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Quincy Market: Free (and Almost Free) Summer Activities for Middle Schoolers in Boston, MA

The Quincy Market is another iconic area of Boston, on the way to the North End, the Wharf/Boston Harbor, or to the Boston Common. There are many shops and stands, selling everything from Boston logo merchandise to Chinese embroidered knickknacks, handbags, and ornaments. There are also many different restaurants (Mija, for Mexican food and margaritas, or McCormick & Schmick for seafood, for example) and food stalls indoors.

For free (or the price of a donation, if you are so inclined), especially on summer weekends, there are always outdoor performers to watch for entertainment, throughout the Marketplace. On one of the days we went this summer, there was a man drumming on plastic (and one metal rim) buckets. There was also a dance/comedy troupe, called “Breeze Team” (judging by the back of their T-shirts), which we enjoyed for an entire half hour before our stomachs grumbled, reminding us that we needed lunch (and that the plan for the day had actually been to explore the North End). 

Wahlburgs on Wheels set up in Quincy Market on Saturday, July 26, 2014, to celebrate the Wahlburgers Season 2 premiere August 13th, on A&E.

Last Saturday, we went to the Quincy Market and happened to luck out: Wahlburgers (the restaurant owned and run by the Wahlberg family - Paul, the chef, Arthur, Donnie and Mark, the actors) had set up a food truck, dubbed Wahlburgers on Wheels, between Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market and were giving out free burgers and tater tots! 

I'll gladly wait till Tuesday for a free Our Burger and tater tots from Wahlburgers today!

We stood in line for about 2 and half hours to snag one, but it was worth it: the Our Burgers were a very juicy medium-rare, served fresh (the burgers definitely hadn’t been sitting under heat lamps for as long as we’d been standing under the sun!). Wahlburgers employees also came around and gave free water bottles to us, to make sure no one passed out from dehydration, especially the kids. This was an exceptionally well-planned, well-organized, well-orchestrated event!

The Wahlberg Brothers also very obviously planned this event around families: there was a tent under which you could have a series of three photos taken of you (in three set poses) which were then put together to create an animated GIF titled “Watch me eat a Wahlburger!” Plus there was a bean bag toss game with four stations, a perfect way for parents to take their kids’ minds off the long wait! 

The crowning touch, for me, was that they had also set up tables, seats, a few large TV screens and another tent so that we could rest after waiting in line so long and eat as though we were at the restaurant. 

Sometimes you even get to meet Arthur Wahlberg!

And, we not only got to meet Arthur Wahlberg (Mark and Donnie’s big brother), he actually came around offering us tater tots to help stave off our hunger while we waited in line (and not just once, either, but at least four times!). 

Wow! You never know what adventures await when you decide to explore Boston and the Quincy Market!

Lunching in Davis Square, Somerville, MA

Somerville is known as the city with more artists and creative types per capita than anywhere in the U.S., with the exception of New York (City, not State). Davis Square, then, is always a happening place, but perhaps more particularly in the summer months. Not surprisingly, we decided to spend a couple of hours there, lunching at our favorite, very local (just two sites: Back Bay/Boston and Davis Square/Somerville), independent burger joint: Boston Burger Company (37 Davis Square - at Highland Ave. and Elm Street; (617) 440-7361 - and, yes, you may call ahead and order for pick up).

Boston Burger Company, or BBC as they - and their fans - call it, is located at 37 Davis Square, Somerville, MA. Though small (even after they expanded about two years ago into the space to the left next door), it's like having windows on the world: you can see all the happenings in the Square!

Wednesday happened to be a great day to go as it was not crowded. This is the first time we've come here and not had to wait in a long line (sometimes out the door, even in winter) to be seated - that's how good the food is: people will actually wait, sometimes even longer than half an hour, for a bite. As I was saying, today we happened there at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon and were seated immediately. We studied the daily specials and, as we had a friend who had never tasted the BBC's delectable delights, chose the appetizer sampler to start.

The appetizer sampler, after it was heartily raided by two 12 year old girls.

The sampler included 3 of everything (I wonder if they give you one per person in your party?): buffalo chicken, fried mozzarella sticks, jalapeño poppers, fried pickles, and the BBC's signature fried mac-ancini (little fried macaroni and cheese balls). This came with three dipping sauces: marinara, inferno habanero, and a cool ranch. The sampler is $10.50 and three of us ate the whole thing. The buffalo chicken, though, is all breast meat and was very dry, so, unless you're ordering the chicken as a tool for soaking up as much sauce as possible, you should probably pass and get an order of french fries for dipping instead. The fried pickles, cut length-wise, are to die for - very tasty (and I, as a rule, do not like pickles of any kind, from any culture). The mac-ancini - an American take on the Sicilian arancini (fried rice balls filled with meat sauce and cheese) - are very crunchy. My kids love them but I find that you can't really taste the mac and cheese.

After all that fried food, I decided to have a light lunch and ordered a plain Caesar salad with no meat. I chose it because it was the only salad that featured a real lettuce (in my not so humble opinion) rather than iceberg (which has lots of fiber and crunch but less nutritional value than romaine). Considering that it was packed with romaine lettuce and shredded Parmesan cheese, it was also the best value for the money (the cheapest salad on the menu) at only $5.95. I felt like I'd won the trifecta: no waiting, excellent service, and a great price!

My girls took a while to decide which burgers they wanted. It is quite a list:

all their burgers are made from 100% angus beef (except their veggie burger, of course!)  

 and are chock full of mouth-watering - and surprising - ingredients:  a fried egg in their Kitchen Sink burger, mac and cheese in the Mac Attack and even peanut butter and fried bananas in their King (think Elvis) burger! 

Considering all the exciting, exotic options on the menu, the girls finally settled on a rather basic choice, the All American burger plate. All their burgers are definitely require both hands to eat and a very hearty appetite. The only downside to this happy mealtime story? You have to order a separate plate of fries (approximately $7) and that plate is really too big to eat unless you have a larger party than 1 adult and 2 kids. 

The Boston Burger Company All American Burger plate comes with crisp homemade chips and your choice of either cole slaw or baked beans. (However, if you or your kids don't like cole slaw or beans, you can ask for an extra side of chips instead!)

If anyone is still hungry after your meal, the famous JP Licks handmade ice cream shop is right next door (all I could manage was a kiddie size)!

On the JP Licks' About Us page, owner and founder Vince Petryk describes his ice cream as "love in a cone." He is definitely right about that!

Free (and Almost Free) Summer Activities for Middle Schoolers in Boston, MA: the New England Holocaust Memorial

WikiDon Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

This is not a “fun” activity to do with children, but it does engender many deep conversations with your middle and high schoolers. The New England Holocaust Memorial should definitely not be missed on a visit to Boston! This is especially true if you have middle school children with you, since, at least in some Massachusetts school districts, Holocaust literature is part of the middle school English Language Arts curriculum.

Own Work Copyright 2014

The New England Holocaust Memorial is located in Carmen Park, a little rectangular green island bordering the streets that separate the Haymarket T station’s back entrance, the steps that lead up to Government Center’s City Hall Plaza, the North End, and the Quincy Market. The entrance on the Haymarket T station side is marked by a stone with an inscription of a quote by Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemoeller.

A memorial stone that tells the facts of the Holocaust marks the entrance on the Quincy Market side; visitors to this Memorial often leave a small rock (a Jewish tradition) or a flower (a Christian tradition) on top, to mark their visit.

 A low chain fence, punctuated by rhombuses, reminiscent of the barbed wire that surrounded the Nazi death camps into which Jews and other “undesirables” had been herded, also marks this entrance.

 The Memorial itself is really a pathway through tall glass tunnels inscribed with numbers, in memory of the tattoos that the Nazis placed on each concentration camp prisoner’s arm. Each structure is built over a steel grate and each structure is dedicated in memory of one of the camps. From these steel grates steam often comes up, to remind us of the horrid conditions in which concentration camp prisoners lived...and of their ultimate ghastly fate.

 

I am old enough to have been a pre-teen myself when the New England Holocaust Memorial was first inaugurated. Back then, the trees had just been planted, saplings, so there was no canopy over the glass structures of the Memorial. I was there on a very sunny summer day and, as I walked into the first glass structure, my entire hand and arm were suddenly covered in gray-ish black numbers (the effect of the sun’s rays shining through the Memorial’s glass panels). I was rooted to the spot, transported in time to World War II and in place to Auschwitz-Birkenau or, perhaps, Treblinka, the “children’s” camp. I could not breathe. I have never forgotten: the experience definitely left an impression on my psyche. As grateful as I am for the shady canopy that now exists in Carmen Park, I wonder whether it wouldn’t be better for the future of humanity to cut them all down and begin again, so that my children’s generation can not only study and learn about these “acts of inhumanity that can stem from the seeds of prejudice” but feel their effects as well.

Where to Eat in Boston's North End: Reviews and Recommendations

Hanover St. is the North End's main drag.

© 2014 Own photo

If you've just flown in to Logan International Airport, freshened up at your hotel, or if you live in or around Boston, and your kids are absolutely starving even though they've just finished a huge breakfast and mid-morning snack, a jaunt through the North End, Boston's "Little Italy," is a great way to start getting a taste of Boston. 

Galleria Umberto, 289 Hanover Street, Boston, MA, (617) 227-5709

© 2014 Own photo

Galleria Umberto

One of the not-so-secret best places to eat lunch in the North End - or anywhere in Boston - is Galleria Umberto at 289 Hanover Street. I have been eating Umberto's pizza since I came to the U.S. when I was two years old. My family would make the trek in from East Boston (and, later, from the North Shore), in all kinds of weather, to shop for fresh vegetables and fruit at the outdoor Haymarket, meat at Al Capone's, the Italo-Argentine butcher (until the fire in the late '70s/early '80s) and then into the North End for everything from bread (at Umberto's, back when they were mainly a bakery selling pizza slices on the side) to shoes. The lines at Umberto's have always been long, with people waiting patiently for up to an hour for a slice of heavenly pizza from this family-owned and operated eatery.

Since the mid-'70s, when they moved from Parmenter Street to Hanover Street (the North End's main street), Umberto's has been serving slices of Sicilian style pizza by the panful to faithful regular customers and tourists alike. They also serve the best arancini (fried Sicilian rice balls filled with a meat sauce, peas and cheese) I have ever eaten (and I keep trying to find similar or better, but with limited success), spinach and ricotta-stuffed calzones, panzarotti (these are the Italian equivalent of a knish, mashed potatoes stuffed with ham and flavored with Italian parsley, shaped like a log and fried). $30 buys 10 slices of pizza (half a pan), 2 arancini, a Minute Maid Lemonade, a Coke and a bottle of imported Italian (Peroni) beer. But beware - you may need to go ahead and order a full pan of pizza: the meal I described was just barely enough to feed two middle schoolers and a Mom (boy, did I need that beer!).

Galleria Umberto is usually open 11-2, Monday through Saturday, but you should definitely plan to get there early: when they run out, they close. If you would rather take your meal to eat al fresco (at the Rose Kennedy Greenway across from Hanover Street, for example), you can also call ahead (617-227-5709) and pick up your order. Note: if you're in Boston in July, though, you are out of luck: the family closes down for the month and takes its annual (well-earned) vacation.

Caffè Pompei

If you're in Boston in July, or you'd like your first meal to be more of a restaurant experience, but not upscale, you should eat at the Pompei. This is an actual restaurant (compared to Umberto's pared-down, cafeteria style), with solicitous waitstaff, that is family-oriented and still won't break your budget. About $40 will buy you an appetizer of fried calamari (squid) served with lemon wedges and a marinara (meatless tomato) sauce, a wood-oven baked pizza alla margherita (8 large slices of chopped fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil), one beer, an iced cappuccino, an iced caffè latte, and a San Pellegrino limonata (an Italian lemonade soda, but less fizzy than American sodas).

 

© 2014 Own photo

La Dolce Vita, 221 Hanover Street, Boston, MA, (617) 720-0422

You may want a more elegant, upscale experience for dinner. If that is the case, La Dolce Vita is a good choice for authentic Italian cuisine; the taste of pretty much everything on the menu (yes, even their arancini) will transport you straight to the Italian peninsula. Unlike many "Italian" restaurants in the U.S. (sadly, some of these can even be found in Boston's North End), the entrees at La Dolce Vita are light but satisfying. I recently had their pasta primavera all'aglio ed olio, homemade fettucine chock full of mushrooms, green beans, carrots, broccoli, spinach, sauteed in garlic perfumed olive oil. The baked potato gnocchi, topped with marinara sauce and fresh mozzarella, served straight from the oven in a ceramic crock, are a much heartier - but just as tasty - option. Many entree options here are expensive, but if you don't order wine or dessert, you should be able to eat well for about $20 per person in your party. 

The only downside of our experience at La Dolce Vita was the service. Three of us (myself and two children) arrived ahead of the rest of our 7-person party. We were greeted, seated right smack in the middle of the restaurant (the only area set up for larger parties), incidentally, right near the waiters' prep area and in full view of the bar...and totally ignored for ten full minutes. No one offered us water or bread. No one spoke to us at all, not even Franco, the owner, who is always hovering around, until the rest of our party arrived. Oh, and ignore the art on the walls. They show scenes from the movie with Marcello Mastroianni, but the palette may just throw you off your feed. At any rate, although the food is good, I will not be dining at this restaurant again. But, if you decide to go, I hope your entire experience is good and not just the food.

 This is the first article, but the second installment of the  Free...in Boston, MA series, which includes the following:

 Free (and Almost Free) Fun Summer Activities for Middle Schoolers in Boston, MA: Introduction

As always, I invite your comments!

Peace,

Everymom1