Over the Veteran's Day weekend, we decided to take a trip up to New York - visit our son and our cousins and do some sightseeing (and shopping!) in the process. Oh, and try some new restaurants!

There is something about the New Jersey Turnpike that leaves much to be desired. We left work a bit early, made good time all the way into the lower part of NJ. But then, for no reason that one could possibly understand, we hit traffic completely at a dead stop. And sat. And crept, and then sat again. After an hour and a half, we finally crept to the clog - a piece of machinery sitting on the side of the road that had everyone in a quandary. And while the new lanes of the NJ Turnpike were completely done and empty of cars, we all sat and had to creep by a piece of machinery that wasn't in use. Hmm, on a holiday weekend. Go figure.

OK, so now that I've vented about my frustration with the NJ Turnpike (believe me, Ernie is VERY tired of hearing my venting - he'd rather drive with a rabid dog than with me venting), I'll return to fun stuff. We made it to the Four Seasons Hotel in NY (the best!), completely exhausted (Ernie, from listening to me vent) and hungry (me, from trying to single-handedly move the traffic along) after a 5 1/2 hour ride. So, Four Seasons' concierge to the rescue - they recommended Casa Lever, an Italian restaurant just down Park Avenue from where we were.

What a great recommendation! At 10 PM, the place was bustling with activity - beautifully dressed folks, both business and casual. Very modern in style. We got a somewhat secluded-feeling booth. GREAT wine list! Since I've been trying the Sicilian wines that were discussed in the recent Wine Spectator magazine, we decided to try the 2007 Mille e Una Notte Donnafugata.

Donnafugata's flagship wine - the Mille e Una Notte - it was perfect.

Mille e Una Notte is Donnafugata's flagship wine, and we could definitely see why. The wine is 90% Nero d'Avola, and it is beautifully complex and deep. Lovely balsamic scents along with floral (almost violets). The taste has dark fruit with tobacco notes in the finish. Wow, a perfect remedy to wipe out a long drive.

And then the food. The chef started us off with a small bite of salmon mousse on a crostini. Yum. And then I had the Melanzane Alla Parmigiana - a small plate of the traditional eggplant parmigiana made in the style of a mousse. Ernie had the Carciofi, which was thin-sliced artichokes with shaved parmesan and baby arugula. What a nice start.

When we have visited NY during November in past years, the Italian restaurants take great pride in highlighting truffles. So as we have in the past, we splurged and split an order of tagliatelle with a gorgeous amount of shaved truffles on top. Oh my - the earthiness of the truffles on the pasta and the tobacco notes in the wine were absolutely fabulous together. Yes indeed, I love New York in November - we will definitely have to get to Italy for the truffle festival!

Shaved truffles over the tagliatelle - incredible.

And then the main courses. I had the Tagliata di Manzo, which had a ragu of wild mushrooms and roasted garlic "flowers". Absolutely fabulous. Ernie had the Colorado Rack of Lamb that also had wild mushrooms along with lemon and thyme. I think he liked it - the bones were left neatly in a stack on the plate!

The tagliate di manzo with the wild mushroom ragu and garlic flowers.

We had a great conversation, we planned for the coming days with the family, and we just enjoyed being in a great city. A wonderful start to the weekend - we looked forward to the following days.