La Car­i­catu­ra, redux

First, I must cred­it the love­ly pho­to­graph here to a won­der­ful spe­cial­ist web­page: this man real­ly loves truf­fles. I some­times find that learn­ing this much about a food ingre­di­ent can… put me off, so I have not delved very deeply into his work. But I think it’s a gor­geous image, and I’ve nev­er been able to afford enough truf­fles at one time to TAKE a pho­to­graph, so more pow­er to him.

Well, last night was Fri­day and as such, every­one was tired. We had Avery’s dear friend Jamie with us, and had tak­en them both to the skat­ing rink. The din! The bad cook­ing smells! The crowds. They had their les­son with beloved Nicky (who is a saint, full stop), and then had very lit­tle inter­est in stick­ing around. I had arranged for us to go hear Christ­mas car­ols in the neigh­bor­hood, but we emerged from the skat­ing rink into a dank driz­zle that, as we head­ed home (the Mini stacked to the GILLS with back­packs, skate bags, gym kits, etc.) devel­oped into a steady down­pour. It was but the work of a moment to decide to stay home, and our din­ner out turned into din­ner in. John brave­ly went to fetch piz­zas from La Car­i­catu­ra in North Aud­ley Street, and I must say: it was SUB­LIME. Let me explain.

Now last year at some time this love­ly new pizze­ria opened up and so nat­u­ral­ly we went. And as I report­ed, that last vis­it yield­ed the infor­ma­tion that the ser­vice was spot­ty but the food real­ly good. Now I am very sor­ry I can’t report any news on the ser­vice since we took our piz­zas away. We intend­ed ful­ly to vis­it! Next time. But in any case, I would have put up with a lot of wait­er­ly incon­sis­ten­cies had there been any for… the truf­fle piz­za. Called the “Simone,” you sim­ply must RUN there and have one. The moment wet and unhap­py John entered the kitchen and opened the box… the aro­ma! The unbe­liev­able aro­ma. Of course the girls were also in heav­en with their margheri­ta and quat­tro for­mag­gi, but we knew the real truth: it’s truf­fles or bust. We both agreed we could have eat­en a piz­za EACH. Sad but true.

So head straight over there, and order the Simone. But also have the carpac­cio di man­zo, because while it’s nice take­away, a large part of the appeal is in the love­ly pre­sen­ta­tion at the restau­rant itself. Huge sliv­ers of parme­san, per­fect rock­et, and the beef itself as fresh as can be and so tender.

Thanks, Car­i­catu­ra, for bright­en­ing up our damp and dis­mal Fri­day night. We’ll be back.