Last Saturday: my birthday, so
msmemory took me out to Blue Ginger, which I consider to be the best restaurant in the Boston region. We wound up going for the conventional this time (she got the Butterfish, I the Lobster, which are the specialties of the house), but it was all lovely as always. Between cocktails, apps, wine, dinner and dessert, this may well be the most expensive meal we've ever had, but it made for a fine birthday present. Blessedly, the snow held off until well after we got home -- that had been a concern, but everything ran late.(Non-food side note: the afternoon was spent over in Bergental for their annual Novice Schola, which was a pleasant day out. I taught two classes: "So You Have This Backgammon Board..." and "So You Have This Chess Set..." -- basically, period games to play with the equipment you already have. Classes went decently well, but I need to spread the meme that game classes are *NOT* babysitting. The other highlight was sitting in on a fun roundtable on the subject of Fealty in the SCA and period -- not exactly deeply organized, but a good chance to compare notes with a variety of Peers other than the gang I usually hang out with.)
Last Sunday: Snow.
Tuesday: Valentine's Day, so I took the excuse to take
msmemory out to The Blue Room. I'd been there once before for brunch with new_man and company, but this was the first time we'd gone for dinner. I still prefer Blue Ginger, but this was really quite excellent -- we'll have to add it to the special-occasion-restaurant list.Thursday: My parents came to town, so out to eat again. This was the "cheap" meal of the set -- we went out to Legal Seafood for the first time in a long time, since Dad and Sandy get the chance to go there so rarely. I was pleased to note that the place is still quite good, probably even a bit better than it used to be. I'm still a tad jaded with their menu (which changes only very slowly, and I've had most of it many times), but it does make a good option that we haven't been paying much attention to.
Friday: Since Dad and Sandy were still here, and expressing interest in "dressy", we took the opportunity to go out to Campania. This is an obscure gem in Waltham -- probably the best restaurant that no one knows exists. It's in a fairly unprepossessing house on Main Street; walking in is almost startling, because the restaurant is (according to Dad) a very faithful reproduction of a proper high-end Tuscan restaurant. The food was spectacular as always, from the subtle truffle-infused pasta appetizer to the duck confit to the pear tartlet for dessert. Another of my four favorite restaurants, so it's a rare treat getting there the same week as Blue Ginger.
Saturday: Went out to The Chocolate Bar with a bunch of the crowd, to celebrate
mermaidlady's birthday. (Which I believe was today, BTW, so here's a virtual hum of "Happy Birthday" to her!) new_man set a good example of pacing the plates slowly over the course of several hours, and I'm finally getting jaded enough with the Bar to be able to follow suit; as a result, I managed to not make myself ill this time. Still, we agreed that dinner would feature MEAT. This turned out to be Swedish Meatballs, brought home after a round of shoppertainment at IKEA with rufinia and goldsquare. (Yes, of course we bought more bookcases.)Today: Moved a bunch of stuff from the old house and Storage Unit 1 to
hfcougar's room, and then a couple of loads to Crossert. Major milestones -- we've now moved everything that we're keeping from both the house and the storage unit! Not quite the light at the end of the tunnel, but at least a faint glimmering of it. Dinner tonight was trying out the Cook's Illustrated recipe for Hot and Sour Soup (verdict: not bad, but needs some fiddling and adjusting, and I'm not sure it's worth the effort), plus chicken with snow peas and black beans. My Jewish heritage demonstrates itself once again, in that my definition of "comfort food" is consistently Chinese...