(curry bowl) at Boston Indian Kitchen in Back Bay

At a glance:

51 Mass. Ave, Boston, MA

Price: $

Stars (out of 5): 3.5

 

inside

Fast, convenient Indian food with very reasonable prices for Back Bay, let’s give this a try! The inside is open and clean, the workers are super friendly. They encourage you to try samples if you have any questions about the menu.

counter

I ordered the chicken tikka masala curry bowl, a side of samosas, and a peach vanilla lassi to go. Everything on the menu is under $10, unless you order the family sized entrees. They have a special called Naanz, which are naan flatbread sandwiches filled with a curry meat and greens.

   

 

The peach vanilla lassi hit the spot for me! I love the richness and creaminess of lassi, a popular yogurt based drink in India. What was special about this lassi was the fresh peach puree and spices added, the main one being finely ground vanilla bean powder! The vanilla fragrance permeated the drink, and I’d like to think the probiotics and active cultures in the yogurt made the drink healthy! As appropriate for my blog title, I enjoyed this drink by the esplanade on a cold, rainy, gloomy day.

     peach vanilla lassi

 

The samosas, which are golden fried pastry triangles filled with curry seasoning, potatoes, peas, and lentils, were unfortunately not what I had hoped for. They were small, not crispy, and under-seasoned. I love just the opposite: huge, crispy triangles overfilled with curry powder and potato chunks. But the coriander puree sauce that accompanied the samosas was fantastic! I loved the tang of the coriander mixed with spices.

my take out meal

Lastly, the chicken tikka masala curry bowl. Not a lot of chunks of meat, but what was there was nice, well cooked white meat. The tomato based sauce had good flavors but was a little too creamy. The rice pilaf was cooked well but overpowered by the large amount of sauce from the curry. The accompanying tomato, cucumber, and parsley salad was refreshing, but very little in amount so I couldn’t really savor it.

tomato based sauce was a bit too much. I added the pumpkin seeds to level it off hehe

Overall, a filling meal and a good fix for fast Indian food.

Eat on!

(lychee QQ tea) at ChaTime on Newbury

At a glance:

251 Newbury Street, Boston, MA

Price: $ (and a half)

Stars (out of 5): 3.8

If you need a refreshing, cold drink as you walk around Back Bay, I would recommend ChaTime (“cha” being the Chinese phonetics for tea). They offer a variety of tea drinks and bubble tea series. I like how they give you options; it’s all about options. You choose your sugar level, ice level, type of bubble, and flavors. Remember how I wrote in a previous blog post about bubble tea at TeaDo being a little watered down due to all the ice? Well, this won’t be a problem here because I asked for less ice. And for the health-conscious consumers who don’t want to overload on sucrose, they offer as little as 30% of regular amount of sugar. Did I mention their decor is super chic?

I chose a drink from the QQ series, which means the drink is saturated with coconut jelly bits and chewy tapioca pearls. I could only imagine why it’s named QQ. Millennials in China/Taiwan grew up eating this type of juicy, chewy fruit gummy called QQ candy. But this was just a guess haha. The lychee syrup with the jasmine tea base against the coconut flavored jelly made up a fresh flavor profile. Thumbs up for lychee!

One of my friends got the pomelo juice that had bittersweet pomelo marmalade bits in the drink. So the texture and flavors were quite interesting, in a good way! The juice was only lightly sweet but the citrus game was strong. By the way, the scientific name for pomelo is Citrus maxima. Haha. Ok maybe that wasn’t as funny as I had thought.

pomelo juice

And my other friend got the taro milk tea with 30% sugar. The lady was so nice and gave her a ton of extra tapioca pearls since she was the last customer of the night. It was very hearty! ChaTime’s taro powder is very rich and not finely milled, so the drink had a semi-rough texture that was fun and delicious!

taro milk tea with extra boba

Also, this is a bonus picture of the esplanade at night. The crescent moon was beautiful.

Eat on!

(veggie burger) at Veggie Galaxy near MIT

At a glance:

450 Mass. Ave, Cambridge, MA

Price: $$

Stars (out of 5): 4

inside

So there I was pretty hungry, roaming around MIT searching for a quick bite when I spotted the bright green canopy of Veggie Galaxy. And just 2 days before this, my floormates were talking about how incredible Veggie Galaxy was so I had to give this a shot. Vegetarian diner? Leggo.

The diner is super trendy and hipster with an open kitchen/grilling station and outerspace-inspired decor.

semi-suspended booths

Let’s see, their menu has a very wide selection to satisfy a hardcore vegetarian’s palate. But they are famous for their seitan (wheat gluten, a good source of protein), breakfast options, dinner plates, and since I went on a Monday, they had a seitan “meat”ball sub special. They also serve a variety of vegan desserts and vegan frappes. There is a rotating cake display next to the checkout counter.

tasty vegan cakes

After careful deliberation, I decided to go with a good old veggie burger for carry out. You can choose between two types of veggie patties, either chipotle black bean or mushroom chickpea. I got a Kendall Square with a black bean patty. The Kendall Square is piled with 2 huge beer-battered onion rings, arugula, roasted red pepper paste, and a garlic mayo spread on the bun. I requested sprouts as an extra topping, because garlic mayo and sprouts = match made in heaven. At least in my head.

menu

zoning in on the burger menu

After the cook yelled “order up” pretty loudly, I received my warm burger that smelled absolutely wonderfully like roasted red pepper and garlic. Let’s deconstruct this burger! First of all, where were the sprouts I specifically requested? No clue…  -__- Whatever, I get it, but still kind of annoying. By this time I was already across the street eating in a park so moot point. Despite this minor mishap, the burger was glorious. The bun was crispy and buttery on the outside, soft on the inside and lightly grilled for warmth. The onion rings were perfectly battered and you know how BBQ sauce works well with beer-battered onion rings? Well, this roasted red pepper puree was like the typical BBQ sauce on onion rings, but a ton better and bolder. The puree seasoning was spot on and even had a little kick to it at the end. The chipotle black bean patty was well-seasoned, hearty, and earthy. I could taste the distinct bits of celery and black beans. Arugula was not even noticeable against everything else, oh well… And finally, the garlic mayo, though a bit oily, worked so well in bringing everything together, especially since veggie burgers tend to run dry without the grease and fat in a meat patty.

the patty

the whole shabang

The burger came with 2 sides: a side salad and a garden slaw. Let me just say the “salad” was, I kid you not, 10 distinct tiny leaves of mesclun with a light olive oil vinaigrette dressing/non-dressing because it was hardly noticeable. That was a bummer because I wanted a little more substantial amount of greens after such a satisfying burger. The garden slaw was also a super teeny portion lumped into a corner of the box, but it was a tasty, again I kid you not, 2 or 3 bites. Creamy but not overpowering, and I appreciated the bits of scallions added in to perk the flavor. Next time, I hope the portion of sides can be better!

garden slaw

TLDR: hands down best veggie burger I’ve ever put into my mouth (and I eat ALOT of veggie burgers). Very happy with what Veggie Galaxy delivered. For people who think vegetarians’ food options are limited comparatively, Veggie Galaxy’s creativity and skills will prove you wrong.

Eat on!