Introduction:
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”
Inspired by this sentence from Virginia Woolf we wanted to offer to our guest, tired after a long walk in the morning, and a wine tasting in the afternoon, a good and relaxing dinner.
“I can’t stand people that do not take food seriously”, Oscar Wilde said
We take food really seriously, in Italy. That’s why in the morning, when we visited the Street Market, we wanted to show to our guests the provenience of their next dinner.
We wanted to offer Local Food, collected fresh and prepared in the Local way. A lot of Local aspects on a Local Guides Meet-up
The Location
How to choose a restaurant for a Meet-up?
What we wanted to offer to our guests was an experience of “Local Food”. For this reason we were looking for a local restaurant, possibly in a village, so definitely not a touristic place.
We wanted a very simple menu, based on the classic dishes of the area. Of course, as it is not easy to find a restaurant available on Saturday night, we had to search and to choose the place well in advance.
I cannot find better words, to describe the restaurant, than the ones used by @RiccyB on his review: “… we opted for a 5-course menu that expressed the tastes of the ingredients of the area. The experience was really positive ……. and I would recommend this place if you are looking for an atmosphere like the one described”
The menu
Again, I can use Riccardo’s words from his review: “We started with a very tasty appetizer with polenta, mushrooms, soppressa trevisana and flaked grana followed by risotto with Treviso radicchio, a lasagna with pumpkin and a second course of veal cheek and vegetables. The cooking of the pillow was perfect, it literally melted in the mouth. Finally a very balanced tiramisu. The whole dinner was accompanied by loose light red wine (very young) and prosecco with dessert. The house then offered grappa and limoncello”
We wanted, as I said already, to offer an experience of Local Food.
Polenta, mushrooms, soppressa Trevisana (a kind a large salami) is always the basic appetizer in Treviso.
Risotto with radicchio di Treviso: this is a “must try” dish. One of the reason to choose the restaurant was his position on the middle of radicchio fields.
Lasagna with pumpkin: another classic dish of the Pianura Padana, perfect in winter.
Veal cheek and vegetables: meat is very common, in Veneto, and Veal is for sure the best meat that you can offer to your guests.
Tiramisù and Prosecco: both the words, together with radicchio, have only one meaning: Treviso. Most of the people around the world have no idea about Treviso, where the city is, what we produce, how we live. But if you say “Tiramisù and Prosecco” everyone will smile, knowing very well what we are talking about.
At the end of the dinner, together with espresso, grappa and Limoncello, we also had a bottle of Californian Port, bought by me just for the wine meet-up.
The dinner
A dinner with friends is always the best way to close a day. After a lot of rain, seating all together on the same table, sharing food and experience, smiles and jokes, is absolutely relaxing. If, as an extra benefit, you have the Connect Live master of selfies , @LuigiZ with you, the success of the evening is assured.
At the end of the dinner, as @RiccyB said, Tiramisù and Prosecco. What we didn’t mentioned was that the tiramisù was a “Local Guides Wine Meet-up Special Edition” tiramisù, made by the restaurant just for us.
What we learned from the dinner?
This time the answer is open, for the attendees of the meet-up to respond, and share with us their feeling (and their photos, of course)
Tomorrow is another day, we will have another walk, and more rain
This post is part of the recaps of “La Dolce Vita, Italian Style of Fun,” series.
A 2 days - 4 meetups event organized in Treviso on November 23rd and 24th.
Here below the links to:
The main post, that introduce the event
The Treviso Street Market Photo-walk Recap
The Treviso Wine meet-up 2019 - Recap
The Treviso 360 Photo-walk meet-up 2019 - Recap
Please send me some tiramisu at least.