Fresh Fish & Potatoes

Well, I know at least 3 members of the class are listening. Makes it easier for me to hear them as well. I left off yesterday before I went to eat. That was a grand experience.

One always hears about the food in Italy as if it were something so spectacular that restaurant patrons go into orgasm like in the Tom Hanks movie "When Harry Met Sally." That sets up the novice Italian traveler for something of a disappointment. The thing is that it is not that the taste of the food is orgasmic, but that it is a total experience. It is the freshness of the food and its flavor, but it is also how it is all delivered and experienced, even if a bit pricey, that is so unique. On arriving in Rome this year, I needed a good meal. I was tired, stiff, and generally out of sorts--one might say grumpy--from the plane trip. So I visited a place I know from past trips, La Torre, my friend David Hulm's favorite place to dine. He has written poems about it: about the food and especially about how the experience is enhanced by a favorite waiter and the friendly service. It didn't fail this time either.

I chose a simple meal, a caprese salad of buffala, tomatoes and fresh basil along with spigola and fried potatoes. With just a dash of salt and pepper on the tomatoes, the caprese was grand. In Italy, slices of "fresh" tomatoes are laid across 1/4 inch slices of buffala mozarella. The buffala is chesse made from the milk of water buffalo. Italian farmers maintain herds of the African beasts on the pastures of the South. It is a rather plain cheese--no distinctive flavor--but when paired with vine ripe tomatoes, juicy and firm and sweet, something unavailable in American super market tomatoes, and layered with leaves of fresh basil, I would walk a mile just to start a great meal with it.

The caprese complimented the spigola--sea bass--and patate well. Here is where the service made the meal an experience. I was given my choice of a whole, fresh, not frozen fish, which one was large enough and fresh-looking enough for my taste. It was grilled, not fried, until the skin was a crisp golden brown--head tail and all. The waiter brought it to the table covered in slices of fresh, sliced potatoes grilled with soft, hot centers and crisp brown edges. Then came the display. Right at my table the waiter expertly pealed back the crunchy skin, removed the head and tail, then with spoon and fork slid the juicy white flesh from the bone and placed it all on a bed of potatoes. Piece by piece he gently coaxed the meat onto his fork and situated it on the potatoes. His work was deliberate and the arangement was mouth watering. The presentation slimply built the flavor. Flakey and moist the white flesh muted the sweet taste of the soft potatoe centers with their crisp, almost chip-like edges. Bravissimo! With a mild red wine--an excellent house vintage--fish and potatoes were the refuge I needed from the day. At 36 euros, the price was high. I won't eat this way every night, but the experience was definitely something to write home about. I am truly back in Italy.