Michele Topor, Inc.

This tour was the highlight of our mother daughter weekend. My daughter enjoyed as much as I did and she doesn't cook . The procuitto(probably mispelled) and cheese was the best. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and enjoyable Not a lot of walking but a lot of standing.

Tour guide, Jim, was able to speak chinese, communicated well with vendors, and helped us get an inside tour of local bakeries, bar-B-KQ , supermarket, candy store, pharmacy and a great Sim Dum luncheon. We feel very confident now to return to Chinatown with some recommendations for purchases and restaurants . Jim gave historical perspective to the formation of Chinatown and chinese customs as well, bringing in much from his living in far east. I highly recommend this tour with Jim Becker as your guide.

We were extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to take what turned out to be a private tour with our host Jim Becker. His indepth knowledge of food took this tour to a much higher level than any food tour we have participated in. The historic information provided about the North End added to our enjoyment. We found all the merchants that we were introduced to on the tour remembered us as tour guests when we returned and went out of their way to be helpful to us.

My family used to visit relatives in the North end when I was a little girl. This brought back some great memories! And some of the cooking info is still being discussed today! I can't wait to make eggplant parmagian (with a boy eggplant) and serve a fennel salad! Thanks for a great time!

This was my 2nd tour and both were great. Jim, our guide, took care to try to balance our time outside in - 7 degree wind chill weather, with enough time inside to feel warm again. One suggestion - it would be nice if the shops we visited offered coupons for a discount on purchases, even if just for a limited time. I think it would encourage purchases and spread good will.

We were in for business in beginning of December and I had purchased these for a group of us. The tour was excellent. They covered the rich history of the north end, and talked in depth about their diet. Each market and stop was wonderful and informative. We would highly recommend taking this tour. The samples were yummy too!

very informative, fun and entertaining

Our tour guide was what made the trip. He was so knowledgable about the area/history and his knowldedge of food was fantastic. We only wish it could have lasted longer and we would have taken an earlier tour to have more time to shop in the North End. I would recommend this to anybody ... there is no way they wouldn't like it with such an enthusiastic and knowledgable tour guide

My husband and I spent a 3-day weekend in Boston and we made reservations for the North End tour after seeing an article about it in an issue of Country Living magazine. Since I love to cook (and my husband loves to eat) and we both love entertaining, we thought the tour would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. My husband's family is from Italy and my mother was French and Italian so we hoped this tour would be a good fit and it certainly was. The tour guide, Beth, was very pleasant and enthusiastic and had a good sense of humor. She gave insight into the Italian culture and explaned what made authentic Italian cuisine and American-Italian cuisine different. Giving detailed explanations and asking thought provoking questions she made us aware of the many different regions and cuisines of Italy and how the immigrants infused their Italian heritage and customs once they settled in America. We made our way through the streets of the North End, focusing on the small markets and stores that dotted the neighborhood. The shopkeepers were very gracious and bantered back and forth with the tour participants and the customers who came in to their shops. There was a welcoming feeling that carried throughout the tour and afterwards. I learned quite a few culinary tidbits of information that I had no idea about, one of them being the fact there is no imported salami from Italy! I always assumed that good salami was imported but learned tat it hasn't been for 40 years...maybe someday. I would recommend this tour to anyone of any age or culinary inclination. If you love to cook or are just learning to cook and love to eat and learn new things, this tour is great. Mangia!

This past Sat. in the pouring rain, my friends and I totally enjoyed the North End Market Tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable, well-spoken, and well-prepared. We had prepared ourselves for a morning of just looking and learning, not tasting, but we were pleasantly surprised to be able to taste products in many of the shops we visited. We learned a lot about the history of the North End and about a wide variety of products. The handouts our guide distributed will help us remember what we heard. At the close of the tour we went back to several shops to purchase specialty items. It was a terrific experience. The only caveat would be, just as they say in their information, to wear comfortable clothes and footwear appropriate for the weather. We were decked out in slickers, so most of us were fine, but you can't count on good weather. Highly recommend this to anyone interested in Italian cooking and, even better, eating! Even in the rain, we had a wonderful time.

Having grown up in a family who enjoyed "cucina di povere", our experience with North End Market Tour was fabulous! Jim helped us remember the times and ways of our grandparents and families. The tour provided us with an opportunity to visit shops that we later revisited. We have shared our experiences with other family members and are looking forward to our next trip to Boston with them! It will be another great day reliving our Italian heritage! We'll fill up our shopping bags with our good finds! I would highly recommend the tour for anyone but especially for people who, like us, lived this way of life! As an aside, our families truly survived with cucina di povere. They ate from the gardens as well as the land. Our family still enjoys (I am sorry that I do not know how to write the Italian dialect!) day-old bread with cabbage, potato and bread in a marinara sauce, spizzatta, and back in the 50's and 60's meats from hunted animals, i.e. rabbit, squirrel, pigeons, black birds, deer, fish, clams, quahogs. I remember going to the beach with the clan in three cars crammed with all the children and the "gravy" and home-made pasta and all the pans to cook them on the shore while the men and children enjoyed the day digging for quahogs! I also remember eating organ meats, knowing now that they were what the family could afford. One of my favorites was something my grandmother called what sounds like sou-freet: a dish in a light marinara sauce containing heart, gizzards, and lung. Delish! My grandfather and uncles always made their own wine in their cellars. When my grandparents' house recently sold, I asked the new owner, whom I happened to know, if he could still smell the wine down there. He can't but admitted that he had determined that that cellar would make a good wine cellar.

I thoroughly enjoyed my recent trip to Boston and the highlight was the tour into the North End . Our tour guide, Jim, gave us so much information, I wished I could have taken better notes , as I now have to decipher them, but I got the emails for stores I can send away for olive oils and hopefully wonderful cheese I never even heard of before. I highly recommend this for anyone who loves to cook and wants to just learn more about Italian culture and cooking.

we loved the North End Market tour- mostly it was the expertise and plesaant demeanot of the tour guide, Jim, that made for a one of a kind experience. Thanks so much for your professionalism. I appreciated that no tips were solicited- I hope he is well paid.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Our tour guide (Jim?) was very knowledgeable about the North End as well as Italian food and cooking in general. Loved the food samples....left me wanting more. :) I did return to Maria's pastry shop to get a cannoli and some more macaroons....which didn't last too long. Enjoyed learning about the culture and history of the area as well as learning more about cooking techniques and recommendations. Enjoyed the restaurant recommendations given by our tour guide. We went to a place he recommended for lunch and enjoyed the food a lot. Wish we would have had time to do the Chinatown tour too!

Great Time! Very Informative!