East by Northeast
1128 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
With whispers of housemade noodles and Momofuku comparisons filling my ears, I decided to try East by Northeast, a new locavorish Asian joint in Cambridge. As suggested, two friends and I shared nine dishes: candied pecans, golden pearl pork meatballs, babao sticky rice, short rice noodles with steak and broccoli, shrimp dumplings, pulled lamb buns, and crispy pork belly sandwiches (x3, as it was recommended as the best dish in the house). The standout of the group was the fluffy delicious short rice noodles (though there could have been a few more slices of meat in the mix). Everything else seemed to have some problem of conception or execution: the pecans could have used a dash of salt/soy; the savory, crispy fried meatballs could have been paired with a nice tart sauce, but wasn't; the rice was a tad too salty and lacking spice; the dumpling skins were good, but the filling not much better than Trader Joe's gyoza; and the sandwiches suffered from unremarkable bread that swallowed up the underseasoned fillings. Also, Chef Tang seems to be all about the recent fetish for developing "depth" of flavor, but when every dish strives for epic resounding fullness, the palate gets bored.
Supplementary sixth sentence on cocktails: My mint julep had too little bourbon and mint, too much ice and simple syrup.
