Roman Food

We took some clients out in dinner last night. Usually we like to go to tried and true places where we can show our love for our clients. Last night, however, I want to try and find a real Roman trattoria. I checked my usually foodie websites, and found a place called Da Bucatino in Testaccio. It sounded like just the place.

So we made arrangements to meet three of our clients there and three of us took the courtesy bus from our remotely located hotel into town. We had to walk a bit longer from the bus stop than we had thought, so the clients were there before we were.

It didn’t matter as we sat down and I ordered us a couple of bottles of a nice Barbaresco. The wine was not TOO expensive, especially by Euro standards (€30). They had a nice Antipasto table, and that is what we started with. I had some cheese, some sort of a fish, some beans, and I really don’t know what all. The others selected various bits of roasted, pickled, dried, and raw food. It was a good start.

The specialty of the house is bucatini all'amatriciana and that is what four of us ordered for our “First Plates”. The other two folks ordered a seafood risotto and a more typical spaghetti. Bucatini is a thick spaghetti with a hole down the middle (which makes it hard to suck into your mouth, sometimes) bucatini all'amatriciana is a tomato based sauce with pork belly as the meat. It was quite nice.

For my “Second Plate” I ordered a suckling pig with potatoes. It was roasted and wonderful. Others had the veal chop, the fried shrimp, the roasted lamb, and the chicken. It all looked good – except for the chicken. It didn’t look too good for me.

We had to order a couple more bottles of wine, of course. And when they have me the bill, I said we wanted a glass of grappa. The waiter just put the bottle on table, no charge! Very nice. We finished that bottle, too.

It was a nice meal, and for only €315 for six people, a relative bargain!