A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

Ever since I found this place, I’m addicted. I first heard about this place when someone, and I’m sorry I can’t remember who, mentioned it on twitter. This place is right around the corner, how could I have missed it all these years? Located at 1345 Boylston Street near Fenway Park, in an old gas station, is Marhsall’s. There is ample parking, EXCEPT on Red Sox game days-when the rent out the parking spots in the driveway and don’t like you parking there for the farm stand. They are open 7 days a week from 9:30am-8pm.You will find them sort of across the street from the Star Market on Boylston near the Landmark Center. When I stop over here, I can barely control myself, they always have such fresh produce, and a variety of specialty goods.

I love it in the summertime, the berries are excellent, the strawberries in particular-they’re HUGE!! I was stopping by for them at least twice a week this summer. So good with lemon curd or fresh whipped cream, and so good that they taste good on their own. They also have blueberries, black berries and raspberries. Love blueberries on vanilla ice cream, thrown on some good quality maple syrup and you are good to go!

They have pasta sauces, ice cream, baked goods, cookies, and a huge selection of frozen goods. Things here are on the pricey side-but well worth it. I like the frozen asparagus raviolis.

My favorite thing at Marshall’s would have to be Batch ice cream. They have been featured in the Improper Bostonian, but I had had some before I even saw that write up. This ice cream is excellent, made from good quality ingredients-I love the vanilla bean and the salted caramel…(I may or may not be salivating as I am writing this, just thinking about their ice cream). Stop by any of the places that sell Batch (find out where on their blog) and you’ll be hooked!

Here are the flavors:

Chocolate – Deep, dark(ish), and well, we are not sure if ice cream can be handsome, but we do think it’s a nice color too.  We’re not talking about solely using cocoa powder here, which is what you get with those big boy ice cream makers.  We take a dark chocolate and melt that together with cocoa powder to produce that deep, smooth chocolate flavor.

Coffee – We didn’t choose a coffee cup for this flavor’s icon on our containers for no reason. This tastes like real coffee because we use REAL COFFEE BEANS that are freshly ground, not instant coffee, like others do.  Neither bitter nor super sweet, we think this ice cream could be used when you find there’s no coffee in the house and you’re still in your PJs.  No really, we’re serious.

Salted Caramel – Yes, salt in ice cream, but just a teeny bit.  You know, that sweet and salt thing.  This is it, and it is luscious – with its caramel base and salted caramel swirl, which we make by hand using sea salt and butter from Maine.

Cinnamon & Chocolate Bits – On a trip to India a few years back, we learned that toasting spices like cinnamon brings out the flavor more.  That’s exactly what we do with our cinnamon sticks during the preparation of this ice cream. Instead of using traditional chocolate chips, we use an Italian method to produce the delicate chocolate bits that simply melt in your mouth.  We think these techniques make this ice cream stand out from the pack.

Vanilla Bean – This isn’t that vanilla ice cream you last had with that cake with blue frosting. We use plump, organic vanilla beans and absolutely no extract to produce an ice cream that tastes homemade.  The specks in here are the real deal – seeds from the beans that we split open by hand when producing this ice cream.

Mocha Chip – Coffee and chocolate together – does it get any better?  Coffee, chocolate, and red wine?  Nah, wouldn’t work, so we throw in chunks of hand chopped chocolate instead, which we think is a good second option.

Marshall’s Fenway

1345 Boylston Street Boston MA

617 375-6100

http://www.marshallsfenway.com/