Saturday, September 4, 2010

Suckling pig at Villa D'Este, West Perth

Ahh Villa D'Este - an old Perth favourite, although many people mistake it for French and drop off the "e" at the end when pronouncing it.  Unsurprisingly, it was packed this Friday night, and unsurprisingly, Geezer was there at another table with his lovely wife Claire, entertaining his brother David and sister-in-law Helen.

We came here to enjoy a celebratory dinner for Benji's birthday.  After labouring over my account of the long lunch at Balthazar (and the fact that I have drunk more wine than would be advisable within the course of a day, I'll stick to the highlights).

2006 Cullen Diana Madeleine - thinner than I expected, but loads of tannins - needed some time to breathe before it started to show plummy fruit flavours.

I ordered the Lumache (snails) as an entree - what else? Who can go past the snails?!  Always delicious, swimming in the garlic juices on the plate.  To avoid a Julia Roberts/Pretty Woman incident, maintain some tension on the snail tongs so that the full pressure doesn't force the slippery shell to pop right out over to the neighbouring table.  Another tip - keep some bread so that you can mop up the delicious garlicky juices that are left behind!

I was in for a treat tonight - there was suckling pig on the rotisserie.  Or was, since I ordered the last portion available.  A beautiful confection of thick crispy skin, soft nougaty fat and tender flesh.  Ahhhhh.  Are you salivating yet?

 Crostata dolce for dessert - a slice of apple crumbly type thing - the highlight was the crumble crust (or whatever you're supposed to call it).  A nice strong crunch!


Copyright Melvin Yeo 2010

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