Dinner at Marliave

It's Restaurant Week in Boston (technically two weeks). From March 15 - March 20 and March 22 - 27 (with some doing Saturday, March 21 as well), many upscale restaurants in Boston and the surrounding suburbs are offering special menus where you pay:

• $15.09 for 2-course light lunches (which means no dessert or no appetizer!)
• $20.09 3-course lunches
• $33.09 3-course dinners

I love Restaurant Week because it actually motivates me to go out in the cold weather and try a new restaurant that I've read about or heard about, but could never afford on a regular night. And I've got to give a special shout out to Underoo Elf for reminding me about this season's restaurant week last month, giving me plenty of time to make reservations at FOUR different restaurants.

Tonight was the start of Restaurant Week, and Andrew and I joined Amy, Phu and Pete at Marliave for a delicious dinner. We chose Marliave because it had one of the best menus for Restaurant Week - most places will only give you two or three choices for the appetizer, the entree and dessert. Not Marliave - they pretty much offered up their main menu, with tons to chose from.

Amy shows her happiness at seeing Marliave's huge Restaurant Week menu:

I show off my fancy drink - I couldn't remember the official name since it's not listed on their website but it was named after Marie Curie and had gin, St. Germaine (some sort of citrus liquor), grapefruit, I believe lime and prosecco, oddly garnished with a cucumber:

Andrew copied me and ordered the same drink:


Phu went off the Restaurant Week menu and ordered oysters in addition to his escargot appetizer:

Amy bravely tries her first oyster:

Gulp! She's just slid the oyster in her mouth - and like it enough to have another oyster:


My appetizer choice was a beet salad with mandarin oranges, pistachios, and goat cheese sandwiched between pieces of beet:


Amy chose the best appetizer - "rare bits" - which consisted of a gooey, fondue-like cheese concoction with bacon and garlic bread to dip it in:


The twins, so named for their outfits, appropriately ordered the same appetizer, the meatball sliders:


A shot of Phu's escargot:

My first taste of escargot - it was pretty tasty even though I was grossed out by how much it still retained the shape of a snail:

For the entrees:

• Pete ordered the hanger steak with gorgonzola butter and frites.
• Phu and Andrew ordered beef wellington.
• Amy ordered lobster fettucine.
• I ordered the yankee pot roast - it was tender and delicious:

For dessert, without being planned, we each ended up choosing one of the five desserts that was offered:

• Pete got the tiramisu
• Andrew got the flourless chocolate cake
• Phu got the formaggio (cheese plate) and got teased for the rest of the night for having ordered the lamest dessert
• I ordered the bread pudding with whiskey sauce and ice cream:

And Amy got the panna cotta with a balsamic reduction:

We rolled out of Marliave happy and stuffed, and glad that we didn't pay full price for our meals!

Italian Pizzelles

Several years ago, I splurged on a pizzelle iron. For those who've never heard of them, pizzelles are delicious Italian wafer cookies that traditionally are flavored with anise. I think the first time I had them was in Maryland when we were at one of my old BC roommate's grandparents' house.

Pizzelles came up in conversation at work last week which put me in the mood to put my fancy pizzelle iron to work.

The shiny exterior:


...and the beautiful interior:


Recipe for Traditional Italian Pizzelles

• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 butter or margarine, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. anise
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar.
2. Add the cooled butter or margarine, vanilla and anise.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the egg mixture.
4. The batter should be stiff enough to dropped by spoon (I used my cookie scoop).

Placing the scoops can be tricky:

As you can see, if you put too much in the scoop or place it to close to an edge, there's some overflow.

I had a whole stack of pizzelles at the end:

I then switched to chocolate pizzelles (since Andrew doesn't like the anise flavor). The recipe is the same except you remove the anise flavoring, add three tablespoons of sugar and three tablespoons of cocoa powder. I threw in a few mini chocolate chips for good measure:

Which lead to another large stack of pizzelles:

The fun thing with pizzelles is that you can shape them into bowls or cones while they're still warm - so I formed two pizzelles into bowls, which would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream for dessert tonight:

Cabot's Ice Cream For Dessert

As I mentioned in my last post, a big dinner at Apgujung didn't stop us from hitting Cabot's for dessert.

Cabot's is a family-owned restaurant that reminds me of a diner. Andrew calls it a better Friendly's. I love it because not only does it feature homemade ice cream and ice cream cakes, it has a massive six page ice cream menu featuring all sorts of decadent ice cream parfaits, sundaes and desserts. Take a look for yourself. There's so much to choose from that it makes it extremely hard to make your mind up about what you want!

Amanda showed the most restraint out of the group and went with scoops of pistachio ice cream. Charlotte went with some sort of Coffee Toffee Sundae, with scoops of coffee ice cream topped with Cabot's famous hot fudge, toffee bits and whipped cream:



Andrew and Tom went with the Brazilian Combo, which consisted of coffee, maple nut, butter pecan and vanilla ice cream, topped with cold chocolate, coffee, rum flavored english toffee (like a yummy butterscotch) and maple nut toppings, whipped cream and a cherry. What they didn't realize when they ordered it was that the Brazilian Combo would come in a dish the size of a small boat!


Andrew shows his approval for the Brazilian Combo.

I had a hard time making up my mind and in the end, went with the classic Fudge-Anna sundae: Banana wheels, vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry. I'm the type of person that never gets hot fudge on their sundaes so the fact that I love Cabot's hot fudge shows you how good it is - you can tell from the pictures how thick it is, perfect for scraping off the sides of the glass with your spoon:


My sundae glass after I was finished with my attack:

We're So Stuffed!

I'm typing this after 9 pm with a very full belly. Andrew and I just returned from visiting two Newton favorites, Apgujung and Cabot's.

As Andrew's sister Amanda was in town for the weekend, she drove up with Andrew's parents Tom and Charlotte to have dinner with us. We headed to Apgujung, a Korean restaurant located around the corner from my place.

After placing our orders, the waitress brought us our banchan dishes, which consisted of kimchi, pickled radish and carrots, some sort of fish strips, cooked bean sprouts (one of my favorites) and what appeared to be coleslaw:



Charlotte gave kimchi a try and decided it wasn't to her liking. I'll freely admit that I wouldn't like kimchi if I didn't grow up with it. Andrew and Tom were the only ones at the table that were eating kimchi with me, as Andrew demonstrates below:



This came out a bit blurry but shows Charlotte and Tom getting their chopsticks ready for their barbecued meal - beef short rib and spicy pork, cooked at our table:



Amanda went with the sushi - From what I recall, she had some sort of tempura asparagus and cucumber roll, a king crab roll and a California roll. I had two of the asparagus rolls and they were tasty:


Andrew was excited to have beef bibimbap, even though I made him stop eating it to take a picture:

Here's Andrew mixing the layers of rice, meat and vegetables together in the bibimbap:

Charlotte and Tom caught on quickly to the technique of cooking their dinners at the table, although I must admit, the waitress and host were quick to jump in and help us cook our meat as well:

My meal of chicken katsu was the last to arrive at the table, and I was hungry enough to start eating it without taking a picture. So you get a shot of katsu after I was done eating it. Since they give such generous portions at Apgujung (two whole chicken katsu cutlets for me), I had plenty left over even after sharing it with everyone at the table:

I didn't check my watch but I think we easily spent two hours at Apgujung eating and talking. Whether it was coincidence or not, no one was seated at any of the tables around us even though the restaurant was packed, making me think we were one of the loudest ones there! It was laugh-out-loud fun hearing stories about Andrew, Amanda and Adam when they were young.

Sharing all of our dishes left us room for dessert, which worked out well since Andrew and I had been meaning to introduce the rest of his family to Cabot's. This visit deserves a post of its own!

Give Me Back That Filet-O-Fish

McDonald's latest commercial for Filet-O-Fish has been stuck in my head the past week. It's just a quirky and catchy jingle:





And thanks to tonight's local newscast, I found out Boston's own Arnold Worldwide created the ad.

After watching the commercial, I'm sure it will be stuck in your head too.

Wish You Were Here (NOT!)...

...otherwise, I would have to share the brownies that Andrew's mom sent with back with him:



Yummy, chocolate goodness with that thick brownie top crust - delicious!

Critters in the Attic

As I mentioned in one of my posts last week, I've got squirrels in the attic. As a result, Andrew and I picked up a Havahart 2 Door Live Animal trap in addition to the Victor Sonic Pestchaser. He set it up eagerly on Sunday night, with some peanut butter as a bait. And then we went a few days without hearing a peep upstairs.

Last night, I got home late from my business trip so all I wanted to do was shower and go to bed. Sitting in bed, typing my blog about Camie's birthday, I started hearing weird noises from the attic. It lasted for around twenty minutes and went away, so I started thinking maybe I was wrong in calling Andrew and getting his hopes up about having a squirrel in the trap.

Andrew had been at my place for two hours tonight and I was surprised he hadn't rushed up to the attic right away to check out the trap. He admitted to tapping the attic door and hearing nothing, so like me, he suspected there was no squirrel up there.

So I sent him upstairs with a flashlight and a camera and this is what he found:



What? After all that, you were expecting a squirrel? No squirrel but one had definitely been there since all the peanut butter from the center had been licked clean. I'm having doubts on how well this trap will work but Andrew set it up with more chunky peanut butter and we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will actually catch something the next time around.

Mouse Repelling Noise Machine

To address the concerns that spongeamy (aka my lovely sister) has expressed, I thought my readers would be interested in seeing the mouse repelling noise machine (my description) that Andrew and I picked up at Lowe's last weekend, the Victor Sonic Pestchaser. I'll let the website explain the technology behind using sound waves to repel mice.

It emits an audible hum. Andrew and I were surprised at first, thinking that it would be completely silent, as the package describes. However, it's pretty low-pitched so it's not loud enough to be annoying.

The jury is still out on how well this works - I've read both positive and negative reviews online and heard mostly good stories from people who have used in the past. I just know I had to try something different to make sure the mice were staying away.

Happy Birthday Camie

One of my nearest and dearest, the person that I have been friends with the longest, just turned 29 today!

And I got to help her celebrate, due to the fortunate timing of my business trip to NY.

As it was the birthday girl's choice, we headed to Sidecar, which is located in their neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Sidecar had a pretty straight forward and simple menu, which made our meal selections relatively easy. They also had some interesting gin-based drinks, which Camie and I had to try.


That's my Ramos Fizz on the left (topped with egg cream!) and Camie's Gin Daisy on the right.


The Ramos Fizz was quite tasty - the gin would hit your mouth first, and the aftertaste reminded me more of Asian milky-type sodas like the Japanese Calpis or the Korean Ambassa. It consisted of gin, lemon, egg white, cream and orange flower water.

Here's Mr. and Mrs. Russ:


Camie (who always has the greatest haircut each time I see her) and me - excuse the shiny face, I had come straight from the airport and an hour long car service ride - more to come on my travels tomorrow.



We convinced Camie to go for the burger (what she really wanted) as her birthday meal as opposed to the salad she was considering. James and I both went with the Bahn - De. Here's James enjoying the cucumber dipping water/syrup that comes on the side:



Here's a close up of the sandwich - we both went for the spicy version and it was soooo good. I'm too tired to Google this, but I believe Bahn is a traditional Vietnamese sandwich (I just realized that the menu I linked to calls it a traditional Vietnamese sandwich, but I swear that the menu we looked at last night didn't mention it!) that I've read about and always wanted to try.

It consists of marinated, grilled pork chops, pate, carrots, cucumbers, cilantro and mayo on a baguette - yummy! The waiter called the green shot on the side a cucumber "simple syrup" and suggested sipping it with each bite of the sandwich or pouring it on. I didn't think it had much flavor, but spread a little on my bread with a knife while James tried the sipping method (see photo above):



I think a good time was had by all and I was so glad to be in Brooklyn to help Camie celebrate!

So for one final time today, Happy Birthday Camie!

Disney Conversation At Work

One of the mind-numbing tasks I had to do at work today involved editing and formatting executive responses for a conference. Each executive was invited to share their answer to "fun" questions like "What's your favorite cartoon character" or "What type of power would you want if you were a super hero?" One woman's response prompted the following conversation.

Me (reading): One person responded that their favorite character is Epcot Center. As in, the big golf ball dome thing at Disney. How is that even make sense?
My boss: Does it have any characters associated with it?
Coworker: No, it's the place where you can visit countries from around the world.
Me: Is Epcot where "It's a Small World is?"
Coworker: No, that's separate. This is what I consider an adult type attraction, boring exhibits, no rides and there's not even characters that walk around there.
My boss: Maybe she misunderstood the question?
Me: No, this is her response word-for-word:

"Disney Epcot Park, the reason he is my favorite is that he invites everyone to explore the possibilities; he is very positive and encourages you to be positive and make the most of what opportunities you are presented."



Apparently, Epcot is male and Disney's undiscovered character. You can't make this stuff up!

Unreal

To be driving home and see snow inches high on Comm Ave. - the same route that Andrew and I had just walked 24 hours earlier, wearing shorts and enjoying the warm weather. That's New England weather for you.

Shopping Revelations

As I mentioned in my last post, we headed out to the Natick/Framingham area today to get some shopping done.

Through work, I had the option to join BJ's for $35. As I've never been overly impressed with Costco, the warehouse club I previously belonged to for a year, I decided to give BJ's a try. Today was the first time I had ever stepped into a BJ's and let me say, both Andrew and I were pleased by what we saw:

• A huge parking lot with plenty of parking, light years above the Waltham Costco parking lot, which was like a war zone
• A spacious and clean store with a easy-to-navigate layout
• Lots of great new products to choose from that weren't previously available at Costco
• A lot of the same things I did enjoy at Costco, which is a relief
• Self check-out lanes, something Costco didn't have. We didn't use them this trip but it's nice to have the option.

This BJ's is also behind Target, which I am constantly visiting so I already foresee a lot of warehouse shopping in my future. Going to Costco used to be such a chore that I would put it off and end up going only 3 - 4 times a year.

Lowe's was next to Target and BJ's, thus forming a trifecta of great stores. I've always visited Home Depot in the past, as this Lowe's was just built a couple of years ago and I never think of it when I think of hardware stores. Which is a shame since it is light years better than Home Depot. The merchandise and the prices seemed to be same but what made a huge difference was the service:

• Two different people approached me, asking if I needed help. I feel like every time I've gone into Home Depot, it takes forever to find someone who can help me.
• The person I did end up asking for help walked me directly to what I needed, rather than gesturing towards an aisle or telling me an aisle number.
• The Lowe's employee that rang me up guided me to her open register when I was heading to another register with a line and was the sweetest lady to boot. It also didn't hurt that she complimented me on my earrings!

I'm pleased to know that I have all these great stores within close proximity, saving me time in the future. Call me one of the newest and an enthusiastic Lowe's and BJ's convert.

Another Busy Day

Out of all the things we were trying to get done yesterday, we successfully:

• Returned my library books
• Went to the gym
• Headed into Boston so Andrew could get his hair cut
• Walked around Boston
• Enjoyed the JP Lick's new yotango frozen yogurt (thank you to Jen and Amy for the recommendation)
• Chilled out at home, after Andrew did the dishes and I folded two loads of laundry
• I'm bummed that I still don't have my camera but we didn't have time to swing by Amy's place before Andrew's haircut - we did have time to meet Phu and Amy on Saturday for a drink at the Otherside Cafe, but didn't get a chance to tell them to grab the camera in time

Today, similarly motivated by the warm weather, Andrew and I were busy from the getgo:

• I washed more dishes while Andrew figured out how to fix my bathroom's leaky faucet
• I popped in a load of laundry
• We drove out to Natick and went shopping at BJ's, Lowe's and Walmart
• Andrew set up my new mouse repelling noise machine and the squirrel trap in the attic
• I baked blueberry muffins for work and chocolate chip shortbread to bring with me to NY
• Looked over my tax forms to get ready to do my taxes (tonight if I'm really ambitious, sometime this week more realistically)

Things I still need to get done:

• Hang my diploma
• Go to the dry cleaners!
• As CR reminded me, pack for my quick overnight trip to NY on Tuesday and Wednesday

It's Going To Be A Good And Productive Weekend

It's been an uninspiring week for posts for me, I think it's tied directly into the fact that I left my camera at Amy's place last weekend and haven't been able to document any part of my life this week!

While at work yesterday, I made a list of things that I wanted to accomplish for the weekend because I knew it was supposed to be warm and sunny for once. And warm weather means that I'm inspired to be outdoors, getting things done rather than feeling like I'm in hibernation mode in the house.

Of course, my weekend is off to a late start already due to the fact that I woke up at 1 am and couldn't fall asleep for another hour. I'm usually a pretty sound sleeper, which means I fall asleep right away and I sleep throughout the night. What woke me is that I heard loud noises in the attic - I mean, REALLY loud noises in the attic. Andrew thinks it's too big to be mice so I think squirrels have gotten in. I haven't been in the attic in possibly a year since it's covered with black dust from the roofing job a few years back. I had cleaning the attic as one of my resolutions for the year but wanted to wait until it was a little warmer. I couldn't go back to sleep because I was just skeeved out at the thought that more vermin was running over my head and I couldn't figure out how long they'd been up there. Since I'm easily awakened, they could've been up there for months. I haven't brave enough to venture up there yet this morning, but I'll have to poke my head up there sometime today.

And on the docket for the rest of the day:

• Andrew and I getting our butts to the gym (I'm supposed to be changing into my gym clothes as I type this)
• Swinging by Amy's place to get my camera - I need it!
• Heading into Boston so Andrew can get his haircut by Mario in the Prudential Center (which sounds swanky but it's this nice guy who runs an old school barber shop in the basement level of the Pru, which most people don't know exist). I like doing this since I get to shop in Pru/Copley/Newbury street area while Andrew's getting his haircut.
• Walking around Boston enjoying the nice weather and possibly grabbing some sort of snack or meal there since we haven't been in town during the day in a while.
• Heading back to Newton to get more chores done, such as:
• Returning my library books
• Activating the BJ's membership I just purchased through work, I'm excited about this because I was previously a Costco member and I've never checked out BJ's
• Buying more mice/squirrels/killing vermin or getting them out of my house type traps from Home Depot - also, finally buying the washer or whatever it is that will fix my leaky faucet in the bathroom upstairs
• Buying more Kashi bars - it would work out perfectly if BJ's had them but I think I'll have to back to Walmart
• Dropping stuff off at the dry cleaners - I almost never use a dry cleaner, it's just always seem likes a hassle and I try to use Dryel whenever possible. However, a group at work is collecting old prom/bridesmaid dresses to provide high school girls with an option for their proms for free. I've got some cute things that I will never wear again, but they need to be cleaned. There have only been a few things donated so far, and judging by what I see on the rack, I think they're too matronly for the high school crowd so I'm trying be motivated about getting my dresses in.

That's all I can think of for now - it's time to stop wasting time typing and starting getting stuff done!

I'll Admit It, I'm Obsessed

Thinking over the Robeez choices from yesterday, I decided I wasn't in love with either design. Plus, I think the two designs were cheaper since they are winter themed, not good as a gift for a spring shower. So I went back onto Amazon and found some more choices that may cost a little more - but still less than full price - that I think are much cuter:

Option #1:

Option 2:

Option 3 (even though I don't usually go for the Ugg look, these just seem super cute in a mini size)

The last pair isn't an option, just the shoes I would choose if Amy ever had a girl. That is, after giving the Monster ones first.

Thoughts on Robeez?

One of my friends just found out that she'd be having a baby girl later this year, very exciting!

This time, I felt that I had to give into my Robeez urge and get her a pair as a part of her shower gift. At the same time, I'm trying to be somewhat practical, and am aiming for a reasonably priced pair instead of some of the ones I absolutely love, like this pair. Plus, I feel like if the parents went through the process of finding out the sex of the baby, you're instantly obligated to get them gifts in the matching color. This would go out the window if I found a decent pair of green Robeez, but no luck there.

Anyway, this is where I need your help - vote in the comments section and let me know which pair I should buy:

Option 1: Angel



Option 2: Penguins

Gas Gauge

I paid $1.83/gallon today while pumping in freezing temperatures. This was up four cents from what I had seen last week while driving by my favorite Hess station, and up two cents from what I paid last week at the same station. It's still low enough that I'm not complaining! Although, I did hear on the news this morning that the price for crude oil dropped $10 today, so I'm hoping that translates into cheaper gas prices soon for us consumers.

My New Kimchi Diet

So I'll be the first to admit it, Andrew and I have been slacking off on the whole going to the gym the past couple of weeks. Combine that with some unhealthy eating (lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with my Grandma on Sunday, complete with dessert, definitely wasn't healthy) and I've been feeling unfit.

This is why I'm proud of dragging my butt to the gym, despite getting out of work late today. It's always the thought of going to the gym that seems so hard, but once you're there, you feel wonderful and energized.

Not wanting to ruin my one day streak of exercise with an unhealthy meal, I was racking my brain for something healthy to eat. Truthfully, I barely have the energy to throw together a meal on a regular night, and on a gym night when I'm coming home after 8 pm starving and sweaty, forget about real cooking! So I knew it be easy to just microwave something unhealthy to eat as a quick meal. That's when I remembered I had a jar of kimchi in the fridge that I had picked up at Whole Foods last week.

As you may have gathered from reading previous posts, I think kimchi is pretty terrific. Of course, this is due to the fact that I was raised by a Korean mother who was feeding us pieces of kimchi as babies. Serve with kimchi with some white rice, and I'm set for a meal. It's fast, convenient and delicious. And not to mention healthy. The whole jar of Sunja's kimchi I had tonight was only 200 calories so eating one fourth of the jar only netted me 50 calories. That's when I made the vow to eat more kimchi and rice for meals. It's not really a diet, just a conscious decision to work it back into my life and my meals more.

I just have to make sure I brush my teeth right after eating it, otherwise I'll be blasting friends and loved ones with kimchi breath!

Happy Birthday Liz!

Today is the birthday of a friend and former college suitemate, Liz.

Senior year, Liz was the only non-Virgo in a suite of six girls. The rest of us had our birthdays clustered at the end of August (me and Jen) and September (Amy, Kelly and Martha). As the lone Pisces, Liz had to put up with the rest of us and our similar personality traits - i.e. Virgos tend to stay quiet and keep things to themselves when they are upset about something, internalizing it until it explodes out as an outburst. In contrast, Liz was more of the type to get things out in the open right away, which is very uncomfortable for Virgos. It made for an interesting living situation at times, but what didn't kill us made us stronger!

With her birthday in March, Liz was also the first roommate to turn 21 our Junior year. I distinctly remember going to the Golden Temple restaurant in Brookline to help her celebrate and I can't believe eight years have passed since then.

This is the birthday ecard that I sent her today, courtesy of someecards.com:



Happy Birthday Liz!




Me, Liz (almost 4 months pregnant), and Jen in 2007