Everything that happened in Boston this week has been so surreal - a feeling much amplified by long meetings at work where I had zero access to the news or social media for hours. I know plenty of runners who pour their heart and soul into a race, and I have friends who bleed Boston pride - when the enormity of the situation finally hit, there was no way to stop the tears from flowing. A week later and I suppose it is back to normal for most of us. The city will recover, runners will lace up again and but I hope most importantly, we will always remember Patten Oswalt's words, that the good will forever outnumber the evil. There is no greater message of hope than that.
***********************************************************
When I finally peeled my eyes away from the news sometime mid-week, I discovered a place that served the best spaghetti-with-tomato-sauce I have ever had. I don't eat uptown often enough even though I will go anywhere for food. So I had a dinner date with a girlfriend on Wednesday at Amali located a hop, skip and a jump away from Bloomingdales on the Upper East Side. While every single dish we had was worth re-ordering (the broccoli and eggplant appetisers = insane), it was the pasta that blew me away - I couldn't wait to finish one mouthful of the spaghetti before wanting to shovel another in.
The dish uses San Marzano tomatoes which are given the Amali-treatment by being cured overnight with salt and sugar, then steeped in olive oil, herbs, lemon and orange zest. As the NYT aptly puts it: "the flavors multiple. It is sauce as liquer". Yup, I got drunk on spaghetti. Well worth maxing out my MFP count for the week day.
 |
| Amali's dining room (via) |
On Friday, after being glued to the news on the Boston manhunt, S and I went for a late meal at Comodo - a place I've been waiting to visit since seeing my friend, Felicia's photos here. The kale and quinoa salad you see on Felicia's blog was fantastic - alas not much else. With so many other options in the city, I am hesitant to make return visits to a restaurant for a dish I can replicate at home! One redeeming quality though - the staff disco-ed the lights and turned the volume up on "Celebration" whenever they brought out a lit birthday dessert for any birthday babies in the house.
We weren't keen on ending date night on a mediocre note, so walked around the corner to Pegu Club. A cocktail lounge I hadn't been to since it first opened, it had a nice mix of being busy but not too crowded. Solid gin cocktails there were the perfect pick-me-uppers we sorely needed.
My date night outfit involved a jaunt through old favourites:
