After a year and a half of being a Bostonian, these are my favorite things in Boston

Food:
1. Anna’s Tacqueria – This place absolutely never disappoints. You can get a fantastic bean and rice burrito for under $5. The service is fast, the ingredients are fresh, and the servers don’t speak English. I do not have enough good things to say about this place. You can find Anna’s at Coolidge Corner, Winchester St/Summit Ave., the MIT student center, and Davis Square. There may be more, but I haven’t found them yet.
2. Union Bar and Grille – I ate an appetizer here that I will never forget: Salad of mixed tender lettuces with shaved fennel with radicchio, cucumber, and sheep’s milk cheese. It may have been the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. This place is in the swanky South End.
3. Asmara – I had never had Ethiopian food before, and I ended up enjoying it. You sit around a big wicker table thing and eat with your fingers by picking up food with little pieces of soft, flat bread. My friends say the bread has the consistency of human skin; I guess I go that feeling, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. A fairly inexpensive place in Central Square.

Close calls: Fajitas ‘n’ ‘Ritas near Park Street, Mike’s in Davis Square, RedBones in Davis Square

Bars:
1. The Publick House – This is a bar right down the street from my house in Washington Square. There is a three-page beer menu and they have imports from all over the world and have a great selection of microbrews from all over the country. You can get sampler paddles with four half pints and cheese boards that feature a wedge of imported cheese, homemade mustard, bread, and mini pickles.
2. People’s Republic – This is a Soviet-themed bar between Harvard and Central Squares. Darts in the corner, hammer and sickles all over the place, and a slightly unsettling lack of windows really brings the place together.
3. The Burren – An Irish bar in Davis Square. On any given night you can hear local musicians and Irish immigrants playing authentic music in the corner in one of the booths. I also saw a homeless guy play the guitar and sing in a (more) drunk-sounded Tom Waits style. It was pretty awesome.

Close calls: Grendel’s Den in Harvard Square, Shay’s Pub and Wine Bar in Harvard Square

Outdoor Spots:
1. The Public Gardens – It’s just a nice place to walk around. The swans and the swan boats make me smile.
2. The bank of the Charles by the Esplanade– I sit here and watch the boats on warm days. One windy day I saw three people fall in the water and one boat capsize.
3. The Harbor Walk – Every time I walk out here on a warm day there is an extravagant wedding going on. More than half the time, the groom is a sailor. I always want to sing “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).”

Close calls: Boston Common, Beacon Hill

Tourist Spots:
1. The Top of the Hub – There’s nothing like seeing the city from fifty stories up! It really helps show how messed up the city layout of Boston is. There is also a bar up there that makes very strong gin and tonics.
2. The Boston Aquarium – One word: Penguins
3. The cemeteries downtown – I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved old cemeteries, and the ones in Boston are some of the oldest in the country. John Hancock’s grave is phallic – very, very phallic.

Close calls: MFA, The Freedom Trail

Thinkers:
1. Noam Chomsky – Kinda the be-all-end-all of Boston thinkers. My cognitive science group got him to come talk to us (www.bsocs.org). He’s a very meek and timid man when you meet him, but when he gets up to speak, he is totally willing to call you stupid in front of two hundred people – one of my friends got it bad from him. He wears his jeans hiked up very, very high.
2. Steven Pinker – He’s another big guy in language from Boston. He just wrote a book called “The Stuff of Thought” which deals with profanity, sexual language, and innuendo. He gave a talk at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square and said every dirty word I had ever heard in my life, and then some.
P.S., Tabernacle is the worst swear word you can say in Quebec according to Pinker. Can anyone verify this?
3. Dan Dennett – A philosopher at Tufts who looks like Santa Claus. I’m not a hundred percent in love with his particular views, but he seems like a guy who you could go have a beer with. I shook his hand at a conference – he has a firm shake for an old guy, much firmer than Chomsky’s.

Close calls: Ray Jackendoff at Tufts, Daniel Wegner at Harvard