Went out to dinner for my step-mom's 60th to a fine Italian restaurant called La Parma in Albertson, LI [in fairness some people call it Williston Park]. While I had never been there, I had only heard good things about it and had passed it countless times on my way to Mineola down Willis Ave.

We had to get there a bit early since they don't take reservations and we had a party of 10 to sit. They sit parties of 10-12 in a square which I much prefer to the long rectangle. Part of their reasoning for this seating is due to the fact that it's "family style" with everyone eligible to the large portions, so there is plenty of room for serving plates.

For appetizers we got an order of stuffed mushrooms and two orders of some fried breaded item I didn't care for. There was lots of that left over. My sister talked me into the last stuffed mushroom. We also got two house salads ... which in my family is complicated ... onions on the side, tomatoes on the side, dressing on the side.

For entrees we got 1 1/2 orders of Penne ala Vodka as the pasta and then 1 order of Chicken Parmigiana [my sister's favorite], 1 order of Eggplant Parmigiana [my step-grandmother can't have meat or seafood], 1 1/2 orders of Seafood Marinara.

In addition we got 1 order of the escarole and my younger step-sister made an order of steamed spinach.

My sister was not happy with the order since she was convinced that this was too much food for 9 people and an small kid, but the waiter won out. My sister was right. In hindsight, we only needed 1 order each of everything but the salad and would have been better off ordering more later if it had been needed.

I had some penne, a small piece of the chicken cutlet and quite a bit of the seafood marinara - mostly squid and octopus with almost no shrimp in the dish. I didn't get any shrimp. The sauce was amazing.

I went to town on the escarole - I just love the stuff when it's done right and I love the garlic. I dug out a few toasted cloves. The spinach was bland, but once mixed into the seafood marinara, it was delicious.

For dessert, my step-mom got a slice of some kind of chocolate cake which everyone had a piece of. Yes, they did the candle in the cake and sang happy birthday.

My younger step-sister had this candied-ice cream dish I never heard of and can't remember. It was a bit too sweet for me. I ordered the italian cheese cake which is made with ricotta cheese as opposed to New York cheese cake which I think is made from cream cheese. In any case, they are very different. My step-mom had something called "Mount Vesuvius" which seemed to be a warm fudge brownie covered in ice cream in the shape of a mountain.

My step-sister & her new husband shared her dish with the table. Only they took a taste of my cheese cake which I offered around - it seems the other only like "NY style". The remaining participants devoured the chocolate cake slice and "Mount Vesuvius". My dad hogged whatever he got. No one was getting a taste of that.

Tasting other's desserts here seems to be expected as many many forks were provided for such activity.

The decaf coffee was awful.

The oddest thing my drink. Since I got there before most of our party, I had a bourbon. Their "version" of a straight bourbon was to put 2+ shots in a martini glass with a FUCKING CHERRY in it. I've never heard of anything like that. I found it quite odd.



I had the bourbon and two glasses of red wine over about 2 hours. Since I rarely drink - I don't think I'm suppose to with my meds anyway - I became ever so slightly tipsy.




Even though I ate hours ago, I'm still full.