A Casual Tuesday in Salem

My love for Salem is no secret. I dreamed of living in the Witch City ever since I was a budding little teenage witchling back in Brazil, and now after 13 years of living here, I still fall in love with Salem every day.

Jacob and I have a routing for podcast recording days: we meet at the shop, record our episode, then go for a walk and have lunch. So here’s a behind the scenes look at our afternoon after recording Episode 14 of From Salem with Love!

Our special hangout spot is the Garden at the Ropes Mansion, which makes for a beautiful walk across town from the waterfront. We strolled down the pedestrian mall and got to peek at this new art installation by the Peabody Essex Museum. Artist Konstantin Dimopoulos installed these as part of Earth Day, along with similar installations around the world to bring attention to trees in our surroundings and foster a conversation on deforestation.

View down the Pedestrian Mall at Essex Street

Along the way is Lappin Park, a small park right in the heart of Salem, home to an adorable Little Free Library and the ever-controversial Bewitched Statue (remember that time the city hired us to dress up Samantha and someone called the cops on us?)

Note all the tourists gathering around the Samantha statue!

We picked up some lunch to go at The Juicery, which opened its Salem location just a couple of years ago. It was actually my first time there! Salem has lots of amazing places to eat, and I admit I haven’t tried all of them yet. I ordered the Dragon Berry Bowl and it’s deceptively large!

With our goodies in hand, we walked on to the Ropes Mansion, passing the much loved Witch House on the way (the official name is the Jonathan Corwin house, but nobody calls it that). I take a picture pretty much every time I pass it. The Ropes Mansion was famously used as the character Allison’s house in the movie Hocus Pocus (which they screen every October in Salem Common, one of my favorite fall activities).

It’s early in the season, so the flowers haven’t grown in yet. Stay tuned for more photos later in the summer!

We enjoyed our lunch on a bench at the garden, and said hello to passing dogs. Afterwards, I walked Jacob home, down the Pedestrian Mall again and passing the Salem Common on the way.

I hope you’ve enjoyed joining us for our afternoon in our beloved Witch City!

Where to Eat in Salem: Passage to India

Part of our new Visiting the Witch City series, in our Where to Eat in Salem posts, I will be sharing some of our favorite restaurants, and visiting new ones to tell you all about it!

This week, Cathy and I visited one of my longtime favorite restaurants in Salem, Passage to India. Affectionally called “Passage,” this family-owned authentic Indian restaurant is right in the heart of downtown - in fact they’re right across the street from our friends at Hauswitch on Washington Street! Downtown Salem is very pedestrian-friendly, so it’s super easy to get to this restaurant

The menu has something for everyone. There are extensive vegetarian and gluten-free options, and they’re all delicious! There are also several vegan options.

We started with paneer pakora, which I always order when I visit Indian restaurants - so far, Passage has my favorite. They are made with stuffed homemade cottage cheese slices, and fried in chickpea batter.

For the main course, we shared chicken tikka masala (always a favorite), and matter paneer. Matter paneer is a classic northern Indian dish made with homemade cottage cheese pieces cooked with peas and spices. Note: when I say spices, I mean flavor not pepper! This is not a spicy “hot” dish.

Cathy wearing her From the Embers shawl!

Delicious!

Passage has been a favorite of mine for over a decade, I highly recommend adding this restaurant to your itinerary when you visit Salem!

Bonus: there is booth seating available, which makes this restaurant super knitter-friendly! Just tuck your project bag next to you in the booth.