Sherman's Food Adventures: Pisa
Showing posts with label Pisa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pisa. Show all posts

Miu Fish

Alright, I know some of you might laugh, some might criticize and some might just roll your eyes and want to stop reading right now.  However, bear with me here.  I feel that eating one type of cuisine (even though it can be diverse) can catch up to you.  If you look at your dining behaviour in your own town, it generally won't be the same things over and over again.  Therefore, we just had to go eat something else for dinner while in Pisa.  So don't laugh when we went to AYCE sushi at Miu Fish.  Just like in Rome, this place is Chinese-run, but I guess we had to see if it was any good.

Looking over the huge menu, we selected a bunch of items including the Tatare Special, Tiger Venere, Tris Tartare and Carpaccio di Pesce Misto.  Surprisingly, the fish quality was rather decent with a nice sheen and fresh smell.  Texturally, it ate well and the carpaccio was especially buttery.  As for the purple rice in the maki sushi, it was a little soft, but not mushy.  It still had a bit of chewiness.

Off to our next set of dishes, we had the Ebi Tempura, Unagi Nigiri, Gio Spicy Tuna and Gio Spicy Salmone.  Unlike the one we had in Rome, the ebi tempura was solid with a crispy and light batter.  The ebi itself was cold water buttery.  Unagi was pretty typical being soft and fatty with just enough unagi sauce.  Sushi rice was acceptable with a moist chewiness.  The tuna and salmon flowers were akin to the fish we had with the previous dishes.

With a variety of Sushi e Sashimi, we chose the 20-piece platter.  As you can see in the picture, we found salmone, pesce bianco, tuna and ebi nigiri as well as the same in sashimi.  Also on the plate was Salmone Gunkan and a Miura Roll.  As you can see so far, even though this was AYCE, the food was prepared carefully and presented neatly.  Again, the fish quality was good and hence, the nigiri and sashimi ate well.

Our next 3 dishes were a bit of a mishmash of things including the Gamberetti Sale e Pepe, New Chirashi Sake and Gambero Pistacchio.  Yes, the first dish was a Chinese one with fried salt and pepper shrimp.  Hey, it was good, crispy with meaty shrimp and lots of flavour.  The next dish was essentially thinly sliced salmon on top of sushi rice.  On the bottom, the last one was a salmon flower with cream cheese on top and pistachios.  Interesting, but ate quite well. 

We actually had quite a few dishes that were rather similar.  That was the case of the Ikura Special, as it was essentially like the gio spicy salmone except with ikura on top (and not being spicy) with some ponzu dressing.  The kids love Salmone Sashimi, so we got an order of that.  Look how vibrant it is.  Nothing much to say about the Ebi Nigiri as we already had that in the platter.  Last in this round was the Spicy Salmone Roll.  This was deep fried and topped with spicy salmon and spicy mayo.  Quite saucy and crunchy.

One of our favourite dishes was the Grigliata Mista comprised of filetto di branzino, gamberoni and totani grigliati.  So the grilled prawn was sweet and meaty while the branzino was moist and flaky.  The squid was a bit chewy, but tender enough to eat.  Also got some Salmone and Tuna Tataki coated in sesame seeds and dressed in olive oil.  Mild-tasting, but again, the fish quality was good.

Last set of dishes included Manzo Piccante con Verdure and Spaghetti di Soia Vegetariani.  Back to the Chinese dishes, the spicy beef was quite good with tender slices and a tangy spicy sauce.  The mung bean noodles were chewy and well-seasoned and accompanied by crisp veggies.  Overall, this was a rather surprising meal as it was more than acceptable especially since it was AYCE and located in Pisa of all places.  Worth a visit if you aren't into pasta, pizza, steak or sandwiches anymore.

The Good:
- Solid food quality
- Actually prepared well
- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:
- Some creative liberties take here, but we didn't mind it
- Some confusion on which dishes we ordered

I Porci Comodi

So for those who aren't aware, the month of August is when many businesses in Europe, including restaurants, close up shop and go on vacation.  Great for them, but when we are looking for places to eat, it complicates things.  This is especially frustrating when they do not post anywhere online that they are closed and also when Google doesn't have the updated information.  This was the case when we were roaming the streets of Pisa in search for lunch.  We finally settled on sandwiches (again) since I Porci Comodi was open and we were done walking around.

Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as this worked out to be a cheap lunch as well as being tasty.  For my sammie, I selected the 18 and I'm Happy Please consisting of thinly-sliced porchetta, eggplant, green sauce and EVOO.  Similarly to the sandwich we had in Florence, the bread was crunchy and firm.  It did hold up to the ingredients quite well.  The fatty pork was super tender and aromatic.  Green sauce was bright with herbs while the eggplant provided some moisture.

Viv decided on vegetarian with Corinna's Sandwich with fresh tomato, eggplant, stracchino, green sauce and EVOO.  Naturally, without meat in this sammie, the whole thing depended on the cheese to provide some body.  That it did with a creamy freshness and plenty of moisture.  Tomatoes were indeed fresh and flavourful while the eggplant was "meaty" in texture.  With the same green sauce, the sammie was bright and flavourful.

My son had the Prosciutto Crudo Toscano with aged pecorino cheese and truffle sauce.  Once again, the sauce made all the difference as it provided moisture as well as plenty of earthiness and creaminess.  The prosciutto was at its salty best and offering a chewy meatiness.  Let's not forget about the thick slices of cheese as they were pungent with salty nuttiness.

Staying with the same theme, my daugther had the Prosciutto Crudo Toscana with aged pecorino cheese, honey, walnuts and EVOO.  As expected, the honey was the perfect foil for the salty prosciutto.  This sammie had the salty sweet thing going on and due to the addition of walnuts, it also had crunch and nuttiness.  Of course the cheese provided another layer of salty nuttiness as well.  In the end, we were just happy to have some food in our tummies after walking around for awhile.  We enjoyed the sammies, but thought the ones in Florence were a bit better.  But overall, solid and inexpensive.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Nice flavour combos
- Nice people

The Bad:
- Would've liked just a bit more meat in the sammies

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