Food Pics from Italy - Introduction

I went on a business trip to Florence last month, to the jealousy of my wife.



Business in Florence? Did I quit software and go into the tourism business, you ask? No actually, you won't believe the large number of precision engineering firms near Florence. It's like Boston, only with an 800-plus-year-old downtown core graced by the most beautiful renaissance palaces and sculptures on every block. So yes, my first ever trip to Europe, and I ended up in beautiful Firenze.



In any case, business is seldom the sole purpose of my business trips. There's always a chance to immerse fully into the culinary experience of the region. And that, my friends, is the purpose of this series of posts.

But first, a few pictures as a tribute to the beauty of Firenze - the most beautiful city I have ever visited.



Beautiful Ponte Vecchio over River Arno. Sunset in springtime brought lovely reddish hues and pleasant greenery to my last afternoon in Firenze.



The Duomo amid a sea of red roof tiles from the top of the Campanile - the quintessential portrait of Firenze you likely see in tourist brochures. Climbing the 400-or-so steps is definitely not for those with a fear of height -- or of cramped space.



Angels and demons on the ceiling of the Galleria at Palazzo Medici Riccardi. I sat on the floor for over half an hour to admire this ceiling, as I personally enjoyed it more than the ceiling of the Duomo, which was also beautiful but scary to look downward.



Milan v. Livorno, a smoke-filled Serie A match at the mecca of Italian football. Visiting Stadio San Siro has been a longtime fancy of mine.



And finally, I saw Filippo Inzaghi up close! Milan 2 : 0 Livorno. With the last Italy striker position on the line, Super Pippo scored both goals while fellow World Cup squad contender Lucarelli scored none. This cemented Inzaghi's selection into the eventual World-Cup-winning Azzurri team. Forza Milan!

Food Pics from Italy - The Nine-Course Feast

My "business" trip ended up being two and a half days of meetings sandwiched in the midst of five days of sightseeing - no complains from me. On the first day of meetings our Italian colleagues asked us to join them for dinner the next day. Being a diligent engineer, the colleague responsible for organizing this dinner brought us a "shortlist" of about 50 good restaurants in Firenze and the surrounding areas, all classified by cuisine types, neighborhood etc. I just love the Italians' seriousness about food. What about a short-shortlist, I wondered?

At the end it was decided that we would go to a place with a picturesque view on the hillside of Fiesole. Ristorante Le Lance was a modern, romantic-looking restaurant on a winding road about a 30 minute drive from Firenze in non-rush hour traffic. Of course rush hour was much more unpredictable and my team-lead barely escaped being crushed by a bus. But that's a different story.

Our meals at Firenze typically seemed to start with an Antipasto, then the Primi Piatti which was usually pasta or risotto, then the Secondi Piatti which was the main course, and finally the Dolce. On this night however, our gracious hosts decided to REALLY throw a feast and so we started...with three Antipastos:



First, a platter of various cured meats, cheese and fresh grapes. The prosciutto was very good.



Vegetables in olive oil. Another one of the three antipastos.

The third antipasto was a toast with liver pate and tomatoes, which I forgot to photograph.



By this time I was half full for sure, but the feast continued on with three primos. The first of which looked like Pici with some sort of meat sauce.



Then came the ravioli with a really heavy meat sauce. I thought I couldn't continue on much longer.



And then, the king of the Primi Piattis. A spaghettini with seafood in white wine sauce. Every strand of the pasta was infused with the flavor of shrimps. And look at the size of that crayfish - a bite into those huge claws yielded a mouthful of juice with the powerful taste of fresh shrimp. That "shrimpy" taste was stronger than any other shrimp or prawn or crayfish I have ever eaten elsewhere. And I haven't even started mentioning the clams and mussels and prawns yet...



That was surely the best pasta dish I've ever had.



So I was already full even without the Secondi Piatti. Considering us being first time visitors to Florence, our Italian colleagues ordered for us the famous Florentine beef steak - Bistecca alla Fiorentina. This one wasn't the traditional T-bone, but closer to a rib steak. A well-broiled, succulent, medium rare steak.



As if we're still not having enough, the waiter brought on a second Secondo - a plate of deep fried vegetables for a balanced diet.



Finally, the Dolce. I was surprised I still had just enough room for dessert. Luckily our colleagues ordered something light - a lemon sorbetto to wash the oiliness off the palate.

Aside from the food we also had 10 or so bottles of Chianti wine. I wish my division is this generous in our company dinners.

Food Pics from Italy - Wild Boar, Rabbit Meat, and Other Curious Fares

On the flight to Milan I was fortunate to be seated beside an intensely talkative Italian-Canadian guy named Francesco (yes I do mean fortunate, you cynics!). So it displaced several hours of uncomfortable sleep with nine straight hours of talk, but I didn't mind as I learned much about the Italian national passion for food and football from a great guy who loved both.

According to Francesco he was quite a footballer in his day (even trying out for a couple of Serie A teams in his early 20's), but mostly he left me the impression as a genuine lover of food, an attribute clearly verifiable from his waistline. We traded favorite food recipes and recommendations about exotic items in the traditional gourmet of our home countries. Well worthwhile for myself at least, as I took his advice to find wild boar and rabbit meat during my trip. I'm not sure though if he intended to take my advice to try chicken feet and snake soup on his next visit to Toronto's Chinatown.



So one night after work, I spent a good 45 minutes scouring the streets of downtown Florence for a restaurant menu that presented wild boar (cinghiale). It turned out that wild boar meat was not as easy to find as Francesco said; many restaurants served dishes with wild boar sauce but few served the meat itself. At the end I concluded the search successfully at a little ristorante called Semidivino, a few blocks west of the Duomo.



This is Cinghiale alla Maremmana (Wild Boar of Maremma), which was wild boar meat stewed with olives and tomato puree. I thought the meat actually tasted more like red meat than pork, with a strong game flavor, and the meat fibres were very thick. The meat was very well stewed to take out the toughness of the meat -- that must have taken a whole day of stewing.



My wife wasn't very surprised when I told her on the phone about having wild boar -- for her it would be a real surprise if my food stories fail to surprise. But telling her about having rabbit on my dinner plate was a different thing. I guess you're less lovable when you're 200 kg and grunts and have two giant canines sticking out of your snout, but if you're cuddly and furry and soft, women just can't help falling for you.

Anyway, rabbit meat was much easier to find. Probably one in four restaurants I visited in Florence served rabbit. I ended up having a very enjoyable dish of rabbit meat medallions at the restaurant inside Novotel Firenze Nord Aeroporto where I stayed.



Medaglioni di Coniglio. It was a thick slice of a roasted rabbit skin pouch stuffed with rabbit meat and eggs (chicken eggs, not rabbit eggs!). The rabbit was a soft, fine textured white meat and was very succulent. Wonderful dish from an otherwise nondescript hotel.



What's this you ask? Not quite a main course, but certainly worthy of mention in the context of Fiorentine cuisine. This is a sandwich filled with Trippa (beef tripes) served at the famous Nerbone at Florence's central market. I specifically came here for the Trippa since I'm a fan of beef tripes at Chinese Dim Sum places. This turned out to be entirely small intestines, a little too fatty for my taste.



Nerbone at the Mercato Centrale in Firenze, an old plebeian establishment at a corner of the market. They also serve pork sandwiches for those who may be uncomfortable with chomping down cow intestines.

Food Pics from Italy - The Famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina

When I asked people about any particular dish that I must try when I get to Florence, most said Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the Florentine beef steak.

Before the trip I had little idea what made this dish so special. And after the trip I still have no clue. All I know is that it is something a tourist MUST be recommended to try, just like Frites in Belgium, Wagyu Beef in Kobe or Clam Chowder in New England. To make this a thoroughly enjoyable experience I even did a fair amount of restaurant research before I set out. I ended up picking a relatively famous restaurant (it's even recommended by Fodor’s), a century-old establishment in a quiet corner of downtown Firenze, a modest trattoria rumoured to be the oldest in the city and having served patrons in the like of John Steinbeck.



Trattoria Sostansa. I had so much trouble locating this place, as it seemed like another dark little shop on another little alley without a street sign. I didn't even know I was in the right alley until a mounted policeman passed by this deserted street. The sun was beginning to set at 19:00, and with the trattoria opening at 19:30 and no line-up at the door, I decided to take a 30 minute walk along the river bank. When I came back sharply at 19:30 though, the entire trattoria was all filled with hungry patrons and I barely squeezed into the last seat. Scores of people came after me only to be turned away or to be registered for the 21:30 seating. And this was only a Monday evening.



The trattoria was small and somewhat cramped. I was seated with an older American couple who tried to involve me in their conversation for the entire duration of the meal while I did my best to oblige. The wife ordered a chicken breast in butter, which she despised but looked and smelled wondrous to me. The husband ordered a Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the size of which convinced me to skip the Primi Piatti.



For antipasto, most wonderful prosciutto I've ever had. Check out my Prosciutto tribute page.



Then the long awaited second course came. Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the famed T-bone steak named after this beautiful city. Is it worthy of its name?

The first bite was, well, nothing special. This would be confirmed by the subsequent bites, many of which were made necessary by the toughness of the steak, especially on the strip loin side of the T-bone. The tenderloin side was better: medium rare, juicy, and relatively tender, but it was still quite ordinary. I had expected more from a restaurant of this level of reputation.



The Dolce was exceptional however - a dessert lover's crème meringue pie. It was exactly how a meringue pie should be, a delicious contrast where the meringue was crunchy and crumbly while the crème was silky and soft.

Maybe it was just a tough cut of meat, I thought. I would be dissatisfied to take home this impression of Bistecca alla Fiorentina, and so I had to try this famous steak one more time at a finer restaurant. I got my chance two nights later, when my Italian colleagues treated our team to a tremendous feast at Le Lance Ristorante in Fiesole.



This is it, my second chance. Not a T-bone this time, but a beautifully grilled rib steak nonetheless. A flavorful and juicy steak, as you would expect from a restaurant of this price range, but not outstanding either. In fact, I still cannot distinguish the difference between Bistecca alla Fiorentina from a regular North American T-bone steak.

As you can tell I'm somewhat disappointed. I still look forward to a meal in the future where I'll taste a Bistecca alla Fiorentina that distinguishes itself from the T-bones of the rest of the world. But until then, this steak is still lower in my book than a regular North American prime rib, and certainly nowhere near the level of a Kobe or Matsuzaka steak (see my Japan travel blog here).

Food Pics from Italy - Seafood!

I must admit to have seriously underestimated the seafood available in Florence and Milan.

Since neither city is on the coast, I reasoned that I should stick to the more traditional Tuscan offering of meat and fresh vegetables. Italian seafood should be saved, I thought, for a future trip to the south of Italy perhaps. But I would soon receive my lesson when I saw...



Holy crap...as my boss asked, what IS that huge thing, a lobster? I still can't figure out whether that was a crayfish or just an enormous prawn. All I know is that this thing contained the strongest, most concentrated shrimp flavor I've ever tasted in my life, inside those gigantic claws. The meat in the tail was a little limp and unimpressive, but the juices inside those claws make this one of the most extraordinary shrimp/prawn/crayfish in the memory of this seafood fanatic.



There were also the mussels, clams and calamari of course, and the pasta absorbed up all that incredible flavor. The prawn was one of the best I've had, but the pasta dish was certainly the best I've ever had.



My other fantastic encounter with seafood was in Milan, on the night before I left Italy. I stumbled into this little trattoria called Porta Renza, just a few blocks south of the Milano Centrale station. It was an unforgettable dish of mussels and clams in Napolitane sauce.



I'm usually not a big fan of mussels, as the meat is usually tougher and the flavor is usually not as sweet as those of scallops, oysters, clams etc. As the menu said "Vongole o Cozze Napolitane" (clams or mussels in Napolitane sauce, according to my very limited Italian vocabulary), I ordered clams only. But when it came, it was a big bowl of clams *and* mussels in a light tomato broth. That's fine, I thought, let's try some Italian mussels then...



I ended up having the best mussels in my life. The mussels were perfectly, slightly undercooked, and so soft that the meat required no more chewing than a scallop. The Napolitane broth was brilliant as well, strong-tasting but not overpowering the sweetness of the clams and mussels. And the most incredible part was that it cost just 7 Euros.



Just out of adventurous curiosity I also ordered an anchovy pizza, foolishly proving to myself once again that I REALLY don't like anchovies.



This was the only other time I had mussels in Italy, but the plain mussels were outclassed by the chewy pasta. I forget what this kind of pasta was called (please tell me if you know). This was at the restaurant inside Novotel Firenze Nord Aeroporto where I stayed.



Baby squids and olives in tomato puree, also at Novotel Firenze Nord Aeroporto. The sauce overpowered the flavor of the squids, which were overcooked anyway.

Food Pics from Italy - Hmmm Prosciutto...

I developed quite a penchant for Prosciutto during this trip.

Being quite unfamiliar with Italian cuisine, it was only about three years ago when I first tasted prosciutto at a local culinary school. I thought it was just dry salted ham, thinly sliced and served only as antipasto. Now I know how wrong I was...



Prosciutto was the first thing I ate as I arrived in Italy on a bright early Sunday morning. I took the Malpensa Express to Milano Centrale train station and barely missed getting a ticket for the next Eurostar Italia train to Firenze - actually the only seat I could buy was for one of the last first-class seats available on the next next train. With more than an hour to spare, I went to a nearby caffeteria to find out what the locals eat for breakfast.



First breakfast upon arriving at Milano -- prosciutto in a cornetto and a cappuccino, consumed while standing at the counter of course, just to save a Euro or two. The prosciutto was a little dry, but what can one expect at a stand-up caffeteria? The barista was noticeably amused as I took out the camera for a photo. I would be too, if a foreign tourist comes to Canada and starts taking pictures of a Tim Hortons donut.

But the best prosciutto I had was two days later at a century-old eatery in Firenze, at the unadorned but famous Trattoria Sostansa.



I'll go into more details about this little eatery on the Bistecca alla Fiorentina page. Anyway it's a small, old, nondescript neighborhood trattoria, inconspicuously hidden inside an old alley in an unremarkable part of downtown Florence. It opens sharply at 19:30 for its first dinner seating. I arrived at 19:00 to find the alley almost empty, and when I came back at 19:35, I was greeted by a full house and was seated at the last available seat, to the disappointment of the party walking in just behind me. Lesson learned: get there around 19:00 and wait.



Look at this beautiful prosciutto and feel the moistness of this succulent meat. This was definitely the best of any cured meat of any nationality that I have ever tasted. It was savory with the right amount of saltiness, cured but moist, chewy but soft. Incredible.



Three days later I had some more prosciutto, this time at a company dinner at Ristorante Le Lance at Fiesole. I didn't take a close-up photo this time. The prosciutto was quite good, but not as wonderful and moist as Sostanza's, and I was distracted by all the other dishes on the table (see full description here).

I also had various pastas and pizzas with prosciutto as toppings, but none would be as memorable as the prosciutto at Trattoria Sostansa.

Food Pics from Italy - Summer Truffles and Porcini

I’m a big fan of mushrooms, from Shiitake to Porcini. I especially love dried mushrooms which in most cases condense and enhance the flavors. Going to Firenze, I told myself, I was going to have a great time sampling mushroom-based sauces in the Tuscan culinary tradition.

And so a great time I had. For in Firenze, you can hardly find any restaurant not serving at least a few Primo and Secondo dishes using mushroom-based sauces. Going with traditional Tuscan dishes, I indulged in a good number of porcini and tartufo (truffles) courses.



This was an incredible white truffle sauce, served at Osteria Flexo across from Mercato Centrale in downtown Florence. The chicken breast was a little dry and passable, but the sauce was way out of this price range. You could actually taste the white truffle chunks in the sauce, and the flavor of the sauce was just unbelievable. The portion of sauce was so generous I think I used it for the chicken breast, as a salad dressing, and as a dip for the frites. And for merely €12! Certainly I'd never had the extravagance of having white truffles as a dipping sauce for French fries.



Ravioli in a truffle sauce. This was at Osteria All'Antico Mercato, just a few blocks east of the San Lorenzo. The sauce was unremarkable - I could barely taste any truffle in this dish.



More mushrooms and porcini, this time in a risotto. This was also at Osteria All'Antico Mercato. This was better than the ravioli above.



Ravioli in a porcini sauce, at a little Ristorante called Semidivino, just a couple blocks from the Duomo. Hmm...I'm falling in love with the woody flavor of porcini.



Even more ravioli in porcini sauce! This was at Trattoria Mamma Gina, on the other side of the River Arno. Not as good as the dish at Semidivino.



On my last day in Firenze I went to the Mercato Centrale to bring home some dried porcini and black truffles (tartufo nero, as I learned from the shopkeepers). Summer black truffles cost about €13 for a 40 gram jar, and dried porcini cost €5 per 100 grams. I must have spent €70 or so just on truffles and porcini for myself, my parents and parents-in-law.



Wonderful porcini and truffles. I'm so looking forward to them.

Food Pics from Italy - Pasta, Risotto, Pizza

This is a tribute page to the many wonderful Primo dishes during my trip - pastas, risottos and pizzas. This trip really renewed my fondness for pastas, and as I recall the luscious tastes and smells from the trip, two most enjoyable pasta dishes come to mind.



One is the signature dish of Trattoria Mamma Gina - the Cannelloni Mamma Gina. Situated at the other side of the River Arno, this trattoria was quite crowded on Friday night. This dish was the perfect combination of the alluring aroma of the melted cheeses and the melt-in-the-mouth softness of the meat stuffing, served sizzling fresh from the oven. Surely a dish of fats and cholesterols, but what is life without such pleasures?



The other is this plate of seafood pasta in white wine sauce at Ristorante Le Lance at Fiesole. I think this was the best pasta dish I've ever had, as the flavor of the seafood permeated each strand of the pasta. The clams and mussels were fresh, and the huge crayfish was just incredibly juicy. See my Nine-Course Feast page for a better description of this meal.



Ravioli in a meat sauce, also at Le Lance.



Pici(?) in a tomato based sauce, also at Le Lance.



Ravioli in a truffle sauce at Osteria All'Antico Mercato in Firenze.



Risotto ai Funghi, also at All'Antico Mercato.



Ravioli in Porcini sauce at Ristorante Semidivino. This was quite good.



More ravioli in Porcini sauce, from Trattoria Mamma Gina.



Linguine with salmon and lumpfish caviar at the restaurant inside Novotel Firenze Nord Aeroporto.



I forget what this pasta was called - please tell me if you know. Baby mussels and artichokes accompanied this wonderful chewy pasta.



Risotto alla Milanese - the famous risotto of Milan with its signature saffron sauce. This was at Castello Ristorante, just a few blocks from the castle of Sforza in central Milan. The flavoring was too weak for my taste.



Pizza ai Funghi, also at Castello Ristorante. The pizza dough was better than the toppings.



Finally, an anchovy pizza at Ristorante Porta Renza near the Repubblica metro station in Milan. Sometimes I just can't help making bad decisions on culinary adventures.