A grateful celebration

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I try to spend each birthday with the Parental Units, but this particular birthday has extra meaning for dad. Having started chemo right after mom's birthday this year, and having some through some tough times during the latter rounds, we have been told that the Big C is now in remission. So... in a sense, we are celebrating dad's re-birth at the ripe old age of 86. For this occasion, I decided to take us back to trusty Tutto Bello, whose cuisine has long been to mom's liking.

We are back in the familiar, dimly-lit dining room. One thing I am confident about this place is their wine service. I've opened a few old bottles here, and they've always done a good job. Meanwhile there was a group of wine lovers near us drinking up Henri Jayer and the like... and I thought I recognized one of them. They were a little loud, but that happens when you ply a group of people with lots of good wine...

The beauty of this place is the ability to order à la carte. However, one needs to read the menu a little more carefully than I did tonight... or end up getting more food than one would want.

One small annoyance was that our starters took about half an hour to arrive... leaving us with just a few pieces of bread to begin with. Oh well... I guess they were catering to the table of big spenders near us.

Cappe sante alla pancia / granchio / zuppetta d'aragosta bianca - I hadn't read the menu carefully enough, so I didn't realize there was also crab meat in the lobster bisque. Very nice.

The scallops were nicely browned on the outside and mi-cuit inside. Excellent execution.

Assortimento di verdure di stagione / prosciutto di iberico bellota - this was a miscommunication with the waitstaff. I had initially asked about this because I wanted some jamón ibérico, but lost interest when I found it was just a couple of slices to garnish a salad. Well... the staff placed the order for me, anyway... so we ended up with this extra dish to share.

Quaglia alla cacciatora / salsa all'erbe / prosciutto di pata negra / spaghettini / succo di carne - I had forgotten that the second dish I ordered was, in fact, primi piatti... where they serve up a not-insubstantial portion of pasta. This came with a slice of prosciutto on top of the spaghettini.

The quail was pretty nice, with a little ginger in its seasoning.

Controfiletto di wagyu di manzo / salsa alla coda di bue / papate gratinate / insalata mista - both Foursheets and I ordered steak so that, in the event dad was hungry and wanted some more beef, we could share our portions with him. We both ordered Japanese wagyu, but by the time the steaks arrived, we were already reasonably full... I do have to say that this was pretty nice.

The "early salad".

I barely touched the gratinated potato...

The Parental Units both had too much food, because I hadn't read the menu properly and didn't realize their foie gras appetizer also came with foie gras tortellini... which led me to order mushroom soup with - you guessed it - foie gras tortellini! We ended up packing up big chunks of leftover wagyu home, plus one portion of gratinated potato.

For me, though, the pièce de résistance was the bottle of wine I brought.

1940 Latour, Christie's ex-château auction May 27, 2011 - served without decanting. A classic Pauillac with smoky, cigar box nose. Good acidity on the palate. About 10 minutes in this was really lovely, with cedar notes which were so fragrant. About 30 minutes in the wine was simply amazing, and a little more than 1 hour in the wine seemed to have slipped a little downhill, with acidity getting slightly higher and the palate thinning out a little. Now the leather notes were more prominent, and showing a hint of farminess. The sediment was filtered about 2 hours after opening, and the wine seemed OK while showing more concentration.

This was the last bottle from the three-pack I picked up at the Château Latour ex-château auction in 2011, and I am absolutely amazed that it drank so well, 15 years after leaving the cellars. I don't think it drank any worse than the first bottle I had back in 2011, and the wine did not fade as quickly as I had feared. I was so, soooo happy to be able to drink this with dad tonight.

A pretty happy evening, but I was a little sad to see that dad's appetite had shrunk so much from earlier in the year. Hopefully mom will continue to take good care of him, and nurse him back to strength so that he can continue to chomp down on more steak. Looking forward to next year... and perhaps a sushi dinner.