All'Arco, San Polo, Venice

This was a recommended joint (San Polo 436 | Calle Arco, Venice, tel : + 041 520 5666) to eat like a local for drinks and cicchetto, Venetian tapas which usually consisted of sliced crostini with any variety of toppings amongst other small bites. This was a uniquely Venice item to eat. No? The place looked like a small bar where one simply ordered what caught their fancy from the charcuterie, cheeses and bread with toppings that were available along with a spritz/beer/wine/prosecco.

What we picked from top left was prosciutto with sun dried tomatoes, a pungent Rocquefort with caramelized onions, a black truffle cheese paste of sorts with artichoke and the last, baccala that tasted like it was whipped with lard and bits of onions! It was just so easy to keep ordering more and more of these stuff to eat.

My first tramezzini in Venice

These tramezzini were just sandwiches sans the bread crust like they looked, nicely fattened in the middle with any variety of fillings. These ham ones with artichoke and boiled egg tasted exactly as they looked. Novelty of a fat sandwich aside, they were light and made tasty between meal snacking with a beer or/and espresso.

Trattoria Sostanza, Via della Porcellana, Florence

We had almost gotten ourselves lost looking for Trattoria Sostanza (Via della Porcellana 25R, Florence, tel :  + 39 055 212691) but for the kindness of a Japanese dude whom was kind enough to show us the way. In the end, the location turned out to be not too far of a walk from the hotel that we were staying in.

This trattoria was one of those serving straight forward home styled cooking without frills where one finds locals rubbing shoulders with tourists.  Their specialty I've heard was their bistecca alla fiorentina, an out of this world petti di pollo al burro (butter chicken!) and their tortino di carciofi. Since we've just had steak just the day before, we gave that a pass and gave the other items a chance to find a home in our bellies.

To be honest, most of the bread we've had in Italy were dull, airy and crusty stuff on the verge of being made into breadcrumbs. Sostanza's ciabatta was actually pretty good in spite of it's innocuous (or mundane) appearance.

There was something amazing about Tuscan chopped liver costinis that made us marvel at the magic of their taste. It was their brand of fragrance and savoury flavors, clocked in at the right quantities.

Their pasta was very decent, not experimental in any sense at all and served with a hearty ragu.

The highlight was their butter chicken. Imagine a buttery pastry with the texture of tender pan fried chicken. That was really how it was with the fillets fried in a generous pool of butter. There was enough of those charred bits and melted butter to dip each bite of the chicken and then mop up with the ciabatta they gave.

I imagine that one should at least order and try this to have considered visited Trattoria Sostanza.

Their artichoke omelette was also no slouch. It came out as a large tart of light airy eggs with soft chunks of the artichoke hearts embedded within, drenched in olive oil. This would have made an awesome breakfast dish.

As stuffed as we were, we managed their fruit and cream meringue cake thing for dessert. A second time where I was proven that meringue can be not overly sweet and taste pretty good. With the generosity of the cream in the equation, the crumbly meringue, the bits of airy cake along with the cold berries and chocolate crumbles were a party of textures.

Panino con lampredotto

Lampredotto comes, from the fourth stomach of the cow. Like tripe is considered offal and once food for the poor. Today they are a legacy from the cuisine of yesteryears and also considered a delicacy of sorts. At least for me they are.

Boiled in a vegetable and herb broth till they were tender, the lampredotto was then sliced up and subsequently forked onto a hollowed out loaf. With little but salt and pepper and some salsa verde, the sandwich was made. And it was delicious.

I was told that these were pretty common in Florence, but had never happened across them along the streets until tipped of by a certain gentleman to search for the square with the statue of the little pig which was also incidentally a fountain. Actually a boar rather than a little pig. Where people spent a coin and hoped for a return to Florence.

Where else can I find more of these sandwiches?

Fontana del porcellino

All'Antico Ristoro di Cambi, Via Sant'Onofrio, Florence

It was fortunate for us that this restaurant (Via Sant'Onofrio 1r, Florence, tel : +39 055 217134) was but a 10 minute stroll from our hotel in the quiet neighbourhood south of the Arno. We were rushing back from conquering the leaning bell tower of Pisa that wasn't very forgiving on our knees and tried to still be on time for our table.

This was an exciting dinner since we would be having a real bistecca alla fiorentina where the meat was from the pasture fed Chianina cow. The restaurant exuded charm of a brick lined eating establishment where legs of prosciutto and wreaths of garlic were hanging high on beams and bottles of wine littered almost every platform.

We started it off with their crostini Toscani which was filled with one of the most delicious and savory chopped chicken liver on bread I've had. Can you imagine being charmed by chopped chicken liver?

The first plate we had taglierini Gorgonzola e asparagi. This was a pretty damn good pasta at the for a reasonable €8. What surprised me was that both the Gorgonzola and the asparagus both shared equal intensity in flavour that was nicely accented by the chopped parsley. Texture of the noodles was unsurprisingly springy and lively.

The anticipation was as mentioned, their boned in porterhouse bistecca, Florentine styled. Flavouring was what the char, an exceptionally fruity olive oil and coarse salt crystals imparted. The meat was rare to medium rare on the inside, juicy but was pretty lean in some parts. The charred bits of fat on the exterior were amazingly fragrant though. 

While mythical descriptions of the steak remain, the part about them being fork tender was unfounded. While it was tender, it was certainly not fork tender.

Dessert was a eggless black and white chocolate cake that we managed to scarf down even though we were pretty stuffed from all the food. Testimony to the fact that it was freshly prepared, served hot and pretty well made.

Osteria L'upupa, Via Augusto Conti, San Miniato

It was getting late into the afternoon and we needed to get some lunch before leaving San Miniato. Prior to getting into this town, we were informed that most of the restaurants here would have their own truffle menu as it was in season and that we only had to avoid a particular place for their outrageous prices. Everywhere else was really just fair game so we hit the first place that had a queue of locals. Osteria L'upupa (Via Augusto Conti 15, San Miniato, tel : +39 571 400 429).

Food was simple, rustic and I think the restaurant service was a little overwhelmed by a full house.

To start was a beef carpaccio with Parmigiano Reggiano and shaven white truffle. The flavors of the thinly sliced meat was pretty good, if a bit sinewy at parts.

Next up were the primo plato. We were pretty impressed by the awesome simplicity of their tagliatelline al tartufo bianco. Pasta, salted butter and truffle shaving. Widely accepted as the best way to showcase the flavour of the fungus.

The second of the first plates was their pappardelle ovuli e tartufo bianco. We had originally thought that it was just egg pappardelle and truffle, but the restaurant waiter/chef/owner had informed us that included fresh porcini as well. The flavour turned out more woodsy and earthy in comparison with the tagliatelline, but it was also in my opinion a less clean showcase of truffle. Not complaining here at all.

The meat was a tagliata di manzo al tartufo bianco. Yes, it was all tartufo bianco since it was in season and we were in the middle of a fiera del tartufo. Aside from some olive oil and some unevenly distributed salt, the only other flavour component on the meat was white truffle. The medium rare meat was a little sinewy. Not complaining because it wasn't the most awesome steak out there. It just wasn't the point today. Just in case anyone was wondering at the colour of the top of the steak, most of the nicely done caramelization were hidden by the truffle shavings.