August 7th 2013: Dinner at Rail Trail Flatbread Company, Hudson

Today after work, I had a meetup dinner at Rail Trail Flatbread Company in the town of Hudson. Before that, I passed through Shrewsbury,

Northborough Reservoir,

170 Reservoir Street

I decided to do a short hike at Edmund Hill, the parking area located at the Northborough Senior Center.

The path I took while here to try to find the pond here is shown below in pink.

I initially was a little lost, realizing only a little later that I had already passed the pond, which was actually right behind the senior center, and a pretty decent pond at that.

It was then on to Wheeler Pond on Pleasant Street near Alden Drive in the town of Berlin

before finally heading into Hudson for dinner. The pizza place itself was pretty full of people, but even then I could not find my meetup group as they were seated in another section of the restaurant, away from the giant oven in front.

For food, I decided to try a flatbread pizza, with half being Spiced Pear (bottom, Country Sweet Sauce, Cheese Blend, Pear, Chinese Five Spice, Blue Cheese, Berries) and the other half being Cubano (dijon cream, cheese blend, pork carnitas, ham, swiss, pickles, onions, grape tomatoes, arugula),

while my friend had hers half Gorg and Squash (top, Garlic base, cheese blend, gorgonzola, butternut squash, blonde and black raisins) and half BLT (bottom, garlic base, provolone cheese, bacon, sweet corn, arugula, grape tomatoes, avocado lime sour cream).

I also tried a piece of the Steak and Cheese (garlic base, shaved steak, banana peppers, caramelized onions, american cheese).

All the different pizzas were actually really good, with all the ingredients going really well together, especially the Cubano, Spiced Pear, Gorg and Squash and BLT. The Pear and the Squash ones were sweet but blended well with the saltiness of it. Simply excellent. A definite recommend from me for this place.

August 6th 2013: Dinner with a Friend at Pastalina's Restaurant, Medford

Today after work, I met up with my friend to go have dinner at Pastalina's Restaurant, a small Italian place in Medford where I had a groupon to use, as always. This place is always full of people, so much so that I had to make a reservation for a Tuesday night 2 weeks ago.

After picking my friend up and arriving at the restaurant early, which was still a little empty, it was time to order the food, for which I got the Veal Cutlet Special,

while my friend got the Veal Braciolettine Alia Marsala (rolled with prosciutto, provolone, and spices, lightly pan-fried and baked, with a mushroom marsala sauce, served with fusili).

My veal cutlet was a little salty with the tomato sauce, but still not bad, while my friend's dish was pretty tasty, and my friend thought so himself, although he initially thought it was a little sweet. Overall, the menu was a little lacking in variety, and the decor was just average. Not one of my better Italian meals.

After dinner, we decided to grab some dessert at Molly Moo's in Quincy. This ice cream seriously does not look like much, although they did have a lot of variety in ice cream flavors.  For the 3 ice cream sandwiches that I could get with my Groupon, I decided to go for the Dulce de Leches Ice Cream, with a Peanut Butter Cookie and a Chocolate Chip Cookie serving as the 2 halves of the sandwich. You can't go wrong with that.

With that, I headed to my friend's place to have more food, including a lobster, pig ears and duck necks, the last having really little meat and hence not something that I am a fan of, before finally heading home for the night. I'm so full now, I probably don't need lunch tomorrow.

August 5th 2013: Dinner at Shanghai Gardens, Attleborough

Today after work, i decided to use my Groupon at Shanghai Gardens, a Chinese restaurant in Attleborough.

Before that, I decided to sightsee a little until daylight ran out, passing through Shrewsbury,

Flint Pond, 30 Hartford Turnpike

and Grafton.

Fisherville Pond from Riverview Park,

176 Providence Road

In Upton, I first went to hike at Stefan's Farm. The rough path I took here to try to find the water body here is shown below in pink.

The path in the woods was pretty simple, but whenever I entered the fields, the darker green patches on the map, they were pretty overgrown and hard to distinguish. Unfortunately, the water body was well hidden as well, causing me to bypass it and head into the next field. I realized I was lost, but thought I had not yet passed the pond, so I tried to find an alternate way through the woods, which was a really rough path to traverse. It was only when I started turning south that I finally realized where I was and backtracked all the way back, when I finally found the really small pond, hidden behind a bunch a trees so I could not get to it. What a waste of my time here.

After getting back to my car, I visited Pratt Pond at Hopkinton Road and Westboro Street in town,

and then tried to find the Upton Caves, an ancient manmade subterannean structure located at the new Upton Heritage Park at 18 Elm Street. I apparently went the wrong way, finding Mill Pond instead,

and gave up after walking around aimlessly on the paths I managed to find. I later found out my mistake a little too late, but I will be back here again in the near future.

The last town I visited was Milford,

Old P Gillon Building,

189 Main Street

Calzone Park,

Main Street and Beach Street

which has the Irish Round Tower in the middle of St. Mary's Cemetery at ~70 Cedar Street.

Finally, it was time to head into Attleborough. The restaurant itself has pretty interesting decor, with Chinese vases, paintings and lanterns all over the place.

With my groupon, I managed to order a lot of food, mainly appetizers, getting the Hom Sui Gok (fried sticky rolls with pork and vegetables),

the Fried Wontons with Lemongrass,

the Peking Duck Wrap Appetizer,

and finally the Cantonese Style Sweet and Sour Pork.

The two dumpling dishes were actually pretty tasty, although the pork was way too sweet and dry, while the wrap was just so-so. Overall, unless you are really craving Americanized Chinese food, it is not worth the trip.

With that, I called it a day for sightseeing and headed home. I'm definitely going to find those caves some day, and I'll be armed with a torchlight for it.

August 4th 2013: More of Fu Loon, Malden

Today, before heading to the kitchen to prep for food truck stuff, I decided to stop by a small, dirty looking donut place in Boston, Twin Do-Nuts at 501 Cambridge Street. I got a half dozen donuts, including my favorite Boston creme, which was pretty decent, and decided to give the rest to my friends at the kitchen.

After a day of doing food truck work, we headed to Fu Loon in Malden for dinner. My friend, who had not had authentic Szechuan food in a while, decided to get several Szechuan dishes, including the Szechuan Double Fried Pork, which were all extremely tasty.

The appetizers we got, namely the Spring Rolls, the Cold Bean Curd, the Cold Jellyfish

and the Shanghai Cabbage with Black Mushrooms,

were pretty bland and not to my liking at all.

The jellyfish was clearly from instant packets as well. The first time I have had bad food at this place. Stick to the Szechuan food please. With that, a weekend of doing food truck stuff came to an end.

August 3rd 2013: Doing Food Truck Stuff at Brooklyn Boulders, Somerville

After getting up early today, I decided to finish up sightseeing in the town of Melrose, visiting the Church of the Incarnation,

then going to have breakfast at Cappa's Trackside Kitchen at 1 Grove Street in town.

It is another typical, small town breakfast place to say the least, though it had one interesting item on the menu, the Caramel Apple Pancakes, which I ordered of course.

Although it did not look like much, the pancakes were actually pretty good, and I did not really need to use maple syrup, although the sauce did not go through all 3 pancakes, so I had to pour out the syrup eventually.

Overall, not a breakfast place I would bring my friends to.

After loading up the food truck, it was time to head into Somerville to sell food at Brooklyn Boulders, the newest rock climbing gym in town. The place is pretty impressive as well, and I have to say it is the best looking rock climbing gym I have been to in Massachusetts to date, as you can see from my pictures below.

Unfortunately I could not take advantage of the free climbing today due to my injured hand, Business was pretty alright, with many new fans of our food.

After cleaning up and prepping for tomorrow for the rest of the day, it was time for some chow at Dockside Restaurant and Bar, which I have been to before. This time, with our group of 3, we got the Mexican Chicken Caesar Salad (Blackened Cajun chicken breast served atop Romaine lettuce with tomatoes, black olives, Monterey Jack Cheese and sliced avocado, tossed with creamy Caesar dressing, served with Mexican Toast),

the Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese (elbow macaroni and cheese tossed in homemade 3-cheese sauce with spicy boneless buffalo tenders),

the Spinach and Artichoke Dip (homemade creamy blend of baby spinach, artichoke hearts and parmesan cheese baked till bubbling, served with corn tortilla chips),

and the Riverview Chili Nachos (Corn tortilla chips, layered with melted cheddar cheese blend, topped with lettuce, tomato, diced red onions, homemade chili, served with sour cream and salsa on side).

The dip was a little bland, while the salad and the nachos were alright I guess. The Mac and Cheese was surprisingly good though. I did not know that buffalo sauce went so well with cheese.

With that, I headed back to my friend's place for the night. Another day, more food truck stuff to do.

August 2nd 2013: Conveyor Belt Sushi at Enso Kaiten Sushi, Boston

Today was the last day of work for my intern, so I decided to bring him out for lunch. As it turned out, my other group of friends was heading out to 2ovens in Shrewsbury for lunch, so we decided to tag along as well.

After everyone arrived, it was down to ordering. I have been here before, so I decided not to get pizza this time, getting the Chef's Plate of Black Pepper Shrimp and Sweet Potato Wedges (spicy pineapple, cucumber wasabi dressing, maple mustard dipping sauce)

while my friends got the Spicy Chicken Wings (lemon, olives and rosemary),

the Oven Roasted Chorizo (spicy veal sausage, sweet and sour plums),

the Pesto and Shrimp Pizza (goat cheese and roasted pepper),

the Garlic Mushroom Pizza (fontina, sage and caramelized onions)

and the Spicy Pineapple and Prosciutto Pizza.

As always the food here is pretty good. The chorizo sauce was interesting especially, tangy and yet with a BBQ flavor.

After work, I had a meetup dinner at Enso Kaiten Sushi at 75 Kneeland Street near Chinatown in Boston.  This place has free parking behind in a pretty big parking lot. This might be of great use in future when I cant find parking in the area. The place itself is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where sushi dishes are carted around on mini conveyor belts that snake around the tables, allowing customers to pick and choose what they want right from their tables,picking the ones they want off the belt and onto their tables.

This is the first conveyor belly sushi place I have been to outside of Singapore, where pricing is based on the color of the plates you choose, each color garnering a specific fixed price per plate. We had over 60 people at the event, sitting 6 a table all over the restaurant. With my group of 6, we picked out a lot of sushi plates, including the Orange Lotus Roll (California with spicy salmon topped with lotus chips), 

the Godzilla Roll,

the Zombie Roll,

the Philadelphia Roll,

the Salmon Roe Nigiri and Tofu Fries.

Overall, the sushi was very uninspiring, with a lack in originality, although it was pretty alright I guess. The most disappointing part was that the salmon roe and the tofu fries were extremely salty. One good thing was that after all the food we got, the meal still only cost $20 per person. I definitely will never step foot in this restaurant again though.

After a pretty bad dinner, we headed to the Terrace at Avenue One rooftop area near Chinatown. I was a little disappointed in the place, as it was surrounded on all sides by concrete walls instead of being a real rooftop, although it was still full of people tonight.

I still had a fun time with friends and meeting new people all night, and it was already the next day by the time I headed to my friend's place to stay over for the night. It will be a day of doing food truck stuff tomorrow. Fun fun.

August 1st 2013: Lunch at Straight Up Cafe, Worcester

Today for lunch, I decided to use my groupon at Straight Up Cafe, a small nice looking cafe in the sketchy side of Worcester.

With my coupon, I got the Meatatarian Panini (turkey, ham, chicken, provolone, cranberry mayo), the Strawberry Frozen Lemonade,

and their specialty Waffle on a Stick, mine filled with fresh strawberries on the inside.

The panini was actually pretty good, with the cranberry mayo balancing out the saltiness of the meat, while the waffle was pretty unique, although the strawberries kinda lost some of its flavor in the cooking process. Overall, a good dining experience, in the middle of a seedy neighborhood.