Playin hooky!

Well, I tried to take the day off, but spent the first 3 hours of the morning on work emails, accompanied by tea and whole grain toast with Blue Diamond honey almond butter. I can not get enough of the stuff!  Not sure what the rest of the day will bring, but it is shaping up to be another beautiful fall day here in Boston. Tonight we are heading to our neighbors’ house for a fire in the backyard and to share one of our bottles of Domaine Moulin Tacussel Chateauneuf du Pape from the last Bin Ends fine wine flea market. Heading to another one this Sunday! But before I head out for the rest of the day, a restaurant review! I had plans on Wednesday night to meet up with an old friend at Post 390 which I have been dying to try again after our good experience on their third night open. Apparently they are doing quite well, as it was a 2.5-3 hour wait! Hungry and not really able to eat dinner at 10 on a work night, we decided to talk a short walk to Coda, conveniently located at the corner of Dartmouth and Columbus in Boston’s South End/Back Bay area. Coda is a friendly neighborhood place. I had only been there once before for drinks and an appetizer during the last summer Olympics. At the time, a woman came in with two small children, a little panicked because her car had broken down in the city. The bartender sat the kids up at the bar, made them Shirley Temples, and put on the Olympics for them. Other Coda staff helped the woman with her car, and a neighbor stopping in to pick up food also took a look at the car. I instantly loved the way everyone at Coda went out of their way to be helpful. Wednesday night, we were ravenous and looking for a cozy place to catch up. Coda turned out to be perfect, not too crowded when we arrived so we got a great corner window seat, complete with comfy pillows in the booth. To celebrate mid-week, I ordered a glass of Mionetto prosecco, one of my favorites. My husband ordered a Nitro Stout which was sooooooo good! It tasted like coffee and chocolate, all toasty and delicious. I love my prosecco, but the stout was definitely more seasonal. For my meal, I ordered two appetizers which I often do. I like smaller portions, and ordering two small dishes allows me to try a couple of different flavors. I was very happy with my choices, sugar pumpkin soup with sage brown butter and  brioche croutons and the zucchini beer fritters with paprika aioli.

The soup was creamy and delicious, exactly what I wanted on a cool fall evening. The brioche croutons were slightly crunchy, but softened in the soup, making for a yummy bready-ness. The fritters were to die for. They had tons of shredded zucchini and a nice dough. Dipped in the smoky, spicy aioli, they were super comforting and delicious, a very nice treat indeed! My friend got Coda’s signature mac and cheese which was a very large portion, enough for lunch the next day, and the hubs had steak frites which he devoured. The fries were SO good, very thin and crispy, heavenly little bits of salty potato. I hope you are all having a good kickoff to the weekend! I will be back tomorrow with a post on my favorite Irish foods to celebrate the fact that we booked our tickets to Ireland for ten days in January! Yayayay! If you missed it, please check out my entry for Stonyfield’s Na-Moo-Ste sweepstakes. I am really excited about the theme and spirit of the post, and I hope you will be too! Are you doing anything fun this weekend? I hope so! See ya soon 🙂