(4 out of 5 hot dogs)

 Loading ...

A few times a year I take the Fung-Wah bus from Chinatown in NYC to Chinatown in Boston for $15 each way.  It takes around 4 hours, and if you bring some good music and a thermos full of hot toddy, it goes by fast.  Apparently Megabus has a  $3 deal each way, but I’ve never taken it, and it sounds a little too good to be true.   In Boston, the bars close down at 2 AM citywide, and it is illegal to have happy-hours or drink specials, so this isn’t a place to party-party-all-night-long.  But the food is great, and it’s a perfect place for a relaxing getaway/ change of pace.

Border Café
32 Church St.
Cambridge, MA

The Border Café is in Harvard Square (right by to the University), so you can eat Mexican food and simultaneously feel very studious and academic.  Upon being seated, you are brought chips and salsa.  They are freshly-made and warm and amazing.  I may even say that they were the best tortilla chips I’ve ever had (although that is a bold statement, and I’m not sure if I’m ready to make that kind of commitment).  Anyway, I ate so many of them that I wasn’t hungry by the time my main course came.  The order of guacamole was $3.95, and the margaritas were $5.50 each, and I marveled that the prices here were half or even a third what you would pay in NYC.  For my main course, I got fish tacos for $7.50, which came rice and beans and pico de gallo.  The fish part of the tacos were fried nuggets, more of a Tex-Mex/ Cajun style than authentic Mexican food, but still good.  All that, and I still haven’t told you about my favorite part of the meal.  I’m a big water drinker, and usually need my glass refilled seven or eight times during a meal, especially if it’s spicy.  Border Café must have known that I was coming and gave us huge plastic cups of water, the size of pitchers, so I didn’t need to have it refilled at all!  This place is border-line paradise!

Regina Pizzeria
11 ½ Thacher St.
Boston, MA

The North End is the Little Italy of Boston, although more authentic and less theme-park-y that our Little Italy here in NYC.  Regina’s is famous for having the best pizza in Boston, but more importantly, it is much much cheaper than the other fancy restaurants in the area where entrees go for around $25.  Between four people, we split a large tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza and a small artichoke and olive pizza, which came to $9 a person including tip.  The servers and kitchen-staff all had Authentic Boston accents, and were yelling random Boston things really loud the whole time, like “These Hahvahd chowdaheads at the bah ordahed two wicked pahk the cah pizzas!”  Regina’s is the real deal; it doesn’t trump all NYC pizza, but it does make Patsy’s look like a patsy.

Sam Adams Brewery
30 Germania Street
Boston, MA

The Sam Adams Brewery is in Jamaica Plains, which is like the Brooklyn of Boston (cute and neighborhood-y but slightly ghetto), and they give free tours six days a week.  We took the 11:45 AM Monday tour, and our guide didn’t hide the fact that she had already put a few beers away for breakfast.  Her eyes were glazed over a little, but she didn’t slur or spill beer on anyone, which was classy. After about 25 minutes of walking through the brewery and learning how beer was made (blah blah blah), we got to go in the tasting room and sample the beer.  Everyone was given a 7 oz. Sam Adams’ tasting glass, which we were able to take home.  And we tasted four beers: Boston lager, winter lager, blueberry witbier and brick red (which is never bottled and only served at select bars in Boston!)  Technically we were only supposed to have three glasses, but pitchers were being passed around freely, and I was able to have five or six glasses, which kept me feeling toasty in the bitter Boston weather.