A Christmas in Boston

Today's post will combine some pictures from my past two weeks in the city. My parents visited this week, and a close friend of mine visited the week before. December has really been a great month, only to cap off next week with New Year's Eve. Let's start off at Faneuil Hall, host of New England's largest Christmas Tree.

The entire city has been decorated in green and red for the past month, with bells and ribbons on every light pole...

And more Christmas wreaths than you can count.

With the stress associated with the holiday shopping season finally coming to an end, it was quite nice to see the city completely empty on Christmas morning...

...except for Chinatown, which was filled with plenty of fellow Asians and our favorite Jews. After a brisk scroll in the morning, my family and I stepped into Pho Pasteur, a Vietnamese Restaurant at the edge of Chinatown. Here, we have some delicious lemon grass vermicelli.

It has been a really great holiday, and there's only more cool pictures to come next week. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas, wherever you may have spent it. 

A Weekend in DC

As promised, here is my second post this week (..kind of). So I spent last weekend in our nation's capital for a 10 kilometer race. More on the race later, but we'll start off this trip with a glimpse of my friend's swanky apartment. 

She was nice enough to take me through most of the national mall, even on a semi-broken foot. To get there, we needed to take what is quite possibly the cleanest, most beautiful metro system in the world. 

After the metro our first stop was President Obama's white house.

We continued through the national mall and took a quick stop at the World War II memorial. Here, we can see a shot of the memorial as the sun started to set on the Washington Monument. 

As the sun completely set, we finished our tour at the Lincoln Memorial. President Lincoln looks quite content sitting, forever enshrined in marble... 

...Back to the 10k, unfortunately it didn't happen. A combination of bad weather, poor health and an unreasonably early start time prevented us from competing. In the end though, it was a great month of training and a fantastic weekend in DC. Sometimes, the process is much more important than the outcome. You can ponder that, as I sign off with my friend interpreting the engravings in the Lincoln Memorial. 

Back to Boston next week...

A Thanksgiving in New Jersey

Time to get my game back together, it'll be a double post this week. 

First post, Thanksgiving in North Jersey. My lovely grand mom and aunt help prepare an extraordinary Chinese-American feast. 

What's on the menu? Well, some stuffed mushrooms...

.

...and as with any proper Chinese meal, seafood...

...of course, turkey.

Meanwhile, the boys go out for a Frisbee game under the first snow flakes of the season. My youngest cousin Andrew, took this incredible action shot. 

Happy Holidays! 

Food: A Collection

Inspired by the relaunch of http://thebeesandeees.wordpress.com/ . I've decided to post some pictures of some delicious grub taken from the past few weeks.

Let's start with brunch, at Hei La Moon in Chinatown. My good friend Andrew tries dim sum for the first time, and even has the guts to munch on some chicken feet. Scrumptious...

Satisfied? No way. Time for lunch at Goody Glover's bar and restaurant located just south of Boston's North End. Here, we have a 10oz Black Angus Bacon Cheddar Cheese Burger with a Fried Filet of Fresh Cod Sandwich peaking in the background. 

Dinnertime, and we have Pan-Seared Sea Scallops over linguine pasta in a pistachio basil pesto with artichoke hearts and pico de gallo from the Atlantic Fish Company on Boylston Street. Oh and for those of you who are interested, that is Cutter's phIll shirt in the background. He thoroughly enjoyed this one.

What about me? Let's try the Coustillous Grilles or Grilled St. Louis ribs marinated with mushroom soy, garlic, and black pepper from Elephant Walk in Cambridge. 

Finally, time for dessert. Mom and Dad, this is what a Mike's Pastry hazelnut cannoli looks like. It's like a Ferrero Rocher pumped full of ricotta cheese. And yes mom, I'll bring a box home during Thanksgiving.

Short post but hopefully it got you hungry. 

Sigma Pi Homecoming

Halloween marked Penn's 2010 Homecoming.

I was lucky enough to spend it with the brothers of my Fraternity, Sigma Pi. 

Things of course started with plenty of lighter fluid. 

Followed by beer pong...

Setting more things aflame...

Resulting in some downtime...

And finally ending with the darkness of Halloween and its escapades. 

Don't worry bros, many more pictures coming to the listserve and everyone else, to Facebook.

Wineries and Brewery Tours

This weekend was filled with drinking. Friday, Putnam had a company event at the Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, Massachusetts. We tried a number of their wines including a dry pear, a blueberry merlot, and a strawberry rhubarb. A nifty fact that I learned during the winery tour is that red wines actually get their color from the skins of the grapes that they were processed from. Cool huh? ...here are some wine bottles.

It was a frigid fall day in New England. Below is a shot of one of the houses on the property. A lady at the winery told me that it was a fantastic year for foliage. I didn't get the opportunity to really capture this, but I hope this shot can give you a glimpse of the cool oranges, reds and yellows before they are lost to winter. 

Since this was a company event, it was a great opportunity for me to shoot people. I really enjoyed this picture of my colleagues Irena, Blaire and Maria as they pick at some fresh grapes. Delicious. 

You can't have any fall event without football. David here put a wicked spiral on a pass to someone deep down-field while Paul looks like he's blocking Remco in the back field. 

The event was a great change of pace from the office. It's nice to be able to take a day off from work and enjoy some quality time with your colleagues. After looking through my pictures on Friday, I learned that shooting people is infinitely more difficult than shooting still objects. Not only do you need to control the exposure of the frame, but you also need to make sure you can capture the emotion of your subjects. Every picture should be able to tell a specific story.  

To end this post, I want to teach you Sam Adams' 5 step beer tasting and evaluation process. Keep in mind, my buddy Eric and I woke up early and trekked outside of Boston to get you this information! 

Step 1 - First, examine the appearance of the beer. Clear the condensation off the glass and observe the  beer's color, clarity and head. Looks good? Great.  

Step 2 -Next, put your nose deep in the glass and smell its aroma. What does it smell like? Heaven? or maybe just the hops that the beer was made with? 

Step 3 - Taste the beer with the front of your palette. Your tongue has sweetness receptors at the tip, so don't chug your beer all the time! You're missing some of the best flavors and aromas that the brewer has to offer. 

Step 4 - Taste the body of the beer. Focus near the middle of your tongue and you'll be able to taste the lightness or richness of the flavor. 

Step 5 - Finally, swallow the beer and taste the dry, bitter or sweet taste in the end. What's cool about beer is that, unlike wine where you should spit when you're done, you need to drink the beer to understand it's real flavor. Repeat and enjoy. 

The Freedom Trail

After waking up slightly hungover from our incredible housewarming party, I decided to take a scroll down Boston's famous Freedom Trail. Although I didn't finish the entire trail, I ran across a number of pretty interesting items.

First stop, King's Chapel Burial Ground, Boston's oldest burial ground (est. 1630). About 1,000 people were buried in this tiny piece of land located in the heart of the city. Common to most of these stones is the skull with wings located near the top of the tombstone. This symbol was to represent the soul leaving the body. Let's hope they found a peaceful final destination.

Next up I found this exceptional statue of Josiah Quincy, Massachusetts Congressman, Mayor of Boston, and President of Harvard, right outside of Old City Hall. On the opposite side, there's a statue of Benjamin Franklin, he did a bunch of stuff in his life too (like founding Penn!). 

Interesting story behind this set of sculptures. This was placed here to symbolize the American Dream realized by many early Irish immigrants. To the right we see a family suffering from the potato famine from 1845-1852. To the left we have the same family strolling through the city. Many Bostonians of that time actually criticized the Irish influence but thankfully for us, the Irish persevered and now we have Irish Pubs everywhere. 

Final stop, Boston's North End. This beautiful walkway caught my eye. We can't really see whats at the end of the path, but such is life. 

A Simple Drive on a Three Day Weekend

October 11th was Columbus Day, my roommate and I had the day off from work and decided to go for a drive in the city.

Careful, no turn on red here. But did you know that you can turn left on a red when both streets are one way (in boston at least)? This was news for me.

We drove past the Church of the Covenant on the corner of Newbury and Berkeley Streets on this slightly overcast day (notice the blue tint on the windshield, not intentional).

Ever notice the line in your side-view mirrors: "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"?Like your goals and ambitions, no matter how far away, they're probably closer than they appear. Just remember to check that blind spot before changing lanes.

It's amazing the beauty you can capture from a simple car ride. I suggest taking some time off from your busy schedule and go for a drive, or just walk around. Absorb the beauty of your surroundings and that stress just seems to disappear.

A New Hobby. A New Passion.

What did you buy with your first paycheck? I bought a Nikon D3000 D-SLR camera. The date was October 2nd, 2010 and this is my first set of favorite pictures:

Here, we find a bridge in Boston's Public Garden.

A beautiful flower found in Boston's Public Garden.

Here, we find some contrasting architecture in Boston Commons.

It's been years since I picked up a real hobby. I spent 2 hours and took almost 200 pictures on this beautiful, sunny day, and I can't wait to take more. Thanks Nikon, for making my first paycheck worthwhile.