Chowder and Monsters

Two small stops in Maine included the little town of Kennebunkport and Portland. The former is known for its seafood and being the place of a holiday home for former US president Bush senior.
By accident we saw an episode on the food channel where they visited a particular restaurant here, and it looked so good we decided to visit. On the website there were no opening hours etc, so when we arrived we found out that the place had closed for the season.

The friendly fish monger next door suggested we visit Alisson's in town instead. It turned out to be a great suggestion, the food was excellent!

And Simone bought half the dog shop down the street, so it was a good afternoon all around.

Clam chowder - best one so far (out of two I tried).

My seafood pasta. The scallops were huge and plumpy delicious and there was plenty of seafood, not just a token amount to justify the name of the dish.

Simone's lobster roll and sweet potato fries.

Blueberry pie.

 Pretty much the only reason to go to Portland, Maine was because I found out that the world's only cryptozoology museum was based there. Yeah I know, people laugh when they hear about bigfoot etc, but in its basic form, cryptozoology is simply the study of animals that have not been studied by science due to a lack of species sample. More info about the museum here.

It was an interesting, albeit small museum. One of the good things was that they clearly divide the exhibits into proper and fake. The fakes of course give the field a bad name. The museum's curator, Loren Coleman, was there to welcome us and give us a bit of information about all the exhibits.

Steve Irwin and Indi :)

Fake merman

 Another fake merman

After the museum we visited the bug lighthouse too. It was getting to below zero C so we didn't do any walking around.

Salem (Yes the Witch One)

So I found out that we were actually very close to THE Salem, and that it's even on the way to Maine which was our next stop. So we stopped for a night in a hotel nearby and checked it out. Now for me, the story of Salem and the witch "trials" is actually quite a sad one. It's an example of what tragic things can happen if people collectively freak out. And that's what basically happened back in 1692 - mass hysteria in a small town, 200 people were accused of being witches, and in the end 20 innocent people were executed. More info here.

They also have a red line trail here, it's not as organised as the one in Boston, as it splits off in different directions at times, but it's still a good guide for tourists. It was a nice day, but you can definitely tell it's off season. A lot of shops were closed and there were not many people around at all.
 

The trail starts at the Witch House, which is the only building which still has direct ties to the trial. It's the house of judge Jonathan Corwin.

The Memorial. It's a nice little area where they have stone benches for each of the victims, arranged in a rectangle.

The only person to be executed by other means than hanging. He was pressed to death. His execution was different because he refused to enter a plea and apparently the pressing was intended to force him to enter a plea. It took three days of having the weights on him before he finally died when more weights were added. All this because a woman said his specter appeared to her and forced her to write in the Devil's book. Once she made her claim, other people said other things about him too. Ridiculous.

House of the Seven Gables, the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel of the same name.

We had lunch at a little place in the center of town, Gulu Gulu Cafe. We had mac & cheese, two meat & cheese boards and for dessert Simone had a chocolate strawberry crepe. Nice food, the meat should have been more plenty for the price. The mac & cheese should have been made fresh (like in Boston!!) but the taste was good. The marinated brie I had was really nice.

Boston and the Best Italian Food I've Had

I didn't know much about our next stop, Boston Massachusetts, except their sports teams (Celtics, Bruins, Red Socks and New England Patriots) and some bits and pieces of history (Boston tea party, Boston Massacre). Boston is one of the oldest cities in the US and it's a city that has naturally grown and evolved, rather than being planned. So here you have a very European feel of the streets as they are curvy and go in all sorts of directions rather than the square, north south rectangle layout that you have with planned cities such as Washington.

Our first day consisted of just taking a walk downtown. We found out that they have what's called the "Freedom Trail", basically a red line that is either painted on the footpath or a line of red bricks in the footpath. Following this line will lead you to all the historical sights and sights of interest in the main area of Boston. A great idea and very tourist friendly as you don't have to consult maps constantly, you just follow the red line. Boston is also a very walkable city, a lot of the sights can easily be seen by walking from one to the next.

The subway system is also very user friendly and cheap, a one week ticket costs $18 and you can ride the subway and busses as often as you want. With two of the most well known universities (Harvard and M.I.T.) within its boundaries, Boston is also a student city. Heaps of good and affordable food places, as we found out!

Downtown pics.

One evening we went for Dim Sum in Chinatown. It was very good, no carts though, you had to order from a menu. Thankfully they had pictures so we could pick the dishes we knew :)
As with seemingly all dim sum places, you have one grumpy old chinese lady serving you. So the service was less than stellar but not totally rubbish either. And we were full at the end. No salty chili fried squid though :(

Christmas decoration went up all over the city.

At one of the main tourist places, Quincy Markets, you have food stalls after food stalls and one of them (MM Mac & Cheese) specialised in Macaroni & cheese. It's made fresh to order and you can pick whatever meat or veggie you want in there. I chose the lobster mac & cheese and my god it was the best I've had. And by now I've had quite a few. It doesn't look like much on the photo though but it was tasty as hell, with a good amount of lobster meat in there. And for $9.95, you can't complain.

The photos below are from Yelp.

Paul Revere's house.

The USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned US navy ship. The decoration on the front reminded me of Maori designs...

The Canadians were here too.

Most cannons have a name.

We were told by the marines on board that the ship still goes out approx 4-5 times a year.

Another navy ship in the drydock.

Bunker Hill monument.

View down the street from the monument.

One day we set aside to explore the area around Harvard university and to check out the campus. The area looks very cool, with a large number of old buildings and architecture giving this area a quite unique feel. Below a statue of John Harvard on campus.

Of course Simone had to go into the Harvard book store.

Whilst I found next door is actually a very popular burger place, Bartley's Gourmet Burgers! You have to queue up and they take your order outside, the older gentleman on the chair writes down your order and the lady takes it inside once you have a seat.

From the stamp on the wall, Guy Fiery from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives was here to check out the food. The burgers were nice, the chili cheese fries I got were not that great. The chili was out of a can and the cheese was the awful "American Cheese" sauce they use here. I mean it's not even real cheese, come on.

In the evening we went to the North district, the Little Italy of Boston filled with Italian restaurants and bars. I picked out the one that had the best reviews on Yelp (Giacomo's Ristorante) and there was a line outside. It opens at 5pm, people start lining up at 4 and it's usually an hour to two hours wait. That night it was cold, just over zero C with wind. So it wasn't very nice to stand in the cold, but as the couple behind us assured us, it's worth the wait. Once you get to the window, it's even more torturous because you can see the food and smell the garlic smell coming through the door.

It's a tiny place with crammed seating, so not the best place for a relaxed romantic dinner. With no bookings and a line outside, they also serve the food as fast as possible so they can give the table to more customers.

So whilst the service was friendly, I felt extremely rushed. Our mains came out while we were still halfway through our appetizers. And the place is cash only.
The kitchen is open and you can see everything that goes on right from where you sit, this is actually kinda cool.

We had calamari and mussels as our apps. The sauce for both was absolutely outstanding and delicious. The mussels were plump and juicy, the calamari tender.

We both had the same main, one of the specials of the day, homemade fusili with lobster and shrimp. I was debating whether or not I wanted something with a red sauce or a cream sauce, but thankfully I decided on this. Again, it doesn't look like much on the photo but it was the best pasta dish I have ever had. The sauce was incredible. The portion was generous. Heaps of seafood in the dish, the pasta was cooked perfectly and had just the right bite to it. Fresh Parmesan on top. Absolutely stunning and yes, the food made the wait worthwhile. Simone took leftovers home and could enjoy it again the next day :)