Catching up

 

En route, September 29, 2016— 

TWO DINNERS and a lunch to catch up on, owing to lack of time and Internet access (we've been driving around in the mountains). 

All, as it happens, were in repeat restaurants. On Tuesday, Sept. 27, we met the Contessa's cousin and his wife at a place I discovered two months ago, and there we had a typical Piemontese dinner. No menu: suggestions were recited by the waitress. 

We had a broad range of antipasti, including a fine vitello tonnato, and then some excellent pastas; and a side dish of marvelous sweet-sour onions; and, because I was greedy, an arrosto da vitello, as excellent as it was two months ago. 

Malvasia in carafe

Arneis in carafe

Nebbiolo,  Fassono Giuseppe, 2012

Osteria La Stellina, Bruzolo (TO)

 

Lunch had been at another familiar spot from two months ago, in Chiomonte: the range of antipasti for me, a plate involving sausages, vitello tonnato (again, excellent), and three different sauces: the typical Piemontese green sauce, a sort of mayonnaise, and a Sicilian-style pesto with tomato paste and, I think, ground almonds.

Arneis in carafe

Cantoun, Chiomonte (TO)

By last night we were just over the border in France. The restaurant I'd hoped for was closed for the season, so we drove to the next town and had a routine but competent hotel-restaurant dinner.

In my case this was a plate involving "house-made" (no guarantee of quality) terrine followed by tartiflette, the Savoyard version of potatoes gratinée. It was good, and my companion pointed out that the lettuce in our little salads was superb. 

For dessert, a bavarois flavored with coffee; afterward, a genepy…

Vin blanc de Savoie in carafe

Hotel Restaurant Relais Les 2 Cols, Lanslebourg; 04.75.05.92.83