Last week, I promised you that I'd be out
and about researching the best garlic bread
in town for this week's column. True to my
word, I've been out twice this week to 2
different Italian restaurants in order to
bring you, the reader, the low down on the
cheapest booze, the tastiest pizza, and not
to mention the best looking waiters in town.
I love eating out, it's great having someone
else doing the cooking and having the food
presented in front of me. I like those
little bottles of beer that you get nowhere
else but in Italian restaurants, and
desserts that are out of this world. I like
being called "signora" and shown to my
table, ordering dishes from the menu in the
best Geordie-Italian accent I can manage. I
love the way Italian restaurants always
manage to create such an intimate
atmosphere; room dividers screen you away
from prying eyes and private booths give you
privacy all night. Clicheé Chianti bottles
hang from the ceiling alongside strings of
garlic and plastic onions, dangling over
square tables with red gingham table cloths,
lights dimmed. Candle-light flickers,
casting shadows and catching expressions on
faces you can barely see behind those
private screens, revealing emotions and
passions on people's faces you've never met.
The waiters, dark and mysterious in crisp
white shirts and trousers too tight to be
comfortable hover silently around, one hand
holding their checked tea cloth while the
other lights candles, fills glasses, quickly
touches up their moustache, eyeing up the
females, serving steaming plates of pasta
shimmering with garlic and tingling with
parmesan.
And then my dinner arrives. Smoked salmon
pasta in a creamy seafood sauce. What can I
say? I've died and gone to heaven only to
find they serve Italian food there.
Bellissimo! Wonderful! It makes my taste
buds sing and my tonsils dance. Fantastic.
With some crispy garlic bread to help it
down, what more can a girl want? Oh yes...
where did that waiter go in those tight
black trousers......
Glenda Young is also the writer of the
weekly Coronation
Street Update on the net, and can be contacted at:
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