Total Recall II

Day Three:
- We did a little exploring on our own today, which inevitably turned into hanging out at the Harvard C0-Op and returning to the MIT Press Bookstore. That's the thing about being in a city with one of the highest concentrations of universities- good bookstores are everywhere and with that comes great bargains when it comes to good academic books too :) So yes, we bought more books...
- Jude brought me to Newbury Street, supposedly Boston's shopping strip of sorts. It was cute, kind of like Ste. Laurent in Montreal. But unlike its Québécois counterpart, most of Newbury Street was almost completely unaffordable. Still, it was just nice to walk along the brownstones for a somewhat different shopping experience than let's say in NY or Chicago.
- From the impossibly expensive to the completely free, we headed into the Boston Public Library where they were having a John Adams exhibition. The collection was ok I guess; I was more awed by the architecture of the building more than anything else. While I do appreciate innovative structures like Gehry's Stata Center, there is also something deeply moving about being in the presence of a well-aged dame of a building.
- My friend Julie used to live in Boston and highly recommended Central Kitchen in Central Square for dinner. We met Terence there and we were all pleasantly surprised by how good the food was. It's a little nondescript bistro, dimmed lighting, and a great little menu. My duck confit was meltingly delicious and Jude and Terence both loved their homemade venison sausages with lentils. Definitely worth a second visit if ever!
- We skipped dessert at Central Kitchen so that we could grab gelato at Toscanini's. Anyone who tells you you can't eat ice-cream on a winter night has clearly never been to Toscanini's. The lavender-honey and orange-buttercream gelato were so decadently creamy, you won't believe it were made of milk. Anything lavender always makes me happy, and so does any kind of dessert, so I was one happy girl that cold, frosty Monday night :)

Day Four (a.k.a. Today in History...):
- If you ever find yourself in the Cambridge area and are looking for a place to have breakfast, please look no further and walk straight into Petsi's Pies on Putnam Avenue (Stan and Susan, there is one in Somerville too!). There, you will find the fluffiest, scrummiest ever egg sandwiches, frittata, muffins and scones. See here and here. To make it an even more alluring brekkie site, they play Sigur Ros. Icelandic music during breakfast- enough said... :)
- Dear Stan took some time off work today and played the consummate guide around the outskirts of Boston. It was amazing to be on the same sites as some of the most significant moments of U.S. history, whether it's where the first shot of the Revolutionary Wars was sounded, the bridge of the first battle, or the house of the original Minutemen. It's hard to look at the U.S. now and remember that it had been a British colony just a mere 200 years or so ago...
- The more interesting history however, was that of Stan's himself :) He took us to the house where he used to live in Lexington, his schools when growing up, to Tuft's where he and Susan went to college and met, and finally to their little cozy apartment in the oh-so-cool Davis Square (where I just found out was voted in 1997 as one of the country's 15 hippest places to live- you go guys!).
- After another great recommendation by Terence to have some down-home, stick-to-your-ribs Chinese food in Chinatown, we all bundled into Susan's car and headed for the swanky Finale in Harvard Square for an all-out indulgent dessert extravaganza.
- Words fail to describe the ambrosia that is Finale. Whether it is the warm molten chocolate or a heavenly crème brûlée that actually surpassed what I had thought to be the Platonic crème brûlée in Montreal, everything was simply divine. To top things off, we had wonderful coffee, and even better company- all in all, a really nice treat from our friends :) Thanks guys!
- As if all that copious consumption wasn't enough, Stan and Terence thought that the quintessential Harvard experience would not be complete without visiting Happy-Hour central, John Harvard's Pub. And so after all that dessert and coffee, what did we then go on to have? More carbs, of the brewed variety specifically... ;)
- Needless to say, we kindly declined the ride back to Terence's apartment, gave Stan and Susan huge goodbye hugs and slowly hauled our over-stimulated guts on the road, in the vain hope that the 20-minute walk home would somehow absolve us from the obscene over-consumption of the day...
- It did not.

Day Five:
- The only highlight of our last hours in Boston was finally eating a lobster roll just before boarding the plane. I've been essentially craving for a lobster roll for almost a year, after reading a special on it in the NYTimes last year. I've never tasted one before so I can't say if the one we had was the best, but it sure was good! Huge chunks of fresh lobster, lightly tossed in mayo and served simply on a buttered, toasted roll. Nothing to distract from the main star, clean and yummy :) See here.

Ok, lastly, my burning question for all you Bostonians out there (both present and former): Can someone PLEASE explain to me why Boston is so enamored with Dunkin Donuts???!!

Complete Boston photo album here.