 sauces in the pumps because I expected that the meats would be well seasoned already. Ok, so the sides were: collard greens, beans, rice and beans, mac & cheese, potato & egg salad, coleslaw, and cornbread (with butter). I liked the potato & egg salad very much. The mac & cheese was good too. The collards, slaw, and beans were actually on the sweet side. However, I'm not sure if I might be a little more sensitive to sweet than other people because I've been cutting my sugar consumption. Personally, I like collards to be a little on the salty side. The cornbread was pretty good and the rice and beans were quite good with a bit of a spicy kick. All of the sides were in the 8 oz deli containers, which made me think that this would be way too much food for 2 or even 3 people (who are not football players). In rank order, I liked the mac & cheese, potato egg salad, rice & beans, and then the other 3 (because they were all just a bit too sweet for my taste).

Sides included in the Pit boss sampler (and all the sauce you need)
going clockwise: Collards (top), beans, rice & beans, corn bread, mac & cheese, potato egg salad, 3 sauces

potato egg salad

coleslaw

The Pitboss Sampler is a great thing to order if you're having a Superbowl party with a bunch of dudes who like to eat a lot. I would love to go back and order a brisket meal because that was done very well. The spare ribs were good too. For sides, I'd probably get the mac & cheese and/or the potato salad. If you have a LevelUp card (this link gets you a $5 credit, by the way), they take that too.

The Same Old Place - Restaurant Review - Jamaica Plain

On Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, there are a few places where you can get really good pizza. There's the Real Deal with their fancy combinations and the JP House of Pizza on the other side of the street. Same Old Place is unique just because their pizza is tasty without anything fancy on it. The guy making the pizza is visible from the front window so you can watch the whole pizza-making process. However, he might get a little creeped out if you actually stand there staring at him while he works...

Yup, that's the window where you can stare at the pizza guy...

If you look at their menu page profile, you'll see that they're open early at 7 a.m. for breakfast until 11 p.m. and their menu is quite long. In addition to their pizzas, they have various types of burgers, subs, pastas, and sandwiches. They also serve beer. You can tell they have a loyal following from the friendly banter between the customers and the people behind the counter. There was a shooting in late 2010 at Same Old place and the JP community came out in support a few days later by having a peace vigil even though it was cold and windy. I suppose JP is just a very cool neighborhood too.

The last time I went there, I finally ventured into the room that's at the back of the restaurant, to the right. There's a large TV on the wall so you can watch TV while you're eating your meal. The restroom is in the back corner and it's very clean. I liked sitting at the large table with the bench, facing the TV. The place was about half full but it didn't seem loud and I could hear the news clearly. I had the cheese pizza combo, which includes 2 cheese slices and a small 12 oz soft drink. It was a little too much pizza for me. I usually get just one slice and a small drink. The slices are pretty big but the crust is very thin and topped with plenty of cheese.

Anyway, this place is great for poor students who want some great comfort food at almost any time of the day. A slice  and a soda is under $5 and there are all kinds of other things to eat for less than $10. Go try it!

Ghazal Indian Restaurant - Review

Ghazal is a relatively recent addition to the row of restaurants on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. They might not have the following of Bukhara but that's just because people just don't know about Ghazal yet. All of my room mates who have tried Ghazal love it and either go to Ghazal more or at least just as often as they go to Bukhara. You have the option of dining in or ordering takeout or delivery (on the phone or via Seamless web). (By the way, if you use the Seamless web link here, you can get a $5 discount on your first order, if you're new to the site.) It's one of the few places that don't charge a delivery fee on top of the tip. I like that.

The fact that you can choose to have your food as hot or mild as you like is a great thing. If you think you can take it, the nice chefs at Ghazal will make your meal "Indian hot," which means that it is way hotter than any American food you've ever had. Seriously. Personally, I'm too much of a wimp for that sort of thing. Medium is about as hot as I'll go.

Ok, so what do you order when there are so many choices on the menu? If I'm getting delivery, I like to get the Special Dinner for one. If you're eating with someone, there's also a dinner for two (which is probably enough food for 3 or 4). For less than $25 per person, you will get more than enough food for one meal, unless you're a football player, in which case it will be just enough (see picture below). It includes a samosa, soup, rice, naan bread, crispy things (sorry, I don't know what they were but they were really tasty), a curry dish of your choice, rice pudding (aka "kheer"), and coffee or tea. Oh yeah, you also get 3 sauces: a green one, a brownish one, and a reddish-orange one with onions. The green one is spicy and minty, the brownish one is sweet, and the reddish-orange one is spicy with oniony goodness.

So, how was it? I enjoyed all of it except for the samosa, which was ok but nothing to write home about. Perhaps it would have been better straight out of the fryer. Next time, I'll put it in the toaster oven for a minute before eating it. All of the dishes were nicely seasoned and balanced. The curry dish I chose was the lamb and spinach one (saag?). The fact that they give you rice, crispy things, and naan is great because you can have different dipping instruments for your curry (and soup). That just makes eating Indian food fun! The mulligatawny soup was flavorful and complemented the curry and samosa. For desert, the rice pudding (aka "kheer") has some cardamom in it, which adds a nice flavor to it. After a big meal, the rice pudding was perfect because it was light. The coffee came in a deli container and it was what it was. All in all, it was a really good Indian meal and I would definitely order it again for delivery or take-out.

Meal for one - enough for at least 2 meals!

Rice pudding "kheer" - flavored with cardamom - Perfect ending to a big meal.