Xinh Xinh

I was craving some Vietnamese food and was lacking some Vietnamese ingredients to cook with so I looked at my good buddy Yelp to see if there were any good restaurants in Chinatown.

We decided to try Xinh Xinh, which looked like it was on a small street with mostly Vietnamese restaurants. I opted for my standard rice noodle bowl with grilled pork and egg rolls while my husband decided to go for a rice noodle bowl with grilled beef and pork patties.

Here are some pictures of our food:

My rice noodle bowl with grilled pork and egg roll

My husband's rice noodle bowl with grilled beef and pork patties

I would have to say the noodle bowls were satisfying for our Vietnamese craving but weren't great.  The portion sizes were big and they gave a good amount of meat.  When we checked the reviews on Yelp, most of them said that the pho was very good.  Since it was 90 degrees outside, a hot bowl of pho didn't sound refreshing at the time.  When we were at the restaurant, however, most people were ordering pho.  That probably tells me something.  Next time we go, we will get the pho.  (Usually, we don't always follow the yelpers' suggestions but this time, it looks like we should have.)

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

My husband and I recently went to London a couple weeks ago.  I went for work and he had the time to come and join me for the trip.  Since we had recently gone to Europe, we didn't want to eat too expensively but decided to splurge on one meal.  We had heard of the Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal but sadly, it was booked (good for our wallets though).  I had only known that I was going on the business trip two weeks before we were to leave so the Fat Duck being booked was expected.  While doing some more research on restaurants, I saw that Blumenthal recently opened a new restaurant in 2011 called Dinner and it was #9 on the San Pellegrino List.

We were able to secure reservations for lunch at "Dinner" (sounds weird to say that) and really had a wonderful time there.  Their food, while rich and heavy, was super tasty.  Blumenthal's concept for this restaurant was to take old world British recipes and transform them into more modern dishes.

Legal Sea Foods

We have been traveling a lot since we moved to Boston, so we haven't had the chance to explore the dining world here.  Yesterday, we got the opportunity to go to Legal Sea Foods thanks to a gift card from our wonderful brother and sister.  We had been there a couple times before so we were not strangers to the restaurant.  Legal Sea Foods is a chain restaurant that has several locations in Boston and Massachusetts.  We went to the Legal Sea Foods at Long Wharf near the Aquarium T stop.  I would say it's not fine dining and their seafood dishes can be pricey but there is something comforting about its dishes.  Here's what we got!

I opted for clam chowder and their signature crab cakes while my husband had the Lobster Lovers dinner, which included a bowl of clam chowder, 1.5-1.75 pound lobster with two sides, and the dessert of the day which was blueberry cobber with vanilla ice cream.

I'm a huge fan of clam chowder and I really enjoyed Legal Sea Food's version.  It is creamy with a good amount of clams.

Unforgettable Per Se

I thought I would finish the story and say that the Per Se dinner on our 3rd wedding anniversary was one of the best dinners that my husband and I had ever had.  We were treated with such great service.  I had written them an e-mail not knowing if anyone was going to read it, but they sure did!  I shared with them our story about our fund and how we had been saving for a few years to go there.  They made our experience truly memorable...and the food wasn't so bad either ;)

Here are some pictures from our dinner:

Gougeres and Salmon Cones

Personalized menus

Oysters and Pearls - heaven in your mouth!
"Oysters and Pearls"
"Sabayon" of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and Sterling White Sturgeon Caviar