Friday, June 18, 2010

Mike made a reservation at La Belle Vie for our anniversary dinner and I was very excited! This was our third time there and as always the meal was beyond amazing. Even on a Thursday night the restaurant was pretty full, for as long as they have been open and as expensive as the dinners can be they must be doing something right.

The executive chef and owner, Tim McKee, was a 2009 James Beard Award Winner  for best chef and by tasting and seeing his food you know why! It is amazing, with unique flavors and even better presentation. For the best meal I have ever had it is a tie between Bistro Du Sommelier in Paris and La Belle Vie in Minneapolis.

If ever at La Belle Vie you must have the 8 Course Tasting Menu plus Wine Pairing. The June 2010 Tasting Menu:

Sauteéd Soft-Shelled Crab with Avocado, Curry and Piperras Peppers

Sautéed Skate with Artichoke Ravioli, Vanilla and Espelette

Pan Roasted Poussin with Fava Beans, Prosciutto and Ramps

Red Wine Braised Rabbit with Rapini, Hazelnuts and Chocolate

Grilled Lamb Ribeye with Harissa, Green Olive and Preserved Lemon

Morbier with Poached Nectarines and Honey

Sugar Snap Pea Sorbet with Vanilla Panna Cotta and Ginger Froth

Fallen Almond Souffle with Strawberries and Buttermilk Ice Cream

As a little bonus they bought out a tray of homemade candies and mini desserts at the end of the meal that were amazing. I loved the chocolate caramel and the fruit flavored gel.

While we were enjoying dinner the weather was beyond weird, there were tornado warnings, reports of hail but very little rain. Look how green the sky is!

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We slept in again (I love getting lots of sleep on vacations) and decided to head into Panzano to visit the butcher. Dario has been featured on No Reservations and is an amazing butcher who takes pride in who he is and what he does. He features pure cuts of meat, sauces and an amazing herbed salt. You have the opportunity to have lunch in back of his butcher shop where you enter through a secret door!! Ann, Brian, Cameron, Joy, Mike and I did the lunch. Us 3 girls got the burger and fries, which was amazing. It was cooked perfectly, and the fries were crispy and had a great herb flavor. The boys ordered the 20 euro lunch which included fresh raw veggies (finally I got more veggies!!), a shredded pork, meatloaf with a chili jam, steak tartare, and herb crusted pork. All of the meat was amazing, the sauces were incredible tasting and his special salt blend was really unique. We ended up buying 3 jars of the salt and a jar of the chili jam.

 
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After lunch we went to the outlets, these were not the type of outlets typically in the U.S. like Banana Republic and Gap but stores like Burberry, Pucci, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Ferragamo, and Armani. Even though they were outlets the stores were still really expensive, it was fun to look but hard to imagine someone would spend 4,000 on a purse! We bought a purse at Gucci for 200 that was originally 800 and sunglasses and a watch at Dolce and Gabana. Cameron got a pair of shoes and Joy was on the hunt for a hand bag but didn’t see anything she absolutely loved.

We got back to Vigna Maggio around 5 and changed and got most of our packing done. We were planning around leaving at 11 so we wanted as much done as we could before heading to dinner since we knew it would be a later evening. We were all planning on one last dinner in Greve and headed to a restaurant called Nebrone, we started with some prosecco, then did antipasti of bruscetta, meats, cheeses and more pate (I really don’t like pate) and some salad (more veggies). We did family style pasta for the main entrée and had 3 different kinds, none of which were particularly good. The last dinner was really disappointing! The one nice thing about the restaurant was the 2nd floor bar that overlooked the city of Greve and provided for some amazing views. Greve was having a market in the center piazza so the people watching was great! We headed out around 11 and headed back to the villa and crashed, 6 days of nonstop activities was finally catching up.

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