Oh, Stinky! Paging Mr. Stinky!!

[hippywife]

Please tell me, dear clown, if you know anything of this place.

http://www.salumeriaitaliana.com/

:hi:

[Tesha]

1. Mr. Tesha and I know that place *VERY* well!

That's our favorite deli in Boston's Italian North End!

It's our standard source for a variety of different cheeses, olives,
and squid-ink pasta, along with the occasional salami or prosciutto
or any other item that catches our fancy!

We always shop in person so we can't speak for their web presence,
but if you're ever in Boston, we strongly recommend that you: 1) eat at pretty
much any place along Hanover Street; 2) get desert at the Modern Bakery
(or, if you insist, Mike's); and 3) bring home edible souvenirs of the North
End from Salumeria Italiana.

We're headed down there Thursday to do our Christmas-Eve shopping. ;)

Tesha

[hippywife]

2. Wonderful!

Does their Oldani Genoa Salame have the whole peppercorns embedded in it?

[Tesha]

3. do you want us to find out for you?

make a list - I can't promise to understand everything they say tho'... sometimes we can only guess...:9 and ask for another sample...

[hippywife]

4. As long as you're already going there,

I would greatly appreciate it. I remember the best salame when I was a kid from our own similar market. I have not been able to find a good salame with peppercorns in forever.

Thanx, Tesha! :hi:

[Paper Roses]

7. I was beginning to think I was nuts. My Italian grandfather

used to go to the North End from Newton every Saturday for cheeses, cold cuts, pasta and the like. Two things have stuck in my mind for about a million years. I remember the Salami with the peppercorns. As a kid, I used to poke them out.

He also bought something like a flat-bread with some kind of herbs on it. If I remember right, it was round, thin and had fennel seeds on it. I have never seen it for sale anywhere. Love to know if I am dreaming on that one. I'd love to try it now. It was really not a kids thing but I'm sure I'd love it now.

[Warpy]

6. Cannolis? Go to the Modern Bakery.

There's one big place that reeks of tomato sauce and usually has a line. Avoid that one, it's for the tourists. Go to a hole in the wall that reeks of garlic and you can't go wrong.

[Tesha]

8. Some Hanover Street restaurants...

The Daily Catch

http://www.dailycatch.com/

The Daily Catch really *IS* a hole-in-the-wall. It's about as wide as the doorway
plus two teeny café tables and has another one or two tables tucked in between
the window and the kitchen. But the fried calamari with squid ink pasta and oil
and garlic is to die for! Here, let me breath on you so you can tell... :nuke:

They also have a much larger, newer restaurant at the (relatively) new Moakley
Court House over on the harbor on the border of Southie. The food's just as
good but the atmosphere is completely different -- much more "Yuppie Modern"
with trendy youngsters rather than the North End tourist+native crowd.

-=-=-=-=-

Mr. Tesha likes Piccolo Venezia.

http://www.piccolaveneziaboston.com/

This place has pretty good generic food (and a great scungilli salad) but
what draws Mr. Tesha in again and again is the tripe. Stewed slow and long
in a very nice tomato sauce, this is the Italian food his mother never made!
And, hey, it's right next door to the Modern Bakery!

-=-=-=-=-

Strega

http://www.stregaristorante.com/

We walked into this place a few months ago when everything else was
super busy. Quite far down Hanover Street towards the waterfront, I
guess most of the crowd had already been worn down looking at all
of the menus at restaurants along the way. But there was nothing
disappointing about Strega, from the olives marinated in olive oil
through the appetizers and into the main course. Mr. Tesha had the
lobster-stuffed ravioli, cut in the shapes of fish. The only thing
slightly off-kilter are the several TVs that play a steady stream of
Mafioso cliché sort of movies. But then again, who doesn't laugh at
Jelly in Analyze This!?

-=-=-=-=-

We've eaten at several other places as well, on and off of Hanover
Street and but I can't remember the names right now. The bottom
line is that we've *NEVER* been disappointed by any of the places
we've decided to go into (but we do study the menus posted outside
each prospect).

And if Italian doesn't appeal, shall we discuss Boston's Chinatown
and all the dim sum possibilities?

If anyone wants to meet us, we're vacationing from work all of next
week and would be happy to share another experience in the North
End!

Tesha

[hippywife]

9. LOL!

Those Strega guys scare me. I clicked through their photo gallery. Talk about good fellas'! Whoa! :rofl:

[Warpy]

5. I used to know that place very, very well

It had a selection of everything you could possibly want in combination with what you could find in the open stalls to produce any regional Italian dish you could possibly think of.

While there's no way to convey the chaos inside the store and the vast array of what's really available there, their mail order business looks like a pretty good sampling for people who can't get anywhere near the real thing.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. HeyHeyHey!

I'm not at all familiar with the Boston Italian community, which I assume from the comments is where that place is. The link just stalled.

Do you have Safeway by you? Their house brand of "peppered salami" is one I bet you'd like.

[hippywife]

11. No Safeways here.

I know it's not in your neighborhood, just thought you mighta heard of 'em. Fugeddaboutit!

Sorry, I just got done viewing the photo gallery of those Strega fellas Tesha posted. :rofl:

[eleny]

12. i am totally gleaping that smilie!

thx.

[hippywife]

15. How do you think

I got it? :rofl: :hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

16. That smiley!

Oh.My.Gawd!

I LOVE it.

[hippywife]

17. It was the closest thing

I could find in my collection to that ever popular chin salute. You know the one! :rofl:

[grasswire]

13. was this place in Saveur magazine recently?

I saw an article somewhere about a salumeria in Boston

[hippywife]

14. If this is the article you saw

then it's not the same place, but that gives me another alley to explore.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Fine-Meats

[Tesha]

18. Live bloggin'...

Okay, we're at The Daily Catch right now, after having had
the wildest time ever at Salumeria Italiana -- Mama Mia was
that place a mob scene! When we arrived, the line only wound
all the way around the inside of the store, but soon after, it was
out the door and halfway back to Hanover Street!

But we got everything we wanted except for an absolutely-certain
answer on the salami so we bought some and will, umm, "study"
it carefully lately. But now, Calamari, squid ink pasta, and garlic
is calling and we've got to answer...

Ciao!

Tesha

[hippywife]

19. LOL!

I'm so sorry that I forgot about this. Something jarred my memory this morning and I came back looking for you.

What a crazy day! How big is the place? Must be really, really good stuff in there! :wow:

Please, please, please let me know the result of your study! LOL

:hi:

[Tesha]

20. Here's my blog post about the Salumeria (and more)...

http://aperfectloaf.com/?p=153

We also have images of the Oldani Genoa Salami for
you; I'll get them posted and reply here again. It
looks like that salami has peppercorns in it, but they
appear to be fragments rather than whole peppercorns.
But it's good salami, no doubt about it!

Tesha

[hippywife]

21. Thank you so much, Tesha.

I really do appreciate this. :hug:

[Tesha]

22. Okay, a couple of images of the salami are now up at that same blog post.

Scroll all the way down to the "P.S."; I hope you don't
mind that I mentioned you by name ;).

(I wonder if one can get in trouble for posting pictures
of salamis on the web? Or is that sort of thing done a lot?
Then again, Genoa isn't a hard salami so maybe it's okay.)

Tesha

[hippywife]

23. I really don't mind, Tesha.

It looks delicious! A good salami is a beautiful thing to behold and very, very dangerous. So I greatly appreciate the risk you undertook in doing this research on my behalf. :rofl:

Really, thanx! I'm thinking I may place that order soon. :hi: :hug:

[wryter2000]

24. OMG, the cheeses

I've been dying for some montasio since I saw Lidia make frico. They don't have that (I think Lidia does sell it), but they have some great softer peccorinos. I tried making pasta caccio e pepe (sp?) with hard peccorino, and it was a total disaster.

Lordy, you're going to cost me some money.

[hippywife]

25. That was my first response

to the person who posted it on another board. :rofl: