eE found ourselves with 4 tickets to the Yankees game on Saturday, and couldn't give them away (our son had a game of his own scheduled). Well, HIS game was cancelled due to field conditions, so we headed for Yankee Stadium just in time to see the first inning.

It turned out to be a GORGEOUS day on Saturday, not a cloud in the sky at the stadium, we had box seats by third base, and they've eased up on their rules, you CAN bring your own food in (for awhile after 9-11 they prohibited it). We just brought in fruit and almonds. We drove in from CT and parked over the wlakway for $13, not bad!

After the game we went to Arthur Avenue, just in time (we left after the 8th inning), so we found parking. We went to Teitels to stock up on olive oil, The casa de mozarella for cheese, and I can't remember the name of the salumeria for cold cuts. We brought a cooler and put everything in it.

After consulting chowhound earlier we decidied to skip Dominicks in favor of Pasquale's, which was excellent. Keep in mind that Arthur Avenue restaurants are old school, nothing nouvelle about them, just good, old fahioned Italian (mostly southern Italian). We got to Pasquale's at 5:50 and got a table right away, when we were leaving there was an hour and a half wait. The dining room was full, mostly with other Yankee fans coming from the game like us.

The menu was extensive, lots of specials and the food was very good. Be warned, the quantities are enormous, I took home 3/4ths of my entree, but my teenage sons and husband ate every bite of theirs! This is another good reason (besides being ridiculously overpriced), for not eating at the stadium, save your appetite for an early dinner.

After dinner we walked to one of the many pastry shops (Edigio's because my son wanted an eclair) and picked out desserts to bring home.

I love going to Arthur Avenue, it's so retro plus I love the fish markets, butchers, and bakeries of the ilk that you just don't see anymore. It was a very fun day especially since it was completely unplanned.