Great food, great movie, no regrets

For the last couple of weeks we have been pining for chance to see Avatar, but of course, we had to see it in 3D and there are only two 3D cinemas in Christchurch. After all that waiting (and it was worth the wait) my man suggested a 'dinner and movie' extravaganza.

Yippeee! There is nothing more musical to my ears than when The Programmer says

'so.. where shall we go to dinner before the movie?'.

'Saggio di vino, thanks' .

I've had my eye on it for a while. You walk in over a glass panel that looks down into the depths of the enormous wine cellar. It's a bit scary, but the wine selection is appropriately vast.

Cab sav.

Entree. Seared scallops on a supremely tasty parsnip mash.

The programmers main. Venison with a kumara polenta.
My main. Monkfish on a fruity risotto. I really must try harder with fish. This was delicious.
I skipped dessert and went straight for a dessert wine. Pegasus bay encore. Oh yes. If you ever get a chance to try it, don't think twice.

What I really appreciated was that you could choose the wine in 'piccolo' size (75ml). Three glasses is only 225ml, or less than two regular, 125ml glasses. It's that 'more is less' psychology that works well for eating sensibly. Same with the food, it was huge on flavour and looked seductive and naughty, but really it was completely health and waistline friendly. I could have gone for the panna cotta and a creamy liquer coffee, but in my head, I knew I'd rather not ruin the meal and the movie and the post-movie conversation with post-dinner regret. Better to hold back just a little and let the meal stay right where it was eaten, at 8pm with fond memories, rather than dragging it on to 1am where it would undoubtedly turn nasty with an attack of panna cotta torment. You know how that goes....