Text 15118, 211 rader
Skriven 2007-05-07 11:30:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: how I spent my week 475
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Had to go back north for a bunch of concerts.

After a couple days of subsisting on stale nuts and Jelly Bellys,
I got a lucky break, my old buddy Judy taking me out to dinner
(it is fairly near my birthday) at Les Zygomates downtown near
the train station. After an initial suggestion of the Petit Robert
Bistro in Kenmore Square, which I enjoy very much, it was
discovered that the Red Sox were playing a makeup of a rainout,
and Kenmore Square on game nights can be very crowded and rather
hairy, so we chose an old favorite near her office.

I got there a bit early, as the baseball traffic hadn't started
to get ugly yet on the subway, and parked myself at the bar,
which was pouring glasses of a relatively fancy down under wine,
so I had one:

Paxton AAA Shiraz Grenache 05 (McLaren Vale) - dark plum color,
velvety texture; quite as expected, except for a sharp acidic
pinch on the finish.

Judy showed up right on time, and we were led to a table where
we'd dined before, in the new part, right in the window. I
guess we are relatively sightly people after all.

There was a $31 menu - soup or salad, main, and dessert, and a
special of salt-roasted blue marlin*. Judy wanted the crabcake
from this, but she just wanted one course (she is quite tiny
and doesn't eat enough), so I told her I'd order the prix fixe,
and she could order the special, and we could switch around.
*described by the waitress as sea bass

The soup was cream of mushroom, at least a pint of it, very
rich and creamy, dark with mushrooms, having little in common
with canned stuff, and quite nice with the last of the red wine.
We ended up splitting this, which was good as I don't think I
own enough pills to take care of a whole crock of it.

I ordered an interesting-sounding Spanish wine for our main
courses:

Laxas Albarino 05 (Rias Baixas) - pleasantly pale, pear peach
perfume. Supposedly like Riesling, but I found it more like a
fruitier Pinot Grigio. Rather tasty. Went well with both
mains, particularly the finfish.

I wasn't so thrilled with the crabcake. It was big enough and
had not so much filler, and it was devoid of crab crunchies,
but the crabmeat was of unknown origin: it had little crab
flavor aside from a vague fishiness; interest was supplied by
chopped chives and little mustard seeds scattered here and
there. The texture was somewhat crab-leggy, and I'd say that
it was either extremely mediocre red-crab meat or the best
fake crab I've ever encountered. It came with quite nice
sauteed spinach and slices of fingerling potato.

The fish turned out to be essentially shio-broiled, which
drives the surface fat into the flesh, and it was very tasty
indeed; it came in a vegetable broth with spring veggies
such as baby favas, asparagus, and baby carrots.

The dessert that comes is either creme brulee or chocolate
mousse. I had the brulee, which was silky smooth but covered
with a slightly too thick layer of slightly too burned sugar.

Two more days of Jelly Bellys and assorted elderly things
from the freezer or the cupboard. During this time I practiced
a bit and dealt with a virtual mountain of work that came.
I had to get a couple books done by Saturday, as my energies
this day would be taken with the 10th anniversary concert of
my orchestra and the inevitable drinking that would take
place afterwards.

In anticipation of what promised to be a long concert, I took
an early bus in town and checked out the Courthouse Pub, which
is said to be famous for its steak tips (8 oz for $9, 13 oz for
11.45). It's pleasantly divey, a real down-and-out neighborhood
place. I checked the specials list, and the 1-lb steak for $11
almost called my name, but for the same price one could get the
mixed grill, which I was told had lamb, beef, and pork "tips,"
so, as I'm one for variety, I ordered that, with a cup of beef
vegetable soup ($1 extra) for starters. The soup was sort of
what you'd expect for a school cafeteria - beef base, probably
packaged vegetables, and some shreds of tough beef stew meat.
Okay for a buck, but I wouldn't be thrilled to pay more for it.

The waitress had asked how I wanted the beef cooked, and I of
course said "rare." What came: three approximately 4-oz portions
of chicken breast, pork loin trimmings, and pretenderized beef I
think round, the first two rare, the beef medium. As I have no
objection to rare chicken and pork (in fact I find rareness makes
chicken breast almost worth eating), I didn't complain but made a
mental note to do the steak next time if it was on special (one
of the guys at the next table had it, and it looked pretty good,
and he said it was perfect, and one of his tablemates remarked
enviously about it). Onion rings were industrial strength and
industrial quality.

Oh, you also get cheesy breadsticks, but I turned mine down, as
I was pretty certain I wasn't going to eat them.

A five-minute walk to City Hall, the site of the concert, where
I discovered much of the orchestra actually there 45 minutes early.
In fact, everyone was there at a quarter to, except for one cellist
who didn't show up at all.

We should have started the concert an hour early, too. It was
in fact a killer and (I'd predicted to Jackie, the stage
manager, that it would be 2 1/2 hours long), even with a couple
numbers cut out and an abbreviated intermission, ran 2h 40 or so.

The highlight was a medley of Guys and Dolls tunes, in which
during "Follow the Fold" I was supposed to diverge from my role
as concertmaster and play the part of a drunkard, complete with
bottle in brown paper, which is wrested away from me by Sarah
Brown, the Salvation Army leader. Not a difficult role, and
not knowing how much research I've put in on this over the
years, the audience thought I was merely a gifted actor and
roared with laughter.

The highlight for me was that I got to keep the bottle: it was
Glenfiddich, a nice smooth neutral 12-year-old single malt.

Eventually we staggered out, three hours and change after
our 8 pm start.

By the time we hit Brodie's, our usual after-show hangout,
they'd put up the back room for the night, and we had to
crowd around the bar along with assorted other seedy folks.
Brodie's is the place with the Macallan 12-year-old special
bottling for $7.50, only they were out of that, and had the
regular Macallan 12-year-old for $6.50. Instead, even though
I was not paying (it went on the orchestra's tab), I had a
pair of Sierra Nevada Pale Ales for 3.50 each.

We left shortly after last call, and it was too late to go
anyplace but Jackie's, where she had more beers (Corona for
the wimps, XX for the real people), plus there was my bottle
of Scotch. Also taquitos from Trader Joe's, which were okay
- tip: get the chicken ones rather than the beef.

Eventually the guests left, and she closed off the front
room so I could get a bit of shuteye on the very comfy couch
undisturbed by the dog.

Up at the crack of ten. I was so glad that I didn't have to
be at church to play or do anything else.

We decided to go find some food, but my requirement was that
it had to serve something other than breakfast or brunch food;
we drove through several towns looking, but most places were
closed - even the ones with "open" signs in the window. There
was one joint in Cliftondale that looked promising, but there
was a line out the door, so she nixed that. Through Saugus and
Revere, and past the Northgate shopping center; I remarked
that there used to be an excellent clam place on this road,
but it had gone out of business and become a Q joint and had
gone out of business again; now it had been taken over by
Uncle Pete's Hickory BBQ, which had relocated from its even
less likely previous home in East Boston. And when we got
there, it had an "open" sign in the window.

We were the only patrons in the joint, not surprisingly at
11:30 on a Sunday morning, when most potential clientele are
either at church or too hung over to go anywhere.

The general feeling is similar to that at East Boston, only
the booths are new and in worse taste than before.

They offer Bud Light for $11 a pitcher or Pete's Wicked Ale
for $13: so we ordered the latter, which was out. Sam Adams,
not on the menu, was available, so we asked for a pitcher of 
that. Turned out it was $14. It did the job, however.

Jackie had a brisket sandwich, 5 or 6 oz of decently smoked
fairly lean beef on a somewhat stale bulkie roll: I tasted
the roll, which was no great shakes, and though she offered
for me to taste the brisket, I declined, as I had the Texas
rib sampler, three beef ribs with a fair amount of meat
still clinging to the bones. As my one rogue tooth is still
sticking out in this annoying way, it is hard for me to gnaw
on large bones, but I figured I'd use a knife and fork and
give the not-so-well-cleaned remains to the dog waiting
patiently in the car. The ribs were pretty good, reasonably
meaty, not overfatty.

For sides (the lunch specials at $7 come with two sides)
we got a double Asian slaw, onion rings, and mac and cheese.
The Asian slaw, one of my favorites, is chopped cabbage and
carrot with peanut sauce; the rings were as wonderful as I'd
remembered them from the old place. I took a taste of the
mac and cheese in the interests of science. It was mac and
cheese.

On the way home, Jackie took me to my Stop & Shop, where
pork shoulder was .99 a pound, so I got one to make chili
out of for the next week. Another pair of huh? questions.

2 lb of onions in a net bag: $1.49.
3 lb of similar onions in a similar net bag: $2.39 or 2.49,
I didn't pay attention for obvious reasons.

When I last bought spaghetti here, the end of last year,
it was on special for 3 lb for a buck. In previous years,
for maybe a decade or so, the sale price was 4 lb for a
buck. Today, the price was 5 lb for ... $3, with a big sign
saying "save 40c a pound" - apparently the regular price has
gone up to a buck a pound, at which rate I will shy away
from pasta and buy rice instead. Ah, well, I needed pasta
so got my 5 lb.
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