Europa 92

I Dolci

I must admit that though I was to celebrate my Bday in a good restaurant on the day itself, I was actually quite Boh-Song about it as the invitation smelt heavily of "afterthought". As such I dragged my feet when it came to dressing up and when Hubby arrived to pick us up he started to nag at me which made me even more Boh-Song, if you wish.

It didn't help that it hadn't stopped raining the whole of yesterday. I was drenched on my way sending Eldest Boy to and picking him up from Tennis class. Went around looking for a place to have some gelato in with the Babies and of course nothing was open. Finally gave up and decided to go watch the boy during practice which could be a pain when you have to hang on to 2 itchy-hands Babies at the same time. Or they would be running into the middle of the Tennis court every minute or throwing stray Tennis balls at the players.

Must say that the Boy wasn't doing too badly for a total beginner. They have 4 mini-matches every session and he's currently in the Finals of every one of them plus would win from time to time. Though as usual he is having problems getting along with some of the other kids, apparently they have been making snide racist remarks at him - nothing new. One of those Italian boys is short, fat and ugly. So I told Eldest Son that he has my permission to tell him that it's better to have a "Chinese face" than be short, fat and ugly. If he complains to his parents, I'll deal with it. God knows I wouldn't mind a verbal fight with someone now.

Back to my Bday celebration, we arrived at the Restaurant-Club Europa 92 at half-past eight, quite cold and wet. It was situated in a renovated circa 1600 horse stable and the food is what you would call "Modenese revisited". You get pictures of Pavarotti here and there and his operas to accompany your meal. It's his restaurant after all. Stars like Jon Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Eros, Sting, Bono, Lady Di, Zucchero and Ricky Martin have all dined in, for example.

The service was friendly and fast. A bit too fast if you should happen to be there to kill time - which of course we weren't. I had a Potato Velouté with Mushroom to start, followed by Lamb Chops with Fried Croutons. There was a free flow of the Modenese specialty Gnocci which is a bit like Youtiao (dough fritters) in taste. The meat was good and properly cooked and we ate it with a good bottle of Montepulciano which on its own cost more than 2 main courses. Hub had a Gongonzola Soufflé to start followed by Roast Goose. The kids had excellent grilled Beef Steaks. No pictures here as none turned out (didn't use flash and the lighting's insufficient).

The positive thing about this Bday celebration was that for once the Hub had gotten smart and has engaged the help of his Assistant in organising the dinner. She called up the restaurant, booked the table and tried to get me a Birthday cake albeit without success. What they did though was actually serve up a fake decorated cake for me to blow my candles on (there were 3 of them and Baby Girl exclaimed : "Mum, you're 3!") and then they removed it and I got to choose my dessert like everybody else from the dessert trolley. Not stupid.

My mood improved significantly by the end of the meal and I actually had the grace to thank the Hub for it. One never knows. Maybe next year he'll get yet a little smarter and may even buy me a gift to go with the meal.

Restaurant-Club Europa 92

Stradello Nava 8

41100 Modena

Tel : 0039 059460067