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 - 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 - 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 - 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).