Not as in the official "Restaurant Week" which happens in Boston once or twice a year, but the unofficial Petra-Loesch-goes-to-as-many-restaurants-as-possible kind of week. How does six restaurants sound (only one lunch included)? It started off Tuesday with the monthly wine group meeting at the Aujourd'hui restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston (http://www.fourseasons.com/boston/dining/aujourd_hui.html). I love our monthly get-togethers at the 4S - they are just the best. The staff hugs us when we get there, not just because we pay our bill, but because they are just wonderful people. This time the motto was "Gaja" wines - the Gaja winery was founded by a certain Giovanni Gaja in 1856 in the Piedmont Area of Italy, and they have some nice little wines there, let me tell you. As usual I must tell you about the menu:
Course 1: Scallop Ceviche with Heirloom Tomato Salad, Strawberry Tomatoes (they really tasted like strawberries, cool stuff), in a Balsamic Reduction and Fried Capers
Wine of Choice: 1998 Alteni di Brassica Sauvignon Blanc, Langhe, Piedmont (Excellent Wine)
Course 2: Duck Leg Ravioli (so good, so good!) with roasted onion, sage, and parmigiano
Wine of Choice: 2005 Sito Moresco (Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot) Langhe, Piedmont (Nebbiolo comes from the Italian word for fog I was told, apparently in this area of Piedmont that is a bit of an issue)
Course 3: Roasted Shoulder of Russian Wild Boar, Creamy Polenta, Black Mission Figs, French Prune Plums, Rosemary Jus (excellent)
Wine of Choice: 2005 Ca"marcanda "Promis" (Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon) Bolgheri, Tuscani
Sound good eh?
Wednesday night I hit two places in one, first my most frequented Thai place of choice "The King and I" on Charles Street in Beacon Hill - http://www.kingandi-boston.com/, to meet up with my lovely friend Jennifer, followed by drinks and philosophizing with Andrew at the S&S Restaurant (or would that be the S$S Restaurant?). http://www.sandsrestaurant.com/ . On Thursday, I was off to a business dinner with my colleague and friend Murray from the UK, who took me to the restaurant "Clink" in the newly opened Liberty Hotel next to MGH (remember, the former jail) - http://www.libertyhotel.com/dining.html. The food was fabulous, let me tell you - and that was not just the two Hurricanes talking I had as a warm-up (http://www.drinksmixer.com/cat/364/). Their stuffed chicken was out of this world, the wait staff very attentive and I had a lovely time walking home and muttering to myself.
Friday, my boss Bruce, Murray and myself (business meeting #2) headed to a lovely little French place , the Pierrot Bistro on Cambridge Street for some exquisite cuisine francaise (http://www.pierrotbistrot.com/). Quite the culinary week and to be honest I am a little exhausted from all this fancy food. Today on our trip to Plum Island Stephanie and I went to Lobster Bob or Bob Lobster, a roadside establishment of sorts, and I was happy with some very simple food (and wouldn't you believe it, they have a web site - http://www.boblobster.com/). On account of my recently diagnosed lobster allergy I stuck with a salmon burger, so all was well and we have no anaphylactic reactions to report today.
Steph and I had headed out there for some nature activities in and around Plum Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_Island_(Massachusetts), so we first stopped at Joppa Flats - http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Joppa_Flats/index.php - a wildlife sanctuary right at Plum Island, and then continued on to the Hellcat Interpretive Trail, a lovely 3.5 mile board walk through freshwater marshes and up some dunes, and into maritime woodland habitats. One grabs a little brochure, and off you go. Stephanie was the official reader of the day, at each station we paused and educated ourselves a little about the native and not-so-native plant species and whatever else there was to know. We saw bayberries, honeysuckle, cattails, purple loosestrife and the common reed (the last two being both invaders), beach grass and beach heather, and avoided the very abundant poison ivy wherever possible. It was a lovely day out there with temperatures in the upper 70s, and we certainly had a wonderful time.
On the cultural end, I ushered last Sunday at the Huntington Theater Company for the play "The 39 Steps", based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie, but with a Monty Python twist. A note to my Boston friends - go see this! I laughed until my jaw hurt. Phenomenal!! The four, very gifted actors on stage play about 150 roles over the course of the play, and in particular sidekicks Arnie Burton and Cliff Saunders had us in stitches all night. (http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/production.aspx?id=3923&src=t).
Before I sign off, a quick note on my first experience in the lab - it was wonderful!!! And the building is still standing. I am happy to report that I isolated my first ever bacterial DNA and after we put it in a nice little PCR machine, I was told the next day that it amplified just according to plan. I had such a good time with Darrell and Susan, and learned so much! Lab procedures and genetic analysis has changed so much since my university days, lots of new tech stuff involved, many of the procedures are so much easier. I am certainly looking forward to next week's lab time.
I will try to load up some pictures tonight from today's outing, but also must get ready for a 2-day visit to Bethesda, Maryland to attend a drug development meeting by the National Cancer Institute. Woohoo!
Hope all is well with you.
pet:)
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