Using Your Noodle – The Vegetarian Edition

Good morning chicklets:

If you are seeking solace in the form of starch, you might want to make Pagliacci’s your go to destination. The iconic Victoria eatery has been dishing up sustaining, Italian-American cuisine to carb crazed Victorians for decades.  It is a veritable institution.

Now, we don’t know about you, but whenever we head to Pagliacci’s, we invariably eat too much of their bread.  Pag’s foccacia, oven warm, flecked with herbs and a smattering of kosher salt, is justifiably legendary.  It takes herculean willpower not to devour the entire basket and ask plaintively, Oliver Twist style, “please waiter, may I have some more?”

Because we need to delay our food coma long enough to waddle home, and in the interest of feeling comfortably sated and not overstuffed as grandma’s sofa, we routinely select a dish from Pag’s varied and appealing vegetarian pasta menu. The Manhattan Transfer (all Pag’s dishes are named after iconic movies)  egg fettucini topped with basil pesto, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and fontina fits the bill. We love the combination of crunchy pine nuts, earthy mushrooms and emerald green pesto, piquant and garlicky enough to keep vampires away.   Alternately, the Ravioli Paradiso – pillowy ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach and topped with sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, and gorgonzola is an unusual and delicious concoction ideal for blue cheese fanatics (you know who you are!). If you’d like to add an additional serving of greens to round out your meal, a side salad rings in at just $3.50, a wallet friendly price that gets Paltry Pete, Horsing Around’s value oriented rooster’s, stamp of approval.

As with all good things, Pag’s routinely has a line-up, but it tends to move quickly, and once you are seated,  food will arrive with supernatural efficiency.  Half sized portions are substantial, making Pag’s an ideal venue for a casual date night for lovelorn, cash-strapped lotharios.  Just be sure to leave yourself hungry enough for amorous activities.  After all, Italian food is the food of love. Dino didn’t croon “That’s Amore” for nothing!

We hope you’ll find your own noodle nirvana on the island.  Do you have a favourite destination in which indulge your inner gluten glutton? Visit our Facebook or Twitter page and tell Uncle Monty about it.

In the meantime, keep using your noodle chiclets!  And have a great weekend.

Love Paltry Pete, and the rest of the gang at Horsing Around H.Q.