Paella and the Jumping Prawns

Paella, the making of, has been on my mind since dear KH convinced me how easy it is to make, especially with a paella pan. So when I visited her last month, I got one from Chef’s Hat - the kitchen supplies store in Melbourne, and have been eager to try it.

The pan has been challenging though - after being scrubbed clean, it turned rusty immediately - turns out you need to wipe it with a kitchen towel in oil to keep it rust free. After finally getting the rust out, J coated it with oil and it remained pristine until I was ready to cook.

Scoured tons of “authentic” recipes and finally arrived at this one that didn’t require oven baking and didn’t sound too complicated. If paella is the staple food of the Spanish, wouldn’t it be like fried rice to the chinese or pasta to the italians? and if so, surely it can’t be toooo complex.

Well - the moment I put olive oil into the pan, the entire pan started seriously smoking up - and more alarmingly, the oil turned Black. Erm, wasn’t sure if I should continue to use it after this... I desperately tried to wipe off the blackened pan (apparently normal - though I’m sure blackened oil isn’t) with towels but it didn’t stop coming up black. J wisely said, let’s just use the regular non-stick pan - I reluctantly agreed - couldn’t work out why this pan didn’t work when KH had always been using this one for her paella. But not wanting to poison us on new year’s eve, I switched.

Now - the live prawns. It was my first time cooking with live prawns - tips from the internet and experienced cooking friends say that I should put the live prawns in the fridge for about half an hour, so that when I remove them, they’re slightly stunned and I should be able to wash them/shell them etc without much drama. However, once the prawns were doused with water while I was washing them, they started twitching - I tell myself to be Brave, and quickly finished washing them, and put a plate over the bowl they were in.

When it was time to put in the prawns and the clams on top of the rice and other ingredients, I put in the prawns first - and well, expectedly, they started to leap in startled fashion from the pan - luckily I was quick on my feet (hands rather) and slapped the lid on top. They banged (poor things I know....) a little more against the pan, as I quickly piled in the clams, and finally surrendered to their paella fate. 

Followed ingredients and cooking instructions closely, and the recipe was pretty accurate, except for the part where it says 10-20 minutes to cook - it took me about 45 minutes. 

The result was heavenly - perhaps even more so because it was the most complicated recipe I’d undertaken to date (me the seriously beginner non-cook). The rice was moist and nicely infused with the stock and spices, and the seafood was fresh (well, they -were- live). We gobbled everything up. 

A final day of pasta, gelato, pizza - goodbye Roma

Last day in Italy, it's Christmas Eve. 

The plan today was to do the colosseum and the ruins, eat lots and lots and non-stop, as we’re getting on the plane tomorrow already.

Lunch was in place on a random street, Via Ostilia, near the colosseum, I was again craving large forkfuls of pasta.

We had three pasta dishes between the two of us and greedily gobbled everything up. It was more a wine place with bottles of wine lining the walls, and an extensive menu, including salads and of course, pasta. 

Penne in pomodoro and basil

Garganelli with a creamy shrimp sauce and chopped zucchini.

Tagliatelle with bolognaise

We gobbled every morsel up hungrily - this place was cheap and delicious!

Dinner, on christmas eve in Rome, meant that quite a few places were closed. We had taken a long walk after lunch and had a final wander through the streets, it was gently raining sporadically all day, which was annoying but we made do.

Managed to stop by the same gelato place (Della Plama) and this time had a triple scoop of Toronne (like the nougat), passion fruit (creamy, not sorbet) and grapefruit sorbet, to offset the creaminess of the other two flavours.

Again, my pasta craving surged, and I wanted to order several pasta dishes for dinner, at hopefully a more “traditional” italian place, this being our last meal on this trip. 

J persuaded me into two pasta dishes - spaghetti vongole and penne amatriciana (tomato sauce with sprinked parmesan and bacon bits), and a mozzarella and saucissa (sausage) pizza instead. The vongole was slightly undersalted but still tasty, and it fulfilled my craving of huge forkfuls of spaghetti. The amatriciana was good but could have done with more bacon - perhaps they were running out of supplies for christmas eve?! the pizza didn’t come with a tomato sauce base as expected, just a generous bed of mozzarella and sausage chunks. When we arrived, the restaurant only had a couple of tables occupied, but by the time our food arrived, it was overflowing with people - tourists or people not eating at home I suppose.

The night we trooped to St Peter’s Basilica and arrived in the middle of the Christmas Eve mass. It wasn’t as crowded as expected, perhaps because rain still threatened and came down sporadically in gentle waves. It was cold, and I was huddled in my puffy jacket. 

But how can one be in Rome on christmas eve and not be right there in its heart and soul? 

Goodbye Italy, till we meet again not too far in the distant future we hope.....

First full day in Rome - non stop eats

A Good eating day. Except for breakfast - 

The strength of this breakfast was much touted by the reviewers of this hotel (a primary reason for choosing this BnB), but we found the spread very so-so. There was a chocolate tart I wasn’t tempted enough to try, and a couple of warmed croissants which I didn’t try either. The scrambled eggs in a buffet warmed looked plentiful and fluffy, very yellow. But tasted of... nothing much. I ended up having couple of sweet clementines and calling it a day for breakfast.

Thankfully, lunch made up for it!

Lunch 

Borgo Antico

Borgo Pio, 21 00193 Roma

Tel 06 686 5967

• tortellini panna e proscuitto cotto (tortellini with ham in cream sauce) 
• gnocchi with alla Romana (with semola flour, burato, pecorino, sage, in tomato sauce) 
• patate all papalina (potatoes baked with melted cheese, mushrooms and truffles) 

We chanced across this restaurant on promising looking street near the Vatican/St Peter’s Basilica - Borgo Pio. Several ristorantes pizzerias lined the street, including tables and chairs al fresco that looked tantalising, if only it wasn’t about 8 degrees. I wondered why ristorantes in Rome seem to come hand in hand with “pizzeria” - many of the eateries had “Ristorantes Pizzeria” in their names, which wasn’t the case in the other cities we’d been in. Subliminally, I felt that these double-barreled names places didn’t offer good food - it felt like they were trying to cater to as wide a repertoire as possible, pasta, pizza, you want it, we got it.

One little place stood out - it looked quaint and small, without tables or chairs outside and it had the promising looking slow food (the little snail icon) on it. 

We were the first guests, and the sole elderly waiter (proprietor?) waved us in welcomingly with “prego” and we selected a corner table. He recommended the potato dish, saying that the cardinal orders this regularly(!), at least, from what we made out in his heavy Italian-accented English. I wanted to order that anyhow, but hesitated because of the already carb-heavy meal, and had originally ordered the eggplant until he suggested this.

They were all pretty good. 

The tortellini with ham in cream was something we’ve had not so long ago, but the cream in this one wasn’t overpowering, and was well balanced by the saltiness of the ham. The gnocchi, which I’d expected to be little dumplings, was in large plump round pillows, sprinkled liberally with cheese, and with a large dollop (but not submerged) of tomato sauce, subtly flavoured by the sage.

And the potatoes.... mmmm...... J said, aren’t cardinals fat?! I have no idea, but if I ate this every da, fat I would be - smothered in cheese and olive oil, with chopped truffle. Fragrant and steaming hot, I gobbled it up.

A french family of 7 (5 kids!!) came in soon after, then a mother and daughter, and then three men who had made a reservation, so the nice man was kept busy taking orders but found time to take a picture of us together, something we rarely do during our travels, so that was nice.

Hot chocolate at Sant Eustachio il caffe

My favourite food occurrences during travels is serendipitously and unknowingly finding an iconic place - we saw this coffee shop teeming with people and it turned out to be The Place for an espresso in Rome, judging by the crowds at the bar and queuing up to purchase tickets. It also offered chocolate covered espresso beans, coffee ground and in beans to go in its distinctive yellow packaging, and various sweet items. Spied a review from NY times from years ago that sang its praises. We had the hot chocolate, it was molten but not too molten (like the one in bologna) - a perfect pre-dinner pick me up.

Gelato!!!!

Della Palma Gelato di Roma

via della Maddelena, 19/23

Tel: 06 6880 6752

dellapalma.it

I’d been mooning for gelato for the last two days, and the ones in Rome near the Vatican looked watery and sad, which I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by. Della was on the way to the dinner area near the Pantheon, and crowded with twittering teenage schoolgirls.

Flavours were varied and interesting, I counted about 140, and there was a soy-only selection as well. They had a near-black coloured nutella (my all time favourite) and two other variations of nutella. Other noteworthy flavours I recognized (all in italian) were profiterole, chocolate with peppers, kitkat with yougurt, mars and bounty (like the candy bars), millefoglie (looked like a millefueille?!), zuppa inglese (english trifle! like the dessert the other night!), creme caramel. The sorbet selection was extensive too, including persimmon, grapefruit, lemon. 

It was hard to choose only two flavours, and in the end, I ended up with a piccolo Biscotti and Nutella with variation. Delish! must come back tomorrow!

Dinner at Vini e Buffet

Pizza della Toretta, 60 00186 Roma

Tel 06 687 1445

Pumpkin pate with toast 

Anchovies and butter with toast 

Rice salad with cherry tomatoes, shrimp, basil, zucchini 

Couscous with chicken (with chickpeas, carrots, spicey chopped tomatoes, parsley) 

Dinner was at another place we chanced across - the menu wasn’t the expected pasta primis and main course secondis - and offered tasting items, an extensive salad selection, along with hot items like pasta and couscous, crostini, pates. It remain firmly closed at 7pm although the sign said 7pm at the door. We looped around and returned at 730pm, and were waved in by another Italian elderly gentleman, who said he was just opening but please come in from the cold. 

People started congregating in the bar area near the kitchen - staff? family, friends? they didn’t seem like dinnering guests, and it was all very convivial.  

We enjoyed taking a break from pasta and the meat filled main courses, and the couscous was especially delicious with a touch of spice. Anchovies and butter were an interesting combination, although J would have preferred more items to be hot (the toast was hot but cooled rapidly in the cold, and the couscous was hot).

Overall, a reasonably successful eating day!

And finally - Roma.

Final breakfast at the Malaspina - we had the same things - bread with soft mild cheese, proscuitto, boiled ham, butter. Juice. Tea. Scrambled eggs with the same fabulous bacon. Spoonfuls of the marmalade and fig jam, which I'd taken to eating directly off the spoon.

Off we went to Rome directly after -  a three hour drive from San Donato in Poggio. 

On a whim, I wanted to do a quick stop by the Space outlet in Montevarchi to see if anything Prada was worth being ravished - it was about the same as the Prada at The Mall, couple of classic items, a Neverfull-esque canvas bag in several colours that I was tempted by, but vetoed in the end. The shoes were pretty good though, there was a kitten heeled pair in patent with a silver hard bow, in black, grey, beige. I didn’t succumb...Felt silly walking out with nothing again... especially when the Other Asians toted many carriers. Oh well.

Tried looking for lunch in town, there was a recommendation by a visitor to Space - finally hunted down the osteria and they were opened but said that they were out of food and we’d have to wait at least 30 mins (!). So... seriously starving and disappointed, we wanted to head straight to Rome to catch some time, as the sun goes down by around 4ish, and we were sure it would be challenging finding our way to the hotel, then car rental to drop off the car.

On the way to the A1 autostrada, Lo and Behold, there was a tempting looking sign pointing out an osteria, and we followed it, and a couple minutes later, ended up having a delicious late lunch - yay!

Lunch - Al Solito Posto

Di Ascione E C SNC

Via Dante

Terranuova

Tel: 0555/9199712

The restaurant was spacious and could easily have accommodated about thirty tables or more. Just 3 tables were occupied when we arrived. We ordered and gobbled down the tagliolini with gamberetti and zuchinn and risotto capesante e vongole. The pasta came smothered in a creamy, prawn-bisque sauce, with buttery zucchini, and a couple of small but fresh prawns. The risotto capesante e vongole was almost like wet-ish paella rice, fragrant with saffron and tiny clams, scallops and other seafood bits I couldn’t identify.

Dinner - Casella di Trastevere Ristorante

After literally hours of driving around Rome’s illogical roads that didn’t lead to where it said it would on the map and GPS, we arrived exhausted at the Hotel Santa Maria, another well regarded B and B by the TA community. It was in the restaurant and bar filled Trastevere area, one of the main reasons I chose for us to stay here.

After dropping our luggage, we dashed out to eat in the area. Augusto was an osteria that looked busy and crowded, and we wanted to go in there but decided to go for a quieter spot - and ended up in this other place perpendicular to Augusto in the same piazza. 

Primi Piatti

Zuppa di Verdure (vegetable soup with chunks of chick peas, green peas, beans) 

Penne Staccio something (this was the pasta of the day - good old tomato based with mozzarella) 

Secondi Piatti

Pollo Peperoni (chicken in tomato sauce) 

Spigola Fresca (grilled whole fish with lemon)

The meal was satisfying and more than above average - I got to eat big forkfuls of dear tomato and cheese pasta the old fashioned plain way, and it was nice to have a whole fish freshly grilled. J devoured the fish, picking through all the bones, and we shared the chicken. As it happens, Hong Kong is going through the chicken culling again... for H1N1, and no chickens will be on sale from now till mid January, so J said, we better have chicken here. 

I think I have been seriously disappointed by italian desserts, except for Gelato (Must Have Lots Of Gelato Tomorrow) - wasn’t even tempted to have a dessert, and I’m a huge fan generally. Always the same old chocolate mousse, creme caramel, creme catalina, panna cotta, tiramisu. 

Casella di Trastevere Ristorante

Piazza de Renzi 31/A

00153 Rome

Tel: 06 58 00 158

casettaditrastevere.it

Onward to Tuscany! San Donato in Poggio - the nights of pizza and more pizza

I'd planned the next few days to be in the rolling hills of Tuscany, which should be a nice, quiet respite from the more bustling cities of Venice and Bologna. 


The drive to our next stop in San Donato, a little walled medieval town between Siena and Florence was about two hours away from Bologna and I figured we can whiz through lunch (skip it) to compensate for the rigorous eating in the last week and have an early dinner instead.

San Donato is a tiny medieval village perched on a hillock, in the heart of the Chianti region, where the Chianti wine originates.

We arrived at the Palazzo Malaspina in the late afternoon. This little B and B I’d randomly chanced across on the internet received very good ratings for its intimate comfort and good breakfast - as suspected, we were the only guests, and the owner Maria was not even around, so her assistant Mary showed us the room and then left us. We got the entire property to ourselves, which was very nice in a way, but it also meant that if you need something... well. Like the various heaters which were working earlier in the evening just stopped working as the night went on and we couldn’t do anything except shiver and write Maria an email (apparently she is in New York, how lovely for her) 

The property itself was charming, with five rooms and a dining room with chaise lounges, the main door opens into an expansive welcome area and up the stairs were the five rooms. 

Anyway - onward to dinner. Predictably, we were starving, and hoped that La Toppa, right next door to the property, was as delicious as described in various reviews. 

Antica Trattoria La Toppa

Italian meals tend to begin generally around 8pm, so we were the first in the restaurant when we walked in at 7pm. The main waiter person wasn’t even dressed in his long sleeved dinner gear yet, but gallantly seated us and took our drink orders. 

La Toppa has received raves from its diners, and it’s meant to be one of the few eateries in the Michelin book in the area - anticipation was high. The menu was in Italian, English and German - clearly, the establishment was used to non-local guests. 

Primi Piatti

 - Ravioli tartufati (ricotta and truffle filled ravioli in a nicely pungent creamy, truffle sauce) 

 - Pappardelle all’anatra (long ribbon shaped pasta in duck ragu, tomato based) 

Secondi Piatti

- Coniglio e pollo in forno con patate (roast rabbit and chicken with home fries) 

- Cinghiale alla cacciatora (wild boar in a stew) 

Dolci

- Zuppa inglese (english trifle in many layers) 

- Apple cake (special of the day)

Pretty good meal, we both agreed the pasta dishes were a lot better than the secondis - this has been a trend for the meals we’ve had in Italy so far - it could be a combination of being a lot hungrier before eating the pasta, or perhaps because the meats so far have been not outstanding - except for the grilled squid and eel we had the last night in Venice, which was Spectacular. I love shovelling mouthfuls of pasta into my waiting mouth though, feeling the texture and chew.

The pappardelle shaped pasta was interesting for me, as I’ve not had this shape of pasta before, and it went perfectly with the chunks of duck. It was my first taste of rabbit - and it wasn’t tender like I imagined, and tasted really of chicken. The fries that came with it were nicely salted. The wild boar was very tender, tasted like beef, and the sauce was thick and savoury - but perhaps because it tasted like beef stew, which I’ve had a lot of generally, it wasn’t unexpected enough, though still tasty.

Dessert was so-so. The nice waiter guy offered to provide a smaller portion of both so that we could have more variety - the apple cake was fresh and nice but somehow... I miss the large creamy american-style sponge cakes. And the Zuppa inglese, wasn’t soupy at all, but was a layered sponge and cream concoction that was ok but not outstanding. We haven’t had much luck with dessert in Italy so far.... 

Breakfast at hotel - Palazzo Malaspina

It was just the two of us, that hasn’t changed. Marie put out a spread of breads, hams, cheese, the hard italian bread that puzzles us (frustini??) and croissants. I requested for scrambled eggs and she cheerfully made them for us. There was also a freshly baked cake on a cake stand, like what was described in teh reviews - I was somewhat mollified.

The cake was flourless chocolate and seriously delicious - dare I say the best dessert (J agrees as well) on this Italian jaunt of ours. I had a large slice, which went super well with hot black tea. The scrambled eggs were a bit too chopped up but quite tasty - and Hot! The asian in me finds comfort in a hot breakfast - congee, eggs, the likes, especially when it’s chilly, and could never quite get into cereal with milk. 

There were three kinds of jam and Mari explained that she learned to make them, as well as the delicious chocolate cake, from Maria, the owner of the property. Plum, fig and marmalade - so good but too bad we had already had the croissant with the proscuitto and cheese and the tasteless white bread could not be improved even with the most amazing jam. 

 Il Canniccio

On the second day, we had a quick gander through The Mall - the popular outlet mall for Italian labels near Florence. The Mall was a 45 minute drive from our hotel, and I was on a casual hunt for a pair of Tods ballet pumps if they were in the right colour. I am a little mad about this particular style of ballet pumps, I only like the one style, with a small silver buckle, across, and they come in a large variety of leathers and colours depending on the seasons. I’d found a really good plain black pair at the outlet in New York, as well as a pair that was oddly for sale in a metallic sheen in a Tods in Amsterdam. Otherwise, even at full retail (about 230-250 euros in Europe), the pumps are really good value as the studs offer good support for the feet and make walking a breeze. I have worn out two pairs in the last two years walking literally kilometers in them, without hurting even very slightly. In winter, I wear them with legwarmers over my skinny jeans. Thus, I make it a point to look for them in Tods stores (Europe offers best value - in Singapore they’re close to 600 singapore dollars) and in outlets.

Alas, only strange colours in Tods at the Mall, so I didn’t get anything.

We drove away and saw a sign for this restaurant, and there were many cars parked in the premises, which we took as a good sign. It turned out to be Trip Advisor recommended (with the decal) and we got a table for two, despite the rapidly filling up restaurant. 

However, I think we need to avoid pasta with wild boar or duck ragu for the rest of the trip... somehow we ended up with that again, nearly ordered the truffle pasta but didn’t want anything creamy (I asked the waitress and she said it was creamy - then I saw the table next to us with it and it wasn’t creamy - oh well). We were conservative and only had two pasta plates with an artichoke and shaved parmesan-reggiano cheese in olive oil to share, and passed on dessert...somehow, dessert revolves around apple cake, panna cotta, tiramisu, creme caramel, no matter what the restaurant. And I’m not hot about all of these, though perhaps should try the panna cotta at some point. The pasta was good, but like I said, we need to not order these anymore!

May need to stop eating for a day or two to be able to properly appreciate pasta again... we really have been eating to excess. 

Centina Il Canniccio n. 68 - 50066 Reggello (Firenze). 055 863274

Glorious pizzas at La Taverna di Ciccino Pizzeria

Many of the reviews on Trip Advisor on the Palazzo Malaspina mention how great this pizza place is - we haven’t really had pizza on this trip, and J is quite a pizza fan - so at seven on the dot, we took the 30 second walk across the little piazza to this place.

They fresh bake the pizzas when you order them, using this interesting dough making device the makes the crust very thin, and then baking them in the cavernous oven immediately. Italian pizzas tend to feature a thin, crispy crust that breaks easily when bent or bitten, and the selection at this place was wide indeed. 

About 30 pizza types to choose from, from the basic Margherita (tomato sauce and mozzarella) and 4 Formaggi (4 cheeses) to regional specialty pizzas like the Salsiccia (mortadella sausage). I went for the Boscaiola Tartufata (ham with mushroom and truffle) and J had the Salsiccia. 

Look at our cleaned plates!

The pizzas were Huge and both arrived freshly baked from the oven, steaming hot and oh my! super delicious - about 12” in diameter each. Perfect fodder for the chilly night at 5 degrees out. For the Boscaiola Tartufata pizza, the truffle flavour was present but subtle, with little flecks of the actual black pieces, and together with the generous slices of ham, all the ingredients were beautifully melded together into a delicious mess. The sausage one was also delicious, with lots of cheese and sausage chunks. 


Pizza Rustina was the basic tomato and mozzeralla base, with proscuitto, parmesan, fresh rucola. The other pizza was with smoked ham and cheese. 

And prices were good too - from 5 euros per giant pizza (one size only) to 8 euros for the truffle one. The coke J had at 4.5 euros seemed pretty pricey by comparison! There was a single sweet dessert pizza made with marscapone and nutella which we gobbled up on the last night. 

Well - actually we had three dinners in a row at this place - it was that good. And also because it was super convenient to come home in the evening in the pitch dark, freshen up, and stumble across the courtyard in ten seconds to this informal, homely place and order up a couple of delicious pizzas. 

La Taverna di Ciccino Pizzeria
Via del giglio, 19 - san donato
50028 - Tavarnelle val di pesa (FI)

tel: 055.8072307

Gelato - Gelateria I’Antica Delizia at Castellina in Chianti

Finally, gelato again! Mary recommended this place in a town about 15 minutes’ drive from where we are, saying that during summer, queues snake around the block. We found it without difficulty and I modestly went for the piccolo (smallest size) cone, which lets me choose two flavours - Nocciolo (hazelnut) and Nutella. It was delicious. Oh and by the way, despite the claims about gelato being low fat and healthy.... erm. Healthy, yes - fresh milk and ingredients etc - low fat... erm. Most fabulous tasting things rarely are.

Tuscany was gorgeous and restful as we had hoped. We spend the four days we were there generally driving and ambling around, making a couple of stops in Siena and Pisa and in medieval cities including San Gimignano, enjoying the endless views of clear blue skies and fluffy clouds, the hills and the houses hotted amongst the hills, with the occasional stop by a cafe for a biscuit or two and a hot beverage. 


Nothing very much. Just very very restful. And very very lovely. 

Bologna!

Day One 

The journey from Venice to Bologna Centrale station takes about an hour and a half, and en route, the little cart offers a selection of beverages and a salty or sweet packet snack - we had the little olive oil flavoured crackers (plain yet somehow tasty in a savoury way) and this other sweet biscuit - popular Italian snacks found in every supermarket, I guess.

Feel myself coming down with a slight cold - which doesn’t alarm me per se (silly me for not wrapping up warmly enough today, wanting to be more comfortable on the train ride) except that if I got a real cold it would mean I can’t taste food properly - which is, as you can imagine, devastating. So I’m trying to be good and keep warm more adequately from now on.

We arrived in Bologna and checked into the very charming BnB, also via good old Trip Advisor - the Antica Residenza D’Azeglio. It’s on the second floor of a building and our room “the Green Room” came with a nice spacious sitting room. The owner kept trying to feed us from the moment we arrived with various sandwiches and pastries but we wanted to have a proper lunch instead - Roberto (the owner) recommended that we go to Trambuli, an iconic local deli that had an eating area at the back.

But we had to hurry as the eating part of it closed around 3ish.

We took a walk down to the Piazza Maggiore, and located Trambuli - interesting assortments of mortedella (a specialty Bologna sausage), cheeses, freshly made pasta galore, including the tortellini, which the region is famous for. The lunch selection (self service) that was left wasn’t great, but we were starving and settled for a plate of tortellini in ragu (basically bolognaise) sauce, and the mortedella sausage, which came drenched in a salty sundried tomato and crushed onion sauce. Both were quite tasty, but a bit cold. And it was a cold day! by then my cold had become a single-nostril blocked nose, and I was terrified that soon delicious morsels of food would taste muted with my muted taste buds - the horror!!

Teatime

Dying of thirst, and we went in search of one of the gelerattaria in the area - before we found one, J announced that I shouldn’t have any because of the non-improving cold, and I reluctantly relented, and agreed to wait till the next day, as I really wanted to recover quickly. We saw a modern looking bar cum bakery with beautiful people inside - Zanarini - with a nice looking bar and people standing around with drinks and nibbles, and guessed correctly that the staircase leading upstairs was a table service area

J had the cappuccino estivo - I’d ordered that for him because ordinary cappuccino seemed a bit predictable, and I wondered what estivo was - turns out to be like a cappuccino except that for the regular hot steamed milk with lots of foam it was very creamy, slightly chilled concoction with espresso at the bottom. “Estivo” is summer in italian - thus, when temperatures soar, cappuccinos correspondingly turn cooler, but without becoming an Iced cappuccino (I vaguely recall that real coffee aficionados disapprove of chilled coffee beverages).

I was dying of thirst yet simultaneously wanted a hot tea because it was So Cold outside! but was cautious about the 7 euros on the menu for tea - would be really mad if it was another Twining’s teabag again - and instead gulped down a large, refreshing Pellegrino. The pastry... I don’t really like Italian desserts, including the popular ones like cannoli, tiramisu and panna cotta. Something about them don’t touch my core, generally (or maybe I’ve just been having the wrong italian desserts?!) and I couldn’t find a pastry or sweet item I wanted enough from the reasonably large selection downstairs, but was still greedy enough to order a slice of Panettone, the christmas cake bread with raisins, apricot and other pieces of dried fruit that springs up everywhere during the Christmas season in Italy. It was like airy fruit bread - not too bad, but not sure if I’d wanna drag back the entire near football-sized cake to Asia.

Dinner at La Traviata

This local osteria a 2 minute walk from the hotel was recommended by Roberto, who says that they make their own pasta fresh every day.

We didn’t want to commit to reservations, and decided to go just after 8pm when the restaurant opens. Managed to get a nice table for two, sat down and ordered drinks (hot tea for me, still nursing the cold, and a glass of white for J).

The menu was fully in italian, which pleased me because it meant it was more inclined to be authentic.

The male half of the owner came over, an affable older Italian gentleman, came over and took our orders - I wanted to try real bolognaise ragu since we were in Bologna, so ordered that with tagliatelle. He recommended another pasta to balance out the tomato based ragu, and suggested that he splits the two pasta primi piattis into two plates for us. I didn’t quite understand what he was saying about the second pasta, so just said, yes, sure, ok.

This was what we ended up having:

Primi Piatti:

Tagliatelle al ragu (flat pasta noodles with chunky minced beef with tomato sauce, with sprinkled parmesan on the side) 4.5/5

Maccheroni al pettine (I don’t think “pettine” means anything specific, but this turned out to be a penne with an amazing minced pork and artichoke sauce with a touch of cream) - really good and nothing like I’ve ever had in a pasta. J was won over and said he’s never tasted pasta so good. 4.5/5

Secondi Piatti:

Arrosto Scaloppine (roasted veal)  3/5

Arrosto Pork (roasted pork, very tender and layered with balanced fat) 3.5/5

Dolci

Marscaponi with drizzle of chocolate (similiar to the thick creamy concoction from Osteria Quattro Ferri)

J wasn’t hot about the veal, I thought it was pretty good, but am not generally a veal fan. I loved the pork.

What puzzles me is the dry, tasteless bread they serve in restaurants here... even to mop up the pasta sauce it was quite tasteless. And do we just crunch into breadsticks as well?!

Day Two

Had too much to eat today. At the end of the last meal of the day, J asked me if I had any indigestion pills... I’d forgotten to bring them. The last time we were on a trip (our trips tend to revolve around food because I’m the one who plans the details and invariably my detail = where to eat, what to eat, what shall we eat next - you get the idea.

Breakfast at hotel: Antica Residenza D’Azeglio

Quite gross actually. The pastries and hard little buns with cold cuts looked like the same ones from last evening, and anyhow I have never been a fan of cold pastries. France manages to make a cold pain au chocolate still seriously gorgeous, but other countries don’t measure up quite as much, or perhaps it’s the asian in me that prefers something hot - eggs, congee, pancakes, that sort of thing. The B and B served breakfast on nice personalised plates that they got made for their property, very nice, but didn’t make up for the sad breakfast. Didn’t understand how Trip Advisor’s reviews insisted breakfast was “plentiful and excellent”. Plentiful for sure... but plentiful of processed, packaged, not really all that fresh stuff. The proprietors are so charming though, that I would feel bad if I said anything....(!!!)

J had a cappuccino (large cup but looks better than it tastes) and I had some green tea and we headed out.

stars: 1/5 (mostly for effort and effusiveness)

Lunch - da Matusel

• Tagliatelle tradizionali al ragu - minced beef with flat noodles in tomato sauce
• Gramigna con salsiccia - mortadella sausage with curved hollow pasta

Starving and in search for more delicious pasta - found it at this little place we chanced across that looked nicely local and crowded, always a good sign. 

The menu was in italian (generally this was the case in Bologna) and we were conservative and only had a primi piatti - and completely cleaned our plates. The tagliatelle ragu was almost as tasty as what we had last night at La Traviata - very very good, so good that it didn’t need the obligatory grated parmesan. On occasion, when I’ve had bolognaise pasta outside of Italy, I find that it’s always ok (hard to make a truly Bad bolognaise?) but always needed lots of cheese to make it better. And this was a large portion - we gobbled it all up.

The pasta shape in the other dish was particularly interesting - I’d never had gramigna pasta - it’s like a very firm, thin noodle that’s longer than a typical piece of penne and aptly curled around the generous sausage pieces - seriously tasty and we also cleaned that plate.

Agostini from the hotel later on told us that this is one of the oldest osterias around, with a good reputation - how serendipitous!

Dinner - Trattoria Serghei

Primi Piatti

• Tortellini in brodo (meat stuffed pasta in broth - a Bologna specialty) - 3.5/5
• Gnocchi al gorgonzola, burro e oro, ragu (gorgonzola cheese stuffed little dumplings in a meat tomato sauce) - 3.5/5

 Secondi Piatti

• Zucchine tipiene e polpettine in umido (zucchini stuffed with mortedella sausage, and mortedella meat balls) - 3.5/5
• Bollito misto con salsa verde (mixed roast meat with a vegetable dipping sauce) - 3.5/5

Been looking forward to this - recommended by the hotel and this eatery is a member of Slow Food, and Roberto said it’s one of the very best and we should expect a slow, leisurely meal (usually I rush through multicourses and can be in and out with starter, main, dessert and coffee in 1.5 hours!!! dammit.).

J decided to order a bottle of wine thinking the meal would take several hours, even though I don’t generally drink and especially tonight as I’m still fighting my cold.

The pasta arrived quite quickly to our surprise - and was pretty tasty. The tortellini in brodo was like little mini chinese dumplings in a clear chicken broth - some fresh cut chili padi in soy sauce would go very nicely with it, I thought. The other pasta was in a smooth ragu tomato sauce, and each piece was extremely tender and fresh. Pecorino cheese was grated on the spot over both.

The secondi.... we were trying to decipher the menu items and only ordered the secondi after we finished the pasta. I’d initially wanted the fish but they didn’t have it; and then the osso bucco, and they didn’t have that. The guy (owner?) recommended the bollito, which is a selection of meat) and so we went for that.

The secondi dishes appeared literally in one minute flat. Sure, I know sure these items need to be preprepared, and they were tasted not bad, really - but still... it kinda spoiled things, felt that there was not much effort involved!

The various meats went well with the salsa verde which tasted like the asian salted vegetable (“kiam chye”) - tender pieces that fell apart easily with a fork. The stuffed zucchini and meatballs were soft and tender in a savoury tomato sauce - pretty good but nothing out of this world (am I getting jaded?)

Gave dessert a miss as haven’t had a really good italian dessert so far... missing large slices of american style cakes indeed.

Martusel VIA BERTOLONI 2 - BOLOGNA - TEL 051 / 23.17.18

Serghei Trattoria. Via Peilla, 12. Tel: 051 23 35 33