Whew! That was quite the wine & cheese soiree last night. We ended up sampling 14 different cheeses, 8 different varieties of cured meats, Akemi’s home baked bread, and 5 bottles of wine. Considering only five of us were drinking, I thought we did pretty well all told.
Me plate – round #1.
By the time we cleaned up, put everything away, and discovered another cheese and four more varieties of cured meat we forgot in the fridge and never served, it was well past our bedtime.
I ended up sleeping in this morning. Thankfully, Suji was more than accommodating, lying sprawled out across the bed, oblivious to early-riser Akemi in the kitchen making herself breakfast, and only stirring after her requisite morning ear massage.
Then, Akemi and I took it easy today, taking the hour long bus-ride to join our foodie friend Natalie for lunch at Famiglia Baldessarre.
We arrived about five minutes before opening – to find a line had already formed. Once the door opened, things moved quickly. There is limited seating indoors, but you have the option of getting the pasta to go and eating outside.
The menu is small and, apparently, changes daily. A couple of feature pastas and a choice of three sides/starters. We went with…
The Fior di Latte – fresh cow’s milk mozzarella. Now THIS, finally, is a cheese Akemi can get behind!
Toni a la Matriciana
Toni a la Gricia – guanciale, pecorino, and pepper.
Probably the best pasta I’ve had in recent memory. Perfectly cooked al dente.
From there, we headed next door and checked out a sourdough bakery, then rounded the corner and visited an ice cream shop.
Akemi got a single scoop of the passionfruit while Natalie went with a single scoop of good ole’ vanilla. Both went with the sugar cones.
Me – not pictured, when two scoops – chocolate-peanut butter and Torta della Nonna (an Italian custard tart with pine nuts) in a cup.
We decided to walk home – which ended up taking us a little over an hour. Just in time to take Suji for her afternoon carpet run.
I plan to wrap up my day doing some reading, and doing a little near-future world building.
How was YOUR Thursday?
Leave a Reply