Eating Cinque Terre – Gianni Franzi

Location: Vernazza, Italy

Date: June 27, 2011

Rating: Solid local lunch

ANY CHARACTER HERE

We took a little train ride down to Cinque Terre, a very pretty region of five small towns clustered by the sea.

The second of these is Vernazza, which is accessible only by train or boat. Picturesque as you can see. In typical Italian fashion transport doesn’t really run during lunch so we were forced to stop and eat. I just chose a likely looking place by feel.

The menu.

The patio looks back on the harbor in the above establishing shot.

A caraffe of local white was totally drinkable.

This place puts the pesto on top, which is unusual. This is spaghetti genovese (known here as pesto).

Trofei Genovese.

Seafood ravioli. These were stuffed with fish and in a tomato based fish sauce. Very tasty actually, but not for the landlubber as it had a bit of a briny flavor.

This is minestrone Genovese. The waitress scolded me for ordering it with a pasta dish as there are technically pasta bits in here — but who cares. In any case, this is a very pesto minestrone, and pretty typical of the dish. Good though, as I LOVE pesto and could eat like 10 pastas in one meal.

Overall, a totally satisfying quick little lunch.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Eating Santa Margherita – Miramare Breakfast

Jul26

Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Breakfast)

Location: Santa Margherita, Italy

Date: June 26-29, 2011

Cuisine: Ligurian

Rating: Mid level Italian breakfast

ANY CHARACTER HERE

As I’ve written about earlier, almost all hotels in Italy include buffet breakfast. The Grand Hotel Miramare is no exception.

This is the same dining terrace as we ate dinner at on the previous evening.

And the view still doesn’t suck.

The have cappuccino and juice as always.

Various sausages, sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes.

Italian bacon. Eggs.

Breads.

Juices.

Yogurt.

Cereals.

A few cakes and jams, although nothing compared to the cake selection at the Adriatic beach hotel.

Fruit and cheese.

And a closeup of the cheese. Missing here, oddly for Italy, were the cured meats like Prosciutto.

My plate. A bit of protein, a bit of cake.

This local cake was really interesting. Not only did it have various dried fruits inside (raisons and some other stuff), but it had fennel seeds!

Overall this breakfast, while totally fine, was a bit of a disappointment considering the level of the hotel. The more commercial Palace Hotel (here for breakfast) we stayed at earlier in the trip had a much more extensive buffet, with even a slightly higher ingredient level. Even the Real Fini (here for breakfast) may have had a few more options, although the breakfasts were fairly comparable.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Eating Florence – La Cantinetta Antinori

Jul10

Restaurant: La Cantinetta Antinori

Location: Florence, Italy

Date: June 17, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Tuscan

Rating: Slick and tasty

ANY CHARACTER HERE

On our first trip to Florence (we went thrice) we met up with an Italian friend and her family and they brought us to the Antinori wine empire’s casual enoteca, where they combine slick modernized Tuscan food with a large selection of excellent wines.

The lovely room in Palazzo Antinori.

A nice light quafable mineral laced white. We went through about half a bottle a person at lunch!

The menu. Sorry the meat courses are out of focus.

Assorted bruschetta, Tuscan standard.

Insalta Caprese. Tomato and buffalo mozzarella. Basil and olive oil.

Panzanella. Traditional Tuscan salad of soaked stale bread, tomato, basil, onions, olive oil.

The ubiquitous Insalta Misto.

Taglierini agli scampi freschi. Thin noodles with tomato, basil, garlic and you guessed it, a giant crayfish creature.

Fagioli. Tuscan fava beans and olive oil.

Sea bass, capers, sun dried tomatos, potatoes.

Pounded veal in mushroom sauce.

Filetto di manzo. Beef filet and potatoes.

Almond semifreddo with caramel. This is SO up my dessert alley. Creamy and sweet. Oh yes. Oh yes.

Expresso, to counter the copious amount of wine I consumed.

This was a nice place. Not radical, not staid. Fitting of a hot spot in Florence, it’s basically traditional Tuscan fare with 10% modernization. Given the quality of the ingredients and the base cuisine, this is more than enough for a great meal.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Eating San Gimignano – La Griglia

Jul8

Restaurant: Ristorante La Griglia

Location: San Gimignano, Italy

Date: June 16, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan Tourist

Rating: Mediocre

ANY CHARACTER HERE

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.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Eating Modena – Real Fini Breakfast

Jun12

Restaurant: Hotel Real Fini Via Emilia

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 5-8, 2011

Cuisine: Breakfast Buffet

Rating: Typical Italian Hotel Breakfast

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Italian hotels almost always include breakfast. The Real Fini in Modena’s is extremely typical of mid range hotels.

Cappuccino is always available, and unlike in the states is free and not $8. Plus, they know how to make a decent one at nearly any place in Italy.

There are very few hot items, just some scrambled eggs and a meat or two (sausage or ham). But there are lots of typical dry northern Italian cakes and cereal.