We have been driving past Ziggy and Sons Donuts for years now and the timing has never been right to stop in. So one day we figured we would make the trip to Salem just to try out the food. Salem might be a place harder to find parking than the city of Boston! We circled the block a few times before we grabbed a spot of the street and ran in just before they closed. They are a no frills, old school kind of place, which I kind of love. They are the longest running bakery/donut shop in Salem, a family run business, operating for the last 59 years!

Ziggy and Sons has donuts and a variety of other baked goods – we had to try out their turnovers, apple and raspberry. You can find them at 2 Essex St in Salem. Check out their Facebook page.

Next stop on our list, A&J King Artisan Bakers. This carb lovers dream serves the best breads in town along with sandwiches, handcrafted drinks and the most beautiful pastries you’ve ever seen. Brownie, pinwheel danish, sticky bun, sweet and savory, they have you covered. Just as a side note, try their Kouign Amann. There are very few bakeries that make these, so I try them where ever I see them. Pronounced “Queen Amahn”, it is dough, and butter with sugar…similar to a puff pastry. The sugar gets caramelized…it’s delicious. Sandwiches and drinks can be picked up from their cafe, located at 48 Central Street in downtown Salem. They have another location located at 139 Boston Street, but they do not serve sandwiches and drinks there. Check out their website here.

My next pick is Dairy Witch for ice cream sundaes. Open seasonally, they have drool worthy weekly sundae specials. You can get hard or soft ice cream, sherbet or sorbet. They’re open 7 days a week during the peak season – check them out at 117 Boston Street in Salem.

With multiple locations to choose from, Holy Cow ice cream gives you plenty of chances to try their award winning ice cream. They have catchy names like Corner Piece (Brown butter chocolate ice cream mixed with homemade crispy brownie corner pieces) and Easy Peazy (Lemon curd ice cream loaded with house made lemon bars, and fun flavors like cereal milk or brown butter cornbread. They even have vegan flavors such as vegan cookie butter or vegan pumpkin oreo. Check their website for the most current flavors. Check them out next to Salem Willows, 181 Fort Ave or just over the line in Peabody at 86 Andover Street.

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Poke was having a hot moment a little while ago. I love Manoa and PokeCity, but tried Pokeworks a while back to see how they compared. The fast casual concept should be a familiar one – pick your base, pick your proteins, pick you r mix ins, add some sauce, toppings and a little crunch.

Try a bowl or a salad, or if you’re feeling adventurous, try a burrito! Protein options include ahi tuna, albacore tuna, salmon, scallops, shrimp or or those of you non seafood fans, chicken. Mix in things like mango, edamame, ogo seaweed, kale or shiso. Sauces are spicy ginger, sweet chili, ponzu, Sriracha aioli and umami to name a few. To that you can add avocado, green onion, seaweed salad, sesame seeds or wasabi tobiko. To add a little crunch, try shredded nori, wonton crisps, macadamia nuts or some lotus chips.

Trying to pick your own seem a bit daunting? They have some signature poke items to help you out:

The Hawaiian Classic: ahi tuna – green and sweet onion – ogo seaweed – cucumber – chili flakes – sesame seeds – roasted sesame oil – hawaiian salt – pokeworks classic sauce

The Umami Classic – ahi tuna – green and sweet onion – hijiki seaweed – cucumber – sesame seeds – umami shoyu sauce

Shiso Salmon – atlantic salmon – green and sweet onion – edamame – cucumber – sesame seeds – fresh shiso – ponzu fresh sauce

Wasabi Shrimp and Scallops – shrimp – scallops – green and sweet onion – cucumber – masago – sesame seeds – wasabi aioli

Pokeworks

261 Elm Street, Somerville, MA

www.pokeworks.com

They have a second location in Harvard Square!

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My friend Leah is the absolute best. Last weekend, these two moms packed our bags and ran away from home! No kids, no husbands – just a weekend worth of quiet time, good laughs and of course, great food. So we headed over to Logan Airport to catch our Cape Air flight. I’ve been to Nantucket a handful of times, but always took the fast ferry (Leah prefers the slow ferry). The plane is quite small, it seats maybe 10 and prepare yourself, they ask for your weight at check in It’s a bumpy ride today – generally I am a good with small planes, but this one really made my stomach do somersaults. And just as we land, the guy in front of me proceeds to vomit – great start right?!?

We are staying at the beautiful Harborview Nantucket Hotel. The property hosts 11 luxurious cottages that range from 1-4 bedrooms. As you can see, just steps from the water and a short walk into town, the best of both worlds! We stayed in the “Crow’s Nest”, a two bedroom cottage with one bedroom on the main floor and one bedroom on the upper floor. Each had its own private bathroom, a second sitting room upstairs, a full kitchen with stove, microwave and dishwasher and a washer and dryer in unit. You can request a fire to be built at night – which we did, and it certainly made the cottage feel like home. The cottage also has a widow’s walk – so you (and by you, I mean Leah) can go up early in the morning and watch the sun rise.

General Manager Morag, and her husband Matt run the property seamlessly. They arranged to pick us up at the airport, sent us a list of restaurants that were open for the season, set up our tour at Cisco Brewery and answered all of our questions.

Famished from our plane ride, we popped into The Nautilus for a bite to eat. Open for both lunch and dinner, this rustic restaurant has classic New England dishes with hints of Asian flavors. They make their own bitters and syrups for cocktails and of course, they make their own delicious pickles. Everything on the menu looked delicious, and our eyes were certainly bigger than our stomachs, but we ordered a little bit of everything: the prime cheeseburger, the blue crab fried rice, the fried chicken drumettes and I’ll admit that I even had some of the salad – that dressing was so good! Stay tuned for a full review.

If you know me at all, you know I did my research before we took this trip, and I wrote down all of the bakeries and sweet shops I hoped that we would visit. I had been to Petticoat Row before, but was pleasantly surprised by all the fun treats for Daffy weekend (April 27-29). Fun iced sugar cookies in the shapes of daffodils, and cute little pink and yellow whale cookies. I tried out the morning bun and it did not disappoint. Another fun thing if you are on island for Daffy weekend, stop in and pick up one of these cute picnic baskets for the beach – or the ferry ride home. You can order sandwiches and salads – fruit and drinks, and of course some delicious sweets. Leah ordered a $40 basket and it came packed with two sandwiches, 2 side salads, 2 pieces of fruit, a Nantucket Nectar, and a bunch of cookies – so cute! We thought we would add a Cisco beer and a bottle of wine just for fun. Again, full review coming soon.

For dinner, I chose the Greydon House. The luxury hotel was on Conde Nast’s Traveler’s 2017 Hot List – it has 16 luxury rooms and suites – designed by the same people that did The Ace and The Standard Hotel in New York. No wonder it felt familiar! Chef Marcus Ware has a well rounded menu and it was certainly one of the better meals I have had in a LONG time. We started off by sharing the fusilli pasta with veal ragout – so savory – I could have eaten my body weight in this dish! We shared the caramelized sea scallops with English peas, broccoli and yuzu vinaigrette and the grilled black angus steak with crispy smoked potatoes and bernaise sauce. The potatoes were smooth and creamy on the inside and crunchy on the outside, and that steak was perfectly cooked with just the right amount of salt. We ended the night on a high note with the baked Alaska – chocolate and mint ice cream with lady fingers – torched meringue and strawberry. I couldn’t get enough of the strawberry puree – so delicious. Service was excellent – a must try if you are on the island.

We had the next morning free so we decided to rent a Jeep and head out to the lighthouse. We headed into town and picked up this baby at Young’s. We drove to the Northern most lighthouse, Great Point. You can access it by foot – but it’s a 7 mile walk on the beach, or take a Jeep with a beach permit sticker. We had to let out the air in the tires and popped the Jeep into 4 wheel drive. Leah was at the wheel – I was in charge of photos. We brought breakfast with us and enjoyed eating with the seals that were taking a little nap in the sun. Don’t forge to fill up the tires on the way out!

For breakfast, we had stopped at the Downyflake, a family run diner that I can only imagine is packed in peak season. They serve breakfast and lunch – we took some egg sandwiches to go – which totally hit the spot. And how can you leave without trying some of their homemade doughnuts. Try the sugar coated, the chocolate covered, the maple glazed, the coconut or the plain for just 90 cents each! Don’t forget your cash though, they don’t accept cards (ATM is on site if you need it).

Next stop in the afternoon was Cisco Brewers for a tour and some sampling. We brought our own lunch because the food truck wasn’t open for the season yet – stop in at Bartlett’s Farm next door for a sandwich (we had a Cuban sandwich that was just what we needed after an afternoon of sampling!) Back to the brewery – there’s a free shuttle from the Nantucket Visitor’s Center on Federal Street (check websites for times) which I would recommend, as parking is very limited. We were lucky enough to have Matt from the Harborview drive us over and pick us up. We had a fantastic tour guide – with a witty personality and heavy pour (perks of the last tour of the day?).

For dinner we mentioned to Matt and Morag that we were thinking of the Proprietor’s Table for dinner – they happened to be going there as well so we knew that it would be a good meal! A great menu filled with mostly small plates to share at the table – we had the carrot hummus, the kimchee pancake, the shishitos and the braised short rub cannelloni (which was a larger dish). The restaurant had a cool vibe – everything made you feel like you were in a friend’s garden for dinner – mismatched china plates, cutlery in mason jars – really home-like. The naan for the hummus was probably my favorite part of the dish – and I loved the flavor of the hummus. Star might have been that house made twinkie on the bottom right – a lemon poppyseed cake filled with strawberry. YUM!

Other quick side notes – we stopped into the Nantucket Bake Shop for some treats – we were there close to closing time, so there wasn’t much left. They have an old school feeling about them – pick up some classic pastries or a Jamaican patty for lunch!

We also stopped into Wicked Island Bakery and picked up some adorable sugar cookies made by Amy Hinson. Whale cookies and cookies shaped like the island with a cute daffodil flourish on them will make you the envy of all the other picnic go-ers on Daffy weekend. They didn’t have the morning buns when we were there, but they do sell to the Handlebar Cafe, where was got to try one – they’re made from scratch with pure Vermont butter and Tahitian vanilla – they’re gooey on the inside and sugary perfection on the outside! I also picked up an apple pastry which was pretty darn tasty as well. In the mood for something savory? They have breakfast sandwiches and pizzas as well.

On our last morning on the island, I took Leah to the Brant Point Grill for brunch – it’s located inside the White Elephant hotel. The brunch is AMAZING – so much delicious food to choose from. While Leah had stayed at the White Elephant before, she had never eaten there – so I was excited that I got to introduce her to at least ONE new thing! They’re open 10-2 on Sundays for brunch and have tasty items like lobster scrambled eggs, chicken and dumplings (I am still dreaming about this dish), a fresh raw bar, desserts as far as the eye can see, and even an ice cream cart for the kids! We happened to go on a day where they were having a charity event – so all proceeds went to Community Sailing and Nantucket’s Science Center. The weather was perfect and we sat for a long time – eating our way through the buffet and watching the ferry come in.

Thanks to Leah for being the best!

Have you been to Nantucket? What’s your go – to spot?

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It seems as though the Seaport area is changing daily – roads you took one day could be shut down another. New buildings are going up with luxury apartments and new restaurants are popping up right and left.

The most recent addition to this hot spot neighborhood is 75 on Courthouse Square. The restaurant offers partial water views (if you look closely) and conveniently has parking located right underneath – perfect for those cold days you don’t want to venture outside (because you know it’s a wind tunnel down there). 75 on Courthouse Square is Tom Kershaw’s largest of the “75” restaurants, you may also be familiar with 75 Chestnut and 75 Liberty Wharf. The restaurant has two bars, perfect for catching that after work drink and the two dining rooms are perfect for a casual dinner of things like steamed mussels, Nantucket seafood stew and crab cakes.

I was invited to the media preview lunch which included a delicious buffet of garden greens, roasted vegetable antipasto, pumpkin ravioli, marinated sirloin tops and the Nantucket seafood stew. Passed hors d’Oeuvres included baby lamb chops with Dijon mustard and herbed breadcrumbs (so tasty!!) and the “75 crab cakes” that were loaded with crab meat. The sirloin tips were certainly a winner in my book – perfectly cooked and served over a bed of peppers and onions.

The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, and brunch on both days of the weekend. Don’t forget to try one of their classic cocktails while you’re there!

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend a media preview lunch at 75 on Courthouse Square. My meal was provided complimentary but as usual, all opinions are my own.

75 on Courthouse Square

60 Seaport Boulevard, Boston, MA

www.75oncourthousesquare.com

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Our plan: meet up at Hi Rise Bread Company on Mass. Ave and go out for ice cream afterwards. I had been wanting to try Honeycomb Creamery for so long, and get my hands on those rose gummy bears I had been seeing all over Instagram. What really happened: we showed up to Hi Rise, my daughter managed to have a blow out diaper, all over me, and oh wait, Honeycomb is closed on Mondays.  So I trek out to the car to change a diaper while Leah scopes us out a seat. The seating area is a little tight and not stroller friendly at all, or is that just my stroller that is the size of a Cadillac? So what could possibly save this day? Breakfast for lunch – a #47, which is ham, a hard boiled egg, and cheddar cheese on a potato bun, grilled. Yup. And ALL.THE.VANILLA.BREAD. Score that I got myself an end piece. Not pictured, because, well…I ate it before I remembered to take a photo.

Everything in their bakery case looks amazing. I picked up a little of this and a little of that, just to treat myself. I mean, girl logic, if ice cream wasn’t happening I can totally replace those supposed calories with baked goods right? The vanilla bread is so delicious, slightly sweet and the crust is the best part! And those home made Oreos? Swoon.

As I mentioned before, seating is a bit tight and there were a lot of people who were working – so the tables weren’t turning over. Great if you’re grabbing something to go, or you don’t mind sitting at the bar at the window – but come early for a good seat.

Parking is at meters on the street.

Hi Rise Bread Company

1663 Mass Ave., Cambridge, MA

http://www.hi-risebread.com

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I’m a little embarrassed to say that I don’t think I had ever been inside the Boston Public Library until very recently. You’ve probably seen photos on Instagram of the Reading Room and the courtyard, but did you know that there is a restaurant inside? Tucked inside the library is The Courtyard Restaurant, a beautiful room where you can enjoy afternoon tea. How very adult, don’t you think? My fellow “ladies of leisure” (#GoLocalBoston) headed out to do some research there.

I’ve always thought that tea comes with a a hefty price tag, $39 for tea and finger sandwiches? I usually walk away hungry and I don’t even like tea. So the adult me heads into this meeting with an open mind. I get a hot chocolate instead of tea, because again, adulting. The room is spacious, open, light and airy. I love the color scheme and not so secretly wish I had a room in my house like this. They present you with a real book, and tucked inside is this tea menu on the left.

Our tower arrives with both sweet and savory goodies. While never a fan of finger sandwiches, these didn’t blow my mind, but were certainly fancy enough to make this feel like you’re celebrating a special occasion (oh wait, it’s just Monday). Side note: what do you think they do with all the crusts that they cut off these sandwiches? I digress. So the wild mushroom butter on Pain de Mie was one of my favorites, as well as the roasted ham and sharp cheddar. Such a lovely presentation. The top tier was adorned with plain and currant scones, fruit preserves, Devonshire double cream and lemon curd. Now we are talking. The scones were perfect, not too sweet, and the lemon curd just made me swoon. The lemon poppy seed cake was a hit, as were the raspberry thumbprints. The macarons came in assorted flavors and were a little out of the ordinary!

Service was decent and there were only a few other people there besides our group. Head over and have yourself a spot of tea and treat yourself to some tasty treats (make sure to eat with your pinky up for good measure )

The Courtyard Restaurant and the Boston Public Library

700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

www.thecateredaffair.com/bpl/restaurant-cafe/the-courtyard-restaurant

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While walking around we happened upon the Plaza Food Hall. The hall opened in 2010 with Todd English’s as the anchor. It has since added on to become 32,000 sq. ft of deliciousness. The shops are carefully curated. Some well know favorites and some new names pop up in the list. We started out our night getting Lady M cake slices to go.

The cake slices are not inexpensive at $7.75 a slice, but the mille crepes…totally worth it. The cake features no less than 20 paper thin handmade crepes layered with pastry cream and the top is caramelized until golden. The cake is so impossibly light with just a hint of sweetness. I love it!

Strawberry Shortcake ($7.75) is another favorite of mine. Lady M’s version is made with flour imported from Japan and it produces a vanilla sponge cake like no other. The filling is whipped cream with fresh strawberries throughout. The cake was light as air!

Chi Noodle Bar was our next stop. It was hard to decide what to get because everything sounded so good! They offer ramen, wontons, spring rolls and delicious dumplings.

The chicken dumplings were delicious, they were light and flavorful. They were not greasy at all, which you know some dumplings can be. Looking forward to going back and trying some of the other items on the menu.

Next stop Ora di Pasta, a cute little shop with a few tables inside to dine in at. We took ours out to the communal seating so that we could get a little something from a few different places.

The spaghetti with meatballs is so simple and so classic that it is a good test of an Italian restaurant. This did not disappoint with the noodles cooked perfectly al dente and the meatballs were tender and flavorful. We gobbled this up in an embarrassingly short amount of time!

We re-visited Luke’s Lobster, but decided to get something besides the lobster roll.

Ok, well not really because we did get the lobster roll, but not a whole one! We got the combo that is 1/2 crab roll, 1/2 shrimp roll and 1/2 lobster roll. I was diggin’ this trio and the spices on the shrimp roll!

No. 7 Sub is a small chain that started off in Brooklyn. Two college friends started the restaurant together in 2008 to critical acclaim by publications like Bon Appetit.

While they  have tasty subs like ‘the frito kid’ made with cold balsamic chicken, black bean hummus, lettuce, tomato and fritos or the ‘tuna toastie’ made with tuna salad, mozzarella, tomatoes, pickled red onions, thai basil and wasabi grape nuts, our dining companion went with the less than adventurous turkey with lettuce, mayo and tomato. While boring, the sub was still tasty.

The Plaza Food Hall

1 West 59th Street, New York, NY

http://www.theplazany.com/dining/foodhall/

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Following up from my previous post, I had mentioned that I had seen list in Zagat for the best food halls in NY. We already went to City Kitchen, next stop was Gotham West Market. A little out of the way if you aren’t in the area (Hell’s Kitchen), but we happened to be coming home from the water taxi!

The space is industrial and plays the music just a tad too loud for conversations to be had at a normal tone. 9 vendors have space here and all of them looked delicious, it was hard to choose!

Our first stop, Genuine Roadside.

The menu offers a sampling of burgers, pork, chicken and vegetarian options.

Poke style ahi tacos ($13) were top on our must try list. They came with spicy mayo, avocado and border slaw with sesame in crispy corn shells. This puts tacos in a whole new light – it may be hard to go back to traditional tacos after this! Really delicious – salty and creamy, I love everything that was going on in this dish.

I had been dying to try out Ivan Ramen’s Slurp Shop. Ivan Orkin is a world renowned ramen expert and his shop serves classic ramen. If you can’t make it to Hell’s Kitchen, they have a location on Clinton Street.

Here’s what I love about this place, they keep the soup separate until you’re ready to eat it so the noodles stay in tact. I ordered the Shio ramen that came with sea salt, dashi, chicken broth, pork belly chashu and rye noodles.

Tokyo Shio ($12). Don’t worry if you’re not in the mood for ramen, they also have some delicious rice bowls. And, if you happen to be there in weekend mornings, they have a tasty brunch men complete with breakfast buns, rice porridge and even a breakfast ramen.

Choza Taqueria serves up a variety of tamales, burritos, tacos, torts and ceviches.

The burritos are enormous ($8.73) and come loaded with black beans, rice and pico, along with fresh cilantro in a flour tortilla.

The chicken tacos were delicious, they came 3 to an order for $8.04 – double corn tortillas served with citrus marinated chicken and queso fresco.

And how can you forget dessert? Zagat rated Ample Hills the #1 ice cream shop in New York City.

This Brooklyn based company serves up hand crafted ice cream in flavors like ooey gooey cake batter, snap mallow pop, chocolate milk and cookies and peppermint patty.

I had the orange dreamsicle, sherbet made with orange juice, pure vanilla cream and a splash of Grand Marnier. Super delicious!

Nothing starts the day or ends the evening better than a cup of coffee. Blue Bottle has locations in SF, LA, New York and Tokyo. For the serious coffee drinker, not those that are looking for milk and sugar with a touch of coffee, Blue Bottle offers a variety of coffee options. If you’re stopping in in the morning, they also have some delicious baked goods.

Gotham West Market

600 11th Ave., New York, NY

http://gothamwestmarket.com/

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I had seen an article in Zagat on the top food halls in New York City. So on a recent trip, we decided to try and hit up as many as we could! First stop, City Kitchen. City Kitchen is located at Row NYC, a hotel in Times Square. The space has 9 vendors and we had a good sampling – we wish we had worn sweat pants, but it was all in the name of research!!

Wooly’s makes shaved snow in two sizes, 12oz for $6 and 16oz for $8. They have 5 flavors: original leche, matcha green tea, strawberry shortcake, root beer float and a flavor of the day, which happened to be melon.

After you order the flavor you add your toppings – you can pick 3 and each additional topping is $0.50. Choose from cereal to fresh fruit to mochi. And in addition, you can get that topped with sea salt leech, chocolate drizzle, whipped cream or strawberry cream.

I was so full from my savory items I had eaten I just wanted to cleanse my palate and ordered a shaved snow plain.

Check out this cool video as I watched them make it!

It was delicious, really light, an odd mouth feel when I thought about it, but cool and refreshing!

Gabriela’s Taqueria makes delicious tacos as well as other favorites such as quesadillas, empanadas and breakfast tacos.

We had the steak taco ($6) – they make the tortillas in the press so you know they’re fresh. The steak did not disappoint, well seasoned and with little else in the taco, the meat was able to be the star of the show.

I first tried Dough at the Brooklyn Flea.

They have a massive round counter with all the doughnuts on display! I was drooling while I was waiting in line.

We picked the toasted coconut, a sweet doughnut with coconut glazed that is topped with toasted coconut. I love these because they taste so light and airy!

Lunch of champions right?!

I love this little cart from Sigmund’s! If you do too, you can rent it for your next function!

I had the truffle cheddar pretzel ($3.68) which they heated up in a little toaster, so cute! Really delicious and flavorful – I happen to love pretzels! It was like a good New York bagel, crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.

And just when you thought that I didn’t eat actual lunch! I had a lobster roll from Luke’s Lobster. They have over a dozen locations, including one in Boston in case you don’t have the chance to get to NY (it’s on Exeter Street).

The lobster roll is affordably priced at $16. It is light on the mayo and served Maine style with  chilled lobster meat on a toasted split top bun. There’s a little mayo, a little lemon butter and a pinch of spice. Really nice.

There is communal seating where the vendors are and if you walk across the hall, there are tons of tables and stadium like seating (wooden steps) as other options. Restrooms are located in the hotel.

City Kitchen

700 8th Avenue at 44th Street, New York, NY

http://citykitchen.rownyc.com/

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Sometimes you need to switch things up from your regular go – to spots. So we headed over to Eulinda’s for some ice cream. They serve Richardson’s ice cream so you know you’re getting something good!

Eulinda’s is located in what looks like a little cape house. The line in the summer can be long and be out the door. They have a bunch of flavors to choose from and of course a good selection of toppings! I happen to love Reese’s.

In addition to ice cream they have sherbert and sorbet along with a non fat sugar free option as well. But if you’re feeling especially saucy, make sure to order a sundae!

Eulinda’s Ice Cream

634 W Falmouth Highway, Falmouth, MA

Check out their Facebook page here. Open seasonally.

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