Our Boston trip ended in the best possible way: with an absolutely delicious breakfast at Mike & Patty’s, a tiny restaurant in Bay Village. I don’t know if it comes across on the blog, but I LOVE breakfast – it’s probably my favorite meal to eat in a restaurant. Mal and Tina raved about Mike & Patty’s breakfast sandwiches, so I knew we had to eat there before hopping our plane to SF.

You could walk right by this place and not know it’s there. These are the best kinds of places, aren’t they?

There are two tables inside Mike & Patty’s, and roughly three feet of space between the tables and the counter. Tiny!

Clearly this table was reserved for Tina!

After scanning the menu, Corey and I decided to copy our hosts and order their recommended breakfast sandwiches. First up: The Bacon and Egg, Fancy, an egg sandwich topped with cheddar cheese, avocado, bacon, red onion and house mayo – a deliciously spicy concoction. This was served on crunchy multigrain bread. It was so tasty, I immediately regretted the decision to split both sandwiches with Corey…I wanted to keep this one all to myself! It was perfect because it was nice and balanced; no individual component overwhelmed the sandwich.

Next up: the Grilled Banana Sandwich. What a perfect counterpart to the salty egg sandwich! This was sweet and gooey and fantastic. The sandwich was filled with sliced bananas and a delicious honey cinnamon butter. More honey cinnamon butter was spread on the outside of the bread before the sandwich was grilled, giving it a cinnamon toast-like texture and taste.

All I can say is wow! Mike & Patty’s was right up our alley. Corey and I love going out to breakfast, and small, local joints always have the best food.

We let our food digest during a cold, snowy walk around the Harvard campus…

…and bought snacks for the plane at Flour, the bakery owned by our new BFF, Joanne Chang!

I didn’t think any bakery could compare to my beloved Tartine, but wow, Flour is impressive. The cashier made our decision a bit easier by suggesting his favorite items, and we purchased a couple of cookies and a slice of banana bread to enjoy later in the day.

I miss Boston, but I have to admit it was nice to return to 60 degree temperatures in San Francisco. Future visits will definitely be in the spring and summer months!

Don’t you love restaurants that exceed your expectations by 1000%? Last night, we had an outrageously delicious meal at Myers + Chang, the latest culinary endeavor from famed Boston baker/chef Joanne Chang. (That’s her, up above…Tina’s hubby orchestrated a meet and greet for two geeky, starstruck food bloggers!) Myers + Chang offers a funky mix of Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Thai specialties, all infused with an eclectic and comfortable feel. The decor can only be described as American diner meets Chinatown: patrons sit at closely packed tables (or at the counter overlooking the open kitchen), and places are set with pages from Asian newspapers.

The Myers + Chang menu is surprisingly affordable. On Mondays and Tuesdays, they offer Cheap Date specials that include 5 dishes for $40 per couple. You can pick from pre-set menus or go for the Blind Date, in which the chef selects five random dishes for you to try. We decided on a double Blind Date – and Joanne was kind enough to provide 10 family-style dishes for our table to share.

To start, I enjoyed a few sips of Corey’s Kirin Ichiban.

The meal kicked off with a plate of Asian Pickles (carrot and daikon slaw, plums, cucumbers, cauliflower, jalapenos and kimchee) and Mu La Lat Skewers. These pork meatballs were grilled with lemongrass and served with fresh herbs, lettuce wraps and fish sauce. They were tender and tasty – easily one of my favorite dishes.

The food onslaught continued with a wide variety of meat, vegetable and rice dishes. At one point, we had so many plates on our table, we barely had room to pass the dishes around! It was overwhelming in the best possible way.

Garlicky + Spicy Chicken Wings with Housemade Sriracha and Pickled Salad

Baby Octopus with Grilled Corn on the Cob and Sriracha Butter

Gai Lan (some sort of leafy green) + Ginger

Chinese Sesame Cucumbers

Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice) with Pork, Shrimp, Pineapple and Farm Egg (this was another of my favorites!)

M+C Slammin’ Salmon with Ginger, Sriracha, Rock Sugar

Thai Ginger Chicken Salad with Lemongrass, Rice Vermicelli and Butter Lettuce (This was another favorite – the noodles were tucked underneath the veggies and dressed with an amazing spicy dressing. It also had a unique crunch thanks to toasted ground rice.)

We also enjoyed some Wok-Charred Baby Bok Choy, but that dish apparently escaped the camera’s eye.

As we made our way through this insane meal, we all agreed it was an incredible value considering the quality and quantity. Our server informed us that he was quite jealous – apparently, we had one of the best Blind Dates he’d ever seen! The meal was creative and funky – as was our bill I love little touches like this.

It’s been great to hang out with Tina and Mal. I love getting to know fellow foodies! Myers + Chang was a great find. I’ll definitely go back on my next trip to Boston.

We’ve been back on the east coast for a long weekend with friends Tina and Mal! We love Boston; in fact, we  seriously considered moving here before we got job offers in San Francisco. Boston offers a comparably wonderful food scene, but I think SF has the advantage when it comes to the weather!

So what have we been up to in Beantown? We’ve been snuggling with Murphy, the wonder pug.

High five!

We’ve explored Boston College, where Tina went to graduate school.

We went to the top of the Prudential Center and oohed and ahhed over the great views of the city.

We toured Fenway Park.

And, of course, we’ve eaten some wonderful food! On Valentine’s Day, we joined Tina, Mal and their friends Dave and Marie at The Publick House, one of Tina and Mal’s favorite restaurants. It has a great menu of upscale comfort food and an impressive beer list. I had to order their famous mac ‘n’ cheese, which was creamy, rich and delicious. It was even better with the addition of broccoli.

Corey and I shared the mac ‘n’ cheese along with a side salad. We also stole more than our fair share of french fries from this giant bag Tina ordered. Mmmmm…these were dark and crunchy and perfectly salty! I need to find a bag ‘o fries in SF.

Mal and Tina are wonderful hosts. Hooray for new foodie friends!

And hooray for wonderful husbands willing to travel on foodie adventures

We leave tomorrow and still have a few culinary adventures up our sleeves. Stay tuned!