Becco

This was the first restaurant by Lidia Bastianich. It is located on Restaurant Row in NYC's Theatre District at 355 West 46th Street and is still quite popular especially for pre-theatre diners.

They have a daily pasta special prix-fixe menu. For $22.95 your choice of Caeser salad or antipasto and all you can eat servings of 3 types of pasta.

"J" and I had the antipasto (grilled vegetables and seafood) and the pastas were: linguini with jumbo lump crab meat and toasted panko crumbs,

farfalle with fresh tomatoes and basil, and Garboon Ravioli with browned butter and fresh corn.

The linguine was my favorite.

We each also had a ginger ale ($3/glass), "J" had a cappucino ($5.50) and we shared an apple streudel with cinnamon ice cream ($7.50). It was a very long slice and I can only imagine how large the entire streudel must be.

Andre's Bakery

...is located in NYC's borough of Queens at 100-28 Queens Blvd and makes one of the best apple streudels in the city that I have tasted.

For $12 the streudel is densely packed with apples and has featherlight layers of crust.

Germany - Post 19

From Salzburg...

Apfel strudel mit vanille sauce = apple streudel with vanilla sauce

Heiss shokolade = hot chocolate

Rolf's

Located in NYC's Gramercy Park area at 281 Third Avenue this restaurant screams "Happy Holidays"! There are thousands of lights and ornaments hung on fake tree branches everywhere inside the entire place.

Rolf's serves traditional German fare. For the holidays they add Gluwhein to their drink menu - this is a warm, mulled, spiced red wine.

"A" and I shared the potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream for an appetizer ($11). "A" had the Schniztel Holstein (with a fried egg and anchovies) and I had the traditional Weiner Schnitzel (both $24.95 and served with string beans and spaetzel). We shared a bottle of Reisling ($32) and apple streudel with whipped cream for dessert ($8).

The potato pancakes were thick and not as crispy as I would have liked. The schnitzel was paper thin and the spaetzel was a little gummy. The apple streudel was served very hot and had only a thin layer of crust, but the whipped cream was dense and yummy.

But the food is not the main attraction here - it's the over-the-top decorations! It looked like a trim-a-tree department exploded inside the restaurant. I feel sorry for the person who has to take them down and pack them away after the New Year.