Excuse me?

On my way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art the other day, having just enjoyed a speedy M2 Limited bus ride up Madison Avenue, I decided to grab a little snack before feeding my soul with transcendent artistic treasures. I set my internal GPS towards the ultimate destination of the Dean & Deluca on 85th & Madison, knowing that I would most likely be able to squelch my craving from within their wide variety of offerings.

AH! Cole slaw! I caught sight of it sitting on the shelf in a quarter pound deli container and it called out to me with all it's crisp, mayonnaise-y sweetness. I knew it would be just the perfect thing to tide me over for the next few hours until my 8pm sushi outing. A rather unusual choice, I'm sure, but it just seemed like it would really be the perfect 5 o'clock snack. Since the weather was absolute perfection, I started across 85th street, content to eat my slaw al fresco while in transit.

As I walked, I saw a young man and young woman down the block, conversing in a jovial manner and positioned in such a way that in order to pass them, I have to walk right between them. No matter, for I'm a veteran pedestrian and prepared for any challenge that should come my way on the concrete. As I pass, however, I was certainly NOT prepared for this:

Young Man: Hey, that looks really good (he points to my cole slaw)...where'd you get that!?!

Me: Dean & Deluca, around the corner on 85th street.

Now, the cole slaw was good but did it look good enough to attract cat calls from passersby? Hmmm....

I've come up with two possible motivations for the young man's attraction to the slaw:

1. The girl's family came from a long line of cabbage farmers and he was trying to impress her with his love for all-things cabbage.

2. He, like me, had been looking for that perfect 5 o'clock snack.

I guess we'll never know.

Ms. Lillian Langseth-Christensen, Part III of IV

So the patina of vacation wore off and upon returning we dove back into rehearsals for The Merdjanoff Summer Spectacular! (which, of course, you no doubt saw and by which were no doubt blow away). During the post-show schmooze time, a dear friend handed me a deftly wrapped package that weighed roughly 75 lbs.

"No need to open it now," she informed, "but please know that it's not new."

My curiosity roused, unwrapping it was my first action upon returning home that evening and imagine my surprise when there in my very own lap lay the first edition of Gourmet's Old Vienna Cookbook, a Viennese Memoir by Ms. Lillian Langseth-Christensen! More surprising still was that my friend had no knowledge of my already months old relationship with Ms. Christensen and only knew of my trip to Vienna, nothing more.

In the category of "They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To", this book, published in 1959, not only contains more than 500 pages of recipes and suggested menus with occasional full-color photographs but also dozens of stories and historical explanations on food and the Viennese way of life, to say nothing of the charming sketches gracing every page.

Thank you, Catherine, for a gift beyond perfection. Thank you, Ms. Lillian Langseth-Christensen for sharing your knowledge. Now, with 500 pages of recipes from which to choose...what shall I make?

To be continued...someday!

Ah, Eatalia!

Want to take a trip to Italy for the afternoon to grab some lunch? Just go to 23d & 5th!

This weekend I dropped by Eataly, the new Italian food super-store from Bastianich and Batali....



Jealous? I think you are....

Don't worry, there's plenty more where that all came from and, let me tell you, it could take a lifetime to navigate through all their exceptionally delicious offerings. Pace yourself. They'll be around for a while.

We had a formaggi and salumi platter (which was served with figs, honey and candied orange rinds), along with an plate of fresh mozzarella escorted by anchovies and fresh pesto, all accompanied by two glasses of wine and a couple of great Italian beers (we were four people, thank you). The best part, though, didn't arrive until hours later when my delicious husband and his culinarily-inclined friend created two pasta dishes from the Eataly grocery and really transported our tastebuds - first to Bologna and then down to Napoli.

Here's to food, folks and fun - Italian style!