No gold for Maradona

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The Compatriot wanted to try some new restaurants during his short stay, so I suggested that we go to Estro, which had just gotten themselves a little macaron. Much to Juve Fan's dismay, Napoli had also just won their first Seria A title in 33 years. Somewhere along the line, Juve Fan mentioned that the meal would be on the house if I showed up in a Maradona shirt together with Hairy Legs...

That's some challenge, given that I don't own any football jerseys, let alone one from Napoli or with Maradona's name. Juve Fan suggested I look on Taobao, so I enlisted the help of my friend the Taobao Queen, and amazingly enough, a shirt whose order was placed on Friday evening was received on Monday.

For some reason the Juve Fan was ecstatic at the sight of me wearing not just a Maradona jersey, but the one with his face printed on the front. The one that the club can no longer sell legally, after losing a challenge from the estate of Maradona over image rights. Strangely enough, my attire was met with scowls from Andrea and a few others... In any case, I got a complimentary negroni for my efforts...

My friend insisted that we should have a light lunch, so we stuck to the 3-course option. I also gave Juve Fan carte blanche to choose the courses for us.

First came the aperitivo:

Compressed carrot roll with orange, orange emulsion

Purple potato tuile with honey pea bon bon - with basil leaf. Very nice and floral.

Crunchy burrata baba - with asparagus filling and asparagus on top.

Green apple, fennel, and lemon juice - this was nice, with some acidity along with its freshness.

Mussels “Gemmina” | prawn, pork “lardo”, parsley - we were shown the customary presentation of granny's mussels.

The Hokkaido mussels are cut and stuffed with sourdough bread, garlic, parsley, and prawn. Let's not forget they are topped with a layer of lardo di Colonnata. Served with a parsley sauce this time.

Bottoni | broccoli, sardine, bottarga - the newest version of Juve Fan's signature pasta, now stuffed with broccoli then topped with a sliver of fresh sardine and grated bottarga. This was very pleasant.

Lamb | fava beans, Swiss chard, honey peas, fennel pollen jus - the Spanish lamb was as tasty as ever, although the rack on my plate didn't have quite as much fat as before. The Swiss chard "roll" came with crunchy peas inside. Garnished with fava beans and fava bean purée.

We stuck to our 3 courses so didn't get any dessert. We did, of course, get the sweet little nibbles.

Tirasimu sphere

Ricotta and pear tart

Pistachio gelato - the best in town, although today I felt it wasn't as rich as it used to be.

That was definitely lighter than my previous lunches here, but I guess we needed that after a big dinner last night. I look forward to trying some of the other dishes - especially a couple of pasta - on future visits.

P.S. WHERE WAS THE GOLD?!