Lunch in the North End with the Family!

Hello! I hope that everyone had a great Father's Day. My grandfather flew down from New Jersey Saturday morning and is staying until Thursday. We picked up my grandfather (Nonno, which is grandfather in Italian) and headed to the North End. As you may have guessed the North End is one of our favorite neighborhoods in Boston. We were planning on going to Quattro (which Mom and I went to last summer), but there was an hour wait. The five of us then walked down the block to Ristorante Fiore, which we had never been to. We sat on the roof deck and browsed through the menu.

Mom and I chose to split an arugula salad with lemon juice and shaved parmesan. It was a perfect light start to a carb based meal. 

Both Dad and Nonno got the arancini (rice balls) stuffed with sausage and cheese. They both loved it, and I was happy to sample some of Dad's!

While we waited for our entrées to arrive (which took longer than we had anticipated) we discussed some of the work that Mom and I have been doing tracing our family tree. We have since worked on it, and now the tree has 140 people on it dating back to 1837. It has been a lot of fun and I can't wait to find out more about our family!

Emma ate spaghetti and meatballs! Classic and delicious.

I chose the Maccaroni al Forno. An amazing mixture of rigatoni pasta with spicy sausage and goat cheese. It was huge and I could not finish it all!

Mom got the Penne al Pollo, which had artichoke hearts, chicken, cherry tomatoes, in a light cream sauce. Like mine it was huge and she could not finish it, but she loved it nonetheless.

Lastly, Dad and Nonno got the gnocchi with sausage and mushrooms. I'm not a big fan of either gnocchi or mushrooms, but I got to say that it was pretty good! Not something that I would order for myself. 

Even after all of that we could not say no to dessert! Mom, Nonno, and I got cappuccino, while Dad got his usual double espresso. We got two tiramisus to split between the four of us (Emma does not like tiramisu) and it was so good! I love tiramisu. I have made it many times and I have had it at many restaurants. My french host mother even made me a speculoos tiramisu! Out of all of those tiramisus, this one is in the top five. It had a really good coffee flavor, that can be lost with the mascarpone filling and chocolate.

We then walked by the harbor before heading back home! All in all another very successful meal in the North End.

See you next time,

Kara

Shopping and Dinner in the North End!

Hello everyone! I know that it has been a while but I want to get back into the blogging groove. I'm so happy that Summer is here and that the sun is shining (on most days). Living in Massachusetts has been good, although I miss my friends from Florida and D.C.. Two weekends ago Mom, Dad and I went into Boston for some shopping (well the shopping was for Mom and I) and eat at one of my favorite Italian restaurants in the North End.

Once we got into Boston, we wandered through an arts market just as it was about to end. I wish we had gotten there sooner, but we still had the chance to look at some beautiful jewelry.

Me helping Dad with geocaching

We also bought some amazing smelling candles from a Boston-based business called Fifth & Madison. We got three candles: Molokai (Sea Salt, Gardenia, and White Musk) for Mom, Cosmopolitan (Pomegranate and Grapefruit) for Emma, and Spa Water (Rosemary and Eucalyptus) for me. They are nice and light summer scents!

While Dad waited in Quincy Market, Mom and I perused through Ann Taylor Loft where I got two shirts and a pair of sunglasses. We then walked down to the North End to go through the store Lit where I got a cute dress. 

We had dinner at a new restaurant on Hanover St called Parla. I ate here last summer with Mom, which you can read about here. Now this is not your typical Italian restaurant with spaghetti and meatballs or pizza. They change their menu on a regular basis, so you can always try something new. We got beef carpaccio and grilled polenta to start. Both were yummy, but I liked the polenta more because beef carpaccio is not really my thing.

For the main course Mom had the roasted duck breast with carrots and sweet potato purée. She loved it and let everyone have a try. I love duck and I would definitely get that again.

Dad got the most interesting dish: a ramen "carbonara." Just like it sounds, it was a mix between ramen soup with spaghetti carbonara. He really liked it and it showcased how different Parla is from the other restaurants in the North End.

I ate the seafood pasta dish with haddock, scallops, shrimp, mussels and clams. While it was not the most adventurous thing on the menu nor my favorite seafood pasta, it was still pretty yummy. I'm not a huge fan of haddock but the rest of the seafood was perfectly cooked and sauce was delicious.

We had to get Mike's Pastries for desserts just because. I've never had Modern Pastry, but I will always go to Mike's to get a chocolate chip cannoli. 

My parents and I had a great time going to Quincy Market and the North End. They are two of my favorite places to go in Boston and I have fond memories of them both. Since we live here, however, I cannot wait to explore new areas of Boston and try other restaurants. Any suggestions?

See you next time,

Kara

Food, Biking, and TFIOS

Sorry that I haven’t posted lately . . . I was busy and I wasn’t motivated to blog. I need to find more motivation to do this. But enough with this, on with what I did last week!

On Tuesday I was supposed to go on a photography tour of Beacon Hill, but it was canceled. Instead I stayed at home and watched Game of Thrones, which I am obsessed with now. Mom came home early and we decided to go down to Boston to take a walk and eat dinner. We walked around the Greenway from Faneuil Hall, pass the Aquarium and to the end.

Then we went to the North End for dinner. When Mom and I go to the North End, we always try to go to new restaurants. This time we went to Parla, a new restaurant on Hanover Street. The menu has really interesting choices and I would really recommend it. It was intimate and unique and yummy.

For an appetizer, we had the boar meatballs with tomato sauce.

My entrée was quail egg carbonara and Mom got the striped bass with Israeli couscous.

On Wednesday I did a bike tour with Urban AdvenTours. The tour I did was the City View tour, which was about three hours long and covered ten miles. We went from the North End to Beacon Hill to Fenway Park to the MFA to the Aquarium. It was a lot of fun and a good way to get out of the house. Our guide was really knowledgeable and I want to do other bike tours in other cities.

After that, I met up with Mom at Quincy Market and we went to Wagamama for dinner. I have loved Wagamama since I went their location in Convent Garden in London last year. It’s fast, yummy, healthy Japanese food. We got the steamed dumplings to share, and then I got the miso beef ramen and Mom got the Crunchy Mango Salmon. All of them were great!

Thursday night I went to see The Fault in Our Stars during the special “Night Before Our Stars” event. I got a special poster and bracelet, and after the movie there was a live-streamed Q&A with the writer of the novel (John Green), the stars (Shaliene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and Nat Wolff), the producer (Wyck Godfrey) and the director (Josh Boone). The movie itself was beautiful, heart breaking and hilarious. The book is amazing and I recommend that you read it before watching the film adaptation. It is about cancer, but it is not a cancer book/film.

Friday was spent recovering from getting home after midnight the night before. I slept in and watched more Game of Thrones and made a quesadilla. When Mom came home from work, we decided to make some homemade lobster rolls using cooked lobster, mayonnaise, celery, green onions, and tarragon. I didn’t take any pictures because I was too hungry that night to take any! It was so good and satisfying!

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow with my weekend adventure!