November 22nd 2014: Christmas Tree Lighting in Boston

I started out today heading out to Sudbury for breakfast at Sudbury Coffee Works, a cafe with all sorts of coffee beans in town,

getting the Brie LT (Crispy bacon, creamy brie cheese, lettuce, plum tomato and mayonnaise on toasted peasant white bread)

and the Reuben Panini

sandwiches, along with a cup of Hot Chocolate and Honey Granola with Berries and Yogurt.

Both the sandwiches were pretty good, although the panini was better. I would have liked the yogurt as well if it were sweeter.

From here, it was on to the Natick Historical Society in Natick, located within the Bacon Free Library.

Pictures of the exhibits about historic Natick I took follow.

After leaving the museum, I passed by a few other places in town

Christ Lutheran Church

The Center for the Arts in Natick

St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church

before heading to Cupcakes on Centre in Newton, which thankfully was open

so I could finally use my deal for 2 dozen mini-cupcakes, getting 12 red velvet ones

and 12 vanilla ones.

Both were equally stale, hard and just plain disgusting. Worst cupcakes I have ever had to date. Needless to say, I threw all of them away. What a waste of money.

After passing by the 9/11 Memorial in front of the Newton Fire Department,

I headed into Cambridge to check out the new Harvard Art Museums which just opened recently.   

I initially thought the galleries on the ground floor were all free, but I was finally caught by a security guard and had to pay $15 for my ticket because I was late for free admission for Massachusetts residents by 20 minutes. Oh well.

The rest of the pictures I took after follow.

After leaving the museum, I headed nearby to the Adolphus Busch Hall, which also houses some sculptures and murals, which were more to my fancy.

After leaving the place, I was walking back towards my car when an old lady happened to stop by in her cab, asking for directions to the art museum, which I had just been to. I decided to personally bring her to the museum itself as it was on the way to my car anyway, and even gave her my tag so she did not have to pay for admission to the museum itself. Hope she liked her experience there.

From here, it was on to the Somerville Museum in Somerville, where there was a small art exhibition being held.

At this point, I decided it was time for another meal, so I headed to Some 'Ting Nice Caribbean Restaurant in town. This place has pretty interesting decor,

and interesting food as well. I went with the Anse La Raye (Drunken Crab) for my appetizer,

the Ragga Muffin (Oxtail, beans and dumplings) with Callaloo (stewed callaloo leaves with okra, pumpkin and spices in coconut milk) and Macaroni Pie (Mac and cheese Caribbean style) on the side for my main dish,

and the Cassava Pone for dessert.

The crab was a little spicy but delicious with the sauce, as was the oxtail and the callaloo. The macaroni pie was just alright, while the dessert tasted really weird.

Overall, pretty good for a Caribbean restaurant, especially in terms of ambience.

At this point, I went to pick my friend up to bring her to Boston for the Christmas Tree Lighting at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. She loved the chocolate truffles I got her from Beacon Hill Chocolates the other day,

by the way.

Before that, we had dinner reservations at Parla, a relatively new Italian restaurant in the North End. Unfortunately, due to the traffic situation in town, and our difficulty in finding parking, we were really late, but thankfully, the restaurant was able to seat us without too much of a wait.

We decided to get the Foie Gras (concord grape gastrique, cin ra toast, cranberry pop rocks, herb garnish)

and the Maine Mussels (guanciale, green chillies, basil cream, white wine, herbs) for appetizers.

The foie gras was delicious, especially for my friend for whom it was her first time, while the sauce for the mussels were excellent as well.

For food, we decided to get the Mixed Seafood Brodetto (1/2 Maine Lobster, smoked clams, maine mussels, local fish of the day, black garlic bread, tomato fume, rooftop garden herbs)

and the Ramen Noodle "Carbonara" (slow roasted roasted karabuta pork belly, chilies, 5:10 egg, broccoli rabe, guanciale dashi, parmesan, condiments),

I thought the seafood was pretty good, although my friend though it was just alright. My ramen tasted a little weird at times, but overall not too bad.

As the lighting was about to start, or so we thought, we decided to hightail it out of the restaurant and head to the Faneuil Hall area, where there was already a crowd waiting. Thankfully, the tree still had not been lighted, so we found our way close enough to see the tree. I wasn't happy enough with our position, so I ended up pushing further into the crowd, accidentally displacing some families with children, who remained pissed with me for the rest of the night. My sincerest apologies to them. I totally did not mean to do that. 

From our position, we could not hear anything from the stage, but thankfully we could still see the lighting when it happened. There was something wrong with the sound system at this point though, with it going out every so often.

Overall, it wasn't as fun an event as I thought it might be, especially for my friend, especially because of the people I unwittingly angered.

I made it up to my friend by bringing her to see the beautiful scenery at the International Cargo Port, and the beach at Pleasure Bay, staying in the car as it was freezing.

With that, we called it a night. Pretty productive day I guess.