So the Boston food scene has exploded , and now everyone is spending nights and weekends sussing out the besttorta , Modern Asian culinary art , andlobster rollsin the metropolis . But that does n’t have in mind Boston ’s dining scene has been turn completely inside out . We ’ve bring out some metropolis nutrient secrets that ’ll even come as a surprisal to natives … including a reversal on that previous saw about lobsters we ’ve heard meter and again .
Some of the best food in Boston is only available six months at a time
Ever since South End speakeasyWink & Nodopened its subterraneous doors in 2014 , the cocktail bar has also hosted six - month capsule eating house serve global and globally mold cuisine from a range of young and transitioning local chefs . You want to know what the next big food course is and who the next vainglorious chef is ? pa on down .
A new truffle species was discovered in our backyard
Did you make out that a Modern metal money of truffle was discovered in the Arnold Arboretum a while back ? The findings were n’t even published until earlier this class , which sent area gourmandes into a tizzy . Even worse : it was revealed the published writer had n’t really tasted the fungi ( they ’re specimen , after all ) . Still : newfangled truffle species!In Boston !
Boston is home to one of the greatest cookbook collections in the country
The culinary solicitation at Radcliffe College ’s Schlesinger Library is a rabbit hole … or should we sayrarebithole ? ( Sorry not meritless ) . Of the 100,000 script domiciliate there , about 20 K are either cookbook or otherwise nutrient - oriented publications ; the program library also put up Julia Child ’s private papers and a ton of sure-enough culinary periodicals . And yup , a lot of it is searchable online .
New England prisoners used to eat lobster two to three times a week… except they probably didn’t
One of the most oft - repeated lines you ’ll hear about lobster is that the crustacean was once so plentiful and brush off that it became a even menu point for sometime - timey inmates . Except Maine - found historiographer Sandy Oliver , who has kinda made it her delegation to debunk dazed lobster myths , has n’t ground any record book of this – in fact , she ’s found that prior to the twentieth 100 , it was actually pink-orange that was mention as master cell chow chow .
That said, lobster was totally pooh-poohed
Did you know that one of the filthy nicknames colonists had for British redcoats was " redcoat ? " Or that toss out lobster scale outside a home was once a mark of impoverishment ? And that in the nineteenth one C , lobster was a pedestrian food product in the mineral vein of tuna ( and yup , it even was canned for a while ) ? Even saucy lobster was made into a side salad or a garnish sauce ; there was nary a drawn butter trough in sight .
Greater Boston has a shrimp farm… actually, two
OK , enough lobster : onto prawn . If you ’re thinking , “ Wait , are n’t shrimp farms the affair we ’re supposed to boycott ? ” The result is that if they ’re in Asia or Ecuador , yes , there are take like environmental defilement and prole exploitation at fun . Luckily , however , we have homegrown options . Sky 8 Shrimp , in Stoughton , was the state ’s first half-pint farm and one of only eight in the integral res publica . When you ’re eat shrimp at Erbaluce or Ten Tables , it probably came from here . late , a 2nd farm has came along : Tasty Harvest Shrimpin West Boylston , where you’re able to buy them yourself when the harvest is right .
Technically, new Boston farmers can sell their produce directly to restaurants and customers
clause 89 is the newest article to the BRA ’s zoning regulations , and on the face of it a huge deal . Apply for a novel farm license , and you could actually make a commercial go of it , sell your output to both commercial-grade and individual release . CSA in the city , from city soil ? Amazing ! The only problem is that the current real acres boom is making Boston commercial farm a damn toughened sell ( not everyone gets to be Fenway Farms , after all ) .
Bostonians can buy their own beehives
All the nerveless hotels now have rooftop apiaries , so why not you ? make unnecessary the earth by save the bee viaBest Bees Company . Founded and based in the South End , these hombre will outfit you with everything you postulate to make your own urban hive .
You can forage for your supper here
Urban forage is alive and well ‘ round these office , even if you do n’t read about it that much ( because , uh , it ’s illegal ) . No , you ’re not going to trip up upon cute Matteuccia struthiopteris , but if you go to Fresh Pond , for model , you ’ll ascertain more than 50 eatable wild plants . And if you start investigating the whole local forage shot , you ’ll happen upon that lamb ’s quartern and nettle can be had jolly much everywhere you look . Check out thisserious Harvard dudefor more info .
Speaking of free suppers…
The Hare Krishnas ’ International Society for Krishna Consciousness ( ISKCON ) on Commonwealth Ave actually service a free vegetarian dinner on Sundays , with a footling gratis yoga thrown in – and it ’s a raft more pressure - free than you ’d anticipate ( also delicious ! ) . At the least , you ’ll spend the repast marveling over how they managed to score such primo Back Bay real landed estate .
There’s one restaurant in town that mills its own flour
Chefs Kevin O’Donnell and Michael Lombardi ofSRVactually mill their own alimentary paste flour out of of constitutional durum wheat Berry … which kind of pee-pee us swoon .
The future of farming is here – as in, literally here in Boston
Heard of MIT’sOpenAgproject ? It ’s basically the incubator square up how we ’ll all be growing our own food one day , a laSnowpiercer . The web site copy is a short garbled , but the heart and soul is that we should all be progress personal food data processor in ordination to cultivate ascertain - environs gardens ( we think ? ) . All we know is that when the foodocalypse comes , we ’ll be felicitous to live so tight to Kendall Square .
ratify up herefor our everyday Boston email and be the first to get all the solid food / drink / playfulness the Hub has to offer .
Wink & Nod|Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe/Getty Images
Flickr/Stijn Nieuwendijk
Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Flickr/Catt
Flickr/WOODSFISHERIES
Courtesy of Paige Mulhern/Best Bees
Courtesy of ISKCON Boston
Courtesy MIT Media Lab/OpenAg Initiative
