Eataly is a new market place in New York dedicated to Italian food. One of the partners is Mario Batali, a great Chef with a personality larger than life! His appearances in Iron Chef America are memorable and showed his excellent knowledge of Italian cuisine.
Eataly is a huge place where you can either eat or buy Italian products. In fact, if you go there, you do not even need to buy! Just walk in the different aisles and discover the different products, mainly coming from Italy! They have meat, fish and seafood, bread, pasta, pizza, cheeses, sauces, cookies....They also sell books and kitchenware.
So, of course, I checked the bread: they have a wide variety and are even selling a very good French baguette for a reasonable price! I even saw an Epi (bot)! Then the cheeses! There are many: from goat to cow milk. A lot of them I did not even know!
If you are not in the bread and cheeses, they have amazing looking desserts. I did not try them yet, but they look amazing! I tried a crema cannolo though: crispy puff pasty filled with vanilla bean pastry cream. I was simply delicious, especially eaten with a nice expresso from Lavazza!
There are also restaurants: sandwiches, pizza or formal places.We decided to try the sandwiches. Boy, were they good! The first one was peck & Tallegio (smoked prosciutto and Tallegio cheese) from North Italy. Tallegio is a cow's milk cheese that is creamy, strong and tangy. Apparently it is the perfect cheese for grilled cheese. This sandwich was awesome: the smokiness of the prosciutto paired very well with the creamy and strong taste of the cheese. And that bread! It was so good and crispy!
The second sandwich was a Funghi & Tallegio sandwich: it was made with four different kinds of mushrooms sauteed in garlic and thyme. The mushrooms were cut in small pieces that made it easy to eat. The sauteed mushrooms and the cheese were a good vegetarian alternative and tasted very, very good. I was scared at first that the mushrooms would overpower the taste of the cheese, but they did not!
Eataly is definitely a place to go to! And we went back, but it is another story...
Enjoy (I did)!
And remember: I just want to eat!
