01. Friday night at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival with very, very dear friends – we enjoyed 21 (!) cicchetti and six Italian wines at Ombra. Highlights:
- Mostarde Di Carote Con Senape e Prosciutto (slow-cooked carrot, prosciutto and mascarpone on lavosh)
- Mozzarella in Carozza Alla Veneziana (essentially a deep-fried mozzarella sandwich – IKR?!)
- Baccala… always baccala.
- Selva Capuzza Chiaretto ‘San Donino’ 2020 (not usually a rosè drinker, but this was delicious)
02. The event was the launch of Emiko Davies’s book, Cinnamon and Salt – Small Bites from the Lagoon City. Half the enjoyment of cicchetti is not having to do the work that goes into each tasty morsel, but I will certainly be attempting the slow-cooked carrot.
03. Sack of Sorrows might not sound like something to make me happy, but the creativity and sentiment behind this grief project is wonderful.
04. Finally a book that has truly lifted me out of my reading-rut – don’t be fooled by the cover, it’s part of the dark humour.
05. Listening: Eurovision 2022 playlist.
06. Hate winter. Love scarves.
07. Added a few grey hairs and my blood pressure went up a couple of points but geez, Carlton’s win this arvo was exciting.
08. Some of my kids are junior umpires. One of them got their MCG debut 🙂 on Saturday night. Fun.
Oh, cicchetti is my favourite thing about Venice! It was a revelation to me, especially when I found out you should always ask for the “local wine” otherwise you’ll get ripped off with over-priced “tourist wines”! Your evening sounds fab. I take it you’re all out of iso then?
Oh, and how wonderful to umpire at the MCG!
It was a revelation for us as well and when we got back to Melbourne we assumed that we’d be able to find it, given there’s no shortage of Italian restaurants in Melbourne. Incredibly, Ombra is it. A few places do a couple of dishes but Ombra is the only place that features cicchetti.
And yes, thankfully we’re out of iso. Hopefully we won’t go back in!
Deep fried mozzarella sandwiches! I’m now incapable of thinking of anything else 😀
IKR? By the time they were served I was stuffed but discovered that I have a special deep fried mozzarella sandwich stomach!
6. Yes! I love scarves and throws. I did a clean out of my scarves during lockdown. I did move some on, but most were too special.
Oh… yeah… Eurovision is coming up again. I just listened to Israel’s entry called I.M. Okay, I guess.
I’m now hankering for that cashmere topper but unlikely I’ll find one that that over here