Celanto a settembre, Milan - a great little restaurant

February 29, 2008 · Filed Under Italian Food · Comment 

Celento a settembreWe went out this evening with some friends, and they took us to an interesting restaurant which, it has to be said, is a little out on a limb. This is something of a shame because the place has a nice relaxed atmosphere, and more importantly, great food and wine. Our friends had already been there a couple of times, and on both previous occasions, the restaurant had been virtually empty. What a great shame.

This restaurant, which is modern in style and attractively decorated in white, as you will see from the photos on the site, is called ‘Celanto a settembre‘ and is located about 10 minutes by car from Piazza Loretto in Via Teodosio, 102, Milan. There is a map here - click on ‘Dove Siamo’. For some reason, I cannot see the photos when I access the site via Firefox, whereas by using IE7, I can see them in all their glory…

Although the food served in the Celanto a settembre is based on Italian cuisine, it is not traditional Italian cooking, but it is this touch of originality which made it so fascinating for me, plus the fact that the food was excellent, and the standard of presentation of the dishes being very high indeed. The service was good too, but seeing as we were almost the only people in the place, this was to be expected.

Now to the good part. After starting off with a couple of glasses of a very nice Portuguese white, I ordered a ‘Gelato di parmigiano con pere e uva’, which was parmesan ice cream (really!) with pear and grapes, and it was very good. My other half, Cristina, and friend, Sergio, had ‘Timballo di spada con crema di melanzane’ - a sort of mini-flan made with swordfish and served with cream of aubergine, again very tasty. Giorgia, our other friend, opted for the ‘Timballo di carciofi pecorino e bottarga’, which again was a type of flan, only this time with artichoke, pecorino cheese, and ‘bottarga’, which was thin slices of what I think is smoked tuna fish. It too tasted as good as it looked.

The starter was followed by a first course of Spaghetti with prawns, squid, and clams, served with dwarf tomatoes and spinach shoots, which Giorgia went for. My other half ordered Gnocchi stuffed with baccala, again with dwarf tomatoes and clams. The presentation was lovely and the taste did not disappoint either.

The guys, Sergio and myself, instead chose a main course of the intriguing squid stuffed with sea bass and artichoke, all on a bed of stir fried artichoke and served with scampi. Wonderful. The first and main courses where served together, so no waiting around while someone finishes the first course before the main course is served.

For pudding my other half went for the ‘Crema Catalana’, which is an oven cooked cream dish, whereas Giorgia got the hot chocolate tart which came with a pineapple and rosemary sauce. Instead I chose a more traditional chocolate mousse with strawberry sauce. The desserts where superb too.

Wine? Oddly enough we went for a red with all the fish, and the owner recommended a bottle of wine from the Alto Adige (Trento) area, and it was an excellent, quite light, red, a 2002 Sass Roà, Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact one of the other attractions of this restaurant is the very extensive selection of wines on offer. Over 400 of them in fact!

The price of all this goodness? Just over 200 Euros (about £30 a head) for the four of us, however we did have a bottle and a half of wine and the red we went for was not the cheapest the house had to offer.

The Celanto a settembre is open at lunchtimes and stays open until midnight during the week, although it is closed on Saturday lunchtimes and all day Sunday. They do, however, accept orders for private parties on Saturday lunchtimes and on Sundays at lunch and dinner time, if requested. I don’t know if English or other languages are spoken, but I’m going to ask them for some photos, so I’ll update this post when I find out.

Would I recommend this place? 100% yes. The food is fabulous and the menu is highly original. Everything is prepared by the owner, Carlo. It’s just a slight shame it is a little off the beaten track, although a tram does pass right in front of it. But, I think it is well worth, as is often the case, moving off the beaten track to check it out.

Good food, good wine and good company, which all added up to a lovely evening. What more can you ask?

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Pizzeria Photo Gallery

February 24, 2008 · Filed Under Milan - My Zone · Comment 

It was pizza night tonight, although it was not the standard Italian type pizza, but the ‘pizza al trancio’, which is the ‘deep pan’ version of the traditionally thin pizza. There are two pizzerias near us that do this type of pizza. One is Da Giuliano which is located at the Corso Sempione end of Via Paolo Sarpi in Milan, and which has been there long enough to have become something of an institution in these parts.

Oddly enough, I’m not a great fan of the Da Giuliano deep pan pizzas. I find that they are just too heavy and I don’t like the texture of the pizza base. Luckily, there is another of these places, Da Mimmo, which is at 2 Via Alfredo Albertini. This street is a small side road that connects Paolo Sarpi with Via Canonica. Anyway, I prefer the deep pan pizza that is place does, even if, I have to say, I don’t really like the Italian deep pan pizza that much.

My other half does though, so we often find ourselves either eating there or bringing some of this substantial pizza home, as we did this evening.

The Da Mimmo pizzeria is a strange place. The thing that strikes you is that everything is very Spartan and functional. It is also a little dated and looks as though the place was last done up back in the sixties or seventies. As you walk in you see about three or four rows of long brown melamine tables, which are set up banquet style, and if you eat there, you may well find yourself sitting next to people you don’t know.

Actually, in general Italian restaurants are not intimate, and the tables are often set very close to one another. And if you are the only people in the restaurant and another group comes in, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will sit themselves down at a neighbouring table. OK, enough of the set up of Italian eateries.

What is interesting about the Da Mimmo pizzeria, and makes it worth a visit, if only for some pizza to take away, is the selection of stunning photos of desert landscapes, African people, and four by fours ascending and descending dunes which adorn the walls. This evening, as often happens, my curiosity got the better of me I asked about all the images.

It turns out that the owner of the pizzeria loves going on tours to Africa, and has been doing so for many years, hence all the photos. At the moment this gentleman is somewhere in the midst of Lybia on a ten day tour of the country apparently. The he take photos are not digital, but of the traditional film variety.

This pizzeria cum photo gallery, which is closed Sundays, is actually quite a fascinating place, and it is cheap, and popular with the locals. If you do try it out, do not forget to spend a few minutes looking at all the images.  They really are very good.

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Disco, Disco, Music, and an Old Problem

February 18, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · 3 Comments 

We have a slight problem where we live in Milan. There is a sort of disco which backs onto our apartment block and the volume of the music, and in particular the bass, can get rather disturbing at times. Five times a week, on average.

Still, you can probably thank the disco music for its contribution to this blog, for without it I probably would not stay up so late writing posts and generally tinkering with this site. You could say it is disco music driven, as opposed to database driven, I suppose.

Anyway, back to the fray. After having made numerous calls to the local police, written to the local council etc about the noise, something has started to move, albeit rather slowly. Lately we’ve been kept up by various engineers who have been monitoring the noise levels, although this monitoring is something of a farce in that the owner of the boogie bar knows when the sound monitoring is taking place. Surprise, surprise, the volume of the live groups and djs is rather lower than its generally wall vibrating levels.

I have to admit that I’ve been half participating in the battle, sort of in the hope that it may pressure other half to move to somewhere quieter. Well, as I’ve mentioned recently, hope propels me, but, often, not all that far.

However, the funny thing is, this is not your average disco. The average age of its patrons appears to be around 70, and, no, I’m not kidding. These no longer spring chickens seem to have a lot of spring in their steps, and will bop the night away until 2 in the morning. Five times a week on average. I suppose this could explain why the oldies trundle around so slowly during the day - they are dog tired after having fevered Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night away. Crafty this pensioners. I reckon they just pretend to be old during the day, and then, when the lights go down, they go for it. Ever see the movie Cocoon?

Alas, the antics of these golden oldies generally mean that sleep during the summer months, when the windows are open, it not much of an option. I think I know why the music is so damn loud. You see, although these disco granddads and grannies can boogie like John Travolta could back in the old days, all this frequenting of discos post-retirement, has done away with their hearing.

I wish I could turn off my ears, I might manage to get some sleep.

But what really bugs me is that the apartment’s previous owners, in answer to questions as to how quiet the place was, told us that their dear departed dad slept like a stone in this apartment. Indeed, on one occasion the fire brigade was actually called because nobody could raise the chap from his slumbers.

Now, there are a three possible explanations for this in my not too humble opinion. Firstly, the old chap’s hearing aid batteries where totally flat. Or, secondly, guess where he spent his evenings? Yes, tiring himself out on the dance floor at the very same disco that is now keeping us from our slumbers. That would explain why he managed to sleep as soundly as a block of concrete, now wouldn’t it?

The third, and more probable explanation, is that the former proprietors were simply telling porkie pies ( that’s Cockney rhyming slang for ‘lies’, in case you were wondering).

The honest truth is that this here abode is about as quiet as a town hosting nightly concerts by Bob Marley and the Wailers. For the moment this little battle will rumble on, at least until we end up having to call the lawyers in. Then I guess that we’ll only have to wait another 10 to 20 years before the case is resolved, by which time, of course, we too may well end up frequenting the most fun place for the over 70s in Milan.

Well, as the old saying goes ‘If you can beat ‘em, boogie with them’, or something like that.  Sorry, what was that comment?  I can’t hear you too well.  Not sure why.

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