Mistral, reviewed by Julia Duato

Oh Là Là! 
by Julia Duato

Three dishes, three adjectives: exotic, soft, and warm. The Sushi Grade Tuna Tartare with Crispy Wonstons, Ginger & Soy for the appetizer could be the perfect way to start the evening. Followed by the Red Wine Braised Short-ribs with Butter Whipped Potato, Mirepoix & Smoked Tomato, the soft way that the beef melts in your mouth at the first second it mixes with your saliva, and you feel it going down your throat, you stop feeling guilty for the $42 you are paying for it. You might be thinking you don’t want dessert because you have eaten to much by now, but the Warm Apple Crostada with Vanilla Gelato & Caramel Sauce is just one of those things you can’t miss if you are having dinner in the Mistral. 

If you are going to the restaurant willing to pay enough money for a great evening, without caring how much it is going to be, and ready to eat real good food, then the Mistral is the right place for you. Last but not least if you were hoping for a place where people treat you well, but, with some exception, not genuinely, then is definitely the right place for a lovely dinner with your family, friends and colleagues from work. Don’t forget to get fancy!

The Beehive by Julia Duato

The Beehive by Julia Duato

Wednesday night, about to have dinner with my friends, I wasn’t expecting a two floor kind of Arabic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern atmosphere, which is what we found in the underground bohemian restaurant The Beehive.

As soon as we walked in, three waiters with exotic characteristics and ingenuity initiative to welcome the diners where standing up waiting for us to come in. Once inside and after walking down the stairs a stage was prepared for a band to rock the night, drums, microphones, and amps where sitting in there waiting to be maneuvered. The two bars laden with cocktails and alcoholic beverages gave a sense of adult craziness. The walls with contemporary paintings and posters, the colorful curtains and the low lights made the atmosphere around you change. A feeling of relaxation invaded you; intricate, involving and exotic. The food was without doubt a gift to your mouth, you could chose either way...the fanciness or the average meal. Either way, the Rib Eye, or the Prime Burger, the couscous or the Fish & Chips Dip were, without many words, an explosion in your mouth. 

The mixture of art, live music, the cuisine and the kindness of the people working in the restaurant make the client to want more. The Beehive has everything a good restaurant needs to have, the only thing the consumer has to contribute with is the company of their friends to enjoy the music and the food. 

"Yes I'm naked, deal with it!" by Julia Duato

 "Yes I'm naked, deal with it!" by Julia Duato

There are some paintings that stick with you, “Carmelina” by Henri Matisse, is one of them. You can find this painting in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, hidden around others, but less impressing, paintings. The first time you see the painting you only see a nude women, like the typical painting. Looking more deeply into it you will find a man looking at this naked girl, more exactly, you will see Matisse hiding in the mirror looking at Carmelina.  Questions pop to your head “Is he looking at her or us?” ”Is he looking at us through her?”, this questions makes you want to know more about the painting. When you find him in the panting, you cannot stop staring at him, the little red and blurry stain in the mirror makes this painting be a beautiful nude, but also a self-portrait. By doing this, Matisse is showing that every work by an artist is a self-portrait and it is connected to it. 

The painting makes you feel quite uncomfortable when staring at it for to long, since the girl “Carmelina” stares back at you with upright posture and a somehow arrogant expression, almost aggressive and innocent at the same time. All the emotional contrast is what makes this painting beautiful and powerful. 

The Guardians by Julia Duato

The Guardians by Julia Duato

               A splendid pair of birds hang in the ceiling of the MoCA’s gigantic building. The Phoenixes. Each almost 100 feet long and nearly 12 tons each are clearly the most impressing thing you are going to find in the museum. As you walk in the enormous room where the phoenixes are located, giant wood cases is the first thing you can see, which adds a glimpse of intrigue and mystery to the whole situation. As you keep walking the two enormous, ferocious, gnarly birds with heads made from industrial metals and plastics, and feathers made of fabric and wires appear to your view as two immense nonsense structures for the first thirty seconds, and then the image of the two glorious Phoenixes appears in your mind both similar in size, structure, and colors. As you look closer and closer all the little details like the different materials and structures pop to your eyes. Both creatures ugly and magnificent at once, catch your eye from any angle or direction you are looking. From the back the shiny LED lights make them look like if they had come from out the space. From the front the two majestic phoenixes seems guardians of a kingdom, or a door to another world like in the movie The NeverEnding Story making you feel as small as an ant. 

Step Into Another Time by Julia Duato

Step Into Another Time by Julia Duato

new entrance at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

        Walking through the glass corridor the sense of the XXI century invades you. As you walk and the glass corridor turns into brick corridor the XXI century goes away and the sense of time disappears. 

        The first thing that stands out as soon as you go inside the museum is the architecture of the building itself. The three floor building with the inside garden it is just as astonishing as all the art pieces that the museum contains. The colors of the walls and the refreshing air that the flowers and trees give the museum leaves you with a relaxed mood just as if you were just finishing a long race and you were drinking a cold beverage. The only difference is that leaving the museum leaves you with the feeling that you have been instructed with a large amount of new knowledge from all around the world, and from a large amount of different eras, leaving you with a sense of nonexistence present but infinite past that creates, to every single person, our own present. Connecting us to the human nature and all the leaving persons that one day had experimented emotions by looking at a piece of art that is in the Gardner. 

           The Gardner gives the opportunity to connect with different cultures and places around the world in a three floor building of more than a hundred years old. And like at the end of a race, the museum leaves you mentally tired, but with a good feeling on your body, just like if your brain had created endorphins from looking to the art in the museum.