The elastic heart

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I'm meeting up with old friends I haven't seen in a while for a second consecutive night. I last saw Mr. Ho when he visited Hong Kong 3 years ago, under less happy circumstances. Now that travel restrictions in Hong Kong have been largely lifted, I'm glad to catch up in person after such a long time. Neither of us wanted a big, fancy dinner, so Testina seemed to be the perfect choice.

The chef's selection for the night didn't have all the interesting stuff we wanted, so we chose to order à la carte.

"Lingua tonnata:, veal tongue and tonnata sauce - this is always a good idea. The thin slices of tongue are always very tender, and very tasty. Pairs perfectly well with the tuna sauce. Gotta wipe the plate clean with some bread.

Cod fish mantecato, toasted polenta - I really enjoyed having this on my first visit, so I was more than happy to order it up again. The whipped cod was as good as last time, and the pepper as well as the bell pepper sauce still delivered the flavors.

"Trippa fritta", fried honeycomb beef tripe and rosemary - being one of the signature dishes of the restaurant, I strongly recommended this to Mr. Ho. He was pleasantly surprised, as he did not expect the crispiness while the tripe retained a certain degree of tenderness inside.

Homemade cavatelli, Mediterranean octopus and dry fennel - this was pretty decent. The slices of octopus were reasonably tender.

"Testina" pig's head and salsa verde - OH YES! The exterior was sooooo crispy, soooo rich, and left such a beautiful fragrance of fat in the mouth. The cime di rapa buds, leaves, and sauce were slightly bitter but lovely. And the shaved horseradish added a little something to the mix.

Beef heart, charcoal grilled, bell peppers, onion, olives - this was one of the daily specials, and we were so glad we chose it. Sliced very thin, the texture was really springy. Smoky and charred, and served with veal jus along with onions, red bell peppers, and green olives. Really, really nice.

As it's been so long since I had a chance to drink something nice with Mr. Ho, I brought a pair of Super Tuscans to see how they matched up to each other. Unfortunately I had forgotten that Lodovico sold Ornellaia back in 2002, so this was no longer a "brother versus brother" matchup...

2003 Antinori Solaia - opened for 1 hour then decanted and served. Initial nose was bigger with more smoky notes and a lot more cedar. Also showing more medicinal notes on the palate. Later on also developed notes of pencil lead. This wine was more consistent throughout the evening and didn't improve much.

2003 Ornellaia - opened for 1 hour then decanted and served. Very minty, smoky, black fruits. The alcohol was more apparent on the nose, and initially the wine felt a little more closed. Showed better about 2½ hours after opening, and turned out very nice and elegant. About 3½ hours after opening there were additional notes of coffee. While this was more shy at first, by the end of the evening this had clearly surpassed the Solaia and showing better.

So happy to have caught up with my friend. Hopefully we can do this more often and we can also see each other in Singapore and elsewhere.