I cannot say enough good things about Yuri Buono’s Vincanto on Via Nolana in Pompeii. He is a locavore and advocate of the “slow food” movement in Italy. Feast upon these pictures!!
Local wine – San Paolo Agliatico
Cheese and salumi plate
Bruscettoni – lard, mushroom, and onions on ancient grain bread on left and tomatoes and cheese on right
Porchetta with paparcelle (preserved peppers)
Pistachio and cream mousse
This food was shared among the three of us. It was delicious and economical.
Sometimes you say, oh, I don’t care. I just want something to eat. You’re wrong. You care. This lasagna was not good but at least the serving person was charming.
Glop on a plate – lasagna at Binario 47
It is raining as we leave Rome. We are headed down the A-1 to Pompeii and stop at an Autogrill. It has never been good when I have eaten at one. We go to the Ciao! section and I have a most surprising lunch.
Artichoke risotto with a mixed vegetable lentil salad
This was actually very good! The subtle taste of the artichokes came through the not-stuck-together-almost-creamy rice.
Ordered a fav of mine for lunch, spaghetti alla vongole (clams) which unfortunately had gritty clams and stuck together pasta. C’mon, Rome, you can do better!
Gritty clams in the spaghetti meant I could not entice anyone to eat my leftovers!
First step in my search for the Holy Grail of pizza – crust is tasty but not bubbly or charred enough and the tomato sauce lacks depth. Being a girl from the Jersey shore, I have standards when it comes to pizza. I will have to continue my search.
Pizza Margarita in Rome
We are in Rome! After a busy morning sightseeing and walking a lot, we stop at Ristorante Leonetti for some typical Roman dishes. I chose cacio e pepe. It is a simple dish of pasta, cheese, and black pepper.
Cacio e Pepe at Ristorante Leonetti in Rome
For dinner we were too tired to go out so we just had few free bar snacks at the hotel.
Bar snacks – mini sandwich and salad plus a fried stuffed zucchini blossom
This is our last supper before leaving for Italy tomorrow! We made something easy, steak and asparagus. The asparagus was on sale for $1.29/lb. and I could not resist.
Asparagus cooking in a little water
John used the immersion circulator to cook the steak to 125F and then gave it a quick sear on the grill.
The steak enjoying a warm bath
This is the last dinner I will be cooking for while but I will definitely post some Italian delights from our trip!
Steak and asparagus
Last night John and I went to see Roger Federer at an exhibition match at the SAP Arena in San Jose, CA. Called the Match for Africa 5 Silicon Valley, it benefited his foundation which funds early childhood education in 5 southern African nations. It was is a fun event with lots of trick shots and, of course, Roger won in his match over Jack Sock.
Greatest of All Time, Roger Federer
And now from the sublime to the ridiculous…we did not have time for dinner what with the match starting at 7 PM and the commute traffic so we settled on some hot dogs. We got them from a place called Show Dogs at the arena and they were served on poppyseed rolls. I had mine New York style which is basically with mustard and sauerkraut and John had his Chicago style, “all the way.” Chicago style has lots of weird ingredients to me like tomatoes and pickles and hot peppers. It was a great evening.
Hot dogs with sauerkraut and mustard (from the Internet)
I tried a new recipe for chicken fried rice made with a Thai twist and it was not very good. Along with the rice, chicken, and vegetables we put in fish sauce and basil. Squeezing some lime over it helped but not enough. We are leaving Wednesday on our trip to Italy and I was trying to use up vegetables. I would have been better off making soup or a stir fry.
Thai inspired chicken fried rice
On March 1 we went to our son’s concert and just picked up a burger at In ‘n Out afterwards. This is the iconic California fast food joint. If you are ever going to one my advice is do not order the fries because they are horrible IMHO. They are not fried twice so have a bad texture.
On Friday we got back to cooking and made the very delicious Shrimp in Pernod sauce.
Shrimp in Pernod sauce
In anticipation of our trip to Italy next week I made Spaghetti Bolognese. This is, of course, my same old pasta with meat sauce that I make almost every week. As usual it was super yummy and there were hardly any leftovers!
Spaghetti Bolognese
Today my daughter and I went out to lunch since it was a workday in the office for John. We are always on the lookout for someplace interesting or new and settled on an Afghani restaurant. I ordered mantoo. It is Afghan styled dumplings stuffed with ground beef, onions and spices, topped with a yoghurt sauce, ground beef and split peas.
Mantoo, Afghani savory dumplings
Daughter ordered quablili pallow. The menu said it is Afghanistan’s most famous dish and consists of baked brown Basmati rice with seasoned lamb shank, topped with raisins, almonds and julienne carrots.
Quablili pallow, lamb shank and basmati rice
Both dishes were served with a delicious potato and we had more than enough to eat on Tuesday plus bring back half of each for lunch another day.
What a successful adventure! The food was very tasty and the owners were charming. I will be taking John here on another day.
Omnivore 