This final post of “The Borders of Boston” takes us through our M.Arch thesis project, the synthesis of our months of exploring, eating, volunteering, and reflecting. ‘A taste of home’ is a thesis that explores the food landscape in Boston through the lens of the immigrant experience.

In this post, the authors each sought out volunteering opportunities with local free food provision organizations to see first-hand a different kind of border many people across the city encounter—that of food scarcity.

The excitement of the nearing mid-autumn festival thrums streets away from the Boylston T Stop. As one moves west from Boston Commons, there is a sense that another world is nearby. The buildings huddle closer to each other, and crouch shorter to open up their front windows. Tables emerge on sidewalks, ushering passerby through a maze of bright red banners and stringing lanterns that guides one to the gate of Boston’s famed Chinatown.

Nothing exposes you more quickly to another culture as stepping into an ethnic grocery market. From Vietnamese to Ethiopian to Colombian supermarkets, these stores scattered throughout Boston offer such a variety of food products most Boston residents would never see otherwise.

In our visits to restaurants, we have entered homes and crossed borders to taste food from across the world. However, for as many places as there are with those that offer food, there is equally as high a number of places where people cannot even afford food. In this piece, we explore the food provisional institutions, Project Restore Us & Food For Free, in their respective missions to bring food to all.

On a grey Wednesday afternoon, Carol-Anne and I, Ana, took the bus down Mt Auburn St into Watertown, to visit Tabrizi Bakery owned by Mohammad Tabrizi. The store is famous for its Persian cookies. We tasted nazok, papion, zaban, and rice flour cookies, among others. They all have a subtle, soft sweetness with hints of cardamon.

Five miles east in Somerville is The Neighborhood Restaurant. On a sunny summer afternoon, I sat down in the vine-covered outdoor patio that defines the restaurant’s dining experience. Before even sitting down with me, the owner, Sheila Borges, served me a bowl of The Neighborhood’s famous cream of wheat. It’s a warm, sweet and creamy porridge with a rich taste of cinnamon.

Their restaurants are where they can call upon their old worlds to bring comfort not only for themselves, but to others who crave a “taste of home”.