Steve Lin - Classical Guitarist

I’ve been listening to a lot of contemporary music recently, mostly because of my avant garde class, taught by the awesome Steve Drury. It’s opened my ears to wonderful things. Now when I come home I enjoy putting on what many would consider noise as my background music.

This week’s assignment included Ives’ Symphony #4 and I had no idea it would hit so deeply. The third movement, the fugue, is a pretty piece of music that I would have liked anyways, but if you have to go through the first two movements first, the fugue is all the more wrenching and intense. The combination of orchestral colors is somehow a very unique experience for me.

I concluded my restaurant week at 209 Boston. I liked the atmosphere; the singer/pianist was a tad loud. (That, or were we a bit too close.) Dinner was fine.

Marinated asparagus with “nature’s best herbs”. Three delicious spears, the herbs matched very well. Happy. Bread was good too.

Skate grenonbloise with cauliflouwer and caper emulsion. The texture was very memorable and it matched fabulously with all the pieces on the dish.

Meyer lemon tart, coconut, meringue. It was a bit sweet for me but the worst part was that the tart was either frozen or too cold. For a good while my spoon had no way of breaking the tart apart. It was a pity, since the dessert was better enjoyed with all of the parts in the same bite.

Overall it was a fair experience though I’m not rushing to go back. Of the four places I visited last week, Davio’s and Brasserie Jo were by far my favorites. In particular, I look forward to having lunch at Davio’s soon.

Davio’s was my third restaurant this week and it really keeps getting better. What a fantastic lunch! On top of that, our server was really fantastic.

Wild Mushroom Bisque — oh my god. After I finished it, I mopped up everything with the wonderful bread.

Rigatoni with tomatoes, mozzerella, sweet sausage, broccoli — because every single ingredient was so fresh and so delicious, every bite was slightly different and perhaps therein lay the simplicity and the elegance of my main course. On a certain level there was WYSIWYG, yet in the end “What I Tasted Was Way Way Way More Than What I Saw”.

Cannolo with fruit — pineapple, blue berries, black berries, strawberries, peach. It’s pointless to explain. Please go try for yourself.

The walk back to reality (school) was brutal–I have never faced gusts of wind this intense but had I died I would have at least been extremely happy. I will definitely return to Davio’s.

March 7, 2007. John Gibbons did it again. It was a beautiful program: the D minor double violin concerto, 4th and 5th Brandenburgs and Cantata BWV 51. Some of my good friends were in the ensemble and others I definitely admired just from having heard them around NEC: Jessica Bachicha, Fred Sienkiewicz, Sooyung Kim, Daniel Chong, Luis Esnaola, Jae Lee, Megumi Stohs, Jessica Bodner, Loewi Lin and Karl Doty. Easily one of the best concerts I’ve seen in a while. Bach rulz.

March 6, 2007 - Dinner. It was cold–easily one of the most painful treks I have ever made for grub. It was worth it though.

Appetizer: scallop salad–individually the parts were terrific but together it was even better. Slightly bitter greens, slightly sweet scallops, wrapped in a vinaigrette that I can only describe as noble and elegant.

Main: Tender wasn’t the right word. The duck melted in my mouth. (And such huge portions!) I savored the crispy skin and the yummy spinach (haven’t had spinach in a while).

Dessert: apple crepe. What confused me was this: after I was half-way through my huge crepe, it started tasting even better. But I was fuller! But it tasted more intense and better! So I finished it and stopped thinking about it.

One the way home I almost froze again but I think I’d do it all over in a heartbeat!

I happily announce that this is the first Boston Restaurant Week I am able to participate in. Aquitaine was my first destination–a lunch on Monday, March 5, 2007. The decor brought a smile and I was very excited. The Restaurant Week menu also made ordering very easy.

Appetizer: A simple salad with goat cheese and walnuts. The vinaigrette and goat cheese were very nice; the walnuts were perfectly toasted but couldn’t hide the fact that some of the greens were showing signs of wilt-age.

Main: Pan-fried cod and lentils. The lentils were incredible–with savory pieces of bacon, wrapped in a subtle a fuity olive oil. I wasn’t crazy about this particular way of preparing cod, though it was enjoyable when eaten with the lentils.

Dessert: Profiterole. The vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce were great. The puff itself, not so great.

I think this may be my first official … mention! I’m not sure it’s actually substantial enough to qualify for a review. Whatever it is, it appeared on Feb. 23, 2007. You can read it at Epoch Times. Of course, you might want to learn some Chinese first.

Here’s my rough translation of the paragraph that mentions my name: “New England Conservatory classical guitar DMA candidate Steve Lin, violin MM candidate Shaw-Pong Liu and baritone Brian Church performed American composer David McMullen’s Li Bai Songs. The performance revealed each of the musician’s exceptional talents.”