Boston 3

Our last day in Boston was overcast and chilly, but dry. After breakfast, we headed down Newbury Street

Trendy Newbury Street

to Copley Square to catch the Green Line “T” to the Museum of Fine Arts. The trains were prompt and not crowded. The ride was four stops, and the walk back to the museum only a couple blocks.

Trinity Church in Copley Square.

This was an interesting museum in that they had exhibits across all the Fine Arts. In addition to paintings and sculpture, they had furniture, clothing, jewelry, photos, and quite a bit of foreign and ancient art. They were reputed to have a Monet collection of some note. To get right to the bottom line, I really wanted to like this museum and after every little disappointment, I tried to make a mental excuse for them. This is a museum that has a lot of “stuff” but nothing really remarkable. The collection is very conservative. They seem to have slept through the fifties and sixties and overlooked acquiring anything contemporary that would certainly turn into something significant in future years. They overlooked a whole generation of vital contemporary American artists, whose work they could have picked up for a song, and who would have benefited from the interest. On top of that, they put their contemporary collection in this remote third-floor alcove, accessed by only one hard-to-find stairway.

Determined to overcome our disappointment, we decided it was time for lobsters. We took the “T” to the Sullivan Square stop in Charlestown to the Mount Vernon Pub. This is a working-class venue with a fine kitchen, and notable as one of the last restaurants serving lobster twins. Back when I was working here in the late 80’s, it was common to find restaurants offering twins and even triplets. One place I used to stop at on the way to Marblehead offered one lobster for $10, two for $13 and 3 for $15. Those were the days!  Nowadays, the Mount Vernon offered twins for $37, and we considered that a bargain. We had a terrific and colorful server (who called us “Hon” and “dear”) and offered great advice on the menu. Soo and I split the twins and started with a cup of home-made clam “chowdah.” This was an expensive lunch (certainly by Portuguese standards), but still a good value and a nice treat to end our visit.

Finish Line from the 2016 Boston Marathon.

Bob and Soo

Boston 2

Our second full day had the worst weather of the trip. There was a steady rain and temps in the mid-40s. Our hop-on/hop-off ticket gave a complimentary second day, so we took the bus to the Aquarium stop. We bought the admission ticket at the hotel front desk to avoid the lines, but there weren’t any lines, maybe because of the rain.

Upon entering, the penguin area is the first thing that you see, and there was a lecture going on.

There are a couple outside areas on the ground floor, a large seal tank, and a touching tank with rays and sharks. After that, there is a circular ramp that goes up around a central tank, and smaller tanks along the outer wall. Overall, this is a smallish aquarium. It’s especially good for kids, with a lot of hands-on opportunities managed by young volunteers.

After the aquarium, we hopped back on the bus and took it to the Chinatown stop. Here we had a late lunch at a Malaysian restaurant that we saw the previous day. Pretty extensive menu and generally good chow. The only quibble was that the noodles in the char kway teow were broken up. Pearly taught me how to keep that from happening when I took her cooking class in Penang. I was tempted to share the trick, but held back.

Since our room had a fridge, we took some of the leftovers back for a dinner snack, but we were so full, we never ate them.

Bob and Soo

A Few Cold and Rainy Days in Boston

Soo had never been to Boston. Aer Lingus had some great fares and connections from Faro, and we needed to go to the US to take care of taxes and stuff, so we decided to spend a few days in Boston.  Probably not the ideal timing, but so it goes.

We booked lodging at the Newberry Guest House, an old brownstone locating on perhaps the trendiest shopping and dining street in the city.

Walking around on our first evening, we were blown away by the dining options: Indian, Yunnan noodles, Italian, French, Japanese Izakaya (small plates) and sushi. And that was just on our block. Nonetheless, we headed an extra block to the Dosa Factory. We haven’t had dosa since we left Penang where we ate it a couple times a week. This version was pretty good, providing a large and crispy dosa along with a rich coconut chutney, a tangy tomato chutney and sambar. Soo had her usual plain dosa, and I had dosa masala, filled with a potato masala. The cost is a little jarring, being about 7x what we typically paid in Little India, but trendy location brings trendy prices, I guess.

After our complimentary breakfast, we went off to catch the hop-on/hop-off bus. After shunning these services, we are now hooked on them. The Boston version costs $37 apiece with the senior discount, (versus €12 in Barcelona) and maybe I’m reminded why I shunned them. We made almost one full loop and got off at Chinatown, with our eyes on some big city dim sum and Chinese lobster. We ate at a place called the Dumpling Shop and were satisfied, though we decided to forego the dim sum and get a seafood noodle dish instead.

About twenty years ago, I had about a three-month stretch when I lived in Denver and worked in Boston. Every Monday I would fly to work and return on Friday afternoon. This was before what is known in Boston as “The Big Dig,” an unbelievably massive construction project that put underground the expressways running into and through downtown Boston.  And what a difference this has made! Not only has it opened and allowed for connecting downtown Boston. It has also spurred major development in the areas around the bay.

After lunch, we headed on foot to Quincy Market, a long, indoor market filled with dozens of eating stalls, though we were too full to be tempted by the great smells. Picking up the bus near the Aquarium, we headed back to the Back Bay, getting off at Copley square and window-shopping our way back to the room. For dinner, we went to Papa Razzi, a trendy two-floor Italian joint that features thin-crust, wood-fired pizza. Our waitress, Manuela, was originally from Brazil, and so we laid on her the handful of Portuguese words that we have learned, and she graciously pretended to be delighted.

Bob and Soo

Not Just Any Port in a Storm

In between rain squalls, I decided to search out the twenty-year-old Cálem Tawny Port. This is a port that I tasted in Porto last fall and found it to be worth chasing after. I have been keeping an eye out for it every time we go to a new supermarket, but no joy. I know of three port shops in Old Town Lagos, so this week we decided to make a special trip. The first is Lagos’ only true liquor shop, Soares, which has a very good collection of port wines. They had quite a few single-year Cálem vintages, but not the twenty-year-old. Next up was a small shop right on the town square. Once again, a very good selection, including a few that looked really interesting, but not the one I was looking for. But, as a bonus for making the trip, I did find a bottle of Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur. The Whiskey Exchange website calls it “A stunning French liqueur made with top-quality VSOP and XO Cognacs and flavoured with Vietnamese ginger alongside ginseng and vanilla.” This is the essential ingredient in making a ginger martini.

Hey Jennifer! Look what I found!

The last stop in Old Town was a shop just past the Municipal Market. When we walked in, we were shocked to find no bottles at all, only desks. It appears that this shop went out of business and the new owners had not changed the signage outside.

The next day, we headed out to Lagoa to check whether Apolonia might carry it. But they had no Cálem products at all; not even the otherwise omni-present Velhotes.

So, it looks like I will not be able to find a bottle anywhere around here. I’ll have to look around Lisbon the next time we get up there.

Bob and Soo

Variable Spring Weather

Our four days of warm, sunny days gave way to several days of chilly temps and rain. Last month when I returned to the US for AHCA/NCAL training, I brought back a ton of ingredients, so I took the occasion to go into a Mexican cooking frenzy. Over the course of two rainy days I made enchiladas with enough extra sauce to freeze, chicken mole, pork tamales, carnitas and salsa. I even made chilaquiles for breakfast one day.

The few days of rain were enough to verify that the workers did in fact seal up all the leaks that we pointed out. When the sun came out again, Soo was just itching to get back to her gardening, and we saw marked progress in the garden. Quite a few of the trees are showing new growth, including the Kafir Lime, the papaya and the mango. We have a lot of buds on the lemon, the avocados and the peach (below). We should get a few lemons because we got a few last year, but the other ones are probably still too young for fruit. The banana tree just about doubled in height and trunk from when we got it last fall.

Some of the flowering bushes were so prolific that Soo had to cut them back. Below you can see what is left even after cutting back.

Since the workers also connected the plumbing to the roof terrace rom and installed the lighting, we were able to move up all the tropical plants from the laundry room, and finally make this room into a little greenhouse. We brought up a small radiator because the night temps are still too cool for vandas, and this unit has a humidifier as well. In the forefront below, you can see a heliconia that we unexpectedly found at Giga last week.

Finally, over the past couple weeks we have had six Phalaenopsis plants beginning to spike. It will be fabulous to have all of these in bloom at the same time!

Bob and Soo

Lighthouse Hike

The weather has been great so far this week, and today temps are to hit 25C/80F with clear blue skies. Sounds like time for a hike!

There are all sorts of cliff hikes west of Lagos, and a good way to access them is to park at the Ponta da Piedade lighthouse and pick a direction. Going west from the lighthouse, you can hike to the Porto do Mos beach, but we will leave that for another time. We chose to head east (actually north, as the bay gently curves east) toward Praia do Camilo and the very popular Praia Dona Ana.

There isn’t just one trail. Rather, there are numerous trails that split off and reconnect, allowing hikers to seek out views of the cliffs and beaches below.

There are great views as you approach the edge. But, we lose about one hiker per month to these cliffs, so it’s best to not get overconfident.

The area is loaded with wildflowers and flowering shrubs, including several varieties that are growing in our yard.

Once you approach Praia Do Camilo, you can see the entire bay laid out in front of you, including the city and its city beaches curving around to Meia Praia, one of the longest beaches in Europe.

The walk is fairly gentle as long as you don’t head down steep trails or stairways to one of the beaches.

And if you are in need of refreshment, the lighthouse and the beaches all have bars and restaurants up top where you can continue to enjoy the views.

Bob and Soo

March WAGS

Yesterday, we attended the March meeting of the Western Algarve Garden Society. It was held at a member’s home in Praia da Luz, about a ten-minute drive from our place. The meeting was split into two parts, the first being a tour of the garden areas.

The hosts have been in this home for about five years, and the maturity of the garden is evident. Even so, it was interesting to note how far along this garden is compared to ours due to the warmer micro-climate only a few miles away from us. They have made good use of native grasses breaking up the areas of flowers and flowering shrubs. In the lower section of the garden, they have set up raised beds for vegetables. They also demonstrated a very elaborate and effective process for making compost, involving three separate shredding operations that make the compost suitable for use in three months.

After a short break for refreshments, we viewed a demonstration of water color painting conducted by Sandra Croft, a local artist. She painted a scene from the garden in real time, showing us her layering techniques, color mixing, masking, and the “light to dark” principle. It is nice to get together with this group.

On the way home, we stopped for lunch at Atalaia, which is becoming a go-to lunch place for us, and inspired by the morning, we stopped at Q Gardens for more things to stick into the ground.

Bob and Soo