Boston Eats: Sapporo Ramen

A chilly and rainy day means ramen.  And the best spot for a ramen lunch is Sapporo Ramen in Porter Square.  I haven't been to their new outpost at the Hmart in Central Square, though...hopefully it's as good as this one! 

Om nom nom.

Kyla comes to visit!

It's only fitting that a post about a dear friend's visit to my city starts with the most adorable meringue peep from Flour, right?

Right.

At this point, they had been up for hours traversing airports, catching flights...clearly, caffeine and a snack was necessary.

Can I get enough of the chai at Area Four?  Nope. 

Kyla and my science, because clearly sciencey whiteboards are the new photobooth backdrop.  

The trees! They're green!

to the BSO!

Mahler + friends = lovely Friday night!

City sunset

Minnesota

Boston

April around campus

From bare buds to full flowers!

Twin Cities Eats: Dairy Queen

The oldest Dairy Queen in Minnesota is the cutest little place on the corner of Lexington and Larpenteur - between blizzards, dipped cones, and buster bars, they are a family favorite. 

Real Minnesotans eat their Dairy Queen ice cream sundaes in April wearing puffer coats, gloves, and ear muffs. 

Twin Cities Eats: Boneyard

Where there is "chicken and waffles" on a menu, there is Eric saying, "We're going." 

I'm glad we're related.  And so off we went to Boneyard, a new restaurant in Minneapolis. 

We went on a Sunday night, and the bouncer gave my mom a funny look, a "you're too old for this place" look as he checked our IDs...apparently Sunday dinners are normally slow so they like to kick it up a notch, hiring a DJ and turning the bass up to 11.  Not exactly ideal when one is home for three days and wants to catch up with their family, but hey, we rolled with it.

Unwritten rule of Uptown Restaurants: kale must be on your menu.

Quite pleased with his cocktail, the Moonshine Punch.  Dickel White Rye, Midnight Moon Blueberry Moonshine, lemon juice, and beer. 

Mom's drinking the blackberry sage tea (we all loved it), and I went for The Cloister, a strong dose of gin with chartreuse, grapefruit juice, and lemon juice.

I will surprise everyone (everyone) and say I adored the lima beans in the succotash.  I hate lima beans.  They are so chalky and awful.  But someone must have been talking to the Lima Bean God, because these were smooth and creamy.  And the fried potatoes?  So good.  The meat was a solid good, not great.  And don't bother with the coleslaw or the hockey puck biscuits.

I completely agree with the Heavy Table's general take on their new restaurant flaws...as in, seriously?  You're a southern restaurant that made bad biscuits?  And the acoustics, whether DJ'd or otherwise, even after the music was turned down, well, it was deafening in there. 

But the drinks were fun, I love that Minnesota is starting to have some great flashes of inspiration in the form of southern food, and I think their large patio will be so much fun during the summer.  And I love the decor.  Hopefully I can come back for drinks and dinner sometime and they can impress me with their progress! 

Pizza Dinners at McCormick

One of my favorite events in the dorm is pizza dinner night...the housemasters make pizza dough and  set out a full spread of toppings and cheese, and let the residents go to town!

Best movie theater ever.

A Tri-Venn Diagram between my brothers and I looks something like this:

So...when you're home for four days, obviously, you spend as much time in the center as you can. 

Which brings us to the MOST AMAZING THEATER SEATS EVER!

See that?  Leather recliners.  The entire theater is leather recliners. 

If this is what selling out and moving to the burbs looks like, well, I can imagine why people would want that.  Because this is awesome. 

And of course, Marvel's Captain America!  The boys hadn't been keeping up with Agents of Shield, which I found to be a wonderful addition to my early morning workout queue - so I felt very much in the know (which I never am, ha).