Birthday in the Valley

It's that time of the year again, and we needed to find a place to pop open a bottle. This year Foursheets decided that she would want to go a little casual and didn't want to eat so much, so we decided to go back to Locanda for some of their great pasta. What is also perfect is the ability to order à la carte so we can decide both the amount of food we want to take, and the dishes to match the wine we brought.

Carta musica - I really love these Sardinian crisps, and now they come in different flavors.

Olive sourdough - this was baked with both green and black olives. In addition to olive oil, we've also got tomato ricotta to go with our bread.

Lobster carpaccio, Royal Cristal Caviar, fennel, shellfish foam - pretty nice and refreshing way to start.

Grilled arrow squid, ratte potato, parsley and Amalfi lemon - this was really nice with plenty of smoky flavors. The lemon potato mash also came with green olives and fragrant hazelnuts.

'Mancini' linguine, Spanish carabineros, tomato, green zucchini - carabineros are my favorite prawns, and I was really happy to get this as our big dish. The prawns came with lots of coral and tomalley, and the execution was just about perfect. And that sauce! So, soooo rich with shellfish.

French pigeon, speck ham, pistachio and morel sauce - the execution on the pigeon was amazing, too. The breast was perfectly rosé and retained an incredibly bouncy texture, while the skin was so, soooo delicious. Even better was the leg that had been wrapped with some speck before roasting, which gave us that crispy, smoky, fatty, and meaty flavor combination. The only downer was the collection of beetroot, which neither of us would touch.

Locanda Tiramisu - oh, I loved this. It was very wet at the bottom, with coffee and alcohol that I could spoon into my mouth. Slurp!

We started with a bottle of birthday wine:

1982 Philipponnat Réserve Millésimée, dégorgé en Août 2007 - initially this was very soft on the palate, maybe a little on the flat side without lots of bubbles. Showing nose of marmalade and aged tangerine peel. Acidity was a little on the high side but not too much, with a little bitterness on the finish. As the wine got a little warmer, the finish also grew longer. Acidity remained high and got a little sharper over time.

2014 Tenimenti d'Alessandro Syrah Cortona Borgo - lots of eucalyptus on the nose with a big whiff of spices. Really fragrant. So interesting that this really smelled of cool, black fruits on the nose with some black pepper. Nice acidity on the palate.

This was a pretty happy meal. All the dishes we ordered were tasty, and there were a couple of highlights. We left without holding our stomachs, which is a plus these days. Will be back.