Can You Say, "Yummy?"

Two weeks ago, Gustav and I were joined by his brother Eric and sister-in-law Lisa at a fantastic restaurant here in L.A. called Osteria Mozza. Mario Batali, of Iron Chef fame, is one of the owners/chefs of the restaurant. Can I just say...this was perhaps the greatest meal I have ever eaten in my life! Up until now, my favorite meal was at a lovely, quaint little restaurant in Edgartown on Martha's Vinyard. But I think this culinary experience surpassed it!

First off, the atmosphere was great...fresh and fun on the Pizzaria Mozza side and elegant and refined on the Osteria Mozza side. The menu was outrageous! There were some of the most interesting things I've ever seen: pigs trotter, tripe, wild boar, sea urchin, oxtail, calves tongue, and calves brain. Um, this was not the Chili's menu we were usd to seeing!

We decided to begin with antipasti, each choosing one, taking a few bites, and then passing to the left. This was how we did the entire meal, and was it fun! I got to try the most incredible ricotta and Bufala mozzarella I've ever tasted. It just melted when it hit your tongue. Their homemade bread was out of this world, and the bottle of wine selected by my knowledgable brother-in-law was extraordinary. I decided this was my opportunity to try these exotic things I'd never had before, so I chose the calves tongue plate. It was divine...so tasty! I was also able to try some delicious octopus. I was in heaven. And we hadn't even gotten past the appetizers!

Next up was the Primi course. More selections by the four Hoyers at the table produced Orecchiette, Gnocchi with wild boar ragu', Tagliatelle with oxtail ragu', and linguine with raw sea urchin. I loved all of this, except the sea urchin. Really strange consistency! But Heather, you can tell Nathaniel that Mr. Hoyer has actually eaten wild boar for real!! :-)

I chose duck for the Secondi course, which was rather foolish, because I was so full at this point, and duck so heavy, I was only able to take a few bites. But I did try my brother-in-law's quail which was divine.

We left "fat and happy" as the Hoyer boys like to say. Which was good, because it took us 2 hours to get home. Nobody told us that driving through Hollywood on Halloween night was a lesson in futility. Who knew that grown people by the tens of thousands paraded through the Hollywood streets at 11PM? Who knew that they would close down streets to allow them the freedom to move around? Who knew that? Well, apparently us rookies did not know that. It was a very interesting way for my Colorado in-laws to see our neck of the woods!