Weekend Recap: Full of Adventures!

Don't you just love those weekends that send you into your work week still feeling a bit high on life? I woke up this morning still glowing from the fabulously fun and relaxing I had with the hubs, and I'm hanging onto that good mojo for as long as I can!

Friday evening we decided to take a stroll through East Arlington (the opposite side of town from where we live), and check out the Day of the Dead Festival that was taking place. Turns out, it wasn't much of a festival - shops were open a bit later than usual, there was a mariachi band walking store-to-store, and a few shops were offering snacks like room-temperature quesadillas or chips and salsa.

Who doesn't love the toy store??

However! In our stroll through the area, we wandered in and out of a bunch of restaurants I've always wanted to try including Kathmandu, Ristorante Olivio, and Little Q Hot Pot. Although we ended up at Little Q, I can't wait to try the others!

Having never tried hot pot before, I was beyond excited. Little Q did not disappoint! We got half black bone chicken broth and half Mala (spicy) both, which were both heavenly and warmed us right down to our bones. For those of you who are new to hot pot like we were, the term mala is made up of two Chinese characters meaning "numbing" and "spicy", which is exactly how your mouth feels when eating this broth - not quite numb, but close! Mala broth is made with TONS of Sichuan pepper flakes, among other spices and herbs, and is incredibly flavorful (and the perfect thing to clear a cold right out of your system - just ask my husband!). The black bone chicken broth, on the other hand, has a more subtle flavor, much like the best chicken soup you've ever tasted!

Of course with hot pot, you need some tasty morsels to cook in the broth and being newbies, we decided to order a special meat platter and a vegetable platter. The meats included: sirloin, beef short rib, fish tofu, white fish, and shrimp. Veggies included: mushrooms, corn, watercress, spinach, baby bok choy, tomato, and cilantro. The short ribs, fish tofu, spinach, cilantro and watercress were undoubtedly my favorites! I am already dreaming of going back :) 

Here's my man!

After a wonderfully relaxing Friday evening (capped off with some Modern Family!), we started Saturday morning off with a bagel adventure. A family friend once told me that Kupel's in Brookline was the best Jewish bakery and had the best bagels outside of NYC. So off we went! Unfortunately, we failed to remember that it was Saturday morning and therefore, the owners of the bakery were observing the Sabbath. Next time!

Instead, we ended up at Bagel Rising with dozens of hungover BU students. Fortunately, they had great bagels! Unfortunately, they had no decaf coffee... so off we went to 4A Coffee, a fabulous local coffee shop that roasts their own beans.

A sunny morning in JP

Once I'd sucked down an extremely tasty cappuccino, we headed to the Jamaica Plain farmer's market, where we were disappointed to see that there were only 3 or 4 booths there! Onward we went until we landed at the Roslindale farmer's market which was much more robust! We strolled through until a little shop named Bob's Pita/Droubi Bakery caught our eye. Inside, we found our favorite Armenian string cheese, a huge bag of dried mint for $3 (to make tea!), a large container of cinnamon sticks for $4 (for the holidays), and some other really neat spices, like sumac, which my mom has been searching for! Such a great find! (For those of you who are wondering, yes, they sold lots of pita bread, too!)

After a few other stops and detours, we suddenly realized it was 4pm and we hadn't eaten lunch, and we were out of things to do! Fortunately for us, we happened to be near Legacy Place in Dedham where we discovered a rather amazing thing - the Showcase Cinema De Lux! (We don't get out much!) This Showcase theater is unlike any other movie theater I've been to. While you can certainly still purchase regular price tickets and munch your popcorn, you can also pay a bit extra to sit in the VIP area of the theater where you can lounge in your spacious, plush rocking seats and order food and alcohol off a menu and have it served to you while you watch the movie. SO COOL.

A prime view of Ender's Game

So that is precisely what we did. We sat back, relaxed, ordered burgers and drinks, and thoroughly enjoyed our viewing of Ender's Game (which, by the way, is an excellent movie!).

We spent Sunday doing typical Sunday things... cleaning, laundry, football, steak, beer... you know the drill! All in all, we had a perfect fall weekend which made Monday somehow more manageable. I got on the train to work feeling energized and happy, like I could handle anything the day handed me. What more could you ask for, really?