My Kind of Food

The weather here in Lombardy has been wet of late but as a break in the rain yesterday coincided with a completely free day for me, a friend and I drove to Reggio Emiglia, the county-town, as it were, of the Province of Emilia-Romagna.  It’s a pretty city of some 170,000 inhabitants and sits firmly in the agricultural zone where such delights as Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Lambrusco wine come from.  A lot of the architecture is baroque, with attractive squares and arcaded streets.  On the road in from the autostrada there are three very modern road bridges by the renowned architect, Santiago Calatrava.The railway station, by the same architect is equally striking.

This blog though is about food, not buildings, so let’s get back to the main subject.  I wrote here about the importance of expectations when it comes to defining my kind of food. It’s not acceptable to lead me to expect one thing and then deliver another.

We found a nice looking place to eat lunch yesterday, called Cadauno.  It had the appearance of a wine shop with bottles  adorning the walls and stacks of wine cases everywhere.  The menu was posted in the window and I was particularly attracted by a couple of interesting dishes.  Chianina (a type of beef) Hamburger with foie gras sounded appealing as did the Kobe beef sausage spiedini (skewers) in a spicy sauce.  They also had Loch Fyne salmon tartar on the list.  I was looking forward to engaging the waiter in conversation about where they source their Kobe beef in the hope of being able to lay my hands on some myself.

The welcome was somewhat muted but leaving that aside we found a table and ordered some water while we waited to choose food and wine.  The menu arrived on a blackboard and I searched it in vain for the dishes which had so attracted me only a couple of minutes before.  On enquiry of the glum waitress we were told that the menu in the window is for evening service and lunch should be chosen from the blackboard.  The allure of Kobe beef, even if only in the form of a sausage had seized me and I was very disappointed that it now seemed very unlikely that I would get to try it.  The things on the blackboard were fine and if that’s all I’d seen I would’ve been happy enough but my expectations of eating either Kobe or foie gras were raised.

We explained the problem.  The waitress, without hesitation, brought us the full menu so once again my gastric juices flowed in anticipation.  We ordered starters and mains, including the two previously mentioned dishes, they were written on the pad, the menus were gathered up and the waitress plunged into the depths of the kitchen only to return a few minutes later to tell us we couldn’t have the main courses.

We had tried and failed to order the food they’d advertised on their window menu; now was the time to admit defeat.  We left with our expectations unfulfilled and somewhat  let down but still with the sneaking suspicion that we might’ve missed a notice on the menu in the window saying it was only available in the evenings (there was no such notice).  The staff apologised and suggested we might like to come back in the evening…

Our second and successful attempt to find food led us to Cantina del Carbone nearby.  Here the menu was a mix of Italian and mexican food – this seemed unusual and I guess it may be something to do with the personal preferences of the chef, or perhaps his or her nationality.

In any case there were plenty of interesting sounding things to choose from and the staff were welcoming enough.  We ordered pasta dishes to start.  For me it was spaghetti del carbone which included anchovies, mushrooms, tomatoes and parmesan.  The anchovies were the salted type and there were lots of them resulting in a really robust taste – too much for some I should think but I loved it its deep and salty flavour.

My friend had casarecci ( a new pasta shape to me) in a creamy saffron sauce with rocket and torn bits of speck ham sprinkled on top.

My companion, for his second course, choose Sandwich Cubano, which had originally interested me too.  The menu told us it would be a sandwich consisting of mojo pork (mojo being a spicy sauce from Cuba and other Spanish cultures), swiss cheese, smoked ham and tomatoes all served with ranch potatoes.

The bread was quite well grilled (burned?) on the outside which ought to have indicated that it was nice and crunchy but apparently it was soft and ‘wet’ both inside and out.  He thought the pork a bit dry and certainly the potatoes were cold.  This dish was not the picture of loveliness of the other things we ate.  It’s a shame because I think it had the makings of something quite delicious but it simply didn’t deliver.

My second course was much nicer and was described as Gamberi al sale picante affumicato.  Big fat juicy prawns in a smokey, salty and spicy coating – they were messy to eat but absolutely delicious. They were served with a little salad of fennel and melted cheese, which I’m going to try cooking myself but I’ll served it warm not cold.

I will go back to Reggio Emiglia one day and try to find other interesting places to eat.  Many bars seem to offer nibbles of parmesan cheese and the wonderful local hams and salamis so I think it’ll be a great place for an aperitivo too.