Massachusetts

• Boston

  One of the country’s oldest cities, Boston played a fundamental role in U.S. history: Born of Puritan-colonist parents, the city came of age during the American Revolutionary War, lending both name and place to the Boston Massacre and Tea Party—back when the latter, ahem, was actually meaningful—and boasting such significant citizens as John and Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. Yet the city has aged gracefully, so while history buffs can keep plenty busy here—and anyone could spend hours wandering gorgeous old neighborhoods like Beacon Hill—those seeking a younger, hipper Boston will not be disappointed.

  Between meals, you might stroll the ribbon of public parkland known as the Rose Kennedy Greenway, introduced a few years ago with the long-overdue completion of the $15 billion Big Dig tunnel project. In Little Italy, you can pick up designer jeans and some of the best cannoli you’ll ever taste, while over in South Boston, contemporary art is blocks away from a nationally known craft-beer brewery. Crave seafood? Luckily, you’re on the coast and never far from a great lobster roll, be it from a trendy city oyster bar or a North Shore beach shack. Of course, you can’t leave Boston without some throwback treats: baked beans, Boston cream pie, a game at Fenway. In an old-school city like this, tradition is too wicked good to ignore.

  Click below to find Boston's most essential dishes.

  One of the country’s oldest cities, Boston played a fundamental role in U.S. history: Born of Puritan-colonist parents, the city came of age during the American Revolutionary War, lending both name and place to the Boston Massacre and Tea Party—back when the latter, ahem, was actually meaningful—and boasting such significant citizens as John and Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. Yet…   Read more

   

  Find local foods in Boston.

  Baked beans

  Boston cream pie

  Boston scrod

  Fried local clams

  Indian pudding

• User Content

Below is user-submitted content for this region. Have something to contribute? Upload your regional-food photo or food memory.

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  Portuguese pastries

  Fall River
  lsr
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  Sippewissett Oysters

  Falmouth
  srosen
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  Apple Cider Donut

  Ipswich
  jessie
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  Fried Haddock Sandwich

  Manchester-by-the-Sea
  jessie

• • Cape Cod Bounty

    lsr
    Falmouth, MA
    

    It was a summer Saturday on some picturesque beach in Vineyard Sound, empty but for the windswept dune grass, a few friends, and a scattering of towels and coolers. We waded in from our boat, …    Read more

  • Perfect Coffee

    chrisjg
    Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
    

    I'm a coffee roaster so this is tough for me to write, but the best cup of coffee & espresso I've ever had was at Crema Cafe in Harvard Square.
    
    However, I'm okay…    Read more

• Blog Posts

• Road Trip: Portuguese Food in Fall River, Massachusetts

  Inside the now-defunct Billy's Cafe, Fall River. Photos by Scott Rosen. Fall River, Massachusetts, is the kind of town most people drive through to get someplace else. Once a center of textile manufacturing, it’s long since fallen on…   Read more

• Recipes From Afar: Portuguese Kale Soup, Cape Cod

  Every summer, Cape Cod is among our favorite go-to escapes, a long weekend with local friends for which we’re always in for lots of boating, clamming, lobstering, swimming, and, of course, eating. (As we’ve previously admitted,…   Read more

• Crazy for Clam Chowder in Cape Cod

  The buildup starts on the long drive north. There’s traffic getting out of the city, traffic in Connecticut—where we might stop for pizza in New Haven—and traffic navigating around Providence, Rhode Island. But we’re…   Read more

• Q&A: Andrea Stanley, Maltster, Western Massachusetts

  “Beer and spirits were an essential part of everyday life for the first European settlers of our country. Malting barley was brought over on the first ships with other essentials, like wool and wheat. Records show it was first planted on…   Read more

• Q&A: Skip Bennett, oysterman/oyster bar co-owner, Duxbury and Boston, MA

  “Everyone we hire at ICOB spends time working on the farm so they can truly understand and speak to our culture. They have a real connection to not only the farm, but also to all of the people who work so hard growing and harvesting the…   Read more

• Origins: Cranberries

   Each autumn, Cape Cod is a fabulous place to witness a colorful cranberry harvest. Cranberries. I don’t think of them too often, unless I’m throwing a handful of dried ones into my salad. Or, you know, it’s this time…   Read more