Good Food and Film

Before
After

On Friday I went to a restaurant down the street from us, called Sopranos, for lunch. Mark was at work, so I was by myself and quickly found a small spot by the window near a table of businessmen. The middle-aged Italian waiter called me "Bella" (beautiful woman) and I loved it. I ordered a chicken salad and glass of red Shiraz. The dish looked wonderful, and as you can see I took a before and after photo (which prompted the table next to me to stare and one guy launched into a funny story about a crazy ex-girlfriend who took weird photos). The waiter said, 'tell me if this isn't the best you've had', when I commented on how lovely the dish looked. I normally would find that statement a bit ridiculous, but anyone who keeps calling me "bella" is a friend indeed. Ever since I've been buying capiscums, they are everywhere; one of the specials on the menu was calamari capiscums. The menu also featured gourmet pizzas like smoked salmon, but I decided I couldn't tackle one on my own. Anyway the meal was a good start to the weekend.

On Saturday night, Mark and I decided on dinner and a movie. We took tram #1 to Lygon St. near Melbourne University, which has tons of restaurants, shops, etc. (We tried to find Lygon St. a few weeks ago, having heard it was a great place for a night out, but went the wrong way from downtown and were disappointed that it didn't have much going on- well, we were on the wrong end of it). We usually have dinner out once a week, on Saturdays, and have found that most places suggest reservations, but by the time we figure out what we're doing we call too late, or end up making a reservation about an hour before we get there. We walked down Lygon to Tiamo, an Italian restaurant, and joined the queue for dinner. It's a small space, with art posters about upcoming concerts and other shows taped to the walls, and about a dozen tables inside. We only had to wait about twenty minutes and then got a table. We've gotten into a habit while dining out in Portland, to share dishes becuase they are usually so big. We shared a salad, then our main dishes, Chicken Catchatori and Ravioli. Delicious! We had cappuchinos and yo-yo's (a lemony, crumbly Australian cookie) for dessert. We both agreed it was our best meal yet.

We saw the film, The Lives of Others, a very interesting portrait of the life of a German playright in Berlin and a member of the East German secret police who is assigned to monitor him 24 hrs/day. It takes place in the mid-80's, five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany. Lots of issues with this film- political, privacy, relationship, authority, psychological, etc. I thought it very well done and moving.