As Julia Child once said, “People who love to eat are always the best people.” Her words rang true on Saturday during a Boston Foodie Tour of Beacon Hill and the Back Bay where I was amongst my people –- guys and gals obsessed with food and eating.

The 5-hour+ tour, which began at the Liberty Hotel, was led by Foodie Tours owner Audrey Giannattasio and guide-in-training Adrienne Bruno, a graduate — and now career services director — at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts.

The guests were a mix of tourists in town for the Boston Marathon (run, Trevor, run!), a couple from Jamaica Plain celebrating the guy’s birthday as well as a group of friends feting their foodie friend, Shannon, who turned 30 a month earlier.

We began at Scampo at the Liberty where chef Lydia Shire’s staff welcomed us with a yummy heirloom tomato and house-made bufala mozzarella salad followed by a slice of her famous lobster pizza. Hot damn, I’ve missed that pizza!

After that, we headed for Charles Street with stops at Savenor’s market where we gawked at the exotic meats and spring veggies such as ramps, fiddleheads and fava beans -– a most welcome sight!  Wait, what’s this? Logs of Westfield Farms’ Capri chocolate goat cheese. Sign me up…

At JP Lick’s Ice Cream we were treated to kiddie cups of ice cream (I had Cherry Garciaparra and a taste of Doris’ Manischewitz sorbet) and then it was onto Beacon Hill Chocolates where we all decided the sampling of dark chocolate and caramel topped with red sea salt was, well, orgasmic.

At the Paramount, owned by my friend, Eleanor Greene and hubby, Joe, we got the 411 on the history of the Hub haunt and learned The Rules -– order, pay, then sit. We also had a welcome drink of fresh-squeezed OJ.

A chilly walk through the Boston Public Garden where the Swan Boats glided along the lagoon, Adrienne impressed us rattling off the names of the “Make Way for Ducklings” mallards and people dressed as cats had a photo shoot, we were led to Back Bay.

We went by Georgetown Cupcakes on Newbury to gawk at the line out the door (apparently, the tour makes a pit stop on weekdays) and ended up at up at Bacco’s Wine & Cheese on Stuart Street.

Major find! We were introduced to many locally-made foodstuffs like tubs of St. Emilion Macaroon Company’s honey and almond cookies made in East Boston and Lydia’s Handcrafted Foods’ dukkah spice mix. Apparently, dukkah, a Middle Eastern mix of spices and nuts, is good with bread dipped in oil, but Adrienne told me the mix is awesome on avocado slices. I hate being a latecomer to food trends…

There was a wine tasting along with samples of American Spoonfood’s Whole Seed Mustard, salami with a hint of chocolate and the aforementioned macaroon. I spent some money there, but stupidly didn’t buy a small brick of pressed dried fruits that would have been perfect for my next cheese platter. I. Must. Return.

And then it was onto Flour Bakery + Cafe on Clarendon Street where we devoured delicious small sandwiches (lamb, chicken and tomato-mozzarella) and were given Joanne Chang’s famous sticky buns as a parting gift!

Some of the buns never made it out of the bakery. In fact, John, who said he would never eat a sticky bun, opened his box then parted from the group to “be alone” with his gooey new friend. I told you these people were serious foodies!


Now, picture our sticky, overstuffed herd dodging the body fat-free horde in their Nikes and blue Boston Marathon 2013 pull-overs in Copley Square where a banner screamed, “You Are Awesome.” I like to think the banner was for us, not the thousands of runners who will make it to the Finish Line tomorrow.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” I said, shouldering the slow sightseers. Don’t they know we’re late for our date with a bowl of chowder or a flight of Blue Point oysters at Turner Fisheries????

After bathroom visits by many,GM Kelly Sprouse gave us the 411 on the making of the award-winning chowder. He also provided the recipe, but Audrey said she was told a mystery ingredient –- molasses or maple syrup, she thinks -– was omitted. Only two cooks have ever made the chowder, said the GM. I think someday one of them will crack…

The California contingent bid us all goodbye at Turner Fisheries in order to make their dinner reservation in Cambridge at Cuchi-Cuchi. Seriously.

The rest of us waddled to the tour’s final stop — Asana at the Mandarin Oriental -– where we collapsed on the cushy seats and ordered dessert.

I rallied from my food coma to order the restaurant’s signature sweet — a deconstructed strawberry shortcake served in a tall glass. There were berries, cream and broken pieces of shortbread, strawberry “caviar” and meringue “antennas.” A shot of strawberry juice was served on the side that Shannon told me to pour into my glass after I shot it down like Gran Patron Platinum. Ah, well…

The Asana dessert, which I didn’t finish, was the last thing I ate on Saturday.  I was so spent by the extreme eating all I wanted when I returned home was a big glass of water — and a look at Boston Foodie Tours’ North End itinerary.

Tags: Boston, bostonfoodietours, bostonmarathon, chowder, flour, foodtour, goatcheese, hungrybruno, icecream, libertyhotel, macaroons, savenors, scampo, strawberryshortcake, turnerfisheries, wineandcheese