Squab: Apparently nothing to squack about

This past weekend, I finally got to try out a restaurant I have been hearing a lot about: Chau Chow City.


The main appeal of Chau Chow's is that it is until 4 am, which is good after a night out. We had gone out to Ned Devine's near Faneuil Hall then took the walk to China Town. J. ordered some normal things: vegetable lo mein and sesame chicken. The lo mein was good, on the greasier side, and was made with thinner pasta than usual, but overall not too shabby. The sesame chicken was nice and saucy, the chicken was a bit fatty.

Jon, on the other hand decided to take the road less travelled by. As he perused the menu he asked me, "What is squab," I said it was some form of little bird. So, he ordered squab. The waiter seemed a little surprised, and asked if he only wanted one squab. We stuck with one.

The squab came out- (at the time I did not realize the importance of the squab, and it was 3 am, and a long night, so I neglected to take pictures.) it was very weird looking. Very boney, and dark brown. The plate is was on was nicely decoratated with some large flower decoration, presumably to distract from the squab's appearance.

J and J both hesitantly tried the squab... both with the same reaction: Squab was the worst food they had ever tasted. The rest of the night was spent coming up with comparisons to what squab tasted like, the general consensus was, "Pigeon that had been raised its whole like of a diet of sewage."

Despite this, Jon managed to finish his whole plate of Squab! What a champ! Admittedly it was very boney, and not much actual meat to eat.

Here is a close up of the creepiness that was the squab:

I refused to try the squab based on the very bad reviews, and the fact that I am still not entirely comfortable with eating any meat-- let alone "sewage fed poultry" meat. I did ask the waiter what exactly squab was, to which he replied "Baby Chicken."

Upon further research, most evidence points to the fact that squab is in fact, baby pigeon, so their description was not very far off in regards to the fact that it tasted like a pigeon.

According to another source, you are actually supposed to eat the entire squab, including the bones, in which case, a lot of squab was wasted that night.

Jon was very proud of himself, and said, "Now, I can say I have tried squab."


I, cannot make that claim in life yet.

Chickity China the Chinese Chicken

I packed my lunch for today, last night as usual. I generally am much healthier when I come with prepared food, because if I wait and allow myself to chose food at the time I am hungry, it rarely ends with a very nutritious outcome.

I had packed myself some Trader Joe's nonfat plain yogurt mixed with defrosted frozen pineapple and cherries from Trader Joes. It was a very tasty combination. I think those are my two favorite fruits. I ate that for breakfast before my first lab.

For lunch I brought my norm: salad.

This salad was looking pretty spectacular too. It included:

1 small head romaine lettuce
hot banana peppers
hummus
frozen carrots
broccoli
peas
water chestnuts
raisins
sunflower seeds
honey roasted sesame sticks

Though this sounded very good... it did not seem like it would be completely satisfying. I had left BU between labs to go to a doctors appointment and was tempted by the Chinese Lunch Specials at the Beijing Cafe. ... Say what you will, but I find their food to be very good, and their service is quick, though not always very friendly. They have recieved some bad reviews in regards to the cleanliness,... but... I still go there for better or for worse.


I decided on the General Gua's Chicken Lunch special (basically generals chicken and steamed white rice.) This was the first time I purchased meat all by myself. The last piece of meat I actually ate before becoming a vegetarian had been general's chicken, so it seemed fitting. I had actually been a vegetarian for about 2 months, but kept having the most absurd cravings for Chinese chicken, so I got an order, and then resumed my vegetarianism.


Beijing Cafe has really good, and interestingly textured vegetarian general gua's chicken, which I highly recommend, unfortunately they do not offer this on the lunch specials. They do have general gua's tofu, which is pretty good, but not quite as satisfyingly crunchy.

The lunch special was a little boring looking and lacking in the veggie department, so I decided to compromise and combine the best of both worlds by mixing my Chinese take out with my salad.

I also used a little duck sauce as a "salad dressing"

and of course, no Asian meal would be complete without a fortune cookie!



I think I have gotten this fortune like 50 times throughout my life. I hate to disappoint you little fortune cookie, but I still have never gone further west than Pennsylvanian!