Culinaring Through Diego (Dinner Day 3)
No report on lunch today since we went to the horse track at Del Mar. While I have little interest in horses, I’m extremely competitive. Mix in the chance to win money and you’ve got me hooked. But seriously, when you’ve bet $20 on a horse and it’s a race to the finish line, the screaming, the cheering and the cursing pulls you in like no other event I’ve been to.
a drink of orange juice, lemon, ginger. certainly refreshing but you better love ginger. a lot.
Tonight was dinner at Piatti’s, a local Italian favorite that serves olive oil so good they sell it to the public by the bottle. We started the meal with two wonderfully refreshing drinks.
mint julep. lots and lots of mint. nice.
Piatti olive oil. From what I can tell, red pepper flakes and balsamic vinaigrette were added for kicks. Quite good and different from the usual black pepper and parmesan cheese.
Grilled Ciabatta Bread with Tomatoes, Garlic, Basil, Oregano & Olive Oil. Average at best. I wish the kitchen had tried to push the limits with this staple that every Italian restaurant in America serves.
Fresh Veal Sweetbreads Sautéed with Assorted Mushrooms, Garlic & White Wine. A rich appetizer that was executed fairly well. Presentation was very sloppy (and really should have been served in a soup bowl), but the sweetbreads tasted like most that I’ve had. I prefer glazed sweetbreads to breaded because here the sauce turned the crunchy breading into moist breadcrumbs.
RAVIOLI AL LIMONE House-Made Ricotta & Basil Ravioli Served with Tomato Sauce. The ravioli skins were light as a feather. I found the inside a tad bland as neither the ricotta nor the basil carried enough weight. The tomato sauce was, for an Italian restaurant, not as good as it should have been. It too lacked depth and dimension.
Piatti’s serves good Italian food at reasonable prices that most of the general public can agree with. I would say that Piatti’s is less about breaking boundaries and more about serving to satisfy the community in a way that’s comforting and recognizable.
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