The Kansas City Batas

Archive for February, 2009

Alright.  I’ve been in Boston since Friday at 9:40am.  Before arriving, I had thought I would do the whole historical, Freedom Trail type thing while I was here.  I decided against that after I was actually here deciding what to do.  I figured I wanted to bring the family here sometime and we would do that type of thing then.  What I wouldn’t be able to do while they were here, though, would be to go out and experience some of the fun nightlife and oddity things.  This meant that I tried to commit suicide by grease and cholesterol on Friday.  Yesterday, I saw an old (as in former) professor.  Today, though…

I had been told by a few people that I had to go eat at Giacomo’s in Little Italy.  I was also told not eat dessert there, but go a few doors down and get something from Mike’s Pastry.  I did both.  I tried to get some people from my sessions here at my MYP training to go with me.  Unfortunately (but in the end was just fine), only one person took up the call.  Her name was Melissa.  We took the “T”, and with the use of GoogleMaps on my phone, found Giacomo’s.  We waited approximately 40 minutes, outside, to be seated.  The food was very good and consisted of fried calamari, garlic toast, chicken parmesan, spaghetti, and gnocchi.  We then went to Mike’s Pastry and got a couple of connolis each.

My game plane was to hit each of these two spots and then find a good Irish Pub and have a couple of pints.  Melissa said it wasn’t that far back and we could just walk.  We began the walk.  We passed a pub and decided we would stop and have a pint at each one that we passed on the way back.  That Guinness was hard for me to finish after having eaten the dinner I just had.

We left after one drink and resumed our trek back to the hotel.  She allowed me to stop at the Hard Rock on the way for some souvenirs for the kiddies.  As she remembered her previous evening and the fact that there weren’t going to be many drinking establishments, she recommended we take a couple of side roads to see what was back there.  An excellent decision.  We then found Mr. Dooley’s.

What an excellent Irish Pub.  It is a corner bar with everything:  beer, authentic Irishmen (not intentionally imported), great Irish music from two different groups, beer (Guinness, Stella, & Smithwicks), and Jameson.  There were great people and atmosphere, which is why we ended up staying for nearly 3 hours instead of stopping at various pubs on our way back.  We did end up leaving and started back to the hotel.  Melissa was feeling too inebriated to walk all of the approximately one mile we had left.  That being the case, she volunteered hiring a cab to take us back.  I did not mind.

We then arrived back at about 10pm.  She took one of her cannoli and headed back to her room.  I returned to mine, called my family, and started this post.  I am now finishing it during this first session.  I hope it wasn’t a total waste of your time to read it.  I should really start paying attention to the speaker now.  The few pics of my Boston trip are here.

I am now done with the first day of sessions.  The morning went very slowly, while the afternoon session went really fast.  It is probably because we finally got to the stuff I actually need to know.  I think tomorrow will go by quickly, also.

Tonight, the plan is to have dinner with a former professor, Rick DiMuzio, after he gives me a brief tour of Berklee, where he currently teaches.  I, and many others, have not seen him in about 13 years.  I am looking forward to it.

Tomorrow, I wish to hit a restaurant called Giacomo’s and then maybe an Irish pub of some sort.

I should probably call the wife and kids at some point.

I failed.

Right now I am sitting in my hotel room in Boston waiting for a session to start for my MYP training in the IB program.  I just got here today and I am already recupperating.  No, not from drinking too much, but from eating too much (go figure).

Have you watched the Travel Channel show, Man vs. Food?  I watched one earlier this week, and it happened to take place in Boston.  I, of course, took note of it and when I got in today and was hungry, decided to try to find the burger place that was discussed.

During this episode, he went to a little (and I do mean little) place called Eagle’s Deli.  I decided that since I didn’t have anything going on for 5 hours I would figure out the subway system (easy and convenient) and head out there for lunch.  When I arrived, I took awhile to read the menu.  The “Eagles Challenge” that was attempted on the show consisted of 5 pounds of hamburger, 20 slices of cheese, bacon, bun and 5 pounds of fries.  If you could eat it in an hour, your name went on the wall.  If you did not finish, you went on the Wall of Shame:

While I was willing to try that on my district’s dime, I remembered I couldn’t die for another 14 years (when Carmen graduates).  I also took in the fact that they gave you the same poundage of fries that they do of meat.  I therefore opted for the Cowabunga Burger:

I still failed:

Whilst a valient effort, I was deftly and unfortunately (although my heart says fortunately) taken down by the aforementioned pile of grease and dead flesh.  I have pictures, a take-out menu, and fond memories of my first day in Boston, so it wasn’t all in vain.

*Two guys came in and decided to try it also.  They both succeeded in getting the entire burger(s) down but did not even touch the fries.  We rode the Green Line part of the way together and one was noticebly ready to get off of that speeding, wobbling mode of transportation.