A Tasting at Clio (Boston, MA)

I read recently that Clio, one of Ken Oringer's restaurants in the Eliot Hotel in Back Bay will be closing while Uni (also his restaurant) will be expanding into its space. I was a bit bummed by it since I recently tried Clio and enjoyed it. So, I thought I would blog about my experience there before they close, in case you guys would be enticed to go try it out! Plus, it's one of the only photos I took with my new Sony a6000 before it was stolen when my house got broken into the second time ... sigh.

Anyway, I had grabbed a Gilt City deal for a tasting menu at Clio, which was a pretty good deal for this restaurant. Clio has had a number of great bartenders behind the bar and albeit some have moved on to new restaurants, they still had a nice cocktail menu when I went. Being a root beer lover (don't give me that Dr. Pepper nonsense), I obviously went with the Sarsaparilla Flip (sarsaparilla spice rum, root beer reduction, egg white, nutmeg brulee, $14)

Dinner starts with an amuse bouche of nori with white umami cream cheese, lemon cream cheese - a rich umami bomb.

The first course was a Chilled Courgette (zucchini, basically) Soup, marinated mussels, rose geranium, truffle vinaigrette

The soup is a local marrow squash with smoked salt foam.

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Hotel Review: Brook Farm Inn (Lenox, MA)

Fall is a great time to visit Massachusetts, especially towards the mountains. I used the opportunity to visit The Berkshires for some leaf peeping, staying at a Select Registry property, Brook Farm Inn in Lenox. Time for some fall foliage!

Brook Farm Inn is a small, cute inn/bed and breakfast set in a cottage built in 1882.

I was staying on the 3rd floor, in The Poet's Room. It's a cozy and romantic room.

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IONutrition: Ready to Eat Organic, Gluten Free Meals

As I get older, somehow I feel like I'm always busy. When I was in college, I was taking 5 classes and had 3 part time jobs and had no problem doing that. Now I have one job and one blog (OK, and doing random things here and there), but I always feel like I never have time for anything! Like cooking dinner.

I mean, cooking just takes a lot out of me! But as they say, if you want to eat healthy, you need to eat at home. Well, luckily, I got to do that for a few days thanks to IONutrition who sent me some samples of their meals. IONutrition delivers chef-prepared, organic, gluten-free meals to your door.

Catfish with lentils

The company is based in Chino Hills, CA, but they package everything up and ship nationwide. They deliver weekly and the meals are sealed and keep for a while.

It's easy to heat them up just with a microwave or oven.

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