Suffolk County: Where History and Food Intersect

Cambridge Street

Boston's North End

A Sampling of Vegetables at Haymarket Square

On yet another hot July Saturday, David and I traveled into Boston to participate in the Team Sarcoma Walk that started at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Cambridge Street was eerily silent on this hot summer morning.  The walk started at MGH, headed up to Government Center, and then headed down by the Old State House.  http://www.cityofboston.gov/freedomtrail/oldstate.aspWe were here on July 17th, a mere 234 years from when Bostonians gathered in 1776 to hear the Declaration of Independence read from the balcony.  From there, we snaked through Faneuil Hall. http://www.cityofboston.gov/freedomtrail/faneuilhall.asp This vibrant market was very crowded with street entertainers and lots of folks visiting the variety of shops and stores in the area.   Now that the old "Central Artery" has come down, you can see the Boston Waterfront from this spot.  Since it was so hot and humid, many children and their parents were taking advantage of the great fountain that is located in Waterfront Park.   This park is officially known as Christopher Columbus Park http://www.bostonharborwalk.com/placestogo/location.php?nid=3&sid=18 and it was a beautiful spot to stop and look at the harbor.  Boston's North End was the next location on our walk.  The North End is home to many a great restaurant and bakery, and again the area was full of activity by both residents and visitors.  Another part of our walk was Haymarket Square. http://www.newenglandtravelplanner.com/go/ma/boston/orientation/haymkt.html Today, it was bustling with vendors and shoppers.  Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables were available for sale.  We headed back to the start of our walk and called it a day.

Vegetable shopping in Chinatown

Dragonfruit

However, about three weeks later, I was involved in a course on East Asia and for one day, we headed into Boston to learn about the Chinese Immigrants and the Vietnamese community in Boston.   While a lot of people who visit Boston focus on the Freedom Trail, I was fortunate to participate in a tour conducted by the Chinese Historical Society of New England.  http://www.chsne.org/  The docents for the tour grew up in Chinatown and to have a personal perspective really gave the tour an unique flavor.  While there are certainly many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, there are also Vietnamese, Mongolian, Japanese, and Korean restaurants.  Residents bought fruits and vegetables on the street and headed home.   I bought a dragonfruit from a street vendor.

For our next assignment, we were to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant.  (this certainly was not a hardship!)  We made our way back to 7 Beach Street to Xinh Xihn Restaurant.   It was well after noon and the little restaurant was quite crowded.  Some of my classmates were already there so my friend and I sat down.  It was yet another hot steamy day in Boston, and I wanted to try out a theory that if you ate something hot in temperature on a hot day that it would cool you down.  So with that in mind, I ordered a bowl of Chicken Noodle soup.  It was just wonderful; however, it certainly did not make me any less hot :(  So much for that hypothesis!

Visiting Suffolk County affords the visitors a wonderful blend of history and great choices of food.  From Chinese immigrants to the historic government sites, Boston has it all.  Public transportation is an inexpensive option to get around the city.