Celebrating the Mrs' Birthday - Best Meal of the Year...

It was the Mrs' birthday last Saturday so that evening I treated her to dinner at the best gourmet Italian restaurant in Hiroshima, which happens to be a two minute walk from our gaffe, so very convenient indeed.

It's run by a Japanese husband and wife team. The hubby trained as a chef in Italy and the wife is a qualified sommelier; if you fancy lashing out on some upscale Italian wine, this is the place for you!

For my part, I stuck with the lower end of the wine list, kicking off the evening with a half carafe of Trebbiano to toast the Mrs' birthday.

However, I got a nice upgrade when we ordered the cheese dish as the hard cheese came with a recommendation that it be taken with a rather fine Fino Sherry. Okay, sherry isn't Italian, I grant, but the Fino on offer was a rather fine one and our sommelier poured us a courtesy glass to enjoy with the cheese, which also was not Italian.

It's been a long time since I last drank sherry, but the nose instantly took me back to my childhood at my Nan's. Nan always kept a supply of sherry and let me - and my younger sister - have a small glass or two, whenever she poured one for herself, which was not seldom. That, and her penchant for roll-ups were two of her endearing qualities, all the more piquant for her being a "chapel lady," he he!

After the sherry, the remains of the Trebbiano slipped down like water.

Later, I tried a white wine, perhaps from Puglia, that had been refined in American oak barrels; a punchy conclusion to the evening.

As for the grub, every dish was a winner tonight. After the cheese, we ordered roast venison and roast Japanese beef (wagyu), both excellent.

To my surprise, the Mrs wanted to order prosciutto. I had absolutely no objection, especially as prosciutto seems to have given way to Spanish jamón serrano in a lot of Japanese outlets in recent years. When I tasted the prosciutto, it was absolutely superb!

The Mrs still hadn't finished! We ordered fusilli with truffles and chicken.

There were some other dishes that we forgot to photograph - an excellent tuna sashimi dish, an al-dente risotto dish come to mind.

It was one of those meals that you linger over and remember with deep satisfaction, long after the evening has passed. Here I am, a few days later, at Kansai International Airport about to fly to Kuala Lumpur, but I don't want to blog about anything else until I have blogged about that meal and uploaded the pics!

Job done.

Cheers!

See you in Kuala Lumpur if you're attending the Hive Fest!

DH
#InspiredFocus

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