What better way to celebrate the first month than eating lots of amazing Italian food with my grandparents. Unfortunately it rained all day, and while we got to see a lot of the city, it was certainly a nice change to go inside and have something to eat.
Started the day off at the breakfast buffet at my grandparent's hotel. It was nice to have a breakfast like this as it's not very common to have breakfast beyond a croissant in Italy. That said, I ended up having a croissant and salami for breakfast. Oh well.
We went to Eataly for lunch, where I've been a couple of times before (see earlier posts). However both times that I have been before we ate at the cafe downstairs, whereas today we ate at the restaurant on the second floor (there is also a wine bar on the third floor). It was very busy so we waited for about 20 minutes, and then were seated at a table. The tables are dispersed amongst shelves of dried goods, jams, and other foods for sale, as well as bookshelves (half the place is a bookstore). The interior is modern and very tastefully done.
We started with some lardo on bread which the waiter brought by accident but which we were happy to keep! I've had lardo before, but I've never had it like this. It was rich and salty and literally melts as it hits your tongue. The flavors are deep but clean. This has to be one of the best foods on earth. Served with some honey which went well with the intense salty flavor of the lardo.
Then we had a selection of prosciuttos and salamis, which we had actually ordered. These were all fantastic. Eataly sources high quality goods from around Italy, and all of these we clearly very high quality. The salami (second from the right) was amazing.
By this time, having had our fill of pork products, I was already getting full. But we still had our pasta to come. Me and my grandfather both ordered tortellini in brodo. This is a classic bolognese dish typically served on holidays and other special occasions. The small tortellini are filled with meat and then served in this flavorful broth. It's a wonderful dish, perfect for a cold, rainy day like today.
So quite full from lunch, we continued walking around the city. For the month of February, Bologna is having an art exhibition around the city called Art First. There are different exhibitions and pieces throughout the city. We got a map of all of them and walked around to the different locations looking at the art, some of which was really great (and some, including manikins spray painted all in black with apples on their heads, was a little less appealing).
We went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by friends back home who had lived in Bologna for quite a while. The restaurant was called Da Silvio (Via San Petronio Vecchio, 34), which is quite an experience. You enter the restaurant, which is on a quiet side street in Bologna, and are greeted by a chorus of waiters with "Buonasera." They bring you to your table, which already has antipasti and open wine (both red wine and Prosecco) waiting for you.
Within the first minute or two they bring so much antipasti plates for the table that they barely fit on the table. They included mortadella pate, liver pate, grilled vegetables, marinated onions, cheese in olive oil, fried artichokes (pictured below, so good!), and pecorino cheese which you just carved out of the wheel (great idea!),
So that was just the beginning. Then the waiter comes to the table and asks what pasta you want. I had tortelloni stuffed with red beets, which were great! My grandparents both had artichoke risotto (not pictured).
Then, the secondi. I had steak with balsamic sauce which was quite good. My grandfather had roasted chicken, also very good. My grandmother was saving room for dessert so passed on this course. The best thing, though, was these potatoes that came on the side. They are perfectly roasted with just some salt, rosemary and olive oil. I think it may be the potatoes over here, but they were just so flavorful and rich and creamy.
More? Is it even possible? Well, you have to leave room for dessert. Basically they just keep bringing these huge cakes or pies to the table and you take as much as you want. There was a huge meringue cake, an apple tort, a chocolate cake, cream filling in a bowl, cream pie, dessert wine, limencello, and more that I can't remember. Dio mio!
So after this dinner I was quite stuffed, of course. It was just a ridiculous amount of food. While the food is good, this place is really about the experience, about overindulgence. We had a really great time, and, while I hope to return someday, it's so much food that I'm not sure my stomach can handle it too many times.
