Now, I don’t remember the war but sometimes,
when The Mary is talking about her weekend, it sort of sounds like she’s in the
middle of WW3 and that was only wee Maddie’s birthday party!
Madison insisted on a Frozen theme and I felt
as if I was in a Disney movie which was ‘begging to be transformed into an Ice
extravaganza’! The wee Maddie used her chilling
powers to turn people to ice sculptures with her deathly, cold stare as soon as
anyone went near the sweets. She also threatened
them with a nuclear-powered look if they asked for one.
That wean scares the life right out of me!
So, in order to warm up after the weekend, The
Mary and I are going to La Vita at George Square expecting a warm
reception and some fantastic food.
The website states that it’s “The Best Italian in Glasgow…” Well
I’d say…let others be the judge of that!
La Vita is run by the Arcari family. The business was started by Mario Acari who
was born just after WW2 in a small village called Picinicso nella provincia diFrosinone in the Lazio region of Italy.
Mario arrived in Scotland with a poor understanding of English and
initially struggled to get work but through determination and hard graft he
eventually opened his own restaurant.
This is now a flourishing business run by Antonio and Marco.
Picinicso was where D.H. Lawrence once
lived and was inspired to write “The Lost Girl”.
I can totally relate to that story because
I, myself, was lost in Italy for a while but that was another time and place. I’ve been the Lazio region and it’s encircled by
mountains where families worked on the surrounding lands in order to make a
living. Because of the damage caused to
the area in wartime many people left to build better
lives in other parts of the world.
Last night The Mary and I decided to give
it a shot. Not actually going to other parts of
the world…just Up That Toon to George Square to try out La Vita!
The first person we met going through the
door was Yorick who was very enthusiastic and quickly showed us to our
table. We choose from the early,
pre-theatre offering because, alas, I felt a theatrical theme coming on! I started to talk about Hamlet and The Mary
asked if I wanted a “shot” of her vaporiser?
I was confused, she was confused and ‘Alas poor Yorick’ stood and stared
as we tried to control the hysterics.
The Mary ordered the lemon sole, fish and
chips and I ordered fried chicken with fancy coloured mash and we were very
excited. Mary did not order the Focaccia
because she cannot see how anyone can possilbe beat Celino’s. She feels she’s reached a Focaccia Plateau!
When the food arrived I had the worst case
of food envy I have ever had in my entire life and The Mary was delighted with
the fact that she had, by far, the superior dish. Actually I gave the chicken a bad rep but it was actually very good and well seasoned. I'd been so disappointed at not selecting the fish but that wasn't the poor chicken's fault. I'm sure the chicken did it's very best to please me as they do. I really do love chicken but...I will have the fabulous fish the next time.
The Mary conceded and let me taste the fish.
I started to cry hysterically and again
poor Yorick, not realising I was crying, misunderstood and came over and started to join in with a fit of
the giggles.
I gave him the Maddie stare
and he quickly moved away.
We finished off with Nonna’s apple crumble
which was baked to perfection and was served with ‘drizzles of delicious
custard’. Well, we had to drizzle it
ourselves but it was fabulous just the same.
The
Mary asked me who’s Granny had made the cake and said I wasn’t sure but it
might have been the owner-like Italian guy’s who turned up and gave a few
instructions to the staff, looked at the takings, then left again. He’s obviously a very busy man.
Me and The Mary had wanted to congratulate him
on making it to the finals of The Scottish Italian Awards; in the Best Family Restaurant category but...
“Well may it sort that this portentous
figure comes armed through our watch; so like the king” ...
that it might
just lose that friendly, family feel!
Or maybe that delicious fish and crumble
will see them through.
William Shakespeare
Ci Vediamo!
Mx
(For the sake of the infidels; Lines from Hamlet are in Italics)
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