Miscellaneous Food: Florence and London

We were fortunate to recently take a much-deserved break from work for a trip to Tuscany and along the way, we stopped by in London to visit with some friends. The winding country roads took us to some beautiful, rustic villages, which I remembered well from previous trips there in 2007 and 2009 and while it was good to visit old loves like Solociccia in Panzano, written about here and La Giostra in Florence here, we also found some even more amazing restaurants, primarily in Florence. (In the other areas, we ate mostly in little family-run agriturismo farmhouses or cooked fresh produce at home, purchased from farmers markets)

I would highly recommend both these places, it was like soaking up the sunshine and rawness of the countryside. The first is Trattoria 4 Leoni, set in a beautiful side-street courtyard, perfect for the midday shopping stop and for watching beautiful people. Try the hand-made pastas, especially the pear argula ricotta ravioli , the duck ragu papardelle, the frito misto or the calamari. Their dishes were really delightful, delicate yet with robust flavours. The location is fairly central, just off the commercial stretch so I would recommend the place more for lunch, that way you can fully appreciate charming the semi-outdoor location and charming tuscan crockery.


The other place is definitely a dinner place, also fairly central but out of the small, tall nexus which borders the Piazza della Signoria and a slight trek outward to where the Opera is. This place is called La Sostanza and Frommers calls it "Il Troia" or the through, because people have been lining up at the long communal tables since 1869 to enjoy huge amounts of some of the best traditional food in the city. Despite that omnimous name, I have to say that this was the most mind-blowingly delicious and inspirational meal I had had in a long while.


It is a typical hole-in-the-wall, tiled, cramped, busy and flooded with noise and kitchen aromas, one of those eating experiences that you know will be good because so many people can't be wrong. We had heard of it from a friend whose wife is a Hermes reseller and who is frequently in Europe, he did not recommend it to us, rather he ordered us to go here and so we dutifully made a booking (absolutely necessary as there is not a spare seat in the house, on any night). Upon sitting down, we were entertained by the local family who runs the place, half of whom communicate in no English and a number of hilarious, typically Italian gestures. The menu is short and simple, starters are things like chicken soup with dumplings, or a peasant form of brodo, or ribollita, common to the Tuscan countryside.


There are two mains that are particularly popular, the Bistecca Alla Florentina, which is sliced thickly and slapped over a charcoal grill at the back of the restaurant, and the Petti di Pollo al Burro, the thick chicken breasts fried in butter. The bistecca was excellent, I've had many of them in my life and this ranks as perhaps one of the top two.


When we arrived, I spied a huge block of fresh butter sitting on the marble kitchen counter and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the chef pick up a small frying pan and shovel a large icicle-shape pick of butter into it. This was thrown over the charcoal grill and he started to flour and batter some chicken pieces. These were then fried into a sweet, caramel brown, entirely immersed in the crispy hot butter.


It might look like nothing on earth but looks are deceiving. The flavour was out-of-this-world good, it was like a glorius meld of chicken and cotten candy, like eating the first fried chicken you'd ever tasted, probably like the first chicken Adam and Eve ever tasted. The fried chicken in butter at Sostanza should really be amongst the 10 foods to try before you die. I've been jogging every week since I've been back and I still feel guilty about this dish.


Just to cap it off, we had two slices, because it was that wicked good, of their meringue cake, topped with tiny, sweet wild strawberries, known in France as "fraises des bois".


On the way back through London, we were fortunate to stay with D. and S. who are also big foodies. Of course, we clattered through all my old memories, the roast duck at Goldmine and Four Seasons in Bayswater, the cupcakes at Hummingbird Bakery, sandwich stores near LSE and the Petersham Nursery but the most rewarding part was being introduced to new places, like Ottolenghi in Notting Hill, where we went for Saturday brunch. Turns out I'm really behind the curve, when I looked it up online, the chef is dead famous and has been writing recipe columns for The Times, there are too many blogs with odes to the place and even Colin said he'd already been there when he was studying in the UK, some three years ago!


Shaded by a white awning, this small unassuming cafe afforded a beautiful variety of savoury and sweet treats. It's rare that a place can successfully do both but here, you really could choose between thick quiches, tomato ricotta tarts and quinoa salads, as well as lemon marscpone tarts, muffins, chocolate slices and everything was so well-done. The flavours were rich and sweet, full-bodied and colourful. The tastes slanted a little toward the Medittaranean, as most of the new restaurants are but were generally what I've come to refer to borrowing from world cuisine. I'm so inspired that I actually want their cookbook (a Huge compliment, I don't hold with cookbooks generally) and I've printed a few of their recipes to try soon.


What a wonderful, recharging break! For those looking for some decent but inexpensive places to stay, check out The Hempel and The Arch in London and Residenza Il Maggio and Giglio Bianco B&B in Florence. In London, the hotels were delightfully modern and luxurious, in Italian cities of course, the rooms will be more rustic but they were well-cleaned and safe. We paid about 130£ and 80 Euro for some very central, lovely stays and service.

Trattoria 4 Leoni
Via de' Vellutini, 1-red
50125 Florence, Italy
055 218562

Trattoria Sostanza
Via Porcellana, 25/r, Florence, Italy
055 212691

Ottolenghi
63 Ledbury Road
London W11 2AD
020 7727 1121
ledbury@ottolenghi.co.uk

Residenza Il Maggio
Corso Italia 13
Florence
055 2658185

Giglio Bianco B&B
Via Romana, 28
50125 Firenze, Italy
Tel. +39 055225873

Day 7: Milan, at last and Dinner at Le Vigne

After we trained back to La Spetzia, after dinner, I hit the bed and blacked out, literally, till the next morning. Loading all our luggage back into our cars, we drove back toward Milan, with the rainy, overcast weather following us all the way. As we neared Milan at 11am, we suggested that the guys should drop us off near Corso Venezia while they went to check-in at the hotel.

While they were gone, we visited the Nuti and Ferragamo shops for some serious shopping, then went into a street-side cafe for lunch. The cafe was called Cova and they had the loveliest cold, whole mozarella dish with cherry tomatoes and a wonderful sacher torte.

After the boys came to meet us, poor things, the subway train drivers had gone on strike that very afternoon and they were stuck somewhere slightly out of town, in the rain, we shopped on at more male-focused stores like the Ferrari flagship, Boss, Valextra, Fendi and Geox. I really do regret not having made it out to 10 Corso Como or the wonderful stationers Pineider 1949 at Corso Europa but there really wasn't much time, especially as we wanted to stay around and visit the Duomo.


Getting to dinner was a slightly confused process as well. After following the advice of way too many street drunks, we finally found our way to Ripa di Porta to this little restaurant called Le Vigne. This is a quaint and far more artistic streets, in the navigli district, on one of Milan's surviving canals, with so many wonderful shops (so little time!)


Before we had left for Italy, we had an friend who grew up in Milan (now working in Singapore) to write down a list of small eateries, not fancy, not expensive but with good, honest food that he had to eat every time he came home. This was one of the recommendations.


We decided just to share all the starters and chose a cheese plate and a ham and salami plate.


While these were excellent, I wasn't exactly that impressed, having come from the Chianti region.


The other two appetizers were the sandwich tower of mozzarell and tomato (not as good as at lunch) and the huge wanton (which was both amusing and very savory yummy).


The main courses though, were the best part of the meal. The one that I should definitely point out was the chicken that M. ordered.


None of us had had chicken in Italian menus during the entire trip. This place had a chicken breast on offer and while that sounded extremely ordinary, it was soft, smoothly textured and the most succulent piece of chicken. It made me wonder, pretty much, whether they had cooked it using methods similar to our Singaporean Hainanese Chicken Rice, you know, the double dipping in boiling and ice water.



The other dishes we ordered were steak and lamb, all of which were good and honestly cooked.


My dish was the risotto with rose hips and porcini. Despite not even liking rose hips, I ordered this just because I had to have risotto again. The lesson I learned is, if you don't like a strong taste like rose, or mint, or almond, or durian, don't order the dish, even if the mode is something you like.

I have to say I'm an absolute purist when it comes to risotto. I don't even like saffron in mine, so I didn't much like this. I felt the flavour was definitely too strong and it sort of highlighted for me, the hard grains of rice that I could feel encapsulated in each foamy piece of risotto. This is traditional Milanese risotto but I have to say, I'd pass on the tradition for my version of risotto perfection.


The desserts were, as most Italian desserts tend to be, a little hard, a little thick, a little dry, a little disappointing.


We had a creme brulee (the Italian version is made with a great deal more egg and is neither as smooth nor as light as the French version).


We also had a chocolate cake of sorts (very lightly coloured but then most chocolate cakes in Italy look like they've been flavoured with nutella than Valrhona) which wasn't really worth a photo, a plate of biscuit things called chocolate salami (which we didn't realize would be so hard and yet chewy) and a lemon cream tart with strawberry accents.


The next day, we woke for breakfast at the hotel and packed up. I managed to sneak away to the nearby grocery and fill the rest of our Bistecca styrofoam box (yes, J. this is how I arrived in Singapore with half an Italian cow) with fresh cheese, pesto, speck and parma ham for some great follow-on meals in Singapore. Buon Giorno!



Cova
Via Montenapoleone 8
Milan
20121
Tel: +39 (02) 76000578

Le Vigne
61 Ripa di Porta Ticinese
Tel. 02 8375617

For those of you with interest, these are the other restaurants that made it to the Milan cheap and good list, which we didn't get to try:

1. L'osteria del Treno, Milano Repubblica, Stazione Centrale, Via San Gregorio 46-48 Tel: 02 6700 479

2. Trattoria del Pescatore, Milano Porta Romana, Vannucci 3, Tel: 02 58320452

3. La Piola, Milan Porta Venezia, Viale Abruzzi 23, Tel: 02 29531271

4. Ponte Rosso, Milano Navigli, 23 Ripa di Porta Ticinese, Tel: 02 8373132

Day 6: Hiking Cinque Terra and Dinner at the Marina

I just realized it is Cinque Terra, not Cinq Terra. Haha! Blame it on my french bias.


After tea (and you know, after the massive amount of eating we had done over the last week), we really wanted to take a hike and we walked to Corneglia, about an hour and a half away, through the hills and the most breath taking scenary.


There were parts of the walk that were esconced in temperate forested areas, as well as paths by the cliff which looked out onto wispy spring flowers and the most gorgeous collection of little headland towns.


This is pretty much when we realized the effects of having eaten so much Italian food for a week. All pretensions that we had any real restraint went out the window as we huffed and puffed our way up the slope.


After the hike, we trained from Corneglia to Manarola where we had dinner, as we had to give Riomaggiore a miss. There is apparently a lovely walk there, known as the Lovers Walk but given that bad weather and some rock falls, some of the hike trails were actually closed that day.


For dinner, we went to this little place on the Marina at Manarolo and I believe it was called Marina Piccolo. The reason I'm not entirely sure, is firstly, that the capacble S. planned the entire Cinque Terra itenary and I was so happy to leave it in her hands that I was entirely switched off. Secondly, after hiking an hour and a half, I was too hot, too tired and too heavy to think or remember anything in particular. I know, it's awful.


I do remember what we ate though and it was primarily seafood. We had a seafood linguine, a large bowl of mussels and hard bread, a thick sauced crab squink-ink pasta and a dish of calamarie.


All seaside towns pride themselves on their seafood. However, for many, this has become a tourist institution, rather than a real culinary experience. This was probably the case here as well as the whole restaurant and area looked somewhat deserted. Most of the people hiking with us seemed to either have gone back to La Spetzia (probably afraid to miss the last train downhill and be caught out for the night in one of these windswept headlands) or perhaps gone to the bigger towns, or maybe we were just there in low season.


The cooking sort of matched the freshness of the catch, somewhat half-hearted and lacking. The pastas were in extremely thick, creamy sauce (which I really don't associate with seafood) and were disguising, rather than enhancing in their texture and tastes. The calimarie was good but generally, I felt that everything in the town was probably just out of a can and that the fishing boats were mostly for show.


We walked into the kitchen (that was how lacking the service was) and saw the dessert cart, in their chocolate tart, they had burnt the chocolate! There were obvious smears of slightly charred chocolate. The lemon tart looked only slightly better but their custard tart with pinenuts looked good and it indeed was. It was the best thing in the meal, with a great combination of creamy custard, delicious roasted pinenuts and a dark caramelized sauce.

Restaurant Marina Piccola
Via lo Scalo 16
19010 Manarola (La Spezia)
Phone: +39 0187 920103

Day 6: Cinq Terra and Il Pirate

Sadly, our time at the villa had come to an end. We packed up early in the morning and bade the house a sad farewell.

We brought out the maps and begun the long drive back North, around Pisa and toward the seaside towns of Cinq Terra. We pulled in to La Spetzia at about noon and checked-in to our hillside hotel.

Personally, I just want to say that after this trip to Italy, my top stock picks are MY Hotel (a boutique budget hotel chain, bursting at the seams with travellers), Coop/IperCoop (or some other supermarket chain like Conad or Esselunga), from what I can see, there is definitely a shift toward shopping in supermarkets for the increasingly urban Italian population and definitely a luxury brand; amongst the many, I like Gucci (they've been making good buys like Bottega Veneta, which is still white-hot in Italy). If they work out, maybe they could fund a return trip to Italy eh?

Ok, sales pitch over. We grabbed our trekking shoes and headed out to the train station.


Cinq Terra, as the name suggests, has five little towns or headlands in the sea, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola & Riomaggiore, which are spread out over 5 miles of rocky coast, surrounded by vast areas of dry walling & cultivated into vineyards.

J. gave us a good tip to stay in La Spetzia and take the rail up to the individual villages, rather than risk the steep drive up to stay at one of the villages.


We trained out from La Spetzia to Monterosso but bad weather followed us all the way.


Even in the rain though, one could clearly make out that these were these were colourful, perhaps slightly grimy, vacation towns.


There were lots of young families and backpackers, similarly on vacation and many locals had rented out rooms in their homes and shops for iternarant visitors.


We continued from Monterosso to Vernazza where the rain had let up a bit so that we could take a walk.


Vernazza is probably the most representative town of the five, so we decided that we would spend more of our afternoon here, walk around to see the sights, then head on the mountain-side trek toward another village.


At Vernazza, we also visited the Il Pirate Cafe where hoards of tourists come for breakfast.


Little wonder as there is really not much food in the villages and this place has really cheery ambience, a funny manager, as well as cute desserts.


We were served a few fresh granitas, which are made out of freshly squeezed lemonade and strawberries, with dollops of cream.


In case you want to eat, the other house specialties include home-made cannolonis and strawberry pastries as well as tiramisu.


While the tiramisu was a bit bland in taste (but served in a very kitsch ceramic cone dish), the cannolonis were good and I was impressed that they made them out of the random little kitchen.


No matter what you wind up having, you should wash it down with some fresh spermuta or blood-orange juice. The juice in this region, I found, over the next couple of days, is more like a ruby grapefruit juice. The oranges themselves bleed a vaguely red colour and the resultant juice is a macarbe but delicious dark red.

Day 5: Montalcino and Castello Banfi

The next day was the last one that we were to spend in Tuscany. We decided to spend the day exploring the drive south of the Lucignano house, toward Montalcino where we were to visit an old abbey and some wineries and have lunch at a castle.


The drive south of Siena is much more well-marked and direct than north toward Florence (even and especially through some of the small Chianti roads). The landscape is characterized by stark rolling hills, marked by winding roads lined with dark cypresses and fortified towns, but among the most important features, are the numerous acres of vineyards from which some of Tuscany's most esteemed red wines are produced, the Brunello di Montalcino and Rosso di Montalcino.


We drove directly to Sant Antimo Abbey- about 6 miles from Montalcino, it's an incredibly quaint Romanesque Abbey. Visitors from around the world come to hear the Gregorian chants which have made the abbey so famous. The legend is, Charlemagne the Holy Roman Emperor decided in the year 800, upon his return to Rome, to set up camp on the location which is now the Abbey. His soldiers were struck by the plague in the middle of the night when an angel appeared and instructed Charlemagne to make an infusion of the holy grass and some wine (Brunello?) and give it to the soldiers.


"Carlo Magno" as he is known in Italian, declared that an abbey be built right on that spot to glorify the miracle. The present abbey dates back to the 12th century as it was built on the ruins of the original 8th century building and sits in a large valley with views of the hill town Castelnuovo dell'Abate, rolling hills covered in olive groves and vineyards, and wild forests.


The best time to visit is during the scheduled chants of prayers, so that you can hear the gregorian chanting by the monks who live in buildings nearby. The monks start chanting exactly at the schedule time and the chanting lasts about 12 minutes. The day we were there, there was some sort of gathering of vintage car owners and all these well-heeled Italians got out and rushed with us to a spot in the abbey.


We sat and heard the monks out for all of three minutes. The gregorian chants were not really...spiralling and uplifting. It wasn't really church boys, more like... a slightly gothic, sinister muttering, the kind of orthodox Catholic churches in St. Kilda or Ireland. Luckily there was no timed or expected genuflection but in any case, we were really hungry for lunch, so we skipped outside back into the sunshine after a few minutes.


Everyone came pouring out after as well because it started to rain. We hopped back into the cars and high-tailed it to Castello Banfi. It took a long time to find the castle, so we had to pose triumphantly with the signs when we did find it (another Singaporean trait). We arrived somewhat late for the lunch booking we had, so we went straight to the dining room.


The dining room is set near the wine cellars and at the front-end of the castle. It is possible to take a full tour but we didn't wind up doing that in the end, as lunch was a slow and somewhat formal affair. This even though we were dining in the tavern or cafeteria, as opposed to the formal dining room inside the castle, which is available for dinner and at a much steeper price.


I believe we paid about 50 Euros for our lunch, which wasn't particularly cheap, given that the portions were particularly small. However, it was very satisfactory and it gave us a chance to sample the three most recognized wines of the vineyard as part of the daily degustation. The first was the Fountanelle, a buttery smooth white wine which I loved. It was rich but still sweet, vaguely reminiscent of the white wines of Les Baux de Provence (thicker and more full-bodied but less buttery and flowery sweet). This was served with an excellent fennel flan.


The second course we had was a simple home-made pasta with ragu. Along with the risotto from La Giostra, I would say this was the best pasta we had on the trip. The pasta itself was so incredibly flavourful, it led me to wonder if it were possible to cook pasta in broth- that's how complex the taste and texture of the pasta was. The ragu was very typically Tuscan, just a sliver coat onto the pasta, but meaty and flavourful. We ate every single strand of pasta up and could have had twice as much! The pasta was served with their own Rosso di Montalcino, which is a lighter, thinner red wine. I don't realy like it much but then it is a third the price of the mighty full-bodied, magenta red Brunello.


The star wine was really Castello Banfi's Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, which is the great red wine of Tuscany. Brunello is a local term referring to the grape variety sangiovese. These wines are of superior quality and limited production. Intense, concentrated and tannic, they tend to require long aging. They come onto the market usually five years after the harvest although you know, with the prices being what they are, it's entirely possible to purchse them right after the harvard year nowadays. This was served with a pork loin, a really simple and we thought, perhaps disappointing concept, but it wasn't at all. The pork was tender and succulent, made for a gorgeous and slightly lighter main dish. I totally enjoyed it and I usually shy away from pork dishes.


The desserts were wonderful as well. These were not included in the set but we ordered a berry dessert, a chocolate mousse and a strawberry panna cotta. The panna cotta was the stuff of dreams, light, fluffy, completely inhaleable, with unfortunately, a slightly artificial strawberry cordial dripping but other than that, the meal was faultless.


I had my reservations about spending this much on a meal, especially in the middle of the countryside. I'm so glad we did and if you are in the area, I really do recommend a winery-focused tour of Montelcino and a stop for lunch or dinner at Castello Banfi, it's quite an experience.


After lunch (it was tea time, before lunch was over), we stopped by the wine room to make some purchases. The Fountanelle was just 13 Euros, which I thought was a steal for such a superlative white wine. Castello Banfi was declared “International Winery of the Year” an unprecedented four times and Italy’s “Best Wine Estate” every year since 1994.


The estate really is sited in the most beautiful of areas, which is full of vineyards and olive groves. We'd finished lunch so late that we headed back north toward home and decided to have a cook-in for our last dinner at the villa.


We also wanted to use up leftover rice we had in the fridge for fried rice and decided to team that with some curry chicken, using the sauces I had brought and some stir fried vegetables.


We made a filo pastry fruit turnover, with some plums, pears and leftover apples and it was really nice to sit in clean sweats and watch the photos from our trip so far before we packed up and headed to Cinq Terra the next day!