Thursday, January 29, 2009

La Bottega (363 W. 16th St @ Maritime Hotel)

I generally refuse to leave the East Village, but last Saturday Dan & I put on ties & ate at La Bottega on the west side. It wasn't busy at all, so we got a seat immediately. We ordered a bottle of Nebbiolo from their amazing wine selection along with the meat & cheese plates which we shared.

I really enjoyed the meats, in particular the prosciutto & the speck. There were some interesting cheeses as well, I liked them all, except for a ricotta that they had which was very dense (it must have been pressed) & unlike anything I've ever had before. With every bite, all I could think of was 'chalk'. The plate came with grapes & an amazing honey.

Dan ordered the Pork Chop w/ Roasted Veg & I got the special, a Pork Jowl Bucatini. I liked my dish, but Dan's pork chop was sublime. it was the juiciest, most tender piece of pork that I've ever had (& I've had a lot of pork in my time). I really cannot describe how good that dish was.

We had polished off our bottle of Nebbiolo pretty quickly, so we moved on to a delicious Rose Prosecco. By now it was dessert time, so we ordered the bread pudding which was served with ice cream & marzipan (which I haven't had in ages). A great end to the meal.

La Bottega is a bit out of the way for me (as I mentioned before), so I won't be going regularly, but I really enjoyed my meal & I highly reccommend the pork chop.

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