Phenomenal Italian food and a wine bar too!!! Piattini Boston

We were in search of good authentic Italian food in the Back Bay and we hit the jackpot.  Piattini not only has fantastic Italian food it is also a wine bar.  Many passing its location on Newbury street may miss that it has Italian food because it sells itself as a wine bar, but that is just selling this restaurant short.   This restaurant/wine bar is elegant and cozy, the perfect place to meet friends or colleagues or to have a romantic dinner.
They do have an extensive selection of wines in all categorizes to suite every palate.  You can have the wine solo or if you are ordering dinner, each entree has a white and red paring suggestion in parenthesis next to it!  Very helpful and ingenious!
Once we placed our beverage order, our very attentive waiter, brought us  the bread.  It was  perfect, crusty on the outside and warm and soft on the inside.  Olive oil was provided for dipping as well.  I had to contain myself so that I didn't ruin my dinner eating too much bread!
I ordered the Rigatoni Agnello.  Wow!   Slow cooked lamb ragu over rigatoni!  I was in heaven.  Usually, I like a lot of Parmesan sprinkle over my pasta but that wasn't necessary here.  The lamb was soft and the sauce was rich highlighting the sweetness of the tomato to balance the lamb.  Here is my entree:

The suggested red wine paring was Shoofly Shiraz.   The wine came with an index card with all the wine's origin, makeup and description.  

My colleague ordered the Risotto al Tartufo and was kind enough to share some with me!   I have had my share of risotto over the years, some good, some bad.  This entree was great!  The risotto was firm  but tender, cooked perfect.  The sauce was cream based but not too rich.  I could have eaten her whole dish as well !

How pretty is that dish!  The entrees were flavorful  and creative, such as the Risotto Gamberetti with asparagus or the Penne con zucca (This one was amazing!  Penne pasta with butternut squash and gorgonzola cheese in an apple cider sauce with roasted chicken).  You could also get an assortment of small plates, hot or cold, such as the Melazane Affunicate (eggplant with tomatoes and parmesan-see below) or caprese or arranchini.  Needless to say, I was definately a happy girl that night!

Risotto Gamberetti

Melanzane Affumicate

Seafood-Boston-Atlantic Fish

If you travel to Boston you must have seafood.  Being that Boston is located right on the Atlantic Ocean via Boston Harbor, seafood is plentiful and fresh.  Finding a place that prepares it perfectly is the trick.   Years ago, I discovered Atlantic Fish Company, located on Boylston street in the Back Bay.   This small, cozy, fine dining restaurant is the perfect place to get your seafood fix.  The menu contains a raw bar with oysters, little neck clams and even lobster.  Of course, they have chowder, a must when having a seafood meal and a diverse appetizer menu containing staples like crab cakes, but also some very creative items such as crab and corn spring rolls.  For the entree, you can order a variety of fish cooked the way you like, or order a specialty dish,  and of course there is lobster.
That is just the food menu.  The wine menu is extensive.   The servers are very knowledgeable about the wines, which was so helpful to me when I was ordering wine for my girlfriend, who wanted a Chablis, and I could not find one on the menu.  Our server was able to guide me to the group of wines similar to a Chablis and her recommendation was loved by my friend. So with three glasses of wine in hand we were ready to order.  I decided to order the crab crusted haddock.   Haddock is almost impossible to find in Michigan and it is native to New England  so I decided this was a must order.
The waitress brought out a basket of bread that contained sour dough and melted in your mouth it was so fresh as well as bread crackers.  Our meal came out in the perfect amount of time.  Here is my dish:

As you can see the presentation is beautiful!  They took special care to place the lemon in a netting so that you do not pray the juices on you clothing while enhancing your meal.   I was concerned when ordering this dish that the cream sauce would be too thick and heavy.   However,  it was light and flavorful and added haut the right touch to the dish.  The haddock was cooked to perfection, flaky and moist and the crab crust was moist on the inside and crispy on the outside.  The asparagus was grilled but not charred and the potatoes were just the right texture.  My girlfriend had broccoli on her plate that was bright green and fork tender.  All three of us could not stop talking about the exceptional quality of our meals.  It is obvious that the chef takes the time to treat every item in the dish with care and precision.   I highly recommend that if you are in Boston you dine at Atlantic Fish Company.   I was a very happy girl!  

Emack and Bolio's Boston's best ice cream

Anyone who knows me knows I love ice cream.  I can say no to cake, cookies and even pie, but never ice cream.  I have my favorite ice cream shops in every city we have visited.  Therefore, it is not surprising that my first stop, on my trip to Boston, was to my all time favorite ice cream place, Emack and Bolio's, on Newbury Street.
This is not the store's original location.  Emack and Bolio's started as a basement ice cream hangout in Coolidge corner, Brookline, in the 1975, by a group of lawyers who wanted to play music late in the night.   It was named for two of the homeless men the lawyers did pro bono work for.  Emack and Bolio's has many locations, in several states, but the one on Newbury will always be my location.

The store is known for its crazy flavors such as Bananas Foster, and Grasshopper Oreo and the flavor that I had the first time I took my husband, Monster Mash (a combo of a bunch of different flavors mixed together, it was amazing).   Tonight I had salted caramel chocolate pretzel.
Can you say awesome??!!!  

This was my dinner tonight (don't tell my kids).  It is that good.  They also have amazing candy coated cones, smoothies, microbrewed sodas, chocolates and juices!   I love this place!  I am such a happy girl tonight!   

Mexican Mardi Gras at Cancun Grill

Where is the best place to celebrate Mardi Gras?  My girlfriend and I thought of the same place:  Cancun Grill!  What a fun, colorful place to eat lots of great food and of course, margaritas!  Cancun grill has been a family favorite of ours since we discovered them after they opened their second location on Jolly Road.  When the weather is nice we ride our bikes there.  My daughter at the age of 6 said during one of these aforementioned rides, "hey mommy, you and daddy can both have the big margaritas because we rode our bikes here!"  The big margaritas are not the only draw of course.

You start off with a basket of warm, crispy tortilla chips and salsa.  My kids always, always ask for the queso.  It is the only queso my little one will eat, and she would eat the whole bowl if I let her.  I always want the guacamole.  They understand that guacamole needs to be chunky.  I love when I get a chunk of avocado or tomato, yummy.  So here are the starters:

One thing we really love about Cancun is the variety in the menu.  There is so much to choose from!  You can order simply a burrito with rice and beans or the crazy with the special plate which has many different items including a taco, chile relleno, enchilada, tamale, chalupa and rice and beans.  My husband gets this plate a lot! You can also get fancy with a dish like the pollo mazatlan which has grilled chicken, shrimp with vegetables.  This is one of my favorites!!!  

The kids menu has a lot to offer too.  Your child can get a chicken strip or burger plate but they can also get a burrito or enchilada.  That way if you have a picky child you are all set.    

If you run out of chips they will always keep refilling your basket.  Or you can save your appetite for a plate of sopapillas or fried ice cream (One of the few local places you can get it!)  I am always a happy girl when it is a Cancun grill night!