On my last evening in Boston, Anna and I met up at Longwood and then took a packed M2 shuttle to Harvard Square, where we made a beeline for L.A. Burdick Chocolate and met up with Ida. This chocolate shop is extremely pretty and has ridiculously tempting displays. In order to get to the counter selling hot chocolate, you have to walk through two tall shelves of boxed truffles, bars, and beautiful bon bons.
Burdick sells three sizes of hot chocolate, and we went for the smallest size since we knew dinner and more dessert was coming up. I ordered the regular dark hot chocolate, and Anna got the milk. This is a potent brew - it definitely feels like drinking melted chocolate, especially once you go outside and the drink starts cooling down very quickly. The smallest size was perfect; even if it wasn't functioning as an appetizer for the evening, I can't imagine drinking one of the larger sizes.
We then walked to Le's Vietnamese. Fresh summer rolls, followed by the "special" pho (the typical variety of beef cuts) with added meatballs, made for a very comfy dinner. I'm not a pho expert, but Le's was as good as any I've had in the Bay Area.
Our last stop of the evening was Finale Desserterie, where Anna and I met up with Amy. We shared the 9-item dessert sampler along with the molten chocolate cake. SO GOOD!!! The dessert sampler was gorgeously plated and consisted of creme brulee, apple spice cake, "Manjari Mousse," a little hot fudge brownie sundae, cheesecake, Boston cream pie, two little whoopie pies, apple cranberry tart, raspberry sorbet, and mango sorbet.
Everything on the sampler plate was awesome, though my favorite was still the molten chocolate cake: it was rich but not too sweet, had a toothsome crust, and came with coffee gelato and chocolate-covered almonds.
Wataru was able to join us as well, and he ordered some cheesecake. The desserts were fuel for an intense, thought-provoking catch-up and advice session. I've wanted to go to Finale's ever since visiting Harvard in the spring of my senior year of high school, and almost five years later, I finally enjoyed this palace of desserts - along with some other Boston culinary delights - the best company I could have asked for!
