Tapas @ Taberna de Haro

Chompster is starting to work for us! No more figuring out where to go. Thanks to Cindy's favorites, we checked out Taberna de Haro last Friday. It's funny how we've never really noticed the place even though we used to frequent Ginza right across the road.
We didn't have reservations so we had to wait a little, but it wasn't bad. We got glasses of sangrias and hung by the bar. Compared to places like Dali and Tasca, Taberna de Haro has higher ceilings giving it a more spacious, less crowded feel. However, looks can be deceiving, the place was packed even as we left at 11pm.

I must say, I really enjoyed the sangria there. It was sweet and fizzy with lots of fruit. Just the way I like it. We also had the steak pincho with asturian blue cheese. The meat was well grilled, though the flavor of the blue cheese was a little intense for my liking. Next we had the fried cod balls. They remind me of Japanese takoyakis! :) Though the insides of the balls were drier.

The pinchos:


Squid balls:


Chomp Meter:
All in all, I thought the food was pretty good, though I didn't love any one dish enough to have it again should we revisit the restuarant. Wait, I take that back, will definitely get the sangrias again!


Taberna de Haro
999 Beacon St. (St. Mary’s St.)
Brookline, MA 02446
617-277-8272

Oh and a random piece of useless info. The night we went, we saw the filming of a movie, Everybody wants to be Italian, happening right next door. We asked one of the crew members who was starring in the movie. His answer? No one famous yet :))

Dim Sum @ Chung Shin Yaun

Can I say how much I love this place? This is the second time we've been back in a span of two weeks. I can't believe we hadn't discovered Chung Shin Yuan earlier having lived in Newton for almost 2 years!

This place serves Taiwan style dim sum. That's different from places like China Pearl which serve Hong Kong style fare. In any case it's delicious. It's also a plus that parking is easy to find (it's in Nonantum), however, be prepared to wait at least a half hour for a seat.

We ordered the salty soy bean milk (photo below) and the mega fried dough sticks (I didn't get a photo of this unfortunately). These seem to be a favorite among the chinese customers :) We also heard the table next to us exclaim to the waitress that they weren't able to find soy milk of such high quality in all of San Francisco ... I doubt it's true but we were mildly amused.


The pig ears and tofu with century eggs. The pig ears could have been spiced better but overall they were tasty.


The carb dishes. Here's the very delicious vermicelli. We had the five spice beef noodles the last time and that was exceptionally good too.


The spiced pork ribs with surprise surprise, sweet potatoes beneath. We devoured this as well.


Chomp Meter:
Value for money and very authentic. Customers are 98% asian, it's gotta be good! Recommended dishes are the beef noodles, fried vermicelli, pigs ears and ... alright I give up, I liked it all and I can't wait to go back!

Chung Shin Yaun
183 California Street
Newton, Massachusetts 02158-1008

Welcome to Boston Chomps!

I recently noticed that I haven't written anything about the purpose of this blog so anyway here goes. This is a blog about food in Boston of course! We (Pacman and Minime) love to eat and try new restaurants in the area so what better way to share this information than through a blog.

This is also a nice complement to our Chompster site where you can keep track of your favorite restuarants and share the best and newest places with your friends. Food bloggers, help support us and add your favorite restaurants :) You can also trackback from the Chompster map to your blog post on that particular restuarant.

See the restaurants on a map.


Link the restaurant back to your blog entry.


Share your favorites with your friends!

Breakfast @ Sound Bites

We wanted to try a new breakfast place last weekend. Our choices were Blue Room in Kendall Square, Stephanie's on Newbury, or Sound Bites in Somerville. We eventually settled on Sound Bites (the cheapest hah).

Pacman and I got there a little late. As we drove past, we saw that a line had already formed outside. I was surprised that our friends managed to get seats for us. Well, turns out that they had to order for us as well!

I found the experience quite stressful. Yes, the whole 20 minutes we were there :p. The place is really small and the wait staff like vultures. You have to watch for them. Seriously. They swoop in to grab your plate before you're even done. I noticed this one waiter eyeing our friend, J's plate, waiting ... just waiting for him to put his fork down. No kidding!

Anyway, I digress. The food was yummy and the friends made excellent choices on our behalf! French toast stuffed with figs and cream cheese for me, and chocolate chip pancakes with eggs for Pacman.

My french toast. Delicious!


Chomp Meter:
This is a toss up. Though the breakfast was quite delish, I wouldn't go back because 1) I don't think it's worth the wait 2) my stomach disagrees with me inhaling my breakfast and 3) there are so many other places to try!

Coming Attraction Alex's Modern Asian Bakery

I shrieked like a crazy as we drove past Newton Center today (down Langley Road). Saw a sign in the window for a to-be-opened asian bakery. It's time we had one in the area and an asian one to boot! Can you tell I live on sugar?

I don't really know what kind of place it's going to be. Taipan-esque? Or something fancier like Athan's (european)? My guess is the latter since this is afterall Newton Center. In any case I can't wait! Please please let me know if you have more info.

Restaurant Week @ 75 Chestnut

A bunch of us headed down to 75 Chestnut in Beacon Hill yesterday evening for dinner. I'd never heard about the place before but apparently it's been mentioned several times in the Improper Bostonian's food special so there we were!

Since it’s restaurant week they offered a prefix menu. Pacman got the following combination:

Roasted Parsnip Soup- This was good but a tad salty and heavy.

Seared Salmon – Not bad, but again too salty.

Bittersweet Chocolate Brownie – Yum but I wasn’t floored

As for me I wanted the poached oysters as an appetizer but they were sold out. :( I eventually settled on the scallops as a starter and potato crusted cod for the main course that weren’t from the prefix menu. The scallops were alright and the cod well surprise surprise… kinda salty! On a more positive note however, both the cod and salmon were nicely cooked and very fresh.

My scallops:



Our friend S's mussels:



The salmon. The photo didn't turn out too well, there isn't enough lighting not to use flash!



The brownie:




The other members of the gang also got the veal, I’m not sure what their verdict on it is. Guys?

Chomp Meter:
Pacman and I are unlikey to go back so this won't make our chompster favorites list. However, perhaps the quality wasn’t up to par because of restaurant week so let us know if you've had a better experience!

Fast Food Indian Style - Punjabi Dhaba

I first heard about this place from my Indian buddy. He explained that a dhaba is a no frills place frequented by cab drivers and serving the most delicious food. And according to him (and several other co-workers), the quality of food at Punjabi Dhaba lives up to its name.

After reading eat and destroy's post on Chompster and remembering these recommendations, Pacman and I were inspired. We headed down to Inman square to check the place out. It was small, smokey, and very crowded. But hey, I subscribe to the theory that the more people there are and the dingier the place, the better the food.

We ordered the chicken biryani, mutter paneer (an all time favorite of mine), the dahi papri, and a plain lassi. All three dishes were excellent! Oh and for the uninitiated, the lassi is in the fridge :) ... I had to ask.

The inside with Pacman's shoulder on the right.



Check out the Bollywood MTV playing in the background.



The dahi papri. Damn this was good! It's fried crackers with tomatoes and chick peas in a yogurt sauce. Though I would have preferred it with more chickpeas and less of the fried cracker.



The chicken biryani and mutter paneer. Pacman says the biryani reminds him of food back home :) As for me, the mutter paneer reminded me of my ex roomie's cooking. Yum!




Chomp Meter:
It's definitely one of the best (and cheapest) Indian restaurants in Boston. Our meal cost us less than $20 and we were stuffed. Two thumbs up!