For our 1st night in Agrigento we decided to dine at the hotel's terrace which overlooks the ruins and is right next to our villa suite so we didn't have to go very far.
La Terrazza degli Dei (terrace of the gods) Is indeed a beautiful setting and we were pretty hungry as we have not had lunch so we decided to have a tasting menu called Essence.
We ordered our traditional Campari and tonics and received a beautiful amuses of octopus, potato and orange with caperberry and pesto while Sam had one of aubergine, caper and onion. There was a spa menu which offered some very nice vegetarian options and Samuel started with a huge portion of steamed barley wheat topped with tofu and crispy vegetables And then went on to a spaghetti made of rice and maize in potato sauce with French beans and bays or pesto. He declared both successes.
We ordered a bottle of Baglio de Cristo de Campobello 2016 Insolia/Grill blend called Adenzia that was big in minerals with a hint of citrus and indeed extremely dry.
The pianist was playing some opera tunes, classical tunes and pop tunes alternately with an accordion playing for a private party on the level below. It seemed like a competition to us but ultimately the group downstairs quieted down-and we were able to enjoy the pianist.
Our 1st course was a very rich potato cream with carob which is used a lot in local cooking as well as clam scampi with its head sauce and time which they called Veloutate, but was way rich and delicious.
Next came lemonated meringue with cooked and raw shrimp and a leaf of mint which was an int'resting dish but did not really impress us very much.
Small vegetable pie with tomatoes, herbs and marinated prawns was very different as Tortelli with vegetables and pickles shrimp arrived. The shrimp were novel and actually very interesting as was the pastor but I really would have loved to have the vegetable pie instead. It was also funny that each dish was delivered with silver domes and this guy looking like Secret Service who had a microphone and earplug going to the delivered everything to us.
We moved on to an amazing red wine Il Frappati 2015 Terre Siciliani IGT by Arianna Occhipinti who I had actually heard of before-and is from the Ragusa area. It was rich in tannins but yielded lots of fruit as well.
Triglia or Red Mullet Was presented on a rock with some foam and was a delicious version of the local fish which was followed by a cube of lacquered piglet in its garden which turned out to be mushrooms and sage.
The portions were thankfully small so we really did enjoy the various tasting options .
Dessert was a white chocolate mousse with red fruits meringue almond and beautifully dried fruit such as lime star Anise mint and sage decorating the beautiful dish. Be sure to Check-out the Facebook pictures for this I think you'll enjoy them and have a wonderful rest of our trip as there is much more to come.
