All-American Lobster Ravioli at Pub's (Growers Pub) in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

All-American Lobster Ravioli at Pub’s (Growers Pub) in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Lobster comes from the icy waters off the coast of Maine, making lobster ravioli in tomato cream sauce an Italian-American classic that may have originated in a place like Boston’s North End Italian neighborhood. (Harvard, MIT, Boston University and Tufts all have a guilty splurge dish in lobster ravioli.) 

When I saw lobster ravioli in tomato cream sauce on the menu at Pub’s in Salinas, California on a recent outing there, I immediately ordered it and planned an Italian-American meal around it. 

I began my meal with an order of fried calamari with chipotle aioli (garlic mayonnaise with chipotle peppers blended into it) dipping sauce. I love fried calamari with a light batter like they do it at Pub’s. That appetizer sets the tone for a delicious meal. 

The lobster ravioli comes with a salad, so we next ate a mix of fresh friseé lettuce, baby greens, and chopped romaine lettuce. I ordered blue cheese dressing with my salad and liked thinking I was eating creamy Italian gorgonzola cheese with light cream as a dressing. 

I guessed the blue cheese dressing was actually made with a creamy Point Reyes blue cheese from outside San Francisco. It was delicious and also set the tone for the much anticipated main dish. 

The lobster ravioli looked great when it came and also had braised prawns and whole octopus in the sauce. The ravioli was stuffed with ricotta cheese with chopped lobster claw meat mixed with it. The tomato cream sauce tasted as if seafood broth had been blended into it. The delicious sauce tied everything together and made me feel exceedingly healthy as I ate it. 

For dessert, I ordered tiramisu. To make this dessert, you place lady finger sponge biscuits in the bottom of a dish and dampen them with espresso coffee. Next, you spread whipped mascarpone cheese (like whipped cream) on top of the ladyfingers. Then, you sprinkle the top with cocoa powder and refrigerate the tiramisu before serving it. 

This meal was delicious and a bit more luxurious than what I normally eat, but I enjoyed every bite of it and highly recommend the lobster ravioli in tomato cream sauce at Pub’s in Salinas, California to everyone as a splurge meal to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, good grades, and graduations. 

(Note: The dining room we sat in had photos of the Salinas Rodeo on the wall. The back wall was covered with brand marks from Monterey County ranchers – 35 in all. These marks were placed on livestock to help separate animals after grazing and to keep cattle together on cattle drives east for slaughter in the Midwest.  The meat from the cattle was mostly sold to the Northeast.) 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Boston Homage Walk - Part 3 - By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Boston Homage Walk – Part 3 – By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

With my books in tow, we toured Cambridge.  We took the T Red Line back to Boston and took the Freedom Trail to Paul Revere’s home.  Paul Revere (1735 – 1818) is famous for alerting the Patriots that the British were coming as war started.

Revere’s parents were French Protestants (Huguenots), who taught him to be a silversmith.  I have seen his work at the Henry Ford Village in Dearborn, Michigan.  Revere’s simple lines and curves make his works easy to hold and behold.

Revere’s home was made of wood and had shutters on the bottom floor windows and diamond-pane windows on the second floor.  Both features appeared defensive.

We could just view the exterior of the home due to the hour and walked to Faneuil Hall.

Peter Faneuil gave this hall to the City of Boston in 1742.  Peter Faneuil (1700 – 1743) also had French Huguenot parents.  He made his fortune in the Triangle Trade of rum and slaves.

We were very tired from walking by this time and went to McCormick and Schmick’s for dinner.  Laurent ate clam chowder and lobster while I tried fish chowder and a mini clam bake.

Wow! That was a good meal after a good day of hiking through Boston and Cambridge.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

Ruth Paget Selfie

Boston Homage Walk - Part 2 - By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Boston Homage Walk – Part 2 – By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

From Boston Latin School, we walked to the Granary Burying Ground along the red brick Freedom Trail.

The Granary Burial Ground is the final resting place of Samuel Adams.  He has a large headstone.  Pebbles were placed on his headstone.  I have always viewed him as “No more man.”

John Hancock is buried here along with Ben Franklin’s parents, who taught Franklin to be good at everything, including writing and scientific observation.

The “real” mother goose is buried here as well according to guidebooks.  I paid homage to her and thanked the writers Perrault and the Brothers Grimm for collecting mother goose tales from all over Europe.

From the Granary Burying Ground, we went to the State House that was built after the Revolution.  We visited inside and out and agreed that Massachusetts has nice architecture.  Behind the State House is Beacon Hill with its lovely homes illustrating the best in New England’s domestic architecture.

We walked to the Boston Common park and finally rested on a park bench by a gazebo with Ionic columns.  Boston Common is the oldest city park in the United States.

We were hungry and planned out how to get to the Red T Train (subway) out to Cambridge, so we could visit Harvard University.

We went to a restaurant there that allowed you to pick out your burrito ingredients.  The burrito tasted great with a Samuel Adams ale.  I think the name of the restaurant was The Thirsty Scholar, but I could be wrong.

After lunch, we visited the Harvard Quads.  In the center of the main quad stands a statue of a seated John Harvard.  The statue is bronze with shiny shoes.

The legend has it that if you touch John Harvard’s shoes, you will gain admission to Harvard one of our family friends told us.

I went to a bookstore to buy souvenirs – two books.  One was on the geometric art used in mosques and the other was on the different elements used to make color pigments for painting.

End of Part 2.

To be continued…

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

Ruth Paget Selfie

Boston Homage Walk - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Boston Homage Walk – Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I visited Boston for a convention and spent one weekend day touring Boston.

We began our tour at the port to see the USS Constitution.  This small ship is most famous for its part in the War of 1812 where it earned the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

The USS Constitution is still commissioned as a Navy ship.  It is a tiny ship that is perfect for maneuvering around Boston Harbor and its islands despite the harbor having been filled in substantially since the founding of Boston.

From the USS Constitution, we set out on Boston’s Freedom Trail, which is 2.7 miles long and has 16 official stops.  The USS Constitution is stop 15.  We started at the Freedom Trail’s end and worked our way backwards to stops teachers and writers would especially want to see.

Stop Number 6 is the Boston Latin School, the first public school in America.  One of my erudite classmates at the University of Chicago attended this venerable institution and is now a TV show host in Texas.

Other notable alumni of Boston Latin from the Revolutionary period include:

-Samuel Adams (1722-1803), who organized the Boston Tea Party to protest English taxes on imported items sold in the US

-Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), a non-graduate who was an author, printer, postmaster, and diplomat among other trades

-John Hancock (1737 – 1793), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, whose beautiful signature still elicits comments such as “Put your John Hancock on this.”

-Robert Treat Paine (1731 – 1814), signer of the Declaration of Independence

When Boston Latin was founded, students had to master knowledge of the Bible.  When Harvard University was founded in 1636, Boston Latin became a feeder school for Harvard University.

An alumnus of both schools was the second US president John Adams (1735 – 1826).

Girls were tutored at home during the colonial period.

End of Part 1.

To be continued…

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Click for Laurent Paget's Book

Ruth Paget Selfie