Opening day at Fenway Park this year falls on a Friday during Lent, to the chagrin of many baseball-loving Boston Catholics. Catholics attending the game have asked for special dispensation from the Archdiocese to eat meat in the form of Fenway Franks, but they have been turned down. In past years the previous Cardinal, Cardinal Law, gave permission for Catholics to eat meat when St. Patrick's Day has fallen on a Friday.

Cardinal O'Malley is new to town, but he should know that Catholicism is Boston's second largest religion only following Baseball. Standard Deviance believes it is a SIN to go to Fenway Park on opening day and not eat a Fenway Frank. It is true, Cardinal Law did not have an illustrious career in the Boston Archdiocese, but at least he understood that there are two things more important in Boston than Lent: Opening Day and St. Patrick's Day. What next, will O'Malley say it is a mortal sin to run guns for the IRA? If he keeps this up he might face the wrath of a Kennedy.

Church Nixes Good Friday Fenway Hot Dogs [AP]
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

Joya is an industrial-looking Thai place located on Court Street in Cobble Hill. I have been checking it out for many months, but as my boyfriend claims that he doesn't like thai, I have never been. Last Sunday I told him since we've been to almost every other restaurant in the neighborhood numerous times we had to go.

The wait was fairly short, and there was a nice bar to hang out at in the meantime. My boyfriend determined that the reason that he did not like Thai was that he doesn't like coconut milk curry. At Joya, however, there are many non-curry dishes on the menu, so even he enjoyed his dinner. Our food was excellent, and a great value at $7 a plate. The green curry chicken had a bit to a kick to it (as it's supposed too) but was definitely less spicy than at some Thai places I've been to. On the downside it appeared that our waitress was working practically the whole floor, and thus it was tricky to catch her eye for more water.

All in all it was an excellent dinner, and I plan to make Joya part of my eating-out circuit in Cobble hill.

Pros: good price, tasty food, hip vibe
Cons: slightly understaffed, CASH ONLY (which is a serious drawback in Cobble Hill, where every ATM charges you $1.50 in addition to the fee you pay at your bank)

Joya on Citysearch

BoCoCa stands for BOerum Hill, CObble Hill, and CArroll Gardens, three neighborhoods in Brooklyn with an abundance of excellent restaurants and bars. I live in Cobble Hill and often like to check out where I plan on eating/drinking before I go on the internet. However, I have found that although there are MANY very good eating and drinking establishments in the area, very few of them are reviewed on the internet. So, for you Brooklynites out there, Standard Deviance will be posting reviews of BoCoCa resteraunts and bars. I am here to serve the needs of the internet community.

Disclaimer: I think BoCoCa is a silly name. It's trying a little too hard to be like SoHo and TriBeCa. But you try writing "Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens" numerous times. It's long. Sorry, I'm lazy.