The chef presenting to us the catch of the day!
Our own plate of hot appetizers
Preparing our plate with yummy grilled fish
Tuesday, Nov 8
This is why I love this job so much. If I came here as a tourist the following experience would not have happened…..last night the head of the plant took us out for what he called “a simple Italian meal”. After work we followed him to the restaurant in the Como area. I was thinking somewhere near our hotel but we ended up going up up up the mountain side. Outside the restaurant Alfredo warned us that this is not a fancy restaurant but it’s where he takes his family or friends for nice meal. OK, I then knew for sure it was going to be great. First he asked us if we like fish and the answer was yes and that was the only input he needed from us. Then there was a lot of Italian going back and forth with the owner and waiter and the cook. We didn’t even get menus, all was taken care of for us. Then the chef brought out a platter containing 3 huge fresh fish (raw) that he got that afternoon, again a lot of Italian back and forth to discuss the best dish to prepare. Apparently one fish is best in a soup and another was best grilled, etc. Out comes the wine and bread, then a plate of mixed appetizer, OMG so delicious. I loved the paper thin slices of grilled octopus and the baked potato casserole. Then we get the primi which was linguini with a wonderful tomato sauce with shrimp and squid. Then they carted out this huge grilled fish on a trolley and prepared our plates in front of us. The waiter basically deboned the fish and place a portion on our plate and adding paper thin slices of grilled zucchini, eggplants and potatoes. I ate everything! Not surprisingly after the main course we were too full for dessert so had to regretfully say no when asked about it. But ofcourse there was an idea for something light. I heard sorbet and I heard limone so it was enough for me to say OK! What we got was a small champagne glass of ice cold of something with the consistency of melted ice cream and flavor of fresh lemon. It was so light and so good, especially when the chef brought out some lemon meringue cookies that he made that was as light as air. During our wonderful meal Alfredo told us about his 14 yrs expat experience of working for hkl in Russia. I learned so much about the culture and politics of Russia. The russians will put up with a terrible polictical leader because they value stability above all else. We spent 2 and a half hours talking about this topic, it was so fascinating to hear first hand account. It was a lovely evening even we had to practically roll out of the restaurant. I tried to take pictures of the food with the blackberry (such a tourist) and so it's not so clear.
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