Today, my friends from out of town were coming to Boston to visit. I had to pick up one of them from the
Boston Logan International Airport, but I still had some time before that, so I decided to do some sightseeing first on this cold spring day. Heading to the town of Belmont first, I visited several areas in town, including the Boston Massachusetts Temple that I had
seen previously from afar, before heading to
Claypit Pond on Underwood Street and Concord Avenue. There is also a beautiful view of the Boston skyline from the Concord Turnpike here.
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| Boston Skyline from Concord Turnpike |
Boston Massachusetts Temple
There is a path around Claypit Pond, so I decided to talk an early morning stroll around it, and took a few pictures of the area as I walked around it.
After enjoying my short walk around the pond, it was time for more sightseeing, and I especially like the area around the old Wellington Hill Railroad Station on the corner of Common Street and Concord Avenue, where there were beautiful flowers as well.
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Old Wellington Hill Railroad Station,
Common Street and Concord Avenue |
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War Memorial,
Royal Road and Common Street |
Finally done with Belmont, I headed to
Robbins Farm Park in Arlington next, where the Boston skyline views from atop the hill, into which slides have been built, was simply fantastic.
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| Slides on the hill |
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| Boston Skyline |
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| The playground |
Next, at
Menotomy Rocks Park, there is a pond here, and I decided to walk around it as well.
There was still a little time after this, so I visited a few other places in town before heading to Boston.
While on the way to the airport, I took a few pictures of the
Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge on West City Avenue
After picking up my friend, we were a little hungry, so I decided to take her to Eo Noodle at 1245 Worcester Road in Framingham to try out some noodle soups.
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| Interior Decor |
As appetizer, my friend got the crab rangoons, and for noodles she tried the fishballs with meat sauce soup, while I got the Chi-A Mein Soup, which had slices of pork, chives and fishcakes.
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| Crab Rangoons |
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| Chi-A Mein Soup |
I think I still preferred the fishballs soup that I had
the last time I was here though.
Later tonight, we headed to our mutual friend's restaurant in Boston at
Oishii Boston. Being early, we sat at the bar and ordered drinks, with me getting a virgin lychee martini, which was pretty good, since I was the designated driver.
When our friends came, we moved downstairs and started our feast. After finishing the complementary Edamame mousse in a shot glass, We started off with the desserts, of which we got the Grilled Breast of Moullard Duck, served stuffed into an apple, the Sakura Smoked Hamachi Sashimi
which I had before, served in a glass of smoke, The Salmon on Fire, in which salmon sashimi slices are served on a little spit over a real burning fire, and the Toro Tartare, which is served with Ossetra caviar in a bowl placed on an extremely large block of ice, lighted green from below.
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| Grilled Breast of Moullard Duck |
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| Salmon on Fire |
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| Toro Tartare |
On top of the above delicious dishes, our friend also made for us a few complementary courses, one being smoked sashimi on a bed of pineapple, served topped with sherbet ice cream, and the other was even more exquisite, being ivory salmon served in truffle oil and topped with black truffle pieces and gold flakes.
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Sashimi on a bed of Pineapple,
topped with sherbet ice cream |
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Ivory Salmon in Truffle Oil,
covered in black truffle pieces and gold flakes |
The pineapple dish was simply fantastic, giving a plethora of flavors, starting from the sweet and ending in the smoky salty flavor of the sashimi, while the other was covered in the savory taste of the truffles, and it felt really classy to be eating gold flakes.
We ordered a lot of maki rolls for our main course, starting with the White Tiger Roll and Tokyo Style Soft Shell Crab Maki, with the Rock Shrimp Explosion Maki, consisting of tempura rock shrimp and avocado rolled in white seaweed, topped with brown rice chips and Ting's wasabi flavored lemony sauce, the Shikai Maki, made of a cucumber roll cut into quarters, placed together in the form of a square with spicy crispy stuffed in the center of the formation, and further wrapped in another layer of seaweed, being among the more interesting creations tonight. On top of this, we had the mackerel sashimi, which was arranged artistically, and the Japanese Yam Tempura Maki was as tasty as it was good looking, being covered in sweet potato. Lastly, as part of my curiosity, I decided to check out what the squid ink noodle is like, never having had such a dish before, and was actually quite pleasantly surprised with the dish, which was pretty much a mass of blackness.
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| White Tiger Maki |
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| Tokyo Style Soft Shell Crab Maki |
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| Rock Shrimp Explosion Maki |
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| Shikai Maki |
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| Mackerel Sashimi |
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| Japanese Yam Tempura Maki |
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| Squid Ink Noodle |
When we were all stuffed, we still had space for dessert. I recommended the coconut sphere that I had
the last time, but my friends decided on the Black Sesame Ice Cream Bon Bon instead, the bon bon surrounding the ice cream being made of dark chocolate, shrouded in a tower casing of caramelized sugar, complete with a cherry on top and blueberries on the side. Of course, it was exquisite as always.
If you think we were done, you guessed wrong. We next headed to the
Golden Leaf Karaoke in Chinatown, to sing some songs until the place closed for the night. I was a little disappointed though that all the song selections had to be done without a book to refer to, and it was really hard to find particular songs in an unorganized maze of song lists.
With that, I brought 2 of my friends to stay the night at my place before another day of fun tomorrow at my friend's place , where he will cook lunch for us.
