u/LColium

EDIT: because some people are very concerned about it in the comments, I do not work for the globe. I just read articles from it sometimes and they don’t have a great article gifting solution. Go eat pizza wherever you think it’s tasty and touch some grass on the way, it’s not that deep.

EDIT 2: before yet another person whines about the Globe and their paywall, go read other comments with either non paywalled links or info for how to access the globe through your library. And, if you’ve made it this far, reminder that I STILL don’t work for the globe. Just a longtime reader of it and a believer in supporting local journalism.

Just a reminder.

All you newcomers to Boston- please try to spend locally.

I’m so tired of leaving every restaurant in Boston underwhelmed and also so turned off by the value/food. Please correct me—I genuinely want to be proven wrong—I welcome any suggestions to redeem Boston’s food scene.

We go out a fair amount (birthdays, parents/in-laws visiting, special occasions, date night) and there has been only 1 place I would go back to (Myers + Chang). The service can be mid, food and plates are tiny, and most of the time the place is seriously overhyped.

For reference I’ve been to: Krasi, Pagu, SRV, Parla, Mahaniyom, the Eaves, Juliet, the Daily Catch, Little Sage, La Royal (I hope the hobbitses had better food than we did), Bosso Ramen Tavern, Temple Records, Bar Volpe (Dine out Boston, the tiramisu was INEDIBLE and covered in salt, I could not finish it and I love salt!), Bar Vlaha (best so far, but crazy loud club music and $12 for bread???).

The *only* place I would go back to is Gufo.

I’m sure that the shift of all restaurants to also serve “tapas style” with teeny tiny plates is also to blame.

The one place I’m holding out hope for is the Sarma/Oleana restaurant family but we haven’t been able to commit to a reservation a month out. I’m just so tired of spending $100-$150+ for 2 people for a mediocre meal and wishing we had stayed home and cooked instead.

I am so fond of this city and get offended if someone says it’s a bad food scene…but I’m starting to have to agree with them…

Edit: thanks reddit for being, as always, both helpful, funny, and also unnecessarily cruel. Lots of suggestions, so ty to those who were helpful and for continuing to leave me hopeful…

But TL;DR seems that late stage capitalism, enshittification and the stupid high cost of living in Boston have struck again! (+ liquor licensing woes).

Shall be avoiding these bad-bougie places in favor of the smaller joints and give up my quest of a delicious restaurant that feels special and fancy for anything under $200/pp. Either that or take the train to Portland where it’ll cost the same but be infinitely better (and including train ticket come out to be almost the same cost!)

Where to: Yoshida Omakase, offering 18-course tasting menus of sushi and other seasonal, seafood-focused dishes in the Back Bay.

Why: Yoshida serves luxurious ingredients in a luxurious setting, where diners receive personalized, deeply attentive service in a serene and beautiful gold-toned room. (The price, $300 per person, is luxurious, too.) You’ll find A5 Wagyu, truffles, and caviar; Hermes dishware alongside traditional Japanese ceramics; and a deep sake list filled with premium offerings. These things are lovely. But the real reasons to go are: to talk with chef Tony Cao about ingredients and techniques at the intimate, 13-seat sushi counter, and to eat sublime bites of carefully cut, thoughtfully prepared fish and rice.

The back story: Cao is originally from Fujian, China, and worked at omakase and other restaurants in New York for more than 20 years before coming to Boston to open Yoshida Omakase. Restaurateur Iverson Guo, of the Karma Asian Fusion restaurants, is behind the project. Because Cao has personal connections at fish markets in Japan, he is often able to get ingredients other Boston chefs may not have access to.

What to eat: Cao specializes in traditional, Edomae-style sushi, using seasonal seafood and aging techniques to develop the flavors and textures of the fish. The set menu shifts with the seasons. It begins with seven appetizers, leading into 10 pieces of nigiri, then finishing with dessert, many of the courses prepared before you by Cao and his team of chefs.

On a recent evening, appetizers include crystal crab topped with uni, caviar, and tiny pink flowers, served over a smoky, vinegar-bright jelly dotted with tiny spheres of watermelon; a bite-size tart filled with rice, lobster, toro tartare, and caviar, presented on a white ceramic cushion; uni-coated noodles with squid and tomato foam; and slices of A5 Wagyu quickly cooked in a nabe pot with maitake mushrooms, then showered in truffle slices.

It’s all a leadup to sushi: pats of rice tinged brown with a mixture of vinegars, topped with fish aged and cut to maximize its texture and flavor. Aori ika, bigfin reef squid, has a lovely sweetness; Cao slices it into tiny, tender arils and tops it with a dollop of pickled plum paste. There is akami, lean tuna, followed by otoro, fatty tuna; fresh Hokkaido uni; anago, saltwater eel. The progression ends with tamago, here more custard than omelet, sweet with bruleed sugar on top. Would you like to add on another course? At this point, you can request one, for an additional charge. Then it’s on to dessert: lemon mousse with guava foam and pomelo — feather-light, and by this point, that’s about all you can manage.

What to drink: There’s a wine list designed to impress, as well as beer and tea. But this is a place to focus on sake. Yoshida Omakase features everything from a $10,000 bottle of Niizawa Reikyo “Absolute 0” Junmai Daiginjo to a $45 carafe of briny, food-friendly Kawatsuru “Olive” Junmai Ginjo, made with yeast culled from olive trees. Ask the staff for recommendations; they know the selections well. Or try a pairing. Whatever you choose will be served in exquisite glassware. (Perhaps one of the Chinese zodiac cups stored in Yoshida’s custom, hand-painted Louis Vuitton chest?)

The takeaway: If you are a diner seeking luxury who wants to splash out, this place is for you. If you are a diner with a very special something to celebrate, this place is for you. If you are a diner who appreciates craft, sourcing, and the opportunity to discuss these things and more with a personable chef with some very sharp knives, this place is for you. This stretch of Mass. Ave., where Asta and Deuxave are also located, has become a dining destination.

51 Massachusetts Ave., Back Bay, Boston, 617-307-9888, www.yoshidaomakase.com

Part 1, Part 2

In case anyone else is running into a similar problem, I wanted to share resources and also to share the end result! Spoiler, things are better but not 100%, so if anyone has any theories for my lingering issue (see "THE RESULT" for more about the issue), I'm all ears.

ORIGINAL CONTEXT: I have a late 1980s Whirlpool direct drive washing machine (Model LA5500XTW0) that came with the house I bought. I love it. It gets my clothes clean and it gets used almost daily. The normal wash cycle has worked perfectly until recently, when it stopped draining fully leaving at most an inch of water at the bottom and leaving the bottom part of the load soaked. This happens every single load of laundry regardless of the load size, water temperature, or weight. I can run a second drain and spin cycle and the water WILL drain.

RESOURCES/RECOMMENDATIONS

• At the suggestion of Redditors, I sat and observed a few cycles - I used a stopwatch to time each stage and compared those times to what the manual says it should be doing during the cycle. It seems kind of obvious now but didn't at the time and it actually revealed that what I thought was "working perfectly" was not. (There were times when the machine should have been agitating and it wasn't, as well as some times when it was not neutral draining.) Do this and if you can get a video of the weird behavior, do so.
• I bought my parts from SearsPartsDirect to make sure I had OEM parts. I debated as to if I wanted to just replace my entire gearcase but ultimately decided to only buy a new clutch and a new neutral drain kit. I replaced everything - not just the broken pieces I found (more on those later)
• I bought 80w90 gear oil and "Purple Power" degreaser at my local auto parts store - I used the degreaser to clean the gearcase parts and the gear oil as new oil
• I bought "Permatex Ultra Black Maximum Oil Resistance RTV Silicone Gasket Maker" at my local hardware store - I used this to reseal the gasket
• I used my neighbor's oil change drain container. I could have drained the oil into a bucket but this was really convenient
• I used two videos from theapplianceman on Youtube - they were incredibly helpful - one for replacing the clutch and one for the neutral drain. I followed his steps for removing the gearcase and clutch, opening up the gearcase, changing the oil/checking the parts, and putting everything back together with my new parts.
• If you can get a second person to help you with this, do so - you can do it by yourself, but it's a lot easier to have someone helping you - even if it's just someone to hand you more disposable towels when you are greasy
• Be careful when you break the seal on the gearcase - if you have it tilted, it will start dripping oil immediately and you can make a big mess - don't cause an oil spill in your house or cause environmental problems in your yard! Do this over a bucket or a container and wear disposable gloves.

WHAT I FOUND

• Broken piece #1: the metal part of this piece of the neutral drain had broken off and was GONE. I took apart the entire gearcase looking for it and it was nowhere to be found. My father-in-law (who was my second pair of hands) and I were super surprised it wasn't anywhere. This picture shows what the piece should look like intact - the metal part the arrow is pointing to had broken off.

arrow pointing to the piece of the neutral drain that was missing in my machine

• Broken piece #2: A plastic pin on the bottom of the brake cam that keeps it in position had broken off and was stuck in the hole it is supposed to align with.
• Except for the one broken neutral drain piece, the gearcase looked pretty good to my untrained eye, and except for the broken brake cam, the old clutch looked good (I still replaced it)

THE RESULT

Things have overall improved! There is no residual water at the end of each cycle, the agitator is agitating when it supposed to be, and the final spin cycle is running. Nothing is leaking (it wasn't before, but I am relieved that the permatex seal worked and is keeping oil in and water out.)

The one lingering issue: sometimes when the neutral drain is supposed to kick on, it comes on for a second, and then it shifts into a spin and drain. The water still drains, but not while in neutral. This doesn't happen all the time though! I have been trying to get a video, but every time I seem to have my phone out to capture this behavior, it properly neutral drains, so I don't know what's up. Overall, it's a net improvement though so I'm happy and I'm very grateful to folks in this sub for their help!

Saw this question asked on another city’s subreddit and am curious about places close to home that I can try and support.

PSA: this is about food, not politics. Be kind. If you disagree on a suggested restaurant please be polite when sharing why.