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I picked Out of the Blue for this weeks Wednesday night dinner. This was the first time that I picked a place. Out of the Blue is a little Italian Seafood place in Davis Square. I got pasta and shrimp in a marinara sauce, which is one of my favorite dishes anywhere. It was good, the sauce was really rich and it dominated the flavor. I’m not sure that the place would stack up well against other Italian seafood options in Boston.

Last week we went to Jed’s pick Taqueria La Mexicana in Union Square. I had intended to walk, but I got caught up playing Wii tennis and was late when I left, so I drove. I didn’t take a picture of this place and I didn’t blog about it last week because, well, it is forgettable. What is not forgettable is that they are expanding into the storefront next door and getting a liquor license, which the owner was very excited to tell us many times. The food was the most bland “authentic” Mexican I’ve ever tasted. I got a burrow, which is just a burrito, and I think both Chipotle and Anna’s have better burritos. This place was similar in style, order in line, and such to those places, but did have a much larger menu.

This weeks’ Wednesday Night Dinner was at the Elephant and Castle pub (whats with the craptastic flash websites these places have) in the Financial District. This time I transcribed the address correctly, and stared at a map long enough to get my photographic memory for maps accustomed to the area. I’ve never actually been to the Financial district before. Not 20 steps above ground coming out of Government Center station a couple in an SUV of some kind asked me for directions. I am usually quite happy to provide directions, and I take some pride on being able to provide good, correct ones, but I had just not 1 min before come above ground out of a new subway station for the first time. I hadn’t yet figured out where I was so I was no help to them. It turns out that I was right next to this pipe that had exploded and launched asbestos into the air earlier in the day. I didn’t know that at the time, just saw it today on the web. It certainly explains why there were so many news crews at what looked to be a standard pipe repair job site.

The restaurant was large, much larger than our usual hole in the wall places. It was picked by an actual Englishman in our group, who docked it a fair number of points for not being as authentic as it’s made out to be. Most importantly the flat screen tv with the red sox game on it was highly unauthentic for an English pub in his opinion. I was apparently the only one watching the game though (there goes the theory that I’m an authentic Englishman), because when Ortiz hit a 3 run homer in the 3rd I was the only one who clapped, boy did I look silly. Anyways, the food was good, I got steak tips, and my portions seems kind of on the small side, but everyone else’s portions looked alright. Other than the fact that I am writing home about it, I wouldn’t say its anything to write home about.

So, to quench my thirst and my thirst for exploring Boston area restaurants, I joined a little dinner group a while back. The group mostly consists of Jed’s MIT friends, their friends, and other random people who are about as connected to the hub of the group as I am (not very). We meet on Wednesdays and never goto the same place twice. I’ve gone to 3 places with them, and I only write about it now because I finally remembered to take a picture of the place. Which I decided was a requirement after using an online photo for my dinner in the north end post. This group tends to stick to Cambridge, especially in the winter I hear, since who wants to walk around in the cold unnecessarily.

Last night we went to a Thai place, thats supposed to be quite good, Dokbau, in Brookline. I had this mango fried rice with chicken, possibly not in the mainstream of traditional Thai food, but it was excellent; lots of big chunks of mango, yum. The place is pretty close to where my parents will be staying when they come visit in October, so its on this possible list of places to take them, which needs lots more filling in. But its not as close as I thought it was. Due to their awful flash site complete with annoying whooshing sounds ( I only link so that Google will pick up that comment ), I transcribed the address as 144 Harvard St, which if you check the picture, is not the address. So that was fun, 144 Harvard St. is some sort of nail salon; luckily, 4 blocks isn’t that far off, and Google on the phone came to the rescue yet again.