Hi everyone 🙂
It’s so nice to finally be on winter break – my classes were really challenging this quarter, and I’m happy that I’m finished.Â
My boyfriend and I celebrated the end of the quarter by spending a day in Chicago yesterday. We went to Eataly, which is a new restaurant/gourmet food store owned by Mario Batali. It was amazing!  Eataly literally has every type of Italian food you could imagine: from fresh bread to produce to chocolate. Here are some photos I took of some of the food displays.
The first floor has several small cafes, and the second floor has sit-down restaurants. Eataly has several restaurants, and each one serves a different type of food. There are restaurants for meat, fish, vegetables, and pizza and pasta. This wasn’t a problem for my boyfriend and I, who were in the mood for pizza and pasta, but it might be tough if you’re with a big group of people who all want different types of food. When we sat down, we were greeted with delicious fresh bread and olive oil. We were seated right in front of the pizza ovens: it was so cool to watch the pizzas being made!Â
My boyfriend ordered a Margherita pizza, which came with tomato sauce, basil, mozzarella, and extra virgin olive oil. He said it was tasty, but he wished there was more basil on it. There was only one basil leaf!
I ordered linguine with pesto trapanese. The sauce was made with tomatoes, basil, almonds, garlic, chili flakes, and Pecorino cheese. It. Was. Incredible. Seriously one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The pasta was perfectly al dente, and the sauce was so fresh and flavorful. I absolutely loved it!
We had such a great time eating and exploring Eataly: it’s huge, and we didn’t even look at everything!  If you’re in Chicago, I highly recommend stopping by Eataly. It is such a cool place full of great food, and I can’t wait to go again!
Courtney Em 