Home Away From Home As soon as I opened the door, I felt as if I had just taken a fourteen hour plane ride and landed in the heart of Italy. As my eyes immediately jetted to a mural of an Italian-styled building, my ears listened to the noise of Italian music in the background. If I did not know any better, I would have thought I was sitting in a tiny café in Italy. Ironically, the minuscule, Italian-inspired restaurant had a name bigger than the restaurant itself: The Pastaria & Market. Located at 49 East Main Street in Downtown Los Gatos, The Pastaria & Market is open daily for dinner. Though the restaurant only has twelve tables, the Italian decor creates an atmosphere which contributes to giving people an authentic Italian dining experience. My ethnic origins are mostly Italian, so I am familiar with eating my Nonna’s homemade Italian food; hence, I was skeptical on how creditable The Pastaria & Market was going to be. After my dining experience, I would highly recommend The Pastaria & Market to anyone looking for attentive service and flavorsome dishes. The Pastaria & Market displays authentic Italian cuisine by using simple and original flavor combinations. Not only do they make their pasta in-house daily, but they also provide fresh ingredients to go alongside it; the authenticity of the meals made me recall heartwarming moments I have experienced while eating Italian food. The first entrée I tried was Linguine Aglio Olio which featured garlic and crushed red
Family is defined differently for everyone. Family members can live down the street or in another country. Some people have close knit families while others do not. Similarly, home is also defined differently for everyone. Some people might believe that home is just the house they live in, and with each move comes a new home. Others, however, believe that home is where their family is. People use family as a way to define home in slightly different ways. For example, in her essay “On Going Home,” Joan Didion writes about wanting to give her daughter “home” for her birthday. Didion describes her home as being where her family is. In his essay, “Coming Home Again,” Chang-Rae Lee uses his mother as a way of defining his home. In the third
The product is Italian food served buffet style, in an all-you-can-eat format, with a salad bar, pizza, several different types of pasta with three or four types of sauces, soup, desserts, and a self-serve soda bar. The restaurant is also
Olive Garden offers Italian fare in a low-lit atmosphere that is perfect for an intimate date night or for a relaxed lunch with friends. There are several specials to choose from such as the Tour of Italy where you choose one specialty like the chicken parmigiana or shrimp scampi, a premium filled pasta like cheese ravioli with marinara or tortelloni al forno and a signature pasta like the fettuccine alfredo or spaghetti with meat sauce. Other specials at Olive Garden include the dinner duos served Monday through Thursday and a lighter and healthier choice called Tastes of the Mediterranean. Choose from options that include chicken margherita, linguine di mare made with homemade Pomodoro sauce or herb grilled salmon served with parmesan-garlic
This is where the smells of cooked tomatoes, garlic, cheese, fresh focaccia bread, and pasta can be found in infinite bounds. Despite not having personally traveled to Italy, my connecting link to Italian cuisine can be found through this restaurant and their pasta. As Brombert (2013) explains in Italian Identity in the Kitchen, or Food and the Nation, Italians abroad are referred to as “macaroni-eaters,” for dried pasta, or maccheroni, particularly those from the southern regions. The experience that one encounters in Pagliacci’s is very much how I would imagine restaurants in Italy to be, packed with tables close together to encourage the social environment that is so crucial to Italian culture. An essential component upon entering is of course bread, an endless supply of freshly made focaccia bread to be exact. This is in line with the Italian custom to always eat bread with a meal, for it is very much an essential component. Similar to the history of bread, in which it was used as the last stand against hunger, when eaten to excess this mouth-watering bread can come close to being a meal in it of itself. The dish that I fall back on most frequently here provides me with an intimate knowledge of the flavors of the Italian world for it involves many classic ingredients. Fresh tomatoes soaked in red wine, mushrooms, basil, and olive combined with the linguine noodle and topped with
Moving away from the place that one calls home is a hard situation, especially for a child at a young age. I lived in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and I was in the eighth grade. I had been in Brookhaven School District majority of my childhood. I had plenty of friends, and I was involved in school clubs. It was two weeks before the beginning of my freshman year when I got the news. My mom called me in her room and explained why I had to transfer schools. My sister has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and she felt that it was best that we try a smaller school. I called up my friends to tell them the news, and we decided that these last few nights were going to be the best. We went out to bowl, had sleep overs, and had a special trip to the waterpark. I felt so happy to get that time with them, but moving day came and ruined all of the fun. That morning we packed up the house, said our goodbyes to our neighbors, and drove away. Though as I rode in the car towards a new beginning, I felt like I left behind the whole world behind me.
Pane e Vino’s pasta dishes, like the lasagna del mi’ nonno made with ground beef, mushrooms and
Chi Chi’s is equivalent to an Olive Garden; yet there is not even a table cloth and the silverware is wrapped in a paper towel. At Bella Cucina even though it is smaller, the interior is warm, trendy, and they have a beautiful fully stocked bar. I love all the warm colors and the decorative wine bottles, photographs, and paintings. I love coming here because I know the owners put thought and creativity into making this place feel like a second home or an Italian getaway! They have perfectly white table cloths and also have silverware in real cloth napkins, which is nice because they value their customers and obviously will give them nothing but the finest dining experience. Bella Cucina also plays light Italian music at the perfect noise level; it gets makes you feel like you are in Italy without the distractions like Chi
Vinnie's Mulberry Street serves classic Italian food. It features white-tablecloth setting, booths and a mahogany bar top. Vinnie's Mulberry Street has brick oven pizza as well as other Italian dishes and is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Sunday.
Borgo 979 is a small and well-decorated food shop, located in the heart of Bologna. This food shop is a pleasant place, where one can get a taste of the best prosciutto, salamis, cheese, tigelle(small bread) and other specialties of the region. The owner of Borgo979 is very knowledgeable, and he knows about all his products, as he personally sources them from the local farms, around the area. One can enjoy a nice meal, along with a variety of local wines that are available at the food shop. There is a small seating arrangement inside the food shop, but otherwise is mostly a take away.
The primary resource that I am connecting to this assignment is Eva Sandoval’s blog post on “10 Great Roman Dishes.” In particular, I was interested by the final dish on her list, rigatoni con la pajata, rigatoni prepared with a sauce made from the “creamy contents” of a milk-fed calf’s small intestine. She concluded that in recent years, the dish has been deemed unlawful and became challenging to find in Rome if you don’t know where to look. Reading about this special rigatoni reminded me of the first time I learned of the Italian dish I would most like to try: casu marzu, also known as formaggio marcio.
Feast on Tuscan cooking at Rosti. Its casual atmosphere is great for dining out with the entire family. Rosti features an open kitchen and creates a variety of Italian fare. It offers appetizers like bruschetta mozzarella and fire-roasted artichoke. Freshly prepared salads and flavorful soups also make for tasty starter choices. Guests can dine on an entrée of grilled chicken with sautéed spinach, Tuscan steak or tilapia in a spicy pink mushroom sauce. This restaurant also has wood-fired pizza, as well as vegan-, vegetarian- and gluten-free options.
Whether you’re craving delicious pizzas, pasta dishes, or entrees, the incredible modern Italian cuisine specialties at Patsy’s Pizzeria are sure to win your heart. Located in New Rochelle, NY, the restaurant has put a creative spin on Italian food specialties to treat your taste buds to a whole new variety of flavors. If you’re wondering what makes them stand apart from the rest. head to the local pizzeria to savor their delightful menu items.
The spicy sausage sandwich is a specialty of Piccolino Restaurant. Serving seafood, veal, chicken and meatballs, entrees are served in traditional Italian styles. Calzones, ravioli, manicotti, cannelloni, spaghetti and pizzas are choice menu options. Vegetarian lasagna, several types of pasta with alfredo, marinara or Bolognese and more sauces are available. Enjoy “Victor’s Favorite” which is penne with chicken, eggplant, garlic, olives, tomato and pine
The evening temperature was perfect for walking arm-in-arm with my handsome Italian husband. It felt magical as we meandered through the historic streets and piazzas taking pictures and window shopping. Freshly made sandwiches, bruschetta, pasta dishes and sausages ready to be devoured were displayed in the windows of self-service eating establishments everywhere. We shared a pizza and a carafe of red wine in an outdoor Trattoria, caffè and a dolce in another. We were delighted to be in Italy again. Being here made us realize how much we have missed this fantastic, congenial country. We watched flocks of pigeons as they entertained children in the piazzas amidst the bustle of people strolling by, stopping to admire a street artist’s work,
Sarto’s gourmet pasta process good information about the market and knows a great deal about the common attributes of our most prized and loyal customers. Sarto’s gourmet pasta will leverage this information to better understand who is served, their specific needs, and how sarto’s can better communicate with them.