BOSTON - Cape Cod - Plymouth

I have been taken on a tour of Plymouth because apparently this is where my Aunt and Uncle lived when they had my first cousin 30 years ago. So historical. We took a drive around to see their old house and to check in with some family friends who have absolutely no idea who I am.

I had no clue that this is where they used to live, growing up everyone always just said Boston but had I known they lived closer to the Cape Cod area I would’ve had a different vision of their life. This place is of course beautiful and pretty tourist-y. Right on the water, there’s tons of little shops with souvenir t-shirts and ice cream stands. I love these kinds of places.

LOCATION: 15 Town Pier Plymouth, MA 02360

My Aunt loves seafood and neither of my cousins can stand it, so ever since I was little it was a treat when I would visit because she would have a seafood buddy to enjoy food with. My Uncle is impartial and enjoys it but doesn’t quite hit our excitement level. We walk into Wood’s Seafood on this cold and windy May day and get ready. This place is already busy with very few tables and many vultures looking to swoop in on the next one that opens up. We are one of them. Our group is 6 deep and finding something that seats all of us is a little tricky in this small dining room so we opt for the idea of splitting up if that works out for us. Luckily, we don’t have to do that. We all look at the menu and see what we’d like to order but while my Aunt and Uncle are in line my cousin and I circle the dining room waiting for the next opportunity. With some cooperation from other families and a little circling we manage to get lucky and score a row of 3 tables that would fit all of us perfectly while rearranging ourselves with other customers to get them seats for their groups too. It’s a serendipitous day.

This is where we go family style, my Aunt has ordered two lobsters (with french fries), little neck clams, and an order of fish fry. My cousin’s boyfriend opts for the fried clams and she, of course, gets the hot dog. A sad sight to see at this restaurant right on the ocean but some things you can’t change. I’m pretty excited and get my hands dirty cracking open lobsters and handing claws to everyone. It’s still early in the season so these lobsters are full of water and are a little small but we’re here and I’m determined to eat lobster and enjoy my first trip to the area. Nothing can bring me down. I love eating this kind of food and getting messy and I couldn’t be happier. By the end of the meal my cousin’s boyfriend is overly stuffed and likely scarred from having to eat more than his intended meal but this is how the family works. Welcome buddy.

After lobster we walk down the street intending to walk off our meal and be tourists. We hop into shops looking for magnets and other keepsakes. I score a lobster t-shirt and a tiny little lobster stuffed animal that looks a little more like a crawfish at this size but we can pretend. It’s cold but not too cold for us to stop for Ice Cream.

LOCATION: 120 Water St. Plymouth, MA 02360

We walk by a tiny little ice cream shop called Ziggy’s with seating for 10 inside and two teenagers behind the counter that most definitely should have an adult supervising them but it’s summertime and life is chill. It may be 60degrees but it’s never too cold for ice cream and while the wind blows outside, we are now equipped with slightly more layers and the building makes us feel like maybe it’s not so bad out. My Aunt is not amused by my need for ice cream in this weather and we can tell she’d rather be in warm and sunny Florida at this very moment but my Uncle humors me and amps up his excitement to match mine. This is why I am their unofficial favorite niece.

My uncle agrees to share a banana split with me and we rook my aunt into taking a few bites to help us out but we finish the whole thing. Apparently, my aunt is a sucker for a banana split and loves it deep down, just not today. Her love is seasonal and very weather dependent while mine runs deep. I’m not a fan of chocolate ice cream and tend to eat around it when it comes to things like this but neither my aunt or uncle mind and they let me modify our split to my tastes. We get a scoop of french vanilla, one of strawberry, and I substitute out the chocolate for a seasonal blueberry. We get all the toppings and dig in. Im my opinion, you can’t go wrong with ice cream and I’m always happy eating it, even in cold weather.

We wrap up the day with a little more shopping and my Uncle excitedly shows us plymouth rock as it starts to rain outside. That’s our cue to call it a day and head back to the airbnb full of lobster and ice cream.

BOSTON - CPK

I’ve finally done it! I’ve tried CPK - California Pizza Kitchen. We don’t have one in Rochester and I’d never heard of it before I went to Chicago. Funnily enough, Christel was the one that first told me about it because apparently growing up in Manilla in the Philippines she had CPK. Rochester, why do you do these things to me.

We spotted one down the street from the Boston Duck Boat tours and we figured we’d hit a later boat tour and stop for some pizza since I mentioned I wanted to try it out. CPK and Duck Boats - we’re tourists today.

LOCATION: 800 Boylston St. Boston, MA 02199

Clearly, CPK is a chain so they have a standard menu but I enjoyed my first trip here. We each order our own dishes but my Aunt and Uncle work out a combo between them that lets them share and taste everything. Partnered off for variety, I dig it. I also don’t eat my full pizza but instead manage to pawn and trade pieces for other people’s dishes. We roll hard as a family and everything belongs to everyone else. Nothing is safe. I order a Shrimp Scampi Pizza because I’m in Boston and we’re by the sea so seafood is a must this trip while the summer approaches. This pizza has lemon-garlic shrimp with caramelized onions, Mozzarella, Parmesan and red chili, and is topped with fresh arugula and wild Greek oregano and I go for the cauliflower crust because I’m on vacation and technically I’m not paying. But like I said, I share! This was a pretty good pizza. I’m a fan of cauli crusts because they tend to be crisper and crunchier which is something I love in a nice thin pizza. The shrimp was a good choice and I feel like arugula can be a little peppery but this was a good amount (and easy to pick off when I find it to be too much.) CPK doesn’t feel like anything to special and I don’t think I missed out on TOO much growing up without it but I’m pretty satisfied that I’ve gotten to try it now.

BOSTON - Pho Adventures

It’s my first trip to Boston and I’m so pumped, though I may not be getting the full Boston Tourist experience.. Even though I’ve lived in Rochester my whole life, my family hasn’t taken a trip to Boston since before I was born. My Aunt and Uncle met in Boston and lived there for the first 6 years of my cousins life with my Aunt’s cousins living nearby. Of course, I’m six years younger than said cousin and when they moved away to Florida, my parents didn’t find much reason to visit Boston again so I’d never been. Lucky for me, my Aunt and Uncle have been visiting their old home recently and I asked if I could meet them over there since I’m about a 5-6 hour drive away. They loved the idea, and thus our adventure began. Slightly unfortunate for me, family trips like this tend to exclude touristy restaurants and instead include lots of local Vietnamese food. I do enjoy Vietnamese food though so at least I get to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle in this new city and hear stories of when they first met and started a family.

As expected the first few days were spent in the surrounding suburbs and neighborhoods of Boston that include the Vietnamese communities so we had some pretty good food and made ourselves at home.

LOCATION: 409 Hancock St. Quincy, MA 02171

I don’t know if my Aunt and Uncle used to come here a long time ago or if this find is from their recent trips but we stopped by for dinner at Pho Linh and my uncle and I had to take a picture to send to the cousins in Germany. The joke is my Uncle’s name is Linh so it’s clearly his restaurant and therefore the only reason we ate here.

Pho Linh is pretty standard with their menu and has all the traditional Vietnamese dishes that every staple restaurant has. I order my favorite Bún Thịt Nướng Chả Giò which is vermiceli rice noodles with pork and an egg roll. This bowl also comes with a bunch of veggies and is supposed to be topped with fish sauce but I’m not a fan of fish sauce so I go ‘dry’. This is a huge disappointment to any Vietnamese person because fish sauce is life but I guess I’m a little to American to appreciate it. I find that they seasoning from the meat and the oils in it coat the noodles and veggies perfectly every time so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on too much.

This is one of my favorite dishes because theres such a great balance of vegetables and meat and a great crunch from the eggrolls then the softness of the noddles to soak up all the great juices from everything. Of course Pho is a staple dish but sometimes it’s too hot or heavy for Pho, in which case a lighter fresher Bún Thịt Nướng is the way to go. When we eat this way we tend to order individual dishes instead of doing the meal family style but my Aunt gets a little munch-y while we wait for our main dishes so she likes to order apps to hold us all over while we wait. During this particular meal she ordered a couple plates of spring rolls and eggrolls which were also very good but standard.

The other thing that makes my eating habits a slight disappointment is that I’m not a big meat eater. I like to say that I get “meat full” because I still have room in my stomach to eat carbs of veggies but if it’s meat, I’m done. The reason that’s bad is because compared to veggies and carbs, meat is expensive and when you’re poor like they were growing up in Vietnam, you don’t waste the expensive stuff because there’s less of it. So it’s a shocker when I’m voluntarily giving up meat in order to fill up on the cheap ingredients but what can I do? My stomach cannot be satisfied! That’s why it’s pretty common for me to be sneaking meat from my plate onto other people’s plates like I am here with my uncle. Someone will eat it, as long as that someone isn’t me!

BUFF - Fuji (Deep Fried Cheescake)

A quick post today as a celebration of graduating with my Masters Degree and moving back home! My aunt and uncle offered to do a little celebration dinner in buffalo where they live. Since I’m back with a new degree and my cousins are headed off to work on their post bachelors degrees this year we have a lot to celebrate.

LOCATION: 736 MAPLE RD., BUFFALO, NY. 14221

We decided to head to Fuji where my cousins work for a nice casual family lunch but to my amusement my cousins decide to order deep fried cheesecake for dessert after our copious amounts of sushi and Tonkatsu.

I was a little skeptical about deep fried cheesecake because these kinds of things tend to be pretty heavy and overly sweet not to mention it’s hard to gauge what texture will be like when a soft dessert like this is deep fried but boy was I pleasantly surprised.

I don’t know how Fuji does it but this cheesecake was great. They must use their tempura batter and a frozen cheesecake slice because it’s not overly sweet or heavy and the fried shell on the outside is light and fluffy as well. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it too much but maybe next time I’m at a festival in Rochester I won’t be so hesitant to order that deep fried cheesecake on a stick!

CHI - Rosebud

Work is amazing and they treat me so well here, I’m gonna be so sad to leave after such a short time. I already wish I came upon this job sooner or got to stay longer but it’s time for graduation and my time in this office is done. Luckily, this comes with a farewell lunch from the very place we ordered from on my very first day.

LOCATION: 1500 W TAYLOR ST. CHICAGO, IL 60607

Rosebud is a restaurant nearby that specializes in Italian food and has takeout for us to run and grab pretty easy from our office. With seven of us here it can be tricky for someone to make a decision about what to eat and Jess is vegetarian right now so pasta and salad works for us all and makes me very happy on this, my last day of work.

Everyone here is so great to me and they over order everything meaning we have tons of food and no one’s complaining. We go with two orders of fried calamari, house salad, and then single orders of Rigatoni al la vodka, Tortellini Carbonara, Cavatelli Rosebud which is Rosebud’s homemade dumplings in garlic and oil, green beans, mushrooms, and roasted red peppers, and I believe, their Chicken Vestuvio which is a boneless chicken with garlic, oregano, white wine, roasted potatoes, and sweet peas that’s only available as a weekday lunch special. And of course tons and tons of bread which they include with each order.

From what we remembered on my first day a few months ago, Rosebud was better than our experience today. It might’ve been our timing with the pickup but the Calamari wasn’t as crisp and the pastas just weren’t as good as they were before. Some days are just a hit or miss based off of who’s cooking and timing. While I think the food still tasted great, we just weren’t in love like we were before. I’d still go back if I was going to be nearby or if I was still working here so it wasn’t a deal breaker and it wasn’t a bad way to spend my last lunch at all.