Lingbo's Awesome Blog » Porter Square

Masa’s in Porter Square Exchange Mall serves some really awful sushi

Lingbo Li — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:17:16 +0000

Being the kind-of-poor college student I am, I’m a huge fan of cheap food. Really cheap food. Under ten dollars for dinner, say.

But I am not a fan of really crappy food. Especially not bad sushi. It makes the sushi-lover inside of me cry. My only consolation was that my non-sushi-eating-friend thought it was reasonable, and was not turned off of the concept of sushi altogether. If only he knew the true joys of unagi!

The sushi in question was found at Masa’s Sushi Bar in Porter Square Exchange Mall, replacing the old Kotobukiya Sushi Bar. There used to be a Kotobukiya grocery store here as well, but they were driven out by the university demons that be to make room for a Lesley bookstore.

I think this incident points to the questionable judgments of Yelpers at times. They didn’t mention that the shrimp on my scorpion roll ($7.50) would be like a stringy strip of limp cardboard. Or that the unagi nigiri (eel), normally a no-fail mouthful of melty deliciousness, wouldn’t be heated through, flavorful, or cut from a particularly unchoice part of the fish. Well, it was only $1.50 per piece.

At least it didn’t cost me very much.

Scorpion Roll at Masa's Sushi Bar

Eel nigiri at Masa's

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Find it!

1815 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139

The Blue October Pizza at Zing! Pizza

Lingbo Li — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:55:57 +0000

I love a well-made pizza pie as much as anybody else, but I often seek out pies that stretch the definition of pizza (see: my entry on Veggie Planet). If I’m going to go the traditional pizza route, I place huge stock in the crust, which should never be soggy from the sauce nor be overpowered by the cheese, and should have the right amount of crunch (especially thin crust) or a touch of buttery flakiness (Oggi’s).

I serendipitously wandered into Zing! by accident one warm spring evening. I’d decided to trek up to Porter Square, saw the sign, and ordered up a slice of their Blue October which is very similar in basic ingredients to Veggie Planet’s Brunch for Henry pizza. Since one of the pizzas was on the smaller side, the super sweet employee threw in another slice for free – so I ate essentially half a pizza for only a few bucks.

Then I doused some leftover in a shower of red chili flakes, just because I love things that bite me back.

How was it? Really, truly delicious. The butternut squash “sauce” isn’t overpowering at all, and pins down the swirling loops of caramelized onion, mozz, spinach, and bleu cheese with subtly sweet, silky undertone. The thin crust (a nice crunch, of course) nicely showcases the toppings, which have that fortunate quality of surprising you with something a little different in each bite – so good its transcendent of whatever you think of its toppings independently.

If only you were a little closer to Harvard Square.

Find it!

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Zing! Pizza

http://zingpizza.blogspot.com

1925 Mass Ave

617 497 4300

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Joys of Japanese Food – Cream & Azuki Buns, Unagi Nigiri, Salmon Terayaki, Spicy Eel Roll

Lingbo Li — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:51:05 +0000

Porter Square Exchange Mall is a veritable heaven of cheap Japanese food, with everything from that strangely sweet, addictive Japanese curry, octopus dumplings (takoyaki), giant bowls of ramen, and of course, sushi. My friend David, a fan of Japanese food, had never been here, so I knew it was ripe time to introduce him to all that is delicious in Porter Square.

Spicy eel roll

Salmon teriyaki - the vegetables were pretty atrocious

He insisted on Blue Fin, the classiest establishment here. (I wrote an entry on my visit back in February.) He had salmon terayaki and unagi nigiri and I had spicy eel roll along with two of the nigiri (delicious). I had a bite of his salmon (excellent), although I found the spicy eel roll tasty but not too remarkable.

UNAAGIIII

The unagi was where it was at. As I wrote on 3 Buck Bites:

Glistening, wrapped in a belt of seaweed, lying seductively on a snowy white bed of sushi rice. Then pop one in your mouth and ahhhh, heaven! Cherubs! Harajuku girls! So reliable. Blue Fin’s unagi come generously portioned and warm, so make sure to eat them quickly for maximum pleasure. (Not like that’s a real challenge.)

Afterwards, I couldn’t resist the siren call of dessert: a cream and azuki stuffed bun.

Cream and azuki bun

action shot

David struggles with the awesome feat

I eat a hunk of wasabi at Blue Fin in Porter Square Exchange Mall

Lingbo Li — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:03:14 +0000

Eating faces

Lingbo Li — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:07:43 +0000

I’ve never quite understood why people can’t take their fish with a face on it. I’ve grown up in a family where my mother talk rapturously of fish eyeball and fish cheek, and when I expressed curiousity over what fish brains would taste like, she picked up the translucent skull and cracked it opened between her teeth. So that’s when I tasted fish brains. I have to say, pretty gross… a lot like a light cod liver oil.

This particular fish is from Zoe’s Chinese restaurant in Somerville, which was a bit of a disappointment. The “Mao style pork” (actually red cooked pork, hong shao rou) was nothing to write home about, nor was the tea-smoked duck or the fried taro appetizer. The fish, however, was great. Which goes to show simple presentations with that delightful combination of ginger and scallion, that culinary hallmark of Chinese cooking, plus fresh ingredients turns out a winner each time.

Zoe’s is supposed to do good Szechuan, so I tried their ma po tofu, hoping it would be appropiately spicy and laden with bits ground meat. No such luck. The search continues.

If you know where to get really good, uber-”ma la”-spicy ma po tofu, let me know…

North End Scallops, Porter Sushi, Audio Slideshows: A busy weekend

Lingbo Li — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:57:25 +0000

FRIDAY

12:15pm: decide to drop Macroeconomics. Now I’m only taking four classes!

1:15pm: Run off with Crimson photographer to Second Time Around, Oona’s, and Great Eastern Trading Company to get audio and video for a slideshow. Photographer is unexpectedly hiliarious; storeowners are sometimes crazy/unstable.

4:30pm: Makeovers at the YWCA. Turns out the women are more impressed by my French manicure skillz than my artful eyeshadow application. I administer white tips on nails ragged, chapped, and worn down to their nubs. The women are very sweet. I am embarrassed by the state of my makeup collection, which is smeared in spilled bronze eyeshadow.

6:30pm: Stop at Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square for some uh, kickass cupcakes as a birthday gift. I order four, with an extra for myself. I wolf down my mojito cupcake walking back to the T stop. The cream cheese frosting is cut the tang of lime and the center is soaked with rum – enough to warm my throat.

Kickass Cupcakes

10:30pm: Drop off birthday present. Present recipient is inebriated and proceeds to throw up twice, after which she feels better and munches on a corner of a Super Chocolate cupcake. The rest go in the fridge.

12:30pm: I am shooed off the table of of The Advocate by the DJ, who reminds me that it collapsed last time. Time for the Kong!

1am: Mmm, scallion pancakes and scorpion bowls. How much more classic can you get?

SATURDAY

2pm: Time to research in the North End for the Unofficial Guide. I have lunch at La Famiglia Giorgio, which is not really worth the shitty cellphone pictures I took of it. I nosh on lobster ravioli smothered in pink vodka cream sauce and scallop giorgio.

4:33pm: Woah, the Freedom Trail! Woah, tourists! Paul fucking Revere! This feels wrong, somehow. Kind of like touching John Harvard’s foot, you know?

Japanese love their tentacles

8pm: Valentine’s dinner, spontaneously found in Porter Square Exchange Mall at Blue Fin. Stop at Kotobukiya, a Japanese grocery, first.

Kotobukiya

Monkfish liver, duhhh (Does cooking use only mean that it can't be an organ transplant?)

Then, the actual meal, which was expansive, adventurous, and lovely.

Sashimi on a bed of natto (fermented soybean with a bizarrely sticky nature - picking it up results in cobweb-like strings trailing from bowl to plate)

Unagi, my favorite!

Valentine's day sushi platter... the rose stem to the left of the image was secured in a base of wasabi.

Donburi bowl, the roe is fun to eat.

SUNDAY

10am: Work out at the gym, which I’ve failed to do for longer than I’d have liked.

Noon: Do some hair and makeup for the Identities fashion show photoshoot. The nice thing about doing makeup, I’ve realized, is far from making you see all the flaws you should cover up, it makes you see all the little things that make someone beautiful.

Near the end, I hold down the fort while the models are off doing their hip hop shoot. I take photos of myself with my hairspray-assisted hairstyle.

Photobooth: sometimes better for boredom than Facebook.

2:30pm: Off to the Garment District and The Closet for more audio and photos for the audio slideshow with another photographer. This takes way too long.

Me standing in front of the Garment District's shocking pink storefront.

7pm: Crimson exec dinner. People give silly gifts, I watch passively, feel lonely, go back to Crimson and finish editing slideshow. It’s BALLER. Me and the editor do the crossfade. We add background noise. I do voiceovers. He records me screaming “fuck a duck!” incessantly. We laugh. We cry. We mock the interview subjects.

12:45am: Exit the Crimson. Finally.

Here is the fruit of my labor (plus 3 other dedicated people).

This took, uh, 10 solid hours of my life.