Osteria Il Paiolo

Nestled along N. 6th Street off Bedford Ave in Williamsburg, BK, glows a truly authentic Italian ember.  Stumbling upon it by appearance alone, the pink baby gingham shirt and skinny black tie of the Maitre' D, Gian, in contrast to the open glass facade, framed in rusted iron, turned my head enough to request a photo, and be gently entranced by the warm lighting, and even warmer atmosphere of Italian hospitality at it's best.  Laid before me at the bar were an assortment of aperitivos, the Italian appetizer version of Spanish tapas, but not as messy: Polenta, zuccini, and roasted carrot filled Zeppoli (Spunky and Grandmom Andrione forgive me if I am calling these by the wrong name; it is the only thing I could find to not have to say fried balls), homemade chips, and fresh bruschetta with tomatoes overflowing from lightly crispy crostini slices.  Festive miniature pumpkins rounded out the table decor.

The owner and staff spared no expense, bringing a plate of freshly baked foccacia, literally the softest, freshest I have tasted outside of Italy, and inside a fresh sundried tomato, aside slices of Mortadelo, that oh-so delicious Italian version of bologna.  This one had nuts? Pistachios?  Creamy, meaty, down right tasty.

To start I chose a Barbaretto?  Some lovely roll-off your spaghetti tongue name for a cocktail of Grappa, Limoncello, Sour mix, and prosecco- strong, gin-ish, and just the right mix of sweet, sour, bubbly, and liquor.

The pieta for me was an eggplant puree on crostini.  What looked like Chicalicious's perfectly scooped oval of ice-cream, and could have passed for patee, was actually a heavenly, perfectly spiced combination of eggplant, some undisclosed pepper (jalapeno or peperoncini, the bartender stating there is only so much the chef will divulge) for a gentle and loving kick, garlic, and who knows what other creamy delicious ingredient, making this terrifically addicting.

Tempted to fill up on aperitivos, and have a few oysters, but the oysters not being in season yet, the bartender spoke highly of the baby shark, braised in olive oil, white wine, capers, lemon, cherry tomatoes, black olives, and whole roasted mini shallots.  So, I gave it a try.  Texture of shark being similar to lobster, I was an instant fan, and being cooked in a fillet around the cartilage, gave it that extra touch of flavor.  Here again enter the slight touch of spicy- rounding out each bite, and leaving you desiring more.

For my meal I was led to a Michelle Chiarlo 2007 Barbera D'Asti red, dry and complexly structured, not typical for fish, but was a nice balance to the meaty texture, and luscious red sauce of the shark.

The company was excellent, with neighbors who have seen this establishment change hands thrice in the past two years, but all feel very confident this slice di Napoli is here to stay.

Throw Away the Scale

I have gotten a bit fed-up with women weighing themselves every day.
Noone wants to hear how many pounds you weigh, about as much as you do not want to see those numbers.
More importantly, it does not matter. 

I can completely understand, if you are on an extensive weight-loss regimen, those daily accomplishments are very important milestones in your progress, and are empowering to numerically account for success.

However, if you are one of those women who is on no regimen, no program of consciously choosing what you put and do not put into your body, or how much you excercise, please throw the scale away.  If the obsession with punishing yourself with the literal amount heavier you are after a binge eating session the night before, STOP torturing yourself!

It does nothing for you self-esteem and motivation to see for your own eyes those few pounds you gained from last nights chocolate cake binge, or the office party platter you couldn't resist.

Stop beating yourself up!

Decadent treats come around. It is a fact of life. And, thank God! If their were none, we would only have food issues when we are PMS'ing. Why can't we enjoy them when they are presented before us, and go on living our lives. For example: it was one of the women's birthday at my office the other day, and, being busy for most of the day, she set her chocolate cake on top of the water cooler, for people to take whenever they so chose. There was an uproar amongst the women over why anyone would tempt the poor pound-shedding obsessed with such a sisyphusian torment whilst they are simply coming to get the only calorie-free filler they are allowed- good 'ole H20!

Stop dwelling on caloric intake! Eat food, not too much, mostly greens. If you follow this, you will feel good, you will keep eating well, and you will feel the pounds shed, as opposed to needing a piece of machinery to tell you how you should feel today. 

I always remember my high school health teacher, Mrs. Vitali, teaching us about the nutrients we need each day.  Her principle was basically what Weight Watchers teaches now, as far as I can see; when you fill up your stomach on good stuff, you have no room left for the bad.  She condoned us having snack foods, once we ate real food, first.  It's a very old concept, one that your parents taught you at dinner.  You can only have desert if you finish your dinner.  That should be the rule, because once you fill up on the whole foods, you don't have room for the sugars, and salts, and frieds.

Easy for me to say, most of my friends would say, "you workout for like five hours a day." Completely untrue.  I do, when I am blessed with enough time in my day, spend two hours at the gym, but that is very seldom.  But, I have also trained my body, over the years, not to focus on that one piece of cake, because there will be another one after it, so you better make room, belly!

I am not condoning over-eating, by any means.  Please, don't get me wrong.  But, people do have different metabolisms, and we can only help so much by dieting; excercise must come into play, too!

So, drop that scale, and try on a new pair of pants!  Try to do something you have never done; try a new workout that you find in a magazine, instead of just getting on the scale.  The scale will only tell you what you already know.  So, instead of re-confirming with a machine, get out and enjoy life!  I promise, you will burn a couple calories doing it, too!

Oh, and don't forget to Mangia el Mundo!


If you ate well for a week, you can have a slice of chocolate cake for breakfast one day, why not? It is just cake! It is meant to be enjoyed!

Maria, thank you for the cake, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As for everyone else, I hope you enjoyed the smell, and the sight of it's beauty. It was delicious! And, now that there is no cake on the water cooler, don't you wish you had some?