Café Chatter
Walk This Way
Culinary tours are
an easy recipe for
getting to know
the history, culture
and food ways of
some delicious
neighborhoods
BY ANNIE B. COPPS
PHOTOGRAPHY S TEVEN VOTE
There’s no better way to get to know a
neighborhood than by hitting the pavement and noodling around. If food and
good eating are your goals, then there is
a bevy of opportunities in some of our
favorite cities to get a taste of the local
flavors and gain some perspective on
how these city blocks became thriving
neighborhoods. Most tours are small
groups ( 10– 15 people) and last two to
three hours. And although there is a
lot of eating to be done, there is a good
amount of walking, too, which requires
comfy shoes and just may keep the calorie count in check.
Boston
One of Boston’s oldest
neighborhoods, the North
End, is home to more than 80
thriving restaurants, cafés,
coffee shops and bakeries.
No one knows them better
than Michele Topor. For three
decades, Topor has lived in this
predominately Italian neigh-
borhood, and she is more than
happy to guide hungry visitors
along the narrow, busy streets
to the delicious shops she has
personally vetted.
Most tours begin at Martignetti
Liquors on Cross Street, which hugs
the edge of what was until recently the
Big Dig construction project. Inside
the shop, surrounded by thousands of
bottles of Italian wine, Topor lays down
solid information about the streets to be
explored and the community within. The
North End was established in the 1630s
by wealthy English merchants and colonists who built mansions (Paul Revere
was an early resident), and as waves of
immigrants came to Boston, the North
End transitioned into a commercial area
teeming with Irish, Russians and Portuguese. By the 1920s it was 90 percent
Italian and the label Little Italy stuck.
As Topor leads small groups through
a second wine shop for a taste of limon-cello (a refreshing lemon liqueur from
southern Italy), a salumeria (for a sample
of imported cheeses and salami, freshly
baked breads and a thorough explanation of the quality differences in pastas,
canned tomatoes, and a select variety
of oils and vinegars), a greengrocer, a
candy shop, a bakery and a butcher, she
is quick to point out that the foods and
traditions she discusses are Italian
American—an Italian cuisine created
through years of Italian immigrants
translating the ingredients available
in their new country into foods they
remembered from back home.
Topor also steps through the gates
of Chinatown to offer tours with her
partner Jim Becker, a former chef and
resident of China. North End Market
Tours; northendmarkettours.com.
Tastes of Boston. Above: Measuring a dose at Nam Buk Hong herbal
store. Opposite page (clockwise
from top left): labels in a Chinatown
grocery store; Cantina restaurant
neon sign; selection of dim sum from
China Pearl Restaurant; frutta mar-turana from Maria’s pastry shop.
Just a few miles south, Bik Ng brings
curious food lovers into Boston’s
Chinatown neighborhood. Beginning
at the China Trade Association building, Ng offers relevant history of the
