this saturday after daughter's extra curricular enrichment program we picked her up and went straight to Brookline/Brighton border, which abuts the "University Belt": hereabouts is Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern Univ. and across the river Charles is Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard Univ. Many other colleges are nearby (Simmons, Wheelock, Newbury, Berklee College of Music), so when you walk around you're swamped by college students.
on the junction where Commonwealth Avenue meets Brighton Ave. is a branch of the "Super 88" chain of Asian groceries and in this location is a little food court. our kids love the fastfood joint "kantin" where they order their rice plates and steaming wonton soup bowls. daughter always goes for the roast duck rice plate, and both sons the soup noodles with fish balls or dumplings. the portions are large and satisfying and the tastes are...well, just alright.
kids' favorite stall
this time though our eyes were bigger than our stomachs ("takaw mata"). we were so hungry by the time we got there that husband and i ticked off too many items from the "dimsum chef" order form.
after a 10 minute wait our number came up, and this is how our table looked...all the items came out hot and steaming in little styrofoam "clam" boxes. tastes were once again, just alright.
there is a Korean food stall too, and i always go for the bibimbap in a stone pot, 'okdol'.
this time i tried seafood, instead of the beef bulgogi (sweet barbecue). the super-heated okdol holds rice on the bottom, still crackling, and little heaps of vegetables-sauteed zucchini, bean sprouts, & spinach, and carrot and radish pickles all around. the seafood portion was meager(1 mussel, 3 medium shrimps, 2 pieces of fish cake, 2 of surimi-imitation crab meat--) though, and was overwhelmed by the red chili paste but still a good buy.
there are a few other food stalls--among them Japanese, Thai, and a bubble tea place, but we tend to focus on just this one little corner.
we hopped over the the grocery's freezer section to buy 2 packs of pandan ice cream pops for dessert.
this is a place where young studious hungry college kids can refurbish their stores without going all the way to the "big city".
ahh, but the traffic! the traffic! the blooming Boston traffic...
