We began the trip by driving the 16 hours from Florida to Morristown, NJ, where my cousins, Ricky and David Maya, were kind enough to house us for two days. Ricky and David have lived in NJ for many years, and were very comfortable giving us the "lay of the land," with an amazing tour around Westfield, Summit, and other north NJ areas. What is one of our favorite things we learned while we were there, you ask? That most restaurants cannot afford/get access to a liquor license, so you can bring your own bottle of wine (or three!) to many local restaurants and they will cork and serve it at no extra charge! Oh, how easily we are made happy.
Next, we drove the rest of the way to MA. After one night of relaxing, Peter and I went into Boston to visit with Adam Ghander, one of Luke's best friends, and the three of us picked Luke up at the airport together. Adam brought us to a really unique bar called Drink, which is characteristic of a traditional speakeasy, where you'd be amiss to order a plain "Kettle One and tonic." No, Drink doesn't do normal. Instead, you tell one of the bartenders what kind of drink you like (for me, I tend to like vodka and ginger ale), and they will create a drink for you. You taste it, and if you like it, you keep it. If not, they make you another one, and so on, until you are happy with your novel, unnamed drink! They do everything by hand, including crushing whole cubes of ice, peeling fruit for garnish, and shaving almonds for flavor. It was a neat experience, to say the least.
The second day were were there, we all (me, Peter, Luke, Diane, and Paul) drove up to New Hampshire, where we had the chance to visit St. Anselm College (Luke's alma mater, which was absolutely charming), attend Uncle Bruce's mass, and enjoy a delicious home-cooked dinner together. The remainder of the visit was just as wonderful, since we got to visit with Memere and Pepere Clement, Uncle Mike and Aunt Lousie (who subsequently shared some of the most fun recipes with me to experiment with!), Sean and Nicole, and most importantly, we got to meet Cecelia! She is so beautiful, and a great addition to the family.
Finally, Luke and Diane joined me and Peter for a short trip back down to NJ so that I could show them the Rutgers campus I will be working at. New Brunswick is a very exciting place, particularly because it has been featured on the Travel Channel in the show Man vs Food - and you all know how much Peter and I like food! For example, the campus is know for its "grease trucks," a group of truck-based food vendors on the campus that serve a famous sandwich called the "Fat Darrell," a sub roll containing an ensemble of ingredients such as burgers, cheese, chicken fingers, French fries, mozzarella sticks, gyro meat, and bacon. Crazy! We had lunch at another establishment that was featured on this show called Stuff Yer Face that serves mouth-watering strombolis, or as they say there, "BOLIs" (defined as a sandwich made with your favorite stuffings of either meats, vegetables or seafood, along with cheeses and savory sauces, wrapped in a freshly made pizza-like dough and baked to a crispy, golden brown). Oh yum. You can see part of the episode with Adam Richmond facing the Boli here: Man vs. Food episode at Stuff Yer face in New Brunswick, NJIt was a very productive trip, to say the least!
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