Text & Photo by Jill Gocher

It all started with a call from Mario Ciccone, the proprietor of Spaghetti Jazz who needed to be included in our restaurant listings. So after a gracious invitation to lunch, which we, of course, graciously accepted we went to test the menu.

With the rash of trendy new restaurants further up the road in deepest Seminyak, Mario's business is not quite as busy as it once was. But with his authentic, Italian style home cooking and probably Bali's best thin crust pizzas, there is no reason why it should be so. The restaurant looks typically traditional Italian rather than the minimalist contemporary style which prevails in trendy Seminyak eateries. But it makes for a charmingly retro backwater amongst the surrounding venues. Red umbrellas top the streetside tables and a nice dim interior hung with black and white pix of jazz players, shades you from the heat of the day.

We ordered lots of things to sample though we were spoiled for choice.
Salads and pizzas and pastas were the main offerings but some interesting
meat dishes also demanded our attention.

Mario Ciccone lives an interesting life and if his name sounds familiar, it is probably because he comes from the same family stock as Madonna! He makes an excellent host, regaling his guests with tales of his adventures and exploits through Asia. He has spent time in Thailand and Bangladesh as well as many years in Bali. His restaurant, which he runs with his jeweller wife, is his passion, which helps to make a balance with his business interests.

Mario too, is deeply involved in matters of the esoteric so lunch conversation revolved around our various brands of Buddhism, mystical experiences, and meditation, which all went very well with the home style minestrone. We tried the calzoncini fritti a kind of deep fried pizza pastry stuffed with tomato and mozzarella, mmm! What we didn't try included mozzarella in carozza – a fried bread with mozzarella and anchovies, and
the calamari fritti – a long time favourite.

Our enthusiastic host insisted we try the pizza and I am glad he did. The Pizza Margherita, just one off a page of choices, was light and cooked to perfection – impossible to stop with just one piece! Mario explained that this light and tasty kind of pizza is cooked the way it should be and generally you start to feel hungry again in about three hours – no doubt a good thing if you are a restaurateur!

Pasta followed – also cooked to al dente perfection. Ferry's aglio olio with chilli was good enough to eat, while Mario ordered his favourite spaghetti carbonara, explaining that the authentic version comes without cream. Made originally by the carbonari or Italian freedom fighters, they had no cream, but needed flavoursome food to keep their spirits up, while fighting the enemy. Cream or no cream, it was full of flavour and good taste.

Mario could see by looking at Ferry that she had some problem with her back, so amongst his many other skills, he knows how to crack the back, to move bones back into place, so he gave her neck a couple of quick manipulations and then he worked her back and she set off back to work like a new person.

We finished with grappa and expresso and although wine was an interesting option, lunch always goes better with a grappa I say.