Sunday, August 23, 2009

Dinner at Pietrasanta - 22 August 2009

Was at Pietrasanta for dinner with 3 of my closest friends for a special occasion.
We skipped the tripes this time around as I having too much of these lately (Chinese and Western styles). So for starters, we had cold cuts, deep fried anchovies and Portobello mushrooms. I love all the starters especially the fried anchovies which I never seem to get tired of. They are not salty, not too hard or soft , simply just the right stuff for me.

For the mains, the four of us shared a slow cooked lamb shoulder, a steamed Italian sea bream, 4 grilled fresh langoustines (freshly flown in from Italy that day) and alio olio with crams.
The lamb shoulder was marvelously slow-cooked. The meat was soft, juicy and combined well with the excellently done mashed potatoes. This was a good change from the equally excellent beef steak that we usually order.




The steamed Italian sea bream was a surprise. Usually I do not order fish in Italian restaurants as the dish usually come out dry. But this was delightfully delicious. It may be because the shipment just came in on the same day.




The grilled langoustines were the highlight of the dinner. They were fresh, succulent and sweet. But atlas, being langoustines, we could only get so much meat out of them.





We opened a bottle of 1997 Carpineto Brunello di Montalcino which was “potong” from Andrew (not at dinner);



and a 1996 Marques Caceres Gaudium Gran Vino, courtesy of CW. Both wines went very well with the food on the table.




Overall it was an excellent dinner with close friends. We should meet up more often for meals rather than wait for special occasions; hah.

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