a digital scrapbook

So another thing Angie and I did during our trip to Boston last month was go on a sort of food tour. Here are a few of our findings. Let’s start with dessert!

Prior to our trip, a colleague of mine shared with me this Boston Bakery blog entry highlighting the spots to hit in Boston. This made things easy. Our first stop was to Mike’s Pastries in Little Italy to have their cannolonis. Needless to say, they were wonderful. Just big, lush with filling and crunchy on the outside. We later came back to order more at the end of our trip. Next time, I’ll have to check out Modern, but my first Boston cannoli was a success.

The following day we went in search sticky buns in the South End. Rumor had it that these were the sticky buns that beat out Bobby Flay’s in a showdown and we were not disappointed.

What was equally notable was the bakery itself. Flour Bakery just had a great neighborhood vibe, I wanted to just pick a table and hang out there all day… eating pastries.

More toward the end of our trip we went out looking for the original Boston Cream Pie. I think this was my favorite dessert find. I suppose since it was the original, I was expecting something quite ordinary, that was later built upon to be the Boston Cream pie I know today (often in the form of ice cream at Coldstone). But I was so so wrong in the best way.

This is quite possibly the best little dessert I’ve ever had. I’m not much of a cake person, but I love Boston Cream Pie and this was the best. The presentation alone was gorgeous. I honestly could have eaten two.

Boston bakery tour success! Some other non-dessert mentions:

We used Yelp to find this place. And after two subway transfers, walking over a bridge and through a construction site, we found this seafood store where you can buy lobster rolls and um, eat them in the parking lot. The good news… it was worth it. I don’t think I’ve had a meatier seafood sandwich, let alone lobster. I actually attempted to get more bread with each bite but my mouth would quick fill up with lobster. Highly recommended. It will change your view on lobster rolls.

Then there was Atlantic Fish as we were really jonesin’ for seafood during our stay. Here’s my travel buddy Angie with her amazing entree:

And finally, the best Italian meal of my life was at Giacomo’s in Little Italy. We showed up five minutes before opening to wait outside in line and scored the very last table in the house. I love it when something as simple as pasta can taste so good.

Apparently I happened to order what Rachel Ray ordered when she was there: pumpkin tortellini. Go figure.

Anyway, so besides reveling in American history, we had a pretty good time sampling the local fare. Trying food is one of my favorite parts of traveling. Pretty awesome that it was such a focus for us while we were there. Now where to next!

I just finished uploading my photos from Boston. This is Angie at Bunker Hill. We were pretty tuckered out by the time we reached here, slightly underestimating the trek to Charlestown ha! In any case, it was neat to visit but challenging to imagine that a battle took place in this seemingly ordinary park.

Maybe this helps?

In the end, I was happy to get my National Historic Site stamp once we visited the museum across the street.

Also note Ang’s Dunkin Donuts coffee. That’s the one thing I miss here on the west coast. The rumors are true, it’s good stuff.

Here are my favorite photos Ryan shot during our visit to Taronga Zoo:

Whatchu lookin’ at?

This was definitely one of my favorite days in Australia. The platypus was especially thrilling to see since it was my favorite animal as a kid and I had never seen one in-person. Unfortunately, we have no platypus photos since he was exceptionally fast underwater. (Though in retrospect, I should have taken a photo of Ryan running around the aquarium trying to catch him.) In any case, what an amazing zoo!