Sorrentino’s Garlic Festival
Sorrentino’s West
6867 170 St.
780-444-0524
Sorrentinos.com


Food: 4 of 5 suns

Ambience: 4 of 5 suns

Service: 4 of 5 suns

Garlic Festival Dinner for two, just food – Basic $40, loaded $80

***

We were digging into our main dishes – mighty portions of pork tenderloin, beef in a puff pastry and ruby trout.

Almost as one, we dropped our forks. The three of us looked at one another in astonishment.

There was no taste!

We were at Sorrentino’s West, in the middle of the 35th annual April-long Sorrentino’s Garlic Festival, having had four delicious garlic-laced appetizers, an exquisite garlic/olive oil dip for our focaccia bread and, for one member of the party, garlic-infused beer.

And these recently arrived mains were tasteless?

“Hang on a minute,” said our third dining partner. “Let’s rest our tastebuds. Have some bread. Drink some water.”

We had bread and water, waited for what seemed an eternity of at least three minutes - given the hot, visually appealing food was crying out for the eating.

We started again.

Of course it wasn’t Sonny Sung’s food. Sorrentino’s executive chef is incapable of blandness.

The enemy was within. Our taste buds had been temporarily anaesthetized by the powerful, but oh-so-tasty garlic hits from the appetizers. Once rested, our taste buds sprang back into action.

I’ve been to at least 20 of those 35 Sorrentino’s Garlic Festivals, but had never experienced garlic overdose before.

Then again, I’d never shared four mini-garlic appetizers – a roasted garlic head, scallop on the half-shell, crispy shrimp and mascarpone soufflé. Plus I’d mashed softened garlic cloves in delicate olive oil to spread across hot, fresh light slices of focaccia bread. I had three of those, along with the appetizers.

Once the taste buds were revived, taste returned in all its glory.

The minor mountain of sliced pork tenderloin on veggies, topped with prosciutto, had been transformed into something special by a sweet yet savoury garlic-marsala-butter reduction that worked its way right down to the vegetable foundation to further enhance the sage-herbed potatoes below.

The beef puff pastry was equally meaty – the beef made hearty by a quick searing in a mushroom, red wine and garlic sauce before being enclosed and baked in the hot, crisp but moist pastry.

Taste was not so intrinsic in the ruby trout. Where the almond crust had stuck, its shrimp, maple, garlic and crumbled bacon infusion intermingled with the trout flesh, but the crust was surprisingly patchy, leaving most of the fish acreage unadorned.

Garlic may be as good as a thousand mothers, but my taste buds would have truly rebelled if we’d opted for the garlic gelato dessert. Instead, the Sorrentino’s tiramisu was as sweet and light as if swallowing scented air.

When as full as it was last Friday, the intimate carpet ‘n’ curtained Sorrentino’s West has a New York feel, bustling with energy, waiters moving quickly, the warm smells from the wood-fired pizza oven permeating the atmosphere. It’s Sorrentino’s managing partner Carmelo Rago’s personal favourite, and there he was, making pizzas when not mingling with the guests.

Our server Francisco, a few months arrived from Italy, was as charming as his accent, and efficient to boot.

I overdid the garlic. But I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat … maybe with less mashed garlic cloves on the bread!

The festival runs all month – more details at www.sorrentinos.com.

Another take on Italian

Massimo’s Cucina Italiana (51 Ave. and 104A St., beside the South Side Italian Centre) is Chef Keoma Franceschi’s domain. The young chef arrived from Florence, Italy about a year ago and is fiercely proud and protective of his “pure” Tuscan cuisine. Whether Canada is being absorbed into his very being I can’t say, but every time I dine at Massimo’s, it’s gets better and better, the last time being quite marvellous.

Try Keoma’s meatballs. Delizioso!

Graham Hicks

780-707-6379

Graham.hicks@hicksbiz.com

www.hicksbiz.com

@hicksonsix