A Weekend in Boston

View from the Boston Tea Party Museum

Happy Monday!

This summer has whizzed by, and I'm already mourning the fact that August is coming to an end. What a summer it's been! After spending an incredible week at the end of June in the Canadian Rockies (still one of my favorite places on earth), we explored New England in July. We took a food-focused trip to Portland, Maine one weekend and spent an extended weekend in Cape Cod and Nantucket with college friends.

August?

I got to be a tourist in my own city of Boston.


My parents, aunt and uncle, and cousin drove all the way from Ohio (after three days of not being able to drink their tap water - yes, they all lived in THAT county with the water crisis) to visit Boston.

Of course, the first thing I had to do was give them a tour of MIT and Harvard.

The following day, we signed up for a Cityview Trolley Tour, which was reasonably priced and really fun. My parents had already been on the Duck Tours in the past, so we wanted to give them something different.

I was surprised because I (a local!) actually learned quite a bit about Boston history from the tour. It made me appreciate the historical significance of our city so much more.

View of Boston from the Boston Harbor Cruise

A 45-minute Boston Harbor Cruise was included as part of the tour. It was a beautiful day out and I loved seeing our city from the water. It's so beautiful.

Bonus! We passed by the filming of the new Ted movie happening out on the water. If you look really closely on the boat at the right, you can see the stuffed teddy bear.

Close up! As our boat went by, Ted even waved at us!

Hee hee.

My relatives only wanted to eat Chinese food, so we ended up eating all our meals in Chinatown. After waiting unsuccessfully for a table at Taiwan Cafe (heh, we were a party of nine), we hopped over to Dumpling Cafe for lunch instead, which had a large table that could fit all of us..

Crispy Duck with Taro

For dinner we decided to go Cantonese, and visited Peach Farm, where we enjoyed steamed whole fish, a LOT of vegetable and tofu dishes (my cousin is vegan), Bryan's favorite, Crispy Duck with Taro (pictured above), and my uncle's favorite, Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens (pictured below). Everything (well, except for maybe one or two of the vegan dishes), was really good.

Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens 

Of course, you have to stop by a bakery, and there are tons of good ones in Chinatown. We stopped by Hing Shing Pastry for Cantonese style items, and 101 Bakery for Taiwanese style baked goods. My relatives went crazy and picked up a ton of stuff for the long car ride home.

I loved peering in through the open door to watch the old Chinese bakers making everything by hand. I so wanted to take a photo, but they wouldn't let me.

We ended the weekend by grilling up a storm for my relatives. Grilled King salmon, crispy kale chips, grilled prime ribeye steak, Taiwanese grilled corn, grilled asparagus, cold Asian cucumber salad, grilled pineapples, grilled peppers & eggplant skewers, and broccoli with horseradish.