Foreign Food and American Service

One of the greatest things about living in the greater Boston area is the vast array of ethnic food that exists.  Even in the shit towns and ghettos there is good food to be found. In addition to the standard New England seafood that can be found everywhere – the fried whole bellied clams, scallops, stuffed haddock, and the lobster – there are restaurants featuring dishes from every place imaginable, from Alicante to Zanzibar, and some of it is actually worth eating.

Within the last week I found myself giving the chance to a couple of restaurants in the Metro West area, in the Framingham area in particular. The first being a restaurant featuring Chinese cuisine and the other featuring Indian and Pakistani cuisine.  Although, it is well established that I am hard to please, especially when it comes to food and service, I will try to be as transparent in my review and judgments of the offerings of both places.

Now, I believe that if one is a true foodie, there are two rules, the food has to be good and reasonably priced. That said, the decor of a restaurant shouldn’t have to make up for a restaurants mediocrity. Thus, when I go to a restaurant I do two things, visit the bathroom to see how clean it is, then I size up the wait staff to see how I will be treated. When you get right down to it the most important things are service and the product – neither the packaging nor the pretension.

The Red-Pepper (http://www.redpepperroute9.com/) located at 17 Edgell Road in Framingham just off the westbound side of Route 9 adjacent from Framingham State College is by far one of the most delicious places to get Chinese cuisine in the entire area.  A word of warning to those who do not like spicy – you won’t like much of what is served here, but a little spice can liven up one’s life. So- give it a chance. A few colleagues from work and I went there for a mini-holiday get together. There was a table with a Lazy Susy and our Taiwanese colleagues ordered all of the food and did it up Asian style for us to show the custom that is eating in Chinese and Taiwanese culture.

Not only was the food delicious and hot and prepared with expertise, it was served with a smile and the wait staff was unbelievably prompt.  It is rare to find such service in a restaurant in New England.  Drinks were served and kept filled, any request was fulfilled, and the entire 15 person party was impressed.  Additionally, the meal was not rushed by the staff of the restaurant.  They were content to let us stay as long as we wanted to chat and enjoy the food. If you ever have a craving for Chinese food and you are in the area this is certainly not a place to be missed.

On Christmas Day, being so far away from home, my roommate and I decided to go have lunch at the new Punjabi Grill located at 1243 Worcester Road in Framingham across Route 9 from the Super Stop and Shop on Temple Street. Indian food is one of the most delicious things ever put on earth. I love the smells and aromas of this savory food. However, upon entering this restaurant there were a couple of problems.  The waiter did not speak to us, but rather stood and simply stared at us with a blank look. We asked for a table for two and were pointed to a place to sit. The entire half hour we were there, the waiter did not speak to us at all. This is quite odd, in my opinion.

As we went to the Christmas Day Buffet, the selection was small but had the standard dishes including vegetable pakora, chicken tikka masala, naan, and onion chutney.  However, the warm food was not too warm.  It was lukewarm at best, and the flavor had much to be desired. What made this an even more uninspiring dining experience was the fact that the waiter had a constant scowl on his face, the restaurant was cold, so much so that we needed to actually keep our coats on to maintain a decent body temperature. I find this to be incredibly unappealing and feel that most people would agree. After our meal there, my roommate and I had the consensus that we would probably not patronize this establishment again as it was a less than mediocre dining experience.

While having ethnic food is a wonderful way to expand one’s pallet and broaden oneself culturally, the people who run these restaurants whether foreign or American must realize that they have to follow the two rules – good service and superb food.  That is the best equation to have a successful business.  While marketing and location do have a huge impact on how successful a business might be, the proof will always be in the proverbial pudding.

Why Isn’t All Of Boston Like the Bubs?

About two years ago I came across the youtube video of the Tufts Beelzebubs performing a very high energy and fun mash-up of “Sexy” from Justin Timerlake and “Buttons” from the Pussycat Dolls. I was automatically hooked on these totally awesome dudes who sing their hearts out with pride.

In fact, I had a great desire that would involve me dating a Bub – so if one of them might be interested, I am available and very supportive of the music of the Bubs.

Alas, I do digress. So many people here in TSN are so rude and seemingly angry about something, or running late. These guys though, are probably the best of Boston in that they are seemingly happy and well, they know how to have fun in a way that is positive and brings an automatic smile to one’s face.

Recently, NBC had a show called “The Sing-off.”  In fact, if you want to watch it you can see all of the episodes on Hulu (www.hulu.com) and I must say that they were all AMAZING!  Unfortunately, the Bubs lost to another different, but very musically inclined group of Puerto Ricqeños.  And the Bubs are available on iTunes.

You can tell in the voices of these young guys, that they have this joy, something that is very often absent in the lives and general character of the people of the North. Once such song that touches me is the Bubrendition (a word I just made up) of “Come Sail Away” originally performed by Styx. Keep in mind that this is an acapella singing group when you listen to this song.  I hear it and every time I feel the ever familiar welling of tears in my eyes.

All and all, they are the bomb, good to look at and a hope that for the future the attitude of Boston will perk up and be a little bit more joyous and less – annoyed, as it were.

Go out and support the hometown boys!

Work Ethic in the Northeast

You know I just have to say that the work ethic as I have seen it here in the Northeast is something that is quite nutty. Expectations of bosses and teammates sometimes are so high that it leaves one very little time for oneself. The high-paced deadline driven worklife isn’t something to hate, but when should it stop? When is work over?

Perhaps these are just questions that you learn as you go up in life, corporate or otherwise. I think that the main problem with young professionals- especially those that do have a good work ethic and try their best to take pride in what they do is part of the problem. The secondary problem is that no one really tells them when to go home. But, additionally, there is a fear of not having a job if one doesn’t give all to the company. While the logic might be there, the logic that the company won’t feel obligated to an employee because of his or her dedication, it is like being an addict- the young scared employee just can’t stop working without the boss telling you to go home.

How do we learn this?

Nurses At The One Star Rated Hospital

Recently, I found myself in the hospital in the town of Medford- just north of Boston.  While I had been planning this hospital stay with my physician I was perplexed as to why this hospital was the approved-by-insurance facility where I would be cut up from stem to stern.  The fact of the matter is that walking into Lawrence Memorial Hospital was not what I had been looking forward to.  There was a general funk about the place, it seemed mostly dirty, and to be honest, there was a feeling that cleaning was not the most frequent of practices.

Despite all of these problems, I found that I didn’t really have a choice.  To have my procedure done, I had to come to this approved-by-insurance hospital that was certainly no Mass. Gen., Brigham and Women’s, or some other well respected hospital in the Boston area, nope, as usual, I get the shit end of the stick. However, it is a hospital and it hasn’t been shut down by the state yet, so it must be an okay place to go regarless of whether it was the scariest hospital I had ever been to.

The quality of care in such a place was something that really ran hot and cold also, if you could say that. There were the new nurses who worked there and were trying their best to be good and kind to me and to take care of me. Which, in my humble opinion, is a task that every nurse no matter where they are working should take to heart. However, I believe that the younger a nurse is, the fresher s/he is out of Nursing School/ Training, the most compassionate they seem to be and the more kind they are to patients.  But, on the other hand, the attitude of what I would say was a not up to par nurse, who works in the 1 star rated facility is a detrimental and uncomfortable awkwardness that is not conducive to a patients recovery.

Of the seven nurses that were assigned to me during my two day stay, there was one good one- Bethany.  She was so incredibly kind and she helped me and listened to me and gave me what I needed when I needed it. Her general bedside manner was superb and she was not argumentative with me at all. Not to mention the fact that she was gentle and had fierce eye make up. However, most every other nurse there was such a bitch to me that I found it quite added to the stress of being in the hospital.

One nurse, would poke my incision to wake me up, another would scream at me in the middle of the night to wake me up, another nurse simply would wake me up by giving me a shot.  When one would poke me in my incision to wake me up, I would be livid and start screaming. What kind of health care professional would do such a thing? In fact, not only was this one thing I had to deal with, but additionally, some nurses would come in and pull my catheter what it was still in my bladder.  Why you might ask?  I don’t know, because they are sadists or they wanted to wake me up.

I would just like to say that, while there is a general conception in the entire country that Boston has some of the best hospitals in the country and even the world the workers at these hospitals should keep in mind that they represent the area and they represent Boston.  Of the people who were there to take care of me, there was my wonderful nurse, Bethany, a nursing student who went walking with me, and then the lovely Hatian women who were so gentle and kind and cleaned me and made my bed.  The other nurses who poked me, yelled at me, and then kept tripping over my catheter, get a little bit of professionalism.  There is a reason that you work at one of the shittiest hospitals in the area, it is because you are shitty and you are inconsiderate and seriously lacking in the basic concepts of what it is to take care of someone.  I have been better cared for in a hick town in Oklahoma at a small hospital than I have in this great mecca of wonderful health care- this is sad and a problem. Buck up Boston!

A List Of Good Things About The Boston Metro Area

Despite the fact that this blog is entitled “The Shitty North” as an expansion to my generally negative view of the area, I have decided that I should write a few nice things about the place in which I live that is slowly but surely becoming my home. So, as a small departure from my usual ‘fuck the North” attitude, here are a few things that are sort of cool about this place.

1) Gay acceptance.

This is pretty cool. I am not to worried about going out at night and being a little gay in Boston. While it is true that something bad could happen anywhere, threats to my person are not impending, I guess. Since moving to the area I have not experienced a gay bashing from a straight person. No one has really got all up in my grill, if you will. The only remotely weird bashing experience I had was at the hand of a gaggle of twinks at the 2008 pride celebration in Boston. Well done Boston, well done.

2) The History

Just about anywhere you go in the Boston Metro has so much history that if one likes to learn this is the place to do it. There is Paul Revere in the North End, Plymouth Rock where the pilgrims landed, Salem of the infamous witch trials, Framingham that is the home of the world known heart study- this list goes on and on. In addition to these things, there are cultural histories of the immigrants who have come to this area- the Brazilians of the Azores in centuries past, the Italians who have created their own special culture in the North End, the Irish of Southie. The freedom trail, the harbor of the Boston Tea Party, and all of the historical things that make Boston so interesting are there for the enjoying.

3) The Ocean

This seems to be a plus because to someone from a landlocked place like Oklahoma, the ocean has always had a mysterious quality that attracts me to it.  Although, there is a down side to this- the North Atlantic is always cold.  It is so cold that even on the hottest day, hypothermia is a possibility. Still though, looking out on the horizon on a clear summer day, the North Atlantic offers a calming security.

4) Getting to Europe is faster and cheaper- in theory.

In general this should be true. When I was in my traveling to Europe mode about three years ago, it was generally about 700-800 bucks a pop for a round trip. Now, after checking www.orbitz.com, to go from Oklahoma City to Berlin is 736 bucks but from Boston it is only 560.  So, if I want to go to Berlin for the weekend, it would be much cheaper. (Not that I make many weekend trips to Berlin). The travel time is much shorter too, from OKC to Berlin could take 10-12 hours with layovers etc, but from Boston- only 7 or 8 hours, that is significant I think.

5) Autumn Leaves

In Oklahoma we do have fall, but it is different and the leaves mostly just go from green to brown.  But, here in the North, there are leaves that are purple, and red, bright yellow, and it is really beautiful to look at.

These five things kind of make Boston cool.

The North End Summer Festivals

Despite that my general feeling of the North End is that it is incredibly overrated.  In fact, I think because of the Nouveau Riche attitude, which incidentally is perpetuated by middle class people in the Boston Metro Area.  However, this is a discussion for another time.

During the summer, the North End has festivals that seem to go on just about every weekend. They all look the same, there are food vendors, and games for the kiddies, and there is some Catholic reason for each of the festivals.

I love this because there is no cheaper way to eat in the North End. The food is really good, made in front of you and comes from several different cultures (not just Italian) and the people who sell it are super nice.

Since 1914 the Feast of St. Agrippna di Mineo has been celebrated in Boston's North End

The most recent festival was the feast of St. Agrippina di Mineo, who was a princess tortured to death by Valerian in 256 C.E., and whose name is invoked against thunderstorms, leprosy, and evil spirits. After her unfortunate death three holy women, Bassa, Paula, and Agathonice decided that they would carry her heavy and dead body from Rome to a smaller place called Mineo in Sicily.  It turns on that on this trip some miraculous things happened and later the sick were healed when they visited the Agrippina body/ burial sight, so in great Catholic fashion, she was declared a Saint.

Since 1914 the St. Agrippina di Mineo Society has celebrated its namesake’s martyrdom by having a feast on Hannover and Battery Streets in the North End by raising money to keep up the churches in a state of good repair. According to the internet, this was also practiced in Mineo and it seems this is the main reason for the feast.

The feasts usually have processions and whatnot, but I go for the food.  There are the homemade, fatty, and delicious types of foods. I had a calzone that might have been one of the best I have ever eaten. There was funnel cake, some Korean dumplings hut, bratwurst, paella, kabobs, and other various sweets and savories.

It seems that my great disdain and at times seeming hatred for the shitty north is becoming less.  Perhaps I am finding things that make me happy in this tundra, and of course, it has to do with food and the interesting stories we learn because of the history that makes up the cultures and people of Boston. Finally, visit the website for the schedule of the remaining North End festivals for this year.

The Blue Collar White Resentment of the Black Bourgeoisie

Let me go ahead and preface this with what I consider to be universal truths:

1) Racism is considered to be deplorable by many people.
2) Everyone is a little bit racist sometimes.
3) No one will admit to being a racist.
4) Racism is something that will always exist.

If we look at this, racism is even a product of evolution in a way. People with certain physical traits come from a certain areas of the world originally. Due to politics, imperalism, and maybe even curiosity the world has come together and while races, languages, ethnicities, and religions tend to center around certain areas. There are theories upon theories on why the melanin content of our skin is different. Theories say that black people of Sub-Saharan Africa are black because of their exposure to sun, white people of Northern Europe didn’t have as much exposure to sun, so they have a lighter skin. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter, the fact that the races have mixed the world over, the essence of difference is ever present and permeates the human mind when one finds oneself in such a situation.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.Read the Washington Post Article

Recently, in Cambridge, H.L. Gates Jr., a very well known and presumably respected Professor from Harvard and expert in African-American culture and history, was the alleged victim of racial profiling and discrimination. Essentially, he was arrested for disorderly conduct. Essentially, a neighbor of Mr. Gates saw him breaking into his own house and called the cops. The officer who came to the scene and confronted Mr. Gates about breaking into the house at which point he enlightened the officer to the fact that he owned the home. The officer made request for Mr. Gates to step out of his home and provide identification in clear violation of Massachusetts law. As the situation escalated, Mr. Gates requested that the officer provide his name and badge number, to which the police officer refused, in clear defiance of Massachusetts law. Mr. Gates, from what I can gather, then started to accuse the officer of being a racist and/or racial profiling him at which point Mr. Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Many bloggers and journalist have jumped on this story to expose the brutality, idiocy, and seeming attitude that police officers are above the law and while racial profiling is illegal, that is it cannot be written in a police report, it is still very commonly practiced within law enforcement.  However, there are several issues that need to be pointed out in this instance.  In the best estimation of this situation and from the few articles I have read and the few facts that I understand about the area, I am uttery convinced that Mr. Gates was the victim of a bitter and educationally stunted and racist cop intended or not.

It is important to remember that Cambridge is home to two world renowned Universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.  Additionally, there are a couple of other campuses in Cambridge for higher learning.  This brings me to my first point- Cambridge is a college town, college towns are usually pretty laid back and liberal and have a lot of young white people.  Cambridge is a clean place, it is safe, and very ethnically diverse with people from all over the world living there.  In the link paired with Mr. Gates’ picture above to the Washington Post article there is a slide show in which there is a picture of the home in question. This is a very nice home and it is very normal looking for the Cambridge area. I assume that the police officer and the neighbor who called the 911 were wondering why a black man would go into this house- because black people aren’t expected to live in Cambridge.

This deep racism that permeates the liberal hamlet of Cambridge is nothing new. Writers of articles on Slate.com have pointed out that had Mr. Gates been a white man this would not have happened- a statement that I would deem as fact.  This all boils down to the fact that Mr. Gates’ front door was jammed and he was trying to open it. One of the towns next to Cambridge is called Sommerville, not so affectionally referred to by locals of the Boston area as “Slummerville.”  If someone had seen this same occurrence with Mr. Gates in that town, which among white people who don’t live there, has a reputation of being dangerous, low income, and non-white, the police would not have been called and the there would be no uproar.

Racism is not a concept that is finite in that one group simply wants to kill another and call them names, no, it is a virus that infects every cell of society.  If the neighbor of Mr. Gates had known that he lived in the neighborhood,  this all could have been avoided also. This flaw isn’t a result of racism, of course, but a flaw in the way that physical/ geographical communities are not aware of the members who live within its borders. But, instead of taking into account the context clues, of the situation, like the fact that Mr. Gates uses a cane, had arrived to the house in a taxi, had luggage (from a conference he had returned from), the neighbor saw a black man.  What would a black man be doing in Cambridge, what would he be doing trying to open a door to a nice house if not to gain entry to steal.

The officer who arrived at this scene should have simply left and not thought about it.  However, I would assume that he was of the same ilk of the neighbor. Perhaps he couldn’t imagine why a black man would live in Cambridge. Additionally, I believe that his actions, alleged or not, come from a place of resentment and race elitism held my many white people who feel that they shouldn’t be economically, educationally, or financially inferior to a black person.  It has been claimed in articles that this officer will not apologize for his over the top actions regarding Mr. Gates’ arrest, which comes as no surprise (the police station has probably instructed him to admit no wrong doing for legal reasons).  This officer’s elitisim, racism, classicism, and position of power exacerbated his inferiority complex causing him to act out in a most despicable manner.

What happens now?  Well, charges against Mr. Gates were all dropped, as they should have been. However, what comes next we don’t know, I have seen some banter about the ACLU and its interest in this case as it realtes to racism, but I am not sure if they have or if they will take up the cross for this one. The officer from Cambridge will continue on his beat and probably never think about the incident again other than to say that he didn’t really lose and that he felt he was making the right decision.  Mr. Gates is again confronted with the fact that despite this country’s advances in intra-country race relations, the row that is left to hoe is still long and is still hard. The racism will never stop.

What do those unaffected directly by this have to do. Remember that we are only human, identifying incorrect behavior is key to stopping it, and that despite the differences, here in the melting pot, we are the same.

Bye Bye Framingham RMV

One of the greatest things about living in Massachusetts is that I live and work in a town with an RMV (Registry of Motor Vehicles). As in any place, any time you have to go visit any such authority it is usually tedious and the people who work there are on some weird power trip. I assume this is because of the fact they have received training in how to decipher the beurocratic forms one must fill out to get a registration or a license. Like the guy with a short hair cut and a chinstrap beard in Framingham- he is a douche bag, very rude, and perhaps he doesn’t realize that he isn’t cool. I mean, who is this guy to talk down to anyone, he is a government worker, the only reason he knows things so well, is because he has been doing the same thing every single day for several years. Memorizing something is easy, it doesn’t make one smart.

However, I must also say that despite the fact that RMVs the all over the country generally are not that pleasant. But, at least in Framingham, the wait wasn’t that long, and you could get in an out in about half an hour if you go in the morning or during a low time.

But, as it goes the RMV in Framingham, MA is closing down. According to Ann Dufresne, RMV spokesperson, in Closing of Framingham RMV means a trip to Watertown, Worcester for driving test, the recent closure is due to the commonwealth’s need to save money by using state owned buildings and facilities to house the RMV. While this is a great idea, my major concern is why wasn’t this thought of 20 years ago? Senator Spilka, D-Ashland, pointed out that this was a surprise to her as she recalls that the Framingham RMV has been open ‘as far back as [she] can remember.’

It seems that this fiscal tightening of the government should have been something that occurred many years ago, and I would say around 25-30 years ago when the economy had a downturn in the 80′s. How is it that the commonwealth could afford to rent property for 20 years, allowed people and residents to get used to having things in certain places, then changes the lives and the constants all so suddenly. It is deplorable to know that no money was put aside by the government to either build or purchase a site in Framingham, when the RMV was opened initially. Surely that note would have been paid off by now and the government would have saved 1.7 million dollars in some exponent form over the years, had this tactic been applied to all of those RMV site throughout the commonwealth that were housed in rented buildings.

While I must say that the government is making a good decision now to save money, I would also like to point out that it is unacceptable for the ruling body of Massachusetts to have been so lackadaisical in regards to finance for so long. Critics will say that ‘everyone was doing it,’ and they would be right, but that is not a good enough excuse. As citizens of Massachusetts, it is very upsetting that a few people, although elected, have squandered and inefficiently used money from taxes and tolls. More oversight, transparency, and accountability should be required to look out for Massachuetts’ best interests, not those of the government and the elected officials.

Another grand example of wasted money is that of the Big Dig. I mean, honestly, we know it will never be completed, and that the budget will just keep getting higher and higher and the quality more and more inferior. Also as an aside, why would a city right next to the ocean want something underground? This is the same question I have for those people in Oklahoma and Texas, where there is no such thing as a tunnel, but where there are highways that are hundreds of feet in the air- it seems like a bad choice for cities located in Tornado Alley.

The lack of foresight, logic, and conservative fiscal practices are huge issues that have gotten the commonwealth and the nation as a whole into this very shaky economic predicament. Each time I hear the phrase saying that we, the plebeians, that we need to be understanding and just trust the patricians, I become filled with rage. The Patricians will continue to make our lives one that is more difficult and less happy. The whole concept of the American dream is going away, and we don’t have the RMV in Framingham anymore. We have taxes on everything, and they are only getting higher. Cut us some slack!

It Is Official- New England Is The BEST Solution For Now

While I still maintain that the North is shitty I am not saying that the South isn’t much better. The fact is that both places have their shittiness and seemingly idiotic idiosyncrasies. I would even go so far as to say that the amount of shitiness is equal, but not the same.

So, yes, the North is shitty, this is not nothing new, and it cannot be said that this is a false statement. But, on a recent extended trip back to the South, I have realized that I probably couldn’t make it there anymore either. While I do like the the slower lifestyle and the ability to enjoy life a little bit more in the South, there are things about it that I have recently realized that I couldn’t deal with now.

In the spirit of tolerance, I am going to shift the focus of The Shitty North, and, while I will still call bullshit, I am going to try my best to make this a little less about how much the North as a whole sucks, but on specific instances on how current issues that we as inhabitants of the North are faced with because of the sheer audacity of idiocy the permeates the entitled who live here and of course who run the state.

We will see how it goes.

One Speck of Hope In Massachusetts

I have a car that will turn 15 soon. An old car with a few dents, but for the most part it was still working, until one frigid morning this past winter when the car began to shake when idol and acceleration became more difficult. Of course, being poor, I needed not only to save the money, but find the time to take it to the shop.

The previous year I wanted to get some coolant put into my car and I left the repair shop with a new pump of some kind. I don’t actually think that I needed the pump- the truth is, the guy who ran this shop that is right on Route 9 in Framingham, Mass was the epitome of an aggressive, loud mouthed, no-customer-service-having, New England asshole. I ended up spending 400 bucks there and never went back because he was a thief and made me very uncomfortable. There is nothing worse than having to worry about getting screwed by a mechanic. I hate it, and if I could avoid ever having a car, I would, but unfortunately I live in the US and cars are pretty much necessary. Thanks Eisenhower!

I had been asking around about a mechanic and finally I got a good lead from a work colleague. Not only was this mechanic pretty laid back and down to earth, he was very detailed in what he did, and was fast and the work was high quality. This business is at 543 Old Connecticut Path in Framingham, MA. The people there were very nice and very helpful and I didn’t get screwed.

This one good experience when it came to dealing with a Northerner that I needed to do something for me has given me a little bit of hope when it comes to the Shitty North. Perhaps, people should stop by and see how the employees and the owners of this shop act. Bostonians could learn a thing or two from the these honest and hard-working non shitty people.