A SQUIDlicious night at Zio Cecio Cucina Italiana

Zio Cecio - 5*s


When I heard¹ that one of the 2 brothers that started Arcodoro Pomodoro had branched out to form his own restaurant, I was psyched. They have apparently been open for around 10 to 11 weeks. Just like the aforementioned restaurant, the website for Zio Cecio makes references to a Sardinian form of Italian food. I love Arcodoro Pomodoro. It's one of those restaurants I have photos on my computer just begging to be added to a blog post so I can share my finds with the lovely people of the world. But I'm a slacker. This place, at least judging from what we ordered, might even be better than Arcodoro Pomodoro. Sadly though, The Cupcakery isn't next door.

Overall ... delicious! The fish all tasted so fresh. As a calamari aficionado, (we all have to have our obsessions, right?) I think this may be one of the best plates of it I've had. I'm the kind of girl who orders calamari every time I see it on the menu. I'm often the same way with queso. And the color yellow. Anyways. You could test the freshness of the fish through the breadcrumbs. Fish that was wonderfully salted and seasoned. My dining mate said it was very interesting as I inquired whether he tasted olive on the calamari. I couldn't figure out whether this taste was in the calamari or the cocktail sauce or in my mind. So I sought out a manager, a.k.a. a man in black (a suit). He informed me that the calamari is made from a variety of fish (which is apparently what Paranza means): shrimp, squid (the usual fish in calamari), and the like. It's also worth mentioning that I was quite enjoying the red sauce accompanying the calamari. Not that the calamari needed any sauce. I should say that even the less calamari-obsessed were won over by Francisco Farris's rendition of the Fritto Di Paranza.

I think I'm going to stick with the English for menu items. As much as I may pretend when ordering, I don't speak Italian. Though I do know fritto means fried! I mean, golly. Who doesn't crave some fried fish? Another appetizer that everyone was fond of was the Baby octopus with squid ink and homemade orzo pasta. Mmm. Ink. What's not to love? Like Scott Reitz before me, I also felt that the only thing wrong with this dish was that it needed more squid. More squid! More squid!! Oh oops, he was referring to that other squid dish. I may get things wrong. I may misquote. I might make up words. Forgive me. I'm just an unpaid blogger, after all.


The inky sauce was delicious. It even made me enjoy the pumpkin seed shaped pieces of pasta. I'm not a huge pasta gal. It bores me some. So sue me. My recommendation would be for the dish to focus more on the squid and less on the risotto-like pieces of pasta. Not that they tasted like risotto. Image wise they just reminded me of risotto. But objectively, these are very well made, delicious pieces of pasta. A Plus.

Tentacles..

Not only did we get one squid-ish appetizer, but we got TWO. The second one had roasted tomatoes and was supposed to be spicy, but really wasn't. Thus, we stayed friends - as saucy a gal as I may be, I'm not a spice fan. Though I still like cinnamon and the like. I can't even think through the spice. I try to be objective, but my brain signals me the thumbs down. And I think 'why?' This was quite a nice dish. Though not as impressive as that ink. The squid was tasty, as were the tomatoes accompanying them.

Grimaldi's - The Best Pizza in Dallas!

Grimaldi's - 5 *s!


There are a few locations in Dallas, as well as the famous location under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The location in Brooklyn has long lines at all hours. Thankfully, that's a non-issue at the locations in Dallas and Plano. The pizza is delicious. The sauce has an excellent flavor, and there's not too much cheese. I always appreciate pizza with basil. The regular pizza automatically comes with basil on it. One of the last times I was there, a friend asked for ranch dressing, and the waiter said they don't carry ranch dressing. As I said, you only need ranch on bad pizza. I used to have a thing for getting Papa John's and dipping it in ranch dressing. With this pizza, however, there is definitely no need for ranch. They use charcoal ovens at Grimaldi's so it's a different type of pizza than the conventional New York-style pizza. On this particular occasion, we came for my father's birthday in January. They send him a coupon for a free pizza or free cheesecake every year. Make sure to sign up! I'm always pleased by the flavor of the sauce and am not hesitant to say this is the best pizza I've ever had in Texas. As for the cheesecake, I also think it's delicious. The cheesecake was creamy and had a nice, firm texture. As far as cheesecake in Dallas goes, it's definitely among the best. The cheesecake at Macaroni Grill may be better. They all make me happy. Cheesecake Factory fails on all counts.

Mushroom Onion Pizza

Cheese Pizza

New York style Cheesecake

Pizza and Porchetta (Pork Sandwiches) in NYC - Superbowl weekend

Porchetta - 5 *s!

I read about the porchetta that a town in Italy (somewhere near Rome) specializes in, along with beautiful pictures of the pork on spits, in the cooking magazine La Cucina Italiana. I was convinced (despite my kosher-at-home, anti-swine background)... The magazine also mentioned a restaurant that serves these porchetta sandwiches in the US, Porchetta in Manhattan. I've been dreaming of a trip to devour some porchetta for a while. It was delicious! My Italian friend said he expected it to be good and it was even better. The pork just had a delicious flavor to it, and I'm usually not one for pork. Pork normally seems like a less flavorful white meat to me. Of course, Jews are probably raised not to like pork. The porchetta was deliciously flavored and marbled. The sandwich costs $10, they also have a porchetta platter, mozzarella sandwich, and so on. I can only comment on the sandwich since that's all we had.

As with many places in the Manhattan area, it is a bit of a cramped space. When we arrived, there were 2 people enjoying their meal. I and my friend made 2 more, with one spare seat left in the restaurant, if you could call it that. It's really more of a food stand with walls. Not that you should be deterred. It was amazing, and I would certainly wait in line if I had to. I added a $3 tip after my meal to express my happiness. To traif!

Mmmm pork!

Rosa's Pizza - 5*s!

I had some pizza in Penn Station at Rosa's Pizza. It was pizza stand inside one of those gas station store of sorts. The kind that sells drinks and magazine, along with hot dogs and beer. I chose the margherita pizza. Again, delicious. Pizza in Dallas shouldn't even be called pizza. Maybe the one exception in Dallas is Grimaldi's, but, of course, I still preferred this pizza. It's a different style than the charcoal ovens they use at Grimaldi's. This is the "typical New York-style pizza." Yum! New York is a place where even the pizza in the train station is delicious! It's times like these that food cravings almost make me want to move to New York. The sauce is delicious, and they don't over-cheese their pizza in New York. Even the flavor of the dough is great. I'm the sort who normally throws my crust away. You can taste the freshness of the mozarella, the slight flavor of basil, the wonderfully flavored sauce, and dough that actually drives you to polish off every last crumb. As I always do, let the pictures speak for themselves.

I know, I know. I ranted about how awful Dallas pizza is, which is certainly not a new idea. I can't help it. I feel these pangs of loss...

This is my kind of heaven.