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Eating San Gimignano – La Griglia

Jul08

Restaurant: Ristorante La Griglia

Location: San Gimignano, Italy

Date: June 16, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan Tourist

Rating: Mediocre

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We visited San Gimignano, as nearly all tourists in our part of Tuscany do.

This is an interesting town, fairly unique in that it is filled with medieval “skyscrapers” (watch towers) which seemed to have been some kind of antique masonry version of keeping up with the Joneses (or Jocominis in this case). Because of this unusual attraction the town is a bit over touristed, but it’s still worth visiting.

We chose a lunch place at random, which did in general work very well on this trip, but in this cast ended us up with the second worst genuine lunch of the month. I’ll exclude a couple of quickie stops at Panini places to grab a ham and cheese that are not worthy of the Eating Italy blog.

Here is a tuna salad, more or less a kind of Salade Niçoise. With anchovies too.

Pizza Margherita. Probably frozen, the crust tasted like cardboard.

A salad with ham.

Minestrone soup. Not even close to as good as the one at Trattoria Pepei or Pizzeria Il Rifugio (another random lunch pick).

Spaghetti pomodoro. Looks like what it is, mediocre.

Meat tortellini in ragu. This was tolerable, but fairly uninspired.

Pizza fungi (mushroom) with ham/prosciutto. Mediocre crust and ingredients.

Overall, this place was just mediocre. Not that it was even really that bad, but considering the sea of excellent meals over the month, and the fact that many random lunch picks were very enjoyable (like Lo Sfizio di Bianchi) it was just catering to tourists and weak.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chianti, Cooking, Italian cuisine, Italy, Pizza, San Gimignano, Siena, Travel and Tourism, Tuscany, Vernaccia

Eating Tuscany – Boar at Home

Jun27

Location: Tuscany, Italy

Date: June 12, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

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During our day in Siena we picked up a few supplies.

Most notably, at the sign of the Cinghiale, the Tuscan wild boar.

This funny little gourmet shop sells all sorts of big products — plus some cheese and wine.

The don’t allow photos, but I stole this one of the inside. Zoome in and check out the salesman and his mustache!

Back at our temporary “home” we opened this old Barbaresco. One of my brother’s friends in Milano had given it to him thinking it wouldn’t be good anymore — being almost 40 years old — but lo and beyond it was delicious.

We did have to decant it to seperate out the sediment, but I managed to extract the cork (in 2 pieces) without loosing any.

At the boar shop we picked up two kinds of pecorino, this fresher one.

And this aged “good with old wine” one.

We also got some of this boar salami, pure wild pig mixed with Brunello!

And this “Panna Rustico” which is hearty bread with pecorino and pancetta baked into it. What more could you want with a nice old Italian wine but variants of pig and cheese?

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Barbaresco, Cheese, Cinghiale, eating-italy, Florence, Italian cuisine, Italy, Pecorino, Salami, Siena, Tuscany, Wild boar, Wine

Eating Siena – Trattoria Pepei

Jun26

Restaurant: Trattoria Pepei

Location: Siena, Italy

Date: June 12 & 19, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

Rating: Delicious & Fun!

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Our first full day in tuscany and we went into Siena. We selected a restaurant the night before using Michelin, picking a centrally located one that earned a bib gourmet.

Trattoria Papei which is located in the piazza Mercato right behind the Campos.

They have an extensive terrace area under a network of awnings and umbrellas.

The menu.

We ordered this local, inexpensive, and very pleasant chianti classico reserva. Parker gives it 90 points. “The 2007 Chianti Classico Riserva Il Grigio (Sangiovese) comes across as soft and pliant, very much in the style of the vintage. A warm, open bouquet leads to succulent ripe cherries, flowers and spices, all of which flow through nicely to the enveloping finish. Today the juiciness of the fruit makes Il Grigio very attractive, but readers who prefer more tertiary complexity will want to wait for a few years. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2017. “

A typical (you’ll here this word a lot here) Tuscan anti-pasta: mixed bruschetta. Here are tomato and marinated mushrooms, both delicious.

Melon with Prosciutto di Toscana.

More cured meats and bruschetta. The brown mud like stuff is chicken liver. The round salami is Finnochiona, a typical (again) local salami with a bit of fennel and pepper inside.

A truly excellent Zuppe Minestrone. The vegetables maintained their shape, but were cooked wuch that they melt in the mouth.

Tuscan bread and vegetable (mostly tomato) soup.

The kitchen is run my mama, literally.

Spaghetti pomodoro.

Pappardelle al Ragu Di Cinghiale! Wild boar strikes again.

Tagliatelle with ragu Toscana (mixed meat ragu probably).

Tagliatelle with duck ragu. This was deep and meaty. There must have been some duck liver in the sauce too.

Penne pomodoro.

Cheese ravioli with marinated mushroom sauce.

Pici (homemade local pasta) with cheese and pepper. This is a very simple dish, but when done right, as it was here, it’s amazing! The bright black papper flavor stands out. They have this now at Sotto, a new rustic Italian in LA.

Gnocchi pomodoro. The gnocchi here were soft and delicious, although not quite as good as the ones the first night in Modena.

Gnocchi with butter and sage.

Mixed salad (again).

Another salad, arugala or rocket with tomatos.

Pounded veal in lemon sauce. I’m not a big veal fan but this was good.

BBQ Ribs, Tuscan style. These were not unlike spare ribs at a chinese restaurant. They were a bit chewier than I was used too as the flavorful Tuscan pigs are leaner and free range, and the Italians don’t nuke the meat.

Delicious potatoes in a tomato sauce.

Pounded veal in a mushroom sauce — also excellent.

Chicken Cacciatore.

And at the end some free grappa. Ouch! taste-buds still stinging.

Cafe expresso.

This is a fun and delicious place. It’s located in the lovely square above. They may cater to tourists, but they serve amazing traditional Tuscan food prepared with very fresh ingredients. And the service is extremely friendly.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chianti, Cooking, eating-italy, Florence, Italy, Meat, Michelin, pasta, Piazza del Campo, Prosciutto, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Rome, Sangiovese, Siena, Toscana, Trattoria Pepei, Tuscany

Eating Staggia – Pozzo dei Desideri

Jun25

Restaurant: Pozzo dei Desideri

Location: Bologna, Italy

Date: June 11, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

Rating: Good food, good value

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Today we drove through the mountains between Forli in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, then down past Florence to Staggia a small town near Siena. As this was a transitional day and we were settling into our new (temporary) home we just popped down into town for a quick local dinner.

This joint is in the center of this one horse town.

It has a big menu of typical Tuscan fare and very reasonable prices.

This being the heart of Chianti we chose a local Chianti Classico. This was probably about an 89 point wine, but it had some decent age on it making it fairly nice.

It was old enough that they decanted it.

In this modern age, the old adage, “don’t order seafood in the country,” no longer applies. This was billed as Zuppe di Mare. There wasn’t a lot of “soup” but it was tasty with a hearty garlic tomato sauce and various and mysterious shellfish.

Torte of Zucchini in a Pecorino sauce.

One of the MOST typical of pasta dishes, Pappardelle Cinghiale (wild boar ragu) with olives. The Cinghiale is the local hairy wild boar of tuscany. Click here for some pictures of this delightful creature.

This is a big wide fresh pasta with pomodoro and pecorino.

Gnocci with pecorino, tomato, and arugula.

The omnipresent insalata misto.

And another Tuscan classic, the block of beef. This is a fillet in balsamic sauce.

Notice how it’s served rare. Really rare. Tuscans don’t believe in cooking their beef. It was tasty though. Leaner and a bit tougher than an American filet, but full of flavor.

Overall the place was very good for just being a casual inexpensive local spot. We did however run an odd service quirk when they brought out a second steak a full hour after everyone else got their food (they had forgotten the order). Unlike in America they didn’t want to pull it from the bill (although it was only about 10 euro) and instead insisted on boxing it up for us.

Then we walked across the street for gelato. The place was humming at 11pm, packed with kids.