Steve Lin - Classical Guitarist

On Friday Nov. 17 I had a beautiful lunch with my wonderful friends Dan and James. No.9 Park was a restaurant I had walked past many times but never dared enter. The place was simply and elegantly adorned and I was greeted with friendly smiles. The three of us decided very quickly that we’d be interested in the 6-course tasting menu and a cheese course before the two desserts. (Dan and James went on to get the wine pairings as well.)

1. Oyster with prosecco mignonette - succulent, delicious, soft. The aftertaste was unbelieveable. The world stood still — I was perfectly content with life. James can remind me the type of osyter we had.

2. Wild salmon melted in my mouth, wrapped in the soft cauliflower puree, sweetened by a small piece of fava bean and beefed up with a tiny piece of chorizo. And I love salmon skin. (I’ve had toro melt in my mouth, never salmon!)

3. Pappardelle Bolognese. I had no idea pasta could taste like this. It was beyond words. Noodles and meat sauce! Perhaps one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten in my life. You really had to be there. You haven’t tasted pasta until this. And the plate was nice and hot.

4. How do you follow a pasta dish like the one we just had? Tenderloin and fingerling potatoes. Perfectly cooked and seasoned. Soft and crusty beef, golden potates. Enough said.

- cheese course - I don’t remember the names of the cheeses but I do remember there was a tart cherry sauce that accompanied the platter that blew my mind.

5. Pear, apple & cinnamon sorbet. Perfect timing–perfectly fruity and refreshing. It was the first time I felt like I was eating fresh fruit while spooning sorbet into my mouth. It was an intensely real experience.

6. Chocolate ganache — I never liked chocolate and oranged until that day. It was a perfect match. I never understood it prior to this. And I can’t explain it. The chocolate was rich and velvety like one’d expect from No.9 Park and the orange slice was plump and delicious. Maybe the toasted caramel sauce had something to do with the whole thing as well.

I’ve been in some turmoil recently, trying to figure out what I’m going to do in my own cooking. Ole to incredible food.

Tonight I visited my friend Colin Stack in his JP apartment. He’s a great guy and a fantastic composer, doing great things in his very unique and individualized “pop art” and his “concert works”. He’s an NEC alum as well and we formed a fantastic friendship a few years ago while I was still in my undergrad. We caught up over a cold one on a few things, smiled at the outcomes of the election day and discussed future collaborations which would involve his two groups “Novelty Act”, “The Leftovers” and my Boston Guitar Project. Finally, we discussed our future projects. Colin will make me an arrangement of his beautiful song “Sing Cassandra, Sing” (listen to it on his MySpace!) and compose a solo guitar work for me!

I just realized it’s been ages since I’ve posted. Well, all those weeks of intense practice finally paid off when VGo came out to Boston. Recording was brutal and fun at the same time. This next CD will be music by Barrios and Lauro. VGo is great to work with so it was fun. The process was brutal because the church was cold, cars drove by at the wrong moments (I did Julia Florida about 20 times thanks to late-night drivers) and we often ate too much cheese, salami and cashews during our 15 min. breaks.

So I basically didn’t show up at school for a week. People thought I disappeared. I almost did. The sessions took place from around 10 pm - 3 am. We’d get home at around 4 am (thank goodness VGo was on California time). I’d stay up for a bit longer, do some E-mailing for Boston GuitarFest and do attend to some other random things. Next morning I’d wake up at some time in the afternoon, drink some water, rummage the fridge, and practice.

VGo stayed with me in my apartment and so I did make sure we had a nice dinner before we headed off to another meeting with the devil. This past week I cooked up some haddock, scallops (sea and bay), shrimps, chicken, omlettes, soups, etc. We snacked on left-over bacon, chicken breast slices and protein shakes. What a week it’s been. What an amazing time I had.