I ate Tunisian food for the first time last weekend at the Baraka Cafe 80 1/2 Pearl Street in Cambridge, MA.
It is a simple store front of about 30 seats with a graceful well
spoken woman in Hijab serving the customers and an obviously sophisticated chef in the kitchen.
This essentially two person operation produces food that is both
healthy and delicious.. Three standout dishes were one called the Ultimate Vegetarian which had Hummus, figs Anisette, Roasted Eggplant olives and three different types of Tunisian Cheese. Dates Lalena: These were cooked dates on crispy Tunisian Bread with caramelized onions on top. and Seafoof Bouillabaise.
Being familiar with the Zagat ratings, I mused with the owner, Alia
Rajab Meddeb, that I would give it a food rating of 24. She smiled serenely and said that their current rating was 26. If it is, all strength to her: the food is bangup, but I do not think it will compare to a 26 rated New York restaurant ,it an excellent restaurant nevertheless. P.G.Gopal
Subject: Re: Want inexpensive lobster dinner in Boston From: [email removed] (Christopher C. Stacy) Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 20:26:31 GMT
Aristotle wrote:
> I understand there are numerous Boston restaurants offering
> 2 lobsters for around $14.95. Any suggestions ?
I believe that you may be misinformed. However, in years gone by I have seen some small restaurants within 6 miles of Boston offer specials on what are often called "chicken lobsters" (they are very small and contain little meat) for around $15. The prices at such places may be higher now. These "twin lobster specials" are often prepared as "fra diavolo" (eg. garlic, peppers, tomato puree), which drowns out what little taste they had. I can't remember the names of any of the non-descript places offering these, and they are not available all the time, anyway. I would not recommend this as a way to enjoy a special treat of lobster.
Boston is _not_ a good place to get quality lobster at a decent price; good lobster dinners here usually cost at least $45-65. (Lobsters were plentiful in colonial times, but not since then.)
If you want to spend about $18 in the Boston area on lobster, I'd recommend getting the lobster roll at Kelly's, located in Saugus on Route 1. It has more lobster meat than the kind of "specials" you're talking about above, and is prepared on a nice toasted roll so you don't have to do the work of picking it apart. I believe this is the best lobster roll within hundreds of miles.
Another place you might try is Dolphin Seafood, in Cambridge, just outside Harvard Square (this is minutes from downtown Boston). They serve quality seafood at reasonable prices, and sometimes have lobster specials.
But if you want a nice good-sized lobster that's not too expensive, prepared in the traditional way, I would recommend Woodman's restaurant
in Essex, just over an hour north of Boston. Call ahead to be sure they are available. You pick out your lobster from a large pile, and they dunk it in a huge cauldron of boiling seawater, and then plop it onto your paper plate. You eat indoors at a picnic table. Fried seatood and chowder is also on the menu. This will be very tasty, and you control how much you pay and can see what you will get. I would suggest budgeting about $30 for your lobster. This will be about half as expensive as getting a good lobster anywhere near Boston.Massachusetts