Looking for a food to remember from Boston

[larry_stewart]

Thanks for all the suggetsions. Keep them coming, I still have some time before im in Boston. Sure im looking for that typical Boston food. But, Im also looking for anything that ( even if not a Boston food), I know ever time I visit the area, I will be sure to visit buy, eat, and stock up on. So, I guess to make the topic more general, any place in Boston that makes something unique enough and good enough, that its worth a trip to.

 

[Addie]

Boston Brown Bread is made by "Friends" and comes in a can. Almost any supermarket in and around Boston carries it. With or without raisins. (I hate raisins) Take the can home, remove one end. place in a water-bath and covering the open end with foil. Allow to simmer heating the brown bread through. Served with butter that will melt into the bread, is just another piece of heaven. Brown bread is made with molasses and has a very distinct taste. A big favorite of my kids growing up when served with the homemade baked beans on Saturday night.

 

[jennyema]

Don't forget Boston Style Chili,

Sorry. I've lived in Boston for more than 30 years and have never once heard of Boston style chili. We aren't a chili town.

We aren't a crab town, either. Were a lobstah and clam kind of place.

Brown bread is enjoying a resurgence and you see it more and more these days.

The cream pie you see around a little but the rolls only at the Parker House which is a lousy place to eat.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Indian Pudding.

For meat eaters definitely a lobster roll.

 

[buckytom]

i guess it would be the irish community in boston that has made brown bread popular as it is a distinctive irish food.

i've had it in both places several times, and, well, boston's is like getting a "ny style" pizza, not a pizza from ny. good, but not the same.

larry, this is gonna be a tough one. boston is a meat and potatoes (or pasta) kind of city.

you might be able to get vegetarian boston baked beans, but that's not the same thing either. i look for that fatty little chunk of bacon in my beans as a treat.

 

[Addie]

I had forgotten about Indian Pudding. It is made with corn meal and molasses along with those pesky raisins. That comes in a can also. It happened to be one of Julia Child's favorite food. And that is not bacon in those Boston Baked Beans. It is Salt Pork. Bostonians are very proud of their food heritage and defend it very strongly. A lot of our foods are what the Natives gave to us to get us through that first terrible New England winter. Our chowders are English in origin and adapted to what was available here. The one thing they all have in common is the milk stock. Our baked beans are made with molasses. The natives gave us the maple syrup and it was later replaced with the molasses when it became more plentiful than the maple syrup. Well, enough for today's history lesson.

 

[Aunt Bea]

If you want a Boston history lesson GOOGLE the molasses flood of 1919.

That was a tragic yet interesting bit of news.

 

[jennyema]

If you want a Boston history lesson GOOGLE the molasses flood of 1919.

That was a tragic yet interesting bit of news.

Absolutely !!

I just read a book about it. Fascinating.

 

[jennyema]

Boston Brown Bread is made by "Friends" and comes in a can. Almost any supermarket in and around Boston carries it. With or without raisins. (I hate raisins) Take the can home, remove one end. place in a water-bath and covering the open end with foil. Allow to simmer heating the brown bread through. Served with butter that will melt into the bread, is just another piece of heaven. Brown bread is made with molasses and has a very distinct taste. A big favorite of my kids growing up when served with the homemade baked beans on Saturday night.

Addie

Where in a Stop and Shop is the canned brown bread? It's not with the baked beans at mine.

And HI!!

 

[Addie]

Addie

Where in a Stop and Shop is the canned brown bread? It's not with the baked beans at mine. And HI!!

I always find it in DeMoulas where the beans are. You mght have to ask.

And Hi back at Ya. I often think of you and the pizza party. That was one special night.

 

[Addie]

If you want a Boston history lesson GOOGLE the molasses flood of 1919. That was a tragic yet interesting bit of news.

The reason the molasses was stored in Boston's North End is because that is where Domino and Revere Sugar had there plants right on the entrance to the Mystic River. Eventually Domino bought out Revere Sugar and then moved the plant out of state.

 

[ChefJune]

If you want a Boston history lesson GOOGLE the molasses flood of 1919.

That was a tragic yet interesting bit of news.

I read about that when I first moved to the North End in 88. Still hard to get a mental picture of what that would have been like!

 

[Addie]

I read about that when I first moved to the North End in 88. Still hard to get a mental picture of what that would have been like!

Some longtime reidents of the North End say that on a really hot summer day, you can still smell the molasses. I can believe it. I worked at the Schrafft Building in Charlestown and in the summer you could still smell the chocolate. But then that building had only been converted from the chocolate factory for less than 15 years.

 

[ChefJune]

Some longtime reidents of the North End say that on a really hot summer day, you can still smell the molasses. I can believe it. I worked at the Schrafft Building in Charlestown and in the summer you could still smell the chocolate. But then that building had only been converted from the chocolate factory for less than 15 years.

I dunno... I lived through a lot of hot summer days in the North End, and I never smelled any. I think it's the power of suggestion. When I lived in Milwaukee, you could smell the hops all the way down the expressway, though... they still actively made beer inside the city limits - right by the expressway. I wonder whether they still do.