November 17th 2013: Lunch at Douzo, Dinner at Savin Hill Bar and Kitchen, Boston

After waking up early this morning, I decided to go do some hiking in the town of Sudbury, starting with the Memorial Forest. After parking at the parking lot near the Duck Pond, the path I took to explore the place is shown below in black.

The views of the pond itself were not that great though.

After heading to the railroad and back out to Dutton Road, then back to my car, I headed next to the Gray Reservation in town, where I decided to park at the lot on Old Lancaster Road near Hudson Road, and the path I took to explore this place and its ponds is shown below in black.

Once again, there wasn't anything of significance to see here.

Old fireplace remains

From here, I headed to the Lincoln Meadows Conservation Land, which I have been to in the past.

This time, I headed to find the supposed viewpoints on the map, the path I took being shown below in pink.

Unfortunately, once again, there was nothing of much significance to see at either viewpoint.

What a disappointing day of hiking. It was at this point that my friend called me to go have lunch at Douzo, a pretty upscale Japanese restaurant in downtown Boston. I headed in that direction passing by the towns of Wayland

Mill Pond, 21 Plain Road

and Weston.

Rivers School Campus Center

Nonesuch Pond, 333 Winter Street

I somehow managed to find free parking (illegal) near the Japanese restaurant, where a few of my friends were already waiting when I arrived. We waited outside for quite a while as the hostess did not want to seat us unless all of us had arrived, but thankfully everyone arrived after a while, and we headed into the pretty nicely decorated place.

As always, I decided to go with the interesting stuff on the menu, getting the Uni Shooters (with ponzu sauce and quail egg), the Rack of Lamb (with pesto sauce and broccolini) and the Ebodai Usuzukuri (thinly sliced butter fish).

Uni Shooters

Rack of Lamb

Ebodai Usuzukuri

The uni shooters were simply heavenly, being drunk like a regular tequila shot, with no alcohol of course. The sliced fish was even better in presentation, coming with the complete skeleton and head, with the sashimi placed on top. It disgusted some of my dining mates though. All this made the lamb pale in comparison, but it was pretty good as well.

My friends got the Gyoza (pan fired pork raviolis), the Beef Roll (Glazed with teriyaki sauce), the Salmon Tartar (with taro chips), the Vietnamese Spring Rolls, the Hamachi Kama (broiled Yellowtail collar seasoned with sake), the Tempura Udon (shrimp tempura in soup), the Douzo's Lunch Set (chef's choice of sashimi, sushi, yakimono and agemono, served with salad, rice and fruit), the Sashimi Lunch (assorted sashimi served with rice) and the Dragon Roll (Sweet potato tempura wrapped with eel and avocado with touch of unagi sauce).

Gyoza

Beef Roll

Salmon Tartar

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Hamachi Kama

Tempura Udon

Douzo's Lunch Set

Sashimi Lunch

Dragon Roll

Of them, only the Salmon Tartar was pretty interesting. The yellowtail collar was pretty typical, as was the udon. The salmon sashimi was a little slimy and had a fishy aftertaste though. It even made my friend have food poisoning. I wasn't able to taste any of the other dishes though. I will give the place the benefit of the doubt, as fish is not delivered on Sundays, so naturally the fish wasn't as good. 


We weren't done yet though. we got all sorts of dessert, which were all very well presented. I got the Strawberry Cream Cake (strawberry and cream cheese mousse layered with white cake and chocolate sauce with vanilla ice cream), while my friends got the Key Lime Pie Tart (with raspberry and apricot sauce topped with fresh berries), the Banana Tempura (bananas flash fried in tempura batter topped with mandarin oranges, ginger syrup, chocolate sauce and candied walnuts with vanilla ice cream), the Creme Brulee (mandarin orange brulee with dark chocolate squares and fresh raspberries) and the Chocolate Lava Cake (with vanilla ice cream and apricot and raspberry sauce).

Chocolate Lava Cake 

Creme Brulee

Key Lime Pie Tart

Banana Tempura

Strawberry Cream Cake

My cake was pretty good, and I managed to try the tart as well, and it met my standards as well.

After dessert, I decide to go have more dessert by walking to Fresh Mango, a froyo place nearby to use my Groupon for a 10-yogurt punch card.

This place is more of a you order and they make the yogurt for you. They had four flavors, namely Pecan, Salted Caramel, Mango and Original. Both the pecan and salted caramel tasted really weird, while the original was just so-so. I decided to go with the mango in the end, putting heath bars and gummi bears as toppings, which apparently to my friend are bad choices to go with mango.

The yogurt wasn't that great, so maybe she was right. Definitely not a froyo place I will go back to again. I don't know what to do with my punch card now though.

It started raining as we left the froyo place, so we ended up taking a cab back to the Back Bay T-Station, where we went inside for a bit to find my friend's car.

She dropped me off by my car, which thankfully had not been ticketed or towed, and I proceeded to the Ashmont T-Station in the rain to take a picture of it.

As I was still not too full from lunch, I decided to get even more food from Savin Hill Bar and Kitchen in the area. This place is a pretty nice looking bar restaurant.

For food, I decided to just get the Steak and Potato Flatbread (grilled sirloin, mashed Yukon Gold potatoes, bleu cheese, bacon).

Not bad at all in terms of presentation and taste, although I could barely eat the base as I became really full after a few bites of the juicy steak bits.

With that, I called it a day and headed home, glad I was finally able to check out Douzo with friends.

October 30th 2013: Dinner at The Fat Cactus, Lynnfield

Today after work, I had to use a Groupon  before it expired, at The Fat Cactus, a Mexican restaurant located in the town of Lynnfield. I had originally wanted to have dinner with  my friend in Cambridge, but as the Red Sox had a World series game in town tonight,  the traffic heading into Boston was hell, and was already backed up all the way to Framingham. I decided to get out as quickly, stopping by the Willis Pond beach at the end of Lake Shore Drive in Sudbury to take some pictures instead.

From here I drove all the way to Lynnfield for my dinner. I wasn't feeling too well at this point, but I still decided to go ahead with ordering a lot of food to fulfill my groupon. With the Red Sox game about to start, I ordered several appetizers, and although I was about to order the Tequila Lime Wings (marinated in freshly squeezed citrus juices, a hint of tequilla then fried) to fulfill my Groupon, the wings were 30 cents a piece this very night, so I was forced to order the Beef Empanadas (Ground black angus sirloin spiced with fresh cilantro, stuffed into pastry pillows with Mexican Cheeses and fried, served with sour cream and homemade salsa) as well. getting 2 Tequila Lime Wings and 2 Diablo Wings (marinated in Mexican Buffalo sauce) instead. I also got the Baja Spicy Popcorn Shrimp (baby gulf shrimp dipped in buttermilk then tossed in combination of spices, corn flour and fried, served with Baja dipping sauce). For my main dish, I got the Bandido Ribs (full rack of baby back pork ribs roasted low and slow with sugar based dry rub then baked with sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, served with seasoned fries, red cabbage slaw and cornbread), and finally the Deep Fried Ice Cream (Vanilla Ice Cream Ball rolled in cinnamon sugar and corn flakes, then deep fried to crispy shell, topped with strawberry syrup) for dessert.

Tequila Lime Wings

Diablo Wings

Baja Spicy Popcorn Shrimp

Beef Empanadas

Bandido Ribs

Deep Fried Ice Cream

The wings were simply excellent, especially the tequila lime ones, having a good amount of tanginess. The popcorn shrimp were pretty unique with the spice factor, while the empanadas were awesome as well. However, I was already full before I could even finish the shrimp and the empanadas, so I had to wrap them up before my main dish came. The ribs were not too bad either, although I could barely stomach even 3 bone portions. There's always space for dessert though, although the cinammon kinda spoilt it for me. By the time I left, the Red Sox had scored 3 runs, and there would be 3 more on my way home. I'm glad they won the World Series. Go Sox!!

October 26th 2013: Horseback Riding in Princeton

Today, I had an appointment with a friend to go horseback trail riding at the Cornerstone Ranch in the town of Princeton.

Before heading to pick my friend up, I decided to do some sightseeing in Framingham. The first place I went to was the Hop Brook Natural Area. The path I walked while here is shown below in pink.

The water body at end was just okay looking though.

After getting back to my car, I headed to the Cushing Memorial Park in town, which had been under construction the last time I was here. The end result is pretty nice,

Cushing Memorial Chapel

along with the fall foliage here.









Lastly, I visited the Framingham Reservoir #2 at ~262 Fountain Street









before going to pick my friend up.

We headed to the town of Sudbury first for an Indian lunch buffet at Soul of India. The decor here is pretty decent,

as was the lunch buffet, which had a pretty good variety of food,

 especially in terms of soups (3) and desserts (3).

After eating our fill, we headed to the ranch, arriving a little early.

We waited a while for the previous group of riders to come back with their horses, and while they were busy eating hay,

the leader matched us to our horses for the day based on our level of experience and size, with the small kid getting to ride on a pony. I was given a female horse named Shiloh.

Using a step stool, we mounted our horses, and waited for the trail ride to start.

Soon, it was off into the woods.

At times, I tried to get the horse to go faster, but somehow it refused to listen to my kicks. We would often stop along the trail to wait for everyone to catch up, and the horse would automatically start to eat the grass around it.

The views along the power lines were beautiful, as can be expected of Princeton.

Other than that, it was a nice ride through the woods in the fall.

After getting back to the ranch and dismounting our horses, I decided to bring my friend to see a few scenic places in town, heading to the top of Mount Wachusett nearby, where the views were awesome this time of year.


















We visited the Wachusett Dam in Clinton next, where the sun was about to set.

This time, we decided to venture to the other side of the dam, which I have never done before.

The views here are pretty good too.

From here, my friend had to go shopping for a Halloween costume, so we headed to Natick where there is a Party City branch. After she finally decided on a costume, we decided to head to Oga's, a pretty upscale Japanese restaurant located close by.

After a short wait, we were ushered to our table, which was nicely shielded from public view by shutters and curtains.

The shutters did make getting in and out from out table a little more troublesome though.

For food, my friend decided to get the Sake Ishiyaki Don (Fresh salmon sashimi, roe and seasonal vegetables over a bed of rice served in a hot stone bowl), while I decided to get appetizers only, getting the Enoki Beef Maki (Sliced beef roll with enoki mushroom and asparagus smothered in teriyaki sauce), the Oga's Clam Chowder (Saikyo white miso, Ume sauce, and wasabi for spice), and the Foil-Yaki (Shrimp and Japanese mushrooms baked in a foil wrap with sake and butter).

Foil Yaki

Foil Yaki opened

Oga's Clam Chowder

Sake Ishiyaki Don

Enoki Beef Maki

The clam chowder was delicious, especially with the Japanese touch, while the Foil Yaki was interestingly good in taste and presentation. The beef roll would have been good if the beef itself was not dry, while the rice did not have enough sauce, and the fish and roe did not taste so good once they started getting cooked by the hot stone bowl. I guess that is why they never serve fish roe cooked.

We also got Black Sesame Sorbet for dessert, which was actually pretty good as well.

Overall, definitely a restaurant I would recommend.

With that, I dropped my friend off home and headed back myself to get ready for food truck stuff tomorrow.