The semester finally ended (Yey! Only one more to go!). A few weeks from now, nothing will be the same, so we decided we want to take a final vacation that’s “just us two”.
Business before pleasure – we headed from Ithaca to the Boston area to visit people down in Cranberry Land. Why make a 6.5 hour drive to say hello? Well, when looking for a job offer, it’s always good to remind people who you are, how great you were and how perfect it would be if you worked at a company full time. And it’s always easier to communicate all of those personally than via email. This is not to say that I told anybody that I came especially for that. That would seem pathetic, or at least really desperate. (It’s still TBD whether I am that desperate).
Small side-note here on the fact that the 6.5 hour drive was actually an 8 hour drive due to stormy weather conditions. And at this point in time I’d like to say that Uri is an awesome driver.
A few tales from our time in New England:
We were there all of two nights, so we stayed over at a friend’s house in Tiverton, RI. This friend, who I met over the summer, recently bought a terrific house on the shore. It was pretty amazing waking up every morning, with the sun raising and boats going back and forth in the harbor. It was like a scene from some movie.
Food wise it was a great success: The first night we had diner in Providence, RI at a place recommended on yelp called East Side Pocket. We’ll second the recommendation – very good dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), good falafel very nice atmosphere. The owner, who seemed to be Lebanese (they were Christian Arabs) recognized our Hebrew, and spoke with us a bit in Hebrew (BeTeavon and all that). Providence is really scoring high with us on the foodie scale. If anything comes through with the cranberry folk, it might just be a serious contender for a living option.
Lunch the following day was bought at a little sandwich place in the heart of cranberry land that we discovered during the summer.
The next diner was in Boston, with our friends Ashley and Dan who have a passion for food very similar to our own (Check out the link in Dan's name, it's the blog he's writing about his experiences in culinary school). We trusted them to make the decision as to where to go, and they did not disappoint. They did say though that it was a bit stressful having that weight on their shoulders. Anyway, we went to a restaurant in Chinatown that was likely one of the most authentic that I’ve been to in the US. It’s called the Gourmet Dumpling House, though they make much more than just dumplings. Some of the dishes really had that “China Flavor” that is everywhere in China. Since Dan is very adventurous with food, and Uri never says no to food, we ordered some pretty strange stuff, including fried intestines (the most Chinese tasting dish) and a spicy fish stew for which a whole live fish was fished out of a fish tank that was near us. We had dessert at a place called Finale.
Lunch the following day was in Providence too, through technically it was on the “on the way to New York City” leg of the trip. We went to a place called Louis’ Restaurant, which Uri saw on one of his favorite food shows – Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives (you can see a the clip from the show here). It was ok, nothing more nothing less. The place certainly has a lot of character, and I could see how some locals might make it their local hang-out, just because the people seem nice and the food is American-comfort food )i.e. lots of tomatoes sauce and cheese), but the food itself is nothing to write home about, so I won’t.
Tomorrow – Part 2 of our vacation – NYC like we’ve never seen it before.
