August 22nd 2014: Dinner at Tutto Bene, Brockton

Our interns were to leave us next week, so my department decided to have a lunch to thank them for their hard work this summer, heading to Red Pepper, a Szechuan restaurant in Worcester, a branch of the original in Framingham, which I have been to before.

We ordered a lot of dishes as always, getting the Cold Chili Noodles,

the Sliced Beef and Tendon in Chilli Sauce,

the Scallion Pancake, the Sliced Pork Belly in Chilli Sauce,

the Salt and Pepper Calamari,

the Fried Shrimp with Walnuts in Mayonnaise,

the Poached Fish with Cabbage in Chilli Sauce,

the Tea Smoked Duck,

the Stir Fried Peapod Leaves

the Deep Fried Chicken with Dry Chilli Peppers,

the Cumin Flavored Lamb with Chilli Sauce,

the Dry Braised Beef in Hot Pot,

the Lion's Head Meatballs,

the Glass Noodles,

the Dry Braised Mushrooms in Hot Pot,

the Tofu with Minced Pork in Sichuan Spicy Sauce,

the Fried Pork Intestines with Chilli Peppers

and finally the Frog with Pickled Pepper,

all in an attempt to eat 10 different kinds of animals, but we only ended up with 9. Oh well. Delicious food though, although my colleagues thought the Framingham one was better.

After work, I headed southeast, stopping at the Bird Street Conservation Area in Stoughton, where the path I took here from the end of Bird Street is shown below in black.

O'Connor Pond was just an okay water body though.

At this point, I decided to cut short my hike as it was getting dark, and headed all the way back to my car. I decided to check out Farrington Pond at Farrington Street and Plain Street in town

on my way to dinner at Tutto Bene, a pretty upscale restaurant for a crappy town like Brockton where it is located. I decided to go with appetizers tonight, getting the Baked Oyster Bene Style (freshly shucked oyster baked with garlic, butter, shallots and cracked pepper, topped with grated romano, baked savory and golden brown),

the Tutto Bene Hot and Sticky Balls (appetizer-size meatballs baked in a savory sauce of balsamic, honey and espresso),

the Lobster Ravioli Appetizer (Two fresh lobster and ricotta filled ravioli, large shrimp & creamy lobster stock) and a Seafood Cake (With a large gulf shrimp and creamy lobster stock).

It was a delicious and filling meal, especially because of the meatballs with its sauce, and the seafood cake in lobster stock.

For dessert, I decided to get the Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Brulee (Chocolate hazelnut cream on the bottom and fresh sweet whipped cream on top of rich and smooth egg custard). There is supposed to be a caramelized banana in it too, but they ran out of it.

It still tasted good, although the sweetness became a little too intense after a while.

After dinner, I headed to the Showcase Cinemas De Lux in Randolph to watch "The 100 Foot Journey", a pretty good show about an ambitious Indian chef, and "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For", which was full of violence and nudity. By the time it was over, it was already tomorrow. More to come soon.