Hello! Sherry here. Just returned from a trip to the Boston area and thought I'd put up a few pictures and reviews of good eats (mostly seafood!) from the only three spots written on my food list for this trip.
Boston's North End is a great Italian neighborhood filled with great food. At Giacomo's Ristorante, be prepared to wait for 0.5-1hr on a Friday evening. Others seem to be drawn to this place because supposedly Rachael Ray visited this spot, but we went because the 900+ Yelp reviews told us this is a must-visit for good pasta.
I got the ziti with chicken, shrimp, and pesto cream sauce (left). Good fresh pasta, but really nothing too special. I regret not trying something different (pumpkin tortellini, perhaps?). My mister friend got the butternut squash ravioli, which seems to be one of the popular dishes here. The squash gave it a really nice sweet flavor, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I did my own.
Although we were here for pasta, we left the restaurant raving about their calamari instead. I never thought I'd had much to say about calamari, but this is really one of the best we've ever had. The breading was so light, yet flavorful, it basically melts in your mouth. The squid itself was cooked perfectly. Amazing!
Great, decently priced, little restaurant. Despite the many reviews, I have an inkling that this isn't the best Italian spot in Boston, so we might have to seek out more in the future. A few other suggestions if you're ever in the North End: Neptune's Oyster, Taranta, and one of the cannoli shops (Mike's, Modern's, Maria's).
We went on a 2.5hr drive out to Cape Cod for lobster (and other activities, of course)! Lucky us for going to Moby Dick's in Wellfleet for early lunch. On our way home, we saw long lines and crowds for dinner.
Seafood gumbo (left) is seafood gumbo - a tasty start to a seafoodie meal. The clams (right) are their local Monomoy Island steamers with butter and clam broth as dips. We have several opinions on the clams here: I thought they were mildly sweet, but retained too much grit and sand (I like clams), Stephen thought they were disgusting (he hates clams), and a neighboring diner were raving about them after each bite. If you like fresh seafood, it's probably worth a try.
Delicious, fresh lobster! Need I say more? Cost is around $22 for 1.25lb lobster and corn, ~$28 for the clam bake, which includes a 1.25lb lobster, corn, baked potato, and the Monomoy steamers.
Quick recap of Cape Cod: This is a beautiful area and worth the drive out if you want to do more than just visit Boston. Cape Cod is known for many things: lighthouses, sand dunes, whale watching (we missed out!), and seafood, of course, with numerous beaches and nice trails for biking. I only know as much as a night's worth of research, but I'm sure there's much to learn about this spot. Afterall, this is where the Pilgrims first settled in, so Cape Cod is rich with historical facts. We visited Provincetown (they call it "P-town") all the way at the tip (see map), which is a really fun and awesome place - highlight of our trip!
Lastly, this is Muqueca in Cambridge, a Brazilian restaurant, serving up some great seafood stew. I visited this about two summers ago, and loved it so much I made my own muqueca stew for Father's Day.
No photos of the menu or "Muqueca sign," so please admire this piece of fish wall art.
Appetizer - coconut shrimp. Tasty, crunchy shrimp, but we didn't quite like the thick batter with coconut flakes, especially not after the fantastic calamari at Giacomo's.
Fish and shrimp muqueca. This stew comes with rice, extra side of the fish broth, and yucca flour to sprinkle on top. Delicious and oh-so-flavorful.
Stephen got the Mariscada, which includes shrimp, crab meat, mussels in a coconutty based broth, which made it richer in flavor and fragrance. So, so delicious!
Muqueca also offers very yummy fresh fruit smoothies from their juice bar! There are plenty of other items we'd want to try, but until next time....I'm sure Ngoc will return with some delicious food from Brazil!
So you got the $22 lobster deal instead of the $28 lobster deal? What was the decision on that? Was it cause it was too much food? Was that ravioli filling enough? I tend to stay away from ravioli's at restaurants cause you usually only get a few of them.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I got the $22, and Stephen got the $28 lobster deal. I think it was just the right amount of food. Ravioli was filling enough, especially since it's so rich with cheese and butter/oil. They also had a bunch of appetizers that looked good if you want more filler food.
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