pasta vongole
why?
Two weeks ago, a few colleagues and myself decided to have dinner at an Italian restaurant and we ordered the usual suspects like pizzas, gnochi and pasta. I was so particularly disappointed with the pasta vongole and felt like I need to rescue my taste buds or forever this dish would be condemned! Also, I discovered that clams are very affordable and cost as much as the too-often- despised cockles while grocery shopping for the ingredients. This really made me wonder why this dish cost so much in restaurants, could it be the white wine? Well, in line with the economic recession, I decided to use the cheapest white wine I could find and hope to prove that these Italian restaurants are over-pricing this dish!
success?
Absolutely! The broth was divine and the sweetness from the clams and onions brought out the freshness of the parsley and chillis superbly. I have Italian blood in me, positively! Haha... I added prawns as well, because LR does not like the texture of clams, could that be the accidental secret to fabulous pasta vongole? Also, I decided to let the spaghetti sit in the pan for about five minutes to soak in all the broth before serving. Do they do that in restaurants or Italy? I did not bother to check for any recipes online or cookbooks I own, I wanted to 'experiment' :)
failure?
Too little broth! We licked our plates dry and I was left pretty high and dry.
A lone shop at the top of the 'steaming' mountain selling black eggs
Tables were tourists were peeling their black eggs in excitement, we could not join in the fun because we had to catch the last tram back to our hotel.
Check out the steam rising from the ground, no wonder they call this place Hell's valley
Amazing views on the rope tram and we had a clear view of...
After a while we got bored and decided to check out our own bag of black eggs
That is one black egg for sure!
Some how this picture reminds me of Willy Wonker
