Your favourite starter?

[NickK]

My favourite starter is Balsamic Vinegar & Olive Oil with Freshly cooked rustic bread.

However this is much abused by restaurants unfortunately - crappy Balsamic Vinegar and even watered down with malt vinegar too!

I had a bottle of balsamic ages ago, that really blew me away. Unfortunately thanks to an accident and penny saving recently, the manufacturer was lost in time - every bottle since then tasted pale, tasted malted vinegar and coarse.

Until now..

Fattorie Giacobazzi Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.
(Aceto Balsamico de Modena IGP)
Thanks to it's maturation in wooden casks, it is complex with a really smooth sweet and sour taste. (no malt vinegar taste at all!)

Only down side.. 250ml will set you back £15.

I'm off to get another slice of bread from the still hot freshly cooked loaf

 

[NickK]

I do hope you don't mean with the balsamic vinegar together with the olive oil!

And that's not a starter, that's a snack before the starter!

"I'm the customer.. and just keep bringing the bread out!"

This is good enough not to require olive oil but having a second dip of oil just adds something to it (and not having the oil floating on top!).

I know.. but to me this is as good as the italian octopus with lemon I had in Rome for a starter.

 

[NickK]

What an odd question. I couldn't possibly choose one favourite starter. It entirely depends on what I feel like, what I'm drinking and what cuisine it is.

Surely you must have one that stood out in your mind?

 

[NickK]

At Noma you get half a dozen or so different snacks, brought out by each chef who invented it one by one, before they bring the first course and bread

Really, everyone must go there!

In Turkey they always provided bread, cucumber & tomato to freshen you up without charge.

In Dublin, the local account team too me to a Michelin starred restaurant - each course had a small 'creation' about this size of a shot glass between them.