One week more. Just seven more sleeps till I can crunch, crunch, crunch again. One more week till I can pick seeds out of my teeth again. (Yes, why not leave the reader with that attractive visual?) But, until then, I am still on doctor’s orders to keep things soft when it comes to my food intake.
This week, I didn’t have to venture too far from the office, choosing to head just a few blocks north from the office to Nuovo Bistro, a place that’s flown under the radar on the 124th Street food scene over the last few years.
But, I was awfully hungry, and Nuovo didn’t disappoint. Just one note before I begin: I want to make it clear that I was ordering off the lunch menu. The restaurant has different offerings at dinner time, so, if you’re looking to replicate my main course, take your friends here at noon.
I started with the soup of the day, which was a cream of mushroom soup. This one was finely strained, with a real sweet start on the tongue, before the peppery notes kicked in. Now, I asked for a couple of go-rounds of black pepper before I started, but there was clearly more at play, here. But the earthiness that can often overpower a mushroom dish was nicely muted, here.
Then, for the main, I went for the Spaghetti al Fungi. For those of you who know your basic Italian, you’ll know that I ordered a dish… with more mushrooms. But, if you’re thinking of a pasta dish with mushrooms and a cream sauce, you’d be way off. With this one, the mushrooms played just a small role. I was in it for chunks of pork and beef — chorizo style— along with the chunks of pepper and zucchini. The pasta is served with a tomato ragu, so there’s a wonderful blast of salt and tomato, plus some richness from the meat. It was a real rib-sticker on a cool day. Sure, we’ve all had pasta dishes where the promised bits of meat and vegetables were few and far between — you have to hunt for them in the noodles and sauce. But the meat chunks and vegetables were plentiful enough here, that it almost felt like a pasta stew. And it was truly filling.
Nuovo Bistro
Westmount | 10721 124 St. NW, Edmonton | 587.855.6129 | nuovobistro.com
