arts and eats

Since my youngest sister Katie couldn't come for Thanksgiving this past year, she decided to book a trip during the three-day weekend this month. Her friend (and mine) Ansley had never been to Boston before, she she decided to come too. So we had ourselves an ol' fashioned girls' weekend! As you can imagine, there was some shopping, cooking, giggling and pillow fights.

Okay, no pillow fights. I took a half day on Friday and met them for lunch in Harvard Square. Then we did some shopping on Newbury Street, got some cupcakes at SWEET, and got ready for dinner...

lunch at Tory Row

karat cake, red velvet, mocha mint chip

We had dinner at Russell House. I think its safe to say that RH is my favorite restaurant. Their cocktails are great, and just try beat $1 oysters. Just try.

The next day, we decided to check out the MFA. I hadn't been in a really long time, and Ansley is a former art kid like myself. First of all, I didn't realize that BU students got free admission all the time. Secondly, I was super impressed with the MFA. I've always enjoyed going, but this visit was especially phenomenal. The drawing exhibits are always a favorite of mine, and this weekend was no exception. Also, their collection of contemporary pieces is nice too. I'd say maybe even better than the ICA? Can I say that? We were there for 2 1/2 hours, and I'm planning on going again very soon. Aaaand, Alex Katz, who is one of my favorite contemporary painters has an exhibit coming at the end of April. Mark your calendars!

Chihuly

I'm a little obsessed with German Expressionism at the moment...

Kirchner

Calder

We worked up quite an appetite looking at all that art, and KT specifically requested fish and chips. So we headed to the Barking Crab on the harbor for a big ol' plate o fried seafoods.

We started out with a crab bisque, which I will be replicating sometime in the future. It even came with baby grilled cheeses...

awwww

fried: oysters, shrimps, cod

After lunch, we thought, how about one more museum? and walked over to the ICA. By that time it was already closed, so we headed home and crashed. 

The next day we had a big breakfast at The Uncommon Ground in Watertown. It's one of my favorite places to take out of town guests. May I recommend the lemon ricotta pancakes or the eggs benedict...

We went back to the ICA for a little while and then to the North End for some canolis, which I suppose is a requirement of Boston tourists. We decided on the way home to go see a movie and ended up at the Artist, which was pretty good. Then we went home and made some calzones to go with our canolis. The first one had tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, pepperoni...

The second had spinach, onion, and leftover Jimmy Dean from breakfast.

All in all, the weekend was a tasty and cultural delight.

m