A little change from my usual stint on food.
When we were walking around in Milan, both my brother and I stopped to gawk at this bag.
What's so special about this is that we NEVER EVER stop for any BAG!!!

Its only (ONLY) Euro 117,000.
Right.
Only.

 The Drool-worthy Diamong studded, Dark Charcoal Grey Croc Berkin

  
Cracco-Peck
A super classy restaurant in Milan.  Supposedly very well-known.  Very high end, very expensive.  Soooo very worth the visit.  We got real lucky as our friend knows the chef well; we got to sit in the very sought after table in the kitchen.  Got to see the rush!

1st Course, Part 1
Deep fried many things:  Zucchine flower, black squid, pork skin, etc.
Sooo. . . yummy, tho a tad salty.  Not a bit greasy feeling at all!

1st Course, Part 2
A medley of small little things
The only one I recall are the golden risotto balls, and that they were delish!!

1st Course, Part 3
A box of dehydrated veggies: beets, zucchini, zucchini flower, potato, carrot, sweet potato
Surprisingly delicious.  I could eat a bag of these if they sold it in the supermarket.

Dehydrated Beets and Courgette, up close.

 
2nd Course
Caramelized Russian Salad
This was by far our favorite of the whole entire night.  As you can see, the inside is creamy and gooey, yet the outer part is caramel.  I'm thinking that they might have froze the custard/salad first, then caramelize it.  Salty, gooey, creamy, sweet, crunchy. . . what's not to like??  NOTHING!  It's perfect!

WINE!!
This was soooo yummy!  eh. . . and pricey.  Let's just say that if we didn't get this, we wouldn't be broke (and satisfied).  Got the dough?  Get this wine.

3rd Course
Crawfish with cocoa bread crumbs and a circle of spinach puree
The crawfish was cooked just nice.  The spinach wasn't very exciting but the cocoa breadcrumbs was out of this world.  Buttery, sweet, almost chocolatey.  It was magnifique!

4th Course
Salad of edible paper and seafood
No kidding!  The chef even showed us his little book of edible paper!  The clear one is fish, the orange one is shrimp, the black one if squid ink, and the pink one (I don't remember).  Some mussels accompanied the dish.  The green sauce is some kind of pesto.  The result was true genius.  The paper has a nice slightly chewy texture.  Its like eating a calamari carpaccio with many other seafood infusion.  Its hard to describe, super easy to eat.

CONTINUED. . .

5th Course
Crab Bisque over Seared Tuna with Garlic Croutons and Edible Paper
The Crab bisque was a tad bit too crabby for my taste, but the combination of the tuna, croutons, paper and bisque was just lovely.  Problem lies with the tiny spoon that can't fit all that.

6th Course
Mayonnaise-filled Ravioli with Clams and Green beans in a pool of Passion fruit
This was my least favorite.  Mayonnaise as a filling for Ravioli just isn't very appetizing.  However, forming Ravioli into a ball, that's cool!

7th Course
Risotto with Ginger and Anchovies
Sounds weird too, right?  But it was rather pleasant.  Though, by now, we were way too stuffed.

8th Course
Liver of Veal with Fungus
This has the grossest sounding name but the taste was out of this world.  I like liver so wasn't too put off by it.  This was my 3rd favorite dish.

9th Course
Breaded Veal Cubes with Eggplant Gratin and Tomato
My 2nd favorite dish!!  Perfectly coated, deep fried and just perfectly cooked veal cubes.  Not too salty, not too oily, this was just soooo comfy to eat.  All we were missing was ranch dressing or tabasco sauce.  It was like chicken nuggets but very good veal.  Very very good veal.

10th Course
Seared Bone Marrow with Lima Beans (??) and a dash of cocoa powder
By now, we're already filled with so much wine and champage that I'm starting to forget what I was eating.  I do remember that I liked the beans more so than the bone marrow which was very tasty too.  But the hit of the dish is the Cocoa Powder.  It simply completes the dish.

11th Course
Watermelon cube filled with Green Tea
If you look closely, you'll see that the top has a round cut in the middle.  It acts as a cover.  This is like a watermelon box with Green Tea inside.  You pop the entire thing into your mouth and you get watermelon and green tea.  It is that simple. 

12th Course
Raspberry sherbert with Gingko nuts and Oxygenated Marshmallow balls
I wish I could show you a video clip of it.  It looks like its got dry ice in there some where.  And when you pop it into your mouth, you start smoking through your nose and mouth.  Its so fun to eat!  Tasty too.

13th Course
Seedless Lychee pastry with Almond Tuile and Truffles
Yummy!!!

Mignardise #1
Cashews with Powdered Sugar
Nuts?  Yum!  Sugar?  Yummier!

Mignardise 2
Truffles with almonds inside
Sweet, salty, bitter, chocolatey. . . and CRUNCHY!!

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PECK
The Deli / Supermarket connected to Cracco Peck
The manager invited us to try some of their dishes at the deli.  How can we refuse?  So, we had this for breakfast on our last day in Milan.

Lasagna
The Ragu sauce had the prefect amount of ground meat and tomatoes.  Not too garlicky, nice and cheesy.  I was happy.

Seafood Soup
Fish, mussels, shrimp, clams. . . how can you go wrong?  And the tomato based soup was lovely.  Though, I could use a little bit more lemon juice.

Bacon-wrapped Veal Tenderloin with a cube of Vegetable casserole
This was my dish.  I was the lucky one.  hehe  The bacon was great!  and the Veal was maginificant!  I was too stuffed to touch the veggies.  TOo stuffed and TOo happy.

A Medley of FREE Cookies!!!
Need I say more?

 I would love to come back in my next life as an Italian.  Actually, I need to come back as an Italian.  Don't get me wrong, I love being Chinese.  But the food. . . that's good enough reason for me.  ^_^

Ate so much, shopped some.  Gained a kg.  And with my bad knee, can't really workout much.  Hiks!

Varenna, along Lake Como.  Tiny little lakeside village.  So quiet. 

Is this not a beautiful work of art?  And such poetry.  My favorite words in Italy.  Kitchen Always Open.  Should be a song.  Anyway, here's what we ordered...

Alas, since it was mid-day, we could only order these few yummy dishes.
(Top to bottom)  Spaghetti Ragu, Grilled Rib-eye Steak, and Grilled Veggies.


A gorgeous sight along Lake Como.

What a beautiful train station!  I love the colors.

Finally!  After a week of helping out 2 friends who got married yesterday (which meant not much sleep at all), I'm finally finally on my way to Italy.

It was a great week of partying and last minute wedding planning.  Friends from New York, Thailand, and Hong Kong as well as relatives from Australia and Singapore showed up.  It was insane fun.  I didn't know any of their friends but we all clicked so well.  No surprise though; the wedding couple are such wonderful people.  Hope I get to see these friends again in the near future.

In the meantime, my knee is still clicking, and now my nerves are all bunched up on my left arm, signs of carpal tunnel creeping back in.  Sheesh!!  When's it all gonna end?

I need to lose weight.  But I love food.  What a dilemma!