the great shrimp boil comes to the Chateau!

For those that read this blog you may already know this -- but contrary to popular belief - bears do eat other things besides fish and that includes shrimp. As a matter of fact Betty and I have been on a big peel-and-eat-shrimp kick. I decided to try a shrimp boil in the fashion of classic New England and Southern Low Country dishes.


boiling water with sea salt, old bay seasoning, fresh squeezed lemon juice, whole lemons, potatoes, onions, and shrimp

I started the boil with the potatoes and onions for about 6 minutes, then added the corn for another 5 minutes and then added the shrimp -- which was frozen uncooked shrimp from Whole Foods -- for 3 minutes.


drained shrimp boil with half of lemon

Wasn't sure what to expect from this meal because it seemed too easy. Just heat some water, add some spices and then boil -- but it really was just that easy. Everything tasted delicious. The potatoes and onions were slightly overcooked as was the shrimp but no worries. I also whipped up a mayo-sriracha-old-bay-seasoning sauce to go with everything and Betty and I devoured our food. Can't wait to try this again with a slightly tweaked boiling time game plan.

bear in the city day 3: no dosa for you! - Amma

For one of our final meals in NYC my cousin took us to one of his favorite Indian restaurants in the city called Amma. He described it as a place that has unique menu items that you wouldn't expect to see at your typical Indian restaurant. When we arrived at the restaurant it had a quaint, contemporary lounge feel. The place was empty as we were having a late 2PM lunch. After perusing the menu we ordered from their pre fixe lunch specials. I decided on the bhel puri for my first course, the shrimp balchao for the appetizer and the tandoori sea bass for my meal. Betty was bummed because the South Indian lunch special of idly and dosa was unavailable. How you gonna be an Indian restaurant that serves South Indian food and not have idly and dosa? Come on now.


bhel puri consisting of puffed rice, lentils and potatoes served with a tamarind chutney

This was pretty tasty. I've never had it before but it reminded me of what namkeen chaat -- if such a thing exists -- might taste like. My only complaint was that the puffed rice was soggy from the chutney by the time it arrived to our table.


minimalist shrimp balchao

I've had limited exposure to Indian seafood dishes so I was pleased when I saw the shrimp and sea bass on the menu. The shrimp was good but there were only two shrimps on the entire plate. They should've used a smaller dish for plating. The shrimp was tasty with a tangy tomato seasoning with mother curry and masala over-currents. I've never had shrimp like this but imagine if someone made a spicy shrimp bruschetta. Pretty good but over seasoned.


tandoori sea bass

My sea bass was cooked perfectly. The fish flaked off like butter and was enhanced by the seasoning and buttery tomato curry accompanying the fish. Again there was a bit of overkill with the seasoning but still very good.


palak besan ki kadhi

My cousin had the kadhi which is a yogurt based soup with fried vegetables and chick pea flour balls in it. The kadhi was pretty good.


chicken tikka

Betty had the chicken tikka and was not impressed with it finding it overseasoned. I tried a bite and found it tasty however.

Overall Amma was decent food at slightly high prices -- but such is the norm when you dine out in NYC. The meal delivered on my cousin's promise of unique selections and combinations. At the same time I found some of the classic dishes like the chicken tikka and kadhi to not be anything extraordinary. I would say Amma is gourmet Indian food and though tasty -- I felt like they were trying to hard with their flavors that often made simple dishes overly complicated e.g. too much masala and curry sauce with the sea bass, shrimp, and chicken tikka. If you do go I would recommend not ordering anything classic and instead venture out and try something new from their extensive eclectic menu.

bear in the city day 1: a mushage of flavors - Fusia

Betty and I hit up the Big Apple for the All Points West music festival and to visit my dear cousin. We had a direct flight from Columbus to LaGuardia and took a bus into the city to meet him. We were starving when we arrived so we decided to check out a Thai spot called Fusia. The place was contemporary and nice on the inside but our attention was directed to reviewing all the wonderful menu items. We decided to split the chicken sate and I ordered the shrimp wanton soup and Volcano roll for my meal.


small but colorful picture of the chicken sate



bad picture of extremely tasty shrimp wanton soup


beautiful Volcano roll: shrimp tempura & cucumber topped with spicy tuna and red tobiko aka flying fish roe

The shrimp wanton soup was incredible. Great broth, plenty of free floating shrimp and 3 shrimp wantons at the bottom of the cup. This was a promising start to the meal.

The chicken sate was plated beautifully and got me geeked about my main course the Volcano roll. The chicken was seasoned enough to be tasty on its own and the peanut sauce took the taste to the next level.

When the Volcano roll arrived -- it's beautiful plating got me that even more amped to devour the whole plate. I quickly got my wasabi and soy sauce mixture together and took my first bite. I took my time chewing the roll and scrutinizing the taste. The mixture of textures was great - you have crunchy shrimp tempura, crispy cucumber, soft tuna, and juicy roe...but the flavors were underwhelming. The tuna had no character -- it tasted like it was mixed with something else that created a tuna pulp of sorts that really took away from the distinct taste I normally expect and love from tuna. Rather than a marriage of flavors from the shrimp tempura and tuna it was a mushage of blandness. It took some work to finish the rest of the meal but Betty and I still had a great time catching up with my cousin and enjoying the fact that we were in NYC. Fusia was fun to try and I really enjoyed the shrimp wanton soup. Their sushi unfortunately was weak sauce -- especially for an item that was the chef's special. The experience there made me appreciate my favorite Columbus sushi joint - Akai Hana even more. Fusia did have me wondering what NYC restaurant has the best sushi -- I'd settle for better sushi then Fusia. Any suggestions for when Betty and I are there next?

surprisingly tasty seafood in c-town...Cap City Diner

Betty and I stopped in for a quick bite at the bear err...bar at Cap City after a long day at work. We were perhaps nostalgic of our recent seafood expedition in Boston and were craving shrimp and what not. The whatnot ended up being mussels and their meatloaf sandwich.


peel and eat shrimp with old bay seasoning and cocktail sauce and mayo based crab louie sauce


steamed mussels in a Chardonnay broth with garlic, shallots and tomatoes



meatloaf melt with muenster cheese and lettuce, tomato, onion + fries

Who knew that a place so non-chalantly tucked back a bit on Olentangy River Road could have such tasty seafood. The shrimp was delicious. It's hard to mess up shrimp though isn't it? The seasoning was perfect and the 2 sauces were nice to have to balance each other out. The mussels were phenomenal. I'm still generating a taste for mussels but these had so much flavor between the Chardonnay broth, garlic and shallots. The weakest link was the meatloaf sandwich which was pretty wimpy and soggy. It tasted alright but there was no character to the meatloaf. We don't really go to Cap City much but after trying the mussels and shrimp and hanging out at the bar and discovering bands play certain nights at the bar-- I could see us being repeat customers.

Massachusetts Bear Colony Presents: Boston Blur

Betty and I returned from Boston Monday night tired but happy from our weekend trip. We were in-town for a friend's wedding. In 3.5 days we pawed our way through a very beautiful, pedestrian friendly town with so much rich history consuming as much local seafood and local grub as we could. We did our scouting homework thanks to some tips from a Bostonian couple we met on our Princess Cruise Misadventures and were eager to check out the sites, sounds and eats of Bear town...err...Bean Town.

Up first Regina Pizzeria. This is supposed to be Boston's Best pizza.


volcanic looking cheese pizza


similarly volcanic looking sausage pizza

Betty and I had to wait in line about 30 minutes to try the pies but it was worth it. Regina Pizzeria is in the genre of thin crust brick oven pizza. Our favorite pizza John's Pizzeria in NYC is of the thin crust coal oven genre. Regina's reminded me of a distant cousin of John's -- which meant that I loved it. As is all too common one person's GPOAT is another's person's weaksauce. Though I appreciate pizza in its many forms -- the thin crust genre is prolly my favorite. That being said - Adriaticos thick crust is my GPOAT. Regina's pizza was perfectly cooked served scorching hot and slightly burnt on the edges and crust. Greasy cheese and sweet tomato sauce go perfect with carbon. That's a tip that most pizza joints just don't get. We ordered a topping pizza and a purist plain -- a habit Betty got me into many years ago. This way you get to appreciate the classic ingredients of a pizza while also getting an idea of how the pizza flavors enhance and build from the combination of extra toppings. I loved both pizzas. Regina's homemade sausage was very much on point but at the end of the day -- Betty and I had to fight for the last slice of cheese -- though you can do no wrong with any topping selection I would fathom. I can't say for certain that Pizzeria Regina is the best pizza in Boston. Those folks who don't like thin crust may not fancy this pie. I will say that the next time we're in Boston I'm going to Pizzeria Regina -- and that any other pizza joint would be hard-pressed to top it's taste. We were advised to go to the original location at 11 1/2 Thacher Street -- as there are chains across the city -- and the dining environment was charming. Our first Boston mission was accomplished -- the only problem was that I kept wanting to go back and get more instead of branching out...

Not too far from Regina's was Mike's Pastry which had been mentioned to us as having good cannolis. We heard rumors of an $8 cannoli there but Betty and I settled in on the $4 chocolate cannoli. I don't know too much about cannoli's but this was easily the best one I had.


chocolate cannoli with some Boston shower sprinkles -- that's right we ate this in the rain outside and it still knocked us on our paws.

The next morning found us touristing around market square and we had to try some of the fresh seafood at one of the shops. The name escapes me but it's the place in Quincy market that has the shrimp salad displayed right next to it.


peel and eat shrimp round 1. $9.95 for 6 shrimp? ouch.

The ginormous shrimp were expensive but extremely tasty. Regular readers know I am a price hound and if your food costs mad loot it better taste real good or you got one mad bear blog on your hands. The exception to this rule is normally vacation but Betty and I were having so much fun on our Boston-whirl-wind-tour that going broke never felt so good.

Continuing our walking tour on the Freedom trail south west to Beacon Hill...to Boston Common all the way back around to the Boston harbor worked up a tremendous appetite. We came across this strange trailer-esque building on the harbor marketing their lobster bisque called James Hook and Co. I was sold with the meer mention of lobster bisque and ventured in with Betty reluctantly following unsure of why I would want to enter this hole-in-the-wall.

When we walked into said strange trailer-esque building there were fresh lobsters and other sea creatures in the place with a small presentation/serving display. Though not ubear inviting I ordered a cup of the lobster bisque soup. Bear oh bear -- this soup was lobster-bliss. Sweet, creamy and lobstered out beyond tastes could describe. James Hook should have a TV show called Lobster My Soup cause this bisque is all about flavor.


sucky picture of lobster bisque -- we were sitting under a red umbrella...ella ella eh eh eh...

Between the shrimp in the morning and the lobster bisque for a snack Betty and I needed more sustenance so decided to check out the convenient Tia's Bar that was located not to far from our hotel. Surprise surprise...more sea food in the mix.



clam chowder bowl...they shouldn't even offer cups...


peel and eat shrimp vol. 2

This was some good straight up clam chowder creamy but with no suggestion or real hint of spice enhancement et al. The shrimp was fresh and delicious. I had no qualms ripping off the legs of the skrimp as Columbus Yogurt's girl calls them -- even for a domesticated bear like me.

Our last morning in Boston found Betty and I up early trekking out to Harvard and MIT -- hoping to take in the experience and aura of these prestigious universities and perhaps feeling enlightened in the process? No enlightenment was achieved in this case though it was fun to walk around both campuses. Nothing really caught our eye from a food perspective though most places were closed because we were on campus early -- plus I had failed to do my homework on what places to check out. As our hunger evolved we eventually decided to eat at Mass Avenue Restaurant somewhere in Cambridge on Massachusetts Avenue. Seemed like a hole in the wall diner but since their sign read Mexican food I was hoping for some good eats. I was already dreaming of devouring my refried beans and egg dish concoction only to discover that refried beans were not available until lunch. Weak Sauce. I disappointingly ordered the Mexican omlette -- which aside from salsa and sour cream had nothing that really made it Mexican per se...no chorizo...no spices...oh well.


"mexican" omlette

The food was decent and you sure got a lot of food for $7.00 but my stomach wasn't that into it.

After concluding our AM walking/subway trek to Harvard and MIT it was time to check out of the hotel -- but I was not quite done with Boston just yet. Betty and I decided we'd do a quick pub crawl before heading to the airport. Our next stop was The Black Rose. If you open your Tourist Reader to page 1 you'll most likely read how this pub is one of the best pubs in Boston if not the whole country. That's a pretty bold statement considering Boston might as well be called Pubston with all the small bars we saw on our walking tour. This place was charming in the typical-pub-brick-interior-irish-flag-sorta-way that many Ohio pubs emulate -- but this place was the real deal. In addition we were excited to learn that the Black Rose had the limited edition Brick Red Sam Adams beer on draft. I had to roll with the clam chowder again which was very tasty. Where as Tia's chowder was straight up cream based -- the Black Rose's chowder had a more flavorful spice undercurrent that was predominantly dill as in dillicious.



dillicious clam chowder

I also had to roll with the house burger.


Black Rose Burger - topped with Irish bacon, caramelized onions, sauteed crimini shrooms

The burger was a'ight. It wasn't cooked to my preferred temperature of medium so it was difficult for me to appreciate it. In the end I just ate the burger and left the bun for better or for worse. I was surprised that there was nothing particularly magical about the Irish bacon, crimini shrooms and onions combo. Oh well -- the ambiance and beer were good and Betty and I were off to hit up a couple of more pubs.

Boston is a great city with a rich history. I think i said that already. More importantly for us on this trip -- we had a blast at the wedding and meeting up with our dear friends. The city was very easy to walk about to see all the sites and sounds. As for the eats however -- Betty and I barely scraped the surface of the cuisine and food that we smelled in the streets and drooled as we walked all over town. We look forward to visiting again and getting more time to eat and perhaps less time touristing.

BBC presents Banana Bean Craving 2.

You think i was kidding when I said Banana Bean was one of our best dining experiences eva eva eva eva in Columbus. We snagged some good friends and persuaded them that they should join us for lunch at Banana Bean on Saturday. That's right twice in less than 2 weeks...technically three times if you count when they were closed on Monday.


shrimp and grits

Described from the menu as "...Cedar Key Shrimp & Grits - Smoked Bacon Etouffe and Creamy Goat Cheese Grits"

Betty ordered the grits. The shrimp was tasty but the grits were pretty underwhelming and bland. They could have used more flavor in the form of bacon, more goat cheese, or even more tomatoes and green onions. I was a little disappointed that this meal did not quite pack the punch that our previous days dining had provided. At the same time I finished Betty's grits for her after eating the below.

Islamadora Fish Taco

The fish on this taco was the Red Stripe Beer Battered Cod. I could not taste much if any of the mango habanero ketchup this time around. In all honesty I really wanted to enjoy this and it was pretty good but I definitely enjoyed the shrimp version of the fish taco more. The battered fish overpowered the other elements in the taco.



Our friend ordered the fried oyster po'boy pictured above.

It was my first time trying fried oysters and I thought the flavor was strong but pretty tasty.

All in all Banana Bean cafe came down to earth in terms of flavor the 2nd time around. I am not sure if this was because we had not let enough time pass between our last visit or if perhaps the flavors/chefs that day were off. At the same time I did not regret trying the food we had. It was still tasty and better than your typical fare. I still want to try their crab cake burger along with some of their other brunch items and have no reservation about going back there.

banana bean at last...bean at last...hail food almighty...banana bean at last...

Betty and I finally made it to Banana Bean Cafe. We tried going on Monday but the German Village location was closed. Betty and I have been craving this place ever since we heard about it during Restaurant Week. Florribean cuisine is what they promise.


awkard angle of chips and salsa.

The first basket is free. $2.00 for refills. I think i like that they charge you so you aren't tempted to eat/waste more. The salsa was a nice smoky chipotle base with fresh tomatoes? Yummy.


fried plantains with ya ya sauce.

They look like wings in the pic above don't they? The plantains were sweet and crispy with a great caramelized taste. The accompanying ya ya sauce was a great spicy tangy sauce for the plantains -- in the spirit of a pepper relish.



#21 off the menu called the Soft Shell B.L.A.T.

Described as: "...Creole dusted Soft Shell Crab, Corn Cob Bacon. Lettuce, Ripe Tomatoes, and Avacado Mash..."

I've never had soft-shell crab before but this was the best crab experience my tastebuds have ever experienced.


Islamadora Fish Taco -- with Shrimp

Described from the menu as: "...Grilled Orange Cilantro Shrimp or Red Stripe Beer Battered Cod, Avocado Mash, Mango-habanero Ketchup, Mexican Crema, Shaved Lettuce, Red Onion, Scallions, and Cilantro Wrapped in a Grilled Soft Tortilla"

Maybe it was the high that my taste buds were already on but this Shrimp Taco packed a flavor punch.

We were having so much fun that we also ordered their chocolate cake for dessert that was a delicious way to close our dining extravaganza.

All in all this place was everything i had hoped it would be with a cherry-tree-on-top. Definitely one of my favorite dining experiences in Columbuse eva. Eva...eva...eva...eva.

P.S. Finally a place that makes a true dirty martini! Extra olive juice in the house!