Everyone who has been to Boston (and paid attention) knows that there is a rule in the North End - "Eat, preferably until you're so sick you cannot eat anything more. Then, burp so you can eat some more."
The North End is the Italian section of Boston. It's known for its food and pastries. There's a restaurant I've been to on each prior trip to Boston. I didn't take a picture of it as when I took Mark there on his first trip this last month, it sucked. I conferred with friends in town and they said the same thing. The restaurant lost it's spark. Which is really sad as it was truly fantastic. So, morale of the story is that finding a restaurant in the North End doesn't mean you've found a good one.
However, we did find this place on our last day in Boston and it was divine. As in so good it's worth the plane tickets to just go back and eat there. It's that good.
Mark wouldn't let me take pictures of our food. He said I was a weirdo. I felt like a dork taking this picture (thanks to his censure) so I didn't go to the Gelateria next door (which the restaurant owners also own). They claim to make their own gelato (most places in the North End import theirs from Italy which is a bit of a sin in my book as gelato is best very fresh), so I likely missed out.
But back to the food - it was a chilly and icky October day so I ordered something that is a very rare find in Texas - osso buco. It's basically a large piece of bone-in veal flank that has been slowly cooked in a tomato-based sauce. Kinda like a whole meat Italian stew. They served it over a bed of saffron risotto, which was a bit undercooked. I wasn't a fan of the risotto by itself, but with the veal and sauce, it was incredible. The blend of the flavors was fantastic. And, the veal, as it should be is osso buco, was fall off of the bone tender. The portion was also insanely large, so I could only finish about half of it. Had I not thought the TSA would give me hell for bringing it on the plane, I would have taken the rest home.
Mark got a daily special of squid ink pasta (also called black pasta) with a tomato and garlic sauce and fruiti di mare (assorted fish). The pasta was homemade. he pasta had kind of an earthy, yet under the sea, taste. The sauce was light yet creamy and full bodied. The fruiti di mare included mussels, clams, shrimp, and some additional fish. I'm not a big fish person, but I really and truly had to fight stealing his plate from him. It was that good. My mouth is watering just thinking of it. I liked it even more than the squid ink pasta (that had a squid ink sauce) that I had in Venice in 1997. Heck, I liked it a lot more than that; that was a bit much.
The one downside to this restaurant (besides that it's not in Dallas) was that they do not serve tap water. Is that authentic Italian? Annoyingly, yes. However, even in Italy you can get tap water at most places if you ask in Italian. Here, not so much. However, the bottled water wasn't unreasonably priced for a restaurant, the food was fantastic, the bread basket they brought (a mixture of a peasant style loaf and focaccia) was divine, and the food, oh God the food, was absolutely incredible. And, the waiter suggested a wine that was not on his glass list that went perfectly with my osso buco. And, he did it by the glass. Great food and service makes it a total foodie find.
Comments