Mr. Ho is back in town after an absence of nearly 2 years, and was in the mood for more Italian food. Unfortunately I no longer patronize a certain dining group's restaurants so we are not going back to the restaurant where we last dined together, but I proposed
Estro as a substitute. They have introduced a new menu where diners can order
à la carte and no longer need to choose their tasting menus, so Foursheets and I were pretty eager to try it out.
For me, Juve Fan's best dishes have often been his pastas. This is not to say that the appetizers and main courses are not delicious, but for me the hit rate on the pastas have pretty much been 100%. Tonight I was determined to just do three different pastas and nothing else.
We started with some
aperitivos and bread, and the offering has been lightened a little.
Tarali - I still really love this as it's just soooo fragrant and tasty thanks to crunchy bits of almonds along with black pepper. That anchovy buffalo milk butter is still available on the side and as sinful as ever.
We had
sesame crackers and
saffron risotto waffle in place of the
carta da musica and other items, although we still got a whole sourdough loaf.
The
eggplant dip was meant to go with the sesame cracker.
Potato toast with Robiola di Bufala and Mortadella - this was very, very tasty... thanks to the Mortadella and the rich cheese.
Green apple and cucumber drink
One change I also noticed was the absence of the "olive oil trolley". Since the beginning they had 4 different olive oils on offer, and unlike me, apparently many people wanted to taste them all and asked for all 4, even though they really didn't need all that olive oil. So... we're now down to just one oil, which is totally fine with me. This is why we can't have nice things... because people abuse the kindness they are offered.
Here comes my pastas!
Bottoni | buffalo cheese, guanciale, peppercorns - these were so rich thanks to the
Robiola di Bufala, and I really looooove
guanciale for their punchy flavors - and their fat, of course. A little bit of chicken
jus for a flavor pick-up.
Pappardelle | onion “Genovese” ragout, wagyu - I looove the sweetness of the caramelized onions, which was the reason I wanted this pasta. This was somewhat balanced out by the saltiness of the thin slices of cured wagyu. The pappardelle came in very long strands, and this stupid Asias had some difficulty picking up single strands with the fork. Other than that, a fantastic dish.
It
IS white truffle season, so I needed to tick the box by ordering this pasta. Graziano came with the truffles and shaved three different ones over the pasta - the way it's done at Umberto Bombana's restaurants - so that we would get a
mélange of fragrances and textures.
Tagliolini | roasted chicken jus, parmigiano, Alba white truffle - I don't do this very often, but I do love the sight of my pasta being completely covered with shaved truffles.
I just can't get enough of that rich blend of Parmiggiano and roasted chicken
jus coating the noodles... I could just spoon it into my mouth. And the texture of the
tagliolini was just... MUAH!
Foursheets had to order 3 courses but only wanted 2 of them, so guess who took her dessert?
Persimmon - in addition to fresh and pressed persimmon, we also had persimmon gel, yogurt panna cotta, yogurt crème, and a wonderfully fragrant kaffir lime leaf oil.
We still got the sweet endings to finish up:
Pistachio gelato - I hope I always get a scoop of this on every visit. So rich. So delicious.
Fig tart
Hazelnut biscuit with dark chocolate
Hazelnut rocher
As Foursheets is cutting down her alcohol intake drastically, I decided to bring just one bottle and order wine by the glass to start.
2022 Jankara Vermentino di Gallura Superiore - the nose was very much tropical stone fruits. Palate was dry to start but ripe in the middle, and slightly bitter on the finish. About an hour in the nose was showing caramelized sugar.
2001 Antinori Solaia - decanted about 40 minutes after opening and stoppering, and drank about 50 minutes after decanting. Smoky, minty, and woodsy notes on the nose. So, sooo fragrant. Nice and silky on the palate. Drinking so, sooo well right now.
This was a pretty good meal. I was really happy that I got to have (almost) nothing but pasta, and the portions were all decent-sized as Juve Fan had promised. Aaaaand... Juve Fan didn't even have to be in the kitchen! So glad to have introduced this place to my friend.
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