36 Hours in Beantown

By Crivenica

I imagined myself as a “jet-setter” sometimes, especially after a brief long-haul trip to NYC and Boston in a span of less than 10 days. A good portion of those days were spent in an uncomfortable Continental Airlines’ Economy seat of a round trip 14-hour non-stop flight from Delhi-Newark. So, I was not quite the jet-setter I imagined who traveled in style, enjoying a flat-bed seat in Business Class, wearing fabulous traveling wear, and dining at Michelin star restaurants. But close enough. My husband and I may not travel business, wear designer clothes, but we always eat well. And most importantly, we always enjoy the time we spend with each other and our family or friends that may share the trip with us.

And this last trip was no different, though this trip was not all about food. The main purpose of this short trip was to attend David's graduation from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, where he earned his Master degree in International Affairs. It had been a hard long year of him working full time and studying in every single spare moment. There were long nights of listening to lectures and reading tons of books, early mornings of writing on the discussion boards and papers, precisely-timed Skype conference calls with his team mates, and three two-weeks residency sessions away from home. But all his hard work had finally paid off. I can’t be more proud of him.

Lu and I drove to Boston with my sister-in-law, Michelle, and her best friend (who is like another sister-in-law to me), Bryn, a day before the graduation. The drive from NYC to Medford where David’s campus is, took about three and a half hours. Michelle and Bryn dropped us off at our hotel before continuing on to Wellesley to meet up with Michelle’s former professor. So, there Lu and I were at two o’clock in the afternoon (David was still at campus), starving, and all we could think of was to get us some delicious lobster rolls. For your information, aside from David’s graduation, those rolls were our mission on this trip. But of course, the closest seafood joint with a decent lobster roll was a bus trip and a train hop away. Hungry (and I get cranky when I’m hungry), we settled for a simple 10-inch pizza from Za restaurant, a few blocks away. Lobster rolls just had to wait.

That night and the following morning were filled with graduation events. We went to a nice dinner hosted by The Fletcher School to welcome the families of the graduates at the Historic Commander’s Mansion, a beautiful three-story house built to house the military commanding officers after the Civil War. Now, the mansion and the beautifully maintained grounds  have become a great spot for private events, such as weddings and the official dinner we enjoyed.

The next morning, we all went to Tufts’ Medford campus for the graduation, where, I'm proud to say, my husband was the class’ speaker. It was a wonderful commencement ceremony, which was then followed by a marvelous brunch. And after a lot of farewells, David, Lu and I changed into more comfortable outfits and set out to Boston. Here are the highlights.

Neptune Oyster Bar
To please Lu and me, David took us to this little gem of a spot on the North side of the city. Neptune Oyster Bar is a small and always packed restaurant, famous for their fresh oysters and hot lobster rolls. Now, a lobster roll is usually chunks of lobster meat in mayonnaise served on a soft bun, but Neptune’s hot lobster roll is a slightly different version in which the lobster meat chunks were drenched in hot melted butter, and served in a brioche hot dog bun. This was more to my taste, really. At first, I was worried we were going to ruin our appetite for dinner (since it was already 5 p.m., when we finally got a table), but after taking the first bite, I didn’t want to stop.

Haymarket
Walking distance from Neptune Oyster is the famous Haymarket, Boston’s open farmer’s market. If you love farmer’s markets, make sure you make time to check out Haymarket when you’re in Boston. Started in the 1830s, the market has gone through transformations throughout the years, but it’s still open every Friday and Saturday in the daylight hours. Looking at the beautiful produce and fresh fish available there gave me the itch to shop and cook. I miss having the diversity of fresh ingredients available for me to use in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I was too keen at looking at the products and daydreaming that I forgot to take any pictures. 

The New England Holocaust Memorial
This holocaust memorial was one of the most heart-wrenching memorials I’ve ever visited. However, I did not acquire that feeling from graphic historical pictures that many memorials display. It was the feeling I got just as I walked through the base of the six glass towers making up the memorials. Each tower stands at 54-feet high over a dark chamber that bears the name of one of the principal Nazi death camps as a remembrance of the chimneys of those death camps. Smoke rises from the bottom of these chambers, giving you a sense of the gas chambers in which six million Jews and others that the Nazis didn’t deem worthy, perished.

Going through the chambers, on the glass wall, you would see brief quotes of  some of the survivors’ memories of watching their loved ones murdered in front of their eyes. My breath caught in my chest as I read these quotes, but I could hardly contain my tears when I realized that all around me, small series of numbers were etched on the glass walls of the towers (all 54-feet of the six towers). These are the numbers that the Nazis tattooed onto their victims after taking them away from their lives and stripping them of their identities. These were what was left of those people whose souls went up the death camps’ chimneys - all six millions of them.

The Freedom Trail & The Boston Common

Lu & I at Paul Revere Park

If you’re a history buff, this is a perfect thing for you to do while in Boston. The city is full of history of the American Revolution and you may wonder where to begin. This is why the Freedom Trail is cool because all you have to do is follow the red brick trail through the city and it will lead you to 16 important historic sites. David, Lu, and I caught some part of the freedom trail in the North End and walked through Paul Revere park and its surrounding and picked up the trail again at Boston Common, which is the oldest city park in the US (est. 1634).   

EVOO 

After walking through a part of Harvard in Cambridge, we ended our night with a celebratory dinner with David’s family at Evoo (stands for Extra Virgin Olive Oil). Named the Best Eclectic restaurant in Boston in the 2007/2008 and 2009/2010 Zagat guides, it was David’s second choice for his graduation dinner (the first one was No. 9 Park, but it was difficult to book for 12 people there). But don’t get me wrong, the food we ate at Evoo was wonderful and since it was Restaurant Week in Boston, they were offering a prix fixe menu of $33.

Still rather full from the lobster roll, I decided to skip the appetizer and kept it light (yeah, right!) by ordering the Parsley and garlic studded beef tenderloin with sour cream whipped potatoes, portobello mushrooms, grilled sweet onions and orange Bernaise sauce. It fulfilled my craving for a medium-rare steak, but in hindsight, I regretted not ordering the beet salad with smoked trout served with crispy crostini thin slices. I had a little taste and it was delicious! David had the Arctic Char on a bed of polenta, topped with a fine slaw, which he testified was excellent. He also thought his dessert, a super moist carrot cake cone topped with home made pistachio ice cream with caramel sauce, was more divine than it sounded. Again, unfortunately, I was full and skipped dessert. Darn it!

I think for only having a couple of days in Boston, we did pretty well in covering parts of the city. Of course, there are other parts of Boston worth seeing like the South End, Newbury St. (for the shoppers) and the Charles river (make sure to watch the Head of the Charles Regatta, the crew competition, if you’re in Boston in late October). But most importantly, we did what we went there to do: to watch David receive his Master degree and eat some lobster rolls!