June 21st 2015: Spending the Day in Somerville

My friend and I spent most of today at the Starbucks at Assembly Row in Somerville, heading to Fuji at Assembly nearby for lunch. This place is much bigger and nicer than the one at Kendall Square which I have been to in the past.

My friend could not stop commenting how cute the little teapot of soy sauce provided was.

For food, we got the Korean Spicy Seafood & Beef Tofu Soup (Korean spicy soup with shrimp, scallop, red crab meat, beef, zucchini, onions and tofu)

and the Bruins Roll (salmon, tuna and asparagus inside, topped with tobiko, uni, scallions),

along with the Green Tea Tiramisu (served with a scoop of ice cream and mixed fruits) for dessert.

This time, our dining experience was much better than at Kendall, especially with the presentation, although I had to tell my friend not to take the teapot home.

When dinner time came, we went with my friend's family to Bergamot in town for a seven course dinner. We have done this before almost a year ago, and after a really good dining experience, we wanted to do it again. This time, for the first course, we got a sort of Ceviche, which was a little on the sour side.

The Roasted Beets (Roasted Garlic, Goat Cheese, Hibiscus Honey, Pistachio, Ras El Hanout), were a delight to eat,

especially with the little bits of sweet crispiness.

The Pork Rillettes (Chicharrón, Roasted Peach, Avocado, Hazelnuts, Chimichurri) were a little on the fatty and salty side, but was actually quite good with all the other ingredients put together.

The Slow Roasted Grits (Baby Carrot, Turnips, Braised Greens, Ham Hock Jus) were well presented,

but a little on the salty side as well.

The Ma Po Tofu was just so-so, but that's coming from an Asian so go figure.

The Grilled Mahi Mahi (Cabbage Slaw, Smoked Black Beans, Crème Fraîche) was really good, being cooked just right and not dry.

Finally, the Hanger Steak (Fingerling Potato, Egg, Pickled Radicchio, Picholine Olives, Romesco) was pretty good, although my friend compared it to sirloin, saying it was too hard. Of course sirloin is better than hanger steak.

For dessert, we got the Pineapple Sorbet, which came with cereal flakes. Simply awesome.

Another interesting thing on the side that my friend's father got was a pot of Jasmine Tea which did not look like much at first,

but the bulb at the bottom actually opened up eventually and released the flowers.

The last dessert was a delicious mix of peanuts, caramel, ice cream and mango in sweet chili sauce, which tasted like an Asian dish.

Once again, it was an anticlimactic finish though, with a serving of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Overall, a pretty good meal as always, although we both agreed that the first time was much better.