Eataly!

 

Dr. C and I are in New York City for an overnight before he goes home and I go on to Pennsylvania to teach Friday and Sunday.  This morning we took a field trip to Mario Batali's Eataly, a huge complex of Italian gastronomy on Fifth Avenue.  This is like me going to a culinary Disneyland!  Everything is beautiful, the space is enormous, and even with loads of tourists on a bus tour, and my enormous down coat we were still able to navigate well.
Eataly began in Turin, Italy, and has spread through Italy, as well as Japan.  This is the first emporium to be established in the US, with Chicago coming on in 2013, only 1700 miles from San Diego!  The philosophy is fresh, and regional Italian foods.  

There is a lot of cheese!

The salumi area

This month they are celebrating my favorite area of Italy: Umbria and featuring Sagrantino wines (it's about time!)

Too good to be true, but it works!!

She trimmed the artichokes into hearts, then stored them in acidulated water (I could get used to this!)

Sumos!!!

Dr. C.. perusing the greens

Sweet baby cauliflower

Cooking School

Featured wines from Umbria

Hand made pastas

Butcher shop---amazing!

Dry pasta

Olive oil

Even the signs are fun!

The wine store, Vino Eataly

I recognize this case!

I

pillows of pasta stuffed with mortadella, pork, spinach and served in a veal reduction---oh my!

Pasta filled with mushrooms and served in Umbrian truffle butter--yep, it was delish!

Dr. C. got the pizza of the day---tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and Prosciutto di Parma--another winner! We drank Barbera di Alba and a Montefalco Rosso

My boys, thanks for the field trip Eric and Dr. C.

If you are in New York City, this is a destination.  All regions and foods of Italy are represented here, and the space is amazing to walk through.  There is a LOT to see, and it can be overwhelming, but the staff are terrific, they all know their stuff, and are incredibly helpful. I'm ready to get out of the snow/rain and cold, but have a few more days till I head home.  I'll post more from the road.  Until then, buon appetito!

Field Trips

While teaching in Cincinnati, I had some time on Friday to meet two friends that I adore, and we went on a field trip to Jungle Jim's---legendary, it is like an airplane hanger filled with foods, beverages, and just about anything else.

 It was like a culinary Disneyland; I knew we were in trouble when we went by the butter counter which was 10 feet long, and about 4 feet wide, and packed with butter from around the world.

There is something so wrong with this!

This is only one side of the olive bar--be still my heart!

Cheese

And more cheese, there were at least 4 walls of cheese from all over the world---Polish cheese?  Who knew?

The wine and beer, and liquor departments were incredible---but this is just a wall of Sake!

Ah, pork snout....

And whole fresh hams....

Loving the meat department!

And then there is bacon...........

Beautiful fruits and vegetables....and this is Cincinnati!

Then there is tea.........

and more tea....

You want hot sauce? They have it categorized by region and heat.......and there are aisles of it!

In all the years I've been in the food industry, I've never seen bottles this big!

The original location located north of the city, has more ambiance, according to the locals ---there is a new Jungle Jim's located nearer to downtown Cincinnati, but if I lived here I'd been at the original everyday---it's that much fun.  

Anyone with a sense of humor like this gets my business!!  Behind the doors are actual restrooms!

 The best part of my job is the people that I meet when I teach, and then getting to spend time with them when I am off.  Thanks Lana and Cossette for a day that was more fun than should be legally possible!