Notes from the road, eastern time

WE DO LOVE OUR ROAD TRIPS. Our latest took us to Boston, in search of seafood, art and history—and hanging out with friends here. Oysters and lobster were big parts of our mostly seafood diet while we were here. We ate at Neptune Oyster not once, but twice, during our four-day visit. Briny, sweet, creamy oysters and lobster rolls—warm with butter one night, cold with mayo the other, incredibly rich and delicious both nights.

Of course, even we can’t live by seafood alone. Another place we went twice was Modern Pastry (Est. 1930) for incredible cannolis and other exquisite Italian pastries. Yes, we stood in long lines to get into both of these places. And we would do it again. We learned of both these places watching the Boston episode of Somebody Feed Phil. In fact, that’s what prompted us to finally actually go to Boston.

Our search for art led us to the Institute of Contemporary Art ICA/Boston, the Harvard Art Museums, MFA Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a lavish and fabulously strange museum created by an extremely wealthy woman of the 19th and 20th centuries with a good and eclectic eye for art. Our main reason for going was to see a John Singer Sargent masterpiece, El Jaleo, depicting a flamenco performance. Marion had seen a small print of it in a Spanish restaurant in New Mexico more than 20 years ago and had wanted to see the actual painting ever since. We stood in front of it for a long time, wandered around the rest of the museum and then came back and stood in front of it some more.

If you’re reading this on Wednesday, we’re on our way home from our final stop, Pittsburgh, for more great food and art. Come back next week for a recipe.