Hobbling on the Cobble: A Food Tour of Boston’s North End

Spurred on by a request from a dear friend who now calls Boston home, I am finally sharing my tasty food tour of Boston’s North End – the bustling quaint Italian mecca of the city. She wrote to me asking what food shops to visit this weekend while showing a friend around the charming North End. I could have taken the easy way out and just emailed her the names of the shops we visited, but after all the city endured last week, I thought more effort was warranted, even mandatory.

Last November, I travelled with a close friend who is a food fanatic of similar insanity to me, who procured the tickets for a walking food tour of Boston’s North End. BEFORE I BROKE MY FOOT!

Yes, conveniently, during the first week of November, I broke a small bone in my right foot. No cast, just a boot and strict instructions not to overdo it. Ummm – would walking around for three hours on uneven cobblestone streets and crumbling sidewalks be overdoing it? Without mentioning a word of this to @dormantchef, who most certainly would have disapproved, I told Sharon we were not changing our plans. As long as the weather was dry, why waste a perfectly lovely morning in Boston?

And the rest is delectable food history that I will share with you via my iPhone photos below. With a broken foot, I travelled light – leaving a free hand to catch myself if necessary. So one-handed iPhone shots are my photo-journalistic medium for this post.

Boston's North End led by Boston Food Tours

The tour was led by Kris Piatt, one of many talented tour guides employed by Boston Food Tours. She was personable, knowledgeable, and just a delight to spend three hours with while we ate and walked our way around the North End. I would, without hesitation, recommend her and Boston Food Tours if you have a chance to visit the city and learn about its gastronomic marvels.

Now let’s amble through the tour in the order we walked that day.

We started with a bit of history of the North End, which is only one square mile of land located very close to the waterfront. The area’s rich history includes Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants. Read more about the North End’s history here.

Maria's Pastry Shop

From there, we walked a short block to Maria’s Pastry Shop, an unadorned small store with busy bakers briskly preparing gorgeous treats that line the walls of the shop. One of their most well-known pastries is the Sflogiatelle, a clam shell flaky pastry filled with cheese and citrus fruit. The Lobster Tail is a close cousin filled with vanilla mouse cream. We were each given a small plate with tastes of several of their best-known selections including their well-loved marzipan.

DePasquale's Pasta Shop

After whetting our appetites with pastries, we stuck with the p-words and moved on to DePasquale’s Pasta Shop. There we learned about the proper way to cook pasta, tasted olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and discovered the fabulous bread of the Bricco Panetteria, also in the North End. DePasquale’s is stocked with almost anything you might need to make an authentic Italian dinner. Though it’s a small shop, I could spend a long while in there browsing each unique house-made and imported food product they sell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polcari's Coffee

From there, we I hobbled over to Polcari’s Coffee – an adorable old-fashioned grocery that stocks bulk herbs, spices, and all sorts of interesting ingredients including chestnut flour, Nutella imported from Italy (there is a difference and I wrote it about here), and over 50 different extracts for baking! While inside, Kris taught us about the two different kinds of pine nuts and cinnamon, details I was not familiar with before that day.

Pine nuts from Italy (on the left) are the ones pictured without the little dark spot at the end. The others are likely from China. The ones from China are cheaper but are known to cause many people to have a horrible after taste that lasts for DAYS on end. Who knew?

And the cinnamon – the one with layers of bark showing is true cinnamon or Ceylon cinnamon. The other is Cassia which is sometimes referred to as Chinese cinnamon or Saigon cinnamon. Both types are in the same genus and family of plants, but the health benefits associated with cinnamon are found in Ceylon cinnamon, not Cassia. When you buy cinnamon powder, you often cannot tell the source – Ceylon or Cassia. But the only “true” cinnamon, is the Ceylon variety.

And finally I learned that Nutella made in Italy has less added fat and sugar so I bought a jar to take home for a taste test – which you can read about here.

Alba's Produce

After squeezing into that delightful little store, we moved on to an even smaller market that sells produce called Alba’s. We could only go inside in shifts, it’s so small, but it is known widely for its fresh fruit and vegetables, which as in Paris, you do not touch yourself. You point at what you want, and they select and bag it for you. Also, there is no sign and no telephone, just the way the store was when it opened.

Monica's Mercato

From there, we headed over to Monica’s Mercato, which is filled with appetizing deli items to gather for an antipasto plate, cheese plate, or various pantry staples needed for traditional Italian cooking. How about canned cherry tomatoes? I shop in a lot of grocery stores from large to small and specialized but have never seen cherry tomatoes in a can. Wow. Along with their Mercato location, Monica’s has two restaurants – a Trattoria and a Wine Bar. I wouldn’t hesitate to visit either one after tasting their tempting treats at Monica’s Mercato.

V. Cirace's Wine and Spirits

Hobbling at this point from the weight of my full stomach and my broken foot, we headed over for our last stop at a wine and spirits store called V. Cirace’s. Luckily, they had a chair for me. There, we learned about the traditional drinks served with an Italian meal starting with a light aperitif such as Campari with a splash of soda and lime, moving on to wine of which there are over 1000 varietals from Italy and finally an after-the-meal digestivo such as grappa or a liqueur such as limoncello, made in the southern region of Italy where lemons grow in abundance.

Bricco Panetteria

In case hunger struck us before dinner, we sought out the Bricco Panetteria storefront (the bread we tasted in DePasquale’s), tucked down a narrow alleyway and ventured downstairs to its counter to purchase a loaf of bread for snacking on later in the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every labored step was worth it for the rich taste of Boston history and food lore that Kris and the North End eagerly and eloquently shared with us that day.

Have you visited Boston? If yes, what is your favorite food from the city?