I’m happy to share with you that the good people at S. Pellegrino have offered a $150 gift certificate for Food With Legs readers to win. The gift certificate is for Chef Mark McEwan’s Fabbrica restaurant in the Shops at Don Mills. Contest details are below.
It’s a fairly open secret around these part that I was once a very picky eater. So much so that maybe ten years ago when I had my first veal parmigiana sandwich from Mustachio’s at St. Lawrence Market I felt like I was pushing my limits. I figured that if I was going to go as far as a sandwich in the basement of a market I might as well go further and add an Aranciata (orange-flavoured) San Pellegrino. My taste in food has progressed well beyond Mustachio’s but I still think of San Pellegrino as adding an authentic sophistication to casual Italian food.
Comment below with your first or favourite San Pellegrino restaurant memory by Friday, February 4, 2011 at 5 PM eastern. The winner will be randomly selected from comments made before the deadline. Please leave your email in the appropriate field so that I can get in touch with you if you win but these will not be shared publicly. One entry per person.
Update: Using the random number generator at random.org I determined that the winner of the $150 gift certificate to Mark McEwan’s Fabbrica was entry 25 of 27. Colleen C.’s comment was one of the more romantic ones:
Having San Pellegrino at a street side restaurant during our honeymoon in Rome was absolutely sublime. We stock it at our house, just to take us back to Rome!
Congratulations, Colleen, and thanks everyone for entering.
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It was my 1st visit to Rome: sightseeing (by foot) and stopped at one of those kiosks and asked for a water. Three thousand lira later, sipped on a San Pelegrino and it tasted so good!
Tried the flavoured ones while travelling around Europe. Became addicted to San Pellegrino’s Chino & Limonata
I’m not sure I need to go into too much detail about my love of bubbly anything, so for the love of my liver San P is a great alternative to bubbles that damage.
The only way we can get our 3 kids to agree to go to an Indian restaurant is to bribe, I mean, promise them s.p. limonata. So to me San Pellegrino is synonymous with Indian food!
San Pellegrino always reminds me of the cottage. For as long as I can remember it’s been a staple at our dinner table. It makes me think of warm summer nights, surrounded by family and good food overlooking the lake
San Pellegrino Chinotto and a veal sandwich are a perfect pair, IMO, just like chocolate and PB. They just go.
Sitting at Cafe de Paris in Monte Carlo over a plate of oysters
S. Pellegrino + Pizza = Italian Deliciousness. The Limonata is so tasty and satisfying. In fact, I may need to change my dinner plans. Thanks for the inspiration!
San Pellegrino reminds me of my parents, actually, who sold it in their store. As a treat, I would grab a limonata and enjoy its refreshing deliciousness. So San Pellegrino reminds me of love and reminds me of how hardworking my parents are.
Another memory is from Seattle, and a dinner where I got carded! It was a nice night out with tasty samosas and other nice food at the Dahlia Lounge. San Pellegrino water with a lime wedge is delicious!
When I first travelled to Rome as a backpacker at 19, one of the first questions I was asked was “gaz ou no gaz”. I read up beforehand on the trusty Lonely Planet, and did as the Romans did. Gaz, San Pellegrino. A good intro to Italy.
Wow, Rome, Monte Carlo, Seattle, and of course here at home. Thanks for all the responses so far. The contest is open until Friday at 5 PM so if you haven’t entered please do so and if you have please pass the link along to friends.
First time I tried Chinotto at a place called “Al Fresco” in Rundle Street, Adelaide in the early 1990s. We all felt so sophisticated, us university kids drinking our fancy names drinks
Still love the stuff now! And Al Fresco must have done something right cos they are still there all these years later!
My favourite memory of San Pellegrino was our family trip to Rome when I was 10.
I don’t remember the first time that I had Aranciata but growing up in Little Italy I’m pretty sure I was very young. Now whenever I go to an Italian restaurant I always have the urge to get an Aranciata.
I drink Limonata every chance I get. Favourite memory? Last spring, on the first warm day, escaped the office with some friends from work and got paninis and Limonatas and Italian cookies for dessert from a little take-out place in Yorkville. Sat in the sun on the big rock in the park there and imagined it was already summer…..
San Pelligrino reminds me of my first job. One of my coworkers always insisted on having it when we went out for lunch, and never understood why until I tried it!
My first memory of San Pellegrino was when one of my first serious boyfriends took me for an amazing dinner out at a rustic and lively Italian restaurant. I couldn’t believe how delicious the sparkling water was and have been drinking San P ever since! It always seems like a treat, even if I drink it every day
I don’t know if it qualifies as a single favourite memory, but my best SP experience is my mom ordering it without fail in restaurants. She always equates sparking = a night out, and there’s always a bottle for her, often in addition to the table’s. An unrecognized brand is met with a questioning glance, and other’s mild disgust when they arrive. San Pellegrino always meets with the same approving grin.
San Pellegrino reminds me of times spent enjoying an aranciata or chinotto with a veal sandwich at Nino D’Aversa bakery in Toronto.
A very fond memory a couple years ago in L’Aquila, Italy. I grabbed a San Pelligrino and a pizzetta at a small Pasticceria and enjoyed both while sitting outside people watching.
Normally, I don’t like fizzy water. However, I was recently dining on a sailboat where San Pelligrino was the only option. I will never turn it down again.
Back in the late 90′s, I spent a year working as a farmhand at a small winery in the Veneto – Valpolicella, to be precise. After long days spent in the fields tending to the vines, the staff would always make a point of dining together. Most days it would be in the winery kitchen, but on special occasions we would make the trip to a small village in the Monti Lessini foothills near Verona, where an old italian woman ran a restaurant out of the ground floor of her house. The food she cooked was simple northern Italian fare, but the ingredients were always fresh and her cooking would match any top chef. Every meal started with several bottles of San Pellegrino to quench the thirst built up over the long days of work. To this day I associate San Pellegrino with good food, good wine, and good friends enjoying time together.
Any summer on the patio drinking Pellegrino with my Dad is a great memory
not a fan of carbonated water, but i am sure i have had it in drinks
My first experience with San Pellegrino was at the rehearsal dinner for my best friend 10 years ago! Good memories!
Having San Pellegrino at a street side restaurant during our honeymoon in Rome was absolutely sublime. We stock it at our house, just to take us back to Rome!
Remember it fondly as the only beverage we drank, other than wine and cappuccinos, on our trip to Italy (which was not only the first time I’d been to that country, but was also the first ‘real’ vacation my husband and I took together).
My favourite memory of drinking San Pellegrino is easy — three years ago I decided to pursue a lifelong dream to open my own art gallery (despite having no experience doing so). It took a lot of hard work, money and some tears along the way but I made it happen. I served San Pellegrino at my grand opening and felt like I was on cloud nine.
The pleasure of pleasures after 3 days of Inca Trail to Machu Picchu only with gatorade and snacks. After crossing mountains and forest in the upper door taste my cool pellegrino limonata without glass seeing their total magnitude Machu Picchu at my feet …
I dont have a Pellegrino memory – but I would like to have one. Does this count? Hope so.
Thanks for commenting, Vicky and Ruben but I’m afraid the contest has already closed and a winner has been chosen.