Hi All:

Andrea and I went to the Old Blue Bird Inn for Brunch in Easton, CT and it was great.
It’s the traditional fare you see, but I like the service and the how unassuming this place is.
From what I know it’s been around forever and it’s always packed on the weekends.
Table waits from what I hear can be 30-6o minutes long and people stay for that!

We have two special guest foodies with us – Rob Newmark and Hedda Royce helping us with this MyFirstBite Review.

Eggs Benedict!

Omlette with Home Potatoes and English Muffin

Fruit Platter

French Toast, Eggs, Sausage

Blue Bird Inn Outside

Blue Bird Inn Inside

Went to Vegas for the first time and had to say…I’m a bit disappointed for the few restaurants that we tried.
I  have to agree – the best food we ate was at Whole Foods — they had this awesome Turkey Sandwich that it was good I was delirious happy and can’t remember it.
Maybe it was their version of the Santa Fe sandwhich.

Japonais:  I tried the Spicy Tuna sushi as a barometer of the restaurant and it was at best a sad dissappointment to the food.  Couldn’t taste the Tuna and the rice was way too cold!  Stay away!
Bellagio Buffett:  Overarated high-end cafeteria…do I need to say anything else?

Check out the videos below:

Japonais – Mirage Hotel:

Bellagio Review:

Bellagio Quicktour (very quick):

Cheers!

Ray

I’m here at Starbucks right across from Boston University.  I love this place so much as I enjoy the coffee drinks, aroma, the people that work here and the people that frequent this place.
However, has anyone realized how stinky or strong the smell is once you leave?  I don’t know what to say…but the aroma of coffee on my skin and clothes drives my nutty!

I’m a stockholder (a small one) and I just want to rant a bit to see if anyone has any ideas to drive down the “clingy-ness” of the smell?  Anyone, anyone?
Can they put a vent in some where to vacuum the smell?  Could they fence off the barista that is making my caramel macchiato’s?

I’m sure whatever idea we all come up with, every restaurant may want to use it for at least it’s employees that are cooking the food!

That’s it…just a few thoughts.

I walked into Teavana in the Natick Collection on a lunch date with my Fiance on Friday.  We were trying the free samples (I do this religiously).  And for whatever reason, I felt compelled to see if they had any Vanilla flavored tea.  I’m a big fan of Vanilla flavored products…vanilla ice-cream, vanilla yogurt and I remember this vanilla flavored red wine from Brasil that a friend recommended in Frankfurt..yes, Vanilla and fantastically awesome.  The sales person recommended the Earl Grey Creme.  She brought over this big tin, like a Popcorn tin that we all used to get for Christmas and opened it up to give me a “whiff” of this Earl Grey Creme.  At first smell, I was hooked.  I couldn’t believe what I was smelling.  In not wanting to show too much eagerness about this specific product, I asked for other flavors that I do not even care to remember.

After brewing daily cups of this tea…I would advice this word of caution:   If I was a Coffee drinker, I would be totally challenged of switching from beautiful aromatic coffee to this Earl Grey Creme Tea from Teavana.
It’s totally amazing!  If the Pope once thought Coffee was the creation of the devil and then evangelized it after having a cup….wait until he tries this Black Tea with a twist of Vanilla Creme.
He may figure the devil was back and offering a truce!

The smell from the Vanilla Creme is very subtle, yet subtly strong.  The cool thing is that there are “creme” embedded in the tea leaves, which leaves a “blue” hue.  I add a bit of honey to it and it’s just sweet enough in the taste as in the smell.  Try it out…$4.50 for 2 oz, which is comparable to 20 tea bags.  It’s the same price of going to Wholefoods or buying Starbucks branded teabags.

Earl Grey Creme

My good friend Matt had invited me to the Celtics – Bulls game (Celtics won!) and we decided to meet at The Eastern Standard for a meal before the game.

The Eastern Standard is a really fancy restaurant.  It’s always packed and right next to the Foundation Lounge and The Great Bay.  I think it’s one of the Triumvirate of established high-end hospitality/restaurant businesses on that block.

However, I have to say that both our meals didn’t meet our expectations.  I had the sole and Matt had the steak frites.  Steak was good, mushrooms were cold, and the fries were good because of the rosemary.  I don’t know if the mushrooms were meant to be cold, but mushrooms are so important to the flavor mesh with the steak.  From my end, the risotto with my sole dish was sehr (German for “very”) undercooked and the combined taste wasn’t too flavorful.

Now, The Eastern Standard is a contemporary restaurant and thus pricey…and being high-priced for something that didn’t fill me up nor satisfy my taste buds is not going to jive with me.  Perhaps, if we were there for a beer…my review would be different.  As far as I’m concerned with MyFirstBite.com, I’m done and will never see me there.

And thank you to the waitress who I think realized we weren’t too happy and comped us with a free dessert.

Check out Matt’s Review on his Steak:

Sole with Pumpkin Risotto - Special of the Day

Hanger Steak Frites

I had to make a redemption from my last review of Spice and Rice with a review of Little Tokyo.  It is by far the best Sushi I’ve ever had!  I’ve been all over the world and for my taste buds and everyone else I’ve sent there…they have made the switch to Little Tokyo!  Living in North Carolina, Kanki, Waraji, Kabuki and all the others are a distant second.  And now living in Boston, I’ve been to Oiishi, Fugakyu (Brookline & Sudbury), Jae’s, Ma Soba and I know there’s a whole bunch more…but I still crave Little Tokyo.  For this review, I flew back to North Carolina, got to see my good friends Carl and Carina and even they too have made the switch to Little Tokyo…yes they were skeptical!  

Why was it so good?  Simply, the food is made with such care and love that everything melts and blends together!  I thought it was the cream cheese, but it’s more than that.  The folks at Little Tokyo figured out something special…feed they tummies of their customers and they will go nowhere else.  The 2 rolls I always crave are the Rock N Roll, which is an inside-out roll that is deep fried and topped with a spicy crab and seaweed salad mix.  The other is the Super Duper that is stuffed with Shrimp Tempura, Eel, Cream Cheese and topped with raw Tuna, Salmon and Tempura Flakes.  This roll just melts with tons of flavors and the crunchiness from the Tempura Flakes is the cherry on top.  Just go, order it and you won’t regret it!

BTW – They always give you a free Seafood Dynamite appetizer…you can’t go wrong with that.

Carl and Carina – MyFirstBite.com Food Review Spanish Contributors

Ray’s Review…you know it’s a good place…just go!

Seafood Dynamite

Rock&Roll, Super Super, Spicy Crab, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Hi All:

Back again with another review of a local Asian Fusion Restaurant in Cambridge, MA.  Spice and Rice (www.spice-rice.com)  is located in Inman Square and has a very appealing atmosphere.  The interior decorations is phenomenal…superior to most Asian Fusion restaurants that I have been to.  It’s kind of has a cool unique trendy “classic diner meets contemporary” mash-up.  The food is OK…I wouldn’t say it’s the best or the worst.  It’s just OK.  I can’t see myself there again by my own choice.  However, as a meet-up place looking for atmosphere, this place will astound you.  The wait staff is also OK as well too.  The one really good dish I had was the fried sushi appetizer.  It reminded me of my favorite Sushi restaurant Little Tokyo which is in Cary, NC and there will be a review of it — I promise!

Country Style Pad Thai

Fried Sushi Appetizer

Fried Sushi Appetizer

Summer Rolls

Country Style Pad Thai

Vegetarian Birds Nest

Hi All:

The Dumpling House in the heart of Boston’s Chinatown was fantastic!!!  It’s a Taiwanese restaurant that made feel as I was in Taiwan.  I’m not just talking about the noisiness or how busy it was!     It was the fact that I celebrated my Father’s birthday at the restaurant and together it was a like a feast when he and my Mum grew up in Taiwan.

Check out the reviews below…it looks like we found another awesome restaurant!

Pork Dumplings

Ginger Scallion Lobster

Big Noodles

Chicken Stir Fry

Chinese Vegetables

Stringed Bean Curd

Taiwanese Style Pork Chops with Salted Egg – REALLY GOOD!!!

Hi Y’All:

My good friends Carole and Steve was on Holiday in New York and Andrea and I had the opportunity to catch up with them.  It’s been about 8 years, I believe since I’ve last Carole, as we used to work at Nestle as Praktikants in Frankurt, Deutschland (Germany).  It was a beautiful day, we had the chance to show them Central Park, Central Park Zoo, FAO Schwartz, Starbucks and of course a a restaurant!!!!  We took this opportunity to visit the Repbulic Noodle House (www.thinknoodles.com) and perform an unexpected Food Review in French Swiss, as they are from Grandson, Switzerland.  Overall, the Repbulic is a great stop for fast and healthy Asian fusion food!  It has enough of a diverse menu to please every taste palette!.

Carole and Steve’s My First Bite Video Food Review in French Swiss

Noodle Salad

Pad Thai

Vietnamese Vegetable Noodles

Duck Curry Noodles

Beef Satay

Grilled Chicken Skewers

Grilled Japanese Eggplant

Friends Re-United

Dear Fans!

Amongst a troubled vacation tour package from Bosotn to Montreal, Canada, both Andrea and I were able to find refuge for all the things that went wrong with an Uber Satisfied Meal at Auberge Du Tresor.  I don’t want to ramble…but those stories of the Fang Wah Bus are true!  We didn’t use Fung Wah, but used Sunshine Travel in Chinatown, in which is fine if you understand the Chinese cultural implications of a tour trip.  Other than that, stay away and use another busing trip.

So why was the meal so good?  For starters, I live anyone that can serve in a different accent.  ;-)  The restaurant decor was great, the waitstaff was really nice and believe it or not the Tourist Menu was well rounded.  You can do the Meat, which is what I do or you can go for the Seafood, which is what Andrea did.  The price was very moderate and it comes with a FRESH dessert, well the blueberries made it seem very FRESH.

Check out the pictures and the videos!

Dill Salmon Video

Steak with Mushroom Sauce Video