FGF&WBW in Puglia/Apulia
Terranima
Bari, 7th September
After the rainy miserableness that was our arrival and hotel hunt in Bari, we decided we were going to dine at a Fred-pick. Terranima is listed as moderately inexpensive, and found at Via Putignani 213. And it's a really lovely little place, which entirely cheered us up about Bari.
When we found it, it looked disturbingly closed, but turned out to be both open and delightful. The owner ushered us in, started directing us to one table, then clocked Sam's height and chose to give us a different table, gesturing to make sure we understood it was for the extra leg room. We were then brought this fortnight's menu, in Italian, along with an English 'dictionary' of all the dishes they have ever had on the menu, and a thorough explanation that only the dishes listed on the Italian one were available tonight.
We went for a bottle of the red wine the restaurant owners grow, a mixed Puglian antipasto, and secondi. The wine was surprisingly good, the antipasto was generous and included deep fried goodness, various preserved vegetables and a large silk-textured mozzarella. Sam's secondo of turkey breast in white wine was beautifully cooked, our contorno of melanzane parmigiano, or aubergine/eggplant cooked layered with tomato and herbs was tasty, and my apparently delicately flavoured grilled sole announced it's presence in the restaurant from the kitchen - I love knowing that the fabulous scent I've just inhaled and drooled over came from my food...
After dinner, Sam decided to go for a grappa, and was again pleasantly surprised by being given the whole bottle and left to pour himself whatever he wanted. This is possibly because we had previously delighted the owner - he asked if this was the first time we'd eaten there, then asked how why we were there - we told him all about Fred (LP also mentions the place, but Gourmet Traveller seemed to be the book to mention). He had apparently not heard of the book, and loved the fact that his trattoria was in it - he got us to write down the full title for him. Always nice to make people smile.