Morning Walk through Boston

Here are some of the sights that I take in as I make the 25-minute trek to work in the mornings. I usually go up Surface Road, along the wharf.

First, we have a group of buildings just past Fanueil Hall. I took this photo as I emerged from the narrow streets of the North End. The clock tower on the left was the Custom House Tower. Now it's Marriott's Custom House Hotel. Fun fact: it's cheaper than the Marriott!

Here is Tetanus Bridge, which I cross to avoid waiting for the traffic light on a major intersection just up the street. It adds a dash of danger at each crossing: will I snag my hand on a rusty nail and die? Will a flake of oxidized metal gently detach from the bridge and find its way into my open mouth? Will it rot away from its piers and plummet into the icy waters below? So thrilling!

Here is the Barking Crab, which serves its own beer, and also probably seafood, very likely crabs. I don't like having to defeat shelled creatures for my meals, so I usually just get a fish sandwich. This is the place to go for your french fries fix. Sadly, they are not open at 8:50 am when I walk by. I would totes have fries in the office at 9 am.

The final leg of my daily pilgrimage to the paycheck is the Four Point Harborwalk. To the left is the Children's Museum, so there are plenty of snacks children around come opening time.

Here is the Intercontinental Hotel--the glass-faced concave buildings right beside the red-and-glass building that's beside the building that looks like a giant skinny hair roller. Only $300 a night!

And finally, here is the delicious lobster and crab ravioli with shrimp that I had for dinner last night. I believe that shelled creatures are best eaten while stuffed in pasta and swimming in tomato sauce. It was part of my walk home last night so I thought I'd throw it in.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So this post has 6,000 words! You're welcome.

Playtime

Exhibit A: SHEBA

Exhibit B: OSCAR

Movie Review: Contagion (2011)

Contagion is a good movie because it's honest. The unknown supervirus that stars in the film mercilessly kills off children, Academy Award winners, and anyone foolish enough to touch their faces thousands of times each day. Oh, wait, that's everyone. The acting is superb -- Jude Law gets thumbs up for portraying a smug, crazy character; Laurence Fishburne is great as the driven Center for Disease Control boss; Kate Winslet is excellent as the competent doctor sent to investigate the supervirus; and Jennifer Ehle steals the show with her noble nobleness. Er, yes. I still don't know the point of Marion Cotillard's character, unless it was to suggest that international health professionals need bodyguards when an epidemic hits. Because, spoiler alert: people will do bad things to get their grubby paws on a vaccine.

I highly recommend Contagion, even though now I flinch whenever someone coughs in my vicinity.

But what makes this movie truly spectacular is the description on the back of the pirated Chinese DVD cover:

Here it is in all its bizarre glory:

DON'T TALK TO ANYONE. DON'T TOUCH ANTONE. (<--seriously, it says "Antone")
A traveler abroad is prepared to credit card handed to the bartender's hand, a business meeting in a handshake and greetings in the beginning, a man in a bus on a cough. These things were not associated with an infectious disease linked together. Bess Ames Hof from Hongkong on a business trip to Minneapolis, physical discomfort, she thought it was flying too long time results.

Take a second to absorb that.

Engrish: it's what's for reading.

Cat Uses for the Human Face (Oscar Version)

#1: If human dad -- target for affection

#2: If anyone else -- target for Death Stare

Anticuchos, etcétera

Last night, Little Brother and I went to a Peruvian restaurant -- Machu Picchu -- in Somerville's Union Square, home of Korean mom grocery stores. What fun!

Never have I ever encountered such a baffling menu, such a lack of reverence towards pork, which until now I thought was a staple of all Spanish and Spanish-colonized diets. (And let's not forget the Chinese and their pork buns!) For example, a typical Pinoy dish is lechon kawali, aka pan-roasted pork:

The perfect blend of flavor and heart attack!

By contrast, Machu Picchu offered beef, chicken, fish, and all the corn and rice you can stuff in your face.

We started off with a little bowl of round crunchy things that reminded me of giant mutant raw popcorn kernels. Don't let that description discourage you from this pre-appetizer! It was yummy. It came with two sauces: one super spicy, and the other creamy and green, color origin unknown. Little Brother, being the type who polishes off everything placed in front of him, slurped up all the sauce, which turned out to be our flavorings for the coming foods, if we'd wanted, whoops.

anticuchos

Out came the actual app, which was anticuchos, aka marinated beef strips with a fat potato slice and some corn. Enough beef for a meal as an appetizer? I had no idea the Peruvians were my food soul mates.

lomo saltado

My main course was the lomo saltado, aka more beef but this time sirloin strips with onions, tomatoes, and french fries in awesome marinade, with rice. It was delicious. See, the secret is the sauce. It was flavorful without being obnoxious. It was bold without being presumptuous. It was amazing without being annoying. It was like a Latin lover without the loud shirt, overpowering perfume, and flamboyant hand gestures. I could go on, but I know you know what I'm talking about.

As all this food appreciation was going on, I was sipping some truly fine beer: Cusqueña, aka the Gold of the Incas, that's not cheesy at all. But that's what their website says (the beer, not the Incas).

We finished up with some budin (bread pudding), which was decent but refrigerated for a bit too long. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was filled with secret pride at Little Brother's fluency in Spanish. Ladies: he's single! gwehehehehe

I shall spare you the sordid details of what the weighing scale told me this morning. It wasn't pretty. When is science going to get me a get-thin-instantly pill that works without destroying my liver? Huh? Huh? Am I asking for too much? 

Cat Uses for the Human Face (Sheba Version)

#1: Crosswalk

#2: Lollipop

#3: Bed

I Love It Like Cake

You know that voyeuristic thrill of hearing about other people's outrageous/hilarious/horrifying stories? I have discovered the mother lode: Dear Prudence on slate.com. "Prudie" (real name Emily Yoffe) lends a sympathetic hand to genuinely distressing situations, like when someone asks for advice about difficult friends or relatives, and lambasts morons, like a man who complained that he married a hot but dumb woman, or the girl who wrote that she was mortified because her boyfriend heard her fart. Like, omg, I would totes skip town if that happened to me, omg.

Speaking of skipping town, here is The Real Story of Asian University for Women, Kamal Ahmad and Ashok Keshari, written by a former faculty member for the university in Bangladesh. I worked for the Support Foundation that she mentions in the post. I know I promised to write my side of the story, but kept getting sidetracked by pubescent humor and comics.

Happy Friday!

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Update, 03/05/2012: Prof Amber's blog post no longer exists. But here's How I Turned My Life Upside Down  to Move to Bangladesh and Became Embroiled in an International Fiasco.