Julianisms

12 years. 144 months. 4,383 days. 105,192 hours. 6,311,520 minutes.

As of Sunday, that's how long I've been married to my wife. She's the gorgeous woman in the picture below who helped bring our three lovely girls into the world (although I did actually have a small part in that.)

She's become even more beautiful and feminine and refined over the years. My wife is more gorgeous today than when I married her.

Like many newly-wed couples, we start off well enough. In fact, you could even say that ours was 'a marriage made in Heaven' for did we not both say "I do" to each other in the presence of God in a church? :P

Made in heaven or otherwise, I'd be lying if I said our union has been smooth sailing all this while. Some months have been more testing than others, and other months have been downright ugly even. But on the whole it's been mostly fun.

We're no longer the same people we each married those 12 years ago (in fact, we are rather opposites) but we've learned to grow with each other through the changes and through time.

(Newsflash for couples: expecting anything other than the fact that your spouse will change over time is basically setting yourself up for some massive future disappointment.)

Essentially - and most importantly - we still share the same corny sense of humour. Thank God for small mercies!

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To celebrate our twelfth wedding anniversary, I inform her that we are going to leave the girls home and have us a small, cozy Italian dinner at Neroteca.

Making a reservation for that Saturday evening the day before proves to be an astute decision - when we arrive at the restaurant, every table is either already occupied or booked. Which is not unusual, I guess, given that some regard Neroteca as currently the best Italian deli in town.

That reputation is not undeserved, as we're soon to discover. What's more, Neroteca is a rarity of sorts in that it features a generous number of pork dishes in its menu, which is to say the fare is very non-halal.

Is Neroteca new in town? Yes and no. The restaurant opened its doors for business in July 2006, which means it'll be celebrating its first birthday very soon.

If you must know, the name Neroteca translates into 'black spaces' in Italian. I don't actually ask for the rationale behind the name but, hey, black is always sexy so it's all good with me.

(Which reminds me: My brother is responsible for introducing me to Neroteca and the first time I thought he'd actually said to me "Let's go for lunch at Erotica"! Right there and then, I knew I'd surely like this place…)

Anyways, fortune smiles upon us on our Italian anniversary outing - we are told that a fresh batch of burrata cheese has just arrived that very day. The taste and texture of burrata cheese, it seems, is a truly marvellous thing, moreso considering fresh burrata isn't always readily available. It's almost like royalty of a kind among the cheeses of the world, or so we're made to understand.

Armed with this knowledge, how can we possibly refuse to try some for ourselves?

And so, to kick off the evening, we order some Smoked Italian Ham with Burrata Cheese as a starter. My wife orders the Tagliatelle Boscaialo for her main course and I have the special of the day - Seared Angus Beef Medallions with (you guessed it) Burrata Cheese.

For lubrication, we order a bottle of San Benedetto sparkling mineral water and a glass of Sangiovese-Merlot to share between us.

A basket of Neroteca's freshly-baked bread (encrusted with flakes of sea salt to produce a wonderfully tangy flavour) occupies us while we wait for the food to arrive.

And the Ham and Burrata arrives soon enough. On first taste, we immediately understand why burrata is such a highly-desirable delicacy. It's heavenly - cliches aside, there's no better way to describe it.

Picture this if you can: a generous amount of olive oil pouring over smoked ham, heaping in a generous dollop of burrata, and sliding everything into your mouth.

Masticate. Savour. Swallow. Rinse (with wine) and repeat.

Talk about a near-religious experience (heavenly, geddit?). I swear I can almost hear the angelic hosts all around me breaking out in a hallelujah chorus. One minute I'm a pagan burrata ignoramus, the next I am an instant burrata convert worshipping at the temple of Nerotica.

My wife's pasta arrives next: her Tagliatelle Boscaialo is a delectable tossing of flat pasta with Italian pork sausage crumble and mushrooms folded in a light cream. As they say, tasting is believing. At only RM22, it's both a pleasant treat for the senses and also the wallet. And the quality is undeniable.

So far, nothing has been disappointing.

Next comes my Angus Beef Medallions with a large serving of Burrata on the side… I mean, just look at the thing, will you?

The staff here are all warm, wonderfully attentive, and even appropriately funny: as my waiter is placing the main course down before me, he too is slowly shaking his head in awe as he whistles aloud, "Wow, will you look at that…fresh burrata!" with a huge grin on his face!

Without further delay, my wife and I dive right into our respective courses and all conversation from that point on is basically reduced to oohs and ahhs. Along the way, we exchange dishes and compare notes. More oohs and ahhs follow.

And try as I may, in the end I simply cannot finish the very last bit of burrata. I feel a little guilty at that - I'm sure that such wastage would have amounted to some sort of minor criminal act if I were actually dining in Italy.

To round off our meal, we order two Macchiatos and some Strawberries in White Wine and Ice-cream for dessert. Don't just take my word for it, but I think Neroteca serves one of the best macchiatos in town. At only RM5 per serving, it's a bloody steal - a macchiato at Starbucks costs twice as much and is barely half as good. No shit, my friends - trust me on this.

Although Neroteca can be found on the internet at www.neroteca.com, I'm not sure if the site is as current as it could be. I wouldn't have bothered to actually check out the restaurant if the Neroteca website (or what little of it) was all there was to go on. Best if you just go and check it out firsthand, is my advice.

Tell them I sent you, okay? Expect to spend around RM50 per person, more if you're having wine. And quite a bit more if you're planning on having burrata!

External References
Much has already been written about Neroteca in numerous other popular food blogs. I'm linking to some of them here and also to some other articles about - what else?! - burrata cheese! Peruse at your leisure.

- More Neroteca reviews by Paprika, boo_licious, and Tummythoz.
- More burrata info at Wikipedia, Italian Cooking & Living, and Mangia Bene Pasta.

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