Ristorante Tre Galline, Turino

The first thing Stefano did after we decided to visit Turino was to find a good place for lunch.  Can you see our what our priorities are?

He called up his friend who is a bank director in Turino to ask for recommendations.  We wanted a good Piemontese meal and he pointed us to Tre Galline. 

We parked in one of the many underground city garages near the Castello and arrived after a 10 minute walk.

We were seated and after studying and ordering from the menu, I looked around the traditionally styled dining room.  The tables were almost full and most were locals.  Always a good sign.  The table nearby had ordered the antipasti misti, and here they roll out a cart with a selection of cured meats and slice it by hand for you on the spot.

For the appetizer, Stefano had the fonduta con cardo or cardi in fontina cheese.  The cardo is a vegetable that translates to 'thistle' in English, but that doesn't sound right, does it?  Anyway, it's a fibrous vegetable that looks similar to celery.  We had seen it before in the supermarket but never knew how to cook it.  It tasted ok, but I don't think I'd put it on my list of favorite vegetables.

Next he had a filleto di maialino con carciofi e castelmagno or piglet fillet with artichoke and local castelmagno cheese sauce.  The meat wasn't the most tender but the overall dish was very tasty.

As for me, I had spied the piatto del giorno or plate of the day on the menu.  It is quite common at the cafeteria type restaurants for workday lunches, but we've never seen offered at restaurants like this.  And surprisingly it is offered also at lunch on Saturday. 

I picked it knowing it would be the perfect portion size for me, and it turned out to be excellent.  The tagliatelle con sugo di cortile or 'backyard' sauce, which is actually meat with bits of liver.  I used to hate it when mum forced us kids to eat liver as kids, but this wasn't the same thing.  It was really good.  And then there was the anatra in acceto balsamico or duck cooked in balsamic vinegar.  That was really delicious and went well with the roasted potatoes.  The portion was huge too and I was throughly satisfied.

We decided to skip dessert but along with our coffees came a chocolate treat and candied orange peel.  I just love when they serve coffee with a little something sweet.

Overall, we enjoyed our experience here.  My piatto del giorno was only 10 euro, and cost a third of Stefano's two dishes - great value for money.  We also shared a half bottle of Barbera wine that was really good. 

This restaurant has been around for a long time and it's a good place to go if you want to sample the traditional Piemontese cuisine of Turin.


Ristorante Tre Galline
Via Belleza, 37
10122 Torino
Tel: 011 436 6553
Closed for lunch on Sundays/Mondays

Where to Eat Good Steak in Milan

Specifically, the fiorentina or the Florentine-style steak. 

This restaurant grills up some of the best fiorentina steaks we've tasted and lucky for us, it is right in our own backyard in Milan.  Incredibly, we found the steak here better than a fiorentina we once had in a well-known restaurant in the heart of Tuscany (maybe we were there on a bad day, who knows).

This was my second visit and my friend P from California was in town.  I had boasted about the steak in Italy, how it tasted like real beef, and he wanted to taste it for himself.  I had no objections at all.  It was a great reason to revisit this spot.  We started out with two appetizers for sharing.  A plate of carciofi or artichokes and puntarelle or chicory.  The carciofi were sliced thinly and served with parmagiano reggiano shavings.  The puntarelle salad were also thinly sliced and tossed in olive oil.  Both were simple but good.  We cleaned the plates accompanied with their house-made foccacia.

We were sipping a fantastic red wine, a Voerzio Barbera, from the region of Piemonte.  It was a perfect match for the steak that was to come.  We ordered the fiorentina for two, and tagliata, which from the Italian word tagliare, literally means 'carved' or 'cut.' The meat is cut into thin slices, and drizzled with olive oil.

The fiorentina definitely lived up to its hype.  It was perfectly grilled, very flavorful, juicy and melt-in-your-mouth tender. Our friend declared it 'the best steak he's ever had'.  It was exactly how I remembered it.  I like how that although it looks very rare and red, there's hardly any blood drippings when you cut into it. 

 

The rest of the world calls the fiorentina T-bone or porterhouse, and that has always been one of my favorite cuts back in the States.  But here the difference is really in the flavor and texture.  It must be the Italian grass and sunshine.

We also had a couple sides to go with the meat.  A big bowl of house-made potato chips, cannelli beans, and a plate of grilled vegetables.

 We were all smiles after the meal.  The food and the company was truly enjoyable.

And amazingly, the price is affordable too.  Our meal, with two shared appetizers, three side dishes and three steak orders, a nice bottle of wine, without dessert, came out to be about 35 euro each.  An excellent value for money in this town.

La Bistecca
Via Aureolo Filippo Paracelso, 5
20129 Milano (MI)
Tel: 0220240347

Where to Eat the Best Pizzocheri in Valtellina

Or at least one of the best. 

Having family and friends in Valtellina, along with the many weekends we spend here, alot of pizzoccheri gets eaten.  I've written before about pizzoccheri, the national buckwheat, potato and cabbage pasta dish of Valtellina, here.   Not surprising is the fact that the best pizzoccheri is found at home cooked by mum.  That's where the real butter and bitto cheese is used, and in high quantities.


When you can't get the homemade stuff, then the restaurant version will have to do.  But not all restaurant version pizzoccheri are made equal.  Some are definitely better than others.  When we have friends in town and want to take them to sample pizzoccheri, we take them to Ai Tigli, in Teglio, the birthplace of pizzoccheri, not far from Sondrio.

And that's exactly where we ended up taking our friends from Milan, after they spent the night in the mountains.  Well, the initial plan was to hike up the snowy trail to a Rifugio Palu and have lunch there, but it the day was just too cold.  So the alternative?  Go eat some more! 

We started out with their affetati misti, which featured lardo that was totally melt-in-your-mouth.  Why does fatty stuff always taste so good?

Then we had the other local specialty called sciatt.  I also described them here and they are basically pieces of the local Casera cheese, coated in a buckwheat flour batter and deep-fried.  They do it well here.  Um... how to describe good sciatt?  It's good when it's 'light' and not greasy even if deep-fried, with a slightly crispy outer layer and soft gooey inside?  Well, I think you just have to eat them a couple times to know.

And then the pièce de résistance, pizzoccheri.  The strands of buckwheat pasta deliciously coated with melted cheese and soft chunks of potatoes and cabbage.  Yes, I've learnt to appreciate this rich dish.  (On a side note, when my dad visited, he actually finished a whole plate of this and loved it.  Totally unexpected considering how different this is from the Asian palate.)

Some others also ordered the polenta with meat, another typical dish of Northern Italy.  It was good too.  We had the Le Tense Sassella wine that is made from grapes grown on the slopes just across the valley from Stefano's home.  A very good yet affordable wine.

 Everyone was satisfied with their meal and vowed to come back.

Ristorante Ai Tigli 
Via Besta, 13 23036 Teglio (SO)

Agriturismo dei Baff, Valtellina

The next day we were supposed to go for a walk in the snow up in the mountains.  To, you know, try and walk off the dinner we had the night before.  Unfortunately, the weather dawned foggy and rainy, so we met up with the group and did what anyone else would do in our position...

Go eat some more! 

Or more specifically, what anyone in Valtellina would do... go eat pizzoccheri!  Mara suggested the Agriturismo dei Baff in Ardenno, which is conveniently located on the way back for our friends who would later be returning to Milan. 

The agriturismo is a real working farm where they raise their own animals.  When we arrived, I spotted their horses in a pen went over to visit.  There was a colt and his mother, both a pretty light brown and white color.  Look at the sweet brown eyes and long eyelashes.  Too bad I didn't have any carrots or apples to offer them.

 

This is a family run enterprise and we were greeted by one of the owners as we entered.  He had a moustache, which made sense, since baffo or moustache is 'baff' in the local dialect.  We were seated in the main dining room in a lovingly restored former mill.  His son, a good-humored and amicable young man, took our orders.  To start, we had an impressive platter of their own (from right to left) bresaola, prosciutto, salami and lardo.  

  

Bresaola is air-dried salted beef that orignates from Valtellina. It is lean and is usually considered the healthy choice.  I usually recognize it by its darker red color.  

Prosciutto, a dry-cured ham we all know.  There are two types, either prosciutto cotto, cooked, or prosciutto crudo, raw  but because it is salt-cured, it is ready to eat.  Outside of Italy, prosciutto usually refers to prosciutto crudo.  I prefer prosciutto crudo that is less salty and more sweet.  

Salami is air-dried cured sausage, also known as pepperoni in America.  Do not make the mistake of ordering pepperoni pizza in Italy or you will end up with bell peppers or spicy peppers on your pizza.

Lardo is cured pig fat or lard.  Usually white (it's all fat), soft and almost melts in your mouth. 

On the side we were served a dish of pickled onions (yum) and a selection of ricotta and goat cheese accompanied by jam.

  

Next came taroz, another typical Valtellinese dish.  Although I've heard of it, it was actually the first time I tried it.  It is essentially potatoes with green beans, onion and cheese, all mashed together with a generous amount of butter.  I love all things potatoes and so needless to say I'm now a fan of taroz.

  

We were washing down all the heavy mountain food of Valtellina with the agriturismo's own red wine. 

  

Let me introduce you to the sciatt, pronounced 'shaat', another local specialty.  They are pieces of Casera, a regional cheese, encased in a buckwheat flour batter and deep fried.  In the Valtellina dialect sciatt means 'toad', recalling its irregular shape.  They are usually served with a green salad, probably to offset the health implications of the deep frying.  Be sure to eat them while their still warm so that the cheese filling remains nice and gooey. 

  

We were already stuffed at this point but the main dish finally arrives.  Pizzoccheri, the pasta dish that all Italians associate with Valtellina.  The pasta is made with buckwheat flour and is a brownish gray color with black specks.  It is cooked with a green, either cabbage or chard, and chunks of potato, and then mixed together garlic, local Bitto cheese and a very large amount of butter.  This is definitely heart-stopping comfort food.

  

I've eaten enough sciatt and pizzoccheri to be able to distinguish the excellent from the mediocre and I would say both dishes were fairly average here.  It may just have been an off day that day as according to Mara, a local whose family has frequented the place for years, it is usually better. 

Here is the happy and satiated group.  We were stuffed.  I think most of us declined dessert.

 

After coffee, thanks to Mara, the owner led us down some steep steps to visit the old cantina or wine cellar.  It's no longer used to store wine but was cool to see anyway. 

  

Then he took us to see where they store and age their cheese.  He is a cheese connoisseur and was very proud of their collection of cheese.  The aging process also known as ripening transforms the texture of the cheese and intensify its flavor.

   

In another cellar, they store their cured meats made in-house.  Here D tries to smuggle some in his coat pocket. 

  

To end our tour, the owner presented us with a platter of different cheese so we could taste the cheese we had just seen.  We could hardly eat anymore, but we couldn't refuse this opportunity to taste some exquisite selection of cheese.  It was really generous of him.

  

It was already late afternoon by the time we left.  Not before saying goodbye to the farm's new puppy dog.  This little guy was so lucky with all the attention he was getting from everyone throughout the day.

 

If you're ever in the Valtellina area and would like a taste of some of the regional specialties, this is a good place to experience both good food and the genuine hospitality of the Cerasa family.   In addition to the dishes I mentioned above, they also serve costine al lavecc or pork chops cooked in stone pot that many other tables were ordering.

 

Agriturismo Le Case dei Baff

Ardenno (Sondrio)

Ristorante Fracia, Valtellina

Back in January our friend Daniele organized a gathering in Valtellina for the Italians who traveled with us to Malaysia for our wedding in November.  It was a chance for the group from Milan to meet up with the group from Valtellina after the trip.

Dinner was organized at Ristorante Fracia, about 10km or 6 miles after Sondrio.  The restaurant is housed in a converted farmhouse on a mountain slope surrounded by wineyards.  In the summer, there is outdoor sitting with a view of the valley below.  Inside the ambiance was warm and inviting.

 

For starters most of us had the salumi misti or selection of cold cuts.  If I remember correctly, S had something with la lingua or tongue (beef, I think).  It wasn't bad.

Instead of a first dish I had a second dish, filleto di manzo or beef filet that was good. 

  

S had the guanciale di vitello con purea di patata or cheek of veal with mashed potatoes.

  

M ordered the risotto with foie gras which she said was great.

  

Although I enjoyed my meal, I thought the real star was dessert.  There was a selection that included creme brulee, panna cotta, gelato, etc, and a pallina di cioccolato or a chocolate ball.  The waiter described a truffle filling encased in a chocolate shell and well, it just sounded intriguing.  Many of us just couldn't resist ordering it.  The pallina arrived resting on a cachi or persimmon sauce.

  

It looked like a Kinder Surprise for adults.  But wait, that wasn't all.  The waiter then came round with a sauce or gravy boat filled with warm chocolate sauce.  As soon as he spooned the warm sauce over, the ball would immediately start melting revealing the dark chocolate truffle filling. 

 

It was a luscious chocolate dessert.  Needless to say, I licked my bowl clean. 

Ristorante Fracia
Teglio (Sondrio)

La Cambusa Del Capitano, Acitrezza, Sicily

This was the restaurant we ended up eating at our first night in Catania.  It was one that S had been to before, dieci anni fa (ten years ago) and it had been decent.

Only perhaps his tastes have changed since, or that the kitchen had deteriorated...

Anyway, in case you think that we always eat well whenever we go out, or that all restaurants here serve good food...

This is an example of when that is certainly not the case.

Our order of la pepate di cozze or mussels with pepper was a dissapointment.  The mussels were fresh but the broth or lack of was not that great.

We also ordered a serving of involtini di pesce spada or swordfish rolls, a Sicilian specialty.  The rolls were tiny, and came swimming in a dish of oil.  It certainly did not taste fresh, or barely even like fish for that matter.

We both ordered pasta.  I had a seafood spaghetti, and the pasta turned out to be non cotto or undercooked.  If there's one thing that makes a pasta dish inedible, it's the raw taste of undercooked pasta.  This was the first time this has ever happened to me, and as much as I tried I could not eat it.

S's pasta nero di seppia or pasta with squid ink was also slightly undercooked.

We certainly didn't stick around for dessert.  The last straw was the bill which was definitely not cheap even by Milan standards.  I had such high hopes for a good Sicilian seafood meal.  We should've been tipped off by the fact that the restaurant was practically empty on a Saturday night.

Trattoria La Foglia, Ortigia, Siracusa

We were hungry after all that walking.  Ortigia, with its plentiful restaurants, was the perfect place to stop.  Unfortunately, many of the recommended restaurants that we found online were closed on Sundays.  We wandered around and found the Trattoria La Foglia on a side street.  S had a vague memory of having eaten here once.

The restaurant is decorated in a charming and eclectic way with antique furniture, handmade linens and mismatched plates and glasses.  I would've called it an elegant shabby chic style.  S simply described it as 'messy'.  haha.

 

I ordered the sarde beccafico which came with a side of caponata which I absolutely adored.  Caponata is a Sicilian dish using eggplant, red peppers, capers and celery, and depending on the local variation, pine nuts and raisins, in a sweet and sour sauce.  The owner explained that the eggplant is first deep-fried.  Ah hah!  No wonder it tasted so good.  Aren't all things deep-fried? 

The sarde beccafico is also another typical Sicilian dish, where sardines are filled with breadcrumbs, pine nuts, breadcrumbs and sometimes raisins.  Some lemon juice and sugar give it a sour-sweet taste.  Of course, there are variations depending on which part of Sicily you're in.  The rendition here, in my mind, paled in comparison to the version I had on the island of Favignana two summers ago.

  

S had the pasta con le sarde or pasta with sardines, which in Sicilian style is prepared with sardines, fennel, pinenuts and breadcrumbs.  It was good, but not as good as S remembered. 

 

We finished the meal with homemade desserts.  Their granita with mandarini was fabulous with bright citrus flavors.  I had the torta della ricotta wich was really good as well.  The bill came up to around 50 euro which was rather pricey for what we had (no wine), but Ortigia itself seemed like an expensive/touristy area.  The family-owned restaurant had character though.  The owner was rather eccentric and at times brusque, while his wife was really soft-spoken and sweet.  Their daughter is the cook in the kitchen.

Trattoria La Foglia
Via Giuseppe Maria Capodieci 21
96100 Siracusa

Bar Turrisi, Castelmola

*Warning - this post may contain some graphical content of sensitive nature.  Proceed at your own risk.   

S discovered Bar Turrisi during his last trip to Catania, 10 years ago.  The town of Castelmola is small and the bar just off of Piazza Duomo is hard to miss.

From the outside it looks like a regular bar.  But as soon as you step inside, the theme is apparent.  Can you guess what it is?

All three floors were filled with an eclectic array of antiques, all following the theme of course.  It was a little hard to ignore while I looked the menu over.

 

It is depicted in an exaggerated manner on everything from the table lamps to the chairs and the bathroom faucets.

  

This is probably not the place for you if you're one to be easily offended. 

 

But if you're up for some good laughs, this is definitely a unique spot and a must-do if you're ever in the area.  They serve appetizers, pizza, pasta, paninos, alcoholic beverages and of course coffee.

  

We had a coffee and a granita and it was pretty good.  :-)

Burrata from Andria, Puglia

Only a short drive inland from Trani lays the town of Andria.  We were excited to meet N in her hometown, but the real reason we had to stop here before heading back to Milan?

The burrata.

You see, Andria is the birthplace of the burrata, the rich and creamy cousin of the mozzarella.

I first met the burrata during my very first visit to Italy some years ago.  S knew of a shop that made them fresh in Milan.  It was sweet and creamy, a sort of mozzarella inside a mozzarella, and it left a indelible inprint in my memory.  Not all mozarella is created equal and a good burrata outside of Puglia is even harder to find.  Now here we were where the burrata was invented.  And if there's one thing I've learnt in Italy, it's that nothing is ever as good than at its source.  There's something about the air, the ingredients, the craftsmanship that is impossible to replicate elsewhere.

We picked up N outside her home and she led us to her favorite caseificio or dairy store.  As we drove through the town, we saw countless of caseificio's, many of them packed with people.  But we were excited and confident that N was taking us to the best of the best.

We arrived at the store to find this.  The locals sure love their cheese.

While waiting, I looked at the price list of their offerings.

And studied the contents of the glass cases.

But the real action was happening behind the counter in the laboratory.  There were several cheesemakers hard at work making the various fresh cheeses.  The burratas were definitely being made fresh to order.  Hence the long wait.  We watched as one cheesemaker painstakingly forms each ball of mozzarella with his hands, and then stretches it to form a small pouch.  He then fills it with cream and stracciatella, which is basically shredded mozarella strands left to soak in cream.  Finally, he closes the pouch with a knot on top.

 

We picked up a selection of burrata, stracciatella and ricotta cheese.  We told them we were traveling and they packaged it all neatly with some ice in a styrofoam box.  I suppose it is not such an uncommon request.  It took 45 minutes to get out the door with our purchases but we were happy campers.  Here we are outside the store with our friend N, proudly holding the prized goods. 

And here's a picture of the lovely milky burrata on our kitchen table the day after. 

It was definitely worth the trouble.

Caseificio Domenic Asseliti E De Fato

Andria, Puglia