Michele Topor's North End Market Tours

The North End of Boston is the oldest Italian neighborhood in the nation. It's a quaint little section of town, with brick buildings and sidewalks, and pastry and coffee shops on every corner. 


But the North End has much more to offer than what the average tourist comes to find. Michele Topor's North End market tours take tourists around the neighborhood, showing them the most authentic Italian cuisine. I had the pleasure of taking one of the tours just last week. 


Jim Becker, my tour guide, has been working in the culinary industry for about 25 years. He began at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, and eventually opened his own Spanish restaurant which won two Best of Boston awards and two Wine Spectator awards. Becker was also the executive chef at Taranta Cucina Mediterranean, a restaurant in the North End for a year before starting his journey as a tour guide. 


So, it's obvious that Becker is an expert in the food industry, and it became more obvious on the tour. Rather than a typical food tour where guests eat their way through a city, this was mainly educational, with a few tastings of course. At the first stop, Maria's pastry shop, Becker spoke about how Italians like their pastry, describing how most will have something sweet around 3 p.m. with their espresso. Staring at the wall of butter cookies in Maria's made my mouth water, never mind all the other pastry they have to offer.


After Maria's, we briefly stopped at Mercato Del Mare, a fish market, and then headed over to Polcari's Coffee. Polcari's is a small narrow store filled with every herb and spice imaginable. One of the shocking parts of stepping in here was the comparison between the Nutella (a hazelnut spread) sold in American grocery stores to the Nutella sold in Europe. The American version has 7 grams of trans fat, while the Italian version, which comes in a glass jar rather than plastic, has none. Becker also showed the us different spices like licorice root and compared the cinnamon stick we find in grocery stores to the cinnamon found in Italy, which is thicker and more bark like. 


Alba Produce was the next market to visit. There is no sign advertising Alba's, which makes it a bit harder to find, but they feature a variety of produce that is unique to the Italian culture, like bulb fennel and chicory. Then, we went to Monica's Mercato which features many different treasures of Italy. This gem of a store, owned by a brother/cousin trio, has a variety of Italian cheese, including a special form of mozzarella they get imported from Italy. They also make their own pasta and bread and have a variety of ready made foods like antipasti and sandwiches. Yum!


Of course this wouldn't be a tour of the North End without some cheese and wine. At The Cheese Shop, Becker spoke about the many different olive oils they offer and discussed what true balsamic is, compared to the balsamic vinaigrette we Americans like to drench on salad, which he calls a "scam." Real balsamic, Becker said, takes years to make, and I can personally say after tasting some, it is ten times better. We also tasted homemade ricotta cheese and Pecorino cheese before heading over to V. Cirace & Son, INC. fine wine shop. Here, Becker spoke about the different wines this award winning store offers and how to pair certain wines with certain foods. 


For those who want to try this wonder of a market tour, they can visit Michele's website to buy tickets.