Later On

Thursday was a busy day. I took the train to Baltimore, as you know. The Eldest picked me up, and we went to lunch at Gertrude’s in the Baltimore Museum of Art (a really good restaurant). I had a cup of red crab soup—what I think of as Maryland style. Then a Portobello mushroom holding a crab cake. Okay, one glass of wine (Pinot Grigio).

The afternoon was spent visiting and drinking tea, then off to watch the grandsons perfect their martial arts at the US Martial Arts Academy. I may be coming down with a cold, so we picked up some zinc tablets and I started that. For dinner, to Szechuan House, near the dojo.

The restaurant was incredibly busy—always a good sign—but we got excellent service. I had hot-and-sour soup and hot and spicy coleslaw for openers. Both disappointing, alas, particularly in the hot and spicy and sour areas. The hot-and-sour soup tasted almost as if it were made from beef stock and using canned mushrooms. The entrees were better. They had two pages of “country Chinese cooking,” including several dishes made with intestines. We ordered sauteed water spinach with beef tendon, which was excellent, with the tendon meltingly tender. The Hunan pork was again disappointing: no spiciness. The boys shared a plate of beef lo mein, and the strips of beef were excellent: sauteed to crispness at the edges, but tender within.

Then home, some tea, and to bed.