SPAGHETTI ALLA CARBONARA
SPAGHETTI ALLA CARBONARA.
Apart from the name, it doesn't even pretend to have anything in common.
It was supposed to be a multi-course dinner, I wanted to try your cuisine.
The spaghetti was to be a starter. Fortunately, I didn't manage to order anything else.
In my more than 20 years as a food critic, I have never tasted anything so hideous. Your chef either didn't realise completely what he was doing that day, or never did. This dish is a contemptuous treatment of a guest, perhaps you hope no one will recognise it?
But ad rem
Let's start with the method of serving. While serving it in an aluminum pan may be original, it's just plain inelegant.
The spaghetti itself was cooked more or less al dente and that was the only reasonably correct ingredient. Fairly, because the part the size of a heaped spoon was hard-fried and clumped together. Did the cook sprinkle? Apart from that, I think it was cooked without salt because it had no flavor at all....
In addition to this, I got 4 (!) pieces of something the size of the tip of a little finger, perhaps guanciale. But it's hard to say because all I got was fat that had been fried to a crackling consistency.
And apart from that...
Nothing, actually. There was just a bit of white liquid on the bottom of the pan with no flavour whatsoever, and the spaghetti on top was sprinkled with about a teaspoon of grated cheese. What the cheese was, I don't know, because there was so little of it that I couldn't taste or judge what it was.
Not a trace of yolks, eggs, Pecorino, Parmesan....
Generally a dish devoid of any taste
After this starter, all I wanted was an espresso. And here was the surprise. For stirring I was given ...a 150x6x2 mm wooden stick. For a moment I felt like I was in Starbucks. And I thought it was a restaurant. If you are afraid of guests stealing spoons, either install CCTV or serve with a chained spoon. You can buy such.
For reference, it was customary a very long time ago to serve coffee with spoons made of porcelain or wood, but that was in the days when spoons made of silver and later aluminium were used. Because they reacted with the acid in the coffee. Now we have stainless steel.