February 4, 2012 Breakfast – Breakfast Burritos, the Figueroa Project and Dinner- Albuquerque's Best Italian Restaurant - Torino’s at Home

February 4, 2012 Breakfast – Breakfast Burritos, the Figueroa Project and Dinner- Torino’s @ Home

Today was a day filled with great music and food.

I must start out by saying that yesterday I went to Pro’s Ranch Market to refill the larder after being in Taos four days last week and there not being enough food to even make my lunch. See February 3, 2012 posting.

Having filled up the larder yesterday we were ready to start cooking again.  Suzette suggested making a breakfast burrito, since we now had eggs and flour tortillas.  I fetched the eggs, green and red chili sauce and sliced some slices of Petit Basque cheese, and chopped 1/3 cup of chopped onion and two cloves of roasted garlic, while Suzette sautéed some crisp fried bacon.  Then Suzette cooked the ingredients in a skillet into an omelet.  We then each heated a flour tortilla over the open gas fire on the range to warm and soften it and filled it with a couple of strips of the omelet.  I folded the tortilla over like a taco and smeared the top with the last of the PPI guacamole made on Friday and some more of the Cervantes red chili sauce and drank hot manzanilla (chamomile) tea flavored with hone and lime juice for a very New Mexican breakfast.   

We both worked all day.  When I arrived at home from a business meeting around 4:30 p.m. Suzette was watching the end of a Julia Roberts film on TV.

A little after 5:00 p.m. we left the house and went to the opening of the new art show at 516 Gallery but were not able to get in because it was a members only opening.  So we walked the one block to the Kimo Theater where the Figueroa Project performance was be held, for which we had purchased tickets to see the art in its gallery. 

When we arrived we shared a glass of wine and talked with John Calvin about his desire to sail around the globe in his new 57 foot sloop he had had constructed on Vancouver Island, in Canada and about Casa Rondeña Winery.  We thanked him for donating wine to the big mid-summer local produce meal,  Field to Food at the Center for Ageless Living, and gave him an update about the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.  John also told us a very interesting story about how he had studied Indian music for three years with Ali Akbar Khan in India and then realized that the roots of Spanish flamenco lay within Indian music, so he then traveled to Andalusia and lived near Sevilla and traveled through Southern Spain for three years studying guitar and writing his dissertation on the connections between the two forms of music.

At 6:00 we took our seats for the Figueroa Project’s Flute and Strings Spectacular.  The program included music that was written for only strings and flute: Grieg’s Holberg’s Time, Vivaldi’s Concerto for Flute and strings, Il Cardellino (the Goldfinch) with images projected on a drop down screen near the front of the stage above the heads of the performers of art containing goldfinches, and then a beautifully played Mendelsshon Sinfonia No. 10 before the intermission and several short pieces after intermission, including: Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute, a Doppler Andante and Rondo for two flutes and strings, several Bartok Rumanian Folk Dances, with a beautifully played violin solo by Krysztof Zinowski and a short flute piece written by Dinicu named Hora Staccato. 

I particularly loved the format of the program which included Guillermo Figueroa and/or the solo flutist Carol Wincens introducing each piece with a short description of the writer of the piece or a personal recollection of their association with the piece. We learned that Carol and Guillermo had been students together at Julliard, that Guillermo had been concertmaster of the Julliard Student Symphony in 1978 at the age of 23, that he had met Samuel Barber and Carlo Minoti at a performance of the Barber Adagio for Strings and had been invited to play at a large dinner party at Barber’s NYC apartment in 1978, that Carol had attended Oberlin College with the great klezmer flutist Adrianne   Greenbaum, who introduced flute into the American reinvigoration of klezmer music in the 80’s and 90’s, that Mozart was not the most famous musical composing prodigy, but Mendelssohn was and that he had written the very moving Sinfonia No. 10 at the age of thirteen, that Carol Wincenc was of Austro-Hungarian descent like Bartok and Dinicu,  and an amazing anecdote by Guillermo about how the then 28 year old Samuel Barber had submitted his Adagio for Strings to Arturo Toscanini for his review before it was to be played by the New York City Philharmonic and how upset Barber was when Toscanini sent it back shortly after receiving it.  Barber sent his partner, Monati, to ask Toscanini if the piece would be played or had been rejected by Toscanini and Toscanini’s response was. “Of course it will be played.  I just sent it back to you because I memorized the piece.” (What a charming anecdote about two of the giants of 20^th century American music.).  I felt like we had been admitted for a few hours into a very select club of musical geniuses.  I also left the concert with profound appreciation for the hard work that John, Guillermo and others had done to perpetuate classical music of the highest quality in Albuquerque after the demise of the NMSO.

During intermission, we met Ron and Karen Tyler and invited them over for dinner after the concert.  Ron said that they were planning to go to Torino’s @ Home for dinner and would we like to join them.  Since we had not been to Torino’s, we said, “Yes.” and Ron gave us the details on Torino’s @ Home’s location in the space that used to be Café Viola at the Journal Center at 7600 Jefferson NE.

Not a morsel left, fabulous!

We were greated by the co-owner, Daniela Bouneau, and a waiter and were seated and given menus.  Ron immediately ordered the Spinach and Calamari Salad (Baby spinach salad, orange, spicy chili pecans, home made croutons, fried calamari and tossed in Torinos’ raspberry (slightly sweet) vinaigrette for $13.95.

All the selections were interesting.  We decided to share everything so each of us picked a dish.  The four dishes included: Spezzatino ravioli, hand made ravioli filled with beef brisquet and fresh ricotta. Served with a red wine sauce and parmigiano for $16.95, a duck Confit that literally fell off the bone served on polenta for $17.95, Stuffed Calamari with Pancetta (bacon), garlic, fresh herbs, bread and fresh ricotta. Served with a tomato concasee, balsamic reduction and a house salad, Bucatini all Amatriciana, a tubular pasta served with a tomato sauce with guanciale (cured pork), Nicoise olives, onion, garlic and fresh basil for $17.75.

The food was light and delicious and the sauce on each dish was distinctive. When Daniela came by the table and spoke to us we knew we were in a real Italian restaurant.  She freely shared her history (She’s from Torino) and her husband, Maxime, the chef is from Southwestern France; they want you to feel at home in their restaurant so the named the restaurant to make you feel like you are in their home in Torino.

We enjoyed the entrees so much, we asked Daniela to describe the desserts and she was effusive about them, so we ordered  the Affogato all’ Amarena with its 3 scoops of ice cream with amarena cherries, their syrup, whipped cream and a cookie because she said her grandfather would make it for her every Sunday when she was little. Ron ordered the Panna Cotta (baked cream) with fresh vanilla and apricot coulis.  Sedderts are $6.95 each and we were brought a plate with four large spoons of Tiramisu to try also. 

At around 10:00 p.m. I was convinced that we had finished the best Italian meal I have ever had in Albuquerque and happily headed home for Saturday Night Live and bed.

Bon Appètit