I am twenty one, and sitting at a restaurant table in Rome having just ordered my first ever martini with my mother. She is sipping appreciatively at the aperitif 'della casa', a refreshing combination of Prosecco and what sounds like Aperol (at a guess - neither my knowledge of Italian or of spirits is extensive enough YET) when I ask the waitress for a description. Mum says that my expression reminds her of a time when I was much, much younger tasting my first solid food, a carrot. Such joy and surprise.
We talk of food for the majority of our dinner, and the times when we do not it is because the food that we were talking of has evoked other memories of people and places past. This particular dinner will become one of those great memories, for we have stumbled upon together, an unassuming type of place down a side street where we are the only two foreigners in a room brimming with Italians. This can only be a good sign. I am marveling at the mushroom and pea sauce enveloping the succulent meat on my plate before I have even discovered the gem at the heart of it, ossobuco (marrowbone). Another first, and it is fantastic - I cannot believe how rich and delicate this forgotten substance is! Across the table, my mother gasps at the tenderness of her artichoke stalk, and we laugh over how one should eat such a thing, but it doesn't matter here.
For pudding, we can't resist and share a Mont Blanc as I have only my imagination to guide me on what this infamously named dessert entails. Of course, my mother knows. The waitress doesn't understand us (or is perhaps snubbing the french by pretending not to...) when we pronounce it "monblon" rather than "monblank". I am childishly excited to see mountains of cream and chestnut meringue arrive although it isn't quite the pyramid peak in shape as we had envisaged. Very sweet and unnecessary really after such a rich main course but still greatly enjoyed!
Having realised over this dinner together how central good food is to my life, I have started this blog in the hope of sharing a few good things.
#ristorante La Taverna dei Monti, Via del Boschetto, 41 (Via Nazionale)
http://www.tavernamonti.info/
#http://www.aperol.com/aperol/#
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