January 4th 2016: Catching Up with Friends at Island Creek Oyster Bar, Boston

I went to get a Hot Chocolate from Stir Crazy, a small cafe at 79 Worcester Street in the town of Grafton

before getting Chinese takeout from King Jade II across the road, getting the Orange Chicken with Egg Roll and Pork Fried Rice.

Nothing special though.

After work, we went into Boston to meet up with a good friend who was in town for the week. It was so cold that we had to run inside Hotel Buckminster for a bit

before heading to our destination for the night, the Island Creek Oyster Bar, a pretty upscale seafood place nearby.

While waiting for friends to come, we got a few oysters

and the Abigail's Delight (house soda of fresh pineapple and homemade orgeat) for a drink.

When they arrived, we got down to ordering food, getting the Fish and Chips (beer batter, malt vinegar aïoli), the Lobster Knuckle Spaghetti (maitake mushrooms, charred leeks, white truffle butter)

and the Ethel's Lobster Roll (rosemary roll, cole slaw, kettle chips).

Pretty amazing and fresh seafood, especially my spaghetti. For dessert, we got the New England Cheese (Kingsman Ridge),

the Burnt Marshmallow Ice Cream

and the Caramelized Custard Tart (almond, winter citrus)

The desserts were not bad, especially the tart, but I don't think the cheese and ice cream were worth paying for. We had a lot of fun figuring out whether the 3 scoops were different flavors or not. We had to get the waitress to tell us that they were all the same.

To put it simply, a great night meeting up with old friends. Way too cold though.