7.25.2005
the glories of the united states
Well, I've been home for a little over four days and I have eaten like a king. I love it here. Seriously.
Friday, Dad and I got a massive breakfast in Watertown. Now, I miss English bacon and the rest of the British heart-stopper that they call breakfast, but it was really nice to have s heaping mound of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach and feta cheese too. Especially since it wasn't served out of a steam-tray. Lunch was quiet and at home. It was yummy. Dinner was a visit to one of my favorite Chinese places in Boston. Soooo good. :)
Saturday we went for dim sum, which couldn't have been yummier. Dinner was at a place called Minado: an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. Dignified it is not. Nor is it quiet. Or a place to savor the intricate delicacy of Japanese cuisine. Sushi is made in three different ways here: in rolls, nigiri, or hand rolls. The rolls are, I'm not joking, made by machine. Rice is spread onto a sheet of nori, and then the filling is placed in. The entire thing is then loaded into a machine, which presses and rolls the sushi into uniform almost-rectangles of fun, which are then sliced by hand. The nigiri rice is made ahead of time by packing rice into a mold and then cutting it, it seems. The sushi "chefs" behind the buffet were unwrapping plastic tubs of pre-made rice balls. I can only assume that they're making the hand rolls by hand. It's insane, and fantastic. Mom hates the place, so we only go there when she's not around, I guess.
Yesterday we went out to Tanglewood to look at the house and to see the concert. The house is great, though the town did rip down a ton of trees. It looks very surreal: not the nice tree cover we'd like, of course, but at least the road won't come crashing down... The concert was pretty good: the orchestra was sloppy, though. Soloist Pinkas Zuckerman was amazing in the Beethoven violin concerto. We decided not to stay for the Shostakovitch 5th symphony, which was fine: we were able to listen to it in the car home, and there were plenty of mistakes coming from the horns and the high winds. Disappointing. As for the food, we hit up Orient Express in West Stockbridge. We end up going there a lot because it's really yummy, even though it's gotten a bit more expensive than seems reasonable. Dinner was out in Somerville last night with Diana: we went for barbeque. :) Ribs is nice.
I'm hurredly trying to learn the music for our next Tanglewood concert, which is on August 7th, if you're interested and around the western Massachusetts area.
Friday, Dad and I got a massive breakfast in Watertown. Now, I miss English bacon and the rest of the British heart-stopper that they call breakfast, but it was really nice to have s heaping mound of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach and feta cheese too. Especially since it wasn't served out of a steam-tray. Lunch was quiet and at home. It was yummy. Dinner was a visit to one of my favorite Chinese places in Boston. Soooo good. :)
Saturday we went for dim sum, which couldn't have been yummier. Dinner was at a place called Minado: an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. Dignified it is not. Nor is it quiet. Or a place to savor the intricate delicacy of Japanese cuisine. Sushi is made in three different ways here: in rolls, nigiri, or hand rolls. The rolls are, I'm not joking, made by machine. Rice is spread onto a sheet of nori, and then the filling is placed in. The entire thing is then loaded into a machine, which presses and rolls the sushi into uniform almost-rectangles of fun, which are then sliced by hand. The nigiri rice is made ahead of time by packing rice into a mold and then cutting it, it seems. The sushi "chefs" behind the buffet were unwrapping plastic tubs of pre-made rice balls. I can only assume that they're making the hand rolls by hand. It's insane, and fantastic. Mom hates the place, so we only go there when she's not around, I guess.
Yesterday we went out to Tanglewood to look at the house and to see the concert. The house is great, though the town did rip down a ton of trees. It looks very surreal: not the nice tree cover we'd like, of course, but at least the road won't come crashing down... The concert was pretty good: the orchestra was sloppy, though. Soloist Pinkas Zuckerman was amazing in the Beethoven violin concerto. We decided not to stay for the Shostakovitch 5th symphony, which was fine: we were able to listen to it in the car home, and there were plenty of mistakes coming from the horns and the high winds. Disappointing. As for the food, we hit up Orient Express in West Stockbridge. We end up going there a lot because it's really yummy, even though it's gotten a bit more expensive than seems reasonable. Dinner was out in Somerville last night with Diana: we went for barbeque. :) Ribs is nice.
I'm hurredly trying to learn the music for our next Tanglewood concert, which is on August 7th, if you're interested and around the western Massachusetts area.
