This Is Framingham

A new restaurant opened up late last year at 91 Hollis Street where Stage One (and the late “Mr. G’s”) used to be.
I gave Ethan a night off and took my friend Phil to try this place.  I’ve never had Brazilian food before.  I thought of trying this place because I was so impressed with the renovation of the space and how they cleaned up the outside alone made it very inviting to me so I thought I’d give it a try.  Inside is nicely decorated with bright, modern colors and tiles.

We were greeted by a Brazilian hostess and then when we sat down, one of the co-owners who is American asked us if we’ve ever been there before.  We said no and he explained how the menu works, you can either order from the menu or get the buffet and explained that meats were available cut-to-order at the buffet as well.
We were feeling like variety would be good so we both got the buffet.

The first part of the buffet offered cold and salad items, the second half was hot dishes including black bean stew, corn meal cakes (that were basically like polenta), okra, stuffing, fried cauliflower and more.
Then at the very end was a carver that cheerfully asked what we’d like from the rotisserie.
In addition to the fried cauliflower, cornmeal, black bean stew and stuffing, I got some (short) beef ribs, some sort of roast beef and chicken wrapped in bacon.

Phil got some different pork selections and requested chicken hearts.  Phil is more adventurous than I am but he said they were great.  They actually didn’t have any on the rotisserie but put some on just for him.

The co-owner came over again to check on us and asked if we had any problem with translation with the carver.  There were a couple of times I squinted and tried to piece together what I was just offered but Phil is good with figuring out broken English. Although, I’ve been known to not even be able understand Australians who are talking to me so I think I’m just accent impaired anyway.  The friendliness of the staff made up for any fear of not understanding but also it was nice to have the owner there caring about any translation problems.
For dessert we split some sort of chocolate/caramel thing that was so rich, even though it was a little bigger than a golf ball we both couldn’t finish it. 

The co-owner came over again during our dessert and we had a nice chat about downtown and how we hope it will move in a more fun direction.

The dinner buffet at $17.95 isn’t cheap but it is all you can eat and that includes meats as well. 

For me, anyway.  I was at the Asinayo Market downtown getting some soy sauce and sauce and shiritaki noodles when I came across these tiramisu snack cakes. 

I though it was odd to find them in an Asian grocery store, even more odd that next to English, most of the words on the package were in Russian, on the back there is a drawing of people sitting outside an Italian cafe but all the signs are in Russian.

Also intriguing was the “It’s NOW” statement/label, along with a nice diagram to show you what part is the cake and what part is the “cheese cream”. 

The company name is Orion, I don’t know what “It’s NOW” means (maybe It’s NOW that I will I give in to an impulse purchase).  The curiosity took over and I just had to try one!
I got home and opened the box to find it full of 12 little packages of individual cakes. 

 I split one in half to see if it resembled the drawing on the box and sure enough it did.

Now for the taste test.  I love tiramisu but wasn’t expecting much from this packaged, Russian/Asian(?) mock Italian snack cake that didn’t resemble the dessert at all, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The cake was moist and flavorful and the “cheese cream” was a lot lighter than I thought it would be.  It actually wasn’t half bad.  Obviously this is not a substitute for the real thing but for only 100 calories it was a nice little treat.  
 Ethan even tried one and said he liked it, and he doesn’t like too many experimental foods I’ve brought home over the years, so it must be good 🙂

Another grocery adventure at Asiyano!

I had heard for a while that the J&M Diner was worth checking out so this weekend we finally did.  J&M is at 969 Concord St. in that little plaza next to Stop &Shop and Firefly’s.
We went a little before noon and it was packed but we only had a 10 minute wait,in the meantime we watched the waitresses run around in their pajamas.

The hostess was really nice, I’m guessing she was also the manager for some reason.  She asked us if we had even been there before and took our drink order.  The menu was mainly breakfast with a couple of burger specials on the board.
Ethan got a huge pancake with bacon and we split some home fries.

I got the cinnamon french toast.  It doesn’t look like french toast, at first I thought maybe it was pancakes they gave me but after a bite into them I realised it was infact what I ordered. I guess someone walking by thought it looked odd and stopped to ask me if it was french toast, and that it looked “mushy”.  Kind of odd but this is the kind of place where something like walking up to someone’s table and asking them what they got and making a comment about it was ok.

The home fries were really good, plenty of both crunchy and soft potatoes.  Ethan liked his pancake and bacon and I really liked the french toast.  I haven’t had french toast in years so it was nice that it wasn’t disappointing.

The service was ok, our waitress just took our order and left the check on the table when she brought out our food and we never saw her again.  That is typical of breakfast places so it’s fine, but I guess if we had needed something after we took a bite we’d have to flag her down.  Also, a little weird was when Ethan ordered a grapefruit juice, it was over $2 for a bottle of Minute Maid that was only 30% juice (70% corn syrup?).  We thought that was a little pricey for not real juice but it’s not enough to make us never come back, just an observation.

I would definitely go to J&M again since good breakfast places are hard to come by and I liked the feel of this place and the hostess/manager was so nice. 
It was kind of funny, after we left Ethan asked me if I noticed a strong pro-woman theme in there. I didn’t but he said he noticed that everyone working there were all female.  Also, everything hanging on the walls were of women including the old Rosie the Riveter “We can do it!” poster and a version of Charles Ebbets’ “lunch atop a skyscraper” with all women.  It’s funny I didn’t notice the female-strong theme at all but I’d be curious to know if there is a story behind that.  Little breakfast places are not as common as they used to be and the food is good so I’ll be back.

I was going to wait longer between posts about the new 400 Plus (on Franklin St.) but I just really wanted to post about it and there’s not much else going on so here it is:

Anyone that has been to the old 400 Club can see that the interior has changed quite a bit. I kind of like the outdated red and black of the old place but since this is 2007 I can see why they wanted to update and they did a great job. chickens ivermectin per gallon
When we sat down we were given fresh focaccia bread that they make there, served with olive oil that was seasoned and had a clove of garlic in it.

We got a couple of appetizers, one being the antipasto which was a nice assortment of meats, cheese and marinated mushrooms, peppers, olives and pepperoncinis. ivermectina 6mg para cães posologia

We also got the fried mozzarella. They use fresh mozzarella and bread it by hand, it’s not the typical previously frozen sticks like some other places serve.

We also got a salad that comes with the house dressing:

Ethan got the baked scrod that he said was awesome, very fresh and flakey.

I got the eggplant parm, which I find hard to make bad anyway but like everything else, it was very good.

With these entrees came a choice of double mashed, roasted potatoes or pasta, we each got a potato. ivermectin safe for pregnancy
The double mashed are so good but you have to throw caloric caution to the wind as I can’t even guess how much butter and cheese are in them but they were REALLY good.

We split a massive hot chocolate at the end and left with several to-go boxes that supplied us with dinner for the next night all over again.

The service could not have been nicer and like I said in the pizza post, this place is so great to have in this part of town and especially that the food is fantastic. I love Italian food and I have to say this is some of the best I’ve had, people applauded when the chef came out to the dining room! Framingham is lucky to have such a place I think it will bring people back to this area and possibly rejuvenate the mostly vacant sad plaza.

Over the weekend we finally got to James Place at 69 Waverly Street.

The inside is painted with bright cheery colors and they display artwork from students at Woodrow Wilson Middle School.  They have regular sodas and also a variety of soda from the Mercury Brewing Company of Ipswich that make interesting flavors like coconut, watermelon and kiwi-berry.

James Place advertises selling hot dogs and ice cream but they also sell Cuban sandwiches and chocolates.  The hot dog menu has a list of names after different dog breeds.  I believe they have just one kind of hotdog but with different toppings, they have an extensive variety though.  I got “the mutt” which is ketchup, mustard, onions and relish.  It was pretty good, no surprises or disappointments.

Ethan got the Cuban sandwich which is sliced ham and pulled pork that the owner told us he marinates for 12 hours and then cooks for another few hours and makes it every 2 to 3 days.  The sandwich also has cheese, pickles & mustard and is then put in a heated sandwich press.  Ethan said it was really good and said the bread was great too.

After that we split a very creamy Toll House cookie ice cream.  All the ice cream there is from Christina’s homemade ice cream of Cambridge.

The owner is such a nice a guy, we ended up talking to him for a few minutes as we were paying.  He is actually excited to be in Framingham and likes using local products like the ice cream and sodas and cares to recycle.  He will also be adding more products as the summer approaches.

I only wish that this place was a half mile west so it would actually be in downtown since we really need something like this downtown but it’s close enough and it’s great to have a fun small business run by a sincerely nice guy in town.

The new “400 Plus” restaurant at 430 Franklin St.
is now open for business and we got a pizza from there tonight.

We both thought it was really good, it might not look like it from the picture but
it’s a pretty thin-doughed pizza with a light fluffy crust.  We thought the sauce was
well seasoned with just enough oregano and had a nice blend of cheeses.
This is one of those pizzas that is so good that a plain
cheese is great.  I will try it with toppings sometime since we’ll
be getting pizza from here again.

I’ll definitely do another review of the inside and some entrees but
just wanted to post about the pizza and let people know it’s open, especially
for those  of us in the area of “sad plaza” this is just what our
neighborhood needs : )

I feel like my mother that I add a “S” to the name “White” when think of this place (seems like it should be “White’s not just “White”)  My mom sometimes adds a “S” to names that shouldn’t have it like calling Lechmere “Lechmere’s” (irrelevant now, I know, but that came to mind first).

The outside of the building boasts the slogan “A ‘real’ hardware store”.  I’m not a hardware expert but it seems that this is true.  They are a no-frills hardware store. can you put ivermectin in cats ears   I get what I want and then there is no reason to make a day of it so I leave.  I compare it to Home Depot in the way that there is not 10,000 sq. foot garden center to walk around in, there are no “you-can-do-it!” classes and no Dunkin Donuts at the entrance. liquid ivermectin heartworm prevention
Not to mention the refreshingly small but always adequate parking lot, although one of the plusses about White Hardware is that it is walkable from my house.

I think the staff is generally nice, the first time I went in there I remember it was not a pleasant experience but then I had to get something else there and the people were friendly. oral ivermectin for finches   This was the case the second and third time I went in there so I’ll chalk up my first experience as a random bad day.
They have been very helpful with suggestions and this store is nice to have around when I’m not in the mood to battle Rt. 9 on a weekend, remember what row I parked in and wander through the warehouse of Home Depot, although sometimes I am.  Sometimes I’m actually in the mood for looking at 20 versions of the same product but it’s also nice to have something small close by that I can just run in and out of.