Posts Tagged ‘pasta’
March 12, 2010 | 
Author Della Nonna
QV Square,
Cnr Swanston and Lonsdale St
03 9654 4880
Della Nonna is fast becoming one of our favorite neighborhood joint- we’ve tried quite a number of their pizzas now and with their pasta, I just can’t get enough of the Tortelli di granceola: Home made pasta filled with fresh blue swimmer crab meat in a light crab bisque and chive sauce ($18/$25) , but really the Papparedelle di Castagne con ragu di anitra – home-made chestnut flour pappardelle with braised duck, porcini mushrooms and sage ($18/$26) could have been my favorite too. Actually, I am happy to try all pastas in their menu- nom nom nom.
This is one yummie pizza- Capo $20 with tender grass-fed porterhouse, awesome melted mozzarella pearls, fluffy thin crusted pizza *drools* I want I want I want!!!!!!
This Funghi misti e tartufo $19, is a miracle in itself. Hubby loathes, I mean, LOATHES cooked mushrooms. This, however, is not your average off-the-shelf canned mushie pizza. This is fresh mixed wild mushies, with truffle oil and an abundance of those yummie mozzarella. Hubby reluctantly tasted a bit when I offered, and then stole 2 more pieces off me and shoved it in his gob! HUMPHHHHHH!!!
Now if you think, fantastic, great pizza and pasta, cool! You ain’t heard nuthing yet- their dessert… oh their DESSERT!
Tiramisuuuuu $12- trust me, it’s worth every dollar. Savour every bite people, this is really really yumgasmic tiramisu. Good strong expresso, bittersweet chocolate dust and a huge generous serving. Nom nom nom…
9/10! Yum Yum Yum!
<a href=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1484781/restaurant/CBD/Della-Nonna-QV-Melbourne”><img alt=”Della Nonna QV on Urbanspoon” src=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1484781/minilink.gif” style=”border:none;width:130px;height:36px” /></a>
Grappino
Cuisine: Italian
226 Given Tce
Paddington
We spotted this restaurant on our visit to that French restaurant and made a mental note to come back and check it out. We were quite lucky to be able to get a table, booking very last minute (spontaneous desire to eat out) – prompted from a conversation with MinWye who touted Grappino as a favourite Italian restaurant.
We didn’t realise it was a game night at a nearby stadium which meant a 15 minute limit on street parking. Luckily we were dining quite early and there were spots in the car park behind the restaurant. When we entered the restaurant we were greeted cheerfully by Deanna Roduner one of the owners, letting us know that there was a set menu ($60 per person) because of the game. Not deterred by any means we took a table by the window. Later Deanna returned for a lively conversation about Singaporean food and family. This just set up the whole evening of attentive and friendly service.
First up was our antipasto platter. I will try to recall each morsel as best I can here.
From the left to right, I believe the first item was some very tasty meatballs. Then some chillies topped with herbed cheese (I managed to eat the first one feeling only a bit of a kick then with some bravado tried to take down a second only to be defeated. Luckily I had wine and water at hand.) and the third item was a fish or seafood fritter (like fish cakes) which were very flavoursome.
From left to right again, we had some fried risotto balls (very nice with perfectly cooked rice), at the background, prawns topped with tuna, below that little anchovy and caramelised onion tarts and at the front chorizo with dates. I loved every one of these (even though I’m not a huge fan of anchovies) and ESPECIALLY loved the chorizo with dates. Very tasty chorizo mixed with the sweet date.. mmm perfect flavour combination.
And lastly from our antipasto platter, little frittatas topped with sundried tomato.
All of these served with a bread basket, including garlic and olive oil thin toasted bread slices.
I think I could have just eaten antipasto all night.. but our mains were up next.
There were three on offer that night as part of the set menu and we had all three at our table.
Mum had the seafood marinara, which I ended up stealing a lot of. It was a beautifully cooked pasta dish, with very fresh seafood, fish, scallops in the shell, mussels and prawns all soaked in an amazing lobster cream sauce. Piggy would have loved this dish and I savoured as much of it as I could on her behalf.
Next was my partner’s veal scallopine with potatoes, greens and honeyed carrots. The sauce was rich and tasty and I especially loved the carrots. How do they get them to taste like that I don’t know.
My main next, the duck leg with mushroom and pasta. The sauce for this dish was quite sweet. I was happy to eat it all but it was a bit too sweet for my sister who had the same dish. The duck leg was very tender and topped with what I think were crispy potato shavings.
Though we were very full and satisfied from dinner, I couldn’t pass up the dessert menu. Dessert was not part of the set menu, but how can you pass up things such as:
One of the best tiramisu’s I have ever eaten. Creamy, with delicious sponge and coffee flavour…
Or the Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, silky smooth and accompanied with seasonal berries (strawberries this time!).
I had the Crespelle Di Arancia – Orange Pancakes “Dolce Vita”. A very thin crepe topped with mandarin liqueur, valencia orange pieces and a scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream. The sauce was quite strong for me as I don’t usually enjoy syrupy citrus sauces, but the ice-cream helps to balance this out and you can let a lot of the sauce drip off before devouring it.
And then there was the Affogato. A scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream with a shot of espresso coffee and liquer of your choice (this time Frangelico for its hazelnut flavour) to be poured over and then eaten/drunk. It was like a very luxurious iced coffee.
I really enjoyed the night, the service and of course the food. I would love to go again to try their ala carte menu and I will probably be forced to take Piggy there for the marinara the next time she’s in town. I can only hope.
Posted in Brisbane, Dessert, Italian | 
Tags: Brisbane, Dessert, Italian, Paddington, pasta, Seafood | 
2 Comments »
Il Solito Posto
Basement, 113 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9654 4466
Antipasto platters waiting to be served 
Pannacotta has been raving about this place ever since she met me, so I have decided to drag Hubby to the Il Solito Posto bistro. In case you might get confused, Il Solito Posto has two dining rooms, the bistro is the more casual of the two, it’s cozy welcoming atmosphere made me instantly felt at home.
A big cheery Hello from a Johnny Depp lookalike ushered us to the bar when no seats are available, two glasses of water instantly put in front of us- this kind of welcome made me think of Gill Diner- same kind of restaurant serving rustic meals with not-so-cheap prices, why is Gill’s Diner so rude to us?
We didn’t have to wait too long before being ushered to a cozy booth, although it was next to the toilet, it wasn’t too bad. My cocktail arrived, something with citrus that I’ve challenged the bar staff to conjure up for me. It was delightfully citrusy, with fat pulps of passionfruit resting below a martini glass. YUM.
Hubby ordered the herb bread- whilst the bread is fresh, I felt that the herbs are quite unevenly distributed, and therefore the bread is not as flavoursome as I had hoped.
I couldn’t resist the antipasto ($16.90) that was tempting me next to the bar when I waited, and hence I ordered antipasto for entree. It was fantastic- each vegetable had such distinctly unique flavour- the mushrooms were marinated to enhance the earthiness, the eggplant has a subtle minty taste, the capsicum was smokey and the tomato is bursting with flavours- it was just so fresh! I don’t really care for the salami and cured meat, but the cured meat is very unique in flavour and I really like it. The little bready thing is really yum too, although sadly I don’t know what’s in it except olives. The disappointing bit is the bocchini. It tasted like nothing, very much like the ones I buy in the supermarket. Even with slithers of basil and chunks of the fresh tomato couldn’t save it.
Hubby ordered oyster al naturale ($4 each). Hubby seldom have high praises for food, nor vocabulary to praise it, so when he told me that this oyster is good, it must be really really good.
For mains, I ordered Rigatoni Caponata ($26.50). For those who have seen my Gill’s Diner blog, Caponata is a sauce made with tomato, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, pinenuts etc. With this dish, they have also stirred in some currants, making this dish slightly sweeter than the one in Gill’s. Whilst I do like it because it’s a bit different, the vegies are so fresh and the pasta is cooked to al dente, I am a savoury person and the sweetness of the currant didn’t make it as desirable as it could have been. I should have ordered the pasta w/ ragu or marinara, but today I just felt like being a tad more healthy and eat more vegies for some reason.
Hubby ordered a Cassereccia with Chicken, mushroom and cream ($28.50). I tried some and a really really like it. It took all my willpower not to just grab forkful after forkful of his pasta and shove it into my mouth. Hubby found it a bit too salty, but perhaps it was the sweetness of my dish, I really loved his. It was just the right balance of cheese and cream. YUMMMM
Dessert- how could I possibly eat dessert after all these food never ceases to amaze me. Okay, so Pannacotta had a theory about having an extra dessert stomach, but surely after having that sweetish pasta it’ll satiate my sweet tooth (or stomach)? Nope, obviously not, because we ordered a dessert each, instead of sharing like usual.
This beautiful dish is a coffee mousse with chocolate triangle ($16). OMG, the coffee mousse was sooooo strong but yummie. The chocolate is not too sweet either, it was a dark chocolate, which is fantastic. The nuts on the side is soooo yummie too, so fresh and crunchy and sweet and nutty at the same time. I want more!!
Hubby ordered a trio of sorbetto ($12)- green apple, raspberry and pineapple. I love the green apple and raspberry sorbet, it was so refreshing and I actually stole a lot of of raspberry sorbet from Hubby, which he wasn’t too impressed.
To be honest, I had to close my eyes and swoon everytime I ate a bite of both dessert. It was just so perfect. I would definitely give this bistro a 8/10- good recommendation Pannacotta!
43 Block Place, Melbourne
Us old grads decided to have a pasta lunch. If you recall from my other blogs, I have had a love hate relationship with Block Place. Some places were nice, but some places were just bad. Well unfortunately this one is one of the worst I must say, in Block Place.
On the exterior, they have fabulous menu boards that really tempt your tastebuds, but when you order your food (I ordered clam linguine), what came out wasn’t that great. The clams in my clam linguine are not fresh at all, at one point I wondered if I was going to get food poisoning. Thankfully (or not), half of the clams actually consist of clam shells without clams, which I guess meant that they’ve halved the chance of me getting food poisoning.
On to the sauce- very watery, tasted a bit sour, yet again I wondered if I was going to get food poisoning. Overall, very tasteless. Normally when I encounter a tasteless dish I will sprinkle a bit of pepper in it to enhance the taste a bit and normally, this would improve the dish quite a bit. Unfortunately these are not a normal circumstances and I even had to add a bit of salt- and it’s still tasteless.
It’s not just my dish. All the pasta dishes that the grads had needed to be sprinkled with tons of salt and pepper. I think the only OK dish was the calamari salad.
In conclusion- don’t go there.