As you all know by now, we’re in Italy. Besides the fact that it’s very warm and also very sweaty, there’s also some more to it. They’re of course very well-known for the food they make in this country, and Italy being Italy, it’s gonna be pizza or pasta. Pizza we had yesterday, and I thought it was alright. The Italian friend we are spending the week with seemed unimpressed. Nothing to write home about.
Today was different.
Today we wanted to change our standard ritual a bit, and do some stuff besides being in the heat. We decided to go for lunch in a nice local restaurant, which was next to some Etruscan ruins. Now, don’t ask me what an Etruscan is. Probably the ancestral Tuscan. Whatever. We saw the ruins from a distance, and decided that we were too cheap to go in (in our defense: the price was really pretty steep). We did order lots of nice options off the menu at the local restaurant, and it was amazing. We’re right on the coast, so obviously we expected seafood. We rarely eat seafood these days, so when we do, we take it as a real treat. Fir starters, we had fried anchovies with a perfect coat of thin crispy batter, accompanied by the best grilled octopus I’ve had. The meat was so soft and tender, and the saffron legume cream only made it better, For mains we shared bacala with tomatoes. This sounds simple, but the sauce was herby and delicious, and the cod was soft and melted in our mouths. We also had the ink pasta with shrimp. Maybe it’s just some hype hipster shit, but tombe honest, I couldn’t give a damn. The taste was perfect. All of it was fucking amazing. Even the memory of it tastes good! My son had the simplest spaghetti, and even that was absolutely delicious. It also looked amazing, but as is the trend these days, I forgot to take pictures of the food. They would’ve made excellent Instagram bangers though, and they would’ve most certainly spiced up today’s blog. Sorry for being so lame. I’m just trying to give your imagination some space to go all out…
Robin Heinen 