Awesomely low key weekend

After all the traveling that I've been doing for the past I don't know how many weekends, it felt so nice not to go anywhere and do nothing. I didn't make any plans at all, and just went with whatever I felt like doing. Friday after work I felt sleepy, so I got home and went straight to bed, slept a couple hours, got up and got on Yelp in quest for trying something new for dinner. So, I discovered this Greek place in Harvard Square where the food was absolutely delicious. I had an awesome gyro sandwich after a long time. I liked it so much that I had another one. Turns out Mosaggah is not just enjoyed by the Arabs. Cause this place is Greek as can be and they were serving Moussaka. So I got home and got online for a while and went to bed later.

Early Saturday morning I felt like jogging but not my usual route, along Charles. So, I took the T down to Wollaston beach and jogged along the beach. It was definitely nice to have a change of scenery, the place was really calm which I figured cause half way through my iPod died on me so I had to listen to the seagulls, the water and the passing cars. Saturday evening, I tried something totally new to me. Went to Shabu Zen in Chinatown, I had no idea that I will be cooking my own dinner when I got in this place which is what you do here. You pick your meat, veggies and they give you spices and a hot pot. So, I cooked a plate full of seafood and ate it with steamed rice. Definitely an experience...

Early Sunday morning I went jogging my usual route along Charles, which was fun as usual because the weather has got better after a long time, there was some inter collegiate sailing competition going on, so there were unusually more people. For dinner I went to the North End, the Italian neighborhood in Boston. Had a nice Italian sub followed by Cannolis. Walked down Hanover Street, you see all these nice restaurants, cafes, gelatarias, stores with Italian soccer merchandise and a couple of hip designer clothing stores.

I was gonna go grocery shopping after Maghrib to Shaw's which is a little ways from the T stop, and it started raining so I stopped by Whole Foods which is right on the way. All these big business grocery stores have made the preservative-added food such a norm that places like Whole Foods are doing the people a service by vending "all natural" and "preservative-free" and "organic" foods. And since they're going out of their way to sell all-natural, they're selling it expensive. I was saying to myself, pretty much every grocery store sells natural stuff back home and doesn't flaunt all-natural, no-preservative labels on their products, and they're not pricey either. A few observations about the grocery stores in the Boston area in general, in the deli section, you can find Indian/Pakistani food like Chicken Tikka Masala over rice, Palak Paneer over rice etc in addition to the usual stuff. It was sort of a surprise for me since I had never seen anything like this in Wichita, Dallas etc. Also, there are whole sections dedicated to Arab delicacies such as Hummus, Tabouleh, Baba Ghanouj etc. At our Walmart in Wichita, we were absolutely delighted to see packed and not fresh Baklava. Moreover, there is a huge selection of cheeses from all over the world. So, I picked up some Fromage d’Affinois from Whole Foods today. I'm gonna try and act all preppy/Victorian/snobby and throw some of these weird names of cheeses in conversation, the trick is to say 'em right, but I guess if they're weird enough, not a lot of people would notice anyways :)

Like I said, a great weekend not making any plans... low key but relaxing!