Boston Part Two

On Saturday morning, Eric and I dressed up and got ready for our lunch with Giada DeLaurentiis and the Bella Sera crew. We were finished getting ready about fifteen minutes before the car was supposed to pick us up, and decided to sit down on a bench by the water.

I looked down at my phone and noticed I had missed a call from a few minutes earlier. I called my voicemail and was shocked to hear a message from Giada. She apologized for not being able to make it to the festival, and said she was trying to get back to New York City to be with her family during the hurricane.

No, I didn't cry when I heard the news, but I was very sad and disappointed. Getting to come to Boston is an amazing prize... I'm so happy and grateful for the experience. But what I was really excited for, was cooking with Giada. So I'm not going to lie, I was pretty bummed.

But hey, what can you do? It was nobody's fault. Well, except for Irene's. I don't blame Giada at all for wanting to be with her family in New York. It was just a bad situation for everyone. I know everyone from Bella Sera, and her fans at the festival were excited to see her as well.

And how nice of her to call me! She didn't have to do that! I have a voicemail from Giada DeLaurentiis on my phone right now! My phone allows me to keep voicemails in my archive for thirteen days, but then they get deleted. I'm going to have to save it every thirteen days. ;) Haha.

But guess what? Giada called me back a few minutes later and I got to talk to her on the phone for a little while! I was excited and I'm not even sure what we said to each other, exactly. Mostly just hurricane talk. She was very nice and pleasant on the phone... just like TV!

The car picked Eric and me up, and we went to lunch with people from Bella Sera. We ate at Nebo, an Italian restaurant on Boston's North Side. The chef/owners Carla and Christine Pallotta competed in a lasagna Throwdown with Bobby Flay and won!



Carla and Christine were very nice and had a warm, bubbly personality. I think they made everyone feel right at home in their restaurant. They spent a few minutes talking with me and taking pictures, which was nice of them.



Bella Sera rented out Nebo for our lunch, and Carla and Christine prepared a special family-style meal for everyone.







Cheers!



This meal was incredible. So incredible that I rushed taking pictures just so I could eat all of the food as soon as possible. That's an area I need to work on in food blogging... taking the time to take decent pictures at restaurants.

Olives with rosemary, orange zest and spices.


I'm crazy about olives. I get terribly excited when I get to try different kinds.

Grilled zucchini and eggplant.


Yum. Eggplant is underappreciated.

Prosciutto & burrata with balsamic fig glaze.


This was my first time trying burrata. I'm in love.

Arrosticini - grilled baby lamb skewers with rosemary.


Yum! I didn't know I liked lamb this much.

Arancini - fried rice balls stuffed with porcini mushrooms, mozzarella, drizzled with chestnut honey.


My favorite part of the meal.

Misto Fritto - fried calamari, shrimp, smelt, with Mediterranean aioli.


I wasn't going to try a smelt, but then I thought, what the heck, I might as well. And you know what? It wasn't that bad! I preferred the calamari and shrimp though.

Speck with arugula, goat cheese, and pine nuts.


I didn't really eat enough of this to decide if I liked it or not. I preferred the prosciutto, but this was good too.

Baby clams with lemon-butter.


My first time eating a clam!

Pizza!


Mmm. No words necessary.

The throwdown-winning vegetable lasagna.


This lasagna was incredible. I can't believe it's not made with noodles!

Veal Milanese with arugula, tomato, aioli, and parmigiano.


I can't remember the last time I had veal. This was delicious too!

Ricotta gnocchi.


Not made with potato! Only ricotta cheese and flour. Amazing.

Chicken limone made with artichoke hearts, capers, lemon butter sauce.



What a meal! I ate as much as I possible could. I don't know what I would have done if they served desert. Thank you so much to Bella Sera and Nebo for a wonderful lunch!



Oh, I forgot to mention we drank Bella Sera pinot grigio throughout the meal. It went well with everything we had, too. :)

Eric and I wandered over (or should I say waddled over?) to the tent where I would have cooked with Giada.





At this time, the hurricane started rolling in, and the rain began. We headed back to the hotel to stay out of the rain for a while. When we ventured back to the feast, later in the evening, all off the stands at the festival were completely gone. It was kind of eery. The sky was eery too.



We had dinner at Regina Pizzeria! If you're ever in the Boston area, I recommend it. The pizza was super fresh, flavorful, and served piping hot to us.

We were both very happy with what we ordered.

Eric's pepperoni, jalapeno, onion pizza.



My tomato, basil white pizza. Oh gosh, I love brick oven pizza crust.



Dessert for the evening was more gelato: gianduja and bacio. We love that chocolate-hazelnut combo, as you can see.





I don't have pictures from Sunday, because that's when the hurricane blew through. We camped out in our hotel room and survived on bottles of wine (not Bella Sera because the wine store didn't have any!) and pastries from Mike's. I bought rainbow cookies, a pistachio meringue cookie, peanut butter cannoli and a Boston cream puff. The Boston cream puff was the winner. One of the best things I've ever eaten in my life.


Classy.

When the storm died off, we wandered around Boston to try and find something to do. Unfortunately, everything was closed because of the storm. We did make it to a Whole Foods before we headed home on Monday morning. You know you have a good boyfriend when he takes you to the nearest Whole Foods and snaps a picture of you.



Love Whole Foods. Not as much as Trader Joes, though.

I had Whole Foods clam chowder for breakfast. When in Boston...



The End. Time for bed!

Boston (The time I almost cooked with Giada DeLaurentiis)

...but then a hurricane ruined it for me.

Let me start from the beginning. Over a month ago, I found out I won a recipe contest sponsored by Bella Sera wine. I was completely surprised when I found out. I think I started shrieking... and shaking. The prize was a trip for two to Boston, to cook with Giada DeLaurentiis at St. Anthony's Feast.

I adore Giada DeLaurentiis. She's my cooking idol! She's my favorite Food Network chef, by far. (Although I love the Barefoot Contessa, too.) Not only would I get to cook with Giada, I'd get to have lunch with her and the Bella Sera crew. Wheee!

So for a month, I'd been growing more and more excited about the trip. Eric and I started watching the weather a week prior to the trip, and became increasingly worried about Hurricane Irene. The day before the trip, I kept checking my phone and email to see if the trip had been cancelled. But nope, it was still on. The night before we left, I told Eric that there was a 95% chance that the event would be cancelled, and Giada wouldn't show up.

Friday morning we flew to Boston for the very first time.



What part of Boston is this? Southie? We stayed in the northern part of Boston, and didn't venture out anywhere else. Do you call the northern part, Northie? Haha. I kept calling it Northie.



A luxury car service picked us up at the airport. We were handed moist towelettes to towel off with, and cold bottled water.



I guess these towels are for sweaty people. We weren't that sweaty.
But we toweled off anyway, because we wanted to live in luxury.



Werther's Original, anyone?



We stayed at the Fairmont Battery Wharf Hotel. It was a lovely hotel with an accomodating staff. The staff helped us on a number of occasions.



Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we were sent to the bar for drinks on the house. Fine by us!


Espresso martini with Sambuca. I needed a pick me up.

Who cares if it's 3:00 in the afternoon?! Free drinks are free drinks.


Eric and his wine. I forgot what kind it was, but it was delicious.

We took a little stroll outside before we headed up to the room.



We LOVED that the hotel was right on the water.



Here's our hotel room. The bed was huge and comfy... easily my favorite part of the room. Or maybe the view was my favorite...







The doors on the bathroom were kind of annoying; they kept getting stuck. That's really the only the bad thing I can think of about the room.



We strolled around the North End a bit, before heading to dinner for the early bird special, because we were starving!



There were so many Italian restaurants, we didn't know which one to choose. We randomly selected Bella Vista restaurant on Hanover Street. Whoops.



The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't good, either. The service was nonexistent. One woman brought us our drinks and food, and then the check. That was it. When she asked us what we wanted to drink, Eric asked for a Dr. Pepper. In a thick, angry Italian accent, she said, "WE DON'T HAVE DR. PEPPER." And then just stood there. Eric said, "Well then, I will have a water." Haha.



We were given a basket with two pieces of bread in it, and that was it. We kept waiting and waiting for more bread, but it never came. Eric had some tortellini. It was bland, but not terrible.



I had the manicotti. The sauce was made with ground beef, which made it really greasy and heavy. I didn't eat very much of it, because I didn't want to feel sick all night. I think I prefer meatless sauce. Maybe a little sausage would be okay.
Heh.



We did it ALL wrong. We regret going to that restaurant, because after dinner we walked over to the next street, and there was St. Anthony's Feast. There was tons and tons of delicious looking Italian street food. Pizza, turkey legs, sandwiches, zeppole, cannoli, chocolate covered pastries and fruit, fresh squeezed lemonade, seafood, and more.











We didn't end up buying anything, because we were saving room for pastries and gelato from Mike's Pastry.



Before we left on the trip, I googled information on bakeries in Boston, and Mike's was the most popular. The place was packed! We went there several times during our trip and it was always busy. I can see why. Everything we had there was SO good. Oh baby.



The cases were full of cakes, all kinds of pastries, cheesecake, cannoli, creme brulee, rum cakes, cupcakes, whoopie pies, brownies and gelato. Sounds like my kind of place.



I've never seen so many different kinds of cannoli.





Is it gelato or gelati?



No way were we going to pass up some pistachio gelato. No way.





Or a cannoli. This kind was amaretto. I think it was the best cannoli I've had so far. It didn't have a strong amaretto flavor, though.



Mike's made up for our less than stellar dinner, thankfully. We left in sweeter moods and walked around the North End and enjoyed the sights of St. Anthony's Feast and Quincy Market.









Part two, coming soon. I'm hungry and have to fix dinner.