Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Ciao amici! Yesterday we felt the warm hospitality of Italy at the Ospitalita'Italiana: The Authentic Italian Table.  The event was hosted by the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce at the Metropolitan Pavilion.  We had an amazing and classy evening and we got to witness all the best of Italian culture all in one room without having to hop on a plane. When we entered, the first thing I saw was a dimly lit room full of beautiful and beautifully dressed people.  Certainly check the box off for handsome Italian men in suits.  I wasn't too  badly under-dressed, but it had been raining and I looked so silly clomping around in my rainboots.  People were clinking glasses and double-cheek-kissing all around.  It all felt so Italian! I got to sit on a Vespa, so that was fun! Then, we quickly made a beeline for the food, of course!  Imagine if you will all your favorite dishes in Italian cuisine, and chances were they were served at The Authent...

We came, we saw, we conquered some grilled cheese sandwiches at The Big Cheesy.   The event was held in a really cool gallery space in SoHo.  Five competitors offered some creative and scrumptious grilled cheese sandwiches, and Goose Island poured three different IPAs.  We were given orange ping pong balls to put into tall plexiglass columns to cast our vote for The Big Cheese of The Big Cheesy 2015. First up was Mrs. Dorsey's Kitchen representing Brooklyn.  Their grilled cheese had: mushrooms sauteed in truffle oil, onion bacon jam, arugula, and grape tomatoes.  Oh, and mozzarella cheese!  It was a solid sandwich to start, with lots of my favorite flavors (truffle!  mushrooms!  arugula!!!).  The only thing I could nitpick on was that there may have been too much going on at once, and I forgot I was eating a primarily grilled cheese sandwich. Next was Hudson Common with a french toast grilled cheese.  This sandwich had...

Last week, yours truly and yours truly's co-blogger had a molto romantico dinner at Osteria Morini in NoHo.  You will frequently find me enthusiastic about Italian restaurants ( Otto , Tommaso , Giacomo , etc.) because Italian food is just so gosh darn delizioso (okay, I'll stop), but Osteria Morini is on a whole different level.  Yes, it's a little bit more expensive than the standard Italian fare, and it is probably very crowded on the weekends, but so worth it. We were seated in a nice quiet corner in the back, between one couple who could have been Chinese dignitaries and another couple who could have been Italian celebrities from the way the waitstaff came to ask them repeatedly how they were finding everything.  Meanwhile, we splurged on a meat and cheese plate (speck, bresaola, felino salami, pecorino, and squacquerone) and buttered spinach.  I had the Garganelli pasta dish and Alex had the Grigliata Mista di Carni. The meat and cheese plate...

Today, I had a beautiful lunch at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria and it made me realize and appreciate how life-changing good Italian food can be.   In pictures ripped from my Instagram: We had a few cheeses to start, accompanied by my favorite truffle honey .  Gladly, no one else in my dining party was such a fan, so I hogged the whole dish and proceeded to drizzle it on absolutely everything!  I had a delicious arugula prosciutto pizza, which oddly means I had pizza a grand total of four times this week (and lasagna twice more...YOLO).  In hindsight, I'm in awe of the fact that I had Italian food so frequently this week by some random coincidences, but it's all been delizioso . Posts from our other Italian eating adventures to come!

What better things are there in the world than some wine, bread, meat, and cheese?  Most fondue experiences incorporate these guilty pleasures, as was the case at Winegasm in Astoria, Queens.  Winegasm is a tapas/fondue place that offered a Groupon (yay) so we headed out there for our fill of melted stuff and dip-able stuff and booze. The ambiance was kind of nice at first: very rustic bar scene with a few tables.  Nice and romantic when they put on the mood lighting, but once the live music started up, it got a little too loud and a little too country for my taste. The Groupon deal included a glass of wine with your meal and a glass of wine with dessert, so I had a Riesling and prosecco.  Winegasm prides itself on serving local, organic, and sustainable wines.  The Riesling was surprisingly good: sweet, with a smooth finish.  The prosecco was tasty, too, except it smelled a little like generic bathroom hand soap.  We had a cheese fondue with ...

I kind of wish I'd done that college-dorm-thing where you put a Kraft Single between two slices of white bread, wrap it in aluminum foil, and then heat the baby up with an iron.  But then again, I didn't live in a college dorm, and knowing me, I would have just eaten that slice of cheese straight up before I got around to melting it. There is a fantastic little joint in the city called The Melt Shop that serves a vast array of grilled cheese sandwiches that'll give you a pleasant throwback of sorts.  Sure, you can get a plain white bread grilled cheese with tater tots and a milkshake, but then there are also some creative combinations like pulled pork, wild mushroom, tuna melt, buffalo-wing-fried-chicken, meatball parmesan, bacon and cheese and...cranberry chutney?  Sure enough, The Melt Shop won this year's The Big Cheese competition for the second time in a row with just that sandwich.  They took it off their menu by the time I went so I didn't get a c...

Murray's Cheese Shop is a foodie mecca located in The Village. It's right behind NYU, so that insured a lot of visits to sample cheeses and view all the funky offerings sitting quietly and gracefully in glass cases.  Murray's has an actual cheese cave in the basement where they age their cheese.  A cave.  Isn't that wild?!  One of my dreams will be to go cheese spelunking with Murray's professional cheesemongers! Right next to the cheese shop is Murray's Cheese Bar, a restaurant that serves the unique and local cheeses sold in the shop.  Most of their cheese are local in the sense that they are milked from New York cows...and local in the sense that they have been aging in the cave in the basement.  Their menu includes cheese fondues (savory and sweet), grilled cheeses, cheeseburgers, and most importantly, the Cheesemonger's Flight (charcuterie platters with meats, cheeses, and condiments). We had a mixed plate of cheeses and meats and condiments on...

If you're jonesing for some Middle Eastern food but can't make it to your usual market in Beirut or Damascus or something, we've found an amazing alternative, right here in my lovely borough of Brooklyn.  On Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, there is a delightful market called Sahadi's that could just save you a trip halfway around the world. Sahadi's is branded as a Middle Eastern market, but I could probably happily shop there for most of the other food in my diet anyway. When you first walk in, there are plexiglas boxes upon boxes of goods that the very friendly and helpful staff will pack up for you in bags.  Spices, nuts, dried fruit, candy, grains, herbs, beans...it's all a melange of different textures and colors and aromas.  Just behind this little fort, there is a salad bar arrangement of all types of olives, bobbing up and down in their brines -  the best one to put in a martini, olives stuffed with feta, olives stuffed with garlic. The feta and ...

What more could you ask for on a Friday evening than the company of your closest friends, beautiful weather, pizza, and ice cream? Last Friday night (TGIF), I had just those four things as I dined at Peppino's in Park Slope.  Peppino's is a brick oven pizzeria with an intimate, rustic-looking dining area.  Eight of us were gathered around a table, practically salivating after a long walk to get there.  We split a meal, family style, consisting of an antipasta dish, two salads, and three small pizzas (margarita, alla vodka, and diavolo). The food was pretty standard Italian cuisine, which reminded me how good simple food with unpretentious ingredients can be.  I had a bite of mozzarella, a bite of sundried tomato ( very  good), some Caesar salad, some mixed salad with balsamic dressing, a slice of margarita pizza, and a slice of pizza alla vodka.  I had all the quintessential tastes and colors of Italy: tomato, basil, cheese, balsamic, vodka (just ...

I know I've just written about Otto, but tonight I had a marvelous dinner that cemented its reputation as one of my favorite restaurants in New York City.  Did I mention that I shook hands with and exchanged a brief conversation with Mario Batali???  STARSTRUCK. We ordered a cheese platter that came with a trio of condiments: truffle honey, cherries in brandy sauce, and apricots in mustard and chili oil.  The cheeses that we ordered were: triple cream goat cheese, ricotta, ubriaco, quadrello, and rosso di langhe.  Hands down, this cheese platter was the highlight of the meal for me.  Although I wasn't really sure what I was eating, besides the more obvious ricotta and creamy goat cheeses, all the selections were delicious, creamy, and rich. We specifically asked for cheeses that wouldn't assault our noses and taste buds, and this was a great selection.  The ricotta was fluffy and light, the goat cheese was similar to French brie that Alex loves so mu...

In my neighborhood, there is a restaurant called Hong Kong Tea & Sushi.  If you live in Brooklyn, you might know HK.  If you are Asian, you probably love HK.  If your last name is Moy, you probably have eaten a hundred times at HK. Okay, slight exaggeration, but HK Tea & Sushi is definitely one of my favorite places to eat.  Although it's billed as a sushi restaurant, don't be surprised that all the waiters are Chinese.  Also, I only get sushi about half the time - the other times, I save my stomach for something really special.  Their sushi is good and there is a wide selection.  A maki roll (California, Boston, Alaska, Philadelphia...I'm running out of American states and cities) is, on average, $3.  Their special rolls are a bit pricier and because I am a cheap eater, I stay away from these.  They serve other kinds of fare that is typical of Japanese restaurants: tempura and teriyaki, uni and udon.  My favorite thin...