Autumn Trip Notes from in Cambridge, MA

Make a list of lovely autumn things and you will find them in abundance in Cambridge: fall foliage, crisp weather, classic buildings, seafood, good apples, and more. This past weekend I spent a pleasant autumn weekend in Cambridge with my friend Ying and took the opportunity to explore the streets, neighborhoods, and Harvard/MIT campuses. On the train ride back, I jotted down all the notes as basis for this entry. Not meant to be a detailed review but rather a collection of pictures, reference sites, and food thoughts.

above: my favorite shot of the trip. a colorful branch from Harvard courtyard.

Highlights from MIT Campus

I didn’t get a chance to photograph the “infinite corridors” (wiki entry) but it’s a fun “to-do” for every MIT visitor. Should start at the 77 Mass. entrance for the small dome, take a pic of the medallion and then walk through the different hallways until you get lost and found again. I discovered a lot of interesting wall art/exhibit/lab scenes this way.

Foliage from Harvard Campus

Good Eats

Ying was the one who suggested that I start a blog (was all about food)years ago. So this section is dedicated to her. The foods are grouped by meal as opposed by day.

Breakfast was exclusively at Flour for two days. While the chocolate almond croissant was nice, the regular croissant fresh out of the oven is highly recommended. Both coffees (French roast and house blend) were great. Watch out for weekend seating but outdoor seating works on a sunny day too. I loved their version of the French toast (yet another way/variation of French toast).

More food and fun after the break.

Boston Philharmonic

Program included Wagner, Mozart, and Brahms. I don't go to classical concerts very often these days so it was nice to try it out. Wonderful venue and also at the suggestion of my friend Ying at MIT.

I guess I will count this as 'exploring music venues' part of the new year resolution. Another plus is that it's relatively close to restaurants. We tried indian food which was pretty good. 

I just remember it wasn't as easy to find reasonably priced food around Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. or maybe I should give it another try. 

Boston City Guide

While I have been using Tumblr more often, I find its pace a bit too hectic for non-picture entries. I went to Boston for a few days and wanted to jot down some ideas for future visits and reference.

Sorted by area near subway stations for easy trip planning.

North Station Area:
Bulfinch Hotel: We stayed here, very convenient location since it’s close to several subway stations and walking distance to Boston Commons. Ethernet cable available in the room. Across the street from TD Garden for games and concerts. Close to Rite Aid/CVS/Whole Foods/Quiznos/Dunkin Donuts if you need to grab supplies/snacks/fruit/drinks.
Beer Works: Several locations around town. We went to the Canal St location. Great selection beer and big screens for sports fans. I had the Amber Hefeweizen and the 9 Alarm wings (tasty, not too spicy though). The jalapeno poppers weren’t too spicy but they were decent.

Park Street Area:
Cheers: Made popular by the show. Also a nice spot for a drink and a burger near the park. If you go, take a look at their souvenir shop which has many good items. I got a classy postcard there.
Public garden: Small but pretty garden near the park. When I went I saw a lot of roses blooming.
Esplanade: After dinner at Cheers, you can take a leisure stroll along the esplanade. During the summer they also have outdoor concerts.
Freedom Trail: It starts at Boston Commons, just follow the red line on the sidewalk to visit the different sites. I didn’t complete it but saw most of the sites near the beginning. If you don’t want to walk there are other tours in the area via trolley or duck tour etc.
Finangle a Bagel: Yes, I know I’m crazy. I tried a bagel outside the NYC area. I didn’t want burger king and the pubs were not open until noon on Sunday so I just grabbed a breakfast egg on bagel from here. Around town you will find many Dunkin Donuts (literately two on each street corner or more), Au Bon Pain (yay for soups?), and this bagel place (more than just bagels). I would recommend it for breakfast or lunch.    

Aquarium Area:
Quincy market/Faneuil Hall: A lot of food choices. I had a lobster roll/chowder combo from Walrus the Carpenter Oyster Bar (booth). Pretty tasty. Apparently there are many famous seafood booths there. Next time when I have more time I will do some more investigation. J. tried some Mac and Cheese from a booth and thought it was decent. Comfort food, I guess.
Emack & Bolio’s Ice Cream: There are tons of ice cream places near the harbor but this one caught my attention. I liked their “Deep Purple Cow” (raspberry with white chocolate and dark chocolate chips and blueberries) and “Heaven” (vanilla with marshmallows and white chocolate chips)
Aquarium: If you take the subway you’ll notice a lot of ads for the aquarium. Check out the penguins and jellyfish and giant fish tank in the middle. I listened to one of the aquarium talks near the tank which was really good. They spoke about the different fish in the tank and how they rescue various sea turtles in the area.
Harbor boat tour: Order your tickets by phone (no surcharge) if you plan to go. The first day we tried to get tickets they were sold out. We took the sunset tour which started at 7pm. Natural lighting near the harbor is great for photos. You get to see the islands, a little bit of Boston skyline, and the U.S.S. Constitution fire a cannon. Boston doesn’t have too many tall buildings though (unlike NYC or Chicago boat tour) but it’s good to enjoy the view and some wind after a hot day running around town.

Copley Area:
Public library: Gorgeous building, open air courtyard, and fun exhibits. I caught an exhibit on vintage travelling posters. Great stuff.
Copley Shops: If you like to browse a mall and cool off, this is a good one before taking the train back home.
Duck tours: Your car turns into a boat for the water portion of the tour! I took this tour last year when I was in Boston. Definitely touristy but fun for at least one time. The water portion was somewhat disappointing (not much to see around the river) but the land portion gives you a sense of the town architecture and history. You can also take the tour at several locations.

Outside downtown:
Revere beach (Revere Beach Stop): Around 15-20 min by subway from downtown. I caught a sand castle/sculpture contest which was tons of fun. They have many pavilions with benches set up around the beach so you can enjoy some shade and sea breeze.  
Fenway Park (Kenmore Stop): Take the stadium tour since Red Sox tickets are hard to get! Smaller stadium means sold out shows all the time! Alternatively, you can probably just visit a bar near there on game day and soak up the baseball air.
Hahvahd Tour (Harvard Stop): I found them on a brochure in the hotel lobby. Pretty funny tour with energetic student guides. Not for high school students looking at colleges but more for travelers looking for a fun way to get around Harvard campus and soak up some history and anecdotes.
Harvard Coop Bookstore: Beautiful bookstore with spiral staircase and gorgeous lobby, just outside the subway stop. Rest of Harvard Square is great for walking around, too. Lots of shops, food, and fun.

Travel Reference
Acela Express is actually affordable (not too much more than regular train, you can use AAA discount on weekend trains) and has Wi-Fi. If you take the Acela from New York, you can get off at Back Bay Station (near Copley and Back Bay subway stations) or South Station (closer to downtown). Sometimes trying different combinations (Newark/NY Penn and Back Bay/South Station) will give you different schedules and fare prices.
MTBA for all your local travel needs. The subway (or T) is easy to navigate around and most trips don’t take very long. Watch out for weekend station closures and you should be fine.
If you fly, Logan Airport is close to downtown as well, via subway.
There are also several buses but since I haven’t taken them I don’t have any recommendations.

News
Boston Globe: Local news. You can also follow their twitter to receive news while you’re visiting.
Calendar of Events: Check out fun ideas.
Also check out various magazines/brochures/maps in the hotel area or tourism offices. You never know what you’ll find! That’s how I heard about the Harbor tour, the Hahvahd tour, and the Sand Castle Contest at Revere Beach. My hotel room had a copy of the Where magazine for Boston. Nice listings.  

Misc
If you have a smartphone or Ipad look for many free Wi-Fi hotspots around the city. On top of my head, some locations include Copley Mall area, Harvard Square, Public Library, Faneuil. This was my first trip using a smartphone so I found it incredibly useful. Google maps overlay with transit lines was a lifesaver. After you get around town for a few hours, you’ll notice that many downtown stations are actually very close together. That doesn’t mean getting the subway card is a bad deal though. I got the weekly unlimited card for $15, definitely worth it since I used many trips during my stay there ($2 if you pay per ride, one day unlimited is $9).

Previous Blog entries on Boston here.

J.P. Licks Homemade Ice Cream

J.P. Licks Harvard Sq Location (other locations available too)
1312 Mass Ave
Cambridge MA 02138
617-492-1001
website

After I tried this I thought Harvard students were the luckiest bastards alive. Thankfully, after going to their site I found out they had plenty of branches and Harvard Sq. was actually the newest spot. For a homemade ice creamery, they sure had plenty of merchandise in the store.

The flavors:
//oreo: more oreos than the regular cookies n cream I usually get. I think they mesh more cookies than normal. yay cookies.
//coquito: coconut with rum. this was their Dec special. I really hope it stays because while I enjoy coconut, I LOVE it more with rum.
//black raspberry: this was amazing. just the right amount of sweet/tart ratio in my opinion.
//kowluah: kahlua. I think every ice cream with booze tastes better. (except rum raisin because I dislike raisin unless it's chocolate covered...go figure)

Other notes:
When we arrived in Cambridge at dusk the area had quite a bit of snow (which made the Harvard visit seem like the classic New England snow covered old architecture campus). The area near the Harvard Square Coop still had holiday decorations and plenty of people and lights about. It was very charming and one of my travel buddies suddenly craved ice cream. We were walking back to the car when we found JP Licks, what luck! Everyone got something different (and I got two diff flavors because I wanted something new and something old) and I've sampled all of them, didn't have any complains. Probably will make a visit to one of the branches every time I go to Boston.

Boston Seafood

VOX
755 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
617.424.8300
website

Atlantic Fish
761 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
617.267.4000
website

Related post (link) was my previous trip to Boston and I had such a good time at Atlantic Fish that I wanted to take more people to the restaurant. It just happened that they were under renovation so we went next door to VOX which was great too.

Decor/Location
//how do you lose when you're across from the convention center? very nice inside. we were probably underdressed but hey...everyone loves tourists right? I didn't get a drink but they had a number of good beer on tap (now i regret not getting anything...beer in Boston is soooo good. well there's always my next trip I suppose.)

Starters
//clam chowder: while it's still better than the chowder I've had outside Boston, I think I liked the chowder from Atlantic Fish better. Or maybe it's hard to compare since I've had Atlantic Fish first. My travel companions really enjoyed it though.
//calamari: am I the only one surprised that this didn't come with marinara sauce? anyway, I did really like the pickled peppers that came with the dish though. Something really nice about sour flavors and seafood...kind of like how I really like salt n vinegar chips, or fish n chips with malt vinegar. I have had better calamari though...so it was slightly disappointing.
//crab cake: my travel buddies liked it but I wasn't too crazy about it. I wasn't even crazy about it when I was in the DC/MA area. So I don't claim to be a crab cake expert.


Entrees
//yellowfin tuna with cous cous: you can't go wrong with tuna. and the cous cous was one that i liked (usually not a fan)
//halibut: really flavorful. now that i re-read the menu i noticed it came with lobster potato and shitake mushroom (no wonder why it was so packed with flavor!)
//mussels: I miss my French style mussels...otherwise this was fine I guess.
//grilled salmon: possibly the most healthy thing on the menu. I usually don't like salmon unless it's smoked but this salmon was surprisingly tasty. It probably had to do with the way they cooked it.

Boston Wrap Up

Clearly I've been slacking on the updates...

Quick notes for one day when inspiration hits and I get organized with the contact info and so on.

NYC
GO (St. Mark's, awesome plum riceballs and vinegared sashimi)
Riceball Omusubi (near Grand Central, plum riceballs are good but not quite GO quality...or I'm just picky about my plum riceballs. they offer a punch card for riceballs...I have to go back!)
TONY's (yay for seafood linguini, nay for Italian beer, yay for passionfruit sorbet, still weird in Time Sq. and full of tourists though).
Suba (tasting menu is amazing, Spanish ham and "Napoleon" sherry are my two new loves, bring a lot of appetite. One of the desserts had ice cream with a sweet liquor. Another cool tapa was a bunch of wings stuffed with chorizo.)
Arties (pickled tomatoes and cucumbers for the win, also loved their chocolate shake. learned to eat potato pancakes with apple sauce, feels "cultured" now)

Boston
Avoid food court chowda even if you're starving. Avoid convention sushi, it'll probably kill you (unless you're trying to lose weight?)
Highlights:
Sam Adams Brewery Tour. After chewing roasted barley, smelling hops, and listening to the tour guide talk about beer, we got three different samples. I liked the Boston Ale and Boston Lager. Previous night had Winter (or was it white?) and thought it was ok. We also got free Sam Adams glasses to add to our glassware collection, pretty cool. The guide also told us the 5 steps of tasting a Sam Adams. Think wine tasting and you're not too far off. I like the idea of enjoying a fresh crisp beer slowly, as opposed to sucking down some cheap stuff. Anyway, totally worth it for the beer. We even went to a store they recommended to get a few variety packs. One thing I have to say though, Boston cards too much. We're not criminals or underage! geesh.

Blue Moon Winter Ale "Full Moon" on tap was amazing. As I wikied blue moon I realized that it's actually owned by Coors?! Now I feel dirty. It still tastes great though, no matter who owns it. I'd also like to try the other Blue Moon varieties such as spring and summer ale. Harpoon IPA was ok I think. Yay for reasonable priced beer on tap though in Boston though. This makes up the fact that so many places closes at 10pm and we had to go 2 or 3 places before finding food. and they didn't have jalapeño poppers...only a "spicy" wing which was "mild". sigh.

Atlantic Fish Seafood Restaurant was excellent. It made our Boston seafood experience rather memorable. Can't believe it took until lunch on our last day to figure out seafood.
Drinks: dry gin martini with lemon twist, Bellini, and Scotch. you figure out who had what.
Starters: oysters (some raspberry kind with sweet finish from PEI), ahi tuna (looked good, I didn't sample this), clam chowda (not too creamy like other places, which is great).
Food: Tuna (bah overcooked), Mahi Mahi (light), some kind of burger (maybe not really a dish at a seafood joint? how dare they give bad pickle and onion with it!? miss NYC burgers that are more like $10+ with "organic" pickles and lettuce and heirloom tomatoes or something)
Dessert: Chocolate cake, Apple Pie with ice cream. I of course combined a bit of chocolate with ice cream from the other plate. Just heavenly =)
p.s. we didn't leave this place until around 4pm which almost meant we were fined for parking too long at the hotel valet.

Pourhouse Steak Tips were nice. we liked their mashed potatoes too. My chicken sandwich was so so but since it was so cheap I didn't care that much. The place was so cold though since the door kept on opening and closing. Why doesn't everyone just get the temporary room thing outside their place like NYC? This way the cold wind/air stays in the temporary room and does not bother the inside.

Chinatown China Pearl was a pretty place for dim sum I thought. Loved their tripe and rice noodle beef things. And of course the coconut jelly.

I think that about rounds up the places I've eaten so I can look back on this list next time for reference. The convention was a tad crazy and the line for our badges took 3-4 hours. not sure if I want to come back, but may change my mind next year, who knows. I do love Boston though, even if we missed the touristy sightseeing (unless you count Sam Adams?) Back Bay is a pretty neighborhood. Next time I shall walk around more.