Hot Stuff

Scrambled or fried, baked in the oven or poached in water, sunny-side up or hard-boiled, I love eggs. In fact, one of my favorite breakfast treats is a soft-poached egg with a yolk that oozes out over a bed of home fries or toast. Although the egg in this particular dish, called dolsot bibimbap, looks like a mere afterthought, it functions as much more than a garnish. The piping hot stone dish which holds the rice, vegetables, beef, and chili paste is also the perfect vessel to hold the raw egg. Unlike a regular bowl, the stone is better able to retain its temperature, and this residual heat is just hot enough to gently cook the egg to various stages of doneness when mixed with the other ingredients.

After thoroughly incorporating all the components of the dish together, you end up with a fun and flavorful heterogeneous mix of ingredients. Needless to say, no bite is ever the same.

Under the Sea

Everyone knows that if you want pasta in Boston, the most obvious place would be the North End. But who would have thought you could also get a killer lobster roll in the land of cannolis and spaghetti?

I would like to proudly announce that I finally made my way to Neptune's Oysters in the North End. Having been a college student in the area for the past year and a half, I feel ashamed to say that I had never eaten a lobster roll until that night. But with the upcoming three-day weekend, I knew I could not delay the inevitable any longer. Considering all the hype I've read about the lobster's rolls at Neptune's, I went with high expectations and was not disappointed in the least.

All of my dining companions ordered the same thing: the hot lobster roll with butter enveloped by a brioche bun, crispy fries on the side. I'm not the biggest fan of mayonnaise, so it was not a difficult task to choose which roll I wanted. What I liked most about this roll was the quality of the seafood and the fact that they did not skimp on the lobster. They really piled on the meat and accompanied that with a sizeable portion of crispy, almost-burnt fries. If you're also not the type to eat a sandwich, even one of this magnitude, with a fork and knife, I suggest that you eat the sandwich over the fries to catch all that lovely buttery lobster juice. The potatoes were fried almost to the point of being burnt, but that made them all the more able to withstand the flavorful lobster juice without getting soggy.

$25 for a lobster roll may seem a bit exorbitant, but it's truly reflective of the quality that you're going to be getting for your money. There are certain things that are truly emblematic of New England culture and lobster rolls are undoubtedly a part of that set.