Fattoria Poggio Gagliardo Wine Dinner at In Vino Veritas

Andrea Surbone picked the wines for the night and his wife ...crap her name is totally escaping me right now, was in the kitchen. You know that I like this place -

In Vino Veritas

- it's homey and unpretentious. So was the whole night. Food that was simple, but mostly tasty, plus some very enjoyable wine accompanying it.

These were the wines up for tasting:

Villa Caiano 2004

Montescudaio Bianco 2007

Montescudaio Rosso 2006

Ultimosole 2003

Rove Chinato 2003

and for dinner the following :

Vitello tonnato

Risotto con ragu al coltello

Capretto al marsala, patate al formo

Bunet

Like I said it was nice. It reminded me of my mothers husbands Anthony Saraceno's cooking, just not as good. Don't get me wrong, that's not putting the nights offering down, because Tony is an excellent chef and nobody in Tallinn no matter where they studied becoming a chef does Italian the way he does. Maybe you need to grow up eating Pasta e Fagioli and Ossobuco. I don't know.

Surprise of the night was the finish: Bunet and Rove Chinato, yes maybe I've had better Bunet, but it was still real good and Rove Chinato - Whoa. They supposedly add somekind of herb concoction to a desert wine that's already pretty funky tasting. The result was stunning. In a very good way.

And I still love this place.

Cooking Pretty - The Worst Offenders in Tallinn.

I'm quoting Anthony Bourdain - possibly the coolest guy who's ever held a Sabatier blade and an absolute definitely in a hypothetical "If you could have five people over for dinner":

"When I hear 'artist', I think of someone who doesn't think it necessary to show up at work on time. More often than not their efforts, convinced as they are of their own genius, are geared more to giving themselves a hard-on than satisfying the great majority of dinner customers. Personally I'd prefer to eat food that tastes good and is honest reflection of its ingredients, than a 3-foot-tall caprice constructed from lemon grass, lawn trimmings, coconuts and red curry. You could lose an eye trying to eat that."

Here they are, where style kicks substances ass on a daily base :

Bocca

Ö

Horisont

Museum

Stenhus Champagne Dinner

Alright, this happened almost two weeks ago on October 30th, but for some reason I did not feel any urgency about declaring my participation to everybody who reads this blog.

Not that it was a horrible, but I have to admit and I do this somewhat proudly that I would call it mediocre. Let's not forget that this is a place that has received more "Silver Spoons" than they know what to do with them. They have been elected to be the best and they are still considered to be the best by many. Not me though...

First of all - it's a HOTEL, second - it's in a BASEMENT, but the biggest problem is in the kitchen - they can not produce high quality in volume. They are not unique in Tallinn when it comes to this. There are plenty of restaurants that can make a good looking tasty plate of food, they just can't do it when the dining room is full.

I'm not gonna bore you with copying the nights menu. It was all filled with phrases like "Chanterelle Duxelle", "Langoustini Tails" and "Black Olive and Vanilla Crust".

Let's just say that the seafood served was not fresh and I will always pick fresh over exotic. The beef had been resting under the warming lights for way way way too long. Well sure, the schedule was running little late, but a good kitchen should be able to adjust and a great one to anticipate. Oh... I did like the "Chanterelle Duxelle" accompanying the beef.

And of course I enjoyed the Champagne, all of it good and probably more than anybody else there. Ahh almost forgot, it was expensive.