Darlings, the Foodie has a plan...subsist during the week on salad bar creations and soup (plus the requisite latté, of course) so that, when given the chance, she can indulge in things far more delicious than she could ever encounter in the school cafeteria.
On a trip home this past weekend (joy of joys!), I was lucky enough to be able to go to my absolute favorite restaurant...my favorite Italian restaurant, that is...we mustn't play favorites. Never know who's reading, now do we?
Anyways! Off to Antico! The risotto of the day was an obvious seasonal nod, featuring sweet corn (glory be!), along with pork tenderloin, caramelized onions, and a splash of aged balsamic.
Risotto, in my opinion, is one of the many dishes that just make your eyes roll back in your head. It is that good. The texture, the flavor...all that cheese! And this risotto was no exception, by any means. Velvety and creamy, rich, smooth and yet a bit toothsome. It was awesome. And it was only made better by the fact that the corn was just shaved off the cob and tossed in at the last minute.
Now, you may be thinking, 'Raw corn! Oh, but Foodie, that isn't right!'
It is so right. Especially when the corn is this fresh. It is sweet without even needing to be cooked. And by not boiling the stuff to oblivion, there remains a wonderfully contrasting texture, a slight crunch, that lightens up the risotto in a way (unfortunately, it didn't make it seem light enough for me to indulge in a mini dessert...shame, really...).
And now, regrettably, I must offer some notes of criticism to my beloved Antico Posto.
The tenderloin...was not tender. I've had tenderloin there before that was served with a heavy-duty serrated steak knife alongside, but which would only have required a butter knife. This time, all I had to work with was an excessively dull butter knife, and a piece of pork that simply refused to disassemble.
The pork wasn't really dry...but it wasn't as luscious as I've had it. Perhaps someone turned away from it at the critical moment, and it was left to seize up a bit before placed atop my dish. Whatever the reason, although I found the flavor of the meat to be delightful (what wonders a splash of the balsamic will do!), I could have gone without it entirely.
And I must add also that the caramelized onions could have gone a bit longer. They were caramelized and sweet, but they lacked a certain velvety spreadability that I have come to appreciate in a cooked onion. Their residual strength of structure made it rather difficult to evenly disperse the stuff throughout my rice. I would have liked if it had fallen apart. All the more flavor to spread around.
But I can hardly complain much more than that. The closest thing I've had to Italian food on campus was at a Build-Your-Own-Pasta station. I was met with overcooked, under-drained farfalle sauced with a lackluster and undersalted marinara. My flavor combinations would have been glorious had they taken some Pasta 101 classes from the cooking school. And the garlic bread looked like it had toasted breadcrumbs on it...how redundant!
Look for my next post: Building the Best Salad Plate!
Peace, Love, and (Hopefully) Antico to You All!
~AF
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