Desperate to get out of the house, I ventured to Il Bambino in Astoria for dinner and wine. My roommate and I have a list of restaurants that we want to try in the area, and this was next on our list. And, thankfully, they had a wide variety of vegetarian options.

 

We started off with a glass of Cabernet and the 3 cheese plate – pretty much the two most important food groups. They had a pretty decent selection of cheeses to choose from, for an Astoria restaurant, so we chose: Manchego, Gorgonzola, and a creamy Goat cheese that resembled Brie.

 

It was all delicious.

 

For my dinner, I was between like five different Panini’s, but I finally selected the Finocchiona Panini, because it came with sundried tomatoes. The waitress wrote down my order and then causally said, “You do know that Finocchiona is a type of Salami, right?”

 

“No!” I screamed, leaving the entire restaurant starting at our table. “I can’t have meat! I must decide on a different sandwich!” I cannot believe how close I came to eating meat. What if the waitress never told me? And I ate the sandwich. The past ten days (and 27 years) would have been pointless. I quickly scanned the menu and chose the first Panini I saw, the Fried Eggplant.