This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------364C5B74EEFBD8F06506917D Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Greetings, all. My work as a travel/food/wine writer in Italy means that I end up eating out often; if I like the place I write it up afterwords and post the review on the Net. Lately I've been to a couple of good places; the reviews follow below, while all of my restaurant reviews are on my Italian cuisine site, at http://italianfood.miningco.com/blrev.htm. If you're coming to Italy and there's nothing listed for where you'll be, drop me a line -- I also have copies of many local restaurant guides. Kyle Phillips WebWeaver, The Mining Company's Italian Cuisine Recipes, techniques, ingredients, wines, travel and lots of Italian food links http://italianfood.miningco.com/mbody.htm To reply directly replace dot com with dot net. To reply directly, foil the spam blocker by replacing dot com with dot net ______________________ L'Enoteca Fuori Porta Via Del Monte alle Croci 10/r (Florence, just outside Porta San Niccoló, on the road up to San Miniato). Tel 055 2342483, closed Sundays It's a little bit out of the way, but well worth the walk, especially on a pleasant spring afternoon when you can sit outside. What will you find? Nice people, good foods, especially cold cuts, cheeses, sandwiches, and simple first course dishes (though how simple taglierini with a liberal sprinkling of white truffles are is open to debate), and Florence's best wine list -- All the producers in Tuscany make sure the Enoteca has their wines, and you can sample some spectacularly rare vintages -- say a 1971 Tignanello or Monsanto, for example. Nor is it just the Tuscans; the Enoteca has a wide selection of wines from other regions and from abroad. Perfect for lunch but better for dinner, when you want to spend a quiet hour eating good food, watching the world go by, and talking with friends. Highly recommended. The cost? Variable; if you don't want a whole bottle, or want to sample a number of different wines, you will be delighted by the variety of the 40 wines sold by the glass. If you want a bottle, on the other hand, you'll have hundreds to choose from. Depending upon what you order, figure from 20,000 lire per person on up. ______________________ Il Cascinale Nuovo Strada Statale Asti Alba 15, 14057 Isola D'Asti (AT, Piemonte) Tel 0141 958166 If it weren't for Alba and the castles of the Langhe's being on the other end, there'd be few reasons to take the Statale Asti Alba, which is tremendously traveled by trucks. Except to visit il Cascinale Nuovo, which began life as a truck stop, serving 3-400 people per day, and doing the communion/wedding thing on weekends. Things changed radically when the younger generation took over a while back; Roberto and Walter did away with the barn-like dining hall, transforming the upper half of the restaurant into a comfortable 3 star hotel, and placing a cozy restaurant, with about 20 tables, on the ground floor. The locals thought they were crazy, but word of Walter's ability to reinterpret traditional Piemontese cooking in a modern key soon spread, as did word of Roberto's knack for discovering fine wines. While one can order from the á la carte menu, Walter's daily special is more interesting. The day I went it began with a tiny Bavarese al Carciofo, Bavarian cream with artichokes, to whet my appetite as I read the wine list. Delicate, tasty, and the right amount. I asked for a traditional Barbera, and Walter suggested a Barbera D'Asti Cascina Croce Villa Dorata, which was quite nice -- elegant bouquet, good fruit, and medium bodied, with well rounded tannins and pleasing acidity. The meal began with a carpaccio di vitella ai profumi d'autunno, veal carpaccio with lemon and flakes of Parmigiano, lightly dusted with autumn herbs. Good, but slightly salty. Next came an insalata di Langhe con petti di quaglia, a delicate salad of freshly picked greens from the nearby hills served with roast quail's breast filet, in a balsamic vinegar sauce. The sauce moderated the gaminess of the meat beautifully, the chopped walnuts sprinkled into the greens added to the texture and their flavor nicely complemented the meat, while the pomegranate seeds also contributed to taste and appearance. Very nicely done, and one begins to understand why people come from all over. The salad was followed by a tortino di verdure con tartufi, a pasty shell with a delicate egg and spinach filling, and a shaving of white truffles. Again, very good. Even better were the tortelli di zucca con Parmigiano e tartufi; the winter squash filling of the had-made tortelli was deftly spiced, and beautifully complemented by the cheese and truffles liberally sliced over it all. Next came capriolo al vino bianco con cardi con besciamella, polenta ai funghi, e broccoli -- an artfully laid out plate with tasty, rich mountain goat stew, served with cardoons in a bechamel sauce, polenta with mushrooms, and delicately sauced broccoli. Individually they were very good, and as a whole they complemented each other surprisingly well -- the sum was considerably more than the parts. After all this, a selection of Piemontese cheeses, served with dried fig marmalade -- something that sounds off but tastes wonderful. The cost? 120,000 Lire, about 80 dollars. Considering the abundance of truffles quite reasonable; highly recommended -- you won't find many cooks as inspired or inspiring as Walter. --------------364C5B74EEFBD8F06506917D Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Elisabetta Alti Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf" begin: vcard fn: Elisabetta Alti n: Alti;Elisabetta email;internet: [email removed] note: If you're coming to Central Italy, come visit GoTuscany (http://gotuscany.miningco.com) as well! x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: FALSE end: vcard --------------364C5B74EEFBD8F06506917D--
Italy