adamr

Best not to eat "seafood" in New England. Shellfish, yes, but not fish. Never, ever, under most circumstances eat fish in New England unless you caught it yourself, or maybe (just maybe) in a very high end restaurant and if it's "atlantic dayboat" fish. Boats go out for 5 days at a time, because really there's no fish near here, it's all gone. There are clams, though! Summer Shack has as decent fried clams as you can find close to the city, if you can't make the drive up to Route 135 to get better ones. Their lobster is among the best cooked you can get in MA, but not as good as in Maine. If you go there don't be tempted to get fish, nor should you even think of getting your lobster prepared any other way than just steamed. The steamer clams are good also. If you don't want to get lobster or clams, don't go there. Have Indian Pudding for dessert if you do go, it's another good local treat and they do it better than all the other remaining local places in Massachusetts. If you go to Molana (recommended above), decor and service is standard Persian restaurant style - but food is good. I go there a lot, the best thing they do is "Chicken Soltani" if you order it with "shirin polo" which is basmati rice with sweet orange peel / carrots rather than plain basmati. Definitely try the saffron ice cream for dessert. If you go there more than once, try the Ghormeh Sabzi. Around the corner from there near Watertown Square is a burger place called Wild Willy's, and I also go there often - kinda hoaky family style place, but three choices of locally sourced meat, artisanal cheddar cheese, toasted & buttered bun. If you go there, keep it plain and simple - med rare with nothing but cheddar is my call, it can compete with NYC's Burger Joint.

My first post on eGullet! I've just bought an ounce of saffron as well. I've taken cooking classes with Najmieh Batmanglij who is the matron of Persian cooking, and her ways of using saffron will use up an ounce in no time, and to great result I find. 1) Grind the saffron into powder before using or in batches to store (but don't store it too long in this form), regardless of what type of cuisine you're using the saffron with. Powder is the best way to release the full flavor and color. Najmieh suggests using a spice grinder and putting a sugar cube in, to help the grinding process. Whole pistils will waste a lot of flavor and color. You can mix the powder with liquid and keep it that way for a week or more maybe. She recommends Iranian saffron but it's hard to find genuine, fresh Iranian saffron, plus it's very expensive. Good Spanish saffron is hard to find also but cheaper than Iranian -- I've found the best quality directly from wholesalers, where I know the packages are sealed and I know the quality is consistent and storage is not a problem. I've had problems with certain retailers selling high priced saffron which tastes like dust. 2) Generally, the Persian style use of saffron (when not done on the cheap) consists of something like this mix: 1.5 tsp ground saffron, 1 tbsp rose water, and several tbsp some type of citrus juice -- lime juice, bitter (Seville) orange juice, etc. If you don't want the perfuminess of flower essence you can just use water but I find this mix distinctive. That is a *lot* of saffron. You'll be finished with an ounce after a few meals. Use this mix in roughly this proportion to marinade any kind of meat (preferably with a Jaccard); to add to any kind of braise (this was a big revelation for me); to add to stuffed vegetable mix; to add to basmati rice by putting a few spoons of the rice into the saffron liquid, then spreading this rice over top of the rest of the rice. (If you marinade meats with it, you might end up with a lot of leftover marinade liquid with your expensive saffron in it -- I'm still working out how to deal with that problem.) You can put the mixture into ground meat kabobs as well, which avoids the wasted marinade problem, and in which case you can substitute tart ground sumac for the citrus juice. Traditionally you can also substitute orange blossom liquid instead of rose water, if the dish is appropriate for that taste, but you need to use less as it is really strong stuff. There are some Persian desserts with saffron as well -- halva can have saffron in it, ice cream (mentioned earlier in this thread), hard candy, and a saffron pudding which I've never tried making but looks really good.