Napoli Pastry: Questing on the Fly

On Friday afternoon, Mel and I, along with our second guest-quester Sarah, set out for Sapori di Napoli. This was our final stop on the gelato quest. For you avid readers, you will remember that Mel and I tried once before to sample the delicious gelato at Sapori di Napoli, but we found that it was being renovated until October 18th. As Friday was November 5th, you can just imagine our surprise (and disappointment) when we arrived at Sapori di Napoli to find the exact same sign on the door. So we did what any dedicated quester would do: we improvised. We walked across the street to Napoli Pastry (as this hand-written sign told us to do) and tried the gelato there.

Looking across the street, we saw a delightful sign that made us think that the gelato at Napoli Pastry would still be a delicious. Once we were inside, the flavor selection did not disappoint. After staring into the display case for awhile and learning that you could not get more than one flavor in each scoop, we made our selections. I chose turtle, Sarah chose oreo, and Mel tried moose tracks. Despite being limited to one flavor, each scoop cost only $2.50, so we were pleased and ready to again, ruin our dinners by eating dessert first.

My turtle gelato was a bit soupy texture-wise, but flavor-wise, it was spot on. The caramel flavoring was decadent without being overly sweet and the cashew pieces in the gelato were a perfect salty compliment to the dessert. Sarah, our guest quester, will write about her experience with the oreo gelato. Spoiler alert--it was delicious! Mel's moose tracks gelato was a bit confusing. For our first few bites, all three of us greatly enjoyed Mel's choice. The vanilla base of the gelato was very flavorful and the chocolate swirls and peanut butter-chocolate pieces were delicious. However, half way through Mel's gelato scoop, we found one, huge chocolate piece that quite literally, was the size of 1/3 of Mel's cup (see below). This discovery basically meant that there was no gelato in the cup and it was mostly just a scoop of salty, fudgy chocolate. While the chocolate fudge chunk was tasty at first, it ultimately overshadowed the gelato altogether. Not to mention that it just didn't look very appetizing.

We were a bit disappointed to be unable to try Sapori di Napoli, but luckily, Napoli Pastry is owned by the same people, so it was an acceptable substitute. With this last minute substitute, the gelato quest is complete. Some 5000 calories and 8 stops later, our second quest is done. After Sarah's post, be sure to come back to learn which gelato shop in Boston was our favorite.