Today Paul and I went into the city to get lobsters for our wedding anniversary this weekend. We had planned to go to Yankee Lobster, but we ended up at James Hook. There was even a small parking lot there. Good, because it was showering a cold dampness. Happy to be inside with the nice people there. I was given a free red pen- she did not know I am a writer. Good, because I didn’t want to reach for one in the cup myself. A couple of people, in masks, of course, indicated by their presence establishment popularity. Just to be with them made us feel as if we were in Grand Central Station as compared to what we had become accustomed to lately! The bisque lacked lobster pieces, but, happy just to find a fish market open, I’d settle for nice people any day over unmet expectations.
We both know our way around the avenues, streets, ways, and one ways. I suggested stopping in at the North End before we would brave Chinatown for a duck on display in one of the markets. I could never quite understand why the lines were always so long at Mike’s Pastry Shoppe on Hanover Street. Today I found out when I donned my mask for the second time and within a minute had two puffy cannolis in a fancy box tied up with thin barber shop string. The ricotta cream was lighter than any cannoli I had ever eaten, and when I bit in, I could still taste a hint of the oil in the fresh, crispy shell. I went in and out, just like that. We moved on.
We had to circle to actually get to the right market in Chinatown. A policeman didn’t care for Paul trying to park right at the corner of a street in front of what I thought were ducks in the window. They ended up to be small loaves of bread and the amused young girl in the bakery had the help of a nice gentleman who pointed me right down the street to a restaurant store. I waited in a line of about five people, under my umbrella and when I got to the head of the line I nearly walked out, afraid they did not speak English. But before I could even move, the young chef asked me, “Do you want me to cut it up?”
We began our day trip to Boston @ noon and were back by 2:30, accomplishing more than I remember ever doing so in that amount of time. It would sometimes take us an hour just to get into the city from our home. But, these days…
How are we doing with those transformations?