food blog, tasting menu, garmanvsfood, travel blog, finedining, wine pairing,

Ciao! from Taormina! The weather is glorious, the air is full of scents and the views are amazing!

We have spent the day exploring the sights and sounds of Taormina, from the public gardens, good old trees (trees are very far and in between in Malta), architecture dating back to 1800s, walking through the high street and taking a ride on the tram to the beach where we had to walk through the water (literally) to see the Isola Bella 😮, yeah not impressed. Can you tell 🙄? Playing tourists for the day, had us H U N G R Y and so ready for din dins at Kiste.

In our true form, we got there early, like dinner reservations was 19:00, your peeps were there at 18:50! I reckon we surprised our waiter considering dinner here is generally a late night affair here. Err, no sir! we have walked, seen and conquered as tourists and would like our dinner reward, please and thanks 😀. We went with the Isola (Island) menu which was the chef’s suggestion of 8 courses comprising of sea-food and meet dishes. We went in blind, but my goodness, what a dinner it was!

We started with breaded crackers made from Sicilian grains, focaccia with tomato and olive oil from Siragusa

When we got the chef’s intro, it had me like – okay, going in blind doesn’t seem like a bad call. The chef’s intro was tomato soup, crunchy bread bites and buffalo cheese.

Interestingly, this was a cold soup dish but I wasn’t mad. It was refreshing for the heat accompanied by sparkling wine which the sommelier was quick to state ‘no, no, this not prosecco’, well I stand corrected signor! Aqua was raw sea food (tuna, grouper, prawns, white bait), citrus fruits (orange sauce, orange peel) and salt crystals

It did have a slight bitterness to it (from the citrus) but perfectly balanced with the fish! Summer breeze was a seasonal fish salad (sword fish, tuna, squid,) cream of almonds, crunchy vegetables with anchovy sauce and black ink served with grillo wine! yum! yum!!

The terra dish was oven roasted veal, pumpkin, potatoes, sweet chard, mustard sauce. The balance of salty and texture, my goodness! I especially loved how this was plated

and I enjoyed it thoroughly! Ravioli with ragu beef, red sauce with a selection of cheese with ricotta.. Jesus! It was essentially a cheesy affair – cheese in the ravioli pasta, on the pasta and the cheese on the sauce. It was dripping in cheese but not in a ‘ugh it’s too much cheese’ but more like artfully draped

The rose that accompanied this course was the right choice. It made this course ‘hearty’. For fish & co aka the catch of the day; it was oven roasted red snapper, seasonal vegetables, sauce of fennel again with the rose was delicious. The dish was lovely to look at, honestly! It really was vivid.

Don’t know how the good folk of Kiste be coming up with their colour schemes for their crockery, but, it is WERKING!!! During our brief interlude (yes people, breaks are necessary when having a taster menu) the chef kept up with the gluten free bread and crackers ha!

Winter’s tale – the lamb cutlet, potatoes, vegetables, wild herbs, The beetroot sauce on this? Dayummmm!

paired with red wine… double dayum! And that’s that! Cucumber sorbet with an orange peel was our palate cleanser

it was not only refreshing but did what it was supposed to do, because, when I tasted that pudding? Boi! This is not a fish desert was orange sorbet, ricotta, chocolate coffee soufflé with ice cream