Philly has its cheesesteaks, Chicago its pizza. If one goes to Boston, what's the one dish we have to have to experience Boston as Bostonians do (besides beans)? And where should we get it?

I would go to Union Oyster House, America's oldest restaurant (est. 1826) is located near historic Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston. Oysters & clam chowder!!!

Budman, do you then pronounce it "ah-stas en chow-duh"?

Ever the carb fiend, I would try to find somewhere and eat lots of boston cream pie with some piping hot, formerly banned, tea. One lump or two?

I pronunce it using proper English -- Chow-dee -- with my ice cold Sam Adams be-a.

I have to agree with Budman - Boston is famous for New England Clam Chowder. Even better as an appetizer before steamers and Maine lobster (or to translate for wsoxrebel "steamahs and lobsta"). I haven't been to the Union Oyster House, but I've read and heard good things about it and it's a popular spot. Enjoy!

Tea wasn't banned, just the opposite: it was taxed.

Nobody in Boston eats those beans.

Pronunciation: OY-stuhs en chowdah.

If you want to experience food as Bostonians do, then you need to eat a fried clam roll or perhaps a simply-prepared lobster. Woodman's place on the north shore in Essex is the place to go.

Whoops, there I go again letting my imagination get the best of me. But can you really get boston cream pie in Boston or is it just a Sara Lee thing?

Whenever I visit Boston, I have to have the Quahaug (ko-hog)clams at the Marshall House - baked in the shell with some sort of stuffing. Yum.

I believe that it's in the same block as the Union Oyster House.

I grew up in the South Shore and never ate a baked bean until I left New England. Could somebody explain where the 'Bostonians & baked beans' come from? I've heard of that ditty .... blah, blah, "land of the bean and the cod, where the Cabots speak to somebody and ???? only speak to God."

Fried clams

Clam rolls - fried clams in a hot dog roll

Clam chowder

Lobster roll - lobster salad in a hot dog roll

Italian sub - sub roll, mortadella, provolone, capicolla, genoa salami, chopped tomatos, chopped dill pickles, chopped onions, hot peppers with olive oil drizzled on top, and then oregano, salt and pepper. No lettuce!!! Best sandwich in the world if made right. Can't be found anywhere but Boston area. If not made this way its an imposter.

Stuffed Quohaugs

Lobster tails - Italian pastry not seafood.

Fried Seafood Platter - scallops, clams, haddock and shrimp all fried and served with french fries, cole slaw and tartar sauce.

The toast goes:

Here's to dear old Boston,
The land of the bean and the cod,
Where the Cabots speak only to the Lowells,
And the Lowells speak only to God.

I've been eating Boston baked beans all my life, and about the cod:

Cod has long played a vital role in the fortunes of Massachusetts -- Cape Cod didn't get its name for nothing. Today, the Massachusetts House of Representatives is likely the only legislative body in the country (and possibly the world) to deliberate under a giant carved wooden codfish -- the Sacred Cod, whose head points at whichever party is in power."
Source http://www.boston-online.com/cod.html

The Cod is a symbol of Massachusetts and most especially of Boston. Its importance in the success of early New England cannot be overstated, as Mark Kurlansky argues in his book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (New York, 1997). Kurlansky calls the cod "the fish that built Boston." It was cod fishing that raised the early Europeans from "starving settlers" to prosperity--a colony wealthy, in fact, that by the 18th century it no longer needed England. Indeed, as Kurlansky points out, "commerce" almost beame the "New England religion" (74-75):

The members of the 'codfish aristocracy,' those who traced their family fortunes to the seventeenth-century cod fisheries, had openly worshiped the fish as the symbol of their welath...Many of the first Amerian coins issued from 1776 to 1778 had cofish on them, and a 1755 two-penny tax stamp for the Massachusetts Bay Colony bored a codfish and the words staple of Massachusetts. (79; emphasis original)
The cod is not only a symbol of Boston, and its wealthy families with whom Shaws own family was identified, but of Boston's tie to slavery. Cod fishing and the manufacture of salt cod in New England formed one of the points of the triangle trade in slavery. Salt cod was traded to the Carribean where it was used as a cheap source of salt and protein for slaves. Those slaves in turn produced molasses which was shipped back to Boston.

http://www.holycross.edu/departments...sluria/cod.htm

You can still get baked beans and a clambake at the old Durgin Park at Fanuil Hall Marketplve. Sometimes, Henrietta's in the Charles Hotel(Harvard Sq.) serves them.
Sitting at the old bar at the union oyster house is a treat. We often bikke there in the summer.

Looks like I'll have to have more than one "signature" meal in Boston. Clam Chowda has been a favorite of mine anyway!

By the way, that was a very interesting codhistory, gc!

gc, very good now let me ad if you are in the back bay, the John Hancock tower has a light that tells you:

Steady blue-clear view,
steady red-rain ahead,
flashing red-snow instead.
But the flashing red during a red sox game means the game is cancelled.
I love my town!

But is boston cream pie a big deal there or not?

No!! you won't find it on any menu, it's like French muffins, doesn't exist there.

first of all this was a misomer. Parker house introduced this cream sponge cake years and years ago when it was prime destination and somehow it lost the popularity and the name became pie. I haven't figurd that out. Why?

I've had great Boston cream pie when I was younger. Though I can't really think of anywhere that has "wicked good" Boston cream pie in Boston. Can anyone think of anyplace ? I would think there must be some bakeries in the North end that have good Boston Cream Pie. I'm from Boston, but I don't like beans, clam chowda and steama's ...but....Sam Adams is a great Boston "food"

Oh my! Nobody has mentioned ICE CREAM yet??? New England eats more ice cream than the rest of the US together, and Boston has some of the BEST! Ice Cream EVERY DAY when you're in Boston! Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall!

Herrell's
Toscanini's
Christina's
JP Licks
Richardson's
Ron's Gourmet
Lilly's
......the list goes on and on!