Palmabella's Passions

Friday, we arrived in San Diego a bit before Brad's business meeting. I dropped him off at the appointed place, and had two hours to spend before picking him up. Oh darn, there was a Nordstrom down the street! I have not shopped since Italy, so I did a quick buzz through the store. I emerged in 40 minutes with a top, a jacket and two pair of shoes. I stopped for a quick lunch, and by then, Brad was done. We had time to check in to our hotel, pick up some pastries in Little Italy, and relax before our date with Jane and Ken.

We arrived at Jane and Ken's lovely home, and began with appetizers on the patio on their gorgeous new tabletop from Florence! We enjoyed prosecco, gorgonzola-cranberry torta, mushrooms, and proscuitto. Then Jane and Ken politely looked at ALL of our Italy photos!

We had dinner at Acqua Al 2 in San Diego, and began with pasta, pasta, pasta! Jane and I shared a pasta sampler: 5 small plates of pastas in different sauces: fusili in a spinach-pecorino sauce, penne vodka, bow ties in a zucchini-garlic sauce, rigatoni in eggplant sauce, and finally a hearty ragu.

Dinner was unrushed, and there was a slide slow of Florence scenes on the wall of the restaurant. We enjoyed our young Sicilian waiter, Danieli, who was fluent in Italian. We tried helping him win a trip to Firenze by writing a great review for his boss. He was most attentive and charming.

For our secondi, I had a delicious filetto in balsamico reduction, Brad had a New York steak in green peppercorn-brandy sauce, Jane had a veal chop with mushrooms, and Ken had tagliatta with arugula. Of course, we enjoyed a couple bottles of vino!

We returned to Jane's for dessert. We brought an assortment of Italian pastries from Zuchero: sfogliatelli, cannoli, tiramisu, and chocolate tortas. We didn't make much of a dent, but tasted several!

It was a long, and delightful evening of conversation, food and wine! Though, we met Jane, Ken and Casey in Italy, I'm sure we will get to visit more often in California!