This Is Framingham

I normally don’t like Family Dollar (208 Waverly St.) because unlike Dollar Tree, most of their items are more than a dollar but I do like coming here once in a while to get subjects for my food comparison blog, secondratesnacks.com.   Today’s find was a perfect product to evaluate against Spam called “Treet”:

Ethan cringed when I came home with this knowing he’ll be a good sport (as usual) and try this out with me.  I’m guessing we’ll get a half-bite into this and call it quits, but you never know.
Some other treats I picked up at Family Dollar were fake peanut M&M’s and “Prime Time” microwave popcorn (to be compared with Jolly Time).
They do have some major name brand products too, in case anyone is wondering.

Although the location of this post is based in Hopkinton, I thought it was interesting that Weston Nurseries sells a variety of Azalea they named “Framingham” to commemorate the 350th anniversary of our town.  Nice to see some metrowest-botanical support for the ‘ham

One of the nice things about working in a restaurant is the ample access to food.   I work at the 400 Plus Restaurant, and on the off hours we sometimes get creative and invent new dishes.
Today the owner and his son came up with something they call “Nachos Italiano”.  It’s fried wedges of flour tortillas, topped with meat-tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and diced cherry peppers.  This creation was so good they decided to make it a special appetizer that you can ask for.  I highly recommend it.

The 400 Plus is at 430 Franklin St.  Stop by and check them out!

Driving to my weekend job at the Sherborn Out, I drive behind the prison and it becomes the cusp between downtown blah and beautiful Sherborn”countryside”.  I came across a band of turkeys crossing the road. Of course once I got the camera out they all made their way into the woods but I’m always amazed how anything outside of a house lives in the winter especially when we the cold weather we had last week.
Anyway, it was nice to see some “nature”. 

I decided to take a little walk to the mall today.  I got too far when I realised how dumb of an idea this was to not finish my journey, but I was impressed with the plow readiness and the number of plow I saw through out my trek.
Rt. 9 looked pretty good at 9:30am and on the walk back I took route 3o and saw a few plows in pairs going by.

Sidewalks were not plowed but I walked in the sometimes knee-deep snow when I felt it was unsafe.
It was an interesting experience that I’ll probably wait another year until I do this again.

A reader sent me this photo which is so funny that I had to post it.
Thanks reader!

I had never been to Han Dynasty because the only thing I knew about it was that my dad threw up after eating here once a long time ago.  It may sound silly but Ethan and I noticed they got a new sign and out of curiosity, decided to go check it out.   Besides, I’ve been eating at Pago Pago since I can remember so I’m up for trying anything.
Ethan took this picture during the day but we went on a Friday night and only the lounge is open so we went in there and observed the regulars, table hopping and playing Keno.

I lightened these pictures a little because it was pretty dark in there but it’s a great lounge for…lounging, there are booths also, so we sat at one and started looking over the menu.  I thought since we clearly were not regulars that we might get bad service, especially without ordering alcohol but our server was very nice.
We got a few dishes to split and take home:
Rice:

Terriyaki Chicken:

Green Beans with Pork:

General Gau’s Chicken:

I don’t know if it was because our expectations were so low coming into this place but everything we got was  pretty decent.  The only disappointment might be the General gau’s because it lacked flavor but everything else we took home.
This place certainly isn’t a replacement for Green Tea II, but I guess it was a pleasant surprise that we didn’t look at each other in horror when the dishes were brought to the table.   I’d also like to add that neither of us threw up