Pssst, Boston... ready for another gathering?

That's the only China Pearl I know. I may be a tad late but, as of this writing, am still planning to show up.

Have fun. Wish I could be there with you folks.

I will be going to a potluck in Volcano with a pot of navy bean soup and a couple of hulu-hulu chickens. A friend from the mainland is here for a week and I will be taking her to the new lava flow. I saw my first volcano eruption recently. It only went forty feet high tho.

Chow out

Seaglass

your dim-summer sounds great -- wish we didn't have unbreakable plans today...

see y'all shortly. I'll probably recognize everybody. I'll be the one 9maybe of many, considering it's Boston), with the blue Sox cap with the two-red-socks logo on the front. We're meeting in front of the Pearl, right? Not inside?

BREAKING NEWS: yay, it happened. We all ended up in the same place at the same time. We had turnip cakes <thud> for ehBeth. We saw Paul Revere's grave. I had to leave to go to work, but kris and Andy are walking Thomas thru the Public Garden and MAY be able to persuade Thomas his Boston Experience isn't complete unless he rides the swan boats (Thomas is a bit skeptical).

Updates, full story, and film at 6o'clock with your on-the-scene reporter littlek.

Great!!

Yippee!




~~~




I have a vision of Thomas being walked through the park by lil'k and MerryA, as he rides on his new birthday trike . In my vision, Thomas' socks keep falling down.




(should I take that to the dream thread?)

The 6 o'clock news is a bit early.

We ordered turnip cakes for Beth and toasted our tea to her over them. They were good. They were also one of the few vegie dishes there (I knew this was going to be the case going in).


Another interesting dish was the crab cakes(?). They looked like this:


When we left we had some difficulty figuring out the bill untila human calculator walked up and added some info:


We saw the Granery which is were a lot of historical figures are buried. There were several tours going on at once and was ridiculously crowded. But, I still like the little graveyard with its old colonial hand carved head stones.



After the Granery, Username split. Merry Andrew and I both had to leave Thomas not long after Username did. Before we did leave, we walked up to see the state house and it's big shiny dome. We peeked at the lavender window panes that still sit in some of the Beacon Hill homes. M.A. gave us some good info about the lay of the land before back bay was filled in. We watched the duckboats and the swanboats for a little while, strolled through the commons and then parted ways.

It was a nice lunch. Thanks guys!

I already knew you guys would have a grand time, but will be waiting for more reports and pictures.

No more pictures. You all already know what we look like.

Took me a while, but I've tried to chase down a US type turnip cake because I semi hemi demi believed Real John Boy. And yep, here's one.


Turnip-raisin-spice cake

Interesting dream!

Unfortunately, my theme for this long weekend hasn't been infantility; it has been senility. I've been forgetting stuff from the very start of my trip, most importantly my suitcase. Consequently, I've come to Massachusetts with everything I didn't really need for this trip. I've got a CD/MP3 collection carefully selected to cover the road trip forth and back without repetition. I've got my gym bag. I've got a Boston gym membership, since my original New york membership is in a franchise that also has facilities in Boston. I've even got a sixpack of Chesterfield Ale, which is farmerman's favorite Pennsylvania beer, and which had inspired this Boston visit of mine in the first place. What I don't have is clothes except the ones I'm wearing or shoes to change into. Kind of annoying on a 4-day trip.

Is that how it's supposed to be like when you're rapidly going on 40? Is senility the way I'm going to spend rest of my life? I'd be depressed about it, but I forgot what the problem is.

But I digress -- back to the gathering. Today, I learned that the revolutionary spirit that sparked the tea party is alive and well in Boston. It manifests itself in a non-violent, but determined resistance against red traffic lights. Several times, your humble correspondent has made his hosts wait when they defied red lights, resolutely ventured to the other side of the street, and he lacked the guts to follow them. (More things to be depressed about -- what kind of libertarian am I to cave in to government repression like that?!)

Littlek already mentioned the gravestones. They were interesting too.

And I know there were two or three more points that I meant to write home about. But I was too busy having fun to take notes, and I have this senility thing going on -- so I forgot.

PS, littlek, I found your Buddhist restaurant on my way to the gym. It looks nice, and I'll check it out for lunch before I head home.

Ha. That was good, Thomas.

OK - so - are the China Pearl turnip cakes sweet or savoury?

Sort of like potato cakes, only with turnips? Or perhaps more like carrot cake??

Are turnips those round whitish root vegetables, sometimes with a purple top (here) - or are they the white carrot-looking thing? Or something ekse entirely?

Well, Margo, being as how the little veggies were already all minced and strained and that, it's hard to know what, precisely, they looked like while still on the vine, so to speak. They may or may not have had little purple tops (common here also). Or they may have been something ekse entireky.

(They were, however, quite good.)

Hey, Thomas, forty-something is a bit early for senility. You must wait until you reach your sixties; that's an order.

Thanks, MA.
Why do I have this feeling that someone is taking the piss?

I'm going bavk to read your answer again.

And with that pearl of wisdom, Merry Andrew made his 13,000th post here.

If the turnip cakes were a bit hot/radishy - they were likely made with the long white Chinese turnips (those are the baked, sesame-coated cakes I posted a pic of).

If the turnip cakes were steamed and not tangy, they were likely made of the round purple-topped turnip that's more potato-ey. That'd be my guess from the photo, but ya nevah know.

They were not radishy.