April 3rd 2014: Hiking in Framingham After Work

Today, I got a late lunch at Gold Star Restaurant, a breakfast place at 68 West Boylston Street in Worcester. The menu was pretty simple, as expected in a typical small town diner  which meant I had a hard time deciding what to get. In the end, I went with the Franks and Beans,

along with a Cookies and Cream Cream Pie.

My pie came early, looking really sinful, along with my main dish, which was heaped with baked beans, topped with two Franks. I basically heaved the entire plate of beans into my stomach, although the pie was a little too creamy for me to want to eat the entire thing, although I ate all the cookie dough.

After work, I decided to go hike at the Baiting Brook Meadow Farm Conservation Area, which can only be accessed from a part of Callahan State Park in the town of Framingham which I had already hiked before. The path I took to get to the pond and back is shown below in pink.

The pond itself is at the very edge of the forest in a pretty open field, so it was actually pretty scenic.

I did get a little lost on the way back however, but thankfully I realized my mistake and corrected myself immediately.

Back at my car, I passed by the Framingham Fire Department

before deciding to head to The Grille at Westborough Country Club, a country club restaurant in Westborough when I had recently bought a Groupon.

To spend $30 here, I got the Asparagus Fritti ( Asparagus spears lightly coated, fried, then tossed with lemon basil butter) for appetizers,

the Roasted Duck (served in bed of Arugula with a cheese Polenta cake, mushroom risotto and finished in a mushroom demiglaze) for my main dish,

and finally the Apricot Sambuca Cannoli for dessert.

The asparagus didn't look like much, but it was actually pretty good, especially with the lemon butter. I just wish they had put more of it into the dish. The duck was extremely good as well, being tender and yet with crispy skin, along with the sauce and the other sides coming together extremely well. The only disappointment was the dessert itself, which tasted a little weird at first, although that's what you get for always trying the unique stuff.

Overall, I am going to give this place a recommend, because the food was surprisingly good, despite the plain decor.