Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
They include Boston Legal, The Prac-
tice, St. Elsewhere, and Spenser: For
Hire (if you can find it). But that's not
why you're wondering whether everybody
knows your name, is it? Cheers was based
on a local pub called the Bull & Finch,
and the show became so popular that the
original bar changed its name and a spin-
off opened in Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
See p. 235.
MUSIC
Highbrow associations abound: The first
American performance of Handel's Mes-
siah was in Boston, the city is home to
one of the best orchestras in the world,
and the Boston Symphony even commis-
sioned a recent Pulitzer Prize winner
(George Walker's “Lilacs”). The jukebox
or mp3 player is where the recent action
is. The 1970s and '80s were the heyday of
local rock, with Boston (the band), the
Cars, and the J. Geils Band leading the
pack. But the piece of music perhaps
most closely associated with the city is the
Standells' “Dirty Water.” Released in 1966,
it was written by the band's producer
after he was mugged on the Mass. Ave.
bridge, which connects Boston and Cam-
bridge “down by the banks of the river
Charles.”
The movie soundtrack to seek out is
Fever Pitch (see above), a superb collec-
tion of recent songs associated with
Boston. It includes “Dirty Water,” which
plays after Red Sox (and Bruins) victories,
as well as Neil Diamond's “Sweet Caro-
line”—a random selection that caught on
out of superstition—which booms
through Fenway Park in the bottom of
the eighth inning.
Download the Dropkick Murphys'
“Tessie” and Augustana's “Boston,” dig
through your grandparents' LPs to find
the Kingston Trio's “Charlie on the
MTA,” learn the words to “Where Every-
body Knows Your name” (The Cheers
theme song), and you'll be well on your
way to passing for a local, or at least a
local college student.
4 Eating & Drinking in Boston
The days when restaurant snobs sniffed
that they had to go to New York to get a
decent meal are long gone. Especially in
warm weather, when excellent local pro-
duce appears on menus in every price
range, the Boston area holds its own with
any other market in the country.
Celebrity chefs and rising stars spice up a
dynamic restaurant scene, and traditional
favorites occupy an important niche. The
huge student population seeks out value,
which it often finds at ethnic restaurants.
Seafood is a specialty in Boston, and
you'll find it on the menu at almost every
restaurant—trendy or classic, expensive
or cheap, American (whatever that is) or
ethnic. Some pointers: Scrod or schrod is
a generic term for fresh white-fleshed
fish, usually served in filets. Local shell-
fish includes Ipswich and Essex clams,
Atlantic lobsters, Wellfleet oysters, scal-
lops, mussels, and shrimp.
Lobster was once so abundant that the
Indians showed the Pilgrims how to use
the ugly crustaceans as fertilizer, and pris-
oners rioted when it turned up on the
menu too often. Order lobster boiled or
steamed and you'll get a plastic bib,
drawn butter (for dipping), a nutcracker
(for the claws and tail), and a pick (for the
legs). Restaurants price lobsters by the
pound; you'll typically pay at least $15 to
$20 for a “chicken” (1- to 1 1 4 -lb.) lobster,
and more for the bigger specimens. If you
want someone else to do the work, lobster
is available in a “roll” (lobster-salad sand-
wich), stuffed and baked or broiled, in or
over pasta, in a “pie” (casserole), in salad,
and in bisque.
 
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