I’ve never been to East Boston, which is a little embarrassing to admit when you’ve spent the majority of your life living in and around Boston. It was never for lack of encouragement – from co-workers past and present, a friend from college, Boston foodies, and one of my favorite massage therapists – but for lack of motivation…but I have finally managed to get myself there. Thanks, in large part, to the internet scouring I did when putting together my Fall To Do List. Well…turns out my internet scouring (and inability to read things closely) led to me searching for an open studios event that didn’t exist, an amazingly lengthy Columbus Day Parade, a ridiculously delicious lunch, and some very sweet desserts!

Now that I’ve finally visited, I’ll be back. I’ve got a list started for places to go eat and it’s sure to grow once I start telling my Eastie friends that I’m working on it. But first on the list? First on the list is to go back to Santarpio’s with Pete and get some of their legendary pizza! I had lunch there when I took a break from the zillions of Shriners that were in the Columbus Day Parade, but they only have whole pizzas. I can put away a lot of pizza, but I was pretty sure I couldn’t put away an entire one by myself, so I had the sausage platter instead. It was delicious. And now I have a good reason to drag Pete back there!

After my lunch, I headed back out to the parade still in progress (did I mention it was incredibly lengthy? At this point it was going on 2 hours with no end in sight), and followed along the parade route towards my next stop….dessert!

Let me interrupt the food talk here to say THANK GOD I didn’t just wander away from the parade, or I would have missed a high school marching band playing Poker Face. What?! I know! It was awesome. And I failed to get my phone out in time to provide you with any evidence of it, so you’ll have to make do with this video of a completely different marching band performing it almost as well. You know what we didn’t play in my marching band days? Awesome arrangements of current pop songs.

Now back to the food talk. Dessert. Just outside the Maverick T Stop is La Sultana Bakery, and you should go there. You may want to bring a Spanish interpreter or a sense of adventure – I’m fairly certain I was the only one speaking English in there. The girls working did speak English, although when I asked what the one super delicious looking dessert was, I didn’t pay close enough attention and so I have no idea what it was that I brought home. I also got a piece of the tiramisu, which Yelp told me I would love (it was right). I brought dessert home to share with Pete, because I am an awesome girlfriend. I will be going back there, because in addition to delicious baked goods they also serve pupusas and empanadas, which I am very interesting in shoving into my mouth and devouring.

I guess this is a half checkmark for my Fall To Do List – yes to East Boston and lunch at Santarpio’s, but no to Open Studios! I’m still calling it a success.