Royal Masala

After Mrs. HFG and I got home from Harry Potter, we did a few errands and chores and then started to think about where we wanted to go for dinner. It was hot, which made Indian food a good choice. We both wanted to have a couple of beers, so that meant the place had to be close by. That all added up to a trip to Masala at the corner of Main and Capitol.

Masala is now in its third iteration (it’s actually now Royal Masala). Masala 1.0 had absolutely amazing food and was reasonably priced. The service, however, was terrible. By terrible I mean quite possibly the worst service of any restaurant at which Mrs. HFG or I have ever eaten. As good as the food was (and it was really good) my wife and I finally had to stop going there.

Masala 2.0 was a bit cheaper and had pretty good service. The food, however, was mediocre and Mrs. HFG and I only went a couple of times before we concluded it just wasn’t worth it.

Thankfully, Masala 3.0 has the same reasonable prices as its predecessors, food that comes very close to Masala 1.0, and service better than Masala 2.0.

To start, we ordered the vegetarian samosa chat, which is Masala’s take on the classic Indian street food. The chats themselves were perfectly fine, but the array of dips and condiments was very nice indeed (chick peas, onions, tomato, yogurt, and tamarind). The onions seemed very freshly cut and the tamarind was delicious.

My wife had the luckhawi goat curry, which is a house special. It was very good. The flavor was good but most importantly, the goat was nice and tender. That's not easy to do.

I had the lamb vindaloo, which is lamb with cumin, hot chills and malt vinegar. It was quite delicious with a nice blend of spiciness and tartness that really worked well.

We also had an order of garlic nan. The portion was quite generous and good.

We also each had three Kingfishers (if you don’t know what a Kingfisher is, look it up).

Total tab, including a good tip for good service (prompt and friendly, but not overbearing), $114; a very fair price.

Our only complaint was the heat of the food. Our server asked us how spicy we wanted it and we said “medium” which she must have interpreted as “medium for Anglos who aren’t used to Indian food.” Last night, however, my wife met some folks at Masala for dinner and ordered her food “spicy.” She brought some home for me to try and we both agreed it was wonderful.

The interior of Masala is interesting, because there is a ton of exposed brick and hardwood floors. While that doesn’t exactly fit with an Indian motif, it is a very nice space. There is also a comfortable back room with a bar.

I am very happy Mrs. HFG went to Masala 3.0. We had a great meal for a very fair price. It was the perfect way to end a fun (and delicious) Saturday and we now have Masala back in our lives.

Here’s a link to Masala’s website, there isn’t much there, but trust me, this place is good – http://indianrestauranthartfordct.com/index.htm

Bolo Bakery & Cafe

On Saturday, Mrs. HFG and I decided to go see the last Harry Potter movie. Not wanting to stand in line with a bunch of screechy teens (or the sketchy adults that follow screechy teens around :<) we decided to catch the 10 AM screening out in Plainville.

Knowing that I knew a trip to the movies on Saturday AM would probably mean no delicious pancakes, my wife quickly suggested we try Bolo Bakery & Café in Plainville, which she said had gotten some good internet reviews. When I hesitated, Mrs. HFG correctly sensed I was still trying to figure out a way to get her to make pancakes before we left so she quickly added “I think the people that own it are Portuguese.”

Bolo (which has several food-related meanings in Portuguese) is, in fact, owned by Portuguese immigrants Antonio (pictured at left) and Isabel Abrantes. After years of work and saving, the Abrantes opened a bakery in Parkville (then still the center of the region’s Portuguese community) in 1984 which grew and – with the help of the Abrantes’ son - ultimately morphed into Bolo.

Like its name says, Bolo is both a bakery, offering the full range of pastries and breads, as well as some fabulous-looking wedding cakes, and a café, offering breakfast and lunch.

For breakfast I decided to have the chorizo, cheddar scramble ($6), which consisted of 3 eggs, cheddar cheese, and a generous amount of chorizo sausage. This is a classic Portuguese-American dish (every diner in New Bedford and Fall River has some variation of this on the menu) and Bolo’s take was exactly what I wanted, with good quality sausage and cheese and eggs that were scrambled just right.

The dish comes with toast and either homefries or fruit. I opted for the fruit and in lieu of toast I decided to try 2 pieces of French toast, which were absolutely delicious. In fact, they reminded me very much of rich French toast my mother makes.
I also had a nice cup of coffee and some OJ.

Mrs. HFG opted for a cup of coffee and an omelet (3 eggs) with goat cheese, onions, and spinach ($5.50 - $.50 more than the menu price because of the extra filling). As with my eggs, Mrs. HFG’s were perfectly prepared and the fillings were all fresh and delicious.

The service was friendly and prompt, which is exactly what you want in a breakfast place and exactly what I expect from hardworking Portuguese-Americans. In fact, one of the waitresses looked like so much like my goddaughter’s younger sister that Mrs. HFG teased “honey, these girls look just like you. These are your people!”

Obviously, Bolo isn’t fine dining and it isn’t even a Portuguese restaurant, despite its provenance and the good number of Portuguese inspired menu selections. Rather, it’s a great little breakfast spot with a bakery attached to it. Like I said earlier, although I didn’t sample any of the pastry, it looked great. Still I’ll let you know for sure when I eat my way through it some other time! :p

Here’s a link to Bolo’s website - http://www.bolobakery.com

Scott’s Jamaican Bakery

The HFG has been out of commission lately with Mrs. HFG’s recovery (she is doing very well thank you for asking), work, and some HFG family issues. Also, I’ll be candid, someone said some very unkind things about the HFG and his reviews which really struck a nerve. :< x 25.

That said, if I can’t stand the heat I ought to get out of the kitchen. Since, however, I love kitchens (OK, I love what comes out of kitchens), and keeping in mind my vast legion of fans and my ever growing army of loyal followers, that isn’t going to happen. :p x 25. So I’m back.

This past Saturday Mrs. HFG and I took a drive up North Main Street to Scott’s Jamaican Bakery, which is a pillar of both the North End as well as Hartford’s small business community. So much so that Scott’s operates three locations (North Main Street, Albany Avenue and Blue Hills Avenue), as well as a wholesale and production operation on Windsor Street. Scott’s, in fact, has been around for over 30 years and pretty much anyone you talk to with strong roots in the West Indian community, or in the North End, Windsor, or Bloomfield will tell you that the Scott family is highly respected and its support and opinion is regularly sought on a wide range of political, business, and community issues.

My wife and I decided that we would order enough for lunch and dinner, so we opted for 2 orders of coco bread ($2.75 each), 2 beef patties ($1.55 each), 2 chicken patties ($1.55 each) and a large order of curried goat ($9.60). For about $20 it’s hard, if not impossible, to come up with 2 better meals.

Coco bread is just that, bread made some coconut milk. It is heavy and sweet, with a very nice taste. In fact, the taste reminded me and Mrs. HFG of the bread you get at Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan, though coco bread is somewhat sweeter and much heavier. It is also delicious and a perfect compliment to spicy food.

Speaking of spicy food, all of the patties were outstanding. They come in pastry, which was not too heavy and the flavor of the patties was excellent and the texture just right. Both Mrs. HFG and I favored the chicken patties over the beef, but both were very good.

Curried goat is not something you will find at most restaurants, so it was almost a must. The HFG has had goat before at and Ethiopian restaurant whose name escapes me (not the Abyssinian in Hartford) and I liked well enough, though I can’t say I was thrilled at the prospect of having it again. Mrs. HFG, however, is actually a big fan of goat, having had a belly full of it while she was stationed in Bosnia serving in the U.S. Army (yes, Mrs. HFG not only can whip up a great meal, she can also blow you away with a .50 cal machinegun).

Goat has a good taste, like venison, but it is somewhat gamy, which isn’t always a good thing. Fortunately, any of the gamy downside was washed away by the delicious curry. I wouldn’t say that the curry at Scott’s is the best I’ve ever had, but it was perfectly good. The curried goat also came with a generous portion of rice and beans, as well as what appeared to be a type of slaw, both of which helped offset the heat and spiciness of the curried goat.

On the whole, it was two delicious and very, very reasonably priced meals.

I haven’t been to the Scott’s on Albany or Blue Hills Avenue, but the one on North Main Street is a down and dirty, no bullsh*t affair. You walk in, you order, you get your order, you pay and you leave. Maybe you take a copy of a community newspaper or a flyer with you. That’s it. There isn’t any cheery décor, or any cleverly-named menu items, or even any perky over-educated under-achieving help with earrings in strange places that can tell you where the wheat they use was grown. It’s just a bunch of hardworking and very nice people pushing out order after order of delicious food and baked goods.

There is a large Jamaican population in this area, so there are other places you can go, but they aren’t going to be better than Scott’s. Try it, you won’t be sorry.

Here’s the link to their website - http://www.scottsjamaicanbakery.com/

The Russell

The HFG has been pretty inactive lately because of Mrs. HFG's surgery (she is recovering quite nicely) but the other night she felt up to taking a walk over to The Russell for dinner. Located at the corner of Pratt and Trumbull in what was once Zu-Zu's coffee bar (which became Xando's then Cosi's or the other way around) The Russell is operated by my neighbor and friend Hugh Russell (if you know Hugh, you know he is charming, on-point, and always impeccably dressed).

Hugh is from Jamacia and The Russsell's cuisine does reflect somewhat his Carrebian heritage, with offerings like jerk or curried chicken sandwiches, wraps, and flatbreads, but the cuisine is actually very eclectic. I've been there for lunch quite a few times, but I was excited to try the dinner menu.

Mrs. HFG and I decided to start with a couple of appetizers, so we ordered the coconut shrimp ($8), which came with an orange marmalade dip, and the yuca fries ($5) which came with a sweet onion aoili dip. They were both excellant.

Yuca is a potato-like tuber. It has a rather mild taste and as fries they are somewhat lighter than french fries. Our order was lightly fried and the dip was fantastic, adding a nice amount of punch.The cocconut shrimp were marvolous. The portion was generous and the shrimp were large and tasty. The light cocconut batter contrasted well with the flavor and texture of the shrimp and the oranage marmalade dip added a welcome sweetness.

For dinner I had the curry chicken wrap ($10) which came with spinach, onion, mango and red slaw. It was very good, with a nice combination of flavors and textures, but I wish the curry had had a bit more punch to it. Mrs. HFG agreed.

My wife had the jerk snapper filet ($18), which came with rice, peas, fried plantains, red and yellow peppers, carrots and okra. It was absolutely outstanding. The flavor of the fish came through and was complimented, but not overwhelemd, by the jerk seasoning. It was one of the best non-waterfront fish dishes I've had in many, many, many years.

On the whole, it was an outstanding meal at a very reasonable price.

It's sad to say, but I know some people shy away from The Russell because there is a perception that it is a "black" place, because Hugh is from Jamacia, the place attracts a large number of African-American, West Indian, and Jamacian patrons, and because it is somewhat known for it's nighttime dance crowd (Mrs. HFG says it rocks). That said, I have never felt less than 100% welcome and well-treated by staff and patrons when I have been there and it is no more a "black" restaurant than Max Downtown is a "white" restaurant. But, if people are going to be timid or just closed-minded there is nothing you can do, except enjoy the food, the ambiance, and the company they won't.

The bottom line is that The Russell is a great little place (litterally) and you should check it out, whether you are white, black, purple, or green.

Here's a link to The Russell's website - http://therussellct.com/

Roadside Dogger

Mrs. HFG had surgery on Monday morning. She's fine now (sleeping in the other room as I type) but she's going to be on the disabled list for a few weeks. Not only does that mean no delicious Saturday AM pancakes for a while (:< x 1,000), but it also means that we won't be going out to eat either (:< x 5,000).

Still, the HFG has to do his thing. I’ve been home this week keeping an eye on my wife, so after picking up a prescription, I decided to stop by the Roadside Dogger, which parks every AM at the corner of Main and Athenaeum (Athenaeum is the little street that separates the art museum from the Travelers).

Strictly speaking, of course, the Dogger isn’t a restaurant, but it does serve breakfast and lunch every day to people who work Downtown. In fact, it’s one of a good number of trucks that camp out along Main Street and around Bushnell Park, serving a bewildering variety of dogs, burgers, Chinese (or at least Chinese-American) dishes, and more or less anything and everything else you can eat with your hands, a skewer, or a plastic fork.

I am tempted to get philosophical and say the food truck, like Sam Colt’s .45 caliber revolver, is a great equalizer. Around a food truck you’re likely to find stockbrokers, lawyers, government bureaucrats, blue, pink, and white collar workers, as well people from the service industry, students, and more or less anybody else who has $5 to spend and wants a quick bite to eat. There, I guess I just said it. :>

The Dogger is pretty typical of the “American” (as opposed to say “Chinese” or “Middle Eastern”) food truck, which offers up hot dogs, hamburgers, steak and cheese sandwiches, grilled sausages, etc. The Dogger has all these offerings, plus grilled cheese, and ham, pastrami, and tuna sandwiches, as well as a very simple breakfast consisting of a bagel with (plain) cream cheese, a muffin, or an egg and cheese sandwich with bacon, sausage, or ham, and coffee. Not fancy, but then again you are about as far from fine dining as you can be.

For lunch I had a steak and cheese sandwich on a sub roll, with mustard, onions, and peppers. Not fancy, but yummy nonetheless. The steak was OK, but it was hot and the onions and peppers added some good flavor. The sandwich was slathered in yellow mustard, and certainly not brown mustard, which though delicious, would be totally out of place on a food truck. I like yellow mustard, but I could have done with a bit less. Still, my only real complaint (and remember I am judging by the standards of a food truck, not Max Downtown) was the cheese, which was that gooey orange stuff (:<). Still, for $4, it is hard to complain.

One really good thing about the Dogger is that everything is cooked to order. This takes a bit longer, but it means your food is going to be hot and will not have been sitting on a warmer (or worse) before it's served to you.

The Roadside Dogger is not the greatest place to grab lunch Downtown, but it is a solid food truck that serves up basic, delicious, and incredibly unhealthy food quickly, and at a fair price. The next time you are Downtown at lunchtime, swing by, or at least check out one of the many other food trucks in the neighborhood. Although they are only there a few hours a day, they are part of what makes Downtown go.

Peppercorn's Grill

Last week was Mrs. HFG's birthday, so on Saturday we decided to celebrate by going to Peppercorn's Grill on Main Street, right at the edge of Downtown (just north of the intersection of Main and Buckingham Street). For those that don’t know, Peppercorn's has been around since 1989 and has won many local awards and has a very loyal following. Although Peppercorn’s is a good restaurant, the HFG just doesn't see how it can be ranked among the best in Hartford, let alone the area, or how it consistently wins so many local awards.

I know that what I just wrote is probably the most controversial thing I've said in a long time ("There's only 1 reason to go to West Hartford Center to eat and that's the Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan" is probably the most controversial). I also know that what I just wrote won't make any of my Downtown friends and neighbors too happy (many of whom are regulars at, or at least strong supporters of, this neighborhood institution). That said, neither the food nor the service (nor the atmosphere for that matter) at Peppercorn's is top notch.

To start, I had stuffed artichokes with escargot ($12) which were delicious. I thought they balanced each other quite well and that the taste of the artichokes did not overwhelm the escargot.

Mrs. HFG had the lobster bisque ($11). It was fine, but certainly not spectacular.

We also had a salad course, with my wife ordering a chopped salad ($7) and me ordering the special salad ($11). My wife’s salad was overdressed, but otherwise OK.

My salad, however, was good. It consisted of field greens, melon, caramelized walnuts, vanilla, and goat cheese with a vinaigrette dressing. The goat cheese was particularly memorable, as were the walnuts. It was, however, a tad heavy on the vanilla, which made an otherwise great salad merely good.

For dinner I had the ossobuco, which was braised with white wine, herbs, garlic, lemon zest, porcini mushroom essence, and a gremolata ($27). If you know the HFG, you know he loves ossobuco and I thought Peppercorn’s offering stacked up fairly well, though both Mrs. HFG and I thought there was some grit in the demiglaze, which bespoke of using a veal base to hasten the process (:< x 5). Still, it was pretty good.

Mrs. HFG had the risotto del giorno ($26). Mrs. HFG really appreciated the fact that they used fresh corn, which added some great flavor, and she liked the overall taste. She was, however, correct to point out that the consistency was off, being far too stiff; not the end of the world, but not exactly Michelin Star material either.

My wife and I couldn’t agree on red or white wine, so we went our separate ways, with her ordering 2 glasses of the Berendaga chianti ($10/glass) and me ordering 2 glasses of the Groth sauvignon ($9/glass). My wine was good, but not memorable, but I thought Mrs. HFG’s chianti had a great nose and taste to match.

We had cake at home leftover from a small party some of Mrs. HFG’s friends had thrown for her the night before, so we skipped desert.

While our dinner was pretty good, the service was below average, which is completely unacceptable in a fine dining establishment. Our server was overly familiar, not overly energetic, not particularly well-versed in the menu, and made a rather sarcastic remark as I was taking some notes as she was reciting the specials (one of the notes I made was “make sure to mention that the server made a sarcastic remark while I was writing down what I wanted to eat”). Not good, though I will say the other servers in the dining room seemed to move faster and have a better knowledge of the menu, including the one who told the table near us that the soft shell crabs were fresh (at least from the fish market) that day (“had I known that,” grumbled Mrs. HFG, “that’s what I would have ordered for my appetizer”). Perhaps we were just unlucky, but good service in a good restaurant shouldn’t be a matter of luck.

The atmosphere at Peppercorn’s is, I think, supposed to be evocative of a romantic Italian trattoria, with deep tones, low lighting, and cozy seating. It has those things, but frankly the interior is tired, the seating is somewhat cramped, and the place is noisy. I will admit, however, that the new dining area (in the space where Spiritus used to be before it moved to Asylum Street) is much more spacious and fresh, and also that having that extra room does cut down a bit on the noisiness of the original dining area. That new room, however, still doesn’t do all that much for you if you are sitting (as we were) in the old dining area.

Total tab, including an adequate (but by no means generous) tip, came to $172.22; expensive for the overall experience.

After reading this, you might be thinking that Peppercorn's is not that good, or you might be thinking that the HFG is crazy. One is true. Yes, the HFG might have one or two screws loose (:> x 5) but no, he's not saying that Peppercorn's isn't good. He's saying it's just it isn't great either.

Here’s the link to their website - http://www.peppercornsgrill.com/

Waterfront Grille

Although the HFG is by no means a food snob, there is one type of cuisine about which I am extremely picky; fish. Growing up on the Atlantic Ocean, I have a very different definition of “fresh fish” than most people, including those who might live only 40 or 50 miles inland (i.e. pretty much everyone around here).

In fact, I once insulted the proprietor of one of the area’s best restaurants in a conversation about this very subject. The proprietor recommended to me a particular fish dish, assuring me that it was “fresh” and full of flavor. I asked what “fresh” meant and was proudly told it had been bought at the area’s #1 fish market that same day. With a sigh, I said “then it’s not fresh, is it?”

You see, other than fish you go out and catch yourself, the only “fresh” Atlantic fish is that which is bought on the pier and served the same day. There are a few places inland that make a point of appearing on the docks in the morning to buy some of the daily catch and then racing it back to the restaurant to be served later that day, but they are few and far between. Mostly, what you get in a good restaurant inland is fish bought from a market that day, which (hopefully) they bought off the docks a day or two before that.

Why this matters so much is that fish spoils at a far faster pace than beef, pork, or poultry, so it’s really a race against time once it hits the docks. While the “fresh” fish you’re likely to eat around here is by no means spoiled, it has deteriorated enough that a good amount of its flavor is gone by the time it hits your plate here in Hartford (or West Hartford or Glastonbury, for that matter).

This is all a very long introduction to the Waterfront Grille in my hometown of New Bedford, MA, where the HFG took his mom for lunch on Mother’s Day last week. There are two things I like about the Waterfront Grille. First, it is literally on the waterfront. You can look out at some of the fishing boats that are tied up and you can almost see the State Pier where the catches are sold off as they come in. It’s not fancy, but it is a special kind of ambiance that reminds you where you meal is coming from and the hard work it takes to get it on to your plate.

Second, and more importantly, 85% of the seafood served at the Waterfront Grille is bought at the pier that same day (the other 15% is from the day before). Now that’s fresh.

To start, I had a plate of fried oysters ($11). They were delicious and bursting with flavor and not overly coated in batter before they were dropped in the frialator. Severed with a bit of lemon and a nice tartar sauce, they were wonderful.

For lunch my mother had a Bloody Mary (go mom!) and the baked stuff shrimp ($19) with brown rice and roasted carrots. The presentation was quite nice but the brown rice was nothing special. In fact, it was pretty ordinary. That said, the roasted carrots were tasty and the baked stuff shrimp was amazing. The shrimp were large, there were plenty of them, and they were bursting with flavor. Fortunately, the seasonings and stuffing (made with crab meat :> x 10) didn’t crowd out the flavor of the shrimp.

My father had orange ginger scallops with roasted carrots and spinach ($18). The spinach was almost wilted, but his main plate looked absolutely amazing as it was studded with a number of massive scallops, slightly browned from having been expertly pan seared. Unfortunately, the HFG is deathly allergic to scallops so I couldn’t taste them, but my father assured me that they were outstanding as he worked feverishly to clear his plate.

My stepfather had a seafood salad ($12) which consisted of mixed greens and shrimp, scallops, and lump crab. The salad didn’t look particularly special, but again the seafood did. The scallops and shrimp looked large and juicy and there appeared to be plenty of lump crab. Like my dad, my stepfather assured me that his lunch was delicious as he shoveled the generous portions of seafood into his mouth.

The HFG had the swordfish ($19) in a sun dried tomato pesto and lemon basil aioli, with roasted carrots and wasabi mashed potatoes. The presentation was pretty ambitious for a dockside joint but the chef pulled it off quite nicely. The swordfish was wonderfully fresh, not overcooked, and bursting with flavor that was complimented (but not overwhelmed) by the pesto and aioli. The mashed potatoes were pretty good, but I thought the wasabi was unevenly mixed into my portion, which was a bit strange. I also had a glass of Portuguese white wine ($7) that was OK but not memorable.

The interior Waterfront Grille is nothing special. It is a big room sparsely appointed which sits on a pier. The service, while enthusiastic, is not great. It does, however, serve delicious fish and other seafood and that makes it well worth the trip. They also serve some meat and poultry dishes (the menu is almost the mirror of image of most places – 20 or 30 fish and seafood entrees with a half dozen meat and poultry offerings), but if you go there and order off the non- seafood part of the menu then someone should slap you in the head. Seriously.

There really is not a whole lot of reason to go to New Bedford other than to visit the Whaling Museum or take the ferry to the islands, but if you find yourself there, or the next time you are heading to Cape Cod, stop off at the Waterfront Grille. If you do, you’ll have a nice little meal and you’ll find what fresh fish tastes like. Here’s the link to the Waterfront Grille website - http://www.waterfrontgrille.com/