Boston Field Report

2008-05-13T02:53:00.000-07:00

I was in Boston this weekend to get my first look at my week-old baby nephew, Nolan, who is very good at kicking and wriggling and is already nearly the same size as his two-year-old sister.

Longtime NYC Donut Report!! readers will already be well aware that Boston is also the birthplace of the Dunkin' Donuts chain (or, if we must call it this now, Dunkin' Brands, Inc.). This fact had me hoping that the donuts up there would be better or at least, somehow, fresher than the ones DD sells here. Unfortunately, it turns out that when you are visiting people who are raising both a newborn baby and a precocious but demanding two-year-old savant -- one of Maggie's favorite new games is to place her feet on various parts of the table and tabletop and ask the somewhat horrified adult eating dinner next to her, "Is this acceptable? Is this acceptable?" -- well, in those circumstances, you don't really actually get to leave the house, or at least not for frivolous donut excursions.

But I did notice that not only does the Boston area have a Dunkin' Donuts on virtually every block, but that a large number of them are drive-thru DDs. I am still kicking myself for not getting photos of this.

I was also given a used copy of Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos by the nice woman sitting next to me on the Chinatown bus, which I reluctantly accepted but later on, out of fear of bedbugs, ditched on a stoop somewhere.

Also, when I got back to NYC on Sunday afternoon the fruit vendors on Canal Street were selling strawberries for $1.50 a quart. I don't know how it is possible to offer a price that low, but they have turned out to be the sweetest and juiciest strawberries I've had all year.