Food: December 2008 Archives

For a city with so many students and young professionals, it's no surprise that cheap eats are available almost everywhere, in every kind of neighborhood and in every type of restaurant. In 2008, Bostonist strove to introduce you to the well- and lesser-known hits of the Cheap Eats world.

Hot dogs are a great food because they can easily be a snack OR a meal. At Bad Dawgs on Massachusetts Avenue near Symphony Hall, hot dogs come alone or in pairs and with a wide array of toppings to fill all of your hot dog needs.

Recession be damned -- 2008 was an incredible year for Boston's food scene (except for the intriguing but ill-starred Circle, which did in fact fold after only six weeks in business).

If the snow this weekend proved anything, it's that it's definitely the season for comfort food. And pizza and fried foods are on many people's comfort food lists. Galleria Umberto, a no-frills cafeteria-style restaurant in the North End, is one of the most perfect places in the city to find hot and filling treats to make your stomach happy.

Someone told us a story recently of a four year old who looked her straight in the eye and said, "Do you have any idea how hard it is for a little boy to wait a whole year for Christmas?!"

Just like a TV sitcom, we’ve moved from Christmas on to New Year’s before Christmas really even got started. So in spirit of the New Year’s tradition of reflection, we’ve looked back on the year in beers.

Is it just us, or is this time of year exhausting? With all the shopping and parties, you need the right kind of fuel to get you through the day. Luckily, Gaslight, a French brasserie in the South End, is offering a filling and cheap brunch every Saturday and Sunday throughout this month.

Okay: it’s cold. You can’t feel your fingers, your boogers are freezing in your nose…You need something to warm you up. If you’re a stout and porter person looking for a new way to warm up, there’s a Winter Warmer out there with your name on it.

Folks who work in the Theatre District have a lot of lunch options. From New York Pizza to Subway to the haute cuisine of the Transportation Building, there's no shortage of ways to stuff your face. But do any of them actually taste good?

Boston's locavores get a little frustrated when we hear whinging about how much everyone is missing local food now that the summer is over. Don't get us wrong. We love tomatoes in August. We love snap peas in June. We love just about everything that has to do with a garlic plant, from May through October. But we love December too. It's not that there is nothing to eat, it's just that what there is changes and morphs into comfort food. That is New England's way of preparing us for the coming cold.

This Bostonist hates brunch. Hates it. He has no idea what would possess so many thousands of people, of otherwise sound mind, to wait in 20-person-long lines only to pony up anywhere between $12 and $20 to buy food that cost a restaurant a buck fifty in the first place and that you could totally cook at home.

In light of the fact that there are only 22 shopping days left until Christmas, here are a few ideas for the beer lover on your list. First, as you know, we love beer books. And books make a great gift. Consider anything the late, great Michael Jackson wrote or even the book of what we like to term “beernography,” The Beer Book. BeerBooks.com is a great place to get ideas and is organized neatly so you can distinguish histories from homebrewing guides or from beer appreciation guides.

Wine Gallery is a good-sized wine shop with weekly tastings, a great selection of booze, cheese, and other gourmet items. They’re also only one of two wine shops in the state that I know of that features the Enomatic “wine jukebox” so you can taste even more wines before making your purchase!