Nico Ristorante in the North End

We decided on an early pre-show dinner at Nico Ristorate in the North End because there was a Groupon special, pay $35.00 for $60.00 worth of food.  Since our show was at 6:30 PM, we tried to reserve our group for 4:00 PM but the only available slot on Opentable was at 3:30 PM.  On the bright side, there's free street parking in the North End on Sundays before 6 PM (then it turns into residential permit parking only) After driving in torrential rain and running down Hanover street wet, we arrived at the restaurant to find out we were the only patrons there.

The server was not welcoming, he told us to remove our Starbucks coffee off the table. I didn't even think of that and I totally forgot. We were trying to warm ourselves up.  I didn't mind putting it away but he could have asked us nicer.

We didn't have much time to settle in when he came back with bread and ask us for our drink order. What's the rush? We were the only ones there at 3:30 PM!!!

Jacquet French crepe recipes

I'm a huge fan of crepes but I don't really have what it takes to make the delicate thin pancake.  The temperature has to be right, the flour mixture has to be accurate and the time on the pan has to be almost exact for it to be perfect.  I say screw it, I found these delicious premade crepes at Wholefoods  and came up with a few "semi-homemade" dishes on my own. Each package came with 10 crepes and was about $4.49.

The crepes are made with "pure butter, cage free eggs and high quality, non-GMO products."  They are absolutely soft and delicious eaten alone or part of a recipe.

Recipe: Asian seared tuna salad

Alright, it's the first week of the year... I guess that means its time for new (or old) resolutions to eat better. Tonight, I made an Asian seared tuna kale salad. What makes it Asian? I suppose the water chestnuts, beansprouts and sesame ginger dressing.

Executive lunch at Strip by Strega

To end the year, the Mo and I headed into Boston for some "last night" debauchery. Before we did that, we enjoyed the city before the sun went down.  We checked into our hotel and hopped on the T towards the Boston Common and strolled around the park.  There were lots of tourists and families out and about the area.

Roasted Duck and noodle soup

After a long night of drinking and partying, I wanted something easy on my stomach.  The original plan was to go out for dollar oysters, brunch and bloody mary's but I just couldn't do it.

We drove from our hotel to Chinatown and paid $15.00 for parking at Chau Chow since street parking wasn't available. I didn't want Vietnamese Pho noodle soup since I could get that in Lowell (and I'd be going over to the in laws to eat that later) so I looked up "Chinatown Boston Noodle Souip" on Yelp and Hong Kong Eatery came up.