Giveaway winner!

Happy Monday! After choosing the old fashioned way (slips of paper with blog names/email addresses in a bowl!) I am happy to announce that the winner of the Nigella Express cookbook is:

That says "The Whole Plate" in case you can't tell!

Congrats Leslie! Please send me an email to let me know where I should have the book mailed.

Thanks to ALL of you for entering. When things settle down at work for me, I am going to make a list of all of the celeb chefs you mentioned and will post it for anyone who is interested in exploring some new restaurants/books.

One amazing, famous, classic culinary inspiration that wasn’t mentioned is Lidia Bastianich of Lidia’s Italy. I LOVE her show on Public Television. Her food always looks so good, so when I recently had the opportunity to eat at one of her restaurants in New York, I was psyched!

We had an 8:00 reservation at Becco, and because we had quite  large group, we arrived a little late. Becco is adorable and really reminded me of trattorias in Italy, with the warm, inviting smells and bustling, lively atmosphere.

We were seated at a long table near the back of the downstairs room, and our servers came over immediately to ask if we wanted to water. We ordered both still and sparkling, and I was happy to see that the sparkling was San Benedetto, one of my favorite mineral waters (I know, its just water, but I find great pleasure in a nice bubbly water).

The first thing I noticed was how great the service was. We had several servers assigned to us to fill our water, and I didn’t have an empty glass the entire night. We also ordered wine. Remarkably, they have a pretty extensive wine list of $25 bottles. We ordered a few bottles, and I had a glass of the medium bodied red:

 Morellino di Scansano(Toscana) I Perazzi 2006, La Mozza

I sipped on my glass throughout the evening. It was delicious, but it had been a loooong work day, and red wine tends to make me sleepy!

I decided to skip an appetizer or salad and went straight to my entree. The couple next to me had steaming bowls of seafood in red sauce, so I asked what they were having and ordered it. The dish turned out to be:
 

Zuppa di Pesce Misto $26

This was an absolutely delicious mix of seafood, perfectly soft, silky, and fluffy polenta, and a tomato and lobster broth. The scallops were huge, tender, and sweet. The shrimp were grilled to perfection, and the white fish tasted so fresh! This dish was definitely what I wanted. I was only able to eat about half, and I was bummed that the hotel didn’t have a fridge because this would have made a great lunch!

We had a few birthdays in the group, so the restaurant staff brought out a couple plates of tiramisu. I of course had to have a bite, and it was creamy heavenly goodness! I am hoping to go on a foodie trip to NYC soon, and Becco will def be on the list, along with Babbo and Le Bernardin. Can’t wait to have the time to do this!

Sorry I didn’t have any photos; its tough with a group of colleagues. No one knows about my blog, and for some reason I am keeping it that way until I beef it up a bit. Only the hub and my mom know 🙂

Do you tell your friends/family about your blogging?

I hope you all have a great night! I have a few fun product reviews this week. Please don’t forget to shoot me a guest post if you would like. I would love to hear from you!