Every few years I have to come to New York City to eat really good food. I can only handle fish tacos in San Diego for so long and then I crave pizza and pastrami. My first night I had true NY pizza with ricotta cheese at Mariella where the man throwing the pizzas in the hot oven argued baseball with a regular customer. Ah, so New York!
Monday morning up early to watch the taping of the show the CHEW with Mario Batali and I spoke with Mario and that was fun and entertaining. Jumping on the subway in time for lunch at Katz’s deli where the pastrami is sliced thick which is only found in NYC. My friend tells me other places thinly slice the pastrami because the meat is tough. Here, the meat is the highlight, tender and flavorful. I always make a shopping trip to the Pickle Guys and today I’m introducing my friend Linda to them. We stocked up on fresh pickles and I bring an insulated container to fly them home so the juice doesn’t leak out like in the previous trips. That’s another story.
As if I hadn’t eaten enough, we walked to Eatley and explored all the eateries and the best gelato ever! Outside in the open area were pop up kitchens with cannolis that were delicious. To work off some of the food, we walked to the Indian section to buy spices at Kalustyan’s Spices and the selections were amazing. I wondered how to use each spice and someday would love to try even a few of them, some day.