"bostonrestaurants" news and stories

• This summer, how about a Cuban barbecue (and I don't mean Mark)?
• Boston gets into Pocky and Onigiri, thanks to Dice-K.
• Speaking of Fenway, a chef is trying to bring more restaurant-quality foods to the ballpark.
• An interview with chef and author Marco Pierre White (right).
• A taste test: are these cabernet-based red wines from California or Bourdeaux?
• This week's recipes: Sweet Potato Fries, Salmon Mousse with Sour Cream Dill Sauce, Zucchini Carpaccio with Avocado, Lemon, Thyme, and Pistachio Oil, and Fennel, Treviso, and Prosciutto Salad with Anchovy-Date Vinagrette.

Well, this just about ruined my appetite.

We went through seeing those videos of the rats running around some of New York City's eateries, and now we have tonight's Inside Edition showing video that exposes the little monsters having fun at night in some of Boston's restaurants. It's part of a regular feature they do now called "Rat Patrol."

Some of the restaurants include Ruth's Chris Steak House, near downtown crossing if you know the area, McCormick & Schmick's, and The China Pearl. Ruth's Chris is working with the health inspector on a regular basis, and the other restaurants have regular checkups as well.

The owner of The China Pearl says that the Big Dig construction over the past few years has displaced many of the rodents.

• The allure of tapas.
• Cooking lessons from Rome: Ricotta pudding.
• Green tea: it's the new "bran."
• It's spring, and that means it's time for asparagus.
• This book says to drink olive oil as an appetite suppressent.
• Everyone's eating lunch again (did it ever really go away?).
• This week's recipes: Beef with Cumin, Lemony Chicken Caesar, Homestyle Bean Curd, Cod Salad, and Chunky Dark and White Chocolate Cookies.

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?