Other than the fact that the company was started here in 1950, of course.

When I was a kid growing up in New England, I thought that America had always run on Dunkin'. In my small world, I thought that there were Dunkin' Donuts shops all around the world, from Chelsea (in Massachusetts) to...well, Chelsea (in England). But it was more of a regional thing. The rapid expansion across the country didn't really start until the past five or 10 years. In fact, there still aren't that many Dunkin' Donut shops on the west coast.

This Boston Phoenix article tells how the company started and how it became such a big part of New England's blue collar community. Now they're putting their coffee in stores and going after the Starbucks and Krispy Kreme crowd too. Krispy Kreme isn't doing too well around here (let's face it, the donuts are overrated), while Starbucks is still opening around 300,000 new places a day and changing the look of their cafes. Let the coffee wars begin continue!

Interesting piece over at The Boston Phoenix. The writer asks several chefs what dish they order in a restaurant to see if the kitchen knows what it's doing. That one meal that you would judge the entire restaurant by.

Rialto chef Jody Adams orders a simple pasta dish, because she says that if a restaurant can screw that up, then they'll probably screw up a more complex meal. Michael Schlow (who is chef at two Boston restaurants, Radius and Via Matta), has a different dish for each type of restaurant. At Japanese restaurants, it's the rice. At steak houses, he goes by the side dishes and the wedge salad (what the heck is a wedge salad?). Michael Leviton over at Lumiere goes by the simple dishes at Asian restaurants: Shrimp and broccoli, drunken pasta, and for Italian restaurants it's the risotto.

I'll have to agree with the author of the article and say I often go by the chicken dishes, since they're a pretty basic dish, and I also go by the salads. But then again, I've had some awful meals at some restaurants where everything else I've had is first-rate, so I go back. Readers, how do you judge restaurants overall?

The name of this dessert immediately grabbed my attention. It's pumpkin pie...in fudge form!

It's a decadent dessert available at The Fudge Bar in Quincy, MA and at their second location at Logan Airport in Boston. It's $11 a pound at the former and $12 a pound at the airport, and I have no idea why the prices are different.

There's one thing I'm not clear on though. This is "fudge," but it's pumpkin-colored. The article says that the ingredients include cinnamon, ginger, and pumpkin, but doesn't mention any fudge or chocolate. Does fudge only become fudge when their is fudge introduced, or can fudge be fudge without being chocolate-oriented? From the pic it doesn't appear that there is any "fudge" (as I know it) is included, though it looks like it has the consistency of a fudge-based dessert.

I love articles that list the best restaurants, the worst restaurants, the best bars, and similar lists for a particular city. I don't always agree, but more often than not they get me to look at a place again or make me want to try out a place I've never been to.

The Boston Phoenix picks the 50 best meals in the city that you can get for under $10. The choices range from the Tasca Lunch Salad at Pastis for $8.95 to the Cubano Sandwich at the Miami Cafe for $5.50. The all you can eat Taco Lunch Box at the Sunset Grill and Tap is only $6.99 (they also have 112 beers on tap and another 400 in bottle!), and the Chicken Sub at Il Panino Express sounds good at only $5.95 . I also have to try out the famous Mac & Cheese at the Bukowski Tavern (named after the writer). Comes with a choice of sausage or broccoli, but you can get it with bacon too. It's $9.00 and you can get it at 1:30 in the morning on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. As for their #1 choice, I can personally vouch for that. It's excellent.

I would add the burritos at Boca Grande (a couple of locations, one in Coolidge Corner). When I was tight on funds their giant "burritos grande" for $4.25 really helped me out.