I took two pictures; not sure which one I like better – this one with available light:

Vintage Marimekko

Or this one with the night flash:

Vintage Marimekko with flash

We met up at the OCLC bloggers salon. The food at these things is always dependent on the catering at whatever hotel the event’s is at – this year at the Westin waterfront n Boston, there was a properly gooey Brie, and reduced balsamic vinegar, and honey and figs, and other nice cheeses, but only crackers – no nice baguettes to smear with Brie.

Then we headed off through the rain and slush to Chinatown – the dumpling place we thought to go to had a 45 minute wait – but we were seated immediately at a Taiwanese restaurant around the corner. Martin wanted to order stinky tofu, so we did – it smelled like feet but just tasted like mildly spicey tofu. The cabbage on top was more interesting, I thought. We speculated that it was toned down stinky tofu for white people. We also got comfortingly doughy, dim sum-like pork buns, General Gau chicken, and shrimp with greens – baby bok choy.

I even managed to eat the entire meal with chopsticks.

We started wandering around Harvard Square and ended up at a place called Harvest, that our local guide described as really good food but kind of pricey. (she was kind of a regular at the place; the host & waiter knew her from coming in to sit at the bar and have a snack)

I had the Grilled Line Caught Swordfish with Braised Artichoke Barigoule, Chickpeas, Smoked Bacon & Pickled Shallots, $29

Grilled Swordfish at Harvest

Sometimes I disappoint myself by ordering things that I wouldn’t get at home – as shown, it was a nice big piece of fish, bland but with nice grill char; the sprouts & pickled shallots on top were a nice accompaniment; the brothy beans, bacon & mushy artichokes underneath were way too salty. So altogether the dish didn’t really add up.

Jane, our local, had the beet salad, with red wine vinaigrette subbed in for the hazelnut, due to her nut allergy (nut-brown color in the picture notwithstanding – it is the red wine)

Roasted Local Beet Salad - Watercress, Frisée, Comte Cheese, Haricot Verts, Hazelnut Vinaigrette & Black Pepper Cracker

Mark had the special, and he said his beans, rather than being too salty, tasted like his mom’s Navy bean soup (real, US Senate, Navy bean soup)

Caramelized scallops on cannellini beans with ham

Probably the best dish of all was the wedge salad that we split.

Classic Wedge Salad: Baby Iceberg, Maple Smoked Bacon, Great Hill Blue Cheese & Local Farm Eggs