400, 75, 26, North

This post marks my 400th blog entry! And my 75th post of the year, which is the most I have ever posted in a calendar year in my six years of blogging (and probably why I am only at 400 posts after six years.)

To mark the occasion, I have decided to do my first ever blog give-away! Yay!!

So last Tuesday, my family was visiting Boston, and we went out to dinner at North 26 in Government Center. It was a really fun time, and we had a delicious meal. The restaurant is American cuisine with French influences, although I happened to have a more Asian style meal. It is fairly casual and relaxed, and it seemed to be a quiet night in the restaurant, which was a nice change from our dinner the previous evening at Eastern Standard (also fun and delicious, but LOUD.)

Everything we had to eat was just really fresh. My parents both got the sweet pea and spinach soup to start, and it looked, smelled and tasted like it had been made just for them. Sister K dived into the kettle of muscles, while Sister B sampled the veal sweetbreads. I had an amazing dish of seared scallops over a fresh carrot puree with coconut rice. Again, it was like someone had made everything on my plate just for me. My parents and Sister B had fish entrées, while Sister K had the lamb. I enjoyed the skillet seared natural raised duck with pineapple tamarind ponzu, duck fried rice, and bok choy. This was even more delicious than the scallops. The duck was really moist, and there was a lot of flavor in the ponzu, but it didn't overpower the meat. I don't normally even LIKE bok choy, but I really liked everything on my plate. There were a lot of clean plates at our table.

I was, of course, excited that the restaurant had my beloved St. Germain cocktail on the drink menu, Mom had a G&T, and the sisters enjoyed some wine. The drinks were pretty much in line with most other Boston restaurants (although I usually try to stick to places with $10 cocktails), but the entrées were all priced under $30, which is a bonus. Our server was nice without being overly attentive and made good recommendations (both of my courses were ones he recommended). When we realized that we had been seated right next to the air conditioning vent, the manager was nice to turn it down before Sister B froze!

So we all really like the restaurant, and I hope to go there again soon with my friends. The folks at the restaurant must have liked us too because our server gave each of us a coupon good for 15% off of the entire check for either lunch or dinner! (This is where the blog give away comes in.) Now my family gave me all of their coupons in addition to the one I received so I have FOUR of these discount coupons to give away. SO, the first four people who say they want one by posting a comment on this blog entry will get one of these fancy coupons to North 26. (I have hidden the comments by turning on the moderation so that no one can tell which number commenter they are, because I am tricks-y like that. MWAHAHAHA!) If you have been there before, you know what a great deal you are getting, and, if you are yet to try it, I think that you will be pleased with your experience there.

Thanks to all my friends and readers who have been following along with me on this blog. What started out merely as a way to pass the time really has become an enjoyable part of my life!