As you may have already read, I gave up carbs for a month.  Drastic, I know!

Although I did plan it strategically to break the weekend when I would be in NYC with the family for Easter.  There are no better carbs in the world than those made from my mother.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t strong enough to not cheat before NYC.

I walked in the door to my cousin’s apartment to find a heaping bowl of rigatoni with sausage and meatballs awaiting me…

I may have been in one of the best culinary destinations in the entire world, but the best restaurant was in my cousin’s building that weekend where my mom and aunt were the cooks.  No exaggeration, I  was in a food coma for the entire weekend and when we weren’t eating, we were either shopping for food or talking about the next meal.  Here is a snap shot of some of the amazing food I grew up with and some of the food destinations I checked out.

Otto:  Otto is one of Mario Batali’s restaurants in the city and I was excited to check this concept out since I dined at Lupa on a previous trip.  We had a large group on a Friday afternoon but they were able to seat us right away.  Everyone was relaxed, drinking wine, and soaking in the sunlight of the beautiful Manhattan day.  We obliged with some wine (we needed to cut the edge) and then ordered an assortment of anti-pasta that included eggplant, shrimp with garbanzo beans, rapini, lentils, and that’s just what I can remember.

Anti-pasta

Everything was fresh and flavorful.  Although the true winner was the carb… the crusty bread with TRUFFLE HONEY.  I don’t think anything could taste better.

We also ordered a mushroom pizza and a traditional DOC pizza.  Both were great with the perfectly crisp, but not too crisp crust but my favorite was the mushroom pizza.  The earthiness of the mushrooms were delicious and you received a generous quantity.  Overall, Otto was a crowd pleaser for this Italian family.

Mushroom Pizza

Shopping Adventures:

1. Eataly:  There have been rumors that Mario Batali’s Eataly may make its way to Chicago (fingers crossed)!  Fortunately, I had my first experience Easter weekend where I walked into the ginormous crowded space surrounded by oils, pastas, breads, espressos, candies, sweets, wines… and the list goes on.  The concept is genius – an Italian market (see Coluccio & Sons below) blown up to be a destination where you can browse the aisles with a glass of wine in hand or dine in one of the airy restaurants amongst it all.  Loved it!

Eataly

1. Coluccio & Sons:  We drove out to Brooklyn the day before Easter to do all of the shopping (this took ALL day, and consisted of one Italian specialty store, one Italian bakery, one Sicilian bakery, a produce stand, a bread shop, a pasta shop, and a cheese shop).  Here is a look at Coluccio & Sons, the epitome of what I grew up with.

Coluccio

Vinnie and Sara:

A look at what came out of the best restaurant in NYC Easter weeked:

Fennel Salad

Sardines

Talk about heaven…

Till next time, peace out food ninjas!