February 16th 2014: Hanging with NYC Friends

Today, my friends from NYC were to come for a short visit over the President's Day holiday. Before they were to arrive at around noon time, I decided to go have some brunch at the Breakfast Connection, a small town brunch place at 573 South Main Street in Randolph. After looking at the menu, I decided to go with the Cranberry Nut Pancakes (3 buttermilk pancakes filled with cranberries and chopped walnuts) and a side of Steak Tips,

along with a cup of Hot Chocolate.

The cranberries were a little too sour for my liking, although the steak tips were cooked to perfection for me. Guess cranberries and pancakes don't go together for me.

After a filling breakfast, I visited a few places in Quincy

Willard Building,

1266 Furnace Brook Parkway

Christ the King Presbyterian Church,

47 Buckley Street

St. Mary's Church

First Spiritualist Church

Dhammakaya Meditation Center

First Presbyterian Church

Adams Shore Library

Most Blessed Sacrament Church

Hough's Neck Congregational Church

before finally heading to South Station in Boston to pick up my friends.

It was still too early to check in at the Hotel Commonwealth, so we headed to a Vietnamese lunch instead at Pho Le, which I have been once in the past. For appetizers, we got the Green Papaya Salad (Goi Du Du)

and the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Crepe,traditional mixture of shrimp, pork, bean sprouts and mung beans stuffed into a rice flour crepe, served with fish sauce  and green leaf vegetables on side).

Not bad, although the crepe was a little flavorless.

I decided to try the Banh Canh Cua Gio Heo (Vietnamese udon rice noodles and pork ham hock with crab paste soup),

while my friends mostly got Pho

and the Bun Dac Biet (Vermicelli topped with grilled shrimp, crispy spring rolls, grilled shrimp paste on a sugar cane and grilled beef).

I liked my dish, although my breakfast earlier prevented me from finishing more than half of it. Apparently none of my friends were able to finish their meals either.

With our stomachs full, we headed to the hotel to check in. Here are some pictures I took of the decor here, including the view of Fenway Park from the room window.

After checking in, I decided to bring everyone to go check out the Frost Ice Bar, since they have never seen one before, passing by a new Bill Russell basketball statue on the City Hall Plaza.

I wasn't expecting many people, as there seemed to be a lot of available spots on the website, but the bar itself was pretty packed with people when we entered, unlike the last time I was here. The bar looked pretty much the same though, although there was one new sculpture about the Sochi Winter Olympics.

After my friends had had their fun taking pictures around the swan sculpture, made imprints of their fingers in the ice, and tried holding the drink glasses made of ice, we decided we had had enough of the cold, and headed back out, where it was actually a little bit warmer, ignoring the wind chill of course.

Our next destination was for a seafood dinner at Peach Farm Restaurant in Chinatown, so we decided to walk the distance, passing by and choosing to stop at David's Tea, a specialty tea place with a branch on Washington Street.

My friends wanted to buy some tea here, so I took the time to sample their Spring Fig Tea, which was actually pretty good, although I'm not really a tea connoisseur.

 We were really glad to be out of the cold when we finally arrived at the restaurant. Our other friends had already arrived, and apparently our dinner was already pre-ordered, as our waiter brought up an extremely large and very much alive Alaskan King Crab,

as well as a squirming eel.

After deciding how we wanted the crab, which was to be made into 3 separate dishes, and the eel, they were brought away, and we also ordered a few other dishes, namely the Steamed Fish with Ginger and Scallion,

Steamed Shrimp,

Surf Clams with Vermicelli,

Scallops with Vermicelli

and Stir Fried Snow Peapod Stems.

Lots of fresh seafood, all excellent to say the least, and I have never eaten whole scallops before. I just wish they had cooked the clams or scallops in a different way.

With respect to the eel, it was fried, and in a way that made it the best unagi I have ever had.

The crab claws came first, fried with ginger and scallions.

The legs came next, steamed and literally falling off the shell. I could not help picking one piece up after another.

Finally the huge shell, with the insides cut up and scrambled into an egg.

An excellent meal to say the least.

To end it all, we were given a free bowl of Red Bean Soup. I would have had more of it if I wasn't so full by then, and we did not even have rice.

After our seafood dinner, we headed back to the hotel, where we played a few drinking games, including one where we floated a soju bottle cap in a pool of orange juice, each person pouring a little soju into the cap without causing it to sink into the orange juice, the person doing so having to drink the whole thing.

We played for a while until we got a noise complaint from the hotel, whereupon we decided to check out The Hawthorne, a bar within the hotel, the entrance to which was pretty non-descript, as the place is pretty nice inside, although there were some creepy busts on the wall behind our table.

I did not get any drinks as I was pretty buzzed by now, but my friend managed to convince me to finish her St. Germaine, which was actually pretty good. With that, I was ready to head to bed. Looking forward to more fun with friends tomorrow.