Striptease.

View from the second floor of Jimmy and Nino Sunseri's

The tease is not clothing, but food. Sorry.

Last Saturday, we took a ride to The Strip District. As Lauren observed, "This place is dirty and kinda old." Well, heck yeah it's dirty and kinda old, but under all that grime there's good food to be had.



Our first stop was Jimmy and Nino Sunseri's for lunch. As always, Jimmy was behind the counter smoking a cigar. After some deliberation, Mark ordered a meatball sub while I ordered "The Duo." Eggplant parmesan and meatball. What can I say, I'm the kinda girl who wants it all.

Next, we walked up to Pennsyvania Macaroni Company (Penn Mac) to buy cookies. I bought a dozen italian love knots, but since they're not nearly as pretty as the ones I mentioned in our first blog post, I didn't take any photos. We also bought two of what was dubbed as the last four cannoli in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, they weren't nearly as good as the ones served at Mama Lucia's. Lauren liked her cannoli well enough, but Mark and I assured her that we'd hook her up with better. We then purchased a loaf of Mancini's bread that would become Sunday's french toast.



Lastly, we stopped at Wholey's to pick up a couple of bottles of Red Ribbon soda. As we made our way through the crowds, I spotted something that I had been seeking out for years: natural peanut butter. You haven't lived until you've tried natural peanut butter. And I'm not talking about the over-the-counter kind that you buy in a jar with goopy oil at the top that you have to stir. This is freshly made ground peanuts in a plastic tub. My grandfater used to buy it all the time at the local health food store. If I was less civilized, I'd eat it out of the tub with a spoon.



While we're on the subject of food, Hershey's released special limited edition mint flavored Minatures for holidays. The white chocolate is our favorite - they have little green and read candy sprinkles inside. Yet another reason to love Christmas!