Wine Dinner Series: April Fool's Italian Dinner

When the email got in.....all the Wine Kakis skipped the menu listing and went down straight to the wine lists....Wat would be served on that evening....it's all Italian!!!

It's an Italian nite baby!!!!
we have a wide range of 50's, 60's and 70's from private collection. Alcoholic Anonymous ST sure knows where to source for all these....


So where can you do an Italian Wine Dinner if not at an Italian restaurant...so u see KL is pretty limited. There isn't many Italian restaurant around. Anyhow I find that most Italian restaurants in this region served localised italian cuisine. Not really the authentic Italiano cucina that we enjoyed in Italy.

Say for example Spaghetti Bolognese.......oh please.......this is definitely not Italian.
There's a place called Bologna in Italy and their specialty is Bolognese sauce which is a meat ragu sauce cooked over a period of time with such complexity and taste. Then this sauce cooked with such passion is usually served with flat based pasta....usually tagliatelle.

So where the hell did Spaghetti Bolognese came from?
I have no idea...but definitely invented outside of Italy....and please do not order this dish in Italy......Rest assured u'll be smacked on the face with a pan. U asked for it!!!


I lurve toasty bread....haven't been making bread for a few years now. Prollie time to re-ignite this passion of mine....But first I need to find space in my chiller to keep and continue to feed my bread starter. It's like keeping pets u know? U just gotta feed it every few days.

Famous Boulangerie around the world have bread starter passed down from generation to generation that gives the bakery distinctive taste and texture. Oh Gross~~~~

our April Fool's dinner menu
Where's the pasta??????


Soon all the guests arrived at the destination.
This room is good, it has got its own private balcony for us to smoke
hehehehehehehehe

We had this starter of Tuscanian Crostini, with a secret topping.....we were made to guess wat was it....everyone listed down the ingredients and was only finally revealed wat was inside.

At the end of the dinner when all food was served and all wines were tasted, Dr. Epicurean the person WHO CHOSE the MENU!!!!! unveiled its topping.

I almost ran to his chair and haul him down. I felt like punching him.....
He made me ate Cow's TESTICLES and BRAINS!!!!!!
but I didn't do it....instead I bitched about it the whole nite on the table. He was just laughing at me politely.
YOU.MADE.ME.EAT.COWS.TESTICLES
I'll remember it for the rest of my life. -_-


Mulberry Shan and Dr. Epicurean
Pls remember that face....if u see him, u know how he tortured me by secretly making all of us eat weird things like this.

Chilled Calf tongue
This was OK...texture would be much enjoyable if it's not cut this thin


Prince C and I-Ching
Prince C:"Aiyayayaya cow's tongue ah~~~~~"




Left to Right: Dr. JS...oh yes another JS but this one is a Dr.....MW Maho and Papa Bear Seiichi
I guess most doctors are epicurean huh?

Papa Bear Seiichi has got the best seat with the best view
:))))))))))
he left a bit of wines fr each bottle to do re-sampling after leaving them to breathe again...

these are such old wines....sometimes they need a lil bit of time....sometimes u just need to down them quickly before they die off.

Calf sweetbread done croquette style with deep fried artichokes
I am not a fan of sweetbread....it's considered as a delicacy worldwide. And mind u this is definitely not a bread. I had my first sweetbread back in Milan and didn't like it so I don't think I'll have much thought for this one.....

So Wat's Sweetbread??? it's thymus of animals, u know the on the neck...The other part that's used as sweetbread is pancreas....so I don't know if we had the pancreas or the thymus that nite...

ohhhh at this juncture I am sensed this dinner is not my thing with organs served at every course. Why didn't I check the menu first before RSVP for this dinner T_T

To redeem itself, the wines were interesting. More aged Barolo from the 50's
it's more than 50 years ago and still so drinkable. So Italian wines can really age over time. Hence most of our italian wines in the region of 80's are not ready to be drunk. Not to mention Spanish...the 70's are not ready yet. Ohhhh.....that's why I prefer French wines....hahahahaha

a beautiful saffron infused risotto which was cooked accordingly to the Milanese style. A good risotto must be al dente with that soft crunch in the middle of the grain. A dollop of a rich Bone Marrow, just a small dollop but enough to go around bcoz bone marrows are so so so darn rich. 

oh so sinful.
this was the only dish I really ATE.

moving on to late 60's and 70's we had Brunello do Montalcino by Biondi Santi
Biondi Santi passed away peacefully on 8th April 2013, a week after this dinner. On the same date, this very same gang gathered again for another Italian wine dinner series which Monkey skipped. After Monkey had this one, she just said thanks but no thanks.....no more Italian for me. I just didn't wanna waste money attending wine dinners that I don't enjoy....until.....until I found out the 2nd Italian wine dinner was held at Cilantro.

Monkey raised her palm faced the ceiling....WHY?!?!?!??!?!!?
organiser Alcoholic Anonymous ST...WHY???? next time u must tell me!!! I would have switched....I WAS FREE on 8th April!!!!

and it was even more meaningful to toast to the winemaker on the very same day. So here at this moment as I am bloggin...I raised my glass and toast to Mr. Santi for all the great wines u've made.

Veal Tripe cooked Roman style.....

Dear Chef, if you were wondering the plate which was returned to your kitchen untouched, it was MINE. Yes it was mine because the smell was awful. Life is too short for bad food, if I am gonna put calories into my body, it better be worth it. Sorry, I just couldn't take it.

I was pretty frustrated at this juncture because this dinner is definitely not for me. It made me enjoyed my wines lesser :((((( Enuff said....

MW Maho agrees with Monkey
Life is too short.
YA!!!! too short!!!!

Selection of cheeses from Italy with simple condiments

I've forgotten wat was this called...
pls blame it on the offal served that nite.....it has the effects of wiping out my memories.


a delicate dessert of some sort of cakes.....

Menu was approved by Dr. Epicurean -_-"
guess he had enuff of me drilling about this dinner over and over again.

Wines line up

Alcoholic Anonymous ST was enquiring when am I gonna blog about this dinner...Monkey was -_-"
"Need to meh??? I don't blog about food that I don't like....u should have notice by now?"
Alcoholic Anonymous ST: "Well u can just skip the food and post pics of the wines!!!!"

so this post is for YOU by your request
:P

overall we had:
Brunello di Montalcino by Biondi Santi - 1969, 1970, 1980
Barollo by Cappelano - 1950, 1954, 1957, 1962
Barolo by F.Rinaldi - 1968
and a Barolo Selezione by Rinaldi as well - 1970



the food served that nite was off its usual menu, I guess iL Lido has got decent food from its usual standard menu.
il Lido Restaurant
Lot 183, Jalan Mayang,
(off Jalan Yap Kwan Seng)
50450 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 603 2161 2291
www.il-lido.com.my