Banh Mi, Where have been all my life?

Have you ever had a Banh mi?  I hadn't until today, when I went on a hunt for them in Boston's Chinatown.  I was inspired by a conversation about them with my friend, Annie, who I just went to Portland with.  We were talking about charcuterie, and Banh mi came up.  She was waxing on quite poetically about them, and I was embarrassed that I had never heard of them before.  She filled me in that they are Vietnamese sandwiches that are made with various lunch meats, pates, mayonnaise, pickled vegetables, and cilantro.  In fact, you can fill them with a myriad of all sorts of different delicious things.  They were invented when the French occupied Vietnam as a result of the two cultures coming together to make possibly the most delicious lunch you'll ever hope to eat.

I took the T down to the Boylston street stop and walked a couple of blocks to the intersection of Beach and Washington where there are three Banh mi places on a single block.  I picked up a sandwich at each of them for comparison and took them to work as a surprise for my friends.  Annie, Beth (the pastry ninja), and I all ate them together at family meal and compared notes.  I cut each sandwich into three parts and put a piece of each on separate plates.  It was fun talking about them together and we ended up liking each one for different reasons.

Japonaise Bakery, Brookline

Yesterday, I stopped into Japonaise Bakery here in Brookline on my way to work for a bite to eat.  I wasn't counting on family meal at work being a terribly rewarding experience.  I knew the guys in the kitchen would be very busy putting out lunches and getting their mise en place ready for dinner service, it being Valentine's Day and all.  It's one of the busiest days of the year for us and requires a lot of work from every hand available in the back and front of the house to prepare for the plethora of guests, so there isn't much time to think about making a feast fit for a king to be served up between services and to be eaten only by employees.

I left my apartment with a good deal of excitement thinking about stopping at Japonaise.  I have been there many times and I knew that I would be able to get a quick and cheap meal that would satisfy my appetite and give me plenty of fuel for the busy night ahead.  They have terrific sandwiches, pastries, and cakes.  I usually get a loaf of their shoku pan, a traditional Japanese yeast bread enriched with heavy cream to take home.  It's as delicious as it sounds and it has a really nice texture that makes me think of the "snap" of al dente pasta or a natural sausage casing.

The Piano Time Capsule

Two or three weeks ago, my mother updated her facebook status with something like: "Just when you thought the packing was done, I discovered two boxes of sheet music!  Does anyone want it?"  I, naturally responded right away that I did.  I figured most of the sheet music was mine and there were quite a few books of Christmas and popular music that I thought would be useful for the cabaret events that I perform in where I work.  What arrived was a fantastic surprise that gave a big smile and lovely walk down memory lane.

Making Oprah Proud, Random Acts of Kindness

One of my New Year's resolutions is to perform more random acts of kindness in my daily life. It might sound a little like Pollyanna optimism, but I do think that little gestures of good will here and there magnify the flow of positive energy in the world. I was reminded of this when I walked by a heart that someone had formed with their footprints in the freshly fallen snow on my walk to the see beautiful art at the MFA yesterday. I stopped to take a picture and I started thinking about all of the possible narratives. Perhaps they were trying to impress their date or maybe they were just lost in unrequited love.  Who knows what their story was, but it put a smile on my face and gave me a warm fuzzy on a chilly and gray afternoon. I was thankful for this small miracle, and I was inspired by it to continue the flow of good energy somehow that day.