The Great Divide

And now for the  musings part of this blog. I don't mean to offend anyone with this post... Just give y'all a gentle, friendly shove!

You Boston people who think there's nothing in Cambridge but Harvard and MIT? Give the place a shot. Kendall Sq, Central Sq, Inman Sq, Porter Sq, and if we slip over to Somerville, Union and Davis all have good shops, restaurants, even clubs, theaters and music venues. Almost everything is on the red line or within a 10 minute walk of it, completely easy to get to, and tons of stuff.

Cambridge people who think Boston is too busy, too touristy, whatever? Let yourself see more of the city than just Newbury and Fenway. Chinatown, the South End, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, they're all on the T and full of way more than just tourists and financial district suits.

There are great things on both sides of the river, and 6 bridges (I'm counting Weeks) to cross it, so stop thinking the other side of the river is too far, it's really only another 10 minutes on the train. Enjoy the whole metropolis, people. I'm not saying don't be proud of your hometown, just, you don't have to pick sides, spread the love around!

Those of you from here I'm sure have experience with all of this and don't need to keep reading, but for those of you from someplace else:
On a map, Boston and Cambridge, (and let's include Somerville too since it's the north side of the river's equivalent to Jamaica Plain) look like one big mass of density, divided into a northern and southern section by the Charles River. Cambridge is north, Boston is south. But there are some major differences.
To start, Boston is bigger, even if you mush the north bank into  Camberville. And correspondingly, has a much bigger population; triple I think.
Then there's history. Cambridge is older, and a quintessential college town, Harvard has been there almost since day one. Boston, meanwhile, is a few years younger, and was founded as a shipping center. It makes sense that the two towns would end up so different based on their very different beginnings.
Now, Boston has way more universities than Camberville, I'm not even going to try to count, but it also has all kinds of other industries. East Cambridge's brief stint as a candy manufacturing hub is all but completely gone, and it's back to being a city of universities and the tech/ "knowledge based" jobs that their graduates fill. Cambridge is quieter, in the purely volume sense of the word, and has church steeples sticking up instead of high rises (Kendall is the exception here). Boston is busier, with a financial district and major sports venues.
Of course, all of this is an incredible oversimplification. I've left out the Hatian and Portuguese populations of Cambridge, all of Southie, East Boston, etc., it would just take way too long to get into all of that. Needless to say the two cities have a lot of differences, but they are both totally worthy of spending time in them, and full of interesting incredibly diverse populations and things to do.

Vegetation

With the farmer's markets winding down for the season (some will continue til the end of this month, but that's about it), it's time to start thinking about where to get good produce over the winter.
There are a couple of non-supermarket options, the SoWa Market will have some foodstuff after Oct 31, but not much fresh, and then there are rumors about a winter market in Somerville, but so far they're just rumors.

And that brings me to what I've found to be the best option: Boston Organics. They are an amazingly affordable, weekly or biweekly delivery service for organic fresh fruits and vegetables. They deliver to most places in the Boston area, in reusable boxes, and everything is really fresh and yummy.
They let you pick how much produce you want, the proportion of fruits to vegetables, and foods you absolutely do not want to receive. There are also some "add ons" that you can order, like bread and cheese and chocolate, and you can adjust your order up until the day before you get it.
All of the products they sell are sourced as close to Boston as possible, and are organic. In the dead of winter, they will send you bananas that are not from New England, but they will also send you wonderful bunches of kale, potatoes, all kinds of produce from close by.These guys are a great service, I get the $29 box every other week and it's perfect for the two of us, we almost never go buy other fruits and veggies.

Chowder and BBQ

Quick note about something cool going on this weekend, there's a BBQ rib tasting/ street fair in East Cambridge that is going to include some of my favorite restaurants in town. East Coast Grill, Tupelo, Atwoods, and more will have food. And there's going to be live music as well. Stop by on Sunday and enjoy some food and fun. The ribs are the reason for the tasting, but apparently they will have other food too.

And now, for something completely different: A couple weeks ago, I went to a chowder cook off on Spectacle Island (scroll down a few entries, you'll see the details) but I've since realized I haven't talked about chowder, or where to get the good stuff. 

There are a few versions of chowder floating around out there in the universe: Manhattan, thick New England, and thin New England. Manhattan has tomatoes in it, and I don't think it should really be called chowder at all, since chowders are supposed to have a cream base. I don't know of any good Manhattan clam chowder in the Boston area, but then I haven't really gone looking (feel free to tell me in the comments if you know any). 

That leaves us with thick New England and thin New England. As far as I can tell, thin New England is the original, and I'm basing this on access to some seriously old cookbooks, none of which call for much of any thickener in their recipes for chowder.

I won't be telling you where to get the really gloppy stuff, it's so thick it should be called dip or something, and not eaten unless you're really ok with consuming that much flour inside your soup. But there are some that are moderately thick and quite good. The two big ones in Boston are Legal's (too many locations to name) which has won multitude of taste tests, and Summer Shack (Back Bay and Alewife) which has slightly less seasoning, but is still good. Another medium thick chowder that is worth trying is at Durgin Park (Quincy Market), I know that whole part of town can be overly tourist-y, but Durgin really is a pretty good restaurant, especially their oyster bar downstairs.

Thin is harder to find, especially the really traditional kind. For non-traditional, East Coast Grill is my favorite. It has sweet potatoes, chili, lots of clams, and is a great "bbq" interpretation. Woodman's in Essex, best known for their fried clams (which are the best in the world, I think) is a really solid standby for wonderful, thin, home style chowder. You do have to drive to get there, but it's a really nice drive on 133 and in the off season, it's pretty much only locals, so the long lines that can go down the block in the summer virtually disappear.

Leafiness

It's getting to be prime foliage season, and great weather to go for a drive or hop on a train and see the beautiful the leaves. 
The best drive I think is to go out Route 2, there's tons of conservation land all around it, a bunch of parks and reservations (including Walden Pond and Wachusett) to stop and hike/ walk around at along the way. 
Another option is to take the Mass Pike out west, then just after 290, get to Route 20 and then west. Route 20 is the old highway that ran east - west through the state before they built the Pike, so it goes through all the same gorgeous Berkshire hills, just at a slower speed so you can actually enjoy the view. Along 20 or just a quick drive from it, there are several orchards that still have apples to pick. You'll also pass by Northampton, MA which is a great university town, perfect place to get lunch or dinner. And if you drive all the way out to the NY border,  Furnace Brook Winery has great wine and they're also an orchard.

If you want to see leaves minus a car, there are a couple of options. One quick option is to just take the commuter rail out to Worcester. Enjoy the view along the way and once you're in Worcester, you can wander around town and have some lunch, and hop a train back.

For a bit longer trip, the Amtrak Lakeshore Limited is a daily train leaving from South Station. If you get off at Pittsfield, you can spend some time in town, get a cab to a B&B in the hills, enjoy. Or you can go to Albany and transfer to the Ethan Allen Express and go all the way up to Rutland, VT for a beautiful weekend.

Enjoying the season

Fall is a totally packed season for me: lots of holidays, lots of birthdays, and as you may have noticed, lots of festivals. 
Managed to make it over to the chowder cook off yesterday, on Spectacle Island. The weather was perfect, warm enough to walk around with a T-shirt, but cool enough to want some chowder. The chowder fest was not as big as we had hoped, but we did eat some amazingly creative, yummy chowder. The salmon with rosemary was really great.

Spectacle Island is absolutely beautiful, and an amazing project. Built on a reclaimed landfill, there are paths around the whole island and you can walk to the top of the drumlins to get a great view of Boston and the other islands. Everything is green about the project, from the planting to the visitor's center which is solar powered, and so are all of the vehicles on the island. The ferry out there is $14 round trip, for both Spectacle and George's Islands. In the summer, you can swim on the beaches, and rent kayaks at both. Take a picnic or even a tent and camp overnight in the summer on George's.


The festivals I've been talking about continue throughout the month, and there's no way I can list all of them, but there are few more that I have to mention: 

Oktoberfest in Harvard Square is next weekend, Sunday October 10th. A parade leaves from Davis Sq and goes to Harvard Sq, where there will be lots of vendors, food, rides, all kinds of fun. Harvard Sq festivals are always packed but always a good time. Since there's no admission fee, even if you just pass through, it's totally worth it.  

Somerville Harvest Festival is also next weekend, on Saturday October 9th. It is ticketed, $20 gets you unlimited beer and tastes from all the various local restaurants. There are also bands playing, a fashion show, and you get to meet all kinds of interesting vendors. Last year's festival was great, I can't wait for this one! E and I bought our tickets early, but as I'm writing this I just checked, there are some tickets left. If you're free on Saturday, it's a great way to spend the day.

The Wellfleet Oyster Festival is becoming a tradition, and this year two of my sisters are coming, it should be a great time. It's the weekend of October 16th. The Oyster Festival is like a great town fair, just at a town that happens to be home to some of the best oysters in the world. There's a shucking contest, food from local restaurants (most of it features oysters), oyster shaped chocolates, a stage with various bands playing, a chance to learn about oyster farming, a road race, and I'm sure I'm leaving out more.

And, totally not on a schedule, apple picking is gonna be great all this month. My personal favorite place to go apple picking is Russell Orchards. They not only have great apples, they have wine, cider, donuts, ice cream, and all kinds of little gourmet treats. On the road to Crane Beach, it's the perfect place to stop by after a walk behind the dunes. In the summer, it can be way too hot to hike the trails behind the dunes, but on a nice sunny fall day, it's great.