Last Bologna post. That feels a bit sad somehow. A small sense of melancholy that mirrored how I felt knowing that we were done with one of our holiday destinations. Ah well.
But cheer up, Peter: we're going to talk about food! YAY!
We had two nicer meals booked for Bologna. Unlike on Ischia (and later in the trip), neither was a tasting menu. Both were, happily, a la carte. I say that only because we actually ate moderately, all things considered and did NOT spend a night clutching our bellies, overly full. No, instead these were simpler meals. Fancy enough food, but simpler.
And speaking of fancy and simple....
First up was at our hotel, I Conoscenti. We had a nice little nook of sorts in the dining room and ordered cocktails. The Tribute to Jerbis for me.
We later moved to a bottle of luscious red wine.
Oh, so good. You know those wines that you can just sit and breathe in and enjoy the bouquet for so long,
not wanting to let it go and actually drink it? And then it's so good when you do drink it? Yeah, that was this. Heaven.
We received our breads
and gazpacho amuse
and then the first course. The panzanella with shrimp carpaccio for me.
Delicate and lovely. My main was the roasted octopus,
and it was tasty, but I admit, I had my heart set on the pigeon for dinner. Alas, it was not available. Darn it. These two handsome guys, meanwhile, had steak, and it was super tender and good. What lovely company they are!
No dessert for us, though I dimly recall that I ordered an amaro. And that was the first of our two fine meals in Bologna.
Meal two: dinner at Ahimè. But first, aperitivos! The restaurant was just the other side of the market from the hotel, so when we headed past the market entrance, we stopped into a bar across from it, Bar Mercato.
I may have had two drinks, a Clover Club
and then a Negroni.
Cool little place aside from the smoke wafting in from the smoker parked outside the open door. Ah well. Drinks done, we popped around the corner and into the restaurant.
It was in an article that Van sent me that I learned of the restaurant, and I was intrigued. Oh, I should say that we got a lot of suggestions from friends as to where to dine in Bologna, and we were grateful, but I already had this one booked by that point. We sat at the kitchen counter with a great view in,
and - typical us - we were among the first in the restaurant.
A small crew of guys ran a tight ship - that kitchen was CLEAN - but they weren't the warmest, at least not until we asked one if he was watching the big soccer game going on in the city that night. That cracked the ice a little. We perused the menu and ordered a wine that similar to and almost as good as the night before.
As for the food...
Bread service. I always love a good bread service.
A nice, light starter made from cucumber but with tapioca. Really interesting. Yes, I lusted after some of the other starters, but I was glad to get something not as rich and heavy in me.
Duck breast, cooked right. I get wary of duck at restaurants because all too often it is chewy. No, every time I had duck in Italy, I was in good hands.
Peaches with wine sauce and vanilla pastry cream. I liked the idea, but I was surprised that the peaches were not as ripe as I would expect, nor was there anything done to them to mitigate that.
Figs and fig leaf gelato. Figs were everywhere in Italy, and I couldn't be happier about it. The better of the two desserts.
Ahimè was a good meal, a modern meal, and I was glad we went, but it was not the warmest experience we had in Italy. I'd recommend it, and I would want to try some more of their menu myself,
but of the two fine meals in Bologna, the first was the more enjoyable for how completely we enjoyed service, setting, food, and drink.
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