"Whoa, what'd you guys do today?"
"Nothing." (Steph)
"We ate pancakes!" (Kelly)
"I bought clothes!" (Chrissy)
Kelly spoke again, "I'm hungry. Let's eat!" My goodness.
That girl knows no end to her stomach limits! :D So we got ourselves together and walked the fifty steps that it takes to get from my apartment door to the entrance of 'inoteca. So convenient! It wasn't too crowded around 7pm on a Monday evening, but all the sidewalk seats were taken, so we comfortably opted for a middle table with good people watching. Ahh, yes, we were definitely in a people watching mood!
A dish of olives, cause Kelly and Chrissy are absolutely obsessed, and I mean obsessed with olives. There was a good mix of variety in here, all liberally bathing in a wealthy pool of olive oil. I really wished we had slices of warm baguette to soak it all up...
My personal favourite (though it also seems to be a 'personal' favourite with everyone else on the planet :), the truffled egg toast. A thick slice of pullman's loaf hollowed out, fresh egg cracked into the center and toasted to gloriousness with fontina cheese, generous drizzles of truffle oil, cracked pepper, sea salt...all served with cuts of asparagus. It tastes exactly as it appears, and as you would expect it to be: wonderful. Serving size is just right, leaving you content, but with plenty of stomach space for more, hehe. It satisfies all your deep earthy cravings, hot bread, eggs, melted cheese, a generous hand of truffle oil, and a touch of green for good measure! It might just be me, but I've had the toast a few times at both 'ino in the West Village and 'inoteca here in the LES, and I've found it consistently better at 'ino...they toast it for too long at 'inoteca, slightly drying out the entire creation. Nonetheless, I've got no other complaints, this truffled egg toast is a fine invention!
I had a bite of Steph's panini, richly smothered with a bottom base of pesto, and layered with prosciutto and tomatoes.
Chrissy also had a panini, except she opted for the culatello with noci (walnuts) & mozzarella.
Kelly's trio of bruschetta: two with (an insanely good) pesto, and a third topped with ricotta and pomodoro sauce. We all had quite a fun time, girl's chat (centering around the topics of food, boys, infidelity, and air mattresses), and a bottle of wine which Steph grew very friendly with. Steph, as I've come to discover, can take down wine with grace at the rate Kelly chomps through Kati Rolls...which is. Very Fast.
Post-dinner, pre-dessert. These girls have been my closest friends for nearly a decade :)
Following 'inoteca, we called Shann, who'd just finished her evening class at Parsons. We made a quick run to Sugar Sweet Sunshine where Kelly and Chrissy shared two cupcakes and Steph picked up a pumpkin cupcake, and then off to Magnolia's to meet Shann cause I was really craving banana pudding (but had promised myself I wouldn't patronize Sugar Sweet Sunshine anymore!)
The banana pudding you see above is a very reasonable size, slightly smaller than SSS, so you can finish the whole thing without feeling like you're going to have a heart attack, fall over and die. But it's also more expensive. I thought $3.50 at SSS was pricey, but Magnolia's is priced at $4.50 for a smaller cup of a less superior product. The banana pudding here is too fluffy, as if whipped cream was folded in with the pudding. This makes it lighter. Which might be good for some people. But when I eat banana pudding, I want it thick, creamy, and substantial. With big slices of bananas! They do thin, small slices here. I won't be back to fork over another $4.50 for pudding here. In fact, I'm starting to think that it's ridiculous to pay anything for banana pudding when I can make my own! So that's what I'll be doing from now on, hehe ;)
Have a super duper Sunday!
'inoteca
98 Rivington St
NY, NY 10002
(212) 614-0473
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