Every year The HOW conference attracts several people from my department as well as several hundred other creatives from around the world. This time it was in Boston and I couldn’t wait to get back and see how Boston has changed since I last lived there fifteen years ago. I took extra days off from work and brought my husband along to show him around.
Even though I used to live in Boston, I have never given much thought to eating oysters. My husband was anxious to try them so the first night we were directed to B&G Oysters in the South End. The menu was extensive so we asked our waiter to order for the uninitiated and she brought ten oysters (2 each of 5) from the waters off New York all the way to Nova Scotia. Our favorite were the Wellfleet Oysters from Massachusetts. We ordered these every might we were in Boston. Yum!
This menu was the best way to be introduced to the subtitles of oysters. We were amazed at the flavor differences!
Most of our time was spent in the South End, but one day we hiked it up to Cambridge to check out Harvard. We spent some time in the Yard watching the summer students check in, then we walked around town to see what we could find. The image of this book store (above) has inspired a painting that I am working on, and the pic below is where we got lunch.
Clover Food Lab is a great place to eat if you are ever in Cambridge, Ma. Here is what it’s all about, as excerpted from the website:
“We’re here to make food you love, the kind you talk about and look forward to eating. The Clover Food Lab is serving up a new type of fast food. This food is local, it’s just-cut, when we can it is organic.
I always loved the food trucks at MIT when I was a student. September 2008 I thought: what better way to kick things off pre-restaurant than with a truck of our own. A bunch of things fell into place and here we are. Now we have restaurants and trucks around Boston and Cambridge.
The menu will be changing with the seasons, and we’ll keep the latest posted on this site. You can expect french fries made from just-cut PEI potatoes, fresh juices like you’ve never had before, perfect sandwiches, and we’ll be ladling out just-made soups in the winter, salads in the summer.
So keep an eye on this site to follow the journey.” —Ayr Muir, Founder, CEO
Another great discovery came the next day. The SoWa Open Market is in the South End whcih happens every Sunday. It is comprised of a fresh food market, craft market, and inside the huge brick building are antique stalls filled with hours’ worth of discoveries.
I wish we were living in the South End so we could shop here every weekend. Boston, and especially this neighborhood, seems very livable.
Of course, what’s a craft market without a vintage trailer selling vintage clothing? This canned ham was the cutest booth at the Market, although I saved all my pennies to shop at Stone House Studio. Betsy’s jewelry is the most inventive use of synthetic, low fire clay (think Sculpey) I have ever seen. Check it out…
It ended up being a perfect last day in Boston. We walked a few blocks over from the market to find two more great shops:
Lekker, which means “good” in Dutch, is a fabulous contemporary home gallery with so many good things I had a hard time limiting my purchases.
Gifted was another super find. I was excited to find inexpensive enamel bangles that could be mistaken for Kate Spade’s.It was getting to the point that we needed to start thinking about getting to the airport. We made our way north in search of a restaurant. On the way I snapped a few images in the neighborhood I have come to love…
To top off a vacation of culinary delights, we were fortunate enough to be directed to a superb restaurant for brunch — Stephi’s on Tremont. Along with the world-class Bloody Marys (see the menu below), I ordered a salad that topped off a super tasty trip.
Pecan goat cheese fritter salad served over field greens with spiced pecans, ripe sliced pears, brioche croutons and balsamic vinaigrette. Yum!
(Fresh fruit salad in background)
Perfect ending to a perfect vacation.