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| L to R: Mr. Germany, Mr. Norway, Me |
I am off to dinner with new friends from Norway and Germany. All of us are looking for some good food, especially my Norwegian buddy, he too is a traveling cook. We stuck up a conversation about lefse of all things. Sometimes I can’t believe the people I run into on these trips. Not only do I meet a Norwegian cook, but the guy from germany is from an area really close to my end destination, Hamburg!
. . . Dinner
So we end up walking to this trattoria, which basically means a semi-casual restaurant. I can't remember the name of this place for the life of me, but I do remember that I read it was great from some online place before my hostel host suggested it.
We arrive and are seated near the door. We wait for seemed like forever, but was probably half an hour to get our order taken. Everything on the menu is in Italian and everyone here seems to speak English. Hmmmmm not a good sign . . .too much english seems like a tourist trap . . Wait! There's a couple to my right that is Italian, ok wheeew!So we finally get our order in, Red wine (the most reasonably priced bottle) a traditional cold Tuscan soup and chicken meatballs, also traditional for me, a fish and potato dish for the German, and fresh mozzarella then rabbit for the Norwegian.
The mozzarella look lovely, but I know that nothing will ever live up to my experience in Carpaccio!
My soup, pappa al pomodoro, arrived. I was really excited to try this classic Tuscan dish, since I fell in love with a Tuscan bread and vegetable soup called ribolita. This soup differed in that it was all "pomodoro" (tomato) with the bread rather than mixed vegetables, spinach and white beans. I love tomatoes so this seemed like a match made in heaven. However, this soup was served chilled and had been pureed to a very thick and smooth consistency that reminded me of a dip. After one bite, I wasn't sure I could eat much more. the starch in the bread had become nearly gummy from the pureeing and the olive oil made it too rich. Although it looked like a creamy puree it felt like an overly starchy sauce. Bite after bite i did my best to have an open mind and use bread to spread the "soup" on to help, but alas I just didn't like it. I think this is the first thing I've eaten in Italy that I just couldn't finish.
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"Awww, you didn't like the soup?" my handsome wait asked with a pouty frown. Sadly I explained yes, I didn't like it but I like the wine and had high hopes for my next course. He tried to get a smile out as he picked up the almost-full bowl.
Our entrees arrived, delayed again, but hot so we were happy. My plate looked yummy. The dark ruby sauce shone with a glaze of orange and yellow covered oils coated and overflowed from the topes of my three blonde-colored meatballs. A criss-cross of pale white toasts cleverly accompanied them both for sponging up every last drop of red. MMMMM! Now this was delicious. The rich sweet and acidic tomatoes had reduced with earthy herbs and was finished with plenty of peppery olive. The result was a polished caramelized taste with just a hint ruggedness from the herbs and oils. Perfect over simples chicken meatballs. Needless to say I practically licked my plate clean.
The boys' dishes looked nice as well. Mr. Germany said that although he was very reluctant to have fish he really enjoyed he fish and potato gratin. Mr. Norway was a little disappointed that the sauce on his rabbit was so sweet. he gave me a bite and I agreed it was a bit sweeter that I would have made it.
Well, I have to say the food here was a bit hit and miss. Another confirmation that where too many english speaking people dine the food is likely to be less than fireworks. Maybe we just caught a couple off-dishes and a couple winners by random. I'm not sure.
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| The fish |
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| The rabbit |
In the end the very long wait for our bill was enough to tick off my buddies and they agreed that we could have done much better than this place. The whole night left us begging for our dinner, the wine and even a refill on water.
For me the company and the meatballs were enough to make me mostly content with my dinner.
To see a video clip of these two hooligans and myself on the way to dinner visit the Runaway Cook youtube channel.
Watch the "friends in florence post"
or paste this link in your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RunawayCook?feature=mhum#p/a/u/2/LMuQ8YithOE
To see a video clip of these two hooligans and myself on the way to dinner visit the Runaway Cook youtube channel.
Watch the "friends in florence post"
or paste this link in your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RunawayCook?feature=mhum#p/a/u/2/LMuQ8YithOE
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