Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “milan”

A Restaurant Called Alice. Alice Ristorante Milan. Simply Beyond Brilliant


I am as far from being a restaurant critic as it is possible to be. Having been summoned to a Milan restaurant as part of a group of people one has little idea of what the food will be like and often the style of the food.

Alice Ristorante is situated in a complex with the cute sounding Eataly Milano Smeraldo name. Arriving at the door it seems one has arrived at the Milan equivalent of Waitrose. A large food store selling on three levels various Italian foods. Tucked away on the top floor was Alice Ristorante. A medium size restaurant overlooking the main street where the only obvious landmark was the taxi rank.

The food and the service was beyond brilliant. The group had been pre ordered a menu with accompanying wines.

Depending upon how one counts courses we seemed to have seven. Some of the dishes are best described by looking at the menu here. The only obvious dishes were the excellent sea bass and the risotto.

I cannot recall a better meal. The service was attentive without being overpowering. The white wines were perfectly chilled. The food looked and tasted superb. Cost? I have no idea.

Refettorio Restaurant Milan. Going to Milan? Go there!


One of the best meals I had for a long time was in a restaurant in the suburbs of Milan called

Refettorio

Via Dell’Orso, 2, 20122 Milan, Italy

There was no menu, although it became apparent after a while that there were maybe 3 menus on offer. The 30 euro menu, a 20 euro menu and maybe a 18 euro menu. We had the largest menu. Food and wine were superb. Nothing was less than 100% here.  You may ask what was the menu? Well let me try and describe what we had.

  1. Bowl of salad and separate bowl of mozzarella on the table with oil and excellent bread. We presumed this was the starter. Wrong
  2. Slices of thinly cut veal with a sauce maybe like thousands island? Starter? Wrong again
  3. Dessert type dish full of cold rice salad.
  4. Dinner plate full of excellent risotto, cheese and tomato sauce. At this stage we all asked if this was our main course. All food was excellent but we were getting a little embarassed that we could not finish any of our dishes.
  5. Spaghetti Bolognese. Again excellent.
  6. Chicken and vegetables. Main course! Wrong. This was one of two main courses! We at this stage said enough……we give in…….no fish main course please……
  7. Ice Cream

Wine was also excellent and I could have been fooled into thinking it was a claret.

 

Milan demonstrations against ADHD June 2013


My third and final musing over Milan. Whilst walking outside the Milan Convention Centre where an ADHD congress was taking place, a group of maybe 200 protestors aged from 5-60 years. Placards, balloons and a huge inflatable buffalo. The signs do not make sense to me but generally seemed to be protesting against ADHD. No idea why. A lively group but not really threatening at all.

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Reflections on Milan Part 2


As promised a return visit to Milan was part of the second part of my week, the original visit was a few days before. In summary I remain underwhelmed. Would I go back for a holiday? Never. Would I enjoy a day back there maybe for work? Maybe.

Lets start with the good things. One of the best meals I had for a long time was in a restaurant in the suburbs of Milan called

Refettorio

Via Dell’Orso, 2, 20122 Milan, Italy

There was no menu, although it became apparent after a while that there were maybe 3 menus on offer. The 30 euro menu, a 20 euro menu and maybe a 18 euro menu. We had the largest menu. Food and wine were superb. Nothing was less than 100% here.  You may ask what was the menu? Well let me try and describe what we had.

  1. Bowl of salad and separate bowl of mozzarella on the table with oil and excellent bread. We presumed this was the starter. Wrong
  2. Slices of thinly cut veal with a sauce maybe like thousands island? Starter? Wrong again
  3. Dessert type dish full of cold rice salad.
  4. Dinner plate full of excellent risotto, cheese and tomato sauce. At this stage we all asked if this was our main course. All food was excellent but we were getting a little embarassed that we could not finish any of our dishes.
  5. Spaghetti Bolognese. Again excellent.
  6. Chicken and vegetables. Main course! Wrong. This was one of two main courses! We at this stage said enough……we give in…….no fish main course please……
  7. Ice Cream

Wine was also excellent and I could have been fooled into thinking it was a claret.

The meal aside I found nothing to inspire me in Milan. It seemed that every street was being dug up and walking is a supreme hazard as the one place where cars do not stop are pedestrian crossings. The city seemed grubby, dirty and I saw nothing worth photographing, other than maybe standing on the tram track. Cars seemed to have no rules, overtaking,undertaking, speeding,  driving up/down one way streets, rarely stopping at pedestrian crossings, just frankly it all looked dangerous. Milan can be added to my list of places that I will not be driving in, ever.

Signs are almost absent and even somewhere like the Milan Convention Centre was not signposted. Roads all seemed designed to confuse. Cars parked at all angles in all places. If there were happy smiling faces then maybe I missed them. ImageImage

Reflections on Milan


View from Bedroom window. Sheets or large underwear?

View from Bedroom window. Sheets or large underwear?

This post I have to admit is a little unfair as being there for 2 days spent most of it underground in a conference room, cut off from the world seemingly. Awful telephone reception and little better wifi connection ( which at least was free). And then when one factors in a 12 hour sleep, to recover from missing a night, you can agree that my views of Milan are not exactly complete.

On balance I was not enthused about the city. The trip from Linate airport to the hotel did not inspire me and neither did the driving ability of the taxi driver, who gave a decent rendition of having ADHD. Those who are not familiar with ADHD just need to understand that the key symptoms of impulsive behaviours and/or inattention are not ideal qualities in a taxi driver in a busy city centre. The first learning was that pedestrians who step onto a crossing should consider a few things. Making a will would be obligatory and consideration to not crossing would also be a good judgement to make.

The streets were not full of colourful fashionistas nor shops and the restaurants did not make me want to jump out of the taxi. The same process was repeated on the return journey. The positives? Well certainly not the costs. Lets talk cocktails, not that I was offered any. In Spain where I was sunday night, a Pina Colada would cost 3.50 euros, and in the hotel here 11.50. The fact that they were advertising their drinks and prices in the elevator suggests they considered these prices reasonable.

On a positive note the food was good. A large lunch buffet and a meal of Salmon in breadcrumbs with aubergine that got me thinking it might make a good dinner party dish.

Rooms are always small in Italian hotels but this one really was. The view from the bedroom window was not exotic but did make my mind question whether what was hanging out was sheets or rather large underwear.

So I make my biased and unfair decision that Milan is off my holiday destination list. But lets give it a second chance as I am returning on friday and hopefully may see a little more. I may even take my camera.

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