As I said before, I’ve found over the years that in Japan, and especially Shizuoka, that it is more fun to ask for a few appetizers with a couple of glasses of good wine at Italian Restaurants (mind you, the same would apply to Spanish Restaurants and izakayas!) than to go for the full course repeatedly in the same restaurant.
When a good and unpretentious restaurant like Acqua Di Fonte in Shizuoka City agrees to it, it is simply great fun!

Service: Excellent and very friendly
Facilities: very clean all around
Prices: reasonable
Specialty: Central and south Italian-style cuisine. Very reasonables prices. Very reasonably-priced wines.
Non-smoking at tables and most of the counter!

Puree di Fave/Broad Beans Puree and home-made lard.

From left to right:
Strachiatella mozzareella cheese, “Shishito” chili pepper and tuna flakes and wild chickory, Egg-plant/Aubergine Terrine

Buanchala/Pork cheek and Salami.

Zucchini stuffed pork and seasoned with tomato sauce.

Looking forward to the next visit!

ACQUA DI FONTE Antica Osteria
420-0839 Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Takajo, 1-10-10, Pia Takajo, 1F
Tel. & Fax: 054-266-6440
Opening hours: 11:30~14:00, 18:00~22:00
Closed on Wednesdays and first Tuesday
Credit cards OK　(Dinner only)

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog, Chronicles Of A Curious Cook, Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Palate To Pen, Yellin Yakimono Gallery, Tokyo Terrace, Hilah Cooking, More than a Mount Full, Arkonite Bento, Happy Little Bento; 5 Star Foodie; Jefferson’s Table; Oyster Culture; Gourmet Fury; Island Vittles; Good Beer & Country Boys; Rubber Slippers In Italy; Color Food daidokoro/Osaka;/a; The Witchy Kitchen; Citron Et Vanille, Lunsj Med Buffet/Estonian Gastronomy (English), Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat

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☆Eggplant and Tomato Gratin(茄子とトマトのグラタン) ☆
Ingredients:
☆3 eggplant
☆  1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
☆ gruyere cheese
☆ salt and pepper
for tomato sauce:
☆ 12 mini tomato
☆ 1/2 knob garlic
☆ 1 tbsp olive oil
☆ salt and pepper
Direction:
1. First, make to tomato sauce. Cut the mini tomato into mince roughly. Cut the garlic into thin slice. Heat the olive oil in a [...]

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Service: Excellent and very friendly
Facilities: great and very large washroom, great cleanliness overall
Prices: reasonable to expensive.
Specialty:Sicilian Cuisine. Top-class Italian wines and great collection of Grappa.
Non-smoking at tables.

I’ve found over the years that in Japan, and especially Shizuoka, that it is more fun to ask for a few appetizers with a couple of glasses of good wine at Italian Restaurants (mind you, the same would apply to Spanish Restaurants and izakayas!).
When a good restaurant like Il Paladino in Shizuoka City agrees to it, it is simply great fun!

Here are a few examples of what I had the pleasure to savour recently:

Although Italian in concept, I would call this appetizer the “Tomato Road”! Sorry for the bad pun!

Tomato mousse.

Scallops in jelly with green peas, carrot and zucchini.

Involtini di Melanzane/Egg-plants rolls

Egg plant slices are rolled around Emmental cheese, Prosciuto Cotto ham, Mozzarella and Parmegiano.

This Sicilian specilaty is then covered with tomato sauce and baked in the oven.
It is served with a topping of high quality extra virgin oil.

Insalata Carapippara

Re pimento and celery strips, mozzarella wdges, Parmegianno strips, Green olives, Balsamico, Basil leaves and olive oil.

Tratorria . Il Paladino
420-9839 Shizuoka City, Aoi-Ku, Takajo, 2-8-19
Tel.: 054-253-6537
Opening hours: 11:30~13:30, 17:00~22:00
Closed on Mondays
Credit cards OK (Dinner only)

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog, Chronicles Of A Curious Cook, Bento Boutique, Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World, Palate To Pen, Yellin Yakimono Gallery, Tokyo Terrace, Hilah Cooking, More than a Mount Full, Arkonite Bento

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I called this bento, “Two-Box Bento” simply because the Missus has combined that faithful bamboo leaves/fibers box with half of the new cedar wood lunch box!

The weather has made a complete turnaraound from yesterday’s deluge to a balmy day with plenty of sunshine and heat. I will have to find many reasons to get out the office today!

Today’s bento was another hearty one. I love bentoes, but if I had one everyday I would be afraid to step on the scales every morning!

The “main dish” featured tuna fried with tomato sauce, boiled peas in their pods (they are caleed “snap endou” in Japanese), home-pickled myoga ginger (in sweet vinegar), mini tomatoes and home-pickled wasabi stems and leaves.

Rice consisted of three musubi/rice balls containing umeboshi/Jpanese pickle plum. One ball was was seasoned with yuzu kosho furikake/lime pepper seasoning powder and “white” roasted sesame seeds, and the other with Yukari (red shiso powder seasoning) all were wrapped in green shiso leaves and lettuce.

The salad dish consisted of the Missus specialties, home-pickled carrot tagliatelle with black olives parsley, fried yam/nagai imo and sweet pimentoes, and her mother beans, vegetables and konbu seaweed “ni”/simmered food.

The dessert was a mixture of fresh Shizuoka orange, Chilean grapes and Chinese lychee.

Plenty for a long day!

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog, Chronicles Of A Curious Cook, Bento Boutique, Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World, Palate To Pen, Yellin Yakimono Gallery, Tokyo Terrace, Hilah Cooking, More than a Mount Full, Arkonite Bento

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What with our pending trip to Kume Island, Okinawa, which promises a lot of eating and drinking, the Missus will keep an eye on my calories for the next two days!
So it was back again to a more traditional form of Japanese bento!

She steamed the sice with shredded carrot (you know, those carotenes?) and mixed later with black sesame seeds. She accompanied the rice with home-made pickled red daikon for colour and balance.

As for the garnish, she kept it well-balanced but controlled the volume with an eye for colours.

Salad of pickled green and red cabbage, carrots and konbu seaweed for the fibers. Boiled peas intheir pods for more fibers, iron and vitamin C, seasoned with umeboshi!

For the meat garnish, she prepared a pork and beans stew by frying pieces of pork belly before adding boiled beans and tomato sauce. She sprinkled the lot with chopped parsley and rested a soft boiled egg half which had been marinated in a soy sauce mixture of her own.

For dessert, benihoppe/red cheeks strawberries from Shizuoka. Did you that 2 strawberries contain enough Vitamin C for a single person for a whole day?

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog, Chronicles Of A Curious Cook

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

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