Text 19678, 96 rader
Skriven 2012-01-07 13:21:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 37
===============
US1720 PHL BOS 1015 1143 319 14D
was 4357 PHL ALB 0719 0841 DH8 4F and 4776 ALB BOS 1200 1310 SF3 4F

By the time they'd scheduled me on the plane, 14D was
the best that was left - the flight turned out to be almost
completely full. It had been Y9 when I'd checked an hour
before, which generally means lots of room to spread out;
when the big fillup happens, it's caused by a cancellation
or delay, but I checked, and everything else was on time.
We landed 15 early, so I was denied a bit of sleep, which
probably gratified the lady in 14E, as on this flight it
was my turn to slop over the armrest.

As it turns out, an aisle seat in coach is perfectly
okay, though one doesn't get to look out the window.

I spent the next several hours in the club waiting for my
friend Link to get out of work and fetch me. The staff there
are getting used to my using the place as my office.

Presently she came by. I wasn't too hungry, having eaten
tons of gorp and some chips, but we still went off for a
nice dinner at Donatello, which at one point was one of
my favorite places, despite its extremely mixed reviews and
the rumor of, um, underworld involvement.

Link was underdressed for the joint, which has pretentions.
I am thinking mobster giving the place to an idiot son to
keep him busy, but having tight control over the books.

A rather supercilious host took us to the worst table in
the joint, a four right by the cashier station and the
emergency exit: I pressed for the two-top next to it,
where the green screen wasn't so visible and the draft
not so chilling.

I had three appetizers. The first, clams casino (or vongole
ripieni, as they call it), was standard and good, only one
got only 5 tiny littlenecks for $10. The substance was
provided by plenty of bacon fat, which fulfiled both the
caloric and taste standards, I guess.

Sausage crostini so-called was a half a sausage sub. The bread
was sturdy and crusty and probably baked the same day in the
big open show oven in the back; one big fat link, butterflied,
covered the roll nicely. There was some cheese, easily scraped
off, and the sandwich was topped off with an abundance of
pleasantly greasy (but not olive oiled) roasted pepper strips.

Carpaccio was somewhere between how it was originally made
and how it normally comes these days. It was made with eye of
round, which isn't my favorite cut: filet is the standard, but
I can hardly expect that. Luckily, it had been sliced so thin
as to be translucent, so it was pretty tender. Originally,
Harry Cipriani took filet and seared it on all sides; then he
trimmed off the cooked bits and sliced the almost raw middle
thin. And that's pretty much how it was done here: the cooked
outside was trimmed off, leaving a tiny discolored ring on
the edge of the meat. The canonic overlapping slices, lots
of good olive oil and shaved grana (not quite Parmesan and
not quite aged enough), and some lemon-dressed arugula on top.
Quite good despite the corner cuts.

Link had the $30 prix fixe (the appetizers came to $31). A
starter of eggplant parmigiana was enormous, a full-size
main course if it had come with a little dish of pasta. Quite
good, a decent tomato sauce, the eggplant cooked enough but
not too greasy. Lots of mozzarella, which is fine, as she
loves cheese.

Broiled salmon over garlic spinach was exactly as expected;
she judged the broiling perfect; I thought it a hair over,
but that's me.

I ordered a 2008 Dolcetto from a moderately good producer
(whose name escapes me at the moment), just about ready to
drink. What came was a 2009 from Giacosa Fratelli, a better
esteemed, one might say famous, producer but not quite old
enough to take out. The fruit was there, but it was a little
on the acid side as well, so the impression was of sour
cherry - this went quite well with the meat courses, actually,
so no complaining. 

In what was surprisingly the only waitgaffe of the evening,
she ordered chocolate tartufo (an ice cream thingy), and what
came was tiramisu and two forks. She decided not to send it
back and to share tastes with me. It was good, just like what
you'd get at Costco, only a bit drier. Could have used a
sprinkle of espresso and brandy.

One has to use the valet parking, which is annoying. More
idiot sons to employ, I suppose.

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