A New York birthday

      Top: Ambassador Theatre, maialino al forno / Middle: coppa romana & olive oil muffin / Bottom: gelati & homemade longevity noodle

Last weekend, my parents and I enjoyed a casual day out in Manhattan to celebrate my mom's birthday. We started with a brunch at one of my favorite Italian restaurants, Maialino, where we challenged our stomach with the maialino al forno a.k.a. roasted suckling pig and finished it (!) along with other tasty dishes—bombolotti all’amatriciana (pasta with spicy tomato sauce & guanciale), coppa romana (fried pork terrine with poached egg), super moist olive oil muffin, and 3 flavors of creamy gelati: fior di latte (sweet milk), limone (lemon curd), and olio d'oliva (olive oil).

Then we headed over to the Ambassador Theatre to watch Chicago the musical. The performance blew me away! Charlotte d'Amboise was the perfect Roxie Hart, and it was incredible that such a small stage (the entire orchestra was on there!) produced such an amazing show filled with superb singing, acting, and all that jazz!

We ended the day back in Brooklyn where we savored some homemade longevity noodles, a Chinese tradition and in my opinion a must-have for birthdays. The longevity noodles are made with uncut long noodles to symbolize a long life ahead. Now, isn't that dandy? ;)