Boston

It's funny to me how a restaurant experience can really set the tone of a trip at least momentarily. I went to Boston for a night last weekend with a friend from Johnson and Wales to visit a friend from home who just moved there. When it came time to pick a restaurant for dinner on Saturday night, we researched online and were excited to head out into downtown Boston . Upon arriving at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which is where our destination lay, one of my friends said, "There are only 2 guarantees when you decide to eat in a tourist district: bad food and high prices." She was absolutely right. The food was overpriced, overcooked, and lacked originality. All of us left the restaurant cranky and flustered. My same friend also made another valid point when it comes to restaurant decision-making: "Don't ever pick a restaurant where you can make the food." While I agree to an extent, I think that what she meant to say is that you should never pick a restaurant where you can come up with the idea for the food. So much of the excitement in food comes from looking at the food pairings within dishes on a menu. As culinary students, we're always eager to find inspiration in restaurants, TV, cookbooks and whatever else we can get our hands on.

After a round of disappointment, we researched further and found a wonderful restaurant for brunch on Sunday. The menu was a Caribbean-Mexican fusion, and our taste buds were not let down. Located in Cambridge, maybe a mile from Harvard, East Coast Grill delivered a wonderfully satisfying meal. Between molasses-glazed grilled bananas and avocado omelettes, each of us sat somewhat impatiently waiting on the kitchen's next creation. Perhaps my favorite idea that I picked up from the restaurant was one of our appetizers: banana rellena. It was a roasted banana stuffed with smoked pork and topped with their house-made hot sauce which they called inner beauty.

Wow. It definitely had a kick given that the hot sauce was made with habanero peppers, but the balance of the sweetness from the banana with the smokiness of the pork was surprisingly scrumptious. I plan to experiment with roasted bananas soon so I'll let you know how it turns out.