Eating out in Amelia
We were visiting a friend, who is constructing a house near Amelia, and then obviously we went to wineries, “leonardo Bussoletti” and “ZanchI”. But Nixy will report about the winery part of the trip.
We tried some Maelia Restaurants!
There are eating places against which you can’t say anything, except that you would not return. “La locanda del Conte Nitto” is such a place. The Why: a lack of personality, we could have been also in an underwear shop with the waitresses offering slips instead of food. All is beautiful, all looks perfect, but there is no soul.
The food was not bad/
the selection of Salami for the mixed starters was good and also the quaility .but we are in Umbria., if you fail this….. The lack of love for the food was expressed in the other ingredients, which were bland in taste and the chickpeas even under cooked
Definitelty the best dish was my umbrichelle alla Ternana, It was s tomato sauce with just the right amount of chili, fresh and savory. I was not convinced at all by the carbonara with truffles, truffles should not be used like parsley. I don’t like truffled Guanciale, I like truffled risotto or pasta or egg,. Truffled cheese I don’t like neither. Truffles own aroma can not develop with other strong tastes.
The pork chop with Sichuan pepper was an excellent idea, but also in this dish, there was a lack of passion, otherwise the chopstwould have been juicier.
Similar feeling for a spezzatino con egg sauce. No specific criticism, but my taste buds remained uninterested.
The wine was the 05035 from Bussoletti. I like Ciliegiolo, Nixy does not, This wine i had known at Umbria in un Bicchiere and I like it, more tan the oaked versions of Ciliegiolo.
The “conto” was 70 € for two persons, more than honest for quantity and quality of the food we got.
The second evening showed that atmosphere makes so much of a difference. We went to DentrAmelia.(https://www.dentramelia.it/). The environment does not fake to be a cosy salotto but presents it self as – a Trattoria
The patron himself (or someone who acted as the patron) came to our table to explain the food. I liked all the dishes. I had the local version of umbrichelli with “ragout di fagiano” and deep fried lamb cutlets. I admire the art of making pasta only from water and flour and to get it to perfection. I had such umbrichelli here. The sweet intensity of the pheasant ragout combined so well to the more neutral taste, but perfect conistency of the pasta. Deep fried lamb cutlets! The Italians speak badly about the Germans because of “butterbrot mit Kaese”. Combination of fat plus fat. But t he Italians deep fry lambcutlets and Mozzarella. Anyway deppfried lambcutlets are one of the most jummy dishes I know
Michael and Nixy had starters. Michael reported an excellent parmigiana. I like deep fried vegetables, I like deepfried fish, I usually don’t like deepfried rice or cheese, But that what was served to Nixy, was excellent. Every piece has it’s distinct flavor which was not covered by the Deep frying process.
I remember the pasta of Michael and two desserts. The Briciolata Pasta is made from a bread like dough, soft and not elastic as the umbrichelli but combined very well with the “Norcia” condiment.
I had a crostata as a dessert: and again, the details make the difference, light an crispy not heavy. And there was a spice that I liked, but I could not identify. I cannot close without mentioning the cicoria ripassata, an Italian art. 119 Euros for 3 diners
You understood I will be back to DentrAmelia next time overthere
And then we had a lunch in between, dal “Baronetto”
We were attracted by the open fireplace and the wonderful view
The best characterization of the state of this restaurant is the answer of the waitress on Nixy’s question, “what is this rosato” : Answer “vino”. We prefered to order a bottle we knew, the Trebbiano Spoletino fom Cimate.. My Campari Spritz came without ice, because the ice machine was too big for being switched on——
But the mixed deep fried vegetables were excellent, crispy and non oily! So was the stew of boar, juicy the meat, not dry meat in a sauce.
Prices 20% higher than in the two other restaurants, strange place.
I like the sentence: »There are places you can’t say anything about except that you won’t come back.« That gets straight to the point. Nothing needs to be added!
But I’m sure the last thing I want is fried lamb chops. No way!