This is a blog for poor students (and other frugal people) in the Boston area (and other areas). Being thrifty doesn't mean that you can't eat well. Every week, I'll show you a new way to eat well without spending a fortune. Like the Poor Student on Facebook to see the latest posts first!
The Poor Student scoots from Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain to Roslindale Village and back to Jamaica Plain. Roslindale Village is a cool shopping area with an interesting mix of restaurants, shops, and businesses. Check out the bakeries and small restaurants there! Here's the route:
One of the places that I wasn't able to reach easily before I had a scooter was the Save-a-lot on American Legion Highway in Roslindale. There's a strip mall there and if you're in the mood for Popeye's Chicken after getting your groceries, you're in luck! Popeye's is usually busy and I've never seen it completely empty. The staff there are very friendly too.
Anyway, the point of this post is the Save-a-lot. It's not the best supermarket in the area but I bet it's the cheapest. They have everything you need but not necessarily brands you'd see at Roche Bros or Stop & Shop. However, they also have some cool things you might not find easily elsewhere too. For example, they sell plantains and plantain chips. They also always seem to have habanero peppers there, if you can handle that level of heat. If you want to try goat meat but don't want to trek down to haymarket, Save-a-lot also carries goat chunks (ready for stewing) sometimes. I've never had any problems with the meat there. They have all the standard stuff you'd find elsewhere but don't have fancy things like filet mignon or stuff like that. I've gotten a pork loin there and it was great.
Frankly, I go there mainly for the produce and meat. If I remember, I'll get some plantain chips. The frozen foods there are also good deals and there's plenty of cheap bread too. If you're a poor student, this is a good supermarket to load up on basic pantry items. If you need mac & cheese, they carry a brand called "O'day's" for about 50 cents a box or less, depending if it's on sale or not.
Last note: remember to bring your own plastic bags because they will charge you 11 cents for one.
Here's a video that show you how to get there from Forest Hills:
Update: (July 2012) They have repaired Walk Hill St. and it's a nice ride now.
Fiore's Bakery is right beside the Harvest Co-op in Jamaica Plain, MA. They have been there for quite a few years but most recently, they've been offering a lot of gluten-free and vegan baked goods and sandwiches. The other day, I was walking past there and thought it looked a little different. I hadn't been in there for at least a year or more, so I went in to see what they had in their bakery case. To my surprise, they had almond macaron! The guy called them "macaroons," so I had to double check to make sure they were not those coconut cookies that I don't like. Macaron are a French thing, made with almonds and egg whites. I just had to try those and added a cupcake just because those looked good too. If you want those macarOOns with the coconut bits, they have those too.
Almond Macaron and a cupcake
As I was walking home, I ate one of the macaron and realized that the guy put 2 in the bag! Yay! They're actually $4.99/pound, around 50 cents each. I was actually tempted to go back and get some more because they are really good! Even though they're not sandwich cookies like they are traditionally made in France, the macaron was very good. It had the texture that you want - slightly crispy on the outside and soft & chewy on the inside. However, they are a bit on the sweet side so make yourself a cup of tea or coffee to cleanse your palate between bites.
Almond Macaron
As for the cupcake, it was alright. Compared to the macaron, it was like an afterthought. Having said that, I'm usually not a big fan of cupcakes, so I'd suggest that you go try them yourself to make your own judgement on those. I didn't try any of their sandwiches but if you need gluten free or vegan food, this is one place to go. The other place would be Fazenda, across the street from Forest Hills station.
This was my first experience with African food, not counting African coffees like Kenya AA and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Blue Nile is an Ethiopian restaurant located in Hyde Square, on Centre Street. It's right beside Food Wall, which is the go-to Chinese takeout place in Jamaica Plain. The motivation for trying Blue Nile was actually an episode of The Simpsons. Remember when Marge, Lisa, and Bart became foodies after they ate at an Ethiopian restaurant?
Yeah, that episode inspired me to try Ethiopian food! I wish I were making this up but it's true. I really didn't know anything about Ethiopian cuisine except that they grew wonderful coffee beans. Anyway, I'm very glad that I tried Blue Nile because Ethiopian food is delicious!
I had the Nile combo, which includes a meat dish and 3 vegetable dishes for takeout. When she gave me the box, it was quite heavy! It came with 2 rounds of injera bread. One was used to line the box and one was placed on top of the meat and veggies. It was a lot of food! I couldn't eat it all in one sitting and the leftovers lasted for about 2 more meals. It was very tasty with all of the different items seasoned just right. I had the Siga Wet (Beef), Shiro Wet, Tikil Gommon, And Yatakilt Wet. Check out their menu. The combo is definitely enough for at least 2 people. Here are some pictures of my first meal from Blue Nile:
When you open the box, it looks like this.
The beef and vegetables are under the injera bread.
Everything was seasoned perfectly. Plenty of injera bread to scoop it all up!
The brown stuff is the Siga Wet (beef).
The veggies (bottom right) is Yatakilt Wet.
I'm not sure this is the right way to scoop
but it sure tastes good!
Anyway, try this place! They do take-out and your food will be ready very quickly. If you're going to the new Whole Foods in JP, Blue Nile is on the other side of the rotary so you can just pick up some takeout on the way home.
Another place to get Ethiopian food:
A couple of months ago, I was at the South End Food Emporium and was tempted to buy a package of injera bread. However, there were a
lot of them in one package and I wasn't sure I could eat all of them so I just bought some green Ethiopian coffee beans and went home. Now that I know that I like injera bread, I'll probably go buy a package of it at the South End Food Emporium the next time I'm there to buy more green coffee beans (they have roasted beans too). Injera bread can be used to scoop up anything resembling a thick stew or dip.
I need more practice...
This is when I had to stop eating because I was full!
Now that the Poor Student has made 6 videos for the Scootin' in Boston series, we now have a reason to make a Youtube playlist. If you'd like to keep up with this series but don't want to subscribe to anything, just bookmark this page and watch the playlist below whenever you'd like. However, the Poor Student will continue to make individual blog posts to give more details about each video and a map that you can look at while you're watching the video.
In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, the Poor Student rides the Hammond Parkway and West Roxbury Parkway from Chestnut Hill to Roslindale, MA. We go through four rotaries and the speed limit changes a few times. It's a nice ride. Here's the map. Start on Beacon Street and go south.
In this episode of Scootin' in Boston, the Poor Student starts from Harvard Avenue & Route 9 and rides all the way to Waltham via St. Paul Street and Route 20.
