CombatCritic's TravelValue™: Nonna

Showing posts with label Nonna. Show all posts

Monday, November 25, 2019

Aloha (Portland), OR: Just Like My Nonna (Grandma) Used To Make ... Almost

Nonna Emilia Ristorante Italiano
17210 SW Shaw Street
Aloha, OR 97007
Phone number: (503) 649-2232
Website: nonnaemilia.com
Prices: $$$$

I do not make it over this way often, but when I do, I always stop by Nonna Emilia for some of their Veal Parmigiana ($24.95 - breaded milk-fed veal cutlets baked with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese), but on this occasion I decided to try their Veal Manzo ($25.95 - milk-fed veal medallions in a rich gravy with fresh mushrooms and white wine) instead. Good chow, great decision! The veal was tender and the sauce wonderful, coming with a plethora of fresh mushrooms ... HOOAH!

My wife had Portabella Mushroom Ravioli (in a Marsala cream sauce - $18.95) although the cream in the sauce was not very evident. The ravioli were cooked perfectly and the sauce was tasty although there could have been a little more of it because they were a little dry by the time they reached our table.

My son got the Ravioli al Formaggio ($18.95), a four cheese blend of ravioli in a parmesan cream sauce topped with a dab of marinara. He had hoped for a bit more marinara on top, but was very happy with the dish overall.

My son's lady friend ordered the Veggie Calzone ($17.95 fresh mushrooms, olives, green peppers, onions, blend of cheeses, and marinara sauce) minus the cheeses because she is vegan. However, when it arrived at the table, it had melted cheese sprinkled on top. The server caught the error right away, taking it back for the vegan version which took another 20 minutes. Our server was kind enough to remove the calzone from the bill due to the faux pas.

As usual, the massive meals come with a small antipasto, soup or salad, and garlic bread, so we all ended up taking half of our meals home with us for lunch the next day. Hey, two meals for the price of one brought the value of the $104 bill, including tip, down to just $52 ($12.50 per meal) ... KA-CHING!

Combat Critic Gives Nonna Emilia 8 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Eight Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians: "What-The-Fuck ... Over!"

Monday, December 18, 2017

Catania, Sicily (Italy): The Search For Saint Agatha's Breasts ("Minnuzzi Ri Sant'Àjita" in Sicilian)

I Dolci di Nonna Vincenza
Piazza San Placido 7
95131 Catania
Italy
Phone: +39 095 7151844
Website: dolcinonnavincenza.it
Prices: €€€€

If you are looking for "Saint Agatha's tits" (sorry, I am not making this up and am quoting directly - they are called "minnuzzi ri Sant'Àjita" in Sicilian dialect), you must visit the "best pasticceria" (pastry shop) in Catania, I Dolci di Nonna Vincenza.

"Saint Agatha" By Francisco de Zurbarán - Web Gallery of Art: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1112906. Obtained on 12/18/2017.

In a nondescript building in a piazza just off of Via Vittorio Emanuele (they actually have four locations in Catania), my Sicilian wife was looking for Minnuzzi di Sant'Agata (aka St. Agatha's tits - it's a long story), a Catanese specialty, to take to her relatives in Erice (near Trapani).

Church in the Piazza with Orange Tree (December)

I mean no disrespect as I am only telling you the story of Saint Agatha's breasts as told by Sicilians. The short version being that Saint Agatha's breasts were torn from her body during her martyrdom and she is now the patron saint of breast cancer patients as well as Mount Etna. The Catania Duomo (cathedral) is also named after this 3rd Century saint. How the tradition of cakes in the shape of breasts and fondly called "St Agatha's Tits" (translated from Sicilian dialect) came to be is unknown by me or any of the locals I talked to.

The ricotta filled pastries bearing her name actually look like a lovely white breast, red nipple and all. You can apparently only get these extremely sweet pasties, I mean pastries, during the Christmas season and around her name day (February 5th). The filling is sweet ricotta and covered by an extremely sweet sugar-based shell, topped with a red confection in the shape of a nipple. If you eat them the right way, like a pizza, with more filling than sugary shell, they are actually quite tasty. After all, I never tasted a tit I did not like (sorry Saint Agatha, I could not help myself).

Anyway, back to I Dolci di Nonna Vincenza ...

The shop, which was recommended and known by every local we talked to, sits on the side of a piazza and looks quite small, even smaller as you first walk in. But if you walk up the stairs to your left, you enter the first large room filled with cookies and candies. Go around the corner to the next big room filled with cakes and St. Agatha's breasts, both large and small.

At €2.50 ($3) a pop, St. Agatha's breasts are not a cheap treat. It is, reportedly, the "best" pasticceria in Catania, but the prices I saw were rather high and not a "great value" in my eyes.

"Olivette", in commemoration of St. Agatha eating olives while fleeing from Roman soldiers

CombatCritic Gives I Dolco Di Nonna Vincenza 7 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Breasts, I Mean Bombs, Are Better!

Seven Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians: "Shits & Grins"

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Title: Catania, Sicily (Italy): The Search For Saint Agatha's Tits ("Minnuzzi Ri Sant'Àjita" in Sicilian)

Key Words: Catania, Sicily, Italy, Saint Agatha, tits, breasts, Dolci di Nonna Vincenza, Minnuzzi ri Sant'Àjita, Sicilian, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, business, review, Nonna Vincenza, nonna, Vincenza, pasticceria

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Nonna Cucina Rustica Serves Food My Grandmother (Nonna) Would Be Proud Of!

Nonna Cucina Italiana
Calle San Jorge
San Juan, Puerto Rico
(787) 998-6555

http://www.nonnapr.com/

$$$$$

San Juan: Nonna Cucina Rustica Italiana is very nice, somewhat small, slightly upscale classic Italian restaurant near downtown and not far from Miramar where we were staying. We found her on Yelp* and the reviews were very positive. We had difficulty finding a restaurant open on Christmas Eve when we arrived in San Juan, so I figured that Christmas day would be even worse. To our surprise, Nonna was open (as were several restaurants we saw - everything else was closed as they should be) and had a table available ... "we'll be right there!"

Waze, our eMap, was a bit off, so we called the restaurant and the manager guided us in (a couple blocks ahead of where Waze took us), sticking her head out the door until she spotted us pulling up. They have Valet Service, but we decided to go through the next signal and found plenty of street parking in the next block.

It is nearly impossible to find a traditional Italian kitchen in the US and we were expecting as much in Puerto Rico ... WE WERE VERY PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!

Homemade Mozzarella Caprese ($9) and Vido di Alicante

Carmen, our server, was extremely pleasant even though, still being on "non-island time" and expecting things to move rapidly like they do on the continent, we were hungry and a little impatient to start. I ordered a Spanish Alicante red, a simple yet robust dark red wine ($27), to accompany our meal.

For antipasti, we had the veal polpette (meatballs) and homemade mozzarella, and both were excellent. The polpette (3 for $9 - polpettone, by the way, is Italian meatloaf) came atop a bed of mashed potatoes (polenta would have been a more traditional and excellent choice) and covered with a light tomato sauce. We had to ask for bread and it took a while to arrive, a very small basket of what looked like foccacia sliced into small pieces, and the only disappointment of the night. Local bread on the table is standard in all Italian restaurants, even in Italy, so when I did not see bread on a single table and had to ask for it, I was a bit surprised. It was decent, but too little to accompany the wonderful appetizers, both of which cried out for bread, good bread!

Polpette with Mashed Potatoes and Tomato Sauce - $9

The homemade mozzarella was also delicious. Atop the four rather small, thin slices ($9) of mozzarella were three large cherry tomatoes, a few pieces of arugula, and a hefty dose of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and chopped, toasted hazelnuts. A kind of insalata Caprese, you would never see balsamic vinegar on mozzarella in Italy, but it was very tasty if not filling.

The Casoncelli alla Bergamasca ($17), a light yet complex dish of pasta shells (the size of perogi) was stuffed with sausage and quickly sautéed in a mild butter and sage sauce. They were sublime, the only fault being that the obviously homemade pasta shells were a bit too "al dente" and could have been boiled another minute or two. Otherwise, we were quite pleased.

Casoncelli alla Bergamasca - $17

I ordered the lasagna ($18), which came in its own 7" x 7" baking dish with a crispy layer of cheese and béchamel sauce and it was exquisite! More than I needed to eat, it was layered with a hefty portion of minced lamb, lasagna noodles, spinach, and ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. The lamb tasted very much like lamb, so if you are not into lamb, DO NOT order this dish. I like lamb on occasion, not daily, and was very happy with my choice.

Lamb Lasagna - $18

For dessert, offered by the very sweet, young pastry chef with a huge smile, we had the tiramisu. Untraditional in every way, I had seen it on other tables throughout the night and thought it was an ice cream sunday, but it was not! All of the usual ingredients were there, cookies, mascarpone cheese, and cocoa (accompanied by a shot of espresso to pour over the top), but a scoop of ice cream was also included along with chocolate syrup. It did not taste like any tiramisu I have ever eaten (and at $12 it was the most expensive tiramisu I have eaten), but it was extravagant.

Not cheap by any stretch, Nonna was a delight and extremely good value ... BUONISSIMO!

CombatCritic Gives Nonna Cucina Italiana 9 Out of 10 Bombs ... BOMBS ARE GOOD!

Key Words: Nonna, cucina, rustica, Italiana, Italian, restaurant, food, San Juan, Puerto Rico, eat, dinner, delicious, pasta, wine, mozzarella, cheese, tiramisu, CombatCritic

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