Eating My Way Through Boston - Vacation 2013
Two weeks ago my mom and I took our much-anticipated mini-vacation to Boston to visit my sister. I couldn’t believe that it was my first visit in three years, especially when it was so easy to pick up right where I left off. Though I had only been there for a handful of short stays before, the streets somehow seemed so familiar. Perhaps that’s what so magical about the city; it’s small and cozy enough to return to with a sense of acquaintance but big enough that there’s always something new to discover. And this past trip was certainly a brand new adventure filled with lots of excellent food, beautiful sights, and maybe a little to much sunshine along the way.
The first day there, my mom and I spent the afternoon meandering around the city, window shopping on Newbury Street and strolling though the park. We also stopped at the Copley Square Farmers Market, admiring the bounty of fruits and vegetables amongst stacks of beautiful artisanal bread and seas of mini sunflower bouquets. We then met up with my sister in Cambridge for what ended up being an incredibly memorable and unique meal at
. I’ve actually been on a bit of an Eastern Mediterranean food kick for a while so this definitely fed that frenzy. Their menu is mostly based on small plates and sharing so we settled with three mezes, two main courses, and two desserts to split between the three of us.
We started with drinks. I got a cocktail that they called the Paopao. It was described as “sweet, tart, and bubbly” on the menu. I’m still actually not sure what it was but it tasted like strawberry lemonade mixed with champagne, which is definitely a good thing. We had a big basket of bread too (baguette, these sweet sesame breadsticks, and another sweet, dense brown bread) with the a fruity and complex olive oil.
Our first meze was spinach falafel with beet tzatziki, tahini, and a thin bread wrapping. The falafel was done perfectly; it was crispy on the outside and warm and tender on the inside.
Next was the Sfela Cheese Saganaki (i.e. a baked gratin of briny, salty, cheese) with sesame, tomato, fig, and ouzo. Definitely the most unique but a unanimously decided favorite.
The third meze were bread and cheese dumplings with nigella seeds and a tomato saffron soup. The dumplings were tender and the soup was perfect for dipping our last pieces of bread into.
The main courses were amazing as well. My favorite dish of the night was the incredibly moist and crispy flattened lemon chicken, coated with za’atar and served over a pancake (which reminded me of a thicker filo) filled with a Turkish cheese filling.
The other main was a wild salmon filet with squash, tomato, challah bread and a poached egg.
Since we were also simultaneous celebrating my mom’s and my birthday, the two of us picked which dessert we wanted most. My mom chose an elaborate assembly of chocolate flavored components with hazelnuts and fig leaf ice cream. I went for the baked Alaska, a coconut macaroon topped with coconut ice cream, coated in meringue, which was then torched and drizzled with passion fruit caramel sauce. I ate almost the whole thing on my own. No regrets.
Despite our slightly lingering feeling of fullness the next morning, we still managed to start the day out with a great deal of food. It was vacation after all. My mom, my sister, her boyfriend and I were headed to Chatham, Cape Cod for a day at the beach and we needed provisions. We picked up breakfast and lunch at Boston’s famous Flour Bakery, owned by Joanne Chang. Based upon my very successful results with the Flour Bakery Cookbook, I was expecting a lot from the bakery and it certainly lived up to those. Breakfast was a Craquelin, brioche baked with candied orange peel and topped with caramelized almond slices. We also got sandwiches for lunch later. I got the lamb sandwich with tomato chutney, goat cheese, and arugula on sourdough – amazing – and we picked up some chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Let me just say, the search for the best chocolate chip cookie is officially over. You can find them at Flour.
The beach was absolutely wonderful and after about 6 hours of seaside time (which was enough to produce one of my worst sunburns to date), we somehow were ready for dinner. We stopped by a gorgeous hotel first for some drinks and to enjoy the view (so many hydrangeas!) and then went to a teeny little seafood shack, right next to the loading docks, for the freshest seafood out there. I had an enormous lobster roll, so light and fresh, with just a little bit of mayo, celery, lemon, and paprika, along with excellent fries and everyone else went for the amazing haddock fish ‘n chips. We ate with our food propped up on the dock railing, throwing fries to obliging seagulls and watching as the seals put on a show for us below. Oh, and there may have been ice cream involved afterwards...
We ended our trip on Sunday with a great brunch at Area Four in Cambridge. I had the best egg and cheese sandwich possible with housemade sausage and English muffin and a very unique Italian-style chopped salad topped with fontina, salami, pickled banana peppers, radicchio, green beans and other interesting things that seemed odd at first but really came together wonderfully. I’ve actually been working of recreating this at home so hopefully a recipe post on that will appear soon. Our trip could not be complete without another chocolate chip cookie run, obviously, and before we knew it, we were heading back to the airport, out palates happy, our culinary minds expanded, and our pants perhaps a good bit tighter. So, until next time Boston! Cant wait to find out what you’ll feed me in the future!