It’s really hard to say enough good things about pub food, but I’m about to say some more. Because for my last meal in Salem, I made my way to the Olde Main Street Pub in the hopes that this Irish place would have food fit for an unvegan. After a bunch of seafood, beef and pork, it was time to taste the what Salem had to offer from the poultry realm.

Thus, I ordered The Chicken O’Brady under the assumption that it was named for Tom Brady, the New England and Michigan Wolverine hero. This sandwich began with a grilled chicken breast and was topped with bacon, cheddar and honey mustard. It also came with fries. Unfortunately, even though I asked the waitress to keep any vegetables away not named in the menu, the sandwich still arrived with a bunch of veggies on one half of the bun. These were easily removed, but a total waste of precious vegetable life.

And really, this was one of the better chicken sandwiches I have ever had. The bacon was placed with such care that it was evenly dispersed across the sandwich instead of lackadaisically criss-crossed atop the chicken. The cheese was melted into delicious gooey oblivion and the fries were seasoned to perfection and fried in all the right ways. The only thing I could have asked more was more chicken, as the breast was kinda small.

This sandwich was a great way to close out the visit to Salem, and while it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, it was beyond what you should reasonably expect from an Irish Pub in a old New England touristy town.

Boston is definitely known as a melting pot of a city. But I didn’t know the same could be said for Salem, a town much better known for witches than food.. That was, of course, until I made my way to Village Tavern. I figured it would be like a typical village tavern, but this one had a little something hidden up its sleeve.

That little something took the form of Buffalo Chicken Rangoons. Granted, rangoons are kind of like a bastardized American version of a dumpling, but they still have an Asian flair that I hadn’t been expecting at such a place. Regardless, these were a pretty delicious way to start off the meal, along with a beer, of course.

For my main meal I had the Bacon Brie burger. This was topped with the aforementioned namesake ingredients (although the bacon was candied), as well as V-Tav whiskey bacon jam and vinegar onion straws. The burger was fine. Just fine. No, it was more than fine. At least the bacon and brie and jam were great, but the onion strings were not deeply fried enough for my liking and the patty itself was just okay.

I wasn’t expecting this burger to blow me away, and it did a fantastic job of meeting those expectations. Regardless, I left Village Tavern plenty satisfied and ready to take on any local witches.

Coffee shops have come a long way since the days of Friends and Seattle grunge. Now, they serve different teas, crazy concoctions and a bunch of quickie foods. And that’s just the chains. The indie spots take things a step further, like Brew Box in Salem, Massachusetts. And it’s not just hippy dippy and hipster stuff, they even had food fit for an unvegan like me.

The obvious choice was the Biscuit Egg Sandwich, which is made with a house-made biscuit, egg souffle (really a scrambled egg square) and white cheddar with the option to add bacon or sausage for $1. I tried both the bacon and the sausage, and the bacon was my preferred biscuit meat. Yet, despite the meat, the most amazing thing about the sandwich was the biscuit itself. It has an amazing crispy texture on the outside and was delightfully fluffy on the inside – just as a biscuit should be. It was also plenty moist, which is a word that I always like to use to describe pretty much anything.

And the best thing about the sandwich was that I was able to eat something “wich”y in Salem. I know you’re laughing. Fine, whatever. Don’t laugh. But do eat the Biscuit Egg Sandwich if you ever make your way to Salem and are in need of breakfast.

Some time in the ’90s it became cool (kewl?) to replace the letter “S” with the letter “Z.” Finz in Salem, Massachusetts arrived at the tail end (get it?!) of that decade, so they still get a pass. And while the ambiance could not be further from the divey lunch that day, the them was the same – seafood.

Thus, we started with Crab Irish Nachos, which is like the most Boston thing ever because it combines Irish and Seafoodish in one.The potato chips were housemade, the nacho sauce was spicy and the pico de gallo was…unnecessary. Yet, these were about as good as you could expect a combination of crab and fried potatoes to be.

We also started with an order of the Finz Crispy Calamari, which was said to be served Rhode Island style. As someone not from the northeast, I had no idea what that meant, but learned that it simply meant the squid was tossed with pickled banana peppers. Strange that that is all it takes to be called your “style,” but then Rhode Island is quite small. In the end, it tasted like…wait for it…calamari that just happened to have banana peppers nearby. So, you know, pretty good.

Now Finz is one of those places with tanks of lobsters just waiting to be grabbed and dropped into a boiling pot of water. This is not uncommon, but we were seated right by those doomed lobsters and this in no way prevented me from ordering the Lobster Mac and Cheese. It turned out that was really more like Lobster Penne and Cheese, but I still liked it. Plus, the truffled asiago bread crumbs added a nice crunchy texture to the dish. The centerpiece, though, was the lobster itself. It was quite plentiful and the chunks were massive. Pus, the cheese sauce tasted like it was made just for lobster.

In the more upscale side of the lobster world, Salem delivered the goods once again. There’s something about lobster done right that elevates it above the lesser foods from the sea. And when you’re in Massachusetts and don’t need to pay an arm and a leg (and a pincer) to get that crustacean in your belly it’s all the better.

Some people really like lobster rolls. I don’t get it. What’s the fun of chowing down on cold, slimy lobster loaded up with mayo? But then there’s lobster grilled cheese. See, that’s the good stuff, doing everything right with the lobsters. So, upon arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, we made our way to a divey spot called Longboards that allegedly knew what to do with lobster.

Thus, I ordered the lobster grilled cheese, along with a cup of clam chowder. The grilled cheese was everything it should have been. No attempt to make it fancy, just perfectly melty cheddar, lightly browned grill marks and the right about of lobster so as to maintain balance. Plus, the lemon for squeezing upon the sandwich was a nice touch.

The chowder was good as well, but not really anything special aside from a good way to warm up in the rainy winter weather.

As far as divey lobster sandwiches go in the cradle of witches, Longboards certainly delivered, setting the stage for more lobster to come.

While there is no shortage of donut shops in LA, in Boston you can’t walk for more than five minutes without seeing a Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s like the city runs on this doughnut franchise. So, before I parted ways with Boston, I made sure to stop at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Boston’s Logan Airport to grab something to eat.

I was expecting to be stuck eating a doughnut for dinner, but instead I found that Dunkin’s had started offering flatbread sandwiches, and for pretty cheap. None of them really had vegetables, but I ordered the Chicken Parmesan flatbread one thinking it was the most dinner-like of all.

I watched sadly as the woman behind the counter opened up a freezer, unwrapped a sandwich in plastic, then put it in a high-speed toaster. I had assumed the ingredients were so basic that they could be prepared on the spot, but apparently I was wrong. Even if the sandwiches had all been created that morning, I was disappointed.

After the rapid toasting, my sandwich was ready. I took it to my gate, had a seat and opened it up. Inside the paper wrapping were the basic components of a chicken parmesan sandwich, bread, cheese, chicken and tomato sauce. With their powers combined, they created a pretty average sandwich. It wasn’t a terrible choice for someone on the go, but there is so much potential for sandwich greatness in the world that one should never have to settle for the Dunkin’ Donuts flatbread sandwiches when other choices exist.

On day final of my sojourn into Boston, I lunched at Joe’s American Bar & Grill, a casual restaurant with a nice outdoor seating area. We took a table outside to enjoy one of the last remaining nice days in Boston’s summer season and then got down to menu business.

We arrived around that strange hour where you’re not sure if you want breakfast or lunch, so we were given both the Brunch menu and the lunch menu. After long deliberation between the menus, I settled upon lunch and the Blackened Chicken Sandwich. This sandwich was made with Cajun spices, cheddar and sauteed onions. It also came with all the typical sandwich fixing, like lettuce, tomato and pickles. I ordered mine without any of those, and also no fancy onions.

Luckily for Joe’s, my meal was prepared to my perfect specifications. The chicken was good, but the Cajun spices could have used a bit more kick. Overall though, Joe’s was a very safe restaurant choice for a casual American food lover like myself.

While in Boston, we were told the sad tale of a place called the Milky Way in Jamaica Plain. Apparently the Milky Way had taken moved into JP in worse times and brought good food, a fun bar and even a bowling alley. The Milky Way paved the way for JP to become a desirable place to live again. Then, an evil landlord decided to raise the rent, essentially pushing the Milky Way out. It didn’t take long for the Milky Way to find a new location, but instant karma hit the landlord, who has since been unable to fill the void left by the Milky Way.

So off we went to try the new place out. The new Milky Way is divided into a restaurant known as Bella Luna and a lounge area called Milky Way. We stuck to Bella Luna, which had a pretty cool and classy astronomical design, for some dinner.

The menu was mostly Italian, with some other random food types thrown in. I decided to get The Goodridge, a pizza with meatballs, parmesan and roasted garlic. It was a great choice. The pizza was nice and greasy, without being dominated by any one ingredient. The only possible complaint I could have had was that I would have liked more meatballs, but that was minor for a pizza that already tasted so good.

It looks like Bela Luna and the Milky Way have rebounded nicely into their new location and it makes the food taste even better knowing the old location sits abandoned with no rent money going to the evil landlord.

While waiting for a tour of the Sam Adams brewery in the Jamaica Plain are of Boston, we took a short walk to Ula Cafe to grab lunch. Both the brewery and Ula Cafe are located in a strange complex that formerly housed some other, now-defunct brewery.

That brewery’s loss was my gain, for as I perused the menu on the wall of Ula Cafe, I came across a sandwich of dreams. No, this wasn’t some meat-filled cardiac-arresting behemoth, but it seemed to good to be true. The name was Roast Turkey, but that didn’t begin to tell the tale of what would lie beneath the slices of bread. This sandwich was composed of turkey, guacamole, bacon and provolone. Not a vegetable in sight. I had to ask the woman at the counter just to be sure that my eyes didn’t deceive me. She told me it came as noted on the menu, with nary a tomato or lettuce leaf thrown in. I ordered it immediately.

Then came the hard part.

Ula Cafe was apparently the type of place that people came with their laptops to camp out for the entire day. This is all good and well in a lot of places, but Ula didn’t exactly have a surplus of seating area. For the next ten minutes, we stood uncomfortably next to people that seemed like they would be leaving soon. It made things pretty awkward, until finally a space opened and we could sit down for a couple minutes before our food arrived.

Upon arrival, my sandwich was just as it had been described on the menu. The turkey was juicy and the bacon crunchy. It felt great to order a sandwich as-is and have it come out perfect. For this reason, Ula Cafe would be a great choice for anyone looking for a good unvegan lunch in Boston, whether they are checking out the Sam Adams brewery or not.

After hearing so much about seafood in Boston, we finally got the chance to test it out with a visit to Legal Sea Foods. We were told it was a “very Boston” thing to do, and that was really all we had to hear.

When we arrived and saw that there are Legal Sea Foods restaurants located all over the East Coast, we a were a little disappointed. I guess it wasn’t simply a Boston thing. Still, I could not penalize the restaurant for someone else leading me on.

After looking at the menu for a while, I decided to start off with the Lobster Quesadilla appetizer and finish off with the Double Stuffed Baked Shrimp, including a side of mashed potatoes. Since I was splitting the appetizer with my girlfriend, I didn’t ask them to hold the greens or pico de gallo. At $25 for most entrees, I hoped Legal Sea Food could deliver me some good unvegan eats.

The lobster quesadilla came and looked mighty tasty. Luckily, they consisted of only lobster meat and cheese. Unfortunately, the lobster had a slight fishy taste. Being so close to the coast, you would think their seafood might be a bit more fresh, but apparently not. Nonetheless, with enough sauce, the fishy flavor kind of faded.

My entree looked quite daunting after polishing off the quesadilla. I didn’t quite expect the shrimp to be so huge and so filling. The crabmeat was delicious, and

the shrimp had a decent crunch without tasting too rubbery. Even the mashed potatoes tasted great. Unfortunately, I was so stuffed already that I felt like I could hardly make a dent in my entree.

In the end, the experience was a pretty positive one, but not perfect enough to merit the inflated price tags.