Boston Eats

Last week, I spent about three days in Boston and the surrounding area while visiting my friend Ann. We saw lots of great famous and historical sights, but, maybe most importantly, we had lots of good food and drinks! Here's a recap of the food and beer from my trip:

My first day in Massachusetts, we stopped for lunch at Tanner Tavern in Woburn. I had the slider trio, which came with a beef slider, a crab cake slider and a lobster slide (and lots of thick-cut fries, too). It was really good--the crab cake and lobster were especially good.

That night for dinner, we went to a place in Burlington: Ginger Pad. They serve lots of different Asian foods: sushi, stir frys, Thai-inspired dishes and more. We started with a bowl of edamame, and then Ann had spicy tuna rolls and avocado rolls, I had the massamum curry with tofu. My curry was good, although not the best I've had. Unfortunately, the service was really pretty bad--took forever for the hostess to get to us, forever to be served and the appetizer came out within seconds of the rest of our meal.

The next day, we went on the Sam Adams Brewery tour, which was lots of fun, and the tasting room was a great experience. At the end of the tour, we heard about a "party trolley" that takes brewery tourists to a local Irish pub, where there is good food and plenty of Sam Adams on tap. So, of course, we elected to do that.

It's good we did! The beer was great (plus we got to keep our glasses!) and the food was excellent--Ann ordered a reuben, and said it was one of the best she's ever had. I ordered something I've never ordered before: corned beef sandwich on rye. It was fantastic. The meat was thinly sliced and incredibly tender. We both got the sweet potato fries, too. It was a great meal!

The next day, we met up with my friend Margaret, whom I went to college with and studied abroad with, and had lunch in Cambridge at Border Cafe, a Tex-Mex place. The margaritas were good, the chips and salsa tasty, and my meal was fantastic: black bean and corn empanadas (four of them!) with a roasted red pepper sauce and a side of jambalaya.

Later that night, for New Year's Eve, we made a tasty quiche for dinner. It included spinach, mushrooms, onions and gruyere. We had it with a side salad and I had a tasty local beer: Winter Ale from Wachusett Brewery. Before all that, we had a good chunk of brie with crackers. :)

Then, lastly, not long before Ann took me to the airport, we stopped for one meal I wanted to be sure I had: clam chowder. So we stopped at the Legal Sea Foods in Burlington. Legal Sea Foods is a pretty well-known East Coast restaurant chain that started in the Boston area. We each had a bowl of the clam chowder (it was awesome!) and we split the coconut shrimp with marmalade sauce.

All in all, it was a great trip and included lots of great food and drinks!