Review: Divido

The Wife and I have officially been together for 8 years, stretching all the way back to 10 February, 2004.  We were both 18 at the time, and to be honest, weren’t that into our food, beyond the odd ‘gourmet burger’ and Sunday yum cha.  I’m not entirely sure we even knew what degustation meant!  I think it’s fair to say that our tastes have evolved as we’ve become older (and as our disposable income also grew), but there’s always room in our lives for a trip to the local burger joint or dim sum house.

Keeping with our policy of sharing a nice dinner together instead of buying each other gifts, I decided that we should try out the degustation at Divido, after reading about it in the 2011 Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards.  As a modern Italian trattoria, chef Jason Jujnovich is known for his simple, uncomplicated food – and the idea of an Italian-themed degustation sounded intriguing.

It’s worth mentioning the location and decor of Divido.  Located on Scarborough Beach Road in Mount Hawthorn, Divido fits right in with the local favourite eateries, including Japanese tapas sensation Ha-Lu and sourdough-mecca New Norcia Bakeries.  In addition, if you fancy kicking on after dinner, The Cabin, a slick and trendy small bar, is all but a few steps away.  The interior of Divido is cosy, seating no more than 20 or so tables, with designer incandescent lights hanging in rows from the ceiling, their warm light reflected off copper sheets mounted on the walls and used as menu special boards.  The atmosphere is relaxed and the service friendly and engaging – everything you’d want to see from a high-end trattoria.

The first dish to arrive was a palate-cleansing cucumber gazpacho.  Cooling, refreshing yet silky smooth with a hint of creaminess, this was a nice spin on the traditional tomato version.  There’s something that just feels right about having soup at the start of a set menu – a very promising start to the proceedings!

When I was growing up, octopus wasn’t a huge part of my world of food – when it came to sea creatures with dangly tentacles, squid ruled my culinary ocean.  Whether it be deep fried tentacles smothered in a pile of herbs and chillies, or as part of a seafood combination claypot with tofu and vegetables, I loved (and still love) my squid.  That all said, I really enjoyed the octopus dish pictured below – what is essentially a zesty, summery, octopus salad.  The tomatoes were a highlight, absolutely exploding with flavour and blowing your average supermarket tomatoes out of the water.  I would have liked a little more chopped chilli, for that added touch of heat.

The highlight of the zucchini flowers dish had to be the risotto filling.  A mere teaspoonful (if that) placed delicately into each flower, the risotto left you wanting a big bowl more.  It provided a neat segway between the previous salad dish and the pasta to come, and it was refreshing to see zucchini flowers cooked in a way other than by frying in tempura batter.

I find it interesting that ‘puttanesca’ means ‘whorish’ in Italian (spaghetti alla puttanesca means ‘whore’s style spaghetti’) – which ultimately means that puttanesca sauce translates into ‘whorish sauce’.  An appetising thought, isn’t it?  Don’t let the name put you off however, as this pasta dish was fantastic.  The slow cooked lamb shank absolutely melts in your mouth, as you bite through the delicate, al dente pasta shell and the puttanesca sauce just tops it all off.  Who would have known that prostitutes could have come up with such a great pasta dish?

It’s quail, braised until it’s almost fall off the bone tender, in a rich garlic, parsley and saffron sauce (picada is a seasoning sauce that originates from the Catalan region in Spain), with roast spuds and some leaves of crunchy purple lettuce.  What more do you want?

I reckon you could probably see this plate as a Jackson Pollock-esque work hanging on a wall in some metro art gallery.  Okay, maybe not, because the raspberry sorbet would have fallen off (and nothing is sadder than dropping ice-cream/sorbet).  The wafer-thin cannoli shell would also be lying on the floor in bits with sinfully good moscato cream melting everywhere.  Not to mention the fact that gallery visitors might accidentally step on the chocolate and pistachio crumble, which would be hazardous and cause loud, delicious crunching noises.  Yeah, you are definitely better off eating this one than looking at it.  Make that definitely – the dish of the night.

Of course we had to say yes to the ‘optional’ cheese course – it was never going to be ‘optional’ for us!  The cheese is ‘bra duro’, which to me sounds a bit like a really sturdy piece of lingerie, but in actual fact was a delicious, semi-hard cheese hailing from the town of Bra, in Northern Italy.  I couldn’t work out what the gelatinous clear gel in the corner of the cheese board is – does anyone have any ideas?

Un-divido-ed opinion: A cosy trattoria offering a modern twist on Italian fare with bubbly, attentive service, Divido is certainly worthy of your time and attention.