We hopped onto the Chinatown bus for NYC this past weekend to send my cousins off to residency and fellowship with what else but a big Chinese banquet with the family. But between wandering the city and meeting with old friends, our short trip took us on a culinary tour which reminded me once again why Boston is simply no match for New York City dining. Perhaps most satisfying was recapturing the soba experience from Hawaii at a cozy noodle shop in the village called Soba-Ya. Literally meaning “Soba Shop”, the place sports fresh, hand-made soba kneaded each morning from stone-milled buckwheat shipped directly from Azumino. The kaeshi (dipping sauce) is supposedly aged for days. Our other indulgences included some watercress dumplings and lotus leaf baked rice at our old favorite hole-in-the-wall in Chinatown, Sweet-n-Tart, as well as some greasy burgers and milkshakes at Burger Joint, another hole-in-the-wall interestingly hidden behind a velvet curtain in the classy lobby of Le Parker Meridien hotel. With two weddings down in New York over the upcoming months, I’m already preparing a new list of places to hit on my next trip down! =P

I got an early taste of summer this weekend when I realized that my heating system has gone completely out of whack. The temperature outside was around 65° and my thermostat is set to 60°, but the indoor thermometer read a scorching 90°! And I’m STILL getting heat! While all I can do is to keep the AC running full-blast until they fix the problem, it made for a rather uncomfortably hot and sticky weekend. We did, however, managed to drive down to Newport, RI yesterday to partake in the Great Chowder Cook-Off, the first of the tourist town’s many summer festivals. The ads report over 3000 gallons of chowder served up by over 30 restaurants to compete in three main categories, including clam, seafood, and creative chowder. Though each booth served only a smidgeon of their steaming concoction, we were so chowdered out by the end that we gave up on any hopes for seconds and just placed our ballots before leaving. Though I would’ve liked to explore the town a bit further if we hadn’t been so zonked-out, we were glad that two of three of our choices took first place in the contest, making it a worthwhile trip after all.

It’s approximately 3 a.m. in the morning, and I’m about to sit down to enjoy my… brunnerfast. For those of you who may not be familiar with this term, it refers to the meal eaten in the wee hours of the early morning similar to a normal breakfast, but quadrupled in size to cover breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the previous day. After working in lab for the past 16 hours without food, I once again realized that after graduating from an Ivy-league college with honors, I too can find a job killing myself for no money. Toward the end of the day, I was so exhausted (and somewhat high on a combination of phenol, choloroform, and paraformaldehyde fumes), that during a conversation, I was like, “… But… But… What the hell was I saying???” To which my labmate replied, “I dunno… you just started going “But” all of a sudden.” Tonight was at least better than earlier this week, when I would go back into lab after dinner around midnight to work until 5am, making it feel like a whole other work day! This week’s getting too long, and I’m desperately in need of a hug… =(

These past days have been a madhouse in terms of lab work. Looking back, I could barely remember anything except for what I’ve eaten. And since my blog is more or less a journal of my culinary adventures anyway, I’ll just leave you a taste of our recent eats:

East Manor, a huge all-you-can-eat pavilion right off Rte.1 in Saugus, served up some above-average food for a Chinese buffet. The decor was surprisingly elegant, if not for the makeshift gift shop in the lobby with el cheapo stuffed animals strewn about.

Shanghai Gate in Allston offers an eclectic menu of various authentic Shanghai dishes many of which we’ve never even heard of. Even the sights and smells from the neighboring tables were enough to warrant another visit… at LEAST!

Located right on Newbury St., INQ Bistro and Bar looks chic from the outside. But with its sharp red interior and dim-beyond-romantic lighting, it gave more of a 50’s stucco-gone-haywire feel, or as Barbara puts it, “kinda like hell.” The generic American menu was equally uninspired.

Castle Hill, where Junne and Dave got married this weekend, is better known for their beautiful gardens and rolling hills. However, the reception dinner wowed us with hor d’oeuves like braised duck on a lotus chip or a portabella and leek pâté on a warm toast. Even the main course was blessed with a slab of juicy filet mignon with jumbo prawns stuffed with crabmeat. If only all weddings were like this…

With its shabby but utilitarian decor, with hand-drawn signs of menu items plastered along the walls, Men-Tei gave the promise of an authentic ramen experience. But one sip of the salty soup and a bite of the dried char-sui and soggy noodles convinced us otherwise, sending us home ready to give up all hope.

This weekend disappeared with the blink of an eye. Although I did get to attend a wedding, shoot some pool, and even catch a movie, the days were also interspersed with chores and errands. Some were beyond my control (lab work, laundry), while others were kind of self-inflicted (Kaplan project, vacation album). I wonder how I’ll ever survive returning to the wards, when work time will nearly double. Fortunately, last evening afforded us the opportunity to enjoy some comfort food in Chinatown followed by an evening at the Opera House for none other than our favorite musical, the Phantom of the Opera. The newly renovated Opera House, costing a hefty $35 million, is certainly a feast for the eyes with its rich and extravagant interior details. The show itself was excellent, and still carried its deep emotional impact even though I must’ve heard it more than a dozen times, seen it performed in NYC, and even watched its Hollywood rendition. Some of the singers were a bit too operatic, but Gary Mauer totally owned the show with his portrayal of the phantom delicately blending the anger and angst of the character. If you’re in Boston, I’d highly recommend catching it before its limited engagement is over.

Lab work was busy today, though I still managed to attend some of the talks at a Symposium on Memory and Dementia sponsored by the HCNR. Though the list of speakers was impressive (Eric Kandel, Tom Sudhof, Carla Shatz), the talks were pretty bland overall. A labmate came back and said, “once again, I discover that science is not interesting.” The dean of the med school, however, gave a brief but interesting closing remark. According to him, a neurologist no less, Michaelangelo’s famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel depicted god as a sagittal section of the human brain! If you look carefully, you may even see a spinal cord and pituitary gland near the stalk. That’s amazing considering that it preceded Vesalius’ anatomical drawings by more than 20 years. There are some evidence that Michaelangelo indeed dissected human cadavers to study the human form for his artwork. Perhaps what scholars over the past five centuries have interpreted to be God bestowing intellect on man was actually a depiction of the brain imparting this gift upon humankind.

It’s been a wet, dreary weekend. Despite the light rain, we took a trip to Arnold Arboretum yesterday morning, hoping to check out the spring blossoms. Being an arboretum rather than a flowering garden, unfortunately, most of the trees still retained the bare, lanky appearance of winter. I guess the extra time will give me a chance to start working on my photo scrapbook for Hawaii. For those of you who know me well, this little project will most likely take between 20-30 hours of my time spread over 1-2 weeks. I don’t really know how this started, but my vacation albums have evolved to become more and more elaborate over the years. You think maybe it has to do with the need, as we age, to hold onto our memories? Or am I just obsessive in that way? Ermm… don’t answer that.

It’s only been a week since I started trying to adjust my diurnal cycle to match Melody’s schedule as a resident, and already I’m noticing big fat rings around my eyes. This certainly doesn’t bode well for my return to the wards. Speaking of rings, I just found out that an old friend of mine from college just got engaged, shortly after my roommate, too, popped the question to his girlfriend earlier this year. On top of that, we’re attending a wedding in 2 weeks, another 2 weeks after that, and then another in September. Altogether, that’s 3 weddings and 2 engagements this year… and it’s barely past April! Only 2 years ago, I still remembered hanging out with the guys and tackling the singles scene. How quickly time passes…

I was transforming some bacteria today when I realized that we heat-shock competent cells at 42 degrees. FORTY-TWO! Why, that’s the meaning of life, the universe, and everything! Now THERE’s something to think about. Well, until that movie comes out, I’ve been taking more advantage of my Blockbuster online membership lately. Among the better flicks I’ve watched were Ray and Ocean’s 12. I also saw… Saw, which had an interesting plot, but horrible acting. I even got some episodes from the first season of Star Trek: TNG to relive my bygone days as a high school geek. Btw, is it just me, or have any of those guys actually aged since the series began? Beside Jonathan Frakes growing a mustache, I don’t think they’ve changed at all!

Since returning from vacation, I’ve been consumed by the desire to recapture the ramen experience which made the trip to Hawaii so memorable. A visit to Sapporo Ramen at Porter Exchange yesterday, however, was less than satisfactory. Though the noodles were fresh and springy, they were drenched in a bland, uninspired soup base with an uninviting herbal odor. With Boston being so deprived of Japanese noodle shops, I’m beginning to fear that our options are dwindling. I also got a chance to pull my tennis racquet out of hibernation for the warm spring weather. But after an embarrassing hour of play, I feel like I’ll be needing a LOT of practice. By the way, for those of you who wanna see more pics from Hawaii, check out the travel page.