Hearty and bland

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I got a call from Tigger this morning, asking me whether I'd like to lunch with him at 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana.  I know what day it is and why there's a table booked, so I happily accepted his invitation.  When he ended the call by telling me that "it's just you and me", I immediately realized that I was just acting as filler...  althoughI was relieved to find out just before lunch that Mrs. Tigger would grace us with her presence.

I debated about doing my usual thing of just having one course of pasta at lunch, but decided I should try out the dishes on their current set lunch menu.

Black truffle organic egg, "melanosporum" black truffle whipped potato and topinambur - very very yum.  Beneath the layer of shaved black truffle was a soft-boiled organic egg, along with a quenelle of whipped potato embedded with bits of truffle, as well as some mushrooms and cubes of pan-fried topinambour - otherwise known as sunchoke or Jerusalem artichoke.  Perfect combination of hearty flavors that just naturally go together.  I would have loved to have three of these...

Roast amberjack, citrus and beetroot dressing, zucchini salad - I decided to pick the healthy-looking choice, somewhat intrigued by the citrus and beetroot dressing.  Mrs. Tigger is suffering from dulled tastebuds today due to illness, and remarked that she couldn't taste the amberjack at all.  Well, I don't think the problem lies with her tongue... since I couldn't taste much myself, either...  While the cooking was well-executed, it was almost completely bland in taste.  One would need to dab the fish with some of that dressing in order to get much flavor... and I have to say that the dressing itself was a little disappointing - as the citrus flavors weren't very obvious at all.  The bed of zucchini brunoise was much more interesting.

Having already exceeded my allotted quota for calories, I passed on dessert and just nibbled on the petits fours.  As usual the citrus fruit jelly was good, and the hazelnut milk chocolate was a lot sweeter than expected.

It was good to catch up with the Tiggers, but the food today... fell far short of expectations for a restaurant with three macarons.