Boston pub crawl
This past Thursday my friend Kelly and I headed east to Langwater Farm in North Easton, MA, where a friend of ours works. I awoke that morning to discover a gray, drizzly sky, promising a foggy drive to just south of BeanTown; and the weather did prove to be a bit of a nuisance, switching from hard rain to harder rain, with fog the whole time. Kelly is excellent company--the kind of friend you'd want accompanying you across the United States, or anywhere really--so, aside from the weather, the drive was rather pleasant.
Once there C fed us homemade pumpkin soup (pumpkins grown at Langwater!)--YUM!--and gave us a tour of the Farm. I admired the farm stand, the colors of the foods there, pleased that I/the Farm grew the same varieties of tomatoes as those for sale at Langwater. We walked a path through slight woods; followed a tire-tracked, muddy road; felt my clothes cling uncomfortably in the humid, now rain-free day; tasted tomatoes in yellowy oranges and all shades of red; wandered further, coming upon flowers, a field full of peppers and pumpkins and other foods; kept on still across a field where C said hawks screamed and I imagined myself flying about, looking below. Finally we came uopn enormous trees, which stretch out and look wise and mysterious and old. It is lovely there. The whole farm is great, but I particularly could lie under those trees and wait for...for what? It doesn't matter, so long as I could lay there and look up from underneath those outstretched arms.
Then to Boston. We parked and headed to the Union Oyster House--a recommendation from C's friend--and somehow while C was talking to our neighbors at the bar Kelly and I decided we should turn the day into a pub crawl of sorts, stoping at various bars/restaurants for drinks and a sampling of local Boston fare. So, below is the list of where we went/what we ate/drank/what we learned/what I thought:
Once there C fed us homemade pumpkin soup (pumpkins grown at Langwater!)--YUM!--and gave us a tour of the Farm. I admired the farm stand, the colors of the foods there, pleased that I/the Farm grew the same varieties of tomatoes as those for sale at Langwater. We walked a path through slight woods; followed a tire-tracked, muddy road; felt my clothes cling uncomfortably in the humid, now rain-free day; tasted tomatoes in yellowy oranges and all shades of red; wandered further, coming upon flowers, a field full of peppers and pumpkins and other foods; kept on still across a field where C said hawks screamed and I imagined myself flying about, looking below. Finally we came uopn enormous trees, which stretch out and look wise and mysterious and old. It is lovely there. The whole farm is great, but I particularly could lie under those trees and wait for...for what? It doesn't matter, so long as I could lay there and look up from underneath those outstretched arms.
Then to Boston. We parked and headed to the Union Oyster House--a recommendation from C's friend--and somehow while C was talking to our neighbors at the bar Kelly and I decided we should turn the day into a pub crawl of sorts, stoping at various bars/restaurants for drinks and a sampling of local Boston fare. So, below is the list of where we went/what we ate/drank/what we learned/what I thought:
- Union Oyster House: Drinks: Bloody Marys and Rum and Coke. + points for the bar making it's own tomato juice for the Bloody Mary's, - points that the tomato juice mix tasted a little like thinned down cocktail sauce. + points because the drinks were strong, which is always appreciated. Food: C and I shared a platter of various fried seafoods. It wasn't bad, but it didn't blow me away either. Kelly ordered what she thought was oysters only to find it was raw clams. There is a difference. - points for not clearly stating what was what on the menu. - points because the clams (served with horseradish) tasted like they were pulled right from the ocean and not cleaned. Salty and gritty. History: Daniel Webster and J. F. Kennedy both dined here frequently.
- Bell in Hand Tavern: Drinks: Itty Bitty Bikini drink. It was fun and fruity (like an Elton John concert). Food: none here. History: The oldest continuously running tavern in the U.S. (1795). Apparently Daniel Webster also frequented here--I am seeing a pattern.
- Green Dragon: Drinks: Happy Juice-unexciting. Food: none here. History: It was at the Green Dragon where plans for the invasion of Lexington/Concorde were overhead. Leading to, anyone? Anyone? The famous ride of Paul Revere.
- Here we took a little detour to Hanover St.--the Italian section of Boston--over to Mike's Pastry: Food: Considering how many people were in line ahead of us, I couldn't believe that we still got our food and go out of there in less than five minutes! We moved over to the nearby park where the girls both got cannolis, these huge, luscious, amazing cannolis. They are ENORMOUS!! I was never a big cannoli pesron so I tried some chocolate fudge cake, which was great, but I should have gotten a cannoli! Drinks: Coffee. The biggest mistake about ordering coffee there was only I bought one and then the three of us wound up sharing it since the pastries are so amazingly rich. Plan on one coffee per person here! History: Apparently when Bill Clinton is in Boston he stops by here.
- Purple Shamrock: Drinks: Coors was on special for a ridiculous price and that made sense when I tasted how flat it was. Kelly had a Key Lime martini which was ok. Food: none here. History: nothing exciting. If you google reviews of this place there are some funny negative ones to read.
- The Tap: Drinks: Rum and coke ok. Kelly had a limeadey thing with alcohol which was tasty. Food: We ate appetizer food: sweet potato fries and wings which was standard bar food. I wanted some veggies so I ordered the "fresh roasted asparagus." They should have called it "grilled to point of char, flavorless asparagus." Guess I should have known, it's a bar! History: none to speak of.
- Legal Sea Food: There are a million locations all over N.E. and the North Atlantic states (please put one in MI!!! I guess they want to be by the ocean...something about freshness...?) and somehow at our last stop we were over by the Boston Wharf (and Aquarium) and sat outside on that very, very windy evening. Drinks: Our last stop so water seemed the best bet; I was already tired and I thought another drink would make me fall asleep on my feet. Food: Awesome! I had a really good greek salad w grilled shrimp on top. I also had the jalapeño cheddar polenta, which was good, but definitely needed salt and pepper. The polenta actually wound up being a really good pairing with Kelly's sashimi! I definitely want to go back.
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