You may have noticed I was gone... we went to a wedding (not our own!) in the Boston area. For no obvious reason I'll start the blog recapping on a culinary note.
Thursday
9 a.m. PDT - Breakfast burritos from the 360 Gourmet place in Terminal 1 ("All Other Airlines" - i.e. non-Southwest) at OAK. Even though I forgot to ask for chicken apple sausage, the eggs, cheese, salsa, and tortilla alone were enough to hit the spot. Julia got us smoothies, which were also good.
Junk food on Jet Blue: Munchies (tm), then crackers with fromage (I eschewed the fromage).
9 p.m. EDT - Funny how a coast-to-coast flight plus a jump of three time zones eats your whole day. We dined at this hotel's river-view restaurant. Amazingly fresh ingredients. We got Boston clam chowder and spinach/mushroom quesadilla appetizers, then the scallop special for me (the risotto was too rich for me but she enjoyed it) and tuna steak for her.
Friday
We made due with late-morning coffee and water to kick off the day before heading to Harvard Square.
1:30 p.m. EDT - The Border Cafe is still Harvard's most compelling eatery, despite being a conspicuous exception to my rule that when you go for regional cuisine you should take into account how far you are from the region in question. So help me, the best Tex-Mex I've ever had is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I wish I could remember the name of the chicken dish I got. It was stuffed with poblano peppers among other things.
(We each had a late-afternoon glass of wine at the Museum of Fine Art.)
7 p.m. EDT - Shrimp and lobster scampi, plus beer, at The Barking Crab near where I used to work. The menu was much more fried-food-heavy than I'd remembered it being, but my particular dish was good. (The crab cakes not so much, I'm told.) This wasn't a place to enjoy food so much as a place to enjoy seeing old friends.
Saturday
12:30 p.m. EDT - An hour before the wedding, went back to the hotel restaurant for sandwiches for lack of other timely options, though again the food was fantastic, with strikingly fresh ingredients. I had a chicken melt with tasty cheese and even tastier tomato/pesto sauce.
The wedding reception of course had good food (buffet style, chicken and salmon) and copious dessert fare.
Sunday
11 a.m. EDT - The wedding brunch was a cornucopia of quiches and croissants and eclairs and relaxed conversation at the bride's parents' house. The groom's parents in particular were still just permanently beaming. Very happy wedding party - good couple.
5 p.m. EDT - Having made it up to Portland, Maine, we dined at this floating restaurant on the Waterfront. I had a mixed seafood broil that was good but more buttery that it should have been (broiled = healthy, at least most of the time); Julia had a shrimp Caesar salad in which, to my surprise (though not hers, since the menu said as much) the shrimp was breaded.
Monday
9 a.m. EDT - Free continental breakfast from the EconoLodge outside Brunswick (that's as far Down East as we got: given when we left the brunch and when our flights were, Acadia might have been doable after all but would have been really pushing it; wouldn't have left us time to sightsee Portland at leisure, for example). We shared a bagel, an english muffin, OJ, and coffee.
11:45 a.m. EDT - Shared a seafood chowder from a little place just off the main drag in Freeport. Briefly did the boutiquey shopping thing but did not drop in on LL Bean corporate HQ.
5 p.m. EDT - With 8:00 flights we had just enough time to find the North End, find parking in same, find (eventually after I started us off the wrong way) Salem Street, and pick a restaurant. LoConte's (next to La Famiglia, otherwise tempting except that we couldn't easily bring doggie bags for the plane) was tasty and authentic. Where has chicken cacciatore been all my life? With all those red, yellow, and green peppers, it's a natural for me. Even at that, if anything I liked my seafood pasta even more.
Junk food on Jet Blue again: This time almonds for me. Funny how time zone differences mean that the same flight path can be all day, or just a very extended evening.
Posted by Matt Bruce at August 16, 2005 09:51 AMWhen we went to Portland, our first meal was at the Italian place across the street from the Shipyard brewing company. After sucking down five three or so ounce samplers in under half an hour, before lunch, it was decided that neither of us should drive back to the hotel without eating. I'm guessing they pick up a fair bit of business that way.
On a related note, I heartily recommend the tour at the brewery to you and your readership.
Posted by: Hyph at August 16, 2005 01:20 PMYeah, we were a bit tipsy. I'll second the recommendation for the tour -- it's free, the beer is good, and as noted, the brewery is quite generous with samples.
I'd also recommend the Portland Museum of Art for a pleasant diversion, should anyone reading this happen to be up that way. It's not a huge museum, but worth visiting.
How you can go to Freeport and not go to the LL Bean mother ship is beyond me, though. We didn't buy anything there, but we spent a fair bit of money at the outlet store on one of the main streets of Portland.
Posted by: Allyson at August 16, 2005 02:44 PM