Cooking, General, Learning, NYC

Buongiorno, Eataly!

the many delights of Eataly

Warning: the below contains no knitting content, but a whole lot of food instead.

Those who know me well know that, despite my general Francophilic tendencies, French food is not my favorite. Italian food, on the other hand? Mangia! So I was beyond excited to check out Eataly yesterday, the Italian specialty market and dining hall from Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, and others. It’s a huge warehouse-type space in the Flatiron district of NYC, and it contains both fresh food as well as dried pantry staples, like pasta (obviously). I went with a good friend, and as we wandered through the halls with our gigantic shopping baskets at our sides, our conversation was reduced to “oooh yum!” and “oh look at this” and “wow,” and variants thereof. Below are a few quick snapshots of my trip, and I wish I’d been able to capture better pictures of some of the food “stations” (like the rotisserie chicken station, where the chickens were roasting in the oven over a huge pan of cut potatoes, that were catching the juices of the chickens……need I say more?) There aren’t any photos of the themed restaurants (La Pizza, La Pasta, La Verdure – vegetarian, La Pesce – seafood) that are tucked within the marketplace, but we enjoyed a delicious meal at the La Pasta restaurant, and made sure to save room for gelato afterwards. If you’re ever in this neck of the woods, stop and check it out – your stomach will thank you!

Barilla's cookie label in Italy, "Mulino Bianco," is very popular and creates all kinds of buttery confections.

A favorite of Andrew and mine from Italy, the Mulino Bianco cookies "Pan di Stelle" are hard little chocolate biscuits - good for absorbing coffee!

The produce section is small, but features great greens, citrus, and herbs at this time of year

You can even take away fresh flowers - the green bouquets on the right remind me of my wedding flowers

Love the colors of all these potatoes - would look beautiful roasted together!

Eataly includes all kinds of products - even mints in cute little tins! The bright yellow tins are labeled "Breath of Sicily" - I'm still on the fence about whether that's a good thing

I can't decide what looks better - all this fish or the mural behind it

This photo doesn't do the meat counter justice - the cuts and types of meat available were the widest selection I've ever seen

Dried pasta at Eataly? Of course! The green boxes are regional specialities that Barilla produces in Italy - yay Barilla!

Fresh pasta - doesn't your heart go pitter patter? I got some fresh gnocchi (my favorite) and some pumpkin/amaretto cookie ravioli to try!

A very sweet ending - this sign for Eataly's gelato says that some of the milk comes from Rochester, NY! (and yes, the gelato was fabulous)