BOSTON DAY 2

After enjoying a fabulous breakfast of fresh fruit, milk, and orange/cranberry scone with cream cheese, I went back onto the Upper Deck bus. This time I got off in Cambridge and switched to another Upper Deck bus for that tour. Harvard Square, MIT and Harvard. I could have departed the bus and walked about but just wanted to relax.

It was the second Italian restaurant, Erbaluce, located on Church Street in the theatre district. The bar had a variety of bitters. I only tasted one that was "citrusy". I met co-owner Joan Johnson and her husband Charles Draghi, the Executive Chef. Rather than do a tasting of items from the menu, I asked the chef if he would do a 7-course tasting of his choice.

If it weren't for how much food I would be eating, I would have indulged on more of the bread and dip. Chef makes his own bread and the dip is made from white beans.

Here is a description of what I so enjoyed eating.

Fish Antipasti
Whole roe scallop marinated in Meyer lemon and olive oil, with a parsley and caper pesto.

Scungilli (local whelks) marinated with mustard, mint, tarragon, and garlic oil.
Duxbury razor clams, steamed Trieste-style with a green peppercorn, fennel, and white wine broth.

Meat Antipasti
Lamb and beef herbed meatballs with a spicy roasted tomato and leek sauce.

Speck with native apples, sesame and mint. Speck is a lightly smoked proscutti.

House-cured Tamworth pork lardo on grilled bruschetta, with house-cured green olives.

Soup
Roasted organic Winter vegetable and beet vellutata with black trumpet mushrooms and fresh marjoram.

Pasta
Roasted potato gnocchi with a ragu of wild boar, rabbit, and lamb braised with red vermouth and pungent herbs.

Fish
Nasello filet, roasted in red Swiss chard, with an organic carrot and anise hyssop sauce.

Meat
Rack of wild boar, slow-roasted over wine corks, with a wild Concord grape and lavender mosto.

Dessert
Giandjua (a chocolate and hazelnut truffle) with a sauce of native apples and mace, and Piemontese hazelnuts.

Herb blossom honey panna cotta, with an Italian tart cherry sauce seasoned with cassia.

Truffles
Dark chocolate truffles flavored with aged balsamico and rose geranium.

Dried fruit and marzipan truffles with sesame and orange flower water.


The photos and video will relate further! It was as if I were actually in Italy eating the local fare from a classy restaurant.