Another fabulous time at Eataly in NYC...

Yesterday, I had a wonderful day in my favorite city, NYC with mom, Stacy and Auntie Joanne. As always, when I visit the city I always think about where I want to eat. NYC is filled with too many restaurants, some completely geared to the tourist and some for the foodies. I always try to plan where I am going to eat based on location, if I'm downtown I like Pastis and brownies from Fat Witch bakery and if I am uptown, you can't go wrong with Bouchon for something sweet and savory. Midtown is all about deli's Carnegie, Stage and Maxi's. You can't visit New York and not have a hot pastrami sandwich and a slice of New York style cheesecake.

For dinner last night, we went to the Flat Iron district and visited Eataly Cafe for the second time. The place was buzzing when we arrived and again I walked through with my eyes moving every which way, trying to take in everything. We headed straight for the pizza and pasta restaurant, passing by all the sweets, the fish, the meat, the bread and wine. We managed to only have to wait about twenty minutes and then our dinner began. What I liked about the menu is that it offered various shapes of pasta in different sauces, some fresh pasta and some dried. The pizza menu, again good variety of veggie pizzas and meat pizzas, but not overwhelming. I knew when I sat down and looked at the table to my left, that I would be getting pizza as my meal, it looked just like the pizza in Rome. We placed our order, got some wine, I had a glass of Barbera and had some bread. A winter salad was our appetizer and it was the cold, crisp that we needed after all the walking we did. When our meal arrived, and the waiter placed my Massese pizza in front of me, I felt I was back in Italy and that when we left we would be walking through the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. The crust was thin and crisp, there was the perfect amount of sauce to mozzarella and then what turned out to be my favorite bit of the pizza thin slices of spicy salami dotted the entire pizza. I was ready, fork and knife in hand, I dove in. My mom had the meat filled agnolotti with a simple butter sauce and they were tiny pillows filled with a nutmeg spiced meat. Cooked al dente and with the right amount of sauce, perfection.

Again, Eataly Cafe who have surpassed my expectation and I thank Mario, Joe and Lidia for a wonderful concept that truly transports you to Italy for a couple hours.