Sweet and Sour in Boston

I’m about due to post a blog / review. Since we’ve been traveling and have been super busy I’ve been leaving it up to JP (read: I’m lazy) to post since we basically felt the same way about the places and food we were eating.
The other day as I was walking to work, I noticed the amount of leaves on the sidewalk. How did that happen? How are the leaves already falling? Isn’t it still the end of June? It feels as though we just moved into our new home; how is it back to school and Halloween? How is it already football season? Didn’t we just win the NBA Championship a few weeks ago? Where has the time gone? Don’t get me wrong, I love fall. I love pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin beer, pumpkin risotto, apple pie, and football. Now that I’ve remembered how easy it is to bake an apple pie from scratch (http://www.myhomecooking.net/apple-pie/), I’ll hopefully have time to bake some more. So over all I’m happy it’s fall, but I’m still wondering how it showed up without even a warning. It could be due to the fact we had 6 weddings to attend this year (one in South Carolina, one in the Berks, one in Newport, one in Santa Monica, one in Oklahoma City, and the last one is in the Berks). These weddings have been gauging where we are in the year, as most of them have fallen on major holidays (Memorial Day, Fourth of July, etc). The latest ones are during college football season, the worst kind of sin in John Paul’s eyes. Keeping with the “where the hell has the time gone” idea, I can’t believe we’re in the “home stretch”. The last one we went to and the next one were/are the two I looked forward to the most; not because I liked the people any better, but because the areas we were going are known for food. One might be surprised that I’m saying Oklahoma is known for food, but if you’ve read JP’s earlier blog, you’ll know there’s a huge Vietnamese section, but even if we can’t make it there, we can (hopefully) go to Di Loan’s and have some of her pho. Yum!
While in Santa Monica & (BEAT) L.A. for Suzy and Co’s wedding, I was able to try various foods I had never had before, mainly, Pink’s, L.A. style tacos, and Bo 7 Mon. Everything was amazing. Who knew that sour cream on a hotdog would be so tasty? I might actually start doing that at home. The tacos were heaven. I’m glad they were authentic. They were also made with corn tortillas (my favorite!). It all tasted so fresh. I’m still trying to convince John Paul we need our own taco man…who lives with us. Bo 7 Mon was something I’ve never had before. It’s similar to hot pot where you are brought raw food and you’re allowed to cook it yourself. I enjoyed it more than hot pot. The beef was tasty as was the shrimp and other fish (they say it was catfish but I don’t believe it). After the meat or fish is cooked on the sizzling dome shaped cook thing, you assemble it into a rice paper wrapper with pickled veggies, bean sprouts, and various sauces. It’s very tasty and quite fun.
To rewind by a few days, back to Friday to be exact, John Paul had to run to Cau Tuan’s house in L.A. to help out his mom with some last minute wedding errands. All the kiddies went to the beach and I opted to help Suzy and Tina also pick up some last minute items. After finishing our errands we decided to eat lunch. Since we were in Culver City, Suzy suggested Father’s Office (http://www.fathersoffice.com). We find parking and head on in. Immediately we’re carded (BONUS!); the bouncer explains since they’re a bar at all times, they card everyone. Oh, so it’s not because you think I look younger than 21? Dang…
We sit down outside and after a few minutes realize we’re supposed to order up front. We head up front and order. Suzy explains they give you a lot of food so we settle on 2 cheeseburgers and a basket of sweet potato fries. I’m not normally a fan of sweet potato fries, but when the other two women you’re with are a bride the day before her wedding and a pregnant woman, you’re basically doing anything to keep them as stress-free as possible. Not that me wanting regular fries is the end of the world, but it’s little things people. Tina ordered a non alcoholic drink (root beer I believe) and Suzy and I ordered a local Hef.
We decide to sit inside and find a seat in a side area. We chat, watch some ESPN, and wait for our food. It takes a while for our food to come out, but that’s okay since we munched on some Chex Mix and pretzels while running errands at the Target down the street. Once our food comes out I notice the burgers aren’t huge per se, but they sure do look pretty. Our fries are there too. They show up in an adorable mini deep fry basket. Super cute! Suzy said they sometimes come out in little shopping carts too. Again, super cute! We dig in. Heaven. The burger is perfectly cooked, the gruyere is melted and super tasty, and the brioche bread is a lovely touch. I try a sweet potato fry. Oh wow. Seriously. Are they always this good? If so, I’ve been missing out for years. They’re accompanied by a dip, it’s some sort of aioli. Shoot. I’m so kicking myself for not eating these before.


We finish our food and there is one half of a cheeseburger remaining, along with a handful of fries. Better not waste the food so we get it to go. They give us a Chinese food takeout box for our leftovers. It barely fits the food, but we manage. Sadly, there’s no room for the deep fry basket. Stealing one of those will have to wait until next time.

I give Father’s Office 4 out of 5 stars.