On Saturday, Tim and I were planning to go apple picking but when we woke up it felt more like summer than the perfect cool fall day for apple picking.  I definitely didn’t want to be sweating while picking my apples — there’s nothing worse than trying to feel “fall-ish” in a sweater and Uggs while overheating with bees swarming around you while you huff and puff trying to pretend you are having fun picking apples.  And then you crave ice-cold beer instead of warm apple cider, and it’s just the worst!

So to avoid such a conundrum, we instead we went to Boston.com’s “Things to Do” page and discovered that the first annual Boston Seafood Festival was happening downtown at the Bank of America Pavilion that day.  Change of plans!  Seafood by the water was a much more fitting activity for the warm day.

First Annual Boston Seafood Festival

The festival was a day full of marine themed activities with food from local restaurant booths, music, crafts, costumes, and more.  The doors opened at 11am with admission tickets costing $10 per person, and the festival ran until 6pm.

There were local restaurant booths set up all around the festival.  Only a couple of them were giving away free samples though.  You guys know how much I am a sucker for free samples, so that is something I would change about the festival.  I understand the local restaurants want to make money at their booths, but I am less likely to attend an event if I know I will have to pay for most things I eat.  Call me cheap, but that’s just how I am.

We did end up checking out the lobster bake menu.

We got the mussels and steamers combo!  I am a sucker for free food, but I’m also a sucker for mussels and steamers.

The website also had advertised a best and healthiest chowder taste off, but I didn’t see this!  We didn’t get to the festival until 2ish, so maybe we missed this in the morning.  I would have loved that, obviously.  Healthy chowder?  Bring it on!

We did stop by the oyster tables though where there was an oyster shucking contest and you could buy different types of oysters and clams.

We got four little neck clams and said cheers as we slurped em down.

The festival wasn’t TOO big, we walked around all the vendors and other activities besides the food booths in no time at all.  I would have liked some more browsing!  One of my favorite booths we saw was by a company called Periwinkle Designs.  They had these cute decorative wreaths made of mussel shells!  I loved them but didn’t end up getting one because I didn’t know where I would put it in my apartment.  I keep thinking about it though.  So cute!

Our favorite part of the festival were the chef demonstrations.  They had a whole line up for the day!  We sat and watched Rich Garcia, the executive chef at 606 Congress, the restaurant in the Renaissance Waterfront hotel.  I discovered Rich also has a blog, which you can check out over at Chef’s Daily Food Bank.  Rich broke down an Acadian red fish for us and talked up the importance of asking where your fish come from, who caught them, etc. and the importance of making the most of underutilized fish.  He did two dishes with this — one sushi version and another in a brown butter sauce with curry powder and apples.  We sampled that one (I’m not a sushi person!) and decided we must try to recreate at home someday.

Tim was IN HIS GLORY during the chef demo.

After we finished up at the seafood festival, Tim and I had some time to kill before we met up with our friends in Coolidge Corner, so we decided to keep the seafood spirit going.  We grabbed some beers and clam chowder on the roof deck at Legal Harborside.

I must go back there in the summer when it’s warmer out (it had cooled down by the time we made it over there).  Would be so fun.

All in all, a lovely Saturday!

Seafood fans, what’s your favorite kind?  I can never choose… I like it too much!