From hoodwinked to sublime

 If you've followed me on Instagram (@newenglandrocks), you'll know that I tend to post non-linearly. I'm continuing the non-linear tradition by fast forwarding this blog to the current time to recount my most recent travel experience in Sardinia.

To catch up on the trip so far, Anita and I spent nine wonderful days together circumnavigating the Island and exploring the coastlines of Sardinia before she had to return home. Between September 13th and 24th, I stayed in the municipality of Nucor in two towns: Posada close to the East Coast, and the hill town of Orgosolo in the interior of the Island. While I'll post a separate blog post on these places, in summary the people  are extremely friendly, there didn't seem to be any American tourists - only the occasional French tour group!, the food is hyperlocal and delicious, and the bike riding in the surrounding areas is hilly and fantastic. It was a great and memorable 10 day stretch.

Since I am leaving Sardinia from Cagliari in the South on October 2, I planned to gradually head southward and had picked Sanluri as an interim stop on the map between Orgosolo and my last stop in Pula, close to Cagliari.

Oops - Sanluri was a bad decision!

My first issue was getting hoodwinked by the AirBNB listing, was my own fault, as all the evidence was in the photos. First - check out the bedroom with no windows. The tacky painting above the bed should have been another clue. After all, white paint can only go so far.

When you see a bedroom without windows - just run!

And clearly, I just saw what I wanted to see in this photo - this is CLEARLY below ground place. Basement apartments, of which I've lived in a couple - simply never rock your world.

The hosts of this AirBNB are being totally transparent. I just saw what I wanted to see!

But I could handle the clean, flawed AirBNB if the town and the surrounding area had a lot to recommend the. But they didn't. My first hint was that the locals didn't not greet me as I walked by, unlike in Posada or Orgosolo, where I would be greeted with "Good morning", "Good afternoon" or "Good evening." Every single time. Sanluri had the opposite vibe.

At dinner, a guy took a work call on his cell phone in the middle of a pretty empty restaurant. Even on weekdays, restaurants in Posada and Orgosolo and the surroundings were packed, and no one ever took a work call. I think Sanluri is simply a commuting suburb of Cagliari, conveniently located on an exit of the SS131 Autostrada.

As if I needed more evidence that Sanluri wasn't a great choice, I asked a local at breakfast what to see in Sanluri. She said to visit the medieval church. That's it - no other recommendations.

In addition, my bike ride was punctuated by dogs chasing me, which didn't happen over the10 days I was in Posada and Orgosolo - all the dogs I saw were either sheep dogs doing their job guarding their sheep or dogs that were safely behind fences while their owners were away. But near Sanluri, I was chased by angry, unfulfilled dogs - twice! The first time, I startled the dog by yelling back at it, which worked marvelously. Shortly thereafter, I rode by an open gate at a property and thought, "Wow, that's nice that there aren't any dogs." Of course Murphy's law dictated that three dogs came at me with gusto after I thought that, and the yelling trick didn't work. Fortunately, I'm faster on the bike those dogs were at running.

I hatched a plan after encountering the dogs to leave Sanluri and book a place in the seaside town of Bosa, despite its location being a 90 minute drive in the wrong direction, (i.e. North). Upon arriving at my AirBNB Bosa that afternoon, I realized I had made the right choice. 

The beauty of Bosa at sunset from my AirBNB

My decision was further confirmed with my six course tasting menu dinner at Laconda di Corte - just look at these fantastic dishes, which tasted as good as they looked. In a day, I went from hoodwinked to sublime, and now I'm as happy in Bosa as I was disappointed in Sanluri!

Shrimp ravioli with zucchini

local tuna

Saeda

Fregula with mussels and clams

cuttlefish "spaghetti"

with bottarga and celery

Monkfish with beets and fava / broad beans

A few notes about the food:

• The tuna is local to Sardinia and has a distinctly different taste than the tuna we are used to eating elsewhere in the world. That tuna is often caught off the coast of Cape Ann near Boston, flash frozen by Japanese agents, and then sent to the Tsukiji market in Tokyo where it is sold off in the famous tuna auctions and then sent around the world.
• Saedas are a traditional Sardinian dessert pasta filled with cheese and served with honey. This along with the Fregola dish were the only traditional courses served at the dinner
• Fregula is a local Sardinian pasta
• Bottarga is the egg sac from the mullet fish found locally here. You can buy bottarga all over the island, and as it was served above, and at other places I have eaten it, it is typically sliced into small bite sized pieces. It is quite flavorful with a sharper taste closer to caviar than the roe you would typically have with a nigiri sushi. 

Some photos of the happy kitchen staff in action at Laconda di Corte

Plating that pulpo

Working hard in the kitchen

And finally some street scenes in Bosa I took on the way back from dinner

Bosa's Ponte Vecchio (yes, they really call it that)

The Fiume Temo river in Bosa at night

Diners outside in Bosa - not at the place I ate -
right around the corner from my AirBNB

A Fiat Panda lonely in the street

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And finally, in the spirit of the moment, a cat lady. Don't know if she is childless