We walked down Fifth Avenue towards the Flatiron building a few weeks ago. Our goal was to visit Eataly, the Italian food market established by Mario Batali and his partners. This was our first visit. Some reviews have deemed it as being too touristy. But we like being tourists in our hometown during weekends especially when the beautiful spring weather beckoned us to stay outdoors and have some fun.
Once we entered Eataly, we encountered a queue of almost 50 people waiting to buy the gelato. Eataly is definitely a gastronomic feast for the eyes. The array of fresh and dry pasta, cheese, olive oil and other Italian products is amazing.
Even though it was not yet dinner time, all the restaurants were packed. We decided to wait for a table at La Pizza & La Pasta which turned out to be a relatively short wait. We ordered the linguini and the Paccheri which was ring shaped pasta cooked with scallops, shrimps and mussels.
My Paccheri order was very good but I was not used to the firm bite of the pasta. My server assured me that eating the pasta al dente is better for digestion. Basically we were eating the pasta the way native Italians do. He offered to return the pasta to the kitchen if I was not satisfied with the meal. I declined the offer and decided to eat it that way.
Once home, I looked up al dente and found that food cooked al dente has lower glycemic index which helps to control the blood sugar better. We will consider cooking more of our pasta al dente in the future.
