March 14th 2015: Badminton and Food

I stared out this morning in Belmont,

Old Harvard Lawn Fire Station,

Fairview Avenue and Dalton Street

Getting a Boston Cream Donut from Linda's Donuts, a really small Cafe filled with the older crowd.

Nothing special, and the donut even tasted a little weird.

My breakfast place was at Uncommon Grounds, a decent looking but small diner in Watertown. After looking at the pretty interesting menu, I went with a Hot Chocolate

And the Very Berry Pancrepe (one oversized pancake stuffed with Yogurt and fresh berries, then rolled and topped with Granola, berries and Yogurt).

Definitely one of the better drinks I have had, and the Crepe was delicious as well, the sweet and fresh berries with the yoghurt giving the flavour and the Crunchy Granola giving the texture.

Excellent meal.

After breakfast, it was on to badminton in Waltham, which was fun as always, then on to Cambridge, where I had to collect some stuff for tomorrow's Craicfest 5k run at the Cambridgeside Galleria.

After getting that settled, it was time to head to lunch in town, at the newly opened branch of the Boston Burger Company.

A larger place than Merrill and Co., and definitely more interesting stuff on the menu as well.

I got the Conch Bites (deep fried conch fritters),

The Inferno Fries (inferno habanero salsa, cheddar jack cheese drizzled with homemade Ranch dressing and Spicy mayo)

And the Sophie Burger (8 oz beef Patty topped with prosciutto, goat cheese, candied Walnuts, fig jam, arugula tossed with lemon vinaigrette and drizzled with a Balsamic reduction).

The Conch fritters were excellent , a little on the Spicy side with the sauce and Mango salsa, while the Fried were tasty as well, although I would have preferred them to be crispier. The burger here was definitely better than Merrill and Co.

After lunch, I stopped by the Burns Ice Skating Arena in Arlington

Before heading to Newton to watch "Still Alice" at the West Newton Cinema.

Not a bad movie, though a little slow at times, and the walls of the cinema were so thin  I could hear the movie from the next room from where I was sitting.

After the movie, I headed into Woburn, where I had a meetup dinner to go to at Pintxo Pincho Restaurant. Before that, I had some time to spare, so I went to check out the Hot Breads Bakery and Cafe, a small Indian bakery nearby, where I decided to just get a handful of Jalebi. Not too bad.

When I arrived at the restaurant, some of my new friends were already there. The place itself was pretty small, so it was fortunate that we had made a reservation beforehand.

We got glasses of Red Sangria for drinks.

I would have preferred it to be sweeter.

For food we ordered several Dishes, but first came the starters, which were pretty interesting.

First came the croquettes, namely the Croquetas de Jamon Iberico (Jamon Iberico croquettes) the Croquetas de Cangrejos (crab croquettes).

The ham croquettes were full of cheesy deliciousness, while the crab was tasty in its own way.

Next were the turnovers, namely the Empanadillas de Verdura (Zucchini, spinach and Cheese turnovers) and the Empanadillas de Pescado (fish turnovers).

The turnovers weren't anything amazing though.

Next to arrive was the ConeJo en Salsa de Almendras (rabbit in almond sauce, bone in).

We managed to get my friend to try rabbit for the first time, and thankfully she liked it. The sauce was pretty delicious as well, not having too strong an almond taste.

She also tried the Pulpo a la Gallega (Gallician Octopus with pimenton de La Vera, Olive oil flake salt).

This time though, she was not a fan of the texture, even though its freshness meant it wasn't as chewy.

The Zamburinas al pil pil (bay scallops in spicy garlic oil) were pretty spicy, 

while the Esparragos con Romesco (Grilled Asparagus w/Romesco sauce) was a little too simplistic in my opinion.

My Rape a la Marinera (Monk fish with shrimp in a tomato sauce w/saffron) dish came next.

The sauce was pretty good, while the fish was not aa chewy as I thought it would be, but excellent all the same.

I did not think too much of the Chorizo seco Casero /Manchego (Home made chorizo w/Manchego cheese),

but thankfully the last dish we ordered, the Champinones al Jerez (Mushrooms with Garlic and Sherry Wine), which somehow I forgot to take a picture of was really delicious.

We resolved to get dessert as well, getting the Chocolate Cake,

Flan (custard) and White Chocolate Bread Pudding, which were kinda eaten already by the time I managed to take a picture.

The chocolate cake was just alright, while the bread pudding was hands down the best of the lot.

Overall, not a bad place for tapas in this side of town.

With that, I headed to the Showcase Cinemas in town, watching "Unfinished Business" and "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".

The first movie was not that great, with a lot of gratuitous nudity in it, while the second one, with a star studded cast, was pretty good and funny.

With that, a pretty eventful day came to an end. Looking forward to my 5K run tomorrow morning.