re: Some food porn pics from my Cali trip

Another night I went to Chi Spacca. This is one of Mario Batali's restaurants that is focused on meats. Definitely would be better for a group of people as opposed to a lone diner like myself. (insert forever alone pic here)

There is no bar at this location but you can sit at the bar next door in Osteria Mozza (I tried to get a reservation here but you need to book months in advance. It does appear with 1 or 2 people you could just walk up and eat at the bar as I saw a few people doing.)

Had another cucumber cocktail and an apertif called an aperol spritzer. Never had Aperol before...I could take it or leave it.


Started off with the daily selection of cured meats

From left to right it was some fried pork thing, pate, "Christmas salame", pork loin that had been cured for a long time (I want to say 7 months or something), and some more salame.

Also ordered some pickled vegetables that are not shown in the top of the picture. I think it was carrots, cauliflower, and fennel.

For the main I ordered the beef cheek and bone marrow pot pie. Way too much for one person.


I took the advice of the lovely waitress and mixed the marrow in with the mashed potatoes. For an inside view of the pie (and the point at which I finally surrendered)


Inside included beef cheeks, mushrooms, and some onions. Pretty simple but very good.

Ordered a peanut butter pie for dessert. Not as rich as it looks.



If I could do it again I probably would have ordered the heavily recommended Butterscotch Budino, but I already had one butterscotch dessert on the trip.