On Monday, we spent lunchtime in Flushing and had the spiciest noodle soup ever.  Jason and Jia took us into a swap meet-looking basement that was stuffy and hot.  Luckily, the Chinese lady was nice enough to send us to the back dining area where it was air-conditioned and cleaner-looking.  The noodles were really tasty and I got some crazy chili coughs and sniffs that cleared up the stuffy nose that I had all morning.

Immediately afterward, we went to a dumpling house that we found two years ago on our last trip.  It was like a savory dessert to our noodle lunch.  We then took the subway back to Astoria for a quick hour and a half break before heading out to Manhattan for dinner.

This is a fatty pose in front of the restaurant.  It had only been 3.5 hours since our last meal.

The only reservation that I could get at Babbo was at 5:30 so we were in store for a continuation of our feasting marathon.  This is one of Mario Batali’s restaurants and was highly recommended by numerous people I talked to prior to our trip.  The space was beautiful on the second floor with a vaulted ceiling and natural light pouring into the room.  I want my next house to look like this.  🙂

We got the Pasta Tasting Menu that included 5 pasta courses, 1 cheese course, and 2 dessert courses.  On top of that, for our last dessert course, instead of bring 4 of the same, we got 4 different desserts!!

Here are the photos of the dishes and my lame translation of the menu items:

squid ink pasta with fresh peas – so flavorful and the peas had a nice snap to them

ravioli stuffed with beets – sounds weird but it was really good

pasta with wild mushrooms – savory and complex

pasta purses stuffed with braised beef – insides seasoned perfectly

pappardelle bolognese – mmmm…I love homemade pasta

fried sheep’s milk cheese with warm honey

It was like a cheesy donut!

toasted sesame panna cotta – rich and creamy with a mouth-watering sesame flavor

chocolate cake with vanilla cream – probably not the most creative dessert on the menu

This was a crazy yummy dinner that left us full and very fat.  Fantastic!