36 hours in Boston

[bloviatrix]

Blovie has a conference to attend in Boston next week and I've decided to accompany him. The thing is, Boston is very weak on kosher food which means we'll resort to what we call "Travel Plan B" which means dinner will be sushi or vegetarian food. I'm looking for suggestions of either a good sushi place or a restaurant that has a lot of vegetarian options. Can anyone help?

Additionally, anyone have any suggestions for how I should amuse myself while he's in his meetings?

[Chris Amirault]

looking for suggestions of either a good sushi place or a restaurant that has a lot of vegetarian options.  Can anyone help?

Additionally, anyone have any suggestions for how I should amuse myself while he's in his meetings?

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I can't help with the restaurants, I'm afraid, but the Museum of Fine Arts has a very well received Art Deco design show up that is probably worth a visit!

Of course, you can also go bask in the glory of Fenway Park...

[Gifted Gourmet]

Milk Street Cafe

The Milk Street Cafe has a selection of quality yet inexpensive vegetarian meals. The sandwiches include tuna, mushroom or veggie melts, salmon, egg salad and antipasto. Pizza, quiche, soups and salads are also on the menu. Expresso, cappuccino, teas and fresh squeezed lemonade are among the beverage choices

Ruben's Deli and here is their fantastic meat menu: here

Zipple listings for 14 kosher places to eat, most in Brookline

as for things to see, and this is just of Jewish interest, mind you .. (certainly downtown Boston is full of great places of historical interest)

The New England Holocaust Memorial Museum

Boston Walks Jewish Friendship Trail

and Filene's ... and Quincy Market .. the Aquarium ...

[slbunge]

Curious where you are staying. Might affect accessibility.

Depending on the weather, you might want to take the redline T (subway) out to Cambridge during the day while you are on your own. Take a walk around Harvard yard which is still basking in fall color. Warm up with a stop at the Fogg Art Museum. A short walk away is the Hi Rise Bakery that would be a great stop for lunch (their vegetarian sandwiches are fantastic). Around the corner and down from Hi-Rise on Huron is Formaggio Kitchen which has a wonderful cheese selection and lots of fancy food items from heirloom Italian dried beans to French fleur de sel caramels. Back up near the Harvard Square station you will find one of the Toscanini ice cream outposts which is worth a stop even on a cold day. I recommend either grape nut or the burnt caramel but there are other strong contenders (bananas foster for example). I googled to see about Kosher status for both Hi-Rise and Toscanini products but was not successful. I'll keep poking and update if I find something.

For vegetarian fare I'm thinking that your best options are Thai or Indian. I have had decent Indian food from Indian Samraat on Mass Ave fairly close to the river (between Comm and Beacon?). Dok Bua out on Brookline has very good Thai with a cool little grocery area for hard to find Lao and Thai ingredients for home cooks.

Dok Bua's location on Harvard Ave in Brookline, actually, seems to be in the heart of the Brookline Kosher restaurant scene based on my terribly unscientific survey of the area as I'm looking for parking. I also know from talking with a number of reasonably recent immigrant Jews from the former Soviet union that there are quite a few Jewish folks living in the area so it would seem if there were a good Kosher restaurant that might be the neighborhood.

For sushi, I don't have great ideas. We ate at the sister restaurant to a place called Uni last night and have heard very good things about their 'sushi'. They are less of a sushi place, though, and more of some sort of 'fusion sashimi' place. Quite expensive but I have heard it is worth it. I has also heard very good things about Oishii but it is all the way out in Chestnut Hill. Just got a tip about a place called Sushi One somewhere near Copley but I can't confirm. Most of the sushi I have tried here to date (have only lived here since June) were pedestrian.

I'll keep thinking as long as you haven't left yet.

Oh, and let me know if you need addresses.

[bloviatrix]

Please keep the advice coming. The days I'm concerned with are Nov. 7 and 8th. We will have a car, although from what I know of Boston traffic I'd rather use public transport.

Are there any cookbook stores or kitchen supply stores that I must check out?

Edited November 1, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[Suzanne F]

Definitely leave the car and use the T if you can!

Not sure if it's every day, but you have to check out Haymarket -- the big open-air market not far from Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall (the other side under the highway, iirc) and also near the North End (Little Italy). All definitely walking distance, especially to a NYer.

[alacarte]

Go to Legal Seafoods for sushi & cooked fish. There's one downtown on the water that I enjoyed last visit, but there are several throughout the Boston area. Ask your hotel concierge for the nearest one!

Also, if you have time (and a car), go over to Cambridge to the Schlesinger library. Cookbook heaven!

Non-food related: Last trip to Boston, I very much enjoyed the Isabella Stuart Gardiner museum. If you're nearby, it's worth a visit.

Edited November 1, 2004 by alacarte (log)

[Margo]

Actually, you can walk to the Schlesinger Library from the Harvard Square stop on the Red Line. It's at 10 Garden Street. Alacarte is right--great cookbook browsing--one of their specialty areas is culinary history.

Also second the recommendation for Formaggio Kitchen. The man who runs it was just interviewed by Lynn Rossetto Kasper on "Splendid Table": he's evidently the only working "affineur" in the US, someone who is trusted to finish cheeses by high-quality producers in Europe. It was a revelation, for me, to have brie that had been treated right!

And, the Deco show at the MFA is great. But wicked expensive ($15. admission plus $7. for the Deco exhibit).

Have fun!

[slbunge]

Had good quality sushi (we only tried the maki not the nigiri) at a place in Copley Place near the Westin last evening. It is called Osushi and is located on the second level. Small and a bit noisy but we were not disappointed with our $45 meal (for two, no drinks).

For kitchen supply shopping, the fancy place is on Newbury and called Kitchen Arts. Nice stuff but leave your wallet at home. I'm still searching for a place for commoners like me...perhaps a restaurant supply place that sells to the public.

Edited November 2, 2004 by slbunge (log)

[bigwino]

A couple of additions from me:

The Haymarket is only open on Fridays and Saturdays, so no luck there.

A great restaurant supply place that does sell to the general public is:

Eastern Baker's Supply

130-155 N. Washington Street

Boston, MA 02113

Tel 617-523-2682

This is the edge of the North End, an area already mentioned. It's very utilitarian looking and it appears to gear only to restaurants, but just jump in and poke around! There's another good restaurant supply place in Chinatown, unfortunately I can't recall the name of it, but if you poke around the area (it's not that big) you'll find it.

I enjoy Ginza for sushi, in Chinatown. You can get great seafood at Chau Chow City or Peach Farm Restaurant in Chinatown, too.

For cookbooks, you should make a trip out to the store for eCookbooks.com:

http://www.nebookfair.com/

Enjoy the trip!

[bloviatrix]

I was getting all excited about checking out the cookbook collection at the Schlesinger, but they're doing renovations and they're only open Tues, Wed, and Thurs.

[HungryChris]

"For kitchen supply shopping, the fancy place is on Newbury and called Kitchen Arts. Nice stuff but leave your wallet at home."

I think that Kitchen Arts had a basket up by the register with some good "reconditioned" knives including a few Wusthof chef knives in the $30 range a few weeks ago. I don't like to carry a lot of stuff around with me and we had a lot more walking to do that day, but now I wish I had bought a few.

Cheers,

HC

[slbunge]

Did you find anything interesting?

This weekend I was in the area and looked for the baker's supply store mentioned above and couldn't find it.

[galleygirl]

Did you find anything interesting?

This weekend I was in the area and looked for the baker's supply store mentioned above and couldn't find it.

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I don't think it's open on Saturdays.

[slbunge]

How about Saturday?

I was in the area but I couldn't remember the address. So perhaps I just missed it. I was up at the end of Washington St where it tees into Court Street. Didn't see anything looking like what I wanted to find.

Next time I'll be better prepared by calling them first to confirm that they are open.

[bloviatrix]

We got back late last night. Thanks for the recommendations.

First of all, we had a bit of adventure. Our initial plan was to drive up on Friday and stay with friends who live in Sharon for the sabbath. We would then drive into Boston on sunday morning. Well, our car basically died on I95 in Bridgeport, CT. So, we stayed with friends in Stamford for the sabbath, came back to NY and drove up in a rental on sunday. We stayed at The Seaport Hotel (that was where the conference was) which is in S. Boston. Good location for a conference but not for anything else.

I spent sunday afternoon walking around the Financial District. At Antiquarian Books of Boston (2 Milk St), I picked up 10 cookbooks, including 8 volumes of the Time-Life Foods of the World series for $2 each! I felt like I had won the lottery.

My plan for sunday night was to eat at the Indian Samraat. Blovie had his own dinner plans. I drove over (getting lost, and winding up passing Fenway Park ), couldn't find parking and didn't see it anywhere, so I gave up and drove to Brookline. Parked right in front of Dok Bua, but felt guilty about eating traif so I went to Taam China which is kosher chinese and got take-out. The place was packed, which is always a pretty good indicator and the food was decent, although I ordered way too much. Also picked up some baked goods from Kupels so we would have something to snack on.

Monday I headed to the MFA for the Art Deco show. Thanks to all of you who suggested it! It was fantastic. For those of you who like the decorative arts, it's a must.

Then went to the North End. Had lunch at Antico Forno. I ordered one of the pizzas. The ends were nice a crunch, but the base crust was a little softer that I like. Stopped into Polcari since it just smells so damn good. (i felt like a scent hound at this point, my nose was leading me around ). Almost bought some Italian 00 flour, but thought the better of it. Then acted like a tourist and visited the North Church and Copp's Hill Cemetary. I looked about Dairy Fresh Candies (again it smelled so good) and ended my trek at Maria's. There I was greeted by the aroma of anise. It was so good and comforting, I asked the woman what was giving off the smell and she pointed me to some soft anise biscotti -- I bought two for my walk back. They were really good.

Thanks for everyone's advice. I had nice a quick visit.

[slbunge]

I looked about Dairy Fresh Candies (again it smelled so good) and ended my trek at Maria's.  There I was greeted by the aroma of anise.  It was so good and comforting, I asked the woman what was giving off the smell and she pointed me to some soft anise biscotti -- I bought two for my walk back.  They were really good.

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You have a very good nose. I think those soft biscotti at Maria's are one of the best things going in the North End.

Glad you were able to pick up and dust off after that ominous beginning.