So on Sunday, we went into Eataly, with our very good friends Frank and Sue…Victor has been friends with Frank since they were in 4th grade, he was also in our wedding and his family is from the same town in Italy that Victor is from, Filadelphia, Italy (yes spelled with an “F”).  Eataly is at the Prudential Center, it’s an Italian marketplace with different types of restaurants intertwined around it.  Once we crossed the threshold, I felt like I was transported to Italy!!  I remember my mother-in-law saying to me in her little Italian accent, “I cook for you, I give you my food, I give you my heart!!”  Well, I never really understood that statement until I went to Italy and experienced how much food meant to Italians…It’s their whole life, their lives revolve around food, it is ingrained in their hearts…And so it was, that’s how I felt when I crossed into Eataly, so excited by the smells and how beautiful the food looked, I wanted to eat everything!!!  Eataly’s website here.

The pizzas and breads looked and smelled so scrumptious…there is much more than what I could fit into this photo…  We went home with a walnut, hard crusted bread…it was amazing toasted for breakfast…

 

 

 

 

The fresh vegetables looked wonderful too…but Victor was so impressed with all the varieties of pasta, there must have been 4 rows of just pasta…He chose a filetti pasta, like his sister Rita used to make from scratch, she would wrap the rolled out dough around knitting needles and then slide it off to dry on towels laid out on the kitchen table or sometimes the beds!!  So the other night we had the Eataly’s pasta for supper with meatballs and sauce, that Victor’s other sister, Marianna had made for us, and it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious…So Victor ordered 6 more bags of the filetti online…

 

 

 

 

And then there are the fish, cheeses, cold cuts, prosciutto and sausages (hanging), and meats, that all permeate the senses to provoke you to put them in your basket that is already heavy with groceries…

 

 

 

 

Frank and Sue are foodies, we are lucky to ride on their coattails, they did research and made reservations at Terra Italian Grill, one of the four restaurants in Eataly…it’s not the typical Italian fare…”The dining room centers around a wood-burning Italian grill, where Chef Dan Bazzinotti cooks seasonal raw ingredients over burning flames, allowing the simple flavors to shine, resulting in earthy dishes.” Quoted from their website, you can see their menu here.   I took a picture of the ladies room, I would rate it as a 10, not individual sinks in the stalls, but they have the cloth-like paper towels and a lovely ambiance.  As you can see in the top right photo Terra Grill is decorated with lots of herbs and potted plants giving it a simple Italian kitchen atmosphere…The food was delicious, the service was good and I would recommend this restaurant👍👍…but next time I would like to try one of those pizzas😋

It’s very appropriate, for us,  that they would have a beautiful bicycle displayed at Eataly…When we get together with Frank and Sue during the good weather, our visits usually revolve around bike riding and eating…They have introduced us to the world of cycling, it’s great exercise, a good way to sight-see and we can work off some calories that we have gained from restauranting😉

“Make new friends but keep the old ones; one is silver and the other’s gold”

Our new friends, like the saying says, are new and shiny, like silver…but the old ones, like Frank and Sue are pure gold and ingrained in our hearts, like food to Italians💛