June 6th 2015: Learning Vietnamese, Being a Tour Guide and Painting the Night Away

I started out with my friend this morning at the Andala Coffee House in Cambridge, where we were to meet with someone to learn Vietnamese.

Before he arrived, we got some food and drink, getting the Arabic Coffee and Andala House Special Tea (with cardamom),

which came in pretty interesting containers,

the Foole Plate (fava bean based with fresh squeezed lemon juice, parsley, tomatoes and garlic topped with extra virgin olive oil)

and the Nammourah dessert.

The food wasn't too bad, especially the beans, as were the drinks. It was fun learning a bit of Vietnamese though, and teaching my friend English pronunciation as well.

After the lesson, we headed to the Prudential Center to meet with my friend who was here on a business trip for lunch at the Top of the Hub. I have been here many times for cookies with friends, but never for a proper meal.

This time, we got the Spicy Lobster Soup (Enhanced with Coconut Milk, Lemon Grass, Ginger),

the Jumbo Lump Crabmeat Cake (Salsa Verde, Sauce Remoulade)

and the 10 Oz. Flat Iron Steak (Tater Tots, Cilantro Chimichurri Sauce, Balsamic Onions).

I have always been told in the past that the food here is not good, but today it was to the contrary. I loved everything that we had, especially the lobster bisque, which was a little too intense for my friends though.

After lunch, we headed to Newbury Street to check out Amorino, where I got to try the Amarena and Frozen Yogurt flavors this time. Not bad.

From here, it was on to the Boston Public Library, then on the way to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, we chanced upon the LA Burdick store, which my friend had really wanted to check out.

As always, I bought a box of chocolates, getting the Dark Chocolate Mousse (dark chocolate ganache with fresh orange juice, enrobed with dark chocolate), Pave Glace (gianduja, dark chocolate, cocoa butter, butter, cognac and saffron, dusted in cocoa powder), Chambord Truffles (dark chocolate ganache with Chambord liquer, finished in raspberry sugar), White Chocolate Mousse (dark chocolate ganache with cinnamon and port wine, enrobed with white chocolate), Brazilia (Dark chocolate ganache with espresso, a touch of kirsch and anise seed) paired with Kenyan (Coffee-infused ganache with kirsch, enrobed with milk chocolate and sprinkled with finely ground coffee), Ginger (Dark chocolate and fresh ginger root ganache with a hint of candied ginger) paired with Apricot (Apricot flavored Pâte de Fruit, enrobed with dark chocolate, dotted with white chocolate center), Richelieu (A milk and dark chocolate interior with cherry liqueur, cherries and cumin seeds), Baton Framboise (Dark chocolate and raspberries cut in thin batons. Sprinkled with chopped cocoa nibs), Jaffa Diamond (Dark chocolate ganache, whipped with fresh orange juice), and the Fig (Dark chocolate interior with a balanced flavor of fig and port wine).

A bit of good luck on finding this place.

After leaving our visiting friend at Faneuil Hall, we headed to South Boston, where we had an appointment for painting at the Urban Art Bar, now located at 709 East Broadway. The painting we were to do tonight is shown below,

with the corresponding palette of colors provided.

The first step was to divide the painting in half diagonally with a blue line,

then painting the right half of the painting blue.

A small purple triangle was then portioned off the lower part of the unpainted half,

and the rest of the canvas was in yellow.

 The first real structures were in the form of green bushes,

and then part of the yellow was portioned off to be orange.

Further shading on the yellow was done,

and rough reflections were made on the purple road.

Tree trunks were lined up on the left side of the painting growing smaller into the distance, 

with another lone tree on the right.

Lights were set up all along the sidewalk,

and plumage was added to the trees.

The last touch was the lone couple walking down the street.

Not a bad painting after all, when scrutinized from a distance.

Unfortunately, the place effectively closed its doors after tonight, but the good thing about it was that we got to take home some of the paintings hanging on the walls.

With that, we called it a day. Looking forward to speedboating tomorrow.