I met former Herald colleague David Dale for lunch today. David is moderately famous. He writes a TV column for the Sun Herald, teaches journalism at the University of Technology Sydney and writes books.
He’s also an avid tweeter, you can follow him here where he posted pictures of our lunch before we ate it! 
David is always great company. We’ve had some legendary lunches in the past but this time we were relatively moderate in our alcohol intake and managed to walk, rather than fall, out of the restaurant. We had lots of travel tales to swap and a bit of gossip about former colleagues.
We were at Sagra restaurant in Stanley Street, Darlinghurst. It’s an Italian restaurant set up by a couple of former chefs from the famous Lucio’s restaurant. The food was wonderful and the wine was also good – with some interesting types. There was a Primitivo, 2012 Plantamura, Puglia, very nice. But I loved the Rosso Piceno – the largest DOC of the Marche region – because we’ve been there on holiday! We stayed with a friend in the Marche and went to Ascoli Piceno.
“The wine must be made from a minimum 60% Sangiovese, balanced by smaller portions of Montepulciano and the possibility of two white varieties, Trebbiano and Passerina.”
David and I shared all the food – starting with swordfish carpaccio + strips of zucchini in a tempura-like batter with honey. Then two pastas – octopus spaghetti with peas and ‘nduja + pappardelle with a ragu of beef shin. Followed by cheese and tiramisu. David is a tiramisu connoisseur (addict) and has very high standards. See his tweet for his verdict.
Very pleasant lunch. Must do it again.
