Day: April 9, 2017

Yesterday I told you that we were headed to the Boston Symphony to hear John Williams conduct the Boston Pops in a celebration playing his music on his birthday.  That was a lie.  Sorry, I didn’t know it was a lie at the time.  We did hear the Pops (a first for me) and their conductor of the past 20 years, Keith Lockhart, but no John Williams.  They played Mr. Williams music (Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, etc.) and said it was a celebration of his birthday.  It was a wonderful celebration of his birth which is in February not April.  Keith Lockhart has the same birthday as Patrice if that counts.

As you can tell from the photo we had amazing seats.  We were in row E which was 3rd from the front.  Apparently the alphabet in Boston is a bit different than it is on the west coast.

Today was all about food.  Patrice found a Boston food tour called Bites of Boston (http://bitesofbostonfoodtours.com/sweet-savory-south-end-tour/#explore-south-end).  We walked around the South End area of Boston.  Our guide, Laurel, explained this is different than South Boston, “If you see a Ben Affleck movie he is in South Boston”.  We then walked to 6 different restaurants and sampled some delicious delights.  I don’t want to bore you but my friend, Joe, always want to know exactly where and what we ate.  So here is the list:

1.) The Elephant Walk (1415 Washington Street): A Cambodian/French restaurant and we ate a delectable spring roll.   Laurel told us a fascinating story about the owner/chef that is much too long for this blog.  You will have to take the tour yourself.

2.) Flour Bakery (1595 Washington Street): Cafe/bakery owned and operated by a Harvard grad who makes one mean chocolate chip cookie.  Not as good as the ones Patrice makes of course (actually better but don’t tell Patrice I said that).

3.) Orinoco A Latin Kitchen (477 Shawmut Avenue): Venezuelan restaurant where we had bacon wrapped date stuffed with almonds and a plantain wrapped around some cheese. I am getting hungry again.

4.) South End Buttery (314 Shawmut Avenue): Cupcakes.  Sorry no picture.  My cupcake was deep in my stomach before I remembered my picture duties.

5.) Formaggio South End (268 Shawmut Avenue): Great cheese and a taste of wine.

6.) Stephi’s on Tremont (571 Tremont Street): Two treats that would be Patrice’s dream choices. If you know her you could guess Macaroni and Cheese and bread pudding.  They were fantastic.  I didn’t want to leave the restaurant.  The food was great but more important it was so warm and comfy inside.

The tour lasted 3 hours.  We walked the entire tour so we didn’t feel guilty eating  Well maybe just a little guilty.

Dinner (yes we had dinner too) was at Bricco, an Italian restaurant in the North End.  As previously mentioned the North End is the traditional Italian district so we felt obligated to dine at an Italian restaurant once before leaving for home.

Tomorrow we fly back to Los Angeles.  This was a baseball trip but we did a ton of eating.  I can proudly say that we resisted the temptation to eat a cannoli.  No cannoli?  A reason to come back.