July 14th 2013: Dinner at Eastern Standard Kitchen, Boston

Today, after getting up really early, I decided to get some breakfast for my friends on the food truck, heading to Donut Villa at 1 Highland Avenue, which is actually located behind a Dunkin' Donuts store. This place looks like a pretty run down diner, but the locals (mostly old folks), seem to love the donuts here, so I decided to try some as well, getting the Butternut, Lemon, Sugar Kruller, Jelly, Honey Dipped and Kreme Filled doughnuts, of which I had the Kreme filled which was actually pretty good.

After a long day of standing in the sun doing food truck stuff, it was finally time to have dinner with friends. We had initially wanted to go to Island Creek Oyster Bar, but as the wait was too long, we ended up going to Eastern Standard Kitchen, another upscale place really close by, instead.
My friend got a round of Duvel beer for us, which came in a large bottle which our waiter took a while to open for us.

I ended up drinking only a little, as it was too hoppy for me.

For food, we got a lot to go around. For the appetizers, I got the Roasted Bone Marrow (Hazelnut Gremolata, Sea Salt)

and the Glazed Pig Tails (Watermelon, Fresh Chili, Cucumber and Herb Salad), 

while my friends got the Jonah Crab Salad (Leek Remoulade, Lobster Gellee),

Ceviche,

Chilled English Pea Soup ( smoked ham hock, rye crouton, chopped farm egg),

Island Creek Oysters,

and the Moules Provençal (tomato, fennel, white wine).

Every dish was really awesome to me, although there was very little bone marrow to be had from the large bones provided, the mussels were just alright. My friend who had never had oysters before loved the entire experience, while the crab salad went really well with the lobster sauce, and the pig tails were of an interesting texture with a lot of fatty meat, going well with the watermelon.

For entrees, I got the Roasted Skate Wing (Caper Brown Butter, Braised Spinach, Fried Bread),

while my friends got the Chicken Schnitzel (Warm Potato Salad, Caraway, Pickled Beets)

and the Grilled Flat Iron Steak (Red Wine Sauce, Herb Butter, Fries).

The skate was really god as I have not had a stingray like fish in a long time, while the steak was pretty good too. The schnitzel was a little on the dry side, though it was rescued by lots of sauce.

Overall, an extremely good dining experience for me, although my culinary friends would beg to differ. Guess I am not that big a food snob any more.

If you thought this was the end, there was still more to come. We decided to head to the Hong Kong Supermarket in nearby Allston at 1095 Commonwealth Avenue, which has a Super 88 market and a food court. We decided to get an assortment of dimsum from Dim Sum Chef to eat, shopping at the supermarket while waiting for the food to arrive. The food, which included Chee Cheong Fun containing shrimp or twisted doughnuts, chicken feet and shrimp dumplings, was not too bad I guess, though nothing to write home about.

With that, we finally called it a day, and I finally headed home for a good long rest after yet another fun weekend.