It's Been a While

Whew! The past few weeks have been absolutely crazy for me! As if this quarter wasn't crazy enough, I had 2 overwhelming weeks full of presentations, papers, projects, and finals to finish it off. Then, I left for a conference immediately after finals, so it was hard to take time to relax and enjoy being done with the first year of graduate school. And after being back for just one day, I left for a family vacation, returned, and have started classes yet again! I soo need a break.

Well, complaining about work isn't very exciting, and it isn't about food! Let me tell you a little about my travels and some of the tasty things I had along the way.

My first trip, for the conference, was to Boston. Although both of my visits there so far have been school-related, I think this is one of my favorite cities, and I'd definitely live there if given the chance. Ah, Boston... Our first day there was pleasantly

chilly, so we intended to find a Vietnamese restaurant we'd read about and get some pho (which along with tomato and mozzarella sandwiches, is the greatest thing ever). Unfortunately, the restaurant was nowhere to be found, although we searched the block several times. We settled for picking a random spot in the area and ended up at Stephanie's on Newbury. Although I couldn't enjoy a fantastic, piping hot bowl of my favorite noodle soup, I decided to go for some authentic chowda. And, wow, this stuff was good! Perfectly creamy with large chunks of potato and nice and hot for the chilly night. I also tried the Chinese Chicken Salad, although Ingrid's Vermont Goat Cheese Salad looked a bit tastier. Another restaurant we tried for lunch was Bangkok Blue, a Thai restaurant in Back Bay near the conference. I really enjoyed the dishes there. They were all very colorful, full of veggies, and not too large portions. I tried the Rama Garden, which was comprised of steamed veggies and a yummy peanut sauce. Sadly, I don't have pictures of these, so you'll just have to believe me and admire the picture of Copley Square ;-)

Next, my travels took me west to Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. This was a whirlwind sort of trip with only one day not spent in transit. We began by flying to Las Vegas and promptly drove 2.5 hours to southwest Utah where my grandpa lives (Vegas is the closest airport). The next day we drove a few hundred more miles to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which was amazing! I loved it there, although I wish I had a bit more energy for hiking that day. We did a 1 hour long mule ride around the rim, which I highly recommend over the longer 4 hour ride into the canyon. Unless you are an experienced rider or have a large cushioned saddle, 4 hours on a mule is going to cause some serious pains to your rear. We had a simple picnic while at the Canyon but stopped along the way home for dinner about 40 miles away. I was pleasantly surprised by the Jacob Lake Inn. Really this didn't look like anything more than a diner with a gift shop attached to a gas station, but they had delicious, home-cooked sorts of meals. Most of us had trout with veggies grilled in a foil packet. I love cooking like this at home because it's so simple and pretty healthy too. So much better than the airport food of the day before! They also had a huge selection of pies, so we couldn't resist a little for dessert. Oh, and everyone raved about the coffee too. It could just be that my family is a bunch of addicts ;-)

Above: The view from Point Imperial, highest point in the Canyon

Mule ride!

Adrian looking majestically into the canyon

At the end of the trip, we headed back to Las Vegas and spent a night there. This gave us time to do a little shopping, which I realized I'd much rather spend my money on over gambling. But we did also walk the strip to see Vegas in all its glory, get some giant daiquiris, and play a few slot machines. Adrian even won 50 cents! We had lunch at the Rio that day as well. I won't detail the World Carnival Buffet too much. Let's just say that over 300 dishes and 70 desserts equals quantity, not quality (but hey, that's what buffets are all about). Dinner, however, was a bit more upscale. We decided to try out Rumjungle in Mandalay Bay, which was connected to our hotel, the Luxor. I read about Rumjungle, which is described a Brazilian/Caribbean/Cuban. Given that the last Brazilian restaurant I tried was awesome, I thought this would be fun; and I knew my brother would appreciate endless skewers of meat. Their prix fixe menu, the Rodizio Fire Pit, was pretty ridiculous. In addition to tons of meat, you also get several side dishes including beans and rice, a salad, plantains, and roasted veggies. Of course, the meat is the best part. Our menu included Spanish chorizo, smoked salmon cured in a mai tai topped with fruit relish, rosemary chili garlic beef sirloin, turkey breast with orange habañero glaze, and bacon wrapped jerk chicken with guava chipotle barbeque sauce. My favorites were the chorizo and the beef. The way the salmon was prepared was good in theory, but I think it cured too long in the mai tai because that's all I could taste. Although it was possible for us to continue to be fed meat in unlimited quantities, we were all very full after the first round. Oh, and we tried some pretty delicious rum drinks there too. After all, Rumjungle supposedly has the largest rum bar. Adrian did a rum flight that included 4 El Dorado rums. I had something super fruity and sweet, and my mom tried a coffee with rum and amaretto (again, coffee addict). Overall, it was a pretty nice, albeit expensive, dinner. The atmosphere of the restaurant was also interesting (check out the website since I lack pictures). We were just leaving as it was turning into a dance club for the night.

The Strip at night