Boston Adventure: Part One - Food for Days

Recently, someone said to me,

"If you're going to travel and write, why would you go to Boston?

I would want to go overseas."

(Boston Seaport)

This resonated with me a bit because I love all kinds of traveling, hands down. Whether it's taking a five hour drive to Boston, Massachusetts for a three day trip, or an eight hour flight to Lima, Peru to be in South America for two weeks, being somewhere different is exhilarating. People take for granted what is around them, the amazing things that are nearby. This happened to me when I lived in Connecticut; I saw quite a few things that were amazing, but I did not take full advantage.

This time around is far different. I might not be living in New England, but I am going to take advantage of living up north while I still can.

On January 8, 2017, my friend and I went to Boston for a three day mini vacation. She was looking for potential jobs (and Boston is definitely an amazing area for that) and I just wanted to get out of New York, per usual. Either way, we turned it into an adventure. Boston has so much offer, from history to great food to interesting sites to see. This first post on Boston is going to revolve around food because we ate A LOT of it, at a lot of different places.

(Shrimp Tempura Roll and Philly Roll at Thelonious Monkfish)

The first place we went to was Thelonious Monkfish, a Japanese restaurant that offers live jazz at night located on 524 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA. Not only was the atmosphere of the restaurant absolutely spectacular, the jazz playing in the background tired everything together and gave it a very cool vibe. Not only do they have an extensive sushi section, but their entire menu was varied and moderately priced (considering it's in a major city). We delved into the sushi right away, which was outstanding (seeing as I am a bit of a sushi freak). They even have a list of rolls known as Fairy Tale Sushi, which are named after different fairy tales, such The Snow Queen Roll and Red Riding Hood Roll. The drink list was also really good--we got the same drink, and forgive me for not properly remembering the name but it was something like "Bitchy Witch" or something. It consisted of Tito's, muddled strawberries, and mint... almost like a Mojito, which is a personal favorite.

(Bitchy Witch (or whatever it's called) at Thelonious Monkfish)

(Fried pickles and poutine at Veggie Galaxy)

After Thelonious Monkfish, we went a few doors down to Veggie Galaxy, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant for dinner round two because yes, we are those people! Now... I am not a vegetarian and I am not a vegan, but I appreciate good food regardless, and this place... let me tell you! It was so good! We started off with poutine and fried pickles because everyone needs appetizers for round two. These two appetizers were both basically meals within themselves, though, and beyond delicious. My friend got a sandwich melt and I went for a Caesar salad with red and yellow peppers and homemade croutons on top. The small salad was HUGE and I was impressed, even though I could not finish everything in front of me.

(Small Galaxy Caesar at Veggie Galaxy)

To top it off, the chocolate frappe was Down East (one of the absolute best ciders out there, in my opinion).

(Down East at Veggie Galaxy)

amazing (and I don't even like chocolate that much) and they had

Our third stop on the first night was to Brick & Mortar, a "hidden bar." The concept of this was awesome, and I am going to refrain was putting in the address (though you can probably find it online, or at least something close). This place was cool, and fun to try and find. We accidentally walked into a kitchen twice because we looked at the map wrong... and because when at first you don't succeed, close the door and open it again and it might turn into the place you want it to be! When we finally found the proper door, we walked up the stairs and into a cozy little bar area. We were had to come here. I found they had Bantam Rojo, which I was pleased about. Down East and Bantam in one night?! It's reasons like this (and a few others, obviously) I miss living in New England.

(Bantam Rojo at Brick & Mortar)

tired, but we

The next day, we went to Amelia's Taqueria (309 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA) for lunch. It's a walk up to the counter and order kind of restaurant, similar to Chipotle. This place was so good, and for the price, you got a lot of food. My friend got the vegetarian quesadilla and I got a chicken burrito... which was massive!

(Cranberry UFO - Harpoon Brewery)

In between everything, we adventured to the Harpoon Brewery (306 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA) and took a tour. Before the tour, we ate a delicious cinnamon pretzel and tried different beers (well, I tried a bunch of different beers, my friend isn't a huge beer person but she got adventurous, too). I am going to write a whole separate section on Harpoon, but those pretzels... EAT THEM ALL. It was spectacular, and I am craving one as I write this.

That night was time for Fire & Ice (205 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA), one of my absolute favorite places to go! If you love pasta and you have never been here, YOU NEED TO GO. It's an all-you-can-eat pasta restaurant. There's a circular stove top in the center of the second floor and you wait around the stove with your bowl of pasta, meats, veggies, etc. and they cook it right in front of you. Pasta is not the only thing you can get here--Fire & Ice offers burgers, Phillies, fajitas, and much more. If you have a food allergy or you have a food restriction, they will give you a ticket and when you bring your food up, they will cook it in back so it does not get mixed with anything else, which I always thought was pretty cool. It's $19.99 for the all-you-can-eat pasta dinner (prices vary for lunch and brunch), which is not a bad price to begin with. We went on Monday night, which is college night (and we only paid $10.99 because we had our college IDs!!) but if you want to go for that, make sure you go earlier. Around 7-7:30pm, the place fills up!

(Fire Bowl at Fire & Ice)

Another thing about Fire & Ice that was good was the Fire Bowl, their own take on the popular scorpion bowl drinks... and so yummy. The Fire Bowl was fruity and delicious, and definitely enough for the two of us!

On the last day, we went to Zuma Tex Mex Grill in Quincy Market. This was another place where we got so much food for such a great price. The service was not the best, but we went at an off time. Regardless, the food was really good and filling. I highly recommend the chicken enchiladas from there.

I wish we had more time to try other places, but Boston is basically right there and I am more than willing to go again--maybe when it's warmer out, though!

(Other parts of the Boston adventure will be up soon!)

((ALL PHOTOS IN THIS BLOG POST WERE TAKEN BY ME, NIKKI KRISTAN))