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What do a bunch of techy, blogger type guys do on a Friday night in one of the best nightlife infused ski and snowboard resorts in Canada? If you answered go out and get hammered and party the night away, you are incorrect! Try more along the lines of staying home until the wee hours of the night trying to get on the internet to blog about our day in Whistler. Sounds fun eh?

That is exactly what we pretty much did on Friday evening. After the Seasons movie premier, we hit the grocery store to get some food and five guys with five separate laptops sat around a kitchen table, reviewing our 1000’s of photos taken that day, talking guy smack, and of course having a contest on who could emitting the worst smelling air and make the most interesting animal grunts till the wee hours.

Saturday was super fun and interesting day for me. I went to check out the Orage Masters Event on Blackcomb Mountain in the afternoon.  What is the Orage event?  It is an event of 8 teams of four skiers that are competing for the ultimate big air bragging rights.

This event is not like your usual traditional ski event; far from it for that matter. Dubbed the “Anti-Comp”, the Orage Masters is one part slope-style, one part free for all, and one part masquerade party. There were teams dressed up as Vikings, Pirates, Bikers and all sorts of other interesting costumes throwing down some serious tricks and serious air on a custom built slope course; Definitely a super fun event for spectators to watch and better yet a great event for a photographer to shoot.

My press pass pretty much enabled me to get right onto the course to take photos. I would have to say the jumps here where massive and the athletes that were literally launching themselves into the atmosphere and pulling some crazy tricks in the air frigging crazy. Here are just a few shots of the course and the big big air.

 Top of the Course

Picture of the Course from the top

Picture 1/2 way down course

Biggest Jump on the Course

 Tricks and Big Air Photos!

Want to see more? More photos soon when I figure out the link.

Still don’t believe the photos? Check out the video:

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I arrived to Whistler this afternoon to a city buzzing with a great vibe. After picking up my press pass at the Telus Conference Center, I quickly found out the vast quantity of Music, Arts and Sports events this festival offers over the 10 days. The brochure and schedule of events that was handed to me was impressive. There is definitely a lot of stuff going on this week! 

After I got all my crap to our condo and got my bearings, I headed into the village to catch the last half of the Big Air training run. These competitors pretty much huck themselves off this massive jump that is constructed near the bottom of the mountain. Check out the picture of the jump from a distance. There are hundreds of people standing at the bottom watching in amazement as the competitors launch themselves way high in the air.

These photos here show the main square where all the action takes place. There is the main stage for the free outdoor concerts and tents for the corporate sponsors.

My press pass enabled me to “get on the other side of the fence” very close to the actual jump to get a better perspective of these guys hucking big. It was amazing to see how big some of these guys were going! The finals for this event take place tomorrow evening with competitors jumping through rings of fire. That should be interesting to check out!

Here are some pictures from the jump. More to follow later.

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It has been a long while since I posted something last. Not going to lie, I have been a bit slack and the day job has been taking up the majority of my time! Anyhow, I found myself in the City of Sin- Las Vegas a few weeks back attending the Interbike Tradeshow. 

We were in the convention hall at the end of the show waiting for some freight to be delivered and to pass the time away one of my friends from work (we will call him GB) decided that he was going to put on a bit of a show for us. Usually what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but hey not this one. This is pretty impressive and funny. More blogs hopefully to come soon.

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The weather has been pretty good for the last month or so and thus I have been outside every chance I can get!! ….how can you tell? ………. Well this is my first blog post in a long long time! Hey it is Summer finally. I’ll admit to slacking a bit!

Anyhow, last weekend my girlfriend and I headed up to Whistler British Columbia to check out the world’s best mountain bike park and to each take a bike camp. 

Whistler is one of those places that is an outdoor enthusiasts dream come true.  In the winter Whistler/Blackcomb is pretty much the #1 ski resort in all of North America and in the Summer time, the bottom half of the mountain gets transformed into the most adrenaline, speed induced, super fun mountain bike park in the world.

The Bike Park Trail Status Sign Board

There is always something happening up here and this particular weekend it looked like NSMB (North Shore Mountain Biking E-Zine) was holding their AIRprentice contest at the Whistler Bike Park this weekend. These AIRprentice riders are nuts. They throw down some large tricks and mega large air. I am sure you can find some more info on this on NSMB.

The AIRprentice crazies…

They ride stuff like this and make it look soooo easy!

Anyhow, for all the Whistler propaganda, click here for the Whistler/Blackcomb home page and click here for the mountain bike park website. Make sure you check out the crazy new Peak to Peak gondola they are planning to open December 2008.

I was signed up for the Richie Schley Freeride bike camp and my girlfriend was registered for the Spokeswoman bike camp. We had both heard the Spokeswoman bike camp was awesome from a number of other female friends that we knew had taken the course, so I was pretty confident that my girlfriend was going to learn lots, meet lots of new people and most importantly have lots of fun.  As for the Richie Schley bike camp, I wasn’t too sure what to expect as I haven’t known anyone that had taken one.

I was doing this camp with one of my friends (who is female and a technically sound mountain biker) and all we knew was about Richie Schley, was that he was one of the pioneers of the entire freeride mountain bike movement, one of the best freeride mountain bikers in the world, a great ambassador for the sport of freeride mountain biking and we would get to spend two days picking his brain and other celebrity professional freeride riders’ brain’s on how to improve our own freeriding technical skills.

The only female in the group.

Our camp had a range of participants aged 12 to 46, all males except for 1 female. The camp ran 2 full days starting at about 10am on Saturday and Sunday morning. One of the things that I really about being a participant of the camp was we had lift line priority to load the chairlift!  On the weekends, the chairlift at the base of Whistler is usually a nut house, so not having to wait in line was an added bonus!

Lift Line Priority how sweet it is. Waiting in this line sucks!

There was about 20 participants with varying levels of skills and everyone was very friendly. We had 3 groups running with about 5-7 people per group and one instructor.

The three instructors were awesome. For a bunch of professional athletes, these guys were so humble, modest, super super nice , and would answer any question and help you with anything you wanted to work on. This camp was all about the participants, and whatever we wanted to learn or wanted to know, we would drill and practice.

Richie Schley was one of the instructors along with Gareth Dyler, and a gentleman named Mason (I didn’t get his last name). All 3 of them were solid riders with their own riding strengths.

Richie Schley - The legend himself.

 Richie Schley’s bike. Manufactured in Germany by Rotwild Bikes.

Gareth Dyler - A guy that knows how to throw down the big big air..

Mason - A technical genius and ultra smooth rider. 

One of my goals in this camp was to learn how to properly do dirt jumps, safely do drops and figure out more efficient steep technical cornering techniques. Did I accomplish some of my goals doing this camp? The answer is Yes.

By the end of the 2nd day, I can confidently say that I was feeling way more comfortable than I ever had in the past on runs that had lots of dirt jumps. I use to hate doing dirt jumps and I was always fighting my bike and not feeling the flow, but 2 days with these 3 guys, I really figured out the theory and concept behind riding these dirt jumps correctly and safely, and now I want to ride these types of runs to practice these new skills over and over and over.

I learned some proper techniques on how to execute on drops more effectively and safely. Until someone breaks these things down for you, it is all trial and error and with drops and sometimes that spells some bad news if you crash.  I would have never thought of trying some of the things these guys mentioned to me. I understand now that I don’t have to do drops with lots of speed to successfully do the drop. You can go slow off these things and survive! now I just have to gets some more guts and get more confidence flying through the air!!

The techniques I learned for proper cornering were priceless as I figured out I have been doing it wrong my entire riding career. It will be hard to unlearn these wrong and bad habits, but the techniques I learned for cornering on both steep and non steep terrain along with foot and pedal positioning will enable me to be a better more effective and efficient rider.

The Richie Schley camp was great and I would highly recommend it to any intermediate to pro level rider wanting to fine tune their riding. I have been riding for a long time and I learned and discovered many things over the course of these two days that I can work on to be an even better rider. All the particants even won some draw prizes at the end of the camp! I ended up winning a pair of Fox Gloves! I can always use a pair of riding gloves!

Fox Gloves - A great draw prize!

As for the price, I found great value in this camp. The cost of the camp was $239 CDN for the Camp and a 2 day lift ticket, plus lunch both days.  With tax, the camp came to $254CDN. A 2 day lift pass at Whistler costs $94 plus tax if you buy the tickets at the ticket window and at lunch we got $10 food vouchers each day. So the instructional portion of the camp really cost about $135CDN or $67.50 per day for 6-7 hrs of instruction per day by professional freeriders.

As for the SpokesWoman Camp my girlfriend participated in, she said it was outstanding and well worth the money. Her camp cost with 2 day lift ticket was $289 CDN or $307 CDN including tax. They also had lunch included. My girlfriend kept mentioning how nice, friendly and encouraging the SpokesWoman instructors were. She mentioned the SpokesWoman camps broke the paritcpants up into 6 different groups with maximum 6 participants to 1 instructor. There were girls of all abilities there, from total beginners to seasoned riders wanted to tweak some skills.

A SpokesWoman group out having a good time!

At the end of the 2 days, my girlfriend had loads of fun, learned lots and it has increased her interest and participation in the sport of mountain biking more than ever. For me, that is exactly what I wanted her to get out of this camp: Lots of fun while riding her bike, , more skills to make her a better rider, Ride with other girls that are her own ability, and the desire like the sport of mountain biking more and more. She even won a good draw prize as well. She won a brand new set of Roach Rally FR Arm Pads.

Another good prize!

All in all a great weekend of bike camping for both myself and my girlfriend. We both recommend each camp to anyone wanting to be a better rider.

Ride on, ride safe and if you are in Whistler watch out for those bears.

Keep away from the Bears…like the sign says!

This guy might be friendly though…

Hope to see you on the trails one day!

Cheers!

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This clip was sent to me by a friend that I traveled Africa with. We both spent alot of time in Kruger Park in beautiful South Africa, and we never ever saw anything like this when on safari. If you have ever been on safari, you will know that this clip you are about to watch is very very rare and simply amazing. This is such an awesome clip. If you have never been on safari or traveled to Africa, do go one day if you have the opportunity. It will boggle your mind and will be worth every penny you spend to get yourself there. If you go, I hope you get to witness nature in full action like this clip.

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Atlantic Fish Restaurant Review Boston Massachusetts

When I was in Boston just recently, I met up with a friend of mine for some dinner one evening. Of course I suggested the Royal Bengal (click here for the article), but she wanted nothing to do with Indian Food as she was slated to run the Boston Marathon in a couple days, and she didn’t want to risk the Indian food having adverse affects on her system prior to the race. I can appreciate that, because sometimes Indian food affects everyone differently if you know what I mean!

She told me about this trendy popular place called Atlantic Fish; a fine seafood restaurant. She had dined here a number of times in the past and vouched for the quality of this place.  I was up for some seafood as I hadn’t had any yet this trip and numerous people told me to get some good seafood while in Boston. Being right on the East Coast of the United States, the chances are pretty good that the seafood would be good. After all Boston is famous for the Boston Clam Chowder right?

Atlantic Fish is located right downtown in Boston at 761 Boylston Street, Boston Massachusetts - 617-267-4000. Click here for the Atlantic Fish website . Click here for the Google Map.

You can definitely tell the restaurant is a bit more upscale from the fancy decor on the outside of the restaurant and being right downtown on a main street, I am sure the rent is not cheap.

 

When you walk in the restaurant, the smell of the food is the first thing that catches your senses. This is one of those places that is busy all the time. When we entered this one evening, the restaurant was packed with lots of people seemingly having a good time. There was lots of laughter and smiles from all the patrons everywhere. The atmosphere was definitely contagious.

My friend and I choose to sit in the “lounge/bar” area as we really didn’t want to wait 1/2 hour for a normal table. The bar table was pretty much like a normal table as we were seated at an elevated rectangular table that would easily fit 4 people utilizing the bar height chairs. I took a look around the restaurant and the finishing in the restaurant was impeccable. The classic timeless decor of rich colored hardwood throughout accented by the soft dim yellow glow of the lights above definitely gave this restaurant a very friendly, warm and inviting atmosphere. The bar area was pretty impressive and the restaurant seemed to be able to hold from 100-200 people would be my best guess. The best way to describe this interior of this restaurant is it resembles a dining room of that of a cruise ship. If you have been on a cruise in the past you know what I am talking about, if you haven’t then go on a cruise some time…you won’t regret it!

We decided to get a number of appetizers and salads for our meal as we were both not very hungry.  We ended up each getting a Toasted Goat Cheese Salad, I got a Butternut Squash Soup, and we shared a Calamari and an Ahi Tuna appetizer plate, plus some dessert.  

The Bread
You know it is a good omen, when the bread they bring you before your meal is so good that you need to ask for another basket. The bread was awesome! Freshly baked, nice and soft, full of flavor along with the sesame thin wafers were a great prequel to dinner.

Butternut Squash Soup
Made fresh in house, this butternut squash soup has to be one of the best squash soups I have ever had. The soup was very smooth, with all the flavors and spices blending together perfectly to give you that hearty full flavored experience. The soup was also served to me hot which is always a bonus. I have been to many restaurants where they serve the soup luke warm or cold and that totally takes away from the true essence of the soup. Restaurants that serve hot food hot and cold food cold are definitely taking a step in the right direction.

Calamari Milano
It is interesting how restaurants around the world do their calamari. I have had many different versions of Calamari and some are good and some aren’t. Described on the menu as: “Tossed with olive oil, hot peppers, parmesan and garlic served grilled or fried with a warm pomodoro sauce” the description definitely sounds good.

The calamari milano here at the Atlantic fish looked and tasted like a tender small California bay calamari in a light crisp batter. The dish was definitely good, but would I call it some of the best I have ever had? well no, but don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad either.  I would order it again, I’m just saying it wasn’t unique and memorable enough for me to rant and rave about it and tell someone to go out of their way to head to Atlantic Fish and order the dish.  Maybe it was the pomodoro cocktail sauce that made it just OK.

I just think that if you are going to do a memorable calamari dish, you need to do it and serve it with some other signature sauce than just a standard issue red pomodoro cocktail sauce. Either ways this calamari is a good consistent product for those people that like lightly breaded calamari. Squeeze the lemon on it and you are good to go. 

 

Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna Appetizer
I figure when I am at a restaurant that specializes in seafood, I have to try their Ahi Tuna if they have it and see how it compares to some other Ahi Tuna dishes I have had around the world.

Right now the restaurant that holds the #1 spot in my books for an Ahi Tuna dish is a place called the Market Street Grill in Salt Lake City, Utah. Trust me, if you like Ahi Tuna and find yourself in Salt Lake City, go out of your way and visit the Market Street Grill. Anyhow, back to the Ahi Tuna at Atlantic Fish.

The Ahi at Atlantic Fish was plated cleanly with 3 fair sized pieces, topped with some freshly chopped ginger and zig zag of thick soya sauce on the plate. I figured that for near $10, 3 pieces of Ahi was a bit cheapo. I would say at least put 4 of 5 pieces on the dish. The red Ahi tuna was fresh, cold, cut easily with a fork and melted in the mouth. This stuff was good. The quick sesame searing on the outside with the ginger a dash of wasabi was a great tasting combination. Was it enough to knock off The Market Street Grill off of my #1 spot? Nope; Market Street still reigns supreme. The Ahi Tuna appetizer here is good and if you have the Ahi Tuna urge, the Ahi at Atlantic Fish will definitely make you happy. 

Toasted Goat Cheese Salad
I have no idea why I ordered this dish. I think it was my friend ranting and raving about how good this Toasted Goat Cheese Salad dish was. So when our waitress was taking our order, my friend ordered her Goat Cheese Salad, and being caught up in the moment, I also ordered one.

Not a big deal you say? Well, I’m the type of person that doesn’t even like cheese on things except for pizzas and even then I would rather have “easy” cheese. I’m the type of guy that scrapes the cheese off things! I like the salad part, but for me to order a Toasted Goat Cheese Salad was way way way out of the norm.

The salad came to the table with the hunk of toasted goat cheese on the top with roasted golden beets, spiced pecans and fresh organic greens tossed in the light red wine vinaigrette. This salad I have to admit was actually really tasty. I ate up everything except for half the toasted goat cheese. For a non cheese lover, the goat cheese was actually full of flavor and complemented the other ingredients in the salad well. If you like goat cheese you will love this salad.

Apple Crisp
I always like to ask the server to describe and recommend me their favorite dessert. You can usually tell if someone is lying to if they don’t say too much about their favorite dessert. If they go off the rocker, and a twinkle lights up in their eye when they tell you all about their favorite dessert, you know you can’t really go wrong with their suggestion.

Our server this entire evening was awesome.  She was sooo funny, had such a great personality, recommended great dishes, gave us top notch service and when it came to dessert time, she told me that one of her favorite desserts was the apple crisp. Some of her others were pie’s.  I don’t like pies, but I really really like a good home baked apple crisp. I asked her if the crisp on the apple crisp was “crisp and crunchy” and not soggy like some places. She told me to order it and guaranteed me that if I didn’t like the dish, I could send it back. I was in a no lose situation.

When the apple crisp hit the table, the crisp was still steaming hot, it was crunchy and crisp and I could smell the apples. As for the ice cream on the top…my goodness… to die for. My friend and I polished this Apple Crisp off in record time. The apple slices on the inside of the crisp were baked to perfection. This dish was close to perfection. One of the top 5 apple crisps I have ever had. My server came back when we had about 3 spoonfuls left… I asked if I could send it back as I wasn’t too thrilled..she told me to get lost….

I am glad I went with my friend and had a great dining experience at the Atlantic Fish. I can honestly say if you are in Boston and don’t mind spending the money, but you want a popular and solid seafood restaurant with a great atmosphere, Atlantic Fish would be a great choice.

 

I would make some reservations before hand as this place was packed with a line up at the door the entire time I was here and still when I left the restaurant. I can vouch for the Butternut Squash Soup, the Goat Cheese Salad, and most definitely the Apple Crisp. Yes, get the Apple Crisp. Maybe start your meal with the Apple Crisp, you won’t be disappointed.

Ranking (out of 5 Stars)

Food – 4.00
Service – 4.75
Washroom Cleanliness – 4.25
Restaurant Ambiance – 4.00
Plate/Cutlery Cleanliness – 4.25
Value – 3.75

Overall rating: 4.17

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Royal Bengal Restaurant Review - Boston Massachusetts 

A couple weeks ago, I found myself in Boston Massachusetts with the regular day job. I know this post is a bit late, but I have been stupid busy with the day job as I just got back from Boston and then took off again for Nashville Tennesse. I am home now, and trying to catch up on some Blog posts!

 I had never been to Boston before and anytime you land in a new city, you have no idea where the good food is. here before and the description of the city will be saved for another blog. More importantly what I want to talk about first is of course the food! Last night after a long cold walk, I wanted to eat something hearty and warming. I really didn’t want to sit in a restaurant and decided for some take out. Never being to Boston before, I had no idea what restaurants were good and which ones were not. I had no one to make recommendations on anything. I was flying solo on this run.

I was walking back to the hotel the first night I was in Boston when I passed by this sort of hole in the wall place called The Royal Bengal. I like little local hole in the wall places, but being in a new town, you never know if they are going to be any good or not. The Royal Bengal is located on 313 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA Ph # 617-491-1988 Click here for the Royal Bengal website. Click here for the Google Map

The weather in Boston was very crisp and windy like a cool winter day, and I was sort of in the mood for some good Indian food as usually after eating Indian cuisine I feel pretty satisfied. What made me walk off the street and into the restaurant was the fact that the small quaint restaurant about 30 seats was packed with people of all nationalities. That was a good enough sign for me as packed restaurants usually mean good food.  I walked in through the front door and was immediately greeted with the outstanding aromas of Indian cooking, and a very warm and friendly smile and greeting from one of the waitresses asking me, “For one sir?”

I mentioned to the lady that I only wanted to do take out and she led me to the back counter to place my order. I picked up an extensive menu and saw that they had my favorite Indian dish in the vegetarian section: Chana Masala. I love the Chana Masala, which is a tasty blend of cooked chickpeas, onions, herbs and tomatoes. A little Chana Masala with fresh Naan bread always hits the spot. Go to the Royal Bengal website for a full menu. I couldn’t get good pictures of the menu.

While I waited for my take out order, I noticed that the restaurant was about 90% full and everyone seemed like they were really enjoying their meals. Smiles all around and lots of “hey this is good!” comments. The aroma in this restaurant was making me hungrier by the second. All the dishes that were coming out of the kitchen looked and smelled delicious. To take my attention away from my growing stomach, I reviewed the menu looking at the other dishes offered.  I was sort of confused as to why there were 2 different menus offered. At first I was only offered the yellow take out menu, but on the table there was a narrow rectangular yellow take out menu and a square white menu.

I quickly found out from the lady that took my order that the Royal Bengal serves 2 types of cuisines. They serve an authentic North Indian cuisine (the yellow menu) and then an authentic Bengali cuisine! The lady goes onto tell me that the Royal Bengal was Boston’s FIRST Bengali Restaurant and through further conversation, I find out that she and her husband own this establishment. Mrs. Geeta Mazumdar was her name and her husband’s name was Sadhan Mazumdar. She runs the outside of the restaurant, while her husband does the cooking. While she is telling me this information, a package comes out from the kitchen into her hand. It is my much anticipated take out order.

The other side of the Bengali menu has a great write up on the Royal Bengali from a reporter from the Boston Globe November 29, 2001. Instead of paraphrasing the article, I hope you can make out the text in this picture. It describes the Royal Bengal perfectly.

I comment to Mrs. Mazumdar that I would be back another night to try some of their other dishes. It turns out that over the course of the week I ended up dining at the Royal Bengal on about 3 different occasions. Please see below for pictures of my absolutely outstanding meals each time I visited the Royal Bengal.

Visit # 1
Chana Masala
Naan Bread

I love Chana Masala, and usually I order this dish along with a Naan Bread as my first dining experience at any particular Indian restaurant. Chana Masala for those that don’t know is cooked Chick Peas, cooked onions, flavorful herbs and fresh ripe tomatoes all cooked together. The Chana Masala dish at the Royal Bengal also comes with a dish of Basmati Rice. As you can see from the take out trays, I received a very generous portion of Chana Masala and at least two servings of Basmati rice and a massive, fresh fluffy Naan Bread. All three items, the Chana, Rice and Naan bread were outstanding. The Chickpeas were cooked to perfection and the Masala sauce was full of flavor. The rice was light, fresh and fluffy, and the Naan Bread?…to die for.

All for a whopping $11.45 USD plus tip. 

Visit # 2
Bengun Pora
Naan Bread

The Bengun Pora is one of the signature Royal Bengal dishes. This dish is flame roasted eggplant, mashed with mustard oil, onions, green chilis, and cilantro. I have to be honest, I wouldn’t have picked this dish to start if some other lady that was doing take in the Royal Bengal didn’t rant and rave about it the first night I picked up my Chana Masala. For one, I am not a big fan of eggplant or cilantro and I’m not really into the mustard oil. I am really really really glad I picked this dish on this particular night. When I took it back to the hotel room, and opened the bag up to check out the dish, it was completely different that what I had imagined. The Begun Pora actually looked and smelled outstanding. As for the taste…I have to thank the unknown lady in the Royal Bengal that evening for raving about this dish. The flame roasted eggplant, mashed with mustard oil, onions, green chilis, and cilantro was down right awesome. Such a different dish with a smooth blended taste of all the ingredients. It wasn’t spicy, just a nice texture that was complemented perfectly with the Naan bread. All I have to say is, if you hit Boston, go to the Royal Bengal and order this dish first…even if you don’t like eggplant, you will like it after eating the Bengun Pora.

Visit # 3
Aloo Posto
Aloo Gobhi
Naan Bread

My third and final visit was due to another lady telling me to try another dish when I picked up the Bengun Pora. This dish was the Aloo Posto which is diced potatoes in a poppy seed paste. I was sort of hungry and need some vegetables, so I also ordered the Aloo Gohbi, which is a classic Indian dish of Cauliflower and potatoes cooked with tomatoes, onions, herbs and spices and of course I couldn’t have a meal with out the award winning Naan bread. I have had Aloo Gohbi in the past and I would have to say the Aloo Gohbi at the Royal Bengal was one of the best I have ever had. The cauliflower was cooked just right and the potatoes nice and moist and not dry and clumpy. The sauce had a nice heat and was tasty on the naan and the included basmati rice.

For the Aloo Posto, I have never tasted anything like it. Like the Begun Pora, this dish was outstanding. The potatoes were cooked to perfection. Not dry, not clumpy, just image your ideal non starchy, non pasty potatoes and this Aloo Posto is it. The poppy seed paste that is coating the perfect potatoes carries a nice creamy, smooth sweeter taste and is complemented with the potatoes and of course the Naan Bread. I am so glad I ordered this dish and I would order it again in a heartbeat.

I am glad I walked in off the cold street my first night here in Boston. I would have never of found the Royal Bengal otherwise. The food they serve here is outstanding. If you like Indian, I can pretty much guarantee that you will love this restaurant. If you only have one day in Boston, I would suggest you order the Bengun Pora and the Aloo Posto. These are 2 very unique dishes that I have not seen at any other Indian restaurant. I hope you get the chance to go, or if you have friends going to Boston, send them my link and send them to the Royal Bengal; they will thank you for it!

Ranking (out of 5 Stars)

Food – 5.00
Service – 4.00
Washroom Cleanliness – 3.50
Restaurant Ambiance – 3.00
Plate/Cutlery Cleanliness – did take out
Value – 4.25

Overall rating: 4.17

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As mentioned last week, on a prior blog post, I was in Boston with the day job. Boston is a really cool city with lots of great character and appeal. Great restaurants, charming buildings, traffic to rival any big city, and people that sort of talk funny! It just so happened that The Boston Marathon was happening at the same time I was there! Here is my week late write up about what transpired around the 111th Boston Marathon.

The Boston Marathon is the world’s longest-running annual marathon in world and the standard that many other marathons measure themselves up against. Drawing the best marathon racers from around the world and being the most competitive of all marathons in all categories, the Boston marathon is sort of like the holy grail in the running world. Not anybody can participate as what ever category you are in, you need to make certain qualifing times to be part of this prestigious event.
 
This year’s 111 Boston Marathon slated for Monday April 16 would be something to remember for all the participants and supporters from over 100 countries,  as the worst Northeasterly Storm in the last 14 years was due to hit the US Eastern Seaboard and Eastern Canada. Storms like this pack some nasty weather bring hurricane force winds, snow; rain;  all the nice stuff that cause power outages, flooding and structural damage!   Perfect weather for humans to be outside trying to run a marathon too.!!
 
The Boston Athletic Association (BAA), the organization that hosts the Boston Marathon, even considered canceling the marathon a couple days prior to the event. They opted not to and emailed a very lengthy Severe Weather Advisory on Friday April 13 to all the participant mentioning the expected forecast, practical advice on what to wear and the symptoms and warnings about hypothermia. The forecast they sent out on April 13 is below and for all you Canadians, 30 Fahrenheit is about -1 degrees Celsius.
 
BAA Marathon FORECAST on Friday April 13.
“The most up-to-date weather forecast calls for a predicted Spring storm on Monday, including heavy rains (potentially 3 to 5 inches), with the start temperatures in the mid to upper 30’s. Wind will likely be East (in the face of the participants for most of the race) in the 20 to 25 mile per hour range, with gusts to as much as 50 miles per hour. This will produce a wind chill index of 25 to 30-degrees Fahrenheit.”
 
On Race Day, the forecast was still pretty ugly, but thank goodness the forecast wasn’t as bad as everyone expected. The weather was a slightly warmer and the rain and winds a tad bit lighter. I sort of felt bad for those that had to run the race as running in weather conditions like what they were facing couldn’t have been much fun. 
 
At most of the major marathons, there is usually a consumer expo for a few days before race day. The expo is fee to enter and I went in to check it out. The expo is a place where consumers (runners and supporters) can come and purchase products from a variety of different vendors. With a forecast like the one I just mentioned above, the buzz and demand from everyone at the expo was for wet, cold weather Fall type apparel.
 
“Philosophical, Physiological live in a bubble” sales professors or sales professionals may disagree with me, but ask any apparel vendor in that expo and they will say that the weather is a major contributing factor to the success of their apparel sales. Companies could have had the slickest looking summer/spring apparel products on the planet, but if there is a weather forecast like the one above and the rain is deluging down outside the expo hall and people coming in are wet and cold, these people are not going to be looking for tank tops and short shorts.
 
Everyone was panicking and asking for windproof, waterproof, hats, gloves, and other warm pieces of apparel. This was especially true from people from non cold climates; they had no idea what to wear and how to dress! This is all good if apparel companies brought their fall apparel, but most of the apparel orders are placed 6 months prior and usually the weather in April in Boston is warm, sunny, and sort of springish. So many apparel manufactures had a great spring lineup, but not very much fall/winter gear and thus lost out on potential sales.
 
On Race Day, the forecast was still pretty ugly, but thank goodness the forecast wasn’t as bad as everyone expected. The weather was a slightly warmer and the rain and winds a tad bit lighter. I sort of felt bad for those that had to run the race as running in weather conditions like what they were facing couldn’t have been much fun. 
 
I departed the morning of the race, and the weather was still having adverse affects at Boston’s Logan International Airport. My original scheduled flight to Montreal Canada was cancelled along with hundreds of other flights in and out of Boston to other eastern part of the USA and Canada. The airport was chaotic with lots of stranded travelers hoping to get to their next destinations. The airport was packed like mad, and I was very lucky to get on a standby flight on one of the last planes to fly to Montreal before all the others were cancelled.
 
After a rough, bumpy flight to Montreal, there was 5-10cm of wet snow on the ground and I waited a few hours for another delayed plane to fly from Montreal to Vancouver. Thankfully I managed to get back to the mild weather of the West Coast on the Monday as if I didn’t make that standby flight, I would have been stuck in Boston until the Wednesday or Thursday due to the backlog of people! My luck wasn’t 100% as I did lose one of my pieces of luggage for about 3 days. Air Canada finally delivered my luggage to me on the Thursday.

Slowly I am getting my Boston Restaurant reviews done. They will be good recommendations! Stay tuned.

Cheers,
-Brice

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