I’d like to start off to say I hadn’t planned on this to happen… The pieces just seemed to fall together in a perfect storm of food exploration of my city. It all started with a seemingly innocent trip to the post office downtown Boston, I had a passport to renew and a day off work so I thought to make the best of it. At the time my choice to “not bring” my ear buds (I forgot them) was an annoyance but further down the road I found it to be beneficial to not drown out the local environment around me, the beauty in the synthetic nature and humming of people walking every which way shone to be a guiding light and bring my adventure to fruition. I got my passport renewal form and everything all packed up and sent out with USPS and at that time I realized I was hungry.
Since it was around lunchtime and I was downtown I remembered that I had been dying to try out Saus, a counter service restaurant with their focus on… You guessed it, sauces. They have homemade ketchup, mayo, gravy, and hot saus (plus a secret sauce which I can’t tell you because it’s a secret, until you get in to order and it’s totally worth it). They have normal lunch items like sandwiches, mine being the BBQ pork belly, and I regret not getting a side of poutine but my side of regular fries was enough to fill me up. Another regret of mine was not taking advantage of their beer selection, which was on point with a nice mix of local and regional craft beers, a toasty porter would have been great to fill my day with that much more excitement but I was on a mission and at this point my plans were to head to a bar sometime afterwards to kill an hour or so. Clearly I’ll be making another appearance at Saus in the near future but for the time being I was destined to visit Hmart in Central Square.
A hop scotch all the way over to Park St needed a pick me up and I figured I had some time to kill, with it only being somewhere between noon and one the caffeine boost was eminent so I changed my course of action and dropped by the Boston Public Market for a cold brew from George Howell Coffee. My last visit I had the idea to get one of their flash freeze coffees which is just hot coffee chilled at a rapid speed, however the cold brew was more than perfect this time around with no straw (they usually have paper ones but today it was plastic only so no straw for me). I took my usual tour of the place to stay in the warm indoors for a bit longer gandering at the gargantuan golden nectar from the Boston Honey Company, and wishing for a nice treat from any of the sweet food vendors. But I was on a mission, so from my short stop over to Park St I went.
The Hoth-like traverse to Central Square was a reminder that even someone like me who relishes the cold weather is absolutely sick of these freezing conditions and is ready for the spring to be sprung, cleaning and all. My plan was to get into Hmart, snap a good amount of photos while shopping for some sushi supplies to add to my Google local guide review, and get out to a bar (I was thirsty after all and the coffee had just ended). I ended up buying more than I expected, and while I avoided the spiky durian my eyes were drawn to the yellow dragonfruit of which I had never consumed before (it turns out they’re better than the purple ones). I rounded up the rest of my supplies for the day which included seaweed wraps, hot sauce, Korean pancakes, “crab” sticks (spoiler alert, they’re fish), and a few other small things that you can’t find at a Market Bucket. I was hoping to catch a soccer game at the Phoenix Landing but I had an idea stirring in my mind, it was mid-day on a Tuesday and Harvard Square was right next to me on the redline. Now was my only chance to not wait in a line out the door for the recently opened Milk Bar.
The door to get in was confusing, the exit only was next to where you get served which totally makes sense, but the entrance is a side door on the inlet of their outer window-panned wall with a pad lock on it. Suffice to way I was confused at first and embarrassingly had to follow another sweet goer inwards to the delight of what is Milk Bar. The line was minimal but still present, I was lucky it was so short but my arrival to the stand brought about even more confusion of a Milkquake, it’s basically their ice cream with ingredients so a sundae of sorts. I ended up with the Boston cream Milkquake and two cookies to bring home, I’ve heard people say that their cereal soft serve is underwhelming but honestly I’m not sure they know what they’re talking about, I can safely say as a person who doesn’t eat boxed cereal it’s truly worth the hype, that somehow they made ice cream better. At this point I had checked off two of my wish list items the revolve around food that I had been dying to go to/eat at, my aimless day had turned into a mission to check off as many more stops on my list that I could before my haircut.
I don’t consider myself very well knowledgeable about cheese as far as my culinary expertise goes, so making the trek past the Longfellow House (George Washington’s 1775-1776 HQ in Cambridge) to Formaggio Kitchen was more than a delight for me. As soon as I entered the smell flooded my airways, it was instant gratification. But the sudden realization that I was out of my element, there was cheese everywhere and the majority of it was new to me, mounds of aged dairy that looked and smelled funky (that’s a good thing) and I was overwhelmed. I did however have one fallback when I was talking to the staff behind the counter, I usually don’t like to seem lacking in food knowledge-like situations but I knew one cheese that could save the day and feign it like I knew what I was talking about - the classic Camembert. The savory slightly sweet gooey goodness that has ten times the flavor profile of your standard Brie, I asked for the middle of the road funky, tried it and was instantly sold on the small wheel (which I bought half of along with a tin of juniper berries). Schools were letting out at this point so the store was getting crowded so I took my leave, the juniper berries foreshadowing my next wish list spot, but not my next stops, which were short and sweet and additions to my next adventure.
On my hike over to Curio Spice Co. I took a detour to Hi-Rise Bread Company, I’m a fan of all local bakeries but had a food delivery later that day with a sourdough, not needing to carbo-load or a race anytime soon I took a brochure and continued on my journey. It only took crossing the street to find EHChocolatier, and artisanal chocolate boutique which had magnificent display of shiny chocolates, some were decorated with lines that comprised of the local area, or designated their fillings. The few that I tried I was delighted that I had. Both these shops are now on my list of needing of a revisit and purchase.
My final wish list spot was within reach, I had been wanting to visit here for the longest of times, for those who do not know Curio Spice Co. is a specialty spice supplier with spices you never even knew existed. Their goal is to try and locally source as much as possible which is an impossibility for some items due to growing restrictions of our climate, never the less they have the greatest selection I’ve seen in the area. I ended up with a whole assortment of things like licorice root, hibiscus, rose pedals and hips, some lime leaves, and a mystery spice that’d eluding me, a good assortment that I plan on using in not-your-average cooking later one (well that and brewing some mead). Before stopping by I never knew bee pollen was actually sold let alone collected, there are shelves and shelves of that plus other items like cured/dried limes that you could just never imagine you would find, and some of the stuff you would like (local) hot paprika. On the opposite side of the room was their curated spice mixes with and accompanied list of recipes to use them in, the Fleur Spice mix that has rose pedals and peppercorns with a variety of other ingredients has been my favorite since ordering from here around the holidays. This being the end of my journey into the culinary unknown was was happily reflecting on expanding my gasto-knowledge, visiting places I had been dying to get to and accomplishing a good portion of my wish list.
On my way over to get my haircut to round out the day I passed by Yume Wo Katare, a Ramen stop I highly recommend visiting at least once for the theater of it alone, I also picked up a bottle of mead to bring home and reflect on with the tacos that I’d be making that night. This tour of culinary excellence wasn’t planned but I’m certainly happy it happened. Stumbling one’s way through a Cambridge hike in the tail end of winter usually isn’t usually on the radar for most, but the blissful piece of quiet of the outdoors was welcoming. I took my haul of culinary treasure and mementos home to rest, my feet were killing me and I was ready for a nice home cooked meal.
