Food

James Hook & Co., Boston

10:40 PM

This is by far, our last lobster roll of the trip. Since arriving here in the East Coast two weeks ago, Michael and I have been eating quite a lot of lobster rolls. I'm slightly allergic to shellfish and have been popping Benadryl pills like they're Tic Tacs just so I can enjoy this delicious treat.

We found James Hook & Co. on our first day in Boston whilst we were taking a long walk back to our hotel from Flour Bakery. Michael looked at the menu and thought they were a bit pricey and we went on our way. I didn't think he'd want to eat here, but since it was lunch time, we had to stop and decided that we'll have our final lobster roll at this establishment.


Michael wanted the lobster roll, which he ordered and I wanted the lobster mac and cheese. Unfortunately, they sold out, so I settled on the lobster bisque and Michael ordered a cup of clam chowder. We shared the lobster roll and for the price (I don't quite remember), it is worth it because they pack on the lobsters to the point that it was falling off of the bread. 

The lobster bisque is rich and creamy with a little bite to it. There's some chunks of lobsters in the bisque, which made it perfect. 



Food

Modern Pastry Shop, Boston

10:00 PM

Today was our last day in Boston. As we toured the last half of the Freedom Trail, Michael and I remembered that we haven't had a Boston Cream Pie. We've seen an episode on the Food Network about a restaurant serving the dessert, but we didn't remember what the restaurant's name was.

As we headed over to Paul Revere's house, we manage to find a pastry shop called, Modern Pastry Shop. The Boston Cream pie we ordered is not the traditional kind. It's more of a cupcake, but with the same elements. If you're wondering what a Boston Cream Pie is, it's not really a pie. It's a round, two-layer cake filled with either a custard or a cream and topped with a chocolate ganache.

The cupcake tastes like the pie. It's filled with cream in the centre and the chocolate ganache is slightly sticky, almost caramel in consistency.


The other thing we ordered is a Black and White cookie. I haven't had one of these in such a long time and seeing it in the bakery made my mouth water for it. This cookie is different though from the one's I've had. This one has chocolate buttercream and vanilla buttercream on top when other black and white cookies are dipped in either chocolate and vanilla fondant or melted white and dark chocolate.

Michael wasn't at all impressed with the cookie and I had to explain to him that this bakery probably bakes the traditional desserts in their own interpretation with a slightly modern twist to it. Maybe that's why it's called Modern Pastry Shop.


I have nothing bad to say about the bakery. The desserts were good, but one staff member kept on chitchatting with her friend in front of one of the displays. I was trying to see what the desserts were, what flavours they had, but the worker and her friend refused to move. Other than that, it's a good place to stop for a sweet snack before finishing the rest of the Freedom Trail.

Food

Flour Bakery, Boston Massachusettes

12:43 PM

I love the FoodNetwork and since planning our trip to the East Coast, I've been recording several shows on my DVR in hopes to find a place that I can try whilst I'm on holiday.

Flour Bakery in Boston came up on the The Best Thing I Ever Ate. The bakery's Sticky Buns was featured and Michael and I were salivating just watching the show, so made a note of it in my Filofax to visit the place. On our first full day here, we decided on brunch (without the mimosas) at Flour Bakery. My eyes immediately immediately captured by the sticky buns. Michael and I knew that we just had to order one, but we did need to get something remotely healthy. So, we ordered a breakfast sandwich along with two sticky buns and a vegan chocolate cake (which is pictured behind the sticky buns).


The Breakfast Egg Sandwich with bacon, cheddar, tomato, arugula and dijonaise was amazing. The egg was light and fluffy and the sandwich had the just the right amount of dijonaise that it didn't overpower all the flavours.


The sticky buns were great. I'm not going to say it's amazing like the sandwich, but I expected the buns to be bigger. I should have expected that it would be different from what I've seen on the show. it's not as big as I've seen it on television, but the art of food photography is that you always take it on an angle to make it look big. It was decent size and it was good. I'm not a fan of nuts on my food, but they were covered in ooey gooey caramel sauce. Anything covered in caramel sauce will taste amazing. The buns were fluffy and moist. They're sweet but not overly sweet.


The vegan chocolate cake (which we weren't aware was vegan) was amazing. It was light and fluffy and very chocolatey. I had no idea vegan chocolate cakes tastes so good. Now, I'm tempted to make one as soon as I get back home. 

If you're ever in Boston, check out Flour Bakery. They have a few locations and getting one of those sticky buns or the Egg Breakfast Sandwich is definitely worth it.

Planner

Week #41

12:29 PM

Week 41 was spent in Washington DC and a dozen states along the way as we drove up to Maine.



Planner

Week 40: Travelling

12:21 PM

So, as I'm typing up this blog post, I've scheduled it a little behind since I'm already home and unpacked from my two week holiday in the East Coast.

Since I didn't have my A5 Filofax with me during the trip nor did I bring my personal size one due to trying to travel light with my carry-on tote bag (I had a dSLR camera, lenses, iPad Mini, and such in my Michael Korrs tote bag, it won't hold anymore than what I had put in it), my Personal Size Saffiano stayed behind. I did however have an app called Day One in my iPad Mini which is almost like a travel journal. It has GPS, weather, etc loaded on to each diary entry I make.

I know it seems a bit odd that I'm posting the latter half of the week, but there wasn't much during the first three days as I was at Lake Tahoe in Nevada, holed up in the room trying to write and study for the CSET exam that I need to retake. The only exciting yet nerve-wracking thing that happened was that I thought I lost my iPhone and that it was stolen. I spent at least half an hour combing a field by a rec centre (I had some of the employees helping me look) since the Find My iPhone option is telling me my phone is in a field somewhere. Turns out, it was back in the hotel room after all.

Anyway, back to the week.

It is my birthday week and for my birthday, Michael bought me a trip to the East Coast (it just so happens that he's got a conference to go to in Boston, so it works out). We left California on the day of my birthday on a redeye flight to Washington D.C., which was our first stop. The flight was delayed by a few hours and we luckily made our connecting flight in Atlanta just in time.

We arrived in D.C. the next day at around 9am. The original plan was to drop off our stuff and make our way towards National Mall since check in isn't until 4:00 PM. Our hotel was about a mile away from the White House, so it was perfect. We didn't need a taxi to get to the National Mall. 

As we're going through our stuff, emptying out our carry-on bags to put into our suitcase for our walk, the hotel got a room ready for us in record time. The woman at the reception desk also gave us a free upgrade to a suite, which meant we have a kitchenette. Michael was excited since we're able to get three days worth of groceries. He was more concerned for breakfast.

So, with getting our room early, he and I decided to take a nap since we didn't sleep at all on the plane. The couple behind us were bothersome. We napped for a few hours and finally getting up at around two o'clock to head down to get lunch and walk around the National Mall.

I'm not going to go into detail of what we saw since it's already written in the journal page, which is posted below. Needless to say, by the time we finished walking one half of the National Mall, we were dead tired and was glad that we had bought some food at the grocery store to heat up in the hotel.

I'm also going to blog about some of the food places Michael and I went to on this trip.



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