Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with simple accompaniments of feta
cheese and house-cured prosciutto.
Deeply savory prune-stuffed gnocchi (a
house specialty) come with earthy foie
gras and Vin Santo glaze; an organic
pous-
sin
comes with bacon confit, dandelion
greens, and a quail egg; crispy pork belly
gets spiked up with braised Belgian endive,
purslane, and jalapeño aioli; venison loin
en croûte is complemented by shallot
chutney.
Though No. 9 Park Street falls at the
higher end of Boston's price scale, com-
pared to other cities—and given the qual-
ity of the food—it's reasonable. (Even the
seven-course chef's tasting menu is under
$100.) Its aura is quietly chic, relaxed, and
intimate, with a muted taupe palette and
dark polished wood floors. If you want a
lighter meal, try the cafe area near the
front door, where you don't need a reser-
vation to order items a la carte off the
dinner menu.
9 Park St. (
&
617/742-9991;
www.
no9park.com).
(
Boston Logan International (11 miles/
18km).
L
$$
Harborside Inn,
185 State St.,
Boston (
&
617/670-6015;
www.harbor
sideinnboston.com). $$$
The Charles
Hotel,
1 Bennett St., Cambridge (
&
800/
882-1818
or 617/864-1200; www.charles
hotel.com).
American Regional Stars
154
Lantern
The Global-Local Connection
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
If you hadn't already read about the place,
you might not guess that this southern
college-town restaurant is such a bright
light. The decor resembles your classic
strip-mall Chinese restaurant, only gone
upscale: a muted ivory-and green-tea pal-
ette accented with strokes of lacquer black
and a profusion of parchment-colored
hanging lanterns in a dizzying variety of
shapes. You're primed for the food to
taste Asian, and it does, although you
can't quite pin it down—it flits all over the
region, from China to Japan to Thailand to
Vietnam to India.
So what makes the flavors in Andrea
Reusing's fusion food brighter, more
intense, more alive? Look closer at the
menu and you'll have your answer: For all
her global recipes, Reusing is a committed
locavore, cooking as much as possible
with produce, meat, and poultry from
local organic farms. This New Jersey
native's cooking is largely self-taught,
gleaned from several years of living in
New York City and exploring ethnic Asian
restaurants in Chinatown and Flushing;
it helps that she has been gifted with a
great palate for the nuances of Asian
cooking. Since she opened Lantern in
2002, she has risen brilliantly to the chal-
lenge of tailoring Asian recipes to what her
vigorous network of local suppliers can
provide.
The crackling calamari salad, for exam-
ple, comes with a side of seasonal garden
greens as well as a lime-miso vinaigrette;
the fiery Bang Bang chicken with Szechuan
peppers gets an extra oomph from being a
free-range local bird. Even when she goes
a little more down-country with North
Carolina crab cakes, she spikes them up
with vibrant Thai flavors such as lemon
