Blue Velvet Sea

Photo montage taken October 4. Arlington Pond. Arlington, MA.

PC Cafe's Patbingsoo

Patbingsoo. I could eat this thing anytime, anywhere. And I mean that.

There are many ways to make patbingsoo, or Korean shaved ice with fruit. But I like PC Cafe's version best. I've scoured New York City for a dessert as refreshing as this...and have come back empty. So I was thrilled to go with T & T. We split a large patbingsoo (this one's ice cream wasn't in the shape of a heart, unfortunately).

The flavors rocked, as usual. We got a generous helping of tapioca pearls, strawberry, banana, peach, mango, kiwi and azuki red bean, along with the dollop of vanilla ice cream on top. The ice is always crushed properly and complements the rest of the ingredients, so it never feels like you're just crunching on a wad of flavored ice (cough. Cafe Zaiya).

Side note: The cafe's real name is Between Hours, but I've come to know this place as PC Cafe for (what else?) its gamer community and rows of PCs.

Pssst: Try the red bean patbingsoo version next time. Or how about some green tea ice cream? PC Cafe makes some mean boba, too.

Rating: 5 stars. I have no complaints, except to make the tower of patbingsoo bigger. Is that possible? So as to savor it all the better, of course...

Location:
Between Hours
154 Harvard Ave
Allston, MA 02134
617.782.1811
betweenhours.com

Roppongi Sushi: Slick Peeps

Mildly spicy honey glazed 15-set wings, with lettuce.

After filming our crazy [music?] video for Thailand, Tiff & Tiff graciously took me out to Roppongi Sushi for dinner. Roppongi, or Sushi, as it's more commonly called, is across the street from the Uno's off the Harvard Ave. B line T stop.

Now, I've never been a huge fan of chicken wings. I don't know if it's the heavily fried factor, the grease, or the thought of tearing into cooked birds with my bare fingers (yuck!). In any case, when my friends ordered a bunch of Korean mildly spicy wings, I didn't expect the hulking behemoth of a plateful that we got.

These wings looked like they'd been injected with super-steroids (I don't know if that's actually true). In any case, they were truly hefty. After digging through wing #2 with chopsticks, I promptly thought - to heck with decorum - tossed the stix and just used my hands.

While we were initially up for the 'spicy' wings, our waitress politely pointed out that they're "really spicy," so we took her word for it and ordered the mild wings. Which is not to say that we won't try the 'actually spicy' ones next time.

...And she was right. Something about red hot chili peppers worms its way to the back of your throat and stays there. Great for clearing sinuses!

The menu listed several other varieties of wing sauce concoctions, including spicy, sweet & sour, buffalo and honey glazed.

Little peepers would like your bones.

The wings came with a bucket decorated with little chicks. Inside the pail, written in black permanent marker, were the words: "Please put your bones in here." Followed by a profusion of hearts and a drawing of a huge bone that reminded me of my dog Nikki's biscuits. Hrm.

Colorful depictions.

Advertised on the wall: Sake bomb and fruit sorbet.

Eel and spicy white tuna rolls.

Our sushi was edible but clearly not Roppongi's specialty. Nothing about it really stood out to me. Way too much mayo in the white tuna (a 50/50 ratio is overdoing it). The presentation was better than the taste.

Hi, Tiff!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. The staff seemed like they were lazying in la-la land behind their counter, talking amongst themselves in rapid Korean (nothing against Koreans, mind you). It's just that when I order, I don't expect to have to get out of my seat and walk over to the front just to flag down a waitress. However, the wings earned considerable points. I'd drag my butt out here for them again! I heard I should check out Privus for their Korean BonChon wings.

Click here and here for more fun articles on fried chicken.

Location:
Roppongi Sushi
1245 Commonwealth
Allston, MA 02134
617.787.2400

*Apologies for the fuzziness/darkness of the pics.