July is a month of travel travel travel TRAVEL this year.
Over the 4th of July weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to take a series of planes to Boston, to visit my good friend Megs. While there, I whined constantly about Austin's lack of public transportation. It took me about 30 minutes to acclimate myself to being in a neighborhood/town (Somerville) where it was actually possible to walk to something besides a Shell station.
Megs has settled herself - for the time being - in an area of town with a number of wonderful dining options. About two blocks from her house is a restaurant called Sugar and Spice, which we hit up for lunch on Saturday.
The exterior of the restuarant is schmancy, yet welcoming in its modernish lines.
We both liked the color scheme inside - a melding of green and purple tiles, which could have looked really 1993 but didn't.
Booths along the window side offered good people watching, but were unfortunately occupied when we arrived just after 2. (post meridian. Did you think Boston was the land of the midnight sun, or something?)
What do you do when you get together with good friends from college? That's right, you get drinks!
We ordered plum wine, and refrained from shotgunning it. The restaurant did have a nice little beer and wine selection, which looked pretty reasonably priced, but in general I don't go to a Thai restaurant to drink Chardonnay.
The menu pricing was much lower than I would have expected, given the decor and general tenor of the place.
Though the noodly and entree-y... entrees... looked tempting, we decided to stick to the appetizer/soup side of the offerings.
First, tom yum soup with chicken ($2.95). (I had to stack it up against Ka-Prow's version.)
This was good, spicy with a pronounced lime flavor. Honestly, I could have done with less chicken - it distracted me from the tasty brothiness. Plus, too many mushrooms. I'm sure if they took these out, people would moan that they only got a cup of broth for $3... whiners.
Megs ordered the veggi dumplings ($4.95) - and yes, it is spelled like that on the menu.
I can't believe I stupidly didn't photograph the innards on these bad boys! They were really quite good, and filling, too - a fairly thin doughy exterior, with a bit of crunch on the outside from the pan-frying, stuffed with spinach and onions and, well, vegetables. Their flavor was really mild, so it was good that the sauce they were served with had a bit of a bean-pastey kick.
I chose the oddly named "Simply Surprise" pancake ($4.95). I suppose it's surprising because you don't know what's in it - unless you craftily read the menu.
This surprise of a pancake came with the ubiquitous Thai sweet/spicy salad/sauce.
Honestly, the pancake was pretty much a hot mess - but hot messes are about my favorite thing to eat, so it was off to a good start.
Now, I know that Thai food is about the balance of sour, sweet, spicy, and salty. While this dish was quite tasty, the balance was a bit off - it was more sweet than anything else. The pancake was sweet, the chicken seemed like it might have had palm sugar in it, and the dipping sauce was much more sugary than spicy. All in all, though, the dish was actually really enjoyable. Just a little too sweet. (I think I've made my point.)
So, if I lived in the area I would definitely be back at Sugar and Spice. Good food, reasonable prices (especially for Boston.) Our bill for two, plus tax and drinks, was right around $22; a bit on the high side, but we did get wine. And three dishes.
1933 Massachusetts Avenue (Porter Square)
Cambridge, MA
(617) 868-4200
A bit of housekeeping - we will be up in Madison this weekend celebrating Opa's 90th birthday, so there will likely not be another post until the middle of next week. Yes, I know we suck. But yipes, are things busy around here.
girlie
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