Feasting like an Italian

It's pretty crazy to think that I went for my first meal in Little Italy just a couple weeks ago. For me, a native New Yorker, who has had an obsession with Italian food from the time I started to eat, one would think I would have ventured there long before. But oddly enough, I had not. Everybody who knows me knows that Italian cuisine was my first love. From the sauces and pasta to the 15 extra pounds I gained in Italy, I'm an Italian living inside a Jewish girl's body minus the olive skin.

The word around town about Little Italy is that all the restaurants are the same. The waiters are always calling you 'bella,' the sauces are always magnifico, the pasta is always fresh. But I wasn't going to depend on random chance to happen upon a decent restaurant...so when my friend told me that there was this place that was great (Angelo's on Mulberry) I jumped at the opportunity. Oddly enough, everyone was sort of right. All these restaurants are pretty similar. When I asked my dining partners which restaurant they went to the last time they ate in Little Italy, no one could remember. "I don't know some place like this one...they're all the same." When I followed up that question with "Which food do you think was better?" I recieved the same reply, "Well its all pretty much the same..It's all really good but traditional and you know..Little Italy."

Same or not, the food was still delic. In the mindset of most New York restaurants where an appetizer is actually appetizer portion or smaller, we ordered two starters for 4 people. This pretty much could've been a meal in itself. The mussels came out steaming hot with a garlicy wine sauce that was perfect for dipping bread into. The mixed vegetable frittes were also great (but then again what's bad about fried anything?) and came with a couple non-vegetable surprises a la potato croquet and mozzerella sticks. By the time we devoured the large plates, we were ready to open that top button on our pants. Shortly after, our main dishes came. 3 of us got the Veal Sorrentina (our server enticed us although we were hestiant to all get the same dish) and my fourth friend got the lobster ravioli. The veal sorrentina was great and came in a red sauce that was just about perfect. I'm a big fan of eggplant so anything with tomato sauce, eggplant and mozzerella cheese...I'm all about it. One of my favorite parts of the dish, however, was the sauteed spinach underneath the veal. The spinach was immersed in the red sauce and was full of the delicious flavors. While we ate, a traditional Italian band (which I'm not really sure what that is to begin with) came marching through playing on instruments and asking for requests. While this is cute and all, I like to be able to hear table conversation and this hindered my ability quite a great deal. I guess this is par for the course when dining in Lil Italy though. It seems more of a tourist attraction but I guess a bit of entertainment value. Our waiter was playful and of course called us bellas and asked us to bring back our boyfriends...kind of cliched...but he was still a lot of fun when you could understand what he was saying. By the end of the meal, we were all overstuffed...and not in a good way. Yes, everything was delicious, but I think we pretty much needed to be rolled out the restaurant.

So my final thoughts... would I go back? Of course! Whats not to love about traditional Italian fare? Garlic and tomatoe fused sauces, melted mozzerella cheese and pasta!? But would I make plans for post dinner? Absolutely Not. Unless those plans included lying on my couch to recover from all the eating.