cafe nino

A little bit of this... actually there was a lot of this.




And some of this with a delicious homemade tomato-based sauce.



I had another one of those "small world" moments last night. At the end of each Italian course - they're split into 10-week blocks - we have a celebratory dinner. Last night we went to Cafe Nino on Ocean Street in Woollahra. It's a funny looking place. The windows are adorned with fishing nets - tres tacky if somewhat endearing - and the crockery and cutlery is quite dated. But the food is amazing. Italian food just like you'd expect an Italian mother to make. They specialise in seafood so last night I had spaghetti crab and it was delicious if a little late in arriving. But here's the small world bit. One of the girls who couldn't make dinner - hi, Nicole - told me her partner's mother knows the chef really well and that they come from the same region of Italy. But this mother-in-law makes an amazing lasagna and each Christmas she makes a special batch for the Cafe Nino chef, who agrees its the best lasagna around. Now, if I can only get some of that! Oh, and Nicole tells me that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman used to eat there all the time (or get takeaway) when they were together and in Sydney. An interesting fact given that dinner last night cost only $30 a head!



Images courtesy of fxcuisine.com and shopurnerbarry.com