I just got back from a few days outside Siena, Italy, where I stumbled into a papparazzi moment involving Gordon
Who's getting upstaged here?
Ramsay and a Chianina bull. Ramsay was in an oddly sprightly mood, but I was more transfixed by the bull—mainly because I’ve been craving a bistecca Fiorentina steak made with painfully tender, juicy Chianina beef and haven’t come across one in NYC for years. (If anyone finds one anywhere in or near the five boroughs, please let me know asap.) Though I didn’t have a proper bistecca on this trip, I did eat so many cow byproducts that I seem to have tripped a cattle-addiction wire in my brain. So I’m headed to Obika, one of my favorite Manhattan quick-serve stations for Italian cured meats and fantastic mozzarella di bufala.
Obika is actually a “mozzarella bar” (that’s part of the name), and although the space, in the lobby of midtown’s IBM building, isn’t the most soulful, all you need to do is park yourself at the round bar and order a stracciattella di burrata—the gloriously soft, sweet mozzarella you can eat with a spoon—with some bresaola, a salty air-dried beef. Instant happiness. Or go more gluttonous with a tasting plate of various fresh and smoked mozzarellas, along with mortadella or prosciutto or salami on the side. The salami is my favorite here: It comes from Tuscany’s delightful black-and-white Cinta Senese pigs—which I also spotted in Italy over the weekend, and this time without a British chef hogging the spotlight.