Feb/100
sometimes nostalgia should be left alone
i had heard somewhere that boston restaurant, located on luard road and johnston (near the southorn playground) was my grandmother’s favorite restaurant. in any case, it remains a large part of my childhood, as it was where we ate after i feel into a giant rice paddy in the new territories and where my cousins richard made my other cousin jason cry by taking his hat, and then rich burned his thumb on the sizziling hot plate and ate for the rest of his meal with a thumb stuck into a glass of ice.
boston is most famoust for those sizzling hot plates of steak – but i hadn’t actually been there since 1986, and in the meantime have had many many excellent steaks. would boston be able to hold up its bargin with nostalgia (short answer: no)
supposedly, boston restaurant was one of the inventors of the sizzling black pepper steak, however, i ordered the flaming brochette set meal, since that was what was recommended . . .by the menu.
the set meal came with a plain roll with butter
a cream soup
the flaming brochettes themselves – alongside a vegetable medley
topped with a garlic sauce
it was, as anthony bourdain would say, real dinosaur type food. however, unlike his gushing over the old school french eateries he discovers in paris or new york, boston restaurant’s time has long past. the steak is, well, it’s okay – it was well charred and tender, but without much taste, but the rest of the meal is dragged down by the 1950s era vegetables and cream soup.
it was fun to relive part of my childhood, but i wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who didn’t grow up in hong kong – or even visit often during the 60s/70s/80s, unless you really want to find out where the pepper steak started.