Sampling

We took our bikes out for the first time yesterday and rode up to Arlington Center. We went to dinner at Sweet Chili and for dessert, I had to have some frozen custard at Chilly Cow. The following is reconstructed conversation while waiting in line at Chilly Cow:

Adam: OK, when you ask for your sample, ask for Lemon. I don't want to ask for more than two samples.
plasticann: So what sample are you going to ask for?
Adam: Peppermint stick and smores.
plasticann: [confused] That's two samples. I thought you didn't want to ask for more than two?
Adam: I'm asking for two. You're asking for one. I feel bad asking for three samples so I need you to ask for the Lemon.
plasticann: So you want three samples total not two samples total.
Adam: You got it!

Of course we ended up buying a kiddie peppermint stick to share and we didn't have any change or small bills to leave a tip since Adam put the $2.35 purchase on his credit card. We felt kinda lame.

Maine Good Eats

Adam did an awesome job planning our meals for our trip this weekend and we enjoyed many good eats. We started off on Friday morning with a Gracie Bar donut at Donuts with a Difference in Medford. Then we drove up to York, ME to Stonewall Kitchen for lunch. I had some clam chowder and Adam had a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. We hopped back in the car and drove up to Portland stopping by a lighthouse on the way which was beautiful. We checked into our hotel in Portland, it was an old converted armory which was pretty cool. Suited up and went for a walk around the old part of town. Our first stop was an awesome kitchen store right on Commercial Street Leroux. This place is incredible. They have everything by every kitchen tool maker. They also had all these oils and vinegars you could taste and buy, all from Italy. For dinner, we were able to get a table at Fore Street and the food was really awesome. It's an open kitchen with a wood fire oven and we got a table where we could watch all the action. On Saturday it was cold, wet and windy all day, but we still did lots. We started with breakfast at the Standard Baking Company, just downstairs from Fore Street. I wanted to move into this bakery. We got croissants and sticky buns and bread to go. Then we drove up to Freeport, ME, home of LL Bean and the outlets. Adam had never been so it was pretty cool. We watched a beefy guy shoot arrows in the archery range. It was glass enclosed. For lunch, we shared a lobster roll at The Lobster Cooker for a first lunch. Then we drove back to Portland for second lunch at DuckFat where they fry their french fries in duck fat. Yeah you heard that right. The frites were amazing and the beignets we had for dessert were also delicious. A perfect culinary end to a very fun trip.

The Maine Event

We're taking Friday off and going on an adventure with our zipcar to Maine this weekend. We're going to check out Portland, Freeport and Kittery and possibly buy lots of candy and eat french fries cooked in duck fat. I'm looking forward it.

Burren...thwarted by hunger

We tried to go the Burren on thursday night for dinner. I was all excited for fish and chips, but we a bit thwarted since we were super hungry and we hadn't seen our waitress for 15 minutes. We thought maybe the service would be super slow even after we ordered so we cut our losses and went to Anna's instead. We did discover that Diva Lounge is serving $1 Indian tapas. I'm not sure how big these tapas are, but I'm excited to check it out sometime really soon.

Julie and Julia

A group of us went and saw the movie last weekend and it was so much fun. The reviews warned not to go see the movie on an empty stomach so we chowed down on some Vietnamese sandwiches in Boston Common before the movie. I really enjoyed Meryl Streep as Julia and frankly what's not to love about Julia Childs and her enthusiasm for food. What struck me was Julia was middle aged when she embarked on her career in food which gives hope to the rest of us for finding our way in life.

66 out of 71 restaurants

Adam recently created a restaurant map/packet for a church gathering of 71 restaurants within a 1/2 mile radius of our church. Since we live really close to church, this 1/2 mile radius is pretty much our neighborhood.

I was initially surprised that there were so many places to eat in Porter, Davis, Alewife and on Mass Ave. It seemed like an excessive amount of restaurants, but turns out it's not quite enough restaurants for the Zakuns.

Super methodical Adam went through the list and checked every restaurant he'd been to on the list. He's been to 66 out 71 or 93%. Of course, I had to go through the list myself and I scored 65 our 71 or 92% at 6pm, but bumped up to 66 after dinner at Singabella Cafe tonight.

Adam is now determined to complete his list by going to the last 5 restaurants even the ones that we know are bad. We do agree that we need to go to the Burren sometime soon for some Guinness stew and fish and chips, neither of us shockingly have ever been.