Boston Trip - Oro

So, I've saved the best for last. Or...I've procrastinated and put off the post requiring the most work until now. But really, this is the piece de resistance of all my Boston Trip posts. My cousin Evan has been working for a few months now as the sous-chef at Oro, a new restaurant in Scituate. My family usually doesn't venture out of the house for dinner on our annual Massachusetts vacation, because we're an unwieldy group of about 18 or so. We spent many years doing our week-long vacation on Chappaquiddick, and when people ask me what some of my favorite places to go on Martha's Vineyard are...uhhh...the back deck of our rental house? But we had to make an exception this year and try out Evan's new place of employment.



The restaurant is gorgeous, it has a very clean, simple look and has a lot of natural light. I sound like I'm trying to sell an apartment. That picture above is what you see when you walk in the front door, and this is the main dining room which we had all to ourselves.



Because we had the whole dining room, the restaurant did some special hors d'oeuvres for us. We walked in to find this beautiful cheese plate of parmesan (which I think I ate about half a pound of, it was addictive), goat cheese coated with herbs, some sort of blue, and salami which I overheard came from Paris. And as you can see, two dishes of olives.



The next addition to the table - grilled asparagus with truffle oil and more of that amazing parmesan. Later they brought out some marinated peppers, and bread slices. There was so much food I just couldn't get pictures of all of it!



There were also passed hors d'oeuvres. I only got a photo of the fried artichokes, but there were also chicken skewers with a dipping sauce, thinly-sliced beef tenderloin on little toasts, and some sort of amazing contraption of salty baked potato stuffed with salmon. I hope I'm not leaving any out.



We had a menu set up for us with three choices for the appetizer course, and four for the main course. Ahem, VIPs.





I had the corn chowder, as did everyone I was sitting near, so that's the only appetizer I got a photo of. This was not, as my sister says, "small food stacked high". The bowl of chowder was the size of my head. I so badly wanted to finish it but I knew I would immediately go into a food coma, need to be horizontal, and not be able to eat my main course.




Oh, hello there delicious clam. The soup was amazing. Very creamy, and lots of corn kernels, bacon, and clams. What more could you ask for?

For the main course I had the orechiette. If you know me, you know if orechiette is on the menu that's what I'll always order. Orechiette is my favorite pasta shape, and it's usually served with some kind of sausage or ragu which is perfect because it sticks inside the little "ears".



To my right, my dad had the striped bass:



And to my left, Peter had the steak:



Those fries were so good. Everything was so good. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly take another bite of anything, these guys showed up:




The first one is a goat cheese cheesecake with raspberry sorbet and a strawberry rhubarb compote, and the second is lemon thyme creme brulee with a shortbread cookie. I hope I got all that right. They were both fantastic, nice and light summer desserts.



That's Evan with Robin King, the owner and head chef. Robin and his wife Jill opened Oro together. They made the whole night for my family incredible. The food, the service...everything was perfect. And with that,this is now my longest and best post to date. Whew, I need another vacation!

Oro
162 Front St., Scituate MA 02066

Boston Trip - Smorgasbord

I still have a ridiculous amount of pictures from vacation, I just can't post them all because I would still be writing about my trip for another 2 weeks. And it would get a little boring. So today I give you an assortment of the best ones, and tomorrow I will give you the grand finale. I've been saving the best post for last.

First night of the trip: pizza at Joe V's. Here's the "yoga pizza" which has prosciutto, arugula, parmesan, mushrooms, and truffle oil.




Did you know it's been scientifically proven that sandwiches taste better at the beach? It's true. This is a roast beef sammy with tomatoes, onions, and pickles from Maria's. And of course Cape Cod chips and a Whale's Tale.




Some beautiful fresh berries...



Which my aunt Linda turned into strawberry shortcake with sweetened sour cream.




Ahh, a thing of beauty. A grill full of chourico, and chourico meat.



I actually don't think I had ever had the meat, they're just little pork cutlets with the same spices as chourico. Cut up and dipped in some Dijon mustard...it didn't last long.




At Julie and Lou's wedding, they had a groom's cake at the rehearsal dinner. This one was done by Delicious Desserts in Falmouth, MA.




Back in Boston...more pizza. Shocking, I know. We picked up a few pizzas from Fig's on Charles Street in Beacon Hill. This one has prosciutto and fig balsamic.




And the last meal of the trip - Union, in the South End. Here's the gnocchi, which was a special that night.



And bucatini carbonara. You can never go wrong with carbonara.




So long, Boston. Until next time...

Boston Trip - Barking Crab

I hadn't been to the Barking Crab since college about 6 or 7 years ago (was college really that long ago? Gross.) but when I was driving around Boston with my mom and dad trying to think of somewhere to get a great seafood lunch it was the first place I thought of. It's right on the water with lots of outdoor seating and every variety of New England seafood you could ever want.



4 kinds of crab? Check. Lobster? Obviously, check. Not sure about the whole 10 lb. lobster thing, but they apparently have it.



My mom and I shared some oysters to start. 2 Island Creek, and I forget the other two...but also from Massachusetts.



And my dad got clam chowder, which I sampled and it was very good.



And then, we were a little family of crab cakes. My dad got a crab cake sandwich with onion rings, and my mom and I had mixed green salads with two crab cakes on top. And my sister didn't get anything because she didn't come because I'm the favorite child.




I wish I could have ordered more...peel n eat shrimp, clam roll, lobster BLT, kind crab legs...I guess I'll just have to go back next time I'm in town!

Barking Crab
Fort Point Landing, 88 Sleeper St., Boston MA 02210

Boston Pizza

I'm back from my girls weekend in Boston, we all had a great time and I miss everyone already! We ate a lot of pizza over the course of the weekend. It wasn't planned that way, but rather just happened. Boston isn't famous for its pizza like New York and Chicago are, but it was all delicious.

First up was dinner on Thursday night at Joe V's, a tiny little restaurant in the South End by my sister's apartment. She's been there several times and suggested a bunch of us brave the monsoon that was going on outside to get some thin crust pizza. Actually, they call it ultra thin crust pizza, which is exactly how I like it. We ordered spicy sausage with roasted red peppers and caramelized onions, margarita with scallions, and the "yoga pizza" which has prosciutto, parmesan, mushrooms, arugula, and white truffle oil. Sorry the pictures are a little dark.







Friday night we ordered from Presto, our old college pizza spot in Cleveland Circle. There's a lot of debate over which Cleveland Circle pizza place is the best - Presto or Pino's. We have always been on Team Presto, maybe because it's so good, or maybe because of the "super large". This pizza is bigger than anything you've ever seen. It's huge. I don't even think the pictures will do it justice. I took one picture with some hands on the box so you can see just how big it is.





Saturday evening, Leslie was kind enough to stop by Framingham Bakery (sorry, no website) to pick up some of their pizza for a pre-dinner snack. This pizza was a staple of our college lives, making most of its appearances at tailgates. It's more of a pizza bread - fluffy, light bread with a light layer of sauce and cheese on top and cut into squares. I think it's even better served at room temperature. This picture shows the pizza cut up into smaller pieces...and almost gone.



And late night on Saturday, we ordered from Natalie's, which was also a college staple. I guess we ate a lot of pizza in college...but who doesn't? I wouldn't say Natalie's is anything special, but it's open until 3am. Sorry, no pictures of this one.

Four kinds of pizza in one weekend. When I called Peter on Sunday afternoon as I was getting ready to go to the airport, he said "guess what I got us for dinner tonight? pizza crust!" No joke.

Last note: my sister and I went to Flour in the South End on Sunday to pick up some lunch to go. She said they have the best BLTs so I took her advice. It was on whole wheat foccacia bread, with applewood smoked bacon, arugula and tomatoes. We also got a couple bittersweet chocolate chip cookies. It's a really cute spot, with lots of tempting bakery treats on display.