November 15th 2013: Watching the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra

Tonight, I had an appointment with a friend to go see the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra perform at the Boston Symphony Hall in Boston. After picking her up, we decided to find parking near the performance hall, then look in the vicinity for some food to  eat. We decided on Ichiban Yakitori Sushi  House, a really new Japanese restaurant in town, having just opened 2 days ago, taking the place of Pan Thai restaurant which I tried before a long time ago. The menu looked really promising, and we proceeded to order a lot of food, getting the Beef Tataki  (seared tender beef served with ponzu sauce) and the Akashi Yaki (octopus Dumplings served in special sauce) for appetizers, the Kakuni Ramen (ramen noodles with pork belly in soup), the Yakitori Regular Combo (10 mixed skewers, chef's choice) and the Me So Horny Special Roll (Miso Honey,sweet potato with cucumber, with seared salmon, miso sauce and tobiko on top) for main courses.

Kakuni Ramen

Akashi Yaki

Yakitori Regular Combo

Beef Tataki

Me So Horny

Unfortunately, except for the octopus balls and the maki, everything else was horrible in taste. There was too much bamboo in the ramen, while the yakitori was dry and totally overcooked. The beef tataki was the worst, looking more well done to deserve even being called tataki, while being cold at the same time. What a total disappointment. This has to be one of the worst Japanese restaurants I have been to.

After leaving, we still had time, so we decided to check out the cake shop next door, Oakleaf Cake Bake Shop. Not only is this place pretty in decor,

The cakes here are really awesome looking. I don't even know how they can possibly be made looking so realistic and cool. Here are some pictures of the cakes they designed, just for fun.

Apparently they can go for half a thousand dollars, being created by art students. Wow, just wow.

Even the cupcakes we bought, namely the Lemon Blueberry Super Cupcake (lemon cupcake, blueberry meringue buttercream, marshmallow fondant accent) and the Pumpkin Spice Cupcake (cinnamon meringue buttercream, cinnamon and sugar sprinkle) were simply decadent.

From here, it was on to the Boston Symphony Hall, where there was already a line waiting to collect their tickets. We were then ushered into the place, which was really beautiful.

Soon after, the performers came out onto the stage and the concert soon began. It was interesting how one person would always play a note for everyone else to follow, and then the conductor would come out to start the piece. Out of respect, I only took pictures in between pieces.

After the first few pieces, they even brought out a concert piano, that was played by someone who was amazing on it.

Somehow we kept missing how they brought the huge piano on and off stage, making it look like it appeared out of nowhere by magic. I really wonder how it is done.

Overall, the performance was pretty good, although I did not get some of it as the tunes were really weird. I don't know why, but halfway through the last performance, we both started feeling like dozing off.

After the finale, we filed out quickly before the rest of the crowd, and actually headed back to the cake shop to get more cakes before finally heading home for good. I'm glad I was able to watch an orchestra perform tonight. It's been so long since I've done so.