Fish Can Wait

The only times I enjoy eating fish is when I am close to a sea or at least a big lake. Travelling to Trieste for the first time, I was looking forward to a few “white wine and fish” days in contrast to my more common “beer and pork” days. Unfortunately, today, on my very first evening in Trieste, my plans were not to be realized.

The problem was, The Master of Arms’ (the tavern’s name in English) beers were too exciting to ignore. There were seven of them on tap, including a strong imperial stout, and some 20 bottled sorts, the names of most of them unknown to me. The second problem was, the menu had plenty of interesting dishes with funny names, but no fish at all. Well, I thought, fish can wait – and ordered spare ribs.

At 15 euros for a large portion, the Master’s ribs were very cheap, but keep in mind that that money only brings you plain ribs with something unidentifiable (overbaked onions?) on top of them – no sides, no vegetables, not even a sauce. According to the waitress, the ribs were well-seasoned to not require a sauce, but that was not really true. The seasoning helped reduce the pig taste, but did not eliminate it completely. Besides, the ribs had been cooked far too slowly, reducing them to pulled pork on bones.

Fortunately, the restaurant’s list of homemade sauces was almost as long as its beer list, and at one euro per bowl (the bowl was ridiculously big) they were very cheap too. The “ass-kicking” sauce that I chose was good, but far too hot, killing the taste of everything I was dipping into it. The baked potatoes and the coleslaw salad were great, on the other hand – more enjoyable than the meat, actually.

Still, I really liked The Master of Arms and should I visit Trieste again, I would go there straight away. If anyone from the restaurant is reading this, here is how they could make the ribs significantly better with no work at all: 1) serve some potatoes and coleslaw with the dish by default; 2) provide very small portions of, say, three different sauces; 3) raise the price to 22-24 euros. The ribs will become a much more accomplished dish, while remaining relatively inexpensive not to scare customers off.