Thursday, October 26, 2006

Recent highlights


I am a bit behind, I realise, in reporting on where we've been and what we've eaten. We've had a week on the move. But some recent meal highlights have been:

Portofino
We swanned around Portofino feeling quite posh; it's that kind of place. Actually it's gorgeous; a postcard of a place where cute multi-coloured buildings tumble into the deep, blue bay. At a quayside restaurant I had a very good fish cooked Ligurian-style, in white wine, pinenuts and green olives. They brought the fish out to me to see after it had been cooked, and asked if I wanted it fillleted or if I wanted to do it myself. I thought this was a nice touch. The fish itself was perfectly cooked and flavoursome, as a fish should be.

Nice
Nice is a big city, but it feels comfy and small. The night we arrived we'd driven most of the day from Italy, so we were a bit jaded. All we wanted was something easy and to fall into bed. We settled on an Italian restaurant; it looked popular and bustly and easy. What a surprise I had; a dish of squid-ink spaghetti with clams and fresh tomatoes and chilli; it was superb! As good as any pasta I had in Italy, in fact. I devoured an enormous bowl full of it. The tiramisu was less successful; Sandy has been (bless him) doing a systematic personal survey of Tiramisu in several countries. This was not one of the better ones, being a bit too tricky and deconstructed for his liking, presented in a dinky little preserving jar. It hardly tasted like tiramisu to me at all, which was a shame.

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