Our new year began with sad news – our favorite noodle shop owner is moving back to Japan. We went last night to enjoy our last bowl of sapporo miso ramen and kita no kuni shio ramen at our beloved Ken Ramen noodle shop, said goodbye to Kenji-san, and wished him good luck back home.
While we look for an alternate option for ramen in Boston, I’ll be resorting to home-cooked instant noodles. One of my attendings recently introduced me to a brand called Myojo Chukazanmai. The noodles are springy and the broth is richly flavored. However, the $2 price tag is just too high for my taste. For just 75 cents (via Amazon’s subscribe and save), I will stick with my old favorite – Nong Shim’s Neoguri seafood udon. Just toss in some frozen veggies and two eggs stirred-in “egg-drop” style, and you’ve got yourself a sublime, steaming, spicy snack to satiate your stomach (aliteration intended). Give it a try, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it. Mina-san, Itadakimasu!

Our plan this weekend had been to celebrate quietly at home. Even my pager managed to stay silent for most of the time. Unfortunately, our short drive home from the grocery store yesterday was stopped abruptly by another car that had crossed a stop sign immediately ahead of us. Fortunately, the low speed accident left none of us with injuries … just a bit agitated. After calling our insurance company, we spent the rest of our time enjoying warm lo sung beef soup, trying out Little Big Planet, and watching episodes of Ruroni Kenshin. The story of the legendary manslayer “Battousai” and his quest for redemption as a wanderer in the Meiji era is an intriguing tale that has made this perhaps the most popular anime series of all time. The new “Kyoto” arc surpasses its predecessor with a more engaging, integrated story line with intriguing character development and excellent action cinematography. Anyway, I wish everyone a happy new year!

The holidays are always packed with events, and this year was no different. Last week, we spent almost every night out – the Chandler conference dinner which I helped organize, dinner with the meeting speaker, Melody’s department holiday potluck, and my neuro-op professor’s holiday party. Coincidentally, the last two took place on the same evening, just two doors down from each other on the same street in Newton. With their tight budget and upcoming salary cuts, it was no wonder that BMC had to resort to a potluck of home-cooked dishes, which contrasted sharply with the catered holiday feast with waiters and cocktails at my boss’ home. Despite the exhaustive string of shindigs, we both had Christmas weekend off. Rather than going to visit our families, we decided instead to stay home and veg out – which turned out to be our best decision yet, as the first noreaster of the season blanketed Boston with more than a foot of snow. As a new tradition, I cooked up a steaming pot of hearty bun rieu noodles while Melody baked several batches of different cookies – including a new recipe for mouse cookies courtesy of Serious Eats. Happy holidays to all!

This holiday season was more about receiving than giving. We spent Thanksgiving mooching off a friend’s family. Their lavish traditional dinner of turkey, gizzard stuffing, sour cream mashed potatoes, squash souffle, pumpkin soup, and a variety of homemade pies was accompanied by a large helping of Trivial Pursuit. Not having played this game since elementary school, the experience rekindled my fear of openly revealing my ignorance – like brain-storming the location of the “Haversian Canals” on the world map, only to realize that they were in the human body. My parents also came up to Boston to spend the rest of the weekend with us. We celebrated my dad’s birthday at B&G Oysters, caught up on a few episodes of Life, and did some holiday shopping at Wrentham. Our main holiday purchases this year, however, were a bunch of computer components to revamp our two desktop computer systems at home. Suddenly, the base of our Christmas tree became populated by processor, motherboard, RAM, and hard drives. I’ll be looking forward to some hardcore hardware handling while Melody heads to the West coast to visit her family next week. Add to that a huge carton of my favorite chocolates courtesy of my favorite deal site, and it’ll truly begin to look a lot like Christmas!

After a relaxed rotation at the Beth Israel Deaconess, I am back at the VA. This will be my third straight year there for the holiday season since my ICU rotation during internship and again as a junior resident last year. Very little has changed with the parade of elderly men marching into clinic with familiar phrases like “Can you say that louder?” and “I don’t know why I’m here.” At home, we returned to the Fallout franchise through the wastelands of New Vegas. The familiar first-person role-playing game engine is fitted with new perks and dopplegangers of ghouls and super-mutants, promising yet many more hours of head-shooting fun. We did manage to break away this weekend and visited a friend in NYC for her daughter’s first birthday. The party at Flushing’s Dae Dong Manor was on par with most weddings we’ve been to, complete with chair covers, fresh flowers, custom guestbook, professional photographer, DJ, slide show, and to top it off, a lavish Korean luncheon buffet. Even with our stomachs filled to the brink, we drove further to NJ for another friend’s baby shower – this time for Chinese-American fare at China Chalet and a variety of pies. But alas, the mix of crying babies and too-much Asian food proved to be a health hazard when Melody caught a stomach virus. Despite an uncomfortable drive back, plagued by her need to evacuate the bug from both ends of her digestive tract, we couldn’t help stopping for ramen at Santouka (again) before returning home.

We awoke early this morning to beat the crowds at our precinct and cast our vote for mid-term elections. But while Pelosi lost her place at the speaker’s podium, other women of power entered our lives in the past few weeks. We recently embarked on CW’s new TV series Nikita. Starring Maggie Q in various stages of undress, the show is reminiscent of Fox’s Dollhouse series, with similar motifs including a covert organization with an underground training facility, an army of good-looking but brain-washed recruits, a computer genius with no social tact, and a smoking hot female lead who can kick anyone’s butt. Compared to Eliza Dushku, Q has a more mature persona, which unfortunately make her performance a bit stiff and less fun to watch. We also missed the layers of complexity that distinguished Joss Whedon’s series. Meanwhile, we also started watching the 4th season of 30 Rock on our instant-watch Netflix queue. Tina Fey’s nerdy but adorable mid-level manager Liz Lemon, along with the quirky cast of characters, have kept us company over dinner at home. It’s nice to see the actors settling more comfortably into their roles and the show getting more hilarious with each season.

After keeping my copy of Uncharted 2 on a shelf for a year, we finally decided to break open the shrinkwrap and embark on Nathan Drake’s new adventure on the PS3. Voted by Gamespot readers as game of the year, the cover-based shooter featured an unlike hero, Nathan Drake, who reminded us of Capt. Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, with his wry humor and well-hidden heart of gold. The combination of adventure and sarcasm was addicting, and we finished the game in just a week by sticking with Glenn’s need for blazing guns and forgoing Melody’s obsessive treasure collecting. With a slew of anticipated game releases this fall, we wasted no time and leapt right into Sid Meier’s Civilization V last week. The 5th installation of the flagship of turn-based strategy games returned with a vengeance, with addictive micromanagement of resources and units, as well as the limitless permutations of science, culture, and wealth. For an obsessive-compulsive person like me, the game is a succubus that has drained all my time and productivity this past week. Luckily, I’m back in the Longwood area for my Beth Israel Deaconess rotation, so the commute has much improved. Aside from attending my friend’s wedding, I’m looking forward to a long weekend of what I’d like to do every night – take over the world!

We arrived in Florence by train at lunch time, but staved off hunger to explore the Santa Maria Novella church near the station. We instantly recognized the clean, geometric exterior which, like other buildings in Assassin’s Creed 2, were faithfully digitized in the game. Afterwards, we enjoyed an amazing lunch deal at Trattoria il Contadino, where the prix fixe menu includes homemade pasta and juicy swordfish for a mere 10.5 euro a person. Fortified, we visited Museo Galileo to get nerdy with ancient instruments for navigation, medicine, and physics, then at Santa Croce to peruse the tombs of famous Florentines including Galileo, Michelangelo, and Dante. Exhausted, we took a nap in the courtyard before a long trek back to our faraway hotel and a light dinner of Schiacciata pizza. The next morning began with a workout just short of insane – a 460-step climb up the Duomo to arrive, slick with sweat, at a beautiful panoramic view of Florence. After stopping by the Duomo Museum and checking out the impressive doors of the Baptistery, we crossed to San Lorenzo to the Medici Palace and Chapels, where we found that Ezio’s rescue of Lorenzo the Magnificent during the Pazzi Conspiracy allowed him to live another 14 years. We stopped for a low-key lunch at Trattoria Mario including a whole octopus for Melody, before checking out the Museum of San Marco and the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo’s David. For dinner, Trattoria Cibreo served up tomato bread soup, creamy mushroom soup, cheese flan, codfish mousse, and a potato gratinee. Although everything was essentially mush, it was all delicious mush. On our last day, we ran into a friend’s parents at the here.

Having soared across rooftops and scaled towers as a caped assassin in digital Venice and Florence in Assassin’s Creed 2, we could not resist visiting Italy to see these cities in real life. We arrived at the floating city (an island aptly shaped like a big fish) by water bus, where a bait and switch landed us at a hotel right along the Grand Canal. After a review of Venetian history and culture at the Correr Museum, we were mobbed by pigeons and the idiots feeding them in St. Mark’s Square. We ate dinner at Il Ridotto, where the pasta “calamari” featured shrimp gently cooked to tender, cuddly perfection. The next morning, our hotel speedboat took us to beautiful Murano, where our guide Lorenzo from Estevan Rossetto showed us some amazing glass-blowing technique, followed by some even more amazing glass-selling technique. A pricey snail sculpture caught our eye, but instead we sailed to colorful Burano to visit lace shops and enjoy a delicious al dente pasta along the canal. Unable to get the snail out of our minds, we succumbed and returned to Murano to give Lorenzo his commission. Back in Venice, we toured Doge’s Palace and crossed the Bridge of Sighs, which was sadly obscured by the surrounding scaffolds. Dinner at Corte Sconta featured a fantastic assortment of seafood appetizers and very salty pasta. On our last day, we embarked on a morning walking tour which took us across the Grand Canal via the Rialto to the tip of Dursoduro. Along the way, we passed the bustling fish market, the Frari Church, many gelato stands, the apartments of Ca’Rezzonico, and our favorite Scuola Grande, plastered from ceiling to floors with powerful Tintoretto paintings. Avoiding the high-priced gondolas, we took a traghetti back to St Mark’s Basilica, where we were ready for the non-existent pickpockets as we gazed around Ezio’s prettiest assassin’s crypt puzzle. We had our last and best meal in Venice at Alle Testiere, which proudly serves no pasta but the most perfect grilled seafood platter on the island. Complemented by a light, creamy tiramisu, it was the perfect way to end our visit.

We joined fellow hungry Bostonians last weekend to partake in the first annual Boston Food Truck Festival. Our first stop at M&M’s Ribs fed us an uninspired tray of over-done and over-sauced pork ribs. The sausage from the Sausage Guy was equally mediocre and overly filling. The true standout turned out to be Speed’s Hot Dog. The “fully-loaded” version is a large, plump weiner marinated in apple cider and brown sugar, served on a toasted sub roll with homemade mustard, onions, and cranberry relish. At first glance a sloppy-looking hot mess, it is instantly redeemed upon entering our mouths with its scintillating blend of sweet and savory flavors. We were so stuffed at the end that we could only watch in horror at Fillbelly’s belated entrance. Hoping to redeem ourselves, we stalked their Twitter thread on Friday, but was foiled again as they canceled their road tour for the evening. Disgruntled, we instead used our first Groupon for ribs and fried chicken at Soulfire. This weekend, we took a short road trip to New Jersey to hang out with some friends. Along the way, our bellies were filled with our beloved “melty pork” ramen from Santouka for lunch, sashimi and home-made bulgogi for dinner, and Sunday brunch with waffles, Spam, and eggs. An extravagant feast at Oleana with my co-residents, compliments of the ophthalmology department for our amazing OKAP scores, ended a most satisfying belly-filled week.