Sweet and Sour in Boston

Last night a friend was in from out of town and we grabbed some dinner. I've never gone to Union before, and seeing as it's a couple of blocks away, we decided to give it a try.

I always thought Union was a long and narrow restaurant, but once we entered I soon realized I was wrong. It's a decent size place. The bar area was mostly full, which is pretty good for a lazy Monday night. The dining area had a few open booths and we were promptly seated even though we didn't have any reservations. (Not that I thought we would have troubles, but you just never know, ie, BBC.)

Union apparently is extending restaurant week so we were all going to go with that menu. There was also a special tonight, a steak tare tare appetizer that sounded really good. My buddy Joey and I looked at each other, trying to decide if we would get it or not. I decided no after I was told I couldn't switch it out with any of the appetizers in the restaurant week menu, but he went with it anyway.

My order was:

Deviled Eggs with Spiced Toasted Pecans, Spinach and Arugula Salad
Grilled Wild Striped Bass Sweet Corn Succotash and Smoked Paprika Vinaigrette
Black Bottom Cupcake Sundae Hot Fudge, Fresh Whipped Cream, Walnuts

Luckily everyone else ordered differently so we were all able to snack on the other items of restaurant week.






My deviled eggs came out and I was pleasantly surprised. Deviled eggs aren't normally something I see on a restaurant menu...usually it's for picnics or catered affairs. It's also an item that I feel should probably taste the same no matter who is making it, and these were no exception. The salad was also nice, with the pecans adding a nice sweet touch. I tried some of Joey's tare tare and it was pretty good, but not mind-blowing in any way. Abby's soup wasn't very good at all. It was a watermelon gazpacho soup and I don't think I could have more than 1 spoonful.




We then waited quite a bit for our main course. And the appetizers really made us more hungry. It's one of the few times I've had an appetizer and completely finished the plate and was immediately wanting the entree. I guess it was an epidemic because Nabeel, Joey and Abby all felt the same way. Maybe we were just extremely hungry that night...who knows. My striped bass came out and it looked like it was perfectly cooked: a nice brown, crispy sear on the skin and flaky to the touch. The bed of veggies it was lying on top of were very good, especially the corn. (This must be a good season for corn, because any corn I've had has been really freaking good.) The bass itself was, while perfectly cooked, a little under seasoned. The crispy skin had decent flavor, but the flesh was slightly bland. There sauce/vinaigrette provided some nice flavor, but I'd rather have the fish speak more for itself. Abby and Nabeel both got the cornflake crusted chicken and that too was slightly bland. Maybe the chefs ran out of salt...



Again, we waited a long time for our desserts. Right now we were all tired from a long day of work (or in my case still recovering from Vegas) and wanted our dessert immediately. Finally it came...and I'd give it a meh. It wasn't bad, nor was it great. Just a nice simple cupcake sundae. I ate it all and it pleased my sweet tooth, but it wasn't anything memorable. Joey's pineapple upside down cake had a very strong rum sauce, that was basically straight rum.

Overall not a bad place, but nothing special either. Looking at the prices (which weren't too bad) Union seemed like the classic place to try restaurant week. You get a little of everything, and it seems to be from a selection not far removed from their regular menu. I give it a 3 out of 5.

***Pics will come soon. We forgot our camera, so Nabeel used his blackberry to take pics and will email it to me when he has a chance.

Sorry this has been delayed, but I really just didn’t want to remember my meal at Sel De La Terrible. To be fair, it definitely wasn’t worse than the British Beer Company. Also, I wrongfully assumed it was a seafood restaurant. So sue me, it’s right by the aquarium and there are fishies on the building.
Since it’s been a few days you’ve all probably read JP’s posting. We walked in and were greeted by no less than 6 people. I was actually overwhelmed. And stated so. They laughed. I’m not sure why. Seriously. When I was a server we were never allowed to stand around together looking not busy. Cardinal sin. We walk away and are seated. Immediately our waiter comes over asking us if we’re ready to order. Now this isn’t cool for a few reasons. One, he was one of the 35 people standing at the front door so he knows we’ve just been seated. And (B), he followed us over and I actually watched him watch us sit down. He clearly knows we didn’t even have time to open a menu. Dude. Relax. I know you guys want to turnaround a huge crowd tonight, but let me at least take off my coat.
We order drinks and food. I get the tomato soup with grilled cheese, the blue fish, and the puff pastry with caramel ice cream. John Paul ordered the oysters, steak, and some chocolaty dessert.
Loud dude has since left and now JP and I can talk about him. Dude, what was with him? Was he wasted or just that loud of a person? I feel bad for his date. Yikes. A little bit further into our conversation I notice something funny…our waiter is counting money on a table near ours…like actually ON the table. Eww. Dirty money does not belong touching a table! Also, why are you counting it in front of patrons? Take it in the back. This is supposed to be a nice restaurant!
Food comes. Tomato soup is delish. Finished it and craved more. Was very creamy and I was able to taste basil. There were also scallions cut up and sprinkled on top for garnish. They added a nice bite. Hopes are now high. If the rest of my dinner is as fantastic as the soup, I’ll be the happiest girl.
Sadly, the fantastic meal ended with the appetizer. My blue fish came out. The fish had at least 3 bones in it. Eww. Yes that happens every now and then, but three? Ick. Also it was in this nasty broth. The broth actually made me feel ill. Yuck. There were two positives about the dish, the portion of fish (HUGE!) and the corn. The corn was amazing. I tried JP’s steak and wish I had ordered the same. It was perfectly cooked and melted in my mouth. Damn I hate ordering wrong.
Dessert arrives and I notice our ice cream is melted. John Paul thinks it’s because the pastries we have it with are so warm it’s melting the ice cream. Unfortunately his assumption is incorrect. Our pastries are cold so that means our food has been sitting out for quite some time. Man that always makes me sad. I like when my food is served at the correct temperature. Points off again…or shall I say dollars off our waiters tip…that’d be a more appropriate statement.
Finally it’s time to pay. Now if only we could find our waiter…don’t you love it when your waiter is up your arse the entire night, until it comes time to pay the bill. Yeah I love that too.

Since we tried Sel De La Terre during restaurant week I admit I have some concerns. I wonder if it would have been better if we had tried it when it wasn’t restaurant week. Yet, I also wonder if it would have been just as crappy and now we’ve saved ourselves some money by getting it at a restaurant week price. The world may never know, or at least I won’t because I don’t plan on returning any time soon.

I give Sel De La Terre 2 out of 5.

It's restaurant week and you maybe asking yourselves why the heck hasn't JP and Abby gone to any places and given their reviews? Well to be honest, we kinda have mixed feelings for restaurant week. Currently we are booked for a dinner at Sel de la Terre for Friday night. I would have loved it if Clio or O Ya were participating in restaurant week and I would have tried to have gone a couple of times to each place. While restaurant week can be a good deal (especially for lunch) and it's a great way to experience restaurants that you normally wouldn't go to, it can sometimes be a negative experience as well. Last weekend, after our great dinner at Metropolis Cafe, we went to Sage to grab a few drinks. I've never gone in there before, but the bar was wide open. Food was being brought out to customers and it looked fantastic. The guy sitting next to us at the bar was eating rabbit and was enjoying every single bite. We asked the bartender about the food and if they were participating in restaurant week and replied that they were, but to not come to Sage then. It would not be a great way to experience their food he said. The menu is limited and portions are tiny. Come during a normal time and order a couple of items, which would be seasonal dishes with local produce, and share the dishes together. That, he said, would actually be cheaper than the restaurant week prices and you'd get a lot more. This is not the first time I've heard waiters or bartenders tell me this about their own restaurants during restaurant week. Le Zygomates (at least a couple of years ago) actually has a 3 course prix fix menu every night and for a few bucks less than the restaurant week prices. So sometimes going out to dinner for restaurant week is not the best of ideas, especially since all these restaurants are going to be jam packed with customers, your food might not get the attention that you might desire. That being said, Abby and I have come to agreement that every restaurant week we'd try to book the most expensive restaurants in town (Oak Room, Excelsior, etc) and this time it was Sel de la Terre by the waterfront.

Anyway, none of this has to do with the fact that we hit up the Hen House last night.

(Sorry for no pics, we forgot the camera.)

The Hen House is on Mass Ave towards South Bay right by the great Liquor Land. I've had chicken and waffles before, at the famous Roscoe's in LA, to be honest all I remember from that experience is that it was kinda expensive and they give you a whole cup of butter on your waffles. (I also remember scaring the crap out of some Indian girls my buddies were trying to spit game at while we were in LA for the Rose Bowl by screaming out to them that we were wankstas going to Compton to get some chicken and waffles. To this day I still think those girls were lame and had no sense of humor and were ugly, so no big loss...and to my credit, later that night we met Jennifer Gardner and hung out in a VIP section of some swank LA club for New Years, where I ruined more of my boys' game when I offended some Vietnamese chicks...god I rule as a wing man.) To my pleasure, Hen House was neither expensive, nor did they try to clog your arteries with their butter. (I'm assuming they are leaving that up to the fried chicken.)

(A quick history lesson on chicken and waffles taken from wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_and_waffles.

The exact origins of the dish are unknown; there are several versions of its origins.

One version:
"As unusual as it might seem, the marriage of chicken and waffles actually has deep roots. Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s and the combination began appearing in cookbooks shortly thereafter. The pairing was enthusiastically embraced by African Americans in the South. For a people whose cuisine was based almost entirely on the scraps left behind by landowners and plantation families, poultry was a rare delicacy; in a flapjack culture, waffles were similarly exotic. As a result, chicken and waffles for decades has been a special-occasion meal in African American families, often supplying a hearty Sunday morning meal before a long day in church..."

Another version:
Some historians believe the dish goes back to the late 19th century, when Southern African-Americans, recently freed from slavery, began migrating to the Northern United States. According to author John T. Edge: "My guess is that it comes from the days when someone would go out in the morning and wring a chicken's neck and fry it for breakfast. Preparing a breakfast bread with whatever meat you have on the hoof, so to speak, comes out of the rural tradition."

Benny's Home Cooked.com notes:
"It is interesting to note that this combination and/or recipe does not appear in What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Abby Fisher, 1881. Mrs. Fisher was a former slave and her book is generally considered the first cookbook written by an African-American. These foods appear (but not together) in Mrs. Porter's Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. Porter, 1871."

Regardless of where this dish originated from, I'm glad it's around.)

There is an large outdoor area with 5 or 6 large picnic tables, and when you enter the restaurant, the first thing you notice is how much space there is inside. Large groups can easily be accommodated here. I have a feeling that most of the orders here are take out. The menu is actually quite large, with pizzas and sandwiches, but we were here for one thing: Chicken 'n Waffles! On the large chalkboard menu above the register is a step by step way of ordering. (At only $7.49!)

1. Choose your waffle: I went with multigrain.

2. Choose your butter: I went with hand whipped.

3. Choose your waffle syrup: I went with Clove Honey.

4. Choose your chicken: I went with whole pieces, which turned out to be a breast and a thigh.

5. Choose you sauce: I went with Jamaican Jerk.

There are plenty of sides one can order as well, but I passed on them tonight. They have Mercury Brewery sodas, and I went with the root beer. (I'm obsessed with root beer!)

We had a bit of a wait for our food, enough time for me to move my car which was parked in a tow zone along the street before the Hen House to a legal spot on Mass Ave. Once our food arrived, there were some confusion on the sauces but it was all worked out quickly, we sat outside and began to eat. The waffle had some melted butter in the center and was fluffy and hot. I accidentally poured way too much clove honey all over my waffle, and I kinda wish I didn't because the multigrain waffle was absolutely delicious. Next time I'll have to remember to go easy on the honey. The chicken looks like it was dipped in a light batter before being fried and was very juicy. The skin, which as many of you readers may recall is something I love, was flaky but not nearly as crispy as I would have liked. Our friend Joey, who was dining with us, said his chicken tender was good, but seemed to be more similar to battered fish (ala fish and chips) then to chicken tenders. This I can kinda agree with, since the look and texture of the fried skin was more similar to the fish than to say KFC or Popeyes. The Jamaican Jerk sauce was a disappointment, but there was enough flavor in the chicken that I didn't need the sauce much anyways. The breast was very good (as most breasts are, in any shape, form or fashion) but the thigh was a puny piece of meat. I kinda wish that it would have been a drumstick instead, because I love drumsticks.

I most definitely will come back, maybe to get a bucket of chicken or to try some of their sides. If you have never had chicken and waffles before, please come and try...it's well worth the $7.50 you are going to spend, and its a combination that works in spades. I give Hen House a 3 1/2 out of 5.