Sino-talian cuisine

Last night was somewhat more eventful than I thought it was going to be. I mean that in a good way, of course.

Aaron called me up and said he'd been told by Jorge (La Luna owner) that there was an Italian restaurant in Xialupu that was very good. It was called Naples, and was owned by a couple of Chinese who apparently had spent more than 3 years in Italy learning how to make *real* Italian. I was hungry, and so with a mixture of curiosity and dread at what kind of Sino-talian monstrosity I was signing on for, we met up and headed out to find it.

We almost walked right past the restaurant. Like virtually all other shops/restaurants, it's sectioned out at ground level into shop fronts maybe 10-12 feet wide. It's like a can of sardines at street level. Thus, if you don't know exactly where you're going and you're walking at any sort of respectable pace, you blink at the wrong time and you've passed the shop. Once you're inside places like this, though, there's almost always a second floor for seating. So these restaurants can actually hold a decent number of customers at once.

The decor was actually quite nice... someplace, I said with some level of amusement, "I could take a date to." In my humble opinion, that speaks quite highly (and quite rarely) of a lot of Wenzhounese "dining establishments." Often you wonder if they're just serving up deep-fried-whatever-they-caught-and-killed-last-night.

Looking at the menu, we found that prices fell into the "reasonable" range, which was 30-60 RMB for a main dish. Above that, you're really just paying more to pay more... a "status" thing the Chinese LOVE. Down in the 20's you're talking fast food-quality, in the 10's and single-digit prices, see above about why your stew is meowing at you, and why the milk tastes curiously like paint-thinner...
Note: One very important exception to the low-tier prices are Muslim restaurants. These places are fantastic. They make the food fresh for you to see, are very clean, and are absolutely delicious. The last place I went I got a bowl of noodles and beef for 7 kuai. Couple rules when eating in a Muslim joint, though: Don't bring beer in, and don't ask for bacon on the side.

Anyway, back to Naples. Much to my very pleasant surprise, the food really was Italian. Granted, there were a few decidedly-Chinese items on the menu that I looked at and said... "uhhh...no," but by and large it was spot-on. I ordered the old standby: spaghetti and meat-sauce, and it was just what the doctor ordered. We didn't have dessert, but there was (among several enticing options) tiramisu, which as anyone who knows me knows well enough, is like divine ambrosia for me... I'll have to go back at some point and try it.

I think this has gone on long enough, so I'll commit the rest of the night to another post to make it a little easier to digest.

(CS)WC Out.

He's forgotten but not yet gone.