Just back from Boston...gotta love that city! Mike flew in from Portland (Oregon) and me from sunny SoCal for our annual trip to the Boston Marathon. No.... I'm not the one running it. The nor'easter kicked our @$#%!'s but we still managed to have a great time. Luckily most of the bad weather hit the night before and the day after the race. In the meantime....we filled in the blanks with some incredible food. Mike and I are passionate fans of the 'hole in the wall', the 'little guy', the 'OMG, I can't believe this place isn't packed every hour of the day' kind of place. Well, we hit em!
Our favorite part of town in the North End. It's got history, phenomenal food and a very cool vibe. The one spot we've got to hit...no exceptions, is Cibo (twice as a matter of fact!). We started with fried calamari, but what makes this one especially good are the slices of pickled peppers that are fried along with them. Just enough of a tangy hot kick to finish off each bite. I really like that they serve the marinara dipping sauce warm. Ever get fried calamari served with cold sauce? We ordered the following dishes (on different nights), all of which were incredible: Caprese Salad, Pan fried Italian Greens (INSANE!), Linguine Carbonara, Pollo Parmesan & Ribbon Pasta served with spicy shrimp & scallops in a wine sauce. Bread...wine.......ahhhhhhhhhh. 
On to our fav follow up, Caffe Vittoria where we order up a Caffe Mocha,Caffe Latte and a Cannoli (chocolate dipped please!) for Mike this is a must. The nice guy in this pic is the head Barista. Friendly enough but he is serious about his work. Once you taste his caffe, you'd know what I mean. Did I already say 'ahhhhhhhhh' ?!
Tuesday, while looking at my carefully written directions to find Flour Bakery we got lost. I don't get it?! Well...in true 'Deb' style, I had written directions down for a completely different restaurant, Sorriso. Time for lunch? We started off with a wonderful Split Pea Soup with barley and panchetta. Then Mike ordered a Pizza Margherita with Fennel Sausage added. Straight from their brick pizza oven and very tasty. I had the Chicken, Pesto, Arugula & Tomato sandwich. Again, very good but served on Foccia and was a little more bread than I like (too filling). For me, Boston presents some challenges. How can I walk away from the sure bets we love so much in the North End, while balancing it out with the multitude of other much deserved establishments? Next year....
Eat up!
