Shop & Eat in Boston: 5 Randoms

popcorn in the underground - cute!

The week before our Boston trip, I was so swamped with work and pulling together the MacDella Cooper Foundation’s annual gala that I had no time to Google and yelp the city. Maybe my lack of direction was for the better — we wandered around with open eyes, observant of Boston’s cute quirks, like its self-compacting street trash cans and popcorn stands in the underground T (subway) stations. Landmarks are lovely, but in the end, isn’t a city all about its details?

If you were going to Boston on a budget, here are 5 lesser-known stores and shops I’d tell you to pop into:

1. Bodega (6 Clearway St.)

Sammy outside Bodega

Someone must do a marketing analysis of how this store is a viable business. I guess it proves what Sammy always refers to as “the Tipping Point” –- Malcolm Gladwell’s term for things that rise in popularity, simply due to word of mouth. The façade is a modest bodega on a side street, its windows filled with faded toilet paper rolls and laundry detergent bottles. Go inside and it still looks like a bodega, except then a secret door opens and leads you into a hip sneaker store! Even the web site is mysterious: www.bdgastore.com.

2. The Other Side Cafe (407 Newbury St.)

This cafe is staffed by struggling musicians, who are well-tattooed, spike the coffee with alcohol, and make a mean bowl of yogurt, fruit, and granola. Just look at the masterpiece one of them created for me! I watched him carefully slice and dice the fruit from our seats on the second floor, which overlooked the kitchen. The menu is known for its healthy, vegan options.

3. Johnny Cupcakes

First heard of Johnny Cupcakes when Katy Perry endorsed it as one of her favorite places to shop in LA, but come to find out, he’s based in Boston! Johnny Cupcakes has a fascinating story — he started his brand of screen-printed t-shirts, marked with cupcakes and bones, as a joke. The store is set up like a mock bakery — the t-shirts are encased like desserts. The clothes are pricey ($30-60 for a shirt) but go to counter and look for the $1 pins in cupcake tins so you can add a little Johnny to your life. I bought the “make cupcakes NOT WAR” pin.

4. Anna’s Taqueria

Our Boston native friend Diana recommended this spot for the best burritos ever, and I think she was right. Go for a good cheap eat ($4 per burrito and 75 cents for guac).

5. When Pigs Fly

We talked up the boy behind the counter to get free samples of the old-world style artisan bread here. Stop in after Anna’s (it’s on Beacon St. in Brookline) and try Mango, Pineapple, Raisin, with Toasted Sesame and Ginger bread. Carbs with a kick of citrus — delicious.

Wanderlust in Boston: Part I

Wanderlust goes to Boston! I’m blogging all this week about my weekend in Boston with Sammy and Lauren, starting with how Boston cream pie is a dessert gone extinct. Sammy and I were on a touristy quest to eat Boston cream pie in Boston, and we figured we’d find it encased at every bakery and diner, much like you would see New York Cheesecake in New York. Well, we were wrong. Not even the New England grocer Shaw’s carried it!

Boston cream pie: the most evasive dessert in Boston

So what is so Boston about this cream pie anyways, I wondered? It’s actually a misnomer because it looks like a cake (it was probably named as such because colonists baked pies in cake tins). The pie became popularized after a New York newspaper printed the recipe in 1855 – it consists of two layers of sponge cake, sandwiched together with creme, and topped with chocolate. Maybe someday I’ll bake it.

Minus this letdown, I found Boston to be a beautiful city of other sweet surprises and charm…more to come!