With no plans for a three-day weekend and the desire to maintain my higher tier of airline mileage status, I decided to head across the country to Boston for a good chunk of my Labor Day weekend. By landing late Friday night and leaving first thing Sunday morning, I had about 48-ish hours to explore, walk, and eat around the city, which I hadn’t visited in quite a few years. Here’s what I got up to!
Saturday, August 30
1:00 am-ish
I arrive at my accommodations for the weekend, the Charlesmark Hotel, after my 5 and a half-ish hour flight. After checking in and showering, I try to settle into bed as soon as possible because I know I have a lot to pack in over the next few days. Unfortunately, my brain thinks we’re still on the West Coast and I toss and turn as the air conditioner tries to level out the temperature in my room.
7:00 am-ish
My alarm wakes me up. Despite having less than optimal hours of sleep, I spring out of bed to get ready for the day. Why so early? I have to space my meals out so I can have an appetite to grab dinner around 5 pm, which my stomach would otherwise think it’s 2 pm because jet lag.
Luckily, Back Bay – the neighborhood I’m in – is a great springboard for all the neighborhoods I want to visit. I decide to walk to a nearby neighborhood bakery that I found while browsing Google Maps on my flight. Greystone Cafe is a mother-daughter business that is just a few blocks south of where I’m staying. By the time I get there, I see a crowd hovering around the pick-up-window. It feels like I stumbled upon a local favorite. While all the baked savory and sweet pastries look tempting, I opt for a “Cheddar Bomb,” which came recommended online – an ancient grain biscuit with applewood smoked bacon, egg, and a chili oil drizzle. It pairs nicely with an iced latte to kickstart my morning.
8:00 am
And I’m off! Armed with the remaining latte in hand, I start to make my way towards the Union Square Saturday Farmers Market – which is about a 3.4 mile walk from the bakery. Based on my usual walking speed, this should take me about 1.5 hours. I move my way up Columbus Avenue and then up on Arlington Street before cutting through the beautiful Public Gardens next to the Boston Commons. I notice on my maps that there’s a walkway by the Charles River, so I make my way towards that direction.
8:55 am
I am on the other side of the Charles River – and realize I crossed the river a little prematurely to what I had originally planned. But that’s okay – I figure out how to recalibrate my walking journey, as dozens of morning runners whiz by me.
9:05 am-ish
I am back on track, hoping to make it to the market not too long after they open, but with plenty of time to make it back down to Quincy Market in the downtown area for a walking tour. I end up walking down Cambridge Street, enjoying a quieter main street vibe. While I walk at a brisk I pace, I stop at Elmendorf Baking Supplies & Cafe, which catches my eye, because how could this bread baker/mother of a 10 year old sourdough starter baby not? I snag a toasted coconut and masa Madeline as mid-morning fuel and walk out with 2 lbs of bread flour to “make” my souvenir at a later time.
9:44 am-ish
I arrive at the market. It’s a cute Saturday farmers market, though not as big as I had anticipated. Maybe some folks are out because of the long weekend. I spot a lot of bread stands and have a hard time holding back. I end up walking away with an ajvar sfiha (Mediterranean eggplant and bell pepper bread) for a snack from Mahalab Bakery and a loaf of bread from Iggy’s. Hey, if I can’t eat all the bread I want in one sitting, I’ll take some home with me.
10:20 am
I take the tram down from Union Square station to Haymarket, and walk over to the meeting spot by the Quincy Market Starbucks for a free historical walking tour that starts at 11. I am definitely the youngest attendee who is there on their own free will. I hadn’t been back to Boston since well before my undergraduate history degree where I spent a good chunk of time studying the early American Republic, so it felt nice to revisit that part of my realm of knowledge. We learn about Boston’s original shoreline and various philanthropic efforts to keep the market alive over the years, and stand just a handful of feet away from the exact spots where the historical events I read about in textbooks occurred (like the Boston Massacre).
12:10 pm-ish
After I peek my head into the Great Hall on Faneuil Hall’s second floor, I scout the lunch options in the various food halls and find nothing too inspiring. I make my way to the North End to see if I can get a smaller lunch – which is not the easiest thing to do in an Italian American neighborhood. I switch course and decide to head to Beacon Hill to grab a light bite and do some window shopping, so I turn around and head westward for about 1 mile.
1:00 pm-ish
I settle on pintxos from Zurito, a spot that seemed popular between the online reviews and the outdoor seating I saw quickly filling up in front of me. As I have been doing a lot of walking in the sun, I opt for a bar seat and place an order for anchovies and octopus. I also get a white wine because it feels wrong to eat pintxos without a glass of vino in my hand (white because it paired better with the food I was having; otherwise a classic Spanish red would have been choice). As the bartender pours the wine, he asks if I could take the remainder of the bottle as there’s only a little bit left. Don’t mind if I do.
3:00 pm-ish
I come back to the hotel after browsing some cute boutiques and shops around the Beacon Hill neighborhood and have a London fog ice cream from JP Licks. At this point, my watch tells me I’ve walked about 23,000 steps or a little over 10 miles. I clonk out for a nap before changing to get ready for dinner.
3:50 pm-ish
Time to take the tram to dinner at Sarma, which I read about in various Boston food lists and saw featured in the Boston episode of the Netflix series, Somebody Feed Phil. Sarma specializes in modern Mediterranean food, inspired by the meyhanes of Turkey and other flavors from the chef’s global travels. The restaurant is around the Union Square Farmers Market area but I don’t have it in me to do that length of the walk again. The Green E line two-car tram weaves its way underneath the city streets I walked hours before, making its way up to Somerville.
4:40 pm-ish
Arrive at Sarma to see there are at least 30 people ahead of me for first-come, first-serve non-reservation seating. I thought I’d be early!
5:05 pm-ish
I am just one party shy of being seated at the bar for the first round, so the front of house hands me a drink and snack menu that I can order from as I wait for a seat to open. I use the time to start a new book (Kakigori Summer) and am thankful I brought something with me.
To start my evening meal, I order a cocktail (“The Promenade”), which has a wonderful roasted nutty flavor and warmth in it from the roasted corn, sesame orgeat, and falernum (a Caribbean liqueur with flavors of ginger, lime, and almond) mixed with the house gin – yet balances nicely with a tinge of sweetness from blueberries and tang from lemon. The drink pairs nicely with the surprisingly creamy chickpea fritters I also ordered, which have a soft fried crust but an otherwise smooth inside made up of blended chickpeas and summer squash. On top, a salad of pomegranate, basil, and pistachio gives a pop of freshness and crunch to each bite. I also add the sugar snap peas dish to my order as they’re one of my favorite summer time vegetables. While the pistachio tahini, radish, and puffed quinoa that are noted on the menu are evident, I search for the ginger – until I realize they are present in the salad as perfectly diced pieces of candied ginger. It’s a new touch to a familiar flavor, adding some extra chew and sweetness to the dish.
6:20 pm
After some initial dining parties finish up their meals, I am seated smack dab in the middle of the 20-person bar. I have a full view of the cocktail production and catch a glimpse into the back of the kitchen. I am satiated from my appetizers but want at least one more plate and a dessert, so I ask my server for a suggestion. Of the three dishes he mentioned, I opt for the Greek style branzino.
6:40 pm
The branzino arrives. The heat from the steaming, freshly grilled fish turns the wonderfully herbaceous salsa verde into a perfume that wafts around our section of the bar. My next door neighbors enquire about what I have ordered because it looks and smells delicious (I agree). While I am not super hungry, I practically inhale the fish. The char on the branzino fillet adds punches of bitter against the natural sweetness of the summer vegetables, which has been brought out by some caramelization on the grill. My only (minor) complaint is that the other green sauce that covers the base layer of freekeh (green durum wheat) is a tad salty for my liking.
7:00 pm
I close out dinner with a Persian peach frozen yogurt – which became one of the best things I ate on the trip. The large swirl of dusty orange goodness quickly disappears, but not without me savoring each bite and trying to distinguish the warm spicing I feel dancing on my tongue. I ask one of the servers about the frozen yogurt’s preparation and she says they grill the peaches a little, then add saffron and ginger and a bit of regular yogurt to the mix.
7:25 pm
Pleased with the abilities of my discerning palette, I pay up and head back to the hotel. I walk up one of the two inclines I face on my trip; for the most part otherwise, Boston has been a pretty flat, walkable city. By the time I arrive back to my hotel, my watch reads I have walked 26,000 steps or a little less than 12 miles. I’m going to sleep well tonight.
Sunday, August 31
8 am-ish
Up and out early again, because I have to space my meals out before a 6 pm dinner reservation (this seems to be a theme for my shorter travels). I head towards one of the Tatte bakeries in my neighborhood and am impressed that there’s already about 10 or 15 people ahead of me right after opening. Protein usually helps me get fueled for the day so I order the seasonal corn and spinach dish with poached egg. If I still had my 20-something year old metabolism. I would have probably squeezed in one of the many delicious looking pastries or patisserie desserts from the window.
8:40 am
I take off again, this time heading towards Cambridge via the Harvard Bridge. My destination this morning? Nine Winters Bakery, a Korean-American cafe that I learned about on Instagram. This morning’s walk is a little longer at 3.7 miles – which is perfect because I need to make room in my stomach for some baked goods. I spend most of my walk on Massachusetts Avenue but make a slight detour into the Harvard University campus to explore a bit and observe orientation activities.
9:50 am-ish
While I am almost at my destination, I find Hi Rise Bread Company along the way, which I saw at yesterday’s farmers market. I walk in and find some cookies to take home as gifts and treats, and also take back a blueberry and lime cake to pack in my bag and snack on later (always carry an emergency treat).
10:00 am
I arrive at Nine Winters Bakery and immediately wish I were visiting with a friend so I could split a good size sampling of the delicious array of baked goods I see in front of me. I opt for a gochujang sticky bun for eating in, and ask for one of each of three cookies to go: mugwort vanilla, 3 pepper ginger, and black sesame chocolate chip. While scanning the coffee menu, I notice a perilla syrup available, which I had never seen before. After consulting with the owner about my beverage options, I take the her suggestion of adding it to an americano.
I rest my feet as I dig into my warm gochujang sticky bun, which is properly sticky and has some good heat to it. The syrupy top not only has a browned sugar flavor, but has some orange notes to it, which I really enjoy for the bright pops of flavor against the spice. Meanwhile, I am fascinated by the perilla syrup in the iced americano. It is nutty and leafy and a little bitter, which helps bring out the flavor of the espresso. Everything is delightful and I wish I can come back here more often to try other baked goods, food and drink specials.
10:50 am-ish
I start to head towards my next destination, which is technically lunch, but I need to walk around to make some stomach space again (I am slightly ahead of my calculated walking and eating schedule). I pass through a park and some side streets while listening to the loud chorus of cicadas, extending my mile-long walk to about 1.5 miles. As today is move-in day for a lot of students, I spend some time thinking back to when I thought I’d end up in Boston for graduate studies in library sciences. How differently life would have turned out if I had taken that path.
11:25 am
I make it to my lunch destination, Yume Ga Arukara – and actually one of the primary reasons why I came to Boston. When it comes to Japanese noodles, I will pick udon over ramen any day; I prefer the bouncier chew of the wheat noodles and find the soup bases generally lighter and thus easier to enjoy. I had heard about this spot via social media several years ago and followed them since, dreaming of when I would be able to try their tantalizing-looking bowl of cold beef noodles (funny because their name means “Because I have a dream”).
At first glance, I am concerned the store is closed because I cannot find anything that looks to be an entrance. When I enter what I think is a side door, I see a huge line in front of me for udon. They’ve not been open for even 30 minutes! However, the restaurant has a very efficient ordering system with party counts tallied and orders being taken as folks wait. I go back and forth between the signature cold niku udon and the spicy version, but opt for the former. While waiting in line, I hear other dining parties speaking Thai, Korean, and Japanese. The language center in my brain is working overtime, trying to eavesdrop and understand what everyone is saying.
11:50 am
By the time I take my seat at the counter, I am ready to eat lunch. I watch the kitchen staff work in assembly line fashion, adding their part of the equation to a tasty looking bowl of udon. The noodle machine hums in the background of the restaurant hubbub, turning out piles of long, smooth noodles every few minutes. My udon arrives about 5 minutes after taking my seat.
At first glance, the dish looks simple and straightforward. But after squeezing the lemon and taking my first bite of everything, the layers of flavor start to quickly build on each other. The shoyu tare is smooth and not too strong, with the predominant accents being mirin and dried fish. Its coolness is refreshing, providing some reprieve from walking around in the sun earlier. The sweetness also comes through from the beef, which is thinly sliced and with enough fattiness to balance its marinade. The tempura bits also add some richness; personally, I would have opted for a little less but that’s because I cannot seem to eat as much fried food anymore (the recent protest from my 30-something-year-old stomach). As I slurp my very bouncy noodles, I get some relief from the sweet and fat with some acidity from lemon, zing from grated ginger, daikon, and green onions, and saltiness from the dried seaweed. I finish my udon in less time than it took for me to wait for them.
12:35 pm
After inhaling my bowl of noodles, I walk towards my third stop in my Cambridge food trifecta: Honeycomb Creamery. I love a local ice cream store that uses local, seasonal ingredients and makes everything from scratch; I try to find such gems when I can in whichever city I visit. However, as is usually the case for me in such places, when I enter the store, I am overwhelmed with all the delicious sounding flavors. Cold brew coffee chip? Watermelon hibiscus chamoy? Horchata? Cantaloupe honey sorbet? Peach rose sorbet? Sweet corn soft serve?? How can I choose! Exacerbating my selection dilemma is that my lunch finally sinks in, and I fear I am not able to enjoy what appear to be generously sized scoops. Luckily, I find they have a mini cup, so I decide to fill one with black sesame and raspberry ice cream to continue the Middle Eastern/Asian flavor theme I have started this morning.
1:15 pm
I take my feet towards Broadsheet Coffee Roastery, cutting through Harvard University again along the way. Typically, I try to limit my caffeine intake to one cup of coffee a day, but it is hard to resist a visit to a well-regarded coffee roaster while on vacation. I initially wanted to try to make it to Gracenote Coffee in the Leather District, but with limited time, I had to make some choices of which neighborhoods to cut out of my walking itinerary. I rest my feet for a bit with some iced coffee and two bags of coffee to take home as souvenirs and gifts.
2:10 pm-ish
I almost complete a huge loop around Cambridge, but cut it short by hopping on the tram to head to SoWa, hoping to catch the last of their Sunday market.
2:50 pm
I make it to SoWa Open Market, which is buzzing with activity but unfortunately I do not see any food, crafts, art, or jewelry that catch my eye. Likely, I am just tired. I end up walking back to Back Bay to the hotel via the South End, grabbing some sour gummies from Madeline’s Candy Shop.
3:50 pm-ish
Back at the hotel. My watch says I’ve already clocked 27,000 steps, or 12.3 miles of walking. Yeah, that feels about right.
5:30 pm
To give my feet a small break, I call an Uber to take me to Dorchester for dinner at Comfort Kitchen, another spot highlighted on Somebody Feed Phil (I have to say, the show did a great job convincing me to come back to Boston). Comfort Kitchen focuses on global comfort food and community, and celebrates and features flavors from the African diaspora.
5:50 pm
As I sit at their bar for service, I enjoy reading through their menu narrative that raises the questions of what it means to be American, and how the answers are layered, intersectional, and evolving. They reflect on this conversation through their dishes, asking diners to reflect on who or what is “Nu American.” This is evidenced in this season’s menu where I see brown butter seared okra with masala spiced yogurt and plantain crumb, jerk jackfruit sliders, tea-brined pork chop, goat ragu and cassava gnudi, and braised greens with pork belly lardon (just to name a few). While everything sounds delicious, I feel I went too hard with the eating this morning and have not fully recovered from my earlier grazing. For dinner, I choose the seasonal salad and the aachar beef. At the bartender’s suggestion, I pair it with their red sangria. While I wait for my food and drink, I glance around at the colorful art and design fixtures which make the restaurant feel familiar and cozy. A red sky light adds a warm tint to everything in the dining area.
6:10 pm
My sangria arrives and it is a generous concoction of wine, peach liquor, Licor 43 (a Spanish liqueur with notes of vanilla, citrus, and other aromatic herbs), lemon, and marigold syrup. I take a sip – it is not too sweet, which is my kind of mixed beverage. I continue to enjoy my drink as I watch the staff work in the small, open kitchen on the other side of the counter.
6:15 pm
As I’ve ordered small dishes, they come out quickly. The earthiness of the roasted beets pairs nicely with the charred poblano whipped feta, which also gives a nice creaminess to counter the bitter, grilled radicchio. I could snack on the chile cocoa almonds on top all day. Meanwhile, the aachar beef has a back-of-mouth tang from the mustard marinade. The accompanying potatoes are crispy on the outside, but creamy on the inside, and while the green tomato aioli is a bit heavy for me, the pickled shallots and green tomatoes provide the needed acidic relief for balance. As I eat, I overhear another dining party reference Somebody Feed Phil. They are trying to recall the dishes Phil ate on the show.
7:00 pm
I hop in a Lyft to make it to one more ice cream spot, Toscanini’s (another spot featured on the Boston episode; honestly, the show did some heavy lifting on the eating itinerary for me). But at this point, I want something lighter than a creamy ice cream, so I opt for a kiwi-lime sorbet – which tastes more limey than kiwi-y, but it’s refreshing. I think keeping the kiwi seeds in could have added some nice texture.
7:20 pm
The First Avenue location of Toscanini’s is close to the Charles River, so I retrace some familiar steps to head back to the hotel. While I risk getting attacked by mosquitos by walking along the water at dusk, I enjoy a gorgeous sunset from the Longfellow Bridge.
8:00 pm-ish
I make it back to the hotel. 32,000 steps or 14.7 miles for the whole day. I think this is a new step record! It’s time to pack, shower, and put my feet up until bed – which I should get to because I have an early flight. Thanks for a fun 48-ish hours, Boston! I look forward to the next time I visit and walk 20-some miles to snack about town.
Check out where I visited!
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