This is the first in a series of posts describing a running list of Best-something’s I’ve kept in my head over the last 20 years or so.
The first entry that I can recall is for best Chinese food, which was at Panda’s, in Ball Square in Somerville, MA.
It was a favorite of my wife (then fiancée) when I moved up to the Boston area in 1991 for graduate school, and I quickly became enamored of the fried rice with sweet and sour pork. The fried rice had a smoky flavor, possibly from sesame oil, that I haven’t found anywhere else, and the sweet and sour sauce contained pineapple, onion, and bell pepper. I don’t care for bell pepper, but the rest was memorable.
After we got married and moved out to Waltham, we tried other Chinese restaurants in Waltham and Newton, but each time Debbie asked, “So how is it?”, my very-consistent-but-truthful answer was, “[One of ‘Ok/Good/All right’] but not as good as Panda’s.” After two years in Waltham and one year in Durham, NC, saying “not as good as Panda’s,” we went back to the Boston area on vacation and made sure to get some sweet and sour pork from Panda’s. Again, my wife asked, “So how is it?” Despite three years of buildup, I finally answered, “Surprisingly, as good as Panda’s. Just like I remember.”
Unfortunately, a later trip to Boston (and reconnaissance on Google Streetview) revealed that while there is still a Chinese restaurant there, it’s not Panda’s.
Update: We visited the Boston area again in June, 2017: Now there’s no longer a Chinese restaurant there, and the building we think used to be Panda’s 25 years ago is now an Indian restaurant.