Eataly, a marketplace, restaurants and bookstore, is an amazing collection of Italian food and kitchenwares in New York City. Friends have been raving about it since it first opened about a year ago. Have you been there? I finally visited this summer.
The organic vegetables, cured meats, stark white cheeses, imported pastas and sauces, gorgeous four-color cookbooks, coffee bar, gelato stand and more reminded me of my time in Italy. I wanted to stop for lunch, then shop in the market and carry my prizes down to D.C. and re-create my Florentine life.
Wait. That never was my life. I never ordered a $95.00 Porterhouse steak for two at dinner or stocked my kitchen with an Alessi citrus squeezer.
Oh, well. I did enjoy a little food sight-seeing and being reminded of how some people lived in Italy. I left Eataly with a very cute tin of cinnamon candies that I bought mainly because of the very cute tin and I wanted a souvenir.
Unlike Eataly, Italy taught me how to simplify. There are few things that a good kitchen truly needs. (Today I’d vote for a moka and a good knife.) It is possible to grow fresh vegetables, buy locally (not buying locally wasn’t always an option in a market) and make do with what we have. And wow, can we make do with a little flour, water, yeast and salt…
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