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.

First Stop: Essex County

Photo from the deck of The Landing in Marblehead

Another view from The Landing's Deck

I'd been feeling a little under the weather and my husband David suggested a ride to the coast may perk me up a tad.  Since the North Shore of Massachusetts isn't all that far away from our home in Concord, we took a look at a map and decided to head for Marblehead.  Armed with our trusty GPS Lucy and a few restaurant suggestions that we had found on-line, we started up Rt 128 towards our destination.  It was a warm July Sunday and the traffic was light on our ride.   We exited onto Route 114 and cut through Salem towards our destination.  I've probably been in Marblehead, but long ago, so I was looking forward to seeing if David's hypothesis that a ride to the shore would perk me up.  The minute I saw the beautiful blue sparkling harbor, I immediately knew that this indeed would cure my malaise.  Driving through the narrow streets of the center of Marblehead, I spotted the many old homes, complete with Widow's Walks, that had been tastefully refurbished.  Many of the homes had a plaque that included the original owner's name and their occupation.  Ship Builder was one of the more popular signs that we spotted and since Marblehead was once the center of the fishing industry, this made perfect sense.  According to the town's website, http://www.marblehead.org/index.aspx?nid=10, Marblehead is no longer a vibrant fishing community, but its harbor is still home to many different types of recreation vessels.  Finding a place to park on this bright summer day was somewhat difficult, but we found one space on a side road, walked down through the historic town center, and headed to Front Street, that is parallel to the harbor.  We spotted The Landing Restaurant and were lucky to land a seat on the outdoor deck.  This restaurant, http://www.thelandingrestaurant.com/ is located right at the docks and on this brilliant afternoon, boats were heading in and out constantly.  The Landing had a great variety of items on its menu and we were fortunate to still be there in time for Sunday brunch.  David had a tasty omelette and I had the Monte Cristo sandwich.  After our brunch, we walked along the harbor and then back into town to check out the shops.  There were a variety of types of shops, including a Crosby's Marketplace, which is where our son works in Concord.  It was during this trip that we came up with the idea of visiting all the counties in Massachusetts.  If they were as nice as this spot, we would be in for an interesting summer.

County by County

Right next to the Tsongas Arena in Lowell

This summer, my husband and I had taken a little road trip up to Marblehead, which is in Essex County.  While there, we came up with a challenge...to visit each county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the summer and fall of 2010.  First, I needed to find out how many counties there were -- 14 to be exact!  I have lived in Massachusetts for 50 years and had never been to some of the counties, especially in Western Massachusetts.  We wanted to visit some off-the-beaten path locations in each county. With two sons in college, I also wanted to look for attractions that were not that pricey.   So....stay tuned for a run-down of what we saw, ate, and did in our county-by-county tour.