Pane e Vino, Shanghai
Sometimes food prepared the traditional simple manner is all you need. But of course you need quality ingredients. Echo and her husband, Antonio have done just that. With imported Italian floor, spices, and wines, Pane e Vino is able to recreate time tested & honored recipes, here in Shanghai.
I have a couple of friends who I’ve known for years. When it comes to food, I trust their judgement. When Mr. L and Mr. C talk about and take old friends to place, such as Pane e Vino, I usually take special notice. I remember Mr. L taking me to a little Cantonese restaurant, years ago, with these special curry steamed dumplings – which I have dreamed about and yet to rediscover. And tonight, Mr. C, through the strong recommendation of Mr. L, insisted on taking us, to this little Italian treat.
Wine is important component for Italian cuisine as it brings out flavors in dishes. I never really liked wine or alcohol with or during my meals. I usually like to drink before or after. But with Italian food, I tend to have it with my meal. The reds going with the meats and the whites with the seafood and chicken. But I am still learning about what goes good with pizza.
With my Vino lessons, we started off with some appetizers and a bottle of red. The spinach salad, the insalata caprese, and I think a braciole. I throughly enjoyed the caprese with the goat cheese and tomatoes. I could eat this almost everyday. The braciole, the beef appetizer, had a creamy sauce which went well with the black olives. The endless supply of focaccia table bread, with olive oil, quickly filled my stomach.
Then we had three plates of pasta, a tomato sauce spaghetti with calamari, a creamy tagliolini with scallops, and my favorite linguine with clams. You could see our preference for seafood pastas. Each of these different dishes featured unique pastas and proteins. The linguine is something I would have again, when I return to Pane e Vino. I would tend to believe that seafood, with the different textures, would be more popular with Asians tastes and palates.
One of the things I was looking forward to was the pizza. The simple margarita pizza. With the imported flour, for the pizza and pasta, the thin crust pizza was supreme. Supreme, to describe a pizza, sounds so corny, but so right for this pie. I may not know my way around a kitchen, but I sure know how to eat a pizza. Though, I’m pretty sure they had their oven in the 500+ degrees to only bake for a few minutes. I have to confess, my pizza eating experience, from LA, may not translate to proper Italian eating pizza. But I know that Pane e Vino’s was quite good. We also had a fish, but I don’t remember too much about it.
I can’t believe how much we ordered, three appetizers, three pastas, a pizza, a fish, and dessert. The dessert, a sorbet and chocolate ice cream was pretty good. Tart and sweet, with candied orange slices, the sorbet (and chocolate ice cream) finished a good evening at Pane e Vino.
What to Order: Linguine with clams, margarita pizza What not to Order: fish
Rating 3 Pigs Price Range 2 $/¥/NT
Links City Weekend Smart Shanghai Dining Secretary Dianping.com Zagat Talk Magazine CNNGo