Chapter 444 The Mysterious Hostess and Mu Qiu Call

At this time, Antonio, the restaurant manager next to him, saw Li Xiaofan undecided while holding the knife and fork. He smiled and explained to Li Xiaofan in English:

"Mr. Li, the inside is mackerel flown from Japan, and the outside is squid ink. Please enjoy this most special delicacy of our Pinchiorri restaurant while it's hot!"

What surprises Li Xiaofan now is not the food in front of him, but the service of this restaurant. The restaurant manager can actually remember the name of every guest who comes to dine in advance.

I just heard from Tang Xinyi that when I called to make a reservation a few days in advance, the restaurant staff would carefully ask and record the preferences and taboos of each diner.

Details determine success or failure, and this restaurant really pays attention.

After Li Xiaofan cut into this dark dish, there was lightly fried and browned mackerel inside, covered with a layer of boiled and cooled squid ink, and tender and lightly seared squid on the side.

Antonio said that the cuttlefish they ate was very fresh and came from the Tyrrhenian Sea east of Sardinia, the second largest island in Italy. It was shipped to their restaurant as soon as it was caught ashore.

The mackerel comes from Japanese seafood suppliers. This is the most precious white-bellied mackerel in Japan, also called "real mackerel". It is caught on Japanese fishing boats and then frozen and airlifted to Italy.

This dish is covered with frozen squid ink, and there is unimaginable scalding cream under the skin, and there are orange-red salmon eggs on the cheese.

Li Xiaofan took a bite, and I went, this seemed to be a real world of ice and fire, all the strange taste buds opened instantly, and Li Xiaofan said, "It's delicious!"

Seeing Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi looking satisfied, Antonio said proudly:

"Our restaurant is very particular about the ingredients. Our ingredients are fresh and natural. Most of them are purchased from the market 400 meters away every day. The menu will be adjusted and updated every three months. The fresh chef's cooking techniques and creativity often make our Customers’ eyes lit up! ”

"As for the mackerel you two just tasted, it is the most precious real mackerel in Japan. This kind of mackerel was not available in the local market in Japan due to massive overfishing before. The local Japanese eat more A common flax mackerel. In Japan, people agree on the principle of 'fat is justice', and only this kind of real mackerel with high fat content is the favorite. The owner of our restaurant often goes to Japan to purchase special ingredients to support the chef. The creation of…”

What surprised Li Xiaofan was that this Italian restaurant also boasted a background of Japanese seafood ingredients.

Of course, the perfect wine to pair with seafood is local Italian white wine.

What surprised Li Xiaofan again was that the wine list in this restaurant was like a thick and large English dictionary. Li Xiaofan was dazzled and didn't know where to start. No wonder this restaurant claimed to have hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine.

In addition to the wine list, which is as thick as a dictionary, the restaurant also has a large water list, which includes well-known mineral waters and sparkling waters from all over the world.

Europeans like to drink mineral water and sparkling water in glass bottles. Drinks in plastic bottles are considered cheap and unhealthy, and cannot be promoted to the public.

These two drink lists made Li Xiaofan feel like this place was like a wine expo.

Seeing Li Xiaofan's confused appearance, Antonio recommended the "Three Musketeers" of Italy's well-known white wines: Soave, Orvieto and Frascati.

In the end, Tang Xinyi helped Li Xiaofan choose Soave. Soave is the most famous and best-quality wine among the "Three Musketeers" of Italian dry white wine.

Soave is a medieval village in northern Italy, famous for producing Soave white wine.

Soave white wine is known for its cantaloupe, citrus flavors and good aging potential, and is especially suitable for pairing with Italian seafood.

Li Xiaofan was not disappointed after tasting it. This Suave wine, which has been aged for about 5 years, has surprisingly rich flavors of marmalade, honey, fennel seeds, beeswax and preserved lemon.

The sky has not yet darkened, and the blue sky and white clouds are still so pure that it is dazzling.

"Well, good wine!"

After Li Xiaofan put down his wine glass, he looked at the nearby Feilengcui ancient city buildings with the lights on and the clear starry sky in the distance, and suddenly asked Antonio next to him:

"Mr. Antonio, if it suddenly rains, what will we guests do?"

Antonio smiled confidently:

"Mr. Li, please rest assured. Before you come to dine, our restaurant will repeatedly confirm today's weather conditions with the local meteorological department. It will definitely not rain today, so we will place your dining place outdoors in the garden."

"Of course, there are unforeseen circumstances. If there is a thunderstorm, we have an emergency plan. You can rest assured that we have seven indoor high-end private rooms in the restaurant! However, these seven rooms are not normally open to the public. Business for guests…”

After listening to Antonio's introduction, Li Xiaofan got "drunk" again.

In China, these seven indoor high-end private rooms must be the most sought-after.

However, in the Pinchiorri restaurant in Florence, the private rooms inside the luxurious 16th-century palace-style building are actually used as spares and do not usually receive guests!

This is too extravagant. Their restaurant seems to truly implement Wilde's theory of "art is extremely useless" on the first page of the menu...

The next appetizer was served, which made Li Xiaofan feel that it was quite generous: marinated premium red amberjack with Tuscan spear sauce and fried basil leaves.

The top-quality red amberjack has fresh, crisp, refreshing and chewy meat, and is a top-quality raw material for making sushi and sashimi.

Before Li Xiaofan even ate this appetizer, he was attracted by the pink fish meat, which was crystal clear and dreamy.

The combination of red and green, a free and unrestrained combination, is like the unrestrained pursuit of Italians.

Antonio introduced that this red amberjack was caught in the Mediterranean and was marinated after arriving this morning. It is very fresh.

Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi tasted it. The crystal clear but not transparent fish meat was full of fragrance in their mouths, mixed with sweet aftertaste, and it was extremely delicious!

After eating the appetizer, the first main course of the day was introduced: French foie gras with basil leaves.

Foie gras is not rare. The most distinctive feature here is the seasonal Florentine summer specialty almond sauce mixed with raspberry sauce, which balances the high oil content of French foie gras.

This combination is wonderful. Li Xiaofan took a bite and found that it had no greasy taste at all, leaving only the evenly-mixed goose liver filling his mouth and heart.

After taking a sip of the most famous Chianti-Conti red wine in Italy that the sommelier had just opened, Li Xiaofan cursed in his heart: Damn, it's great to be rich. A dish of goose liver can even interpret the feeling of a luxurious life!

After eating the goose liver, the next dish was dumplings.

This is the most famous spinach sauce pasta dumplings produced in the southern Puglia region of Italy.

After the spinach sauce pasta dumplings, there was a wonderful boiled egg yolk, served with mayonnaise, asparagus and salad, which was quite German-style.

Tang Xinyi introduced Florence to Li Xiaofan, saying that it was close to northern Italy and very close to Germany. This kind of fried egg yolk, with a slightly hard shell and a sticky liquid yolk inside, with a southern German flavor, should be the source of inspiration for the chef of this restaurant.

After eating this delicious salad, Li Xiaofan was almost 70% full.

But at this time, the last main course came, which turned out to be a wild venison.

Antonio introduced: "Mr. Li, Ms. Tang, the wild venison you are tasting now comes from our Casentini Forest Hunting Ground in northern Italy. This piece of wild venison is 100% delicious. It was just hunted this morning and quickly transported here!"

Fortunately, the two pieces of exquisite venison on the plate were not very big, and they were paired with caramel, sage, mushroom sauce and Japanese soy sauce, allowing Li Xiaofan to finish them all.

It feels full and moist when you put it in your mouth, not dry or greasy at all, and very tender.

After chewing carefully, the meaty smell is very strong. After a sip of Conti red wine, the saturated green tones from the forest seem to wrap it up, fresh and rich, melting in the throat.

Antonio introduced that it takes a total of fifteen minutes to cook this wild venison, including the time for cooking and stewing in the oven. The fine control of the heat is very high. Too long or too short time will result in a bad taste!

This is the conclusion their chef came to after hundreds of experiments and tastings.

When Antonio introduced this dish, Li Xiaofan was reminded of the process of visiting Pagani's workshop to make supercar carbon fiber parts. The "craftsman" spirit of the Italians who pursue excellence is indeed worth learning.

Finally, it's the gorgeous and beautiful dessert moment.

This is Tang Xinyi's favorite.

The first one is caramel cream, juice peaches with fresh crisp hazelnuts and Tonka bean biscuits. Its taste is similar to Shaanxi peaches, crisp and simple, absolutely pleasing to girls.

The second dessert is a ball made of sugar and yogurt mousse, with coconut biscuits inside, floating on chamomile and vanilla at the bottom, and strawberry ice cream and biscuits as the pedals of the flowers.

These two desserts are both colorful and delicious, and even a boy like Li Xiaofan will have endless aftertastes after tasting them.

…

After enjoying the gourmet feast, seeing Li Xiaofan's strong curiosity, the friendly and enthusiastic restaurant manager Antonio's words surprised Li Xiaofan again: the male owner of this restaurant is not good at cooking, and the hostess Mrs. Pinocchio is the real boss!

For more than 20 years since the restaurant opened, except for business trips, she came to the restaurant before nine o'clock every morning to prepare various dishes and carefully welcome the guests in the evening.

Mrs. Pinocchio, the hostess, also often travels to Japan and other places, learns and communicates with peers, and purchases various exotic fresh and precious ingredients for the innovative menu of her restaurant.

Creating the most beautiful meal in the world for guests is the lifelong wish of Mrs. Pinocchio, the hostess of this restaurant!

After listening to Antonio's introduction, Li Xiaofan sighed: Just like Pagani, he regards his hobby as a career and pursuit. No wonder this restaurant is so successful!

At present, including myself, many times and many people are too impetuous, lacking the persistent "craftsman" spirit of Pagani and Mrs. Pinocchio.

The next day, after Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi visited Florence, they drove to Venice for a tour.

On the third day, they arrived in Rome.

When Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi took a photo together at the fountain of the Trevi Fountain where the hero met the princess in the classic old movie "Roman Holiday", they received a call from Lin Muchu.

"Mr. Li, through the Israeli industrial research and development center MATIMOP, we found the company that developed the ICQ software you mentioned. The name of the company is Mirabilis, which was newly founded by three local young people..."