A new fish restaurant has just opened in Piazza Santo Spirito under the same ownership as next door mythical Caffe Ricchi. Small and elegant with tables in the piazza, the restaurant offers a short menu of unfussy dishes using the freshest of the day’s catch. Antipasti include mussels in a tasty tomato sauce and Beccafico, a delicious warm seafood salad and sardines with pine nuts, raisins and orange. Risotto is cooked with squid ink and papardelle with fat shrimps, baby lobster and courgette flowers. Locally-caught, succulent scampi is simply grilled while skate is cooked in the oven on a bed of potatoes, tomatoes and black olives. Travel guides Washington DC has the full guide to this part of Washington.
Archive for December, 2009
Puccini Opera Festival
The shores of Lake Massaciuccoli, near Camaiore, provide a spectacular-and appropriate setting for the annual Puccini Opera Festival. The composer himself had a villa on the lakeside. A stage is built on the water while the audience are seated on terra firma and battle with the droves of indigenous mosquitoes. Take plenty of repellent and enjoy this year’s operas, three of Puccini’s most popular works, ‘Tosca’, ‘La Bohême’ and ‘Madame Butterfly’.
Madison’s
In place of the smoky, English wine bar-style Pomeroy’s – largely frequented by lawyers – comes a fresh new bar and restaurant more befitting the grandeur of the Pacific Place shopping centre it resides in. Bright lights, marble and wood continue the Hong Kong trend towards New York fashioned watering holes. Besides offering a handy after-work stop-off for nearby financiers, it serves modern cuisine created by its Australian chef.
Amazon Rising: Seasons of the River
Peek in on bird-eating spiders as large as dinner plates and a green anaconda that can reach 30 feet in length. See the ‘water monkey’ fish leap three feet out of the water to capture insects on tree branches. At Shedd’s newest permanent exhibition you’ll immerse yourself in a journey on the most mysterious and diverse habitat on earth. In one visit you’ll witness the changing seasons of the floodplain forest and meet more than 250 species that live there – piranhas, birds, sloths, insects, snakes, catfish, stingrays and caiman lizards.
Summer Sales
It’s worth trying to catch the end of the summer sales this week. Bargains are certainly to be had not least because the exchange rate of lire to pound is still so good. As the Florentines push off out of the city in August, there is no one around to scoop up the last bargains. For designer-wear, scour the chic shops (Prada, Gucci, Armani et al) around Via Tornabuoni and Via della Vigna Nuova. Mark-downs are often much more generous than those in Britain.
Utskuduk Under Open Sky
The best thing about Utskuduk Under Open Sky is the atmosphere. There’s birdsong in the background from the covered cages, a stream flows beside the diners and the sun peeks through the ceiling and walls. Made to look like a traditional Uzbek restaurant – if slightly more upscale – the food has all the usual Central Asian dishes, including a delicious plov, but also a wider choice of summery salads than you’d normally find in Tashkent. Try the pumpkin.
Madison’s
In place of the smoky, English wine bar-style Pomeroy’s – largely frequented by lawyers – comes a fresh new bar and restaurant more befitting the grandeur of the Pacific Place shopping centre it resides in. Bright lights, marble and wood continue the Hong Kong trend towards New York fashioned watering holes. Besides offering a handy after-work stop-off for nearby financiers, it serves modern cuisine created by its Australian chef.
The Return of the Killer Cow
The legendary Muccassassina (Killer Cow) disco moves back to its erstwhile haunt in the revamped Qube club. Over the years the appeal of this Friday nighter has gone way beyond the gay community, partly owing to its live acts and cheesy theme nights. Refreshed by the success of World Pride 2000, the Mucca continues to attract starlets and alternative personalities, though you need patience for the inevitable queue or a lot of cheek to bluff your way to the front.
Lido di Giannella beach
‘L’Argentario’, the rocky peninsula on the southern coast of Tuscany, is one of the most pleasant beach areas in the region, but due to the trendy Roman and Milanese ‘yachties’ who swarm to the place, it can be pretty expensive. One exception to this is the friendly Lido di Giannella, situated on the long stretch of sand known as the Giannella. It is a hotel, restaurant, bar, private beach and has long chairs and umbrellas, for rent by the day, in an area where such things are hard to come by.
Spring Restaurant
The concierge at the Garden Hotel has been recommending this place to special guests for years, as an example of Shanghai cuisine at its best. It has the perfect small restaurant combination of well-prepared, tasty food and a noisy, idiosyncratic boss. All the Shanghai favourites and some additional treasures like cold, roast duck in plumb sauce. Just make sure you finish your plate – if you don’t, the owner is likely to start berating you for wasting your money on food you didn’t want. An experience not to be missed.
