Monday, May 22, 2006

Slow Food

In Memphis, they have Soul Food... in Italy, it's "Slow Food." Either way, it's great!

As you probably know by now, I love food... I'm quite the foodie and so much of an international experience for me revolves around the culinary delights. So, just like any of our other tourist excursions, when BoRyan and I had something tasty, we recorded it with photos.

I'll start by sharing one of our best dinner experiences with you from Rome. I mentioned Spirito di Vino before, but here's the entire story...

We arrived at 7:30 P.M. for our reservation. We had to walk a little ways to find it... down a cobblestone street... because the taxi driver had a little trouble locating it exactly. When we got there, the owner / father greeted us, but he wasn't ready for guests yet. So, we started with champagne--

Then, we moved on to our appetizer course. This was a salmon that reminded me of prosciutto ham crossed with fish. It was great!


Next, we moved on to our 1st course. I had spaghetti with a minced olive sauce. BoRyan had a spiral cheese pasta. They were both tasty!

After the 1st course, we took a break to tour the wine cellar. As I mentioned in my previous post, the restaurant's wine cellar is actually a historical landmark. It contains some of the oldest bricks in all of Rome and a famous statue was discovered hidden there. The statue now resides in the Vatican Museum, but the wine cellar is still an adventure on its own. You may notice that I'm wearing my jacket in some of the photos. It's because I was sitting near a door that a historical tour was coming in and out of - also looking at the wine cellar.

Okay, so now on to the main course. BoRyan had beef and I had lamb. Here's a photo--

Our final course of the night was the dessert. BoRyan had a Creme Brulee and I had a "Basket" which is made with the similar ingredients as a Canoli, but in a different shape... and much tastier. Think of a carmelized basket topped with ricotta cheese. The wine sommelier son took this photo for us.

On an important side note-- we had some great wine that you should definitely check out. The brand is called "don Luigi" and the kind of wine is Riserva. Wine.com sells similiar wines, like this Da Vinci 2002 Riserva Chinanti, but they don't have this exact wine. Wine.com is a fun site, because you can have your choice of wines shipped directly to your home - including wine clubs! BoRyan and I recently joined a wine club and we're loving the monthly selections.

Anyhow, here's a photo of our wine bottle, in case you are interested.


So, remember that thing about slow food... and how we arrived at 7:30 for dinner? Well, we finished at past 11:30 PM. That's more than 4 hours for just one meal!

It was a great time and I highly recommend it. Next time you're in Rome, be sure to stop by!

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