An Italian Deli in St. Paul

We have not travelled for pleasure during the pandemic with the exception of seeing our sons and my parents. During these trips, we’ve been very careful. Yesterday, we visited our youngest son who moved to St. Paul Minnesota at the end of January.

One of the first things we did was visit an Italian Market call Cossetta Alimentari. Our son’s girlfriends parents told us about this deli/market in January. It sounded amazing. As there was an impending snow storm in January when we visited, we planned to go during our trip this time. It was to be Cossetta’s for lunch! Off we went!

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Luckily, as it was a Tuesday it was not very crowded and all social distancing protocols were in place and, for the most part, being observed. You can be served cafeteria style and select from salads to pasta to pizza and chicken parmigiana. I had an antipasto salad and my husband chose chicken parm. Our son had pizza and his girlfriend had a salad as well. It was all very delicious. It reminded us of the markets and delis we would frequent in Baltimore when we lived there in the early 1990’s. We chose a seat by the window overlooking 7th street in downtown St. Paul. We noted two familiar hotel chains anchoring the block as well as a German sausage and bier restaurant across the street.

After we ate, we visited the Italian Market, in the same building but set apart from the deli. Although there were many tempting pre-made dishes, cheese, sauces, and sausage to choose from as well as olives and pastas, we headed over to the bakery without making a purchase (this time).

The bakery was a different story! With many types of patisseries elegantly displayed, we knew we had to make our choices. My husband chose macarons and I chose biscotti – a half pound of each. My husband, Jim, has been talking about trying to make macarons and I, meringues. Neither has been attempted yet. But, I have made biscotti in the past and love anise flavoring contained in many. Instead, we chose some almond and some chocolate biscotti. Both were delicious.

The macarons were good but very sweet. I liked a tarter one that was either raspberry or passion fruit. My husband liked the lemon. We tried a variety of them. Funny, we did not know our son did not like either of our choices. He claimed there were texture issues with the macarons and that he never liked biscotti. Okay, then! Still, his girlfriend likes both, so we left have the cookies for her.

The next time we come to visit them in St. Paul, I hope for better weather. It rained and we really were left without a lot of things to do – the Como Park Zoo and a hike across the Stone Arch Bridge were both out. It began raining just as we arrived at the Stone Arch Bridge, so that will have to wait, as does the zoo. But, I also know where else we’ll be going – back to Cossetta’s. Yes! It was that good!

Today is day 24/31 for the Slice of Life Story Challenge hosted by TwoWritingTeachers.org. Thank you for hosting this community of writers.