Hello, there. My name is Matt, but on this website I just refer to myself as m@. I love all things Star Wars, food, beer, and music, especially The Beatles. I'm one who likes to be noticed and will sometimes say or do inappropriate things to get your attention. I'm perfectly complimented by my online and real life partner Recent Comments
Tag Archives: boston
Taiwan Cafe
You can’t go to a new city without visiting Chinatown. We had a long list of places to check out in Boston, but settled on Taiwan Cafe…to start.
Everyone feels great, still buzzing after our visit to the Sam Adams Brewery.
XLB.
Neef Noodle Soup. The broth tasted atypical, with a sweet and spicy flavoring.
We had more restaurants planned for some marathon eating, but after beer and our first meal, we needed a nap. The rest of Boston’s Chinatown will have to wait for another time.
King of Craft Breweries
We already covered Harpoon Brewery in Boston, but the largest craft brewery in the United States is also there is also in Boston.
I’m coming, Sammy!
Growing hops on their patio.
Look at all the awards they’ve won.
We love beer!
I’ve got a golden ticket!
The original copper kettles and the newer stainless steel ones as well.
Utopia barrels. 27% alcohol by volume. That girl was stationed there just to keep me from getting a taste.
Tasting room.
Educational and delicious.
The Sam Adams Brewery in Boston really isn’t used for commercial production other than the Utopia line. It’s more of a laboratory to create and perfect their brews and a classroom to educate and indoctrinate visitors to the cult of craft brew. The great thing is the tour is free and you get to keep the tasting glass. They have a shuttle that takes people to a local pub that serves Sam Adams in the Perfect Pour glass and let’s you take it home for $5.50! Every college kid in the Boston area should visit this place at least once.
Howl at the Moon
Not wanting to be the old couple, after we gorged ourselves on pastries and pasta, we decided stay up and head to Howl at the Moon. This bar actually exists in a few cities, including Hollywood. If it’s half as fun as the one in Boston, I’d be happy to go.
The concept is simple. It’s a dueling piano bar that takes requests from the audience, but at least in the Boston location they had six different musicians that night. They play many a lot more than just the piano and they switch up. There was a drum set, an electric guitar, bass, acoustic guitar, a keytar, and they even pulled out a flute during one of the songs.
You can see they are pretty talented. Here they are performing Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass.
Giacomo’s & Mike’s Pastry
Two of my cousins went to MIT, and the third one is currently still enrolled there. When I asked about things to do in Boston, I got very mixed suggestions. One of the suggestions was pretty solid all across the board, Italian food at Giacomo’s on the North End.
The place is small like most places on the North End, so there’s a wait. A line forms outside the restaurant and people are willing to stand for up to a couple hours just to get into this restaurant. I wonder what happens when it starts to snow.
caprese salad-bufala mozarella,fresh tomato,basil and virgin oil
fried calamari
shrimp and lobster pasta.
half lobster & mussels pasta.
Giacomo’s is worth waiting for, because the wait isn’t about just standing around. You can have someone in your party walk half a block to Mike’s Pastry to pick up some treats.
They bake quite a few different treats in their shop.
This, however, is what they are known for, cannolis.
Delicious, cream-filled treats.
Here Michelle enjoys a cannoli with the line to Giacomo’s in the background.
While Mike’s Pastry makes a great pre dinner snack, just up the street past Mike’s is Modern Pastry. They are famous for their sfogliatelle. It’s a flaky, light pastry with filled witha creamy filling. Unfortunately with as full as we were, these were readily handled before we could get any photos.
So if you’re ever in Boston, make this Italian meal tour on the North End. You won’t regret it.
Myers + Chang
Our first full day of Boston left us tired from walking the Freedom Trail and also from drinking beer. After retiring to our hotel for a quick nap, we headed to Myers + Chang.
If you had to guess, you would probably guess Chang, but you would be wrong. That’s not Chang. It’s Woo.
Place mats are local Chinese newspaper pages, and their menu looks like a takeout menu.
Honey Jack with ginger, topped with a lager. Very refreshing, and the ginger and the lager take out the sweetness from the Jack, which is way too overwhelming.
I really enjoy this beer. I found it at BevMo, but it’s $5 a bottle. No thanks.
taiwanese-style cool dan dan noodles, fresh peanut and chili sambal
wok-charred udon noodles, chicken, baby bok choy, oyster sauce
tiger’s tears (aka bang bang & olufsen beef), grilled steak, thai basil, lime, khao koor
braised pork belly buns, bao, brandy hoisin, house pickle
lemon-ginger mousse coupe, homemade fortune cookie
Myers + Chang seems a little gimmicky with giant dragons painted on the windows, charging a luxury fee for Asian dishes when Chinatown is a mere two blocks away. This place is more than Asian food at a premium though. It’s a delicious little joint for familiar foods with a slight twist. They don’t stray too far from the traditional tastes on most of their dishes, which makes it comfort food. The sauces are a little bit different, a little bit lighter, but overall it’s close to what I grew up eating with my parents.
If you feel like exploring a little more, they have that too. Some of their own creations, like chicken and waffles made with a ginger-sesame waffle looked pretty good.
I’d stop into this place again if I was in town, and you should too.
Freeeeeeeeeeeeedom!
Since it was our first time in Boston, we had to follow the Freedom Trail around the city and get ourselves a little history lesson.
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- Sitting in church, the Old North Church.
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- Anyone see lanterns in the bell tower?
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- I was really fascinated with the designs on the headstones.
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- USS Constitution.
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- It’s got cannons!
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- Bunker Hill Monument.
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- It was a nice day for a nap. That’s enough history for one day.
That’s enough history for one day. If I had to do that all over again, I probably would’ve done a guided tour to get more historical reference to what we were seeing, but let’s face it. We weren’t really that interested in the Freedom Trail. I planned the route around a lunch stop for seafood and a stop at a brewery. Yay, America!
First Meal in Boston
After Chicago Michelle and I figured we were already half way across the country and decided to travel to the East Coast. Not wanting to do New York like we normally do, we decided on Boston. We got to our hotel pretty late, but being in The Back Bay, there were plenty of food options.
Boston is known for its New American style of food. There are places on practically every block serving this style of cuisine. We chose The Salty Pig for our first grub spot.
Prosciutto, Speck, Hard Gouda, Fig Jam, Chianti Jelly.
Mushroom Pizza, Topped with a Farm Egg.
Granted we were pretty hungry after travelling, but I really enjoyed this place. They’ve got a small rotation of beers that are pretty good, and their staff is super friendly, even after I brought up the Red Sox end of the regular season implosion.
Now Enrolling
All levels of skill are welcome. Paul Pierce’s School of Acting and Performing Arts is now open for registration. At the end of the course, your performances are guaranteed to inspire arenas full of people. F you, Massholes! We’ll be back with a vengeance!