Cup cup cup cup of of of of

Now that I'm totally recovered in body, although still drastically unlearned in the ways of cardiology in mind, it's time for the Culinary Weekend Report: Andy is a good fiancé who knows what I like. He gifted me upon my arrival with a few ounces of dried porcini mushrooms, obtained from the bulk bin at that hallowed River Street Whole Foods in Cambridge. We also had dinner at Pulse Cafe, which is not quite as good as Blossom but has ridiculously good vegan "loaded fries"* that we devoured at record speed (Boston-area friends, take note), and which I chose in part because hey, still studying cardiology! And then the next day, we walked to Harvest Coop, where I raided the bulk spice bins and stocked up on fennel seed, bay leaves, cumin, and cardamom for less than two dollars. Someone show me a place that beats that in the Five Boroughs**.

I remembered I had a couple dried figs left over from last week's fig, goat cheese, and escarole pizza, and with all this fennel seed kicking around my cupboard and half a cup of heavy cream languishing in the fridge it was clear what I had to do: make fig and fennel scones, based on Mark Bittman's "classic scones" recipe. The plan was to wake up, work out, and make these, enabling me to hand them out at a preliminary meeting of NYU's me-and-other-people-founded Infectious Disease Interest Group (iDIG, not to be confused with iDEATH). But that didn't happen. So I made them at night, and drank them with "Scottish Breakfast" tea. It turns out all parts of the British Isles have their own tea these days.

The Boston mug is apropos, no?

And finally, dinner, which was simple and rather late. Andy's mom suggested giving a Trader Joe's marinated bean salad a try.

I drained off the liquid, which she, appropriately, had described to me as "goopy," and mixed the beans with tomato, lettuce, cucumber, red wine vinegar, red onion, and some of that delightfully stinky Bulgarian feta, then ate it with toast points from yesterday's bread. It was pretty good, although really, I'll just marinate my own kidney beans next time. The mix, even drained of goop, was sort of oddly sweet.

*A note on veganism: I am not vegan, nor was meant to be. But show me a good tempeh bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich with vegan chipotle aioli, and I'll be yours forever.

**No, really, please show me. If Andy ends up in New York next year (which I dearly hope, for obvious reasons), then my Boston visit frequency will drastically decline, and I'll need a new cheap bulk spice supply.