Sunday, April 25, 2010

DAY 5: New York - Lupa & L'Arte del Gelato

It's been a few days since I've returned from my trip to Philadelphia to visit my friend Jackie and I'm suffering the consequences of all the eating I've done. All my pants don't fit the way it did before I left... but it was all worth it.

It was undoubtedly the most I've eaten in a 5 day span in all of my life and it was AMAZING. I had no idea Philly had so many awesome restaurants! One of the thoughts I had when I was doing all this eating was how I love my friend. She's one of many friends who LOVE TO EAT. Thanks to her... I ate some damn good food.

As I take you through a tour of the foods I ate I thought it would be an unusual approach by blogging it backwards. From the last meal of the last day to the very first meal of the first day. The main reason is because when I decide to look back on this trip I'd like to be able to read it from the top of the page to the bottom. It's more for me than for you. So... if this is confusing in any way, I apologize.

Enjoy!

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DAY 5 - NEW YORK CITY

~DINNER~

LUPA OSTERIA ROMANA
170 Thompson Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 982-5089

Lupa


After some shopping in SoHo Jackie and I decided to walk to our dinner destination. Kelly had recommended some of Mario Batali's restaurants in New York so we decided on his more moderately priced restaurant, Lupa. Unfortunately, Jackie and I lost track of time and were a little late in making our dinner reservation at 6PM. I have another friend, Sarah, who lives in New York that met us up for dinner.

It was a small but quaint restaurant. It took us a while to order because we had to keep referring to the glossary of terms to try and figure out what each of the menu items were. Great if you speak Italian.. but for normal po' folks like us it was bit of work to do.

Here's what we had:


Misticanza
Misticanza
(Classic roman salad, here with arugula, radish & fennel)

Delicious. One friend said there was too much cheese. Me... I say not enough cheese. But that's just because I'm a cheese freak.

With our meal we got a bottle of white wine that the waitress recomemended.
Wine
I don't know much about wines but this was very tasty. It had a clean and crisp taste to it which I liked.

Here's what my friends had for their entrees:

Linguine Clams,Fennel and Sopressatta
Linguine Clams, Fennel and Sopressatta

This was VERY light. The sauce was some sort of a garlic and olive oil mixture I think. I love pasta so it's rare I don't like a bowl full of the stuff but it was not as heavy as I thought it was going to be and had amazing flavor.

Spaghetti
Bucatini All' Amatriciana
(Fat hollow spaghetti. Guanciale, red onion, and thick tomato sauce. Spicy.)

What was very interesting about this pasta was that it was hollow. I took a bite of this as soon as it came out and it was PERFECTLY al dente. I don't think I've EVER had pasta in a restaurant done perfectly al dente. This impressed me very much. This pasta, too, was delicious. Can't really go wrong with a traditional bowl of spaghetti in an Italian restaurant.

Here's what I had:

Crispy Duck "Agrodolce"
Crispy Duck "Agrodolce"

This was the special entree of the day. I think I've had duck maybe one other time in my life and I don't remember liking it very much. Since my friends were getting pastas I thought I'd venture out and give this duck a try. ABSOLUTELY MOIST AND DELICIOUS. It was so juicy. The only bad thing about it was that I didn't order any other side dish with it because I knew it would be too much food for me. So about half-way through I started to feel a little sick of so much meat but not enough to stop me from finishing it.

For dessert the three of us shared:

Black Pepper Panna Cotta & Mandarin Oranges
Black Pepper Panna Cotta with Mandarin Oranges

One of the first things I noticed was the faint "4oz" from the plastic cups they undoubtedly used as molds for these panna cottas. Haha I don't know why it was so interesting to me. It totally makes sense that they would use something cheap for molds but it took something away from the allure and high standards I had already placed on the restaurant. But onto the dessert... the black pepper was very subtle and, again, delicious.

While dining, there was a table next to us with two older men who struck up a conversation with Sarah. I don't know how it happened but they let me have a taste of their dessert.

Gelato

I don't which menu item it was but it was a ball of gelato with something like a truffle in the center of it. I think it was a gianduja (hazelnut chocolate) gelato with a gianduja truffle in the center. Don't hold me to it because I just took a quick bite and I can't say for sure. But this too was delicious.


Overall, a wonderful experience. Very highly recommended by me.

~SECOND DESSERT~
L'ARTE DEL GELATO

75 Seventh Avenue South
New York, NY 10014
(212) 924 0803

After dinner we met up with one of Jackie's childhood friends, Cynthia. She also lives in New York and had suggested we try this amazing gelato place.


L' Art del Gelato

Cynthia raved about this Olive Oil gelato so we got that and 2 other flavors:

Olive Oil Gelato
Olive Oil

Berry Gelato
Frutti de Bosco (Mixed Berries)

Pistaschio
Pistacchio di Bronte (Pistachio from Bronte)

Cynthia and Jackie

L' Art del Gelato 2

YUM. I wish I could have that pistachio and olive oil gelato right now.

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