May 9th 2015: Making Rings in Boston

I started out this morning with breakfast at the B.W.'s Grill, a small town diner in Revere, getting the Hot Chocolate

and the Slaminator (Hash, Egg and Cheese Sandwich).

Not too bad, but nothing amazing.

I then went for a small walk around Rowes Pond at Salem Street and Overlook Ridge Drive in town.
Small swampy like pond, with good views of the marshes.

From here, I went to pick my friend up to go ring making at Stony Brook Fine Arts in Boston. I still remembered a lot of stuff from the last time I made a ring, so things went a lot more smoothly this time. This week was a little special though, where we were given a free cookie at Ula Cafe, and a tour of the Samuel Adams Brewery.

As there was some time before the tour, we went to the cafe first to get some food. This place is actually pretty popular,

For our cookies, we got the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and the Oatmeal Cherry Pecan Cookies,

which were just alright, and we also got the Curried Tofu (Hearty curried tofu salad with green apple, scallions and raisins, and cucumbers on peasant white) and Fig and Mozzarella (Housemade fig chutney, kale, lemon garlic aioli, and mozzarella cheese, grilled on mutigrain) sandwiches,

which were actually pretty good considering they were totally vegetarian. 

Our brewery tour was actually held after hours exclusively for the people who went for the art classes, which explained why there was no crowd at all for our tour. 

I only liked the last beer, the Nitro Wheat, which has a bit of a citrus flavor to it, but unfortunately it is not for sale commercially.

From here, we headed to the Arnold Arboretum for the rest of the day to check out the lilacs, which are in bloom right now. Pretty good day for a walk in the park, to say the least. We did not like the smell of lilacs though.

After leaving the park, we decided to get dinner nearby at Cafe Beirut, a small casual Mediterranean place in the Jamaica Plain area.

My friend got the Jallab (date, raisin, pomegranate and rose water, garnished with blanched almonds and pine nuts) drink, which was actually delicious even though I'm not a fan of rose water,

and the Baked Lamb with Basmati Rice (Slow-cooked leg of lamb, pulled and served atop a bed of saffron infused basmati rice with ground lamb. Includes side of yogurt with cucumber. Served with assorted Lebanese pickles, Cafe Beirut salad, tahini sauce, pita bread and rice pilaf),

while I got the Lamb Brains Sandwich (The brains are boiled, then fried, then they are pureed and blended with garlic, onion, and spices into a pate. Served in a pita with two kinds of pickles, fresh mint, lemon juice and garlic spread).

We also got to try the Rose Water Lemonade, which was a little too sour for our liking.

The baked lamb was a little on the dry side, although the yogurt made the entire dish much better. My lamb brains were way too sour though.

Overall, I've had better.

From here, it was on to watch the Avengers movie back in Revere. Way too much action, too little storyline, although the jokes about Thor's hammer were pretty funny. Seating 2 rows from the screen did not make it any easier. Oh well. At least I enjoyed making rings and admiring flowers today with my friend.