May 4th 2014: Dinners with Friends on Broadway in Somerville

Today I had to do some food truck stuff, but I had some time before that, so I went to do some hiking in the town of Sherborn, heading to the Leland Reservation first at ~150 Mill Street. The path I took here is shown below in pink.

The views of the waterfall here were pretty decent,

as were the views of the millpond.

I headed next to the Boggastow Trail, the entrance at ~50 Boggastow Brook Road. The path I took here to get to the water body here is shown below in pink.

Unfortunately, I was on top of a hill, and the pond was down below, and could not be seen much through the trees. It wasn't much to look at anyway.

From here, I headed to Dedham for a short hike at the Newbridge on the Charles, a senior living community. The path I took here to try to get views of the Charles River is shown below in black.

Unfortunately, there were no views to be had of the river, although there were pretty nice screened gazebos scattered around,

and an interesting sculpture on the grounds of the place.

At this point, I decided to get some food for my food truck buddies, heading to Marino's Market and Deli at 1906 Centre Street in the West Roxbury area of Boston, passing by a cute fireman statue at Engine 30, Ladder 25 on 1940 Centre Street.

This place looks more like a gas station shop than anything else. I got the Roma (mortadella, genoa salami, hot ham, pepperoni, provolone cheese etc), the Ragin' Cajun (black pepper turkey, hot ham, pepper jack cheese, hoagie dressing, lettuce and tomato), the Turkey Gobbler (roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, lettuce, tomato and mayo) and the Boston's Best (Honey BBQ Chicken Breast, Honey Ham, Swiss, Honey Mustard, Green Leaf Lettuce and tomato). Just average stuff though.

After a long day of doing food truck stuff, my friends and I decided to get dinner at a new restaurant in Somerville, La Brasa. This place looks a bit like Kirkland Tap and Trotter, though a lot spacier.

For drinks, I got the Bantam Cider,

which wasn't bad, but the bottle was so big I had to give most of it to my friends.

This place also has a little cart system, where they roll up a chunk of prime roast to the table, cut up a slice of prime rib, weigh it, then put it on a plate, add sauce and seasonings to it, then set it on your table on request.

Pretty good with the cilantro sauce, actually, though a little cold as would be expected.

We ordered several small dishes, namely the Zatar Roasted Lamb Saddle with curry cous cous, apricots and mint,

the Tiradito with Uni vinaigrette, shaved fennel and black garlic mustard,

the Swiss Chard Pie with colorado chile, coddled farm fresh egg, spanish ham and piperade,

the Roasted Carrots with mole and sesame,

the Pescado Zarandeado (grilled red snapper rubbed with gaujillo).

The fried fish was really crispy and tasty, while the raw tiradito was delicious with its flavorings. The carrots were interesting in their sweet mole sauce, while the vegetarian pie wasn't too bad either. the best dish was the lamb though, the seasoning making the tender meat delectable, the curried cous cous perfecting the picture.

Unfortunately, we were still hungry, so we decided to head to Fasika, a Ethiopian restaurant nearby, for another meal. This place has a small dining area, with interesting looking tables

that are usually covered when not in use.

Service was really bad. It took us really long to get our drinks, and even longer to get our food, even though there weren't many people in the restaurant. For food, we decided to get the Combo Special ((Yemesir Wot (Red Split lentil in berbere sauce), Yatakilt Kilikil (green beans, carrots, potatoes and onions cooked in mild sauce), Gomen Wot (Collard Greens sauteed with onion and garlic), Yebeg Alicha (fresh lamb cooked in milled tumeric sauce), Gored Gored (fresh beef cubes blended in berbere or spicy sauce and crumbs of injera), Tikil Gomen (Cabbage, carrots, potatoes and green pepper cooked in turmeric sauce), Zelzel Wot (strips of prime beef cooked in berbere or spicy sauce)), consisting of 4 vegetable dishes and 3 meat ones.

The food was actually pretty good, especially the Gored Gored, although the injera bread was a little too sour for my liking. Addis Red Sea is still better in my opinion. The level of service here literally killed my will to ever come back again.