Boston, MA

I will be on vacation for the next two weeks, but through the magical world that is known as the Internet, I will still be able to post, just not as frequently. Hope everyone is having a great summer so far. I know I will…since I’ll be sipping mai tais and kamikazes in a luxury hotel bar very soon!

So, I apologize off the bat that this post will most likely interest only about half the population reading this (the hairy half..ha!). A friend who lived in California raved about threading when she came back from a family visit, so I wanted to try it out here in Boston. While it has yet to catch up in popularity here on the East Coast (except for NYC), I thought it was a cool experience! Threading is just another way to get rid of facial hair, like shaving or waxing, but as you can probably tell by the name, it’s an Indian technique that uses a regular spool of thread to remove unwanted hair. The technician holds the thread in an interesting “cat’s cradle” type of configuration from her mouth to between her fingers and when the thread is twirled between her fingers, makes a cool rolling scissor effect that pulls the hair out from the root! I’ll be honest…I had my upper lip done (most women get their eyebrows done) and it kind of hurt. It’s a weird hurt though where it was so fast and light, I didn’t realize it hurt until tears were rolling down my face. Kind of like getting a tattoo done…more hurt/annoying vs. hurt/extreme pain. That’s my opinion.

Threading is better than shaving obviously in that when you pull the hair out from the root, it takes longer to grow back and the hair is finer. I think threading is also better than waxing because the wax can pull the top layer of skin off along with your hair. Not the best if you have thin, sensitive skin. Threading takes just a few minutes and is comparably inexpensive. I went to Leeba Salon located on Commonwealth Ave in Boston across from the Star Market and by Boston University’s West Campus. There seem to be other salons around the city that do threading too. My opinion? Definitely give it a try! I think I’ll do my eyebrows next!

threading, Boston, salon, waxing, eyebrows, tweezing

There’s nothing better to start off your lazy Sunday morning than to wander into Boston’s Chinatown and meet friends for dim sum, which is basically Chinese breakfast or brunch. I’d recommend China Pearl or my new favorite place, Hei La Moon. It’s a crazy time when you first get to the restaurant as it’s usually extraordinarily crowded. If you can make your way up to the podium, that’s already a good start. You give the hostess your party number, you’re given a number scribbled on a scrap of paper (like the ticket machine at the deli counter) and then get ready to wait. If you have a large number of people, chances are you’ll get to eat sooner and sit at your own table. If it’s just the two of you, then be prepared to be seated at a large table with other people or wait EVEN LONGER for your own private table. Just depends on how hungry you are and if you’re willing to wait for a table for two.

Then, once you’re seated and served your tea, food comes fast and furious. You see, the dim sum dishes are served in metal carts that the servers wheel around continuously. They can describe what’s in a dish and if you want, they’ll place on your table, stamp your bill and be on their way. In less than a minute, you can have your entire eating area covered with plates of crunchy eggrolls, damp steamers full of shumai (shrimp/pork dumplings), a tray of chicken feet (if you’re feeling brave), bowls of mini spareribs or *my personal favorite* taro root cake with hoisin sauce. (Be warned…it’s not an actual cake, but more like a less crunchy and taro vs. potato version of a hash brown). Then, wash all that food down with several cups of hot jasmine, oolong or again a *personal recommendation* chrysanthemum tea. First timers, if the hustle and bustle scares you, find a friend whose gone to dim sum before to help you figure things out. Heck…I’ll go with you if you want. I’m always up for some dim sum!

Boston, Chinatown, dim sum, China Pearl, Hei La Moon, yum cha, Chinese breakfast, Chinese brunch, shumai

One of the great things about summer is just hanging out in the backyard with friends and playing some relaxing games like frisbee and catch, right? Well, imagine doing that 100 times bigger and in Fenway Park! This Saturday, July 7th, those Life is Good guys are throwing their annual summer festival and you, your friends and your kids are invited, for just $20 per adult and $10 per child. Not only are there tons of activities, but great live music including the Gin Blossoms. All proceeds go to the Project Joy and Red Sox Foundation, so come on out to either pull up a beach chair, laze about and watch the activities or try your best to be crowned the World’s Greatest Backyard Athlete!

I had FINALLY made my way over to the new Popeye’s Chicken at 645 Beacon Street behind the Pizzeria Uno’s near Fenway Park. Well, kind of behind Uno’s. More like behind and then down to the basement. Now, I’ve lived in the South, so I was more than beyond THRILLED that Popeye’s was coming. (Although I remember over 5 years ago, there used to be a Popeye’s at the Framingham Plaza rest area on the Mass Pike because every time I went out of town, I made sure to get me some 3-piece meal dealy). I digress…

I stopped by Popeye’s just for take out. I knew the place is small, the dining area would be crowded and dismal-feeling. It actually was not crowded at all. I had planned my surgical strike well as the Red Sox game was still going on.

Let me just say if you are a fan of KFC, then Popeye’s is another option of greasy, proprietary blend of herbs and spices fried chicken goodness as finger-licking as you can get. The biscuits SURPASS those of KFC’s as all you’re tasting is pure buttery crispness. The dirty rice is a nice side when you are sick of coleslaw, mac and cheese or mashed potatoes with gravy. My ONLY complaint (Popeye’s big-wigs…please hear me on this) is that you MUST have sweet tea on the beverage menu!!! It’s not a true Popeye’s meal without it!

Popeye’s Chicken, KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Boston fast food, sweet tea, fried chicken

Sorry everyone that there’s no “real” post on this holiday! I’m *not* going to be working and actually enjoying a day on the beach. How typically non-Bostonian of me! Hope your holiday is as relaxing and fun!

Well, I didn’t mean for it to happen this way, but so far my posts this week are centering around the issue of health care and health insurance. Massachusetts, as of July 1st, is now the first state to require health insurance for all residents. The deadline came and went, however residents still have until the end of the year to show proof of insurance, so only a small percentage of the 500,000 uninsured have complied. Time will tell how successful this landmark feat is and the rest of the nation is watching closely and making mental notes.

On top of all this, I went to watch Michael Moore’s Sicko last night and it sure made me feel that all right. I’ve always felt comfortable knowing I lived in a city that was known for its high-class health care, cutting edge research and home of some of the best university teaching hospitals in the country. Imagine my disappointment that none of that matters. According to the movie, there were plenty of people who had access to quality medical care, but they were consistent DENIED by their insurance companies these “medically unnecessary” procedures. Since when is getting a bone marrow transplant to treat your kidney cancer “unnecessary?” Especially when your younger brother is a perfect donor match? It just broke my heart that this was the extremely poor state of our country. What was priceless during the movie was when Michael Moore went abroad to France and London and when he explored their hospitals and health care settings, he asked “So, where do you go to pay for your hospital visit?” EVERYONE consistently laughed at him. “No one pays for medical care here” was the answer he always got. You could tell by the look on his face, he was ready to move to France! We in the audience were also laughing, but at ourselves. That is, until the poor elderly woman was literally dumped in front of the free clinic in California when the hospital she was previously being treated at decided she couldn’t get a free treatment anymore since she had no insurance. So, still in a hospital gown and with the hospital name scratched out on her dirty medical tag bracelets, they put her in a cab and she was all but pushed out onto the curb. Yes…then we stopped laughing.

Boston, Massachusetts, free health care, universal health care, health insurance, Sicko, Michael Moore

We all know that the debate of health care in America will always be a major issue of our times. Boston is no different. When I heard about this practice of “concierge medical care” even back in 2001, I thought “this can’t be a good thing.” It describes a sad state of affairs for both doctors and patients alike. Imagine the best doctors who are fed up with being dictated (or dictatored) by insurance companies and have to work over 60, even 80, hours a week and have practices of 3,000 patients just to make a “decent” living. On the other hand, there is also the poor sick patient who legitimately needs to see his doctor and the only opening is 3 weeks from now, and even when he does get to see his physician, it’s a quick 15 minutes and back out the door.

So, the answer that some doctors have come up with is to cut their patient load significantly and charge the remaining patients a hefty annual fee (often thousands of dollars) to make up the financial deficit. While this screams of elitist, luxury benefits that only the well-to-do can afford, maybe even the wealthy are not ready for this type of health care model, nor is the service readily acceptable. Read here for more.

Or is it? Despite not enough interest and not-full-to-capacity practices, it seems that it’s still a viable and profitable enough business model for other busy Boston doctors to jump on the bandwagon. Is it fair for a doctor whom you’ve known for years to suddenly say, “Ok, if you want to keep me as your doctor, I’ll have to charge you an extra $3,600 a year”? Then, again, I’m relatively healthy and only see my primary care physician for my annual checkups. I don’t need that level of care. Is it worth it to the patient who has numerous medical issues and (unfortunately) is often elderly and on a fixed income? Can they afford it at a time in their lives when they really do need that highly attentive care, yet expect it to come from their own pocket? Is it setting up a bad precedent where a patient can “buy” his medical care in such a way he can now “order” his doctor when, where, for how long he wants to see him or what medication he wants to be on (because he did all the research on the Internet himself and that’s what he thinks he should be taking)? What do you think?

health care, concierge medicine,   Boston concierge practice, Boston doctor

Oh boy!!! File this post under “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it!” Sorry, couldn’t help myself. The Smart Car is finally coming the U.S. If you have traveled Europe as widely and extensively as I have (and when I mean extensively, I mean 3 countries…thank you very much), you couldn’t help but point and giggle every time you saw a Smart Car. Seriously, nothing more than a glorified golf cart, this car, built by Mercedes Benz, is the PERFECT vehicle for putzing around Boston. Can you imagine actually parking with no problem in Chinatown or the North End? How about being able to easily zip around double-parked cars without ACTUALLY having to change lanes? This makes BMW’s Mini Cooper as big and clunky as a horse-drawn carriage. You don’t even have to parallel park. The Smart Car is as long as a normal car is wide.  Your toughest decision would be whether to park facing in or facing out! This could easily revolutionize Boston as “not a bad place to drive after all.” However, don’t get rid of your old Corolla just yet. While this car is an errand-runner’s dream come true, this little puppy will have to stay off the Mass Pike or I-93 where the SUVs and semi-trucks play. Also, forget about picking up anybody at the airport unless they like to ride with luggage on their lap.

Isn’t this car just the cutest thing? Makes me want to buy two of them, strap ‘em to my feet and head on down the Esplanade!

To hype up this “car,” Smart USA is actually taking them on the road, so feel free to touch it, drive it, heck, give it a hug. It’s that small!!! This weekend, head over to the Border Cafe at 41 Church Street, Cambridge where you can give the Smart Car a test drive, Saturday, June 30th and Sunday, July 1st from 12 to 8. You might also see the cute cars zipping around the city at places like Newbury Street, Faneuil Hall, Fenway Park and of course along the Charles River for the fireworks display!

Now, excuse me as I go move the 2 garbage cans away from the side of the house. Gotta make parking space for my new Smartie!

Smart Car, Mercedes Benz, Boston blogs, small cars, Mini Cooper, test drive, Boston fireworks

Here’s another awesome suggestion from my friend at Asian Boston Magazine for those of you who like to do the “finer” cultural things in life.

A message from our friends at the MFA…

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston celebrates Japanese art this summer and fall with three exciting exhibitions:

Contemporary Outlook: Japan (July 2, 2007 – February 10, 2008) This exhibition features a selection of about 30 works created by Japanese artists between World War II and the present. Spanning a variety of media, by artists such as Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama, many of the works reflect the presence in Japan society of kawaii, or the quality of being “cute.” Western styles such as pop, minimalism, and feminist art are visible in the works, but the results are also uniquely Japanese in interests and approach. Contemporary Outlook:Japan highlights a particularly fertile period of artistic experimentation in Japan, one that generated a unique blend of ideas
and forms from East and West.

Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World 1690-1850 (August 28 – December 16, 2007) Drama and Desire explores the “floating world” of Edo-period Japan – a place of fantasy, where drama and desire unfolded in the theaters and brothels of the region’s pleasure districts. It was here that the ukiyo-e painting was born, now the subject of this landmark, MFA-organized exhibition. Drama and Desire will include more than 80 works by such artists as Hokusai, Moronobu, Kiyonaga and Utamaro, showcased in the screens, scrolls, banners and theatrical signboards they created. The exhibition marks the first viewing in Boston since the 1890s of the Museum’s vast ukiyo-e collection (see attached available images).

Arts of Japan: The John C. Weber Collection (September 22, 2007 – January 13, 2008 ): This exhibition, from one of the finest private holdings of Japanese art outside Japan, is the largest loan of its kind ever shown at the MFA, and will give visitors the chance to experience aspects of classic Japanese art not usually accessible to American museum-goers. Arts of Japan, which features approximately eighty masterworks ranging in date from the early twelfth to the mid-twentieth century, encompasses paintings in both scroll and screen format, lacquers, textiles, and ceramics. The exhibition complements
Drama and Desire, and includes some ukiyo-e masterworks, but will also feature works not in the Museum’s collection including men’s and women’s garments, sacred and secular calligraphy, tea ceramics and lacquers.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, MFA, Japanese art, Japanese exhibition

Independence Day is coming and no one likes their Fourth of July like us Bostonians. We’ll celebrate it over a whole week!!! Starting today, Thursday, June 28th, Boston Harborfest begins and runs until Wednesday, July 4th. So, head on down to Boston’s City Hall Plaza. There is everything from tours, reenactments of old colonial times, live bands, activities for the kids and of course food, food, and more food, especially the not-to-be-missed Chowderfest! It all ends with the massive fireworks display over the Esplanade the night of the 4th starting around 10:00-ish. If you don’t have a friend who lives overlooking the Charles River, one of the best ways to view the fireworks is to be on the water itself with one of the various Harbor boat companies that can bring you a different view of the action than those of us stuck on land. Check out the daily schedule for a complete listing of Harborfest activities and plan accordingly!

Boston, Harborfest, Chowderfest, Fourth of July, Independence Day, Esplanade, fireworks display

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a BIG FAN of the prix fixe meal. Three courses, four courses, seven courses…doesn’t matter to me. It’s just so easy! I’m always the last one to order because menus just overwhelm me. I want to read every single entree’s description, down to the last ingredient like *twice* and then start all over again before I can make a decision. So, having only a few choices is better for me and my fellow starving dinner companions.

Sel de la Terre, a “boulangerie” (say that three times fast! ) located close to the New England Aquarium offers a special Wine Wednesdays prix fixe meal every week during the summer, which is centered around a particular theme and wines to go along with it. This Wednesday, June 27th, is their “Cool Wines for Hot Times.” The menu looks mighty tasty, and at $45 per person, good for the eyes, stomach and wallet! Also, with the weather warming up big time, it’s nice to go for a stroll along the Waterfront after dinner! Here’s to the start of summer!!!

Even though this article is really a restaurant review about Rocca, I agree with the author’s first few paragraphs regarding the explosion of sidewalk dining here in Boston. It seems everywhere you turn, restaurants, delis, cafes, even the tiniest ice cream parlor, can set some folding chairs and a wobbly bistro table out and call it “patio dining.” Just goes to show you how starved for the outdoors Bostonians are when the weather is “so nice.”

Just this past weekend, I was driving by Tantric near the Theater District. Granted, they have a large enough sidewalk space to accommodate about 6 tables of 4 comfortably without pedestrians gawking right beside you. However, the 3 tables that were occupied had to endure the sounds, smoke and traffic of NStar digging up the pavement not even 20 feet away! Gross…who wants asphalt dust in their mesclun greens?

Now, if a restaurant has an actual patio, some sort of outdoor area in back, a courtyard, atrium or a balcony would be the best, then that’s something special. If I have to share the space with tourists, bike couriers, shoppers and pigeons; sit in the muggy air and try to keep my napkin from blowing away, then I’ll be seated inside, thank you very much.  Just like these people…

Well, here’s a treat for you all this weekend. In case you missed it the first time around, the movie Serenity is being shown again at the Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard Street in Brookline, on Saturday, June 23rd, at midnight, in honor of Joss Whedon’s (the director) birthday. The profits will go to a nonprofit human rights group called You Can’t Stop the Serenity who advocates change, “not through politics, but by basic human decency.”

I’m all for helping out worthwhile organizations, but this is an EXCELLENT movie in its own right, and I don’t go out to the movies very often. However, (INSERT BIG WARNING SIGN) I’ve never watched a movie that left me seriously mental for days after. If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. If not, be warned. It is by no means a horror movie, but there are characters in “Serenity” that will disturb you to the core. Other than that…ENJOY!!!

Serenity, Joss Whedon, Can’t Stop the Serenity, Firefly, Coolidge Corner Theater, movies, Brookline

First the stemless red wine glass, now this. Leave it to a Boston brew company to not only improve their beer, but the beer glass! It’s so innovative, some restaurants who are currently using it, are having it stolen right under from the servers’ noses. Hey, it’s got to be easier than stealing a half yard! So, say good-bye to the pilsner, the stein, the pint and say hello to the ????????

Boston Beer Company, Samuel Adams, new beer glass