La vita sarda: Cala Gonone

Today was a day of relaxation. We woke up before 9:00am for breakfast and then explored the small town of Cala Gonone for a bit, realizing that the beach was a mere 5 minutes from our hotel--score! There also weren't very many people around, and most of the tourists we did see were couples or families with small children.

We returned to our hotel to change for the beach and apply sunscreen (a lengthy process for yours truly), then stopped by a shop to buy some cheap beach mats for our weeklong vacation in the sun. 

My first beach photo in Sardegna!

It was my first time in a bikini in almost 10 years. I had bought it at the peak of my yoga practice before leaving Vancouver in February and I was not pleased that the first time I was wearing it would be more than 4 months post-Italian dining and inactivity; but I desperately wanted to tan as much as I could, which ended up placating me in my self-consciousness.

We settled on an unnamed strip of the beach near the restaurants and once 12:30pm rolled around, we were ready to have our first official Sardinian meal. I had looked up restaurant recommendations on TripAdvisor (the only real research I did for the trip, which I didn't even remember to do until the night before my flight!) and double-checked with the receptionist at the hotel, so I knew that we would be lunching at La Favorita ("The Favourite"). The restaurant was right behind us and overlooking the beach.

View from La Favorita

Our waiter was a very friendly older man who spoke good English. Being my stubborn self, I kept steering our conversation to Italian so that I could get some more practice--at the expense of Oli's comprehension. That's how generous I am! We would later refer to him as nonno (grandfather) since he left such a great impression on us.

A nice thing about La Favorita other than its location and great service was that they didn't have a cover charge. Almost all Italian restaurants will automatically charge customers a cover of €1,00-3,50/person, which makes things like tipping easier (as in you don't need to) but also adds up. This charge also covers bread. For our whole trip, Oli and I would munch on pane carasau (Sardinian flatbread) and ignore the plain stuff.

Pane carasau

We scanned the menu and knew that we wanted to share a pasta--the dilemma was which one? I was first drawn to bottarga (fish roe) because I had tried and loved it in Fiesole, and it was a Sardinian delicacy; nonno, on the other hand, recommended for us to try their ravioli and had a hesitant look on his face when I mentioned my interest in the bottarga. Oli said we should trust my gut so we ordered the spaghetti alla bottarga along with an arugula and tomato salad. It was delicious!

Spaghetti alla bottarga, not for the fishily-weak-of-stomach

One of the things I had been most looking forward to in travelling with Oli was eating. I credit her with having expanded a lot of my food horizons in the past two years as well as perfecting the art of food-sharing. How else are you supposed to try more things without overeating?

Insalata di rucola, pomodori, e grana (arugula, tomato, and parmesan shavings)

Plus she knows how to dress a salad.

For dessert we had seadas, a Sardinian pastry filled with sweet cheese and topped with honey.

Seadas

Before getting our bill, nonno asked me why I spoke Italian and then proceeded to kindly lecture me on the importance of learning Mandarin. It was as if my mom had paid him! WTML?!

We took a short walk to the port to scope out where we could rent a boat for tomorrow, tried going to the supermarket (it was closed from 1:30-4:30pm!), and returned to the hotel for a pisolino (nap) before going back to the beach for a bit more sun. Then it was time for the main event of the day: dinner at Il Pescatore ("The Fisherman").

We knew we'd be getting the linguine all'aragosta (lobster) for sure as well as some white wine--only we didn't know how big the portion was going to be...and, umm, we had also ordered a mixed seafood platter and grilled vegetables. Oh man, what did we get ourselves into?!

Linguine all'aragosta - our favourite pasta dish in Sardegna

The pasta was amazing, but the dread of our upcoming two dishes put a damper on our food-high. Midway through our pasta I asked the waiters if the rest of our food had been cooked yet, and both times I was told that it was already on the grill. As a result, Oli and I started getting creative. We wondered if we could feed the leftovers to cats, a homeless person, the kitchen staff, or our hotel staff. But each idea seemed to be imagined in vain, especially since we hadn't seen any homeless people.

Grigliata mista (mixed grilled seafood) which we could barely eat due to our pasta-inflicted satiety

Mirto

I had a prawn and some of the octopus and fish but the two of us could barely put a dent in our seafood, not to mention the grilled eggplant, zucchini, and peppers. We decided to pack our leftovers and delay our guilt by finding a solution later. First we had to try mirto, a Sardinian liquor served in a frozen glass. It was smooth, sweet, and ice-cold--a perfect end to an almost-perfect meal. I like it much more than limoncello.

All throughout dinner, Oli remarked on how comical all of the diners were around us. Every few seconds we would witness someone swatting at a mosquito or smacking some part that had just been bitten. We were just as guilty as the rest of them and it was clear that the warm humidity of the evening was not helping in the least, nor were the citronella candles that were positioned far from our table. At some point Oli smacked me on the face because of a mosquito...or at least that's the reason she gave me.

We strolled back to our hotel, asked the owner if he could refrigerate our seafood, and went to bed anticipating tomorrow's boating adventure. I was also slightly anxious because I knew I would be the one driving the boat.

Lesson of the Day
Don't over-order. You can always order more later.
And you can never escape the importance of Mandarin, even in Cala Gonone.