Tall Ships / Sail Boston 2009

Here are some pictures of the ships I saw yesterday at my first ever Tall Ships / Sail Boston event. The weather was totally on our side; NO RAIN! I got home all toasted from the bright and sunny weather we We walked and walked around by the harbor and city to catch a glimpse of the different ships visiting from around the world. We managed to get onto some ships for a short tour on the main deck and check out the good looking crews  magnificent craftsmanship of those vessels.

I’ll try my best to name these ships; correctly. =) As these sails are all stationary at their designated docks, the sails are not up. It would have been lovely to see the ship sails up. =)

1) Picton Castle (Left) from Cook Islands. Indeed a working tall ship. There are some interesting and intricate details on board.

2) Blue Nose II (Right) from Canada. Cute crews on board!! Very tempted to hide somewhere and sail with them to Halifax the next day! =)

3) Europa (Left) from Netherlands. This is my favorite one. Privately docked, no public tours. =(

4) Pride Of Baltimore (Center) from USA. **Dad, this is for you! Remember when we were at Baltimore, MD and we read about this ship? =). Privately docked, no public tours. =(

5) US Coast Guard Barque Eagle (Right) from USA. This one is quite magnificent too. Lines were too long, we did not hop on for a tour.

 

6) Belle Poule (Left) from France. This is one of the many privately dock ships.

7) Le Eithne (Right) from Ireland. This belongs to the Naval Service Fleet of Ireland and was built was a Helicopter Patrol Vessel. They were open for public tours (I think) but was closed when we got there and might have sailed to their next destination soon after.

And here are some random pictures I took from our day out in the city. =) Walking…Walking and more walking until our skins are crisp and our legs are numb =)

 

And since I was drop dead tired, I suggested that we take “ship ride” back to our cars. Nobody objected to my suggestion, though we would have managed to drag ourselves back with the time we wasted waiting for the “ship”. It was a water shuttle/ ferry service provided by the state of Massachusetts to get from Long Wharf @ Boston to the Naval Yard @ Charlestown. It only cost us $1.70 for this breezy ride!

Agar Agar

I made agar-agar today……. it’s almost like gelatin, except it’s a gelatinous substance which is derived of seaweed instead of from the collagen of an animal’s bones or skin. So, I guess this is considered vegetarian?

Here’s how agar-agar looks like for those of you whose not familiar with this “animal free gelatin”. It looks kinda like strands of raffia string, but of course edible and is white/ semi translucent in color. You should be able to get a package of this from an Asian grocery store for less than USD2 per packet. I got mind for about $1.45 per packet of 30 g.

I used about half of the agar agar in the packet; about 15g and added about 6 cups of water (including whatever syrup/juice) to it.  I also added some heavy syrup from the canned peach I added to my agar agar. I boiled the 6 cups of water (mixed with syrup) with some knotted pandan leaves and sugar to taste. After all the agar agar has been dissolved, I sieved the mixture into a shallow dish (about 1-1/2” deep) so that the agar agar hardens quickly and will be smooth. Before that, I placed some cut up peaches and arranged them onto the dish. I made sure, I’ll have a piece of fruit with each bite size cut I will be doing later.

After pouring the mixture into the dish, I still need to roughly rearrange the peaches and space them out accordingly. I let it cool down first almost completely before putting it in the fridge to further cool it down. It will turn slightly opaque when it’s cooled down.

 

Cut it up into bite size pieces and savoring every piece of it. Ideally each piece should have a piece of fruit in it. You could use other fruits as you wish, as long as it’s bite size..(though it might be tougher to cut the agar agar with fruits in it……. =)..Totally yumilicious for a hot summer day =)

Tall Ships Are In Boston!

Tall ships are in Boston this week (July 8-13, 2009) and some of the ships are open for the public to tour around.  I’ve never been to one of these events but am sure looking forward to having a look at some of those magnificent ships at the different docks around Boston. Now I hope the weather will be sunny and rain free this weekend……… =)

Check Sail Boston 2009 for the schedule, ship information and other useful information pertaining to this whole event!

Most (if not all) of these ships have their individual websites and some of them even recruit trainees to work on board. It sounded so much fun, I was tempted to apply and work on the ships! And did I mention, TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD??!!

**Photos are borrowed from Sail Boston 2009.

Pasha Restaurant @ Arlington, MA

We went to Pasha, a new Turkish/Mediterranean restaurant in Arlington last month to celebrate Seyda’s birthday. I was waiting to see if the restaurant will have it’s website up and running or if I can find it’s menu somewhere in the WWW………… I gave up as I’ve yet to be able to find its menu online…. So, here are just pictures of our dining experience…which was overall good… I will try to explain and as much as I could here! It really kills me that I don’t remember the names of the stuff we ate…=(…The place apparently used to be a Japanese restaurant. And rumors were that the (Turkish/Mediterranean) guy who owned the new place now, used to own the Japanese restaurant! =P

The interior was simple and cozy with maybe 10-12 tables and a small bar area. Service was decent; the owner (I assumed) took care of us quite well. =). I forgot if the food were served promptly or not..lets just assume we did not have to wait extremely long! =P

We were started off with some complimentary (and refillable) bread with 3 different condiments to dip our bread with; seasoned olive oil, some kind of YUMMY salsa like sauce, and hummus I think. Seyda ordered us some appetizers to start with and both are very delicious!!One of them (left), if I’m not mistaken was some fried phyllo roll with feta cheese. The other one (right) was I think a Zuchinni cake with some yogurt sauce.

Lets start with my entree; Grilled Chicken Kebab (right). This was very yummy and chicken was surprisingly very flavorful and moist. It was served with rice, mash potatoes and my favorite salsa like sauce. It also came with a side of salad which I thought was dry or missing some dressing. Bobby ordered some lamb dish (left), I think. I did not try this as I dislike lamb. I forgot what he thought of his dish but I remembered that he too commented the salad was kind of dry.

Seyda, ordered a roasted stuffed eggplant dish (right) which she commented had quite a bit of cinnamon in it. It looked pretty good though. Hubby ordered some of marinated grounded beef/lamb kebab thingy. It looked pretty good, though the meat portion looked a bit small. I did not try both of these dishes as I was too busy filling up on mine. =)

Since it was a birthday celebration, the owner was kind and generous to give us two huge portions of Turkish dessert; Knafeh (I googled and I think I found the name for this dessert). It was a super sweet dessert that looked like thin vermicelli baked or fried and doused with tons of sweet syrup and topped with some grounded nut (pistachio?). Not too bad, somehow reminded me of Baklava but sweeter. Seyda commented that it wasn’t fresh….. I unfortunately wouldn’t know the difference! I bet it would taste better if it was fresher! =)This is the best I could come up with…Anyone who can give me a hand in naming all these dishes, please do so!! Thanks!! We enjoyed our meal and can’t wait to go back again!! This time, I’ll be sure to take a long a menu home!!! =)This is my first time really enjoying Mediterranean food! =)

Here’s the address & contact info if you’re interested in giving Pasha Restaurant a try:

669A Massachusetts Ave
Arlington, MA 02476
(781) 648-5888

Spiced Roasted Potatoes

Here’s the recipe of the roasted potatoes I made for my Lazy Monday’s dinner. I got inspired by Bobby Flay after watching him whip up a grilled potatoes with lobster salad (and he left me wanting to eat potatoes!!). I came up with my version of roasted potatoes dish since I don’t really have the ingredients for Bobby’s yummy looking salad. I shall attempt his salad soon…very soon!

The roasted potatoes I made had some Indian influence….coz of the spices (Turmeric Powder & Garam Masala) I used to season them…… I thought it turned out pretty good and different with a subtle hint of Indian spice.

SPICED ROASTED POTATOES RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Baby Potatoes, Golf Ball Size
• 1 Medium Sweet Onion, Sliced
• 2 Cloves Garlic, Chopped
• 1-1/2 Tbsp Butter, Melted
• 1 Tbsp Oil
• 1/4 Tsp + More Salt
• 1/4 Tsp Black Pepper, Freshly Cracked Preferred
• 1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 Tsp Garam Masala
• 4-5 Basil Leaves, Julienned

Method:

Clean potatoes, skin on thoroughly and cut them into halves. In a large bowl, whisk oil, melted butter, 1/4 tsp salt, black pepper, turmeric powder, garam masala and half of the basil leaves. Throw in potatoes and onions. Toss well so that all surfaces have been coated. Set this aside for 5-10 minutes.

Preheat oven @ 375F. Line a baking dish with a piece of foil. Pour in marinated potatoes (and onions) and let it roast for 30 minutes. Then, crank up oven to 400F and roast for another 20-30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender (and golden brown if desired). Remember to turn the potatoes once or twice during roasting time.

Remove from oven, and transfer onto a serving platter. Garnish with remaining basil leaves and serve warm. If desired, lightly sprinkle with a little more salt. This should serve 3-4 people. Pair this this grilled fish or chicken. =)