Forking Tasty

Italy Market Fix

I love markets. It’s the one thing that connects me faster and better with a culture than any other thing I do in a foreign city. Whether it’s an American supermarket an Asian hawker market or a European food market the effect is the same. Today I’ll let the images do the majority of the talking to drive this point home. The below slideshow will take you through the good, ugly and weird of two Italian markets I visited on my recent trip. A few highlights, starting with the above veal brain. Look out for the stuffed rooster neck and the the skinned rabbit in the slideshow. The offal counter is another key image that you don’t see very often. A guy who only serves organs and intestine for a living. It takes a strong man. Enjoy the images, I hope it inspires you to poke around the local market more on your next excursion.

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The Peter Lugar of Italy

Today, if you are a strick catholic, you’re not supposed to eat meat. I figured that’s a great opportunity to write about meat. I personally am about to dive elbow deep into 31 lobsters in prep for tonights feast of the seven fishes. Whether you eat meat or not, this discovery is one to add to your Italy hit list.

Peter Lugars is my favorite steakhouse. I love everything about it but specifically the cut of steak, size of steak and the way you order your steak are paramount to the experience. Florence, all of Tuscany for that matter, is known for it’s beef. Just ask Dario Cecchini. It seems like everyone else has. If you ask me, Bistecca al la Fiorentina is a must taste when visiting the city. The place to have it is Buca Mario. This five steps down, dungeons lair is actually as old world as it looks. The meat is displayed in a glass case as you enter and you’re escorted through the twists and turns of the low ceilinged subterranean steakhouse to your table. On the way you pass diners with enormous steaks half and three quarters eaten. Your stomach growls and your mouth starts to water.

The menu is where the “Lugars” really shines through. You order this goliath steak by number. Steak for one, two or three. Sides are all a la carte, like Lugars. The cut is a Porterhouse, like Lugars, although, the Florentine cut is a bit less tenderloin and a bit more strip than in the states. It also measures in at 3 inches thick. That’s a solid half inch taller than Lugars. The beauty of butchering is how different countries cut slightly portions resulting in new types of steaks to eat. The wine list is extensive, as you’d imagine. Much better than Lugars. When the steak finally arrives it comes cooked only one way. Rare. I made it through most of this meat but slowed at the end thanks to the pasta appetizer I just had to have. In the end I’ll say the experience was amazing but the taste is better in the US. Argentina still reigns supreme but that’s another trip.

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Florence Fast Food

You know what good salumi looks like and if you don’t you clearly don’t read Forking Tasty enough. I’ll proceed with my assumption being correct. That explains my choice to show the shop the salumi came from instead of the thinly slices, perfectly aged, fat and spiced filled pork that came from within. Florence is packed with these tiny shops that sell wine by the glass, panini or boards of salumi. around 3 or 4pm the florentine locals come out of the surrounding buildings and pop into one of the dozens of options available for snacking.

On this particular afternoon, as we sauntered away from the glorious Duomo, a chalkboard with different types of salumi plates caught our attention. We slipped into the tiny shop to procure one of the tasty specials. Cutting to order, the proprietor stood in a small square box surrounded by a cash register, meat slicer and fifty different salumi and proscuittos. Minutes later he handed us a board with our five different selections laid out like silk scarves across the rustic wood. The only spot to sit were two counters that ran along the outer walls providing only 8 seats. The idea is much like the bar (read coffee shop) culture you find all over Italy. A small space which provides a quick snack, a sip and a little conversation before you move on to your next errand or destination. The flow, premise and tradition of this behavior is one in which I cherish and believe should exist worldwide. With our board wiped clean of pig slices we we’re off for Gelato. See…When you’re not a local your next errand tends to be another snack.

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You Macaroon!

Macaroons are not Italian but maccarone is. Like many things French, macaroons inspiration came from the Italians. This post isn’t sparking a debate about the inception of modern cuisine although read “Food In History“, then let’s talk. My intro was simply a snarky preface to the surprise I received when checking into my hotel room in Florence. Before I go any further let’s be clear that when I discovered this treat I was standing in the Four Seasons Hotel as a guest on his honeymoon. Something of this nature is expected in a property of this caliber but the handmade attention to detail you see above was still surprising. The taste matched the presentation keeping my wife and I sugared up and ready to tour Firenza.

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Drinkable Chocolato

On day two in Rome I visited Trastevere, a cool but still touristy neighborhood across the Tiber. To my surprise our visit coincided with the Chocolate Fair. Lines of tents filled the piazza with chocolate in all forms. From bars, bon bon and bites to crafted shapes like stiletto heels, wrenches and proscuitto there seemed to be every chocolate form you could imagine. Additionally there were chocolate cannolis, chocolate donuts and, what you see here, sipping chocolate. What we think of as hot chocolate seemed a bit more high test here in Italy. It is as thick as it looks. The Canadian and I had a tough time finishing this off with out major sugar shock. Three sips and you are done unless you get a fresh brioche or baguette and do the ‘ol chocolate dip. Smart right? Well, we unfortunately couldn’t find fresh bread but we did use our sugar high to propel us on foot all the way to the Trevi Fountain.

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Porchetta Please

Kind of a Roman thing I came to realize. What’s different than most you’ve seen in the states is they use the whole damn pig. That’s why they are so damn big. I think these are closest to a Shwarma joint in that they start the day with a giant piece of meat and slowly slice it back into a tiny nub of swine. A good shop can go through 1 plus of these debones and re wrapped porkers a day. This one was spotted in Piazza Navona. Probably not the best Rome has to offer since Navona is one of the most touristed places in Rome. If you follow Bourdain, he’ll tell you to go to I Porchettoni far away from the tourists.

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Italian Cookie

I realized that the stories from Italy can take months to properly explain. In the crunch of the Holidays and my burning need to share all the Italian goodies before the Italian-American goodies hit the holiday table, I am going to post my highlights in short order this week allowing you all a quick Italian food vacation before the Holidays take over.

First up is this perfect pignoli cookie. The reigning champion of this cookie is my Aunt Joy but as far as an “in Italy” version this takes the cake, or cookie as it were. The key to the pignoli is to get that crunchy outside with a moist and soft inside. This succeed on both fronts. Washing it down with a quick Italian espresso made it that much better. Where did I get it? Just a tiny, non-pretentious, BAR(read coffee shop) on via you-name-it. My favorite type of food discoveries are always the unexpected and nondescript places. Truth be told, there was a name and you should remember it. Pasticceria Dagnino. Get there.

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Allora. I’ve been in Italy.

Hence the seven days of silence, tight pants and cured meat withdrawals. There is plenty to discuss and review so expect tons of Italian posts in the next few weeks as we slide right into our Italian-American Christmas. For now be satiated by this bowl of spaghetti carbonara I had just a few steps off Campo di Fiori in Rome at Salumeria Roscioli. Thanks to Mario Batali’s real time tweeting he hooked us up with this recommendation of a little nondescript salumeria. Along with this tasty dish the table was filled up by a burata with sun dried tomatoes, a plate of meatballs, a huge samulmi plate, proscuitto carpaccio and of course a bottle of vino.

As they say, when in Rome. As I say, visit here.

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European Fiesta

For three months this summer I was cruising through the Mediterranean experiencing life in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, France and Monaco. I’m sure you have caught a couple of my posts while I was there. I could have done a lot more posts but there was so much food I encountered on my travels that it would become a full time job just to write them all. I put together this video to show you all the amazing food I either ate or saw and wanted to eat. The food in europe is so fresh and delicious it makes it really hard to stop eating. The company I got to enjoy the food with made it even better. The things that stood out to me were the multiple wine and olive oil tastings I went to. Not only did I taste the incredible wine and ridiculous olive oil but the food they served as well was equally delicious and authentic. I learned a lot about the different wines and the acidities in the olive oil. Many of the meals I ate each had it’s own uniqueness to it. From my company to the service to the food and drinks, the mediterranean had it all to make each experience a memorable one.

A Quick Hit From Venice

My buddy Sean Bell and I sent out to explore Venice. Sean had been there before and I asked him for the Sean Bell Tour of Venice. We set out in the morning and had a lot of walking to do that day. Sean, (not a morning person fyi, typical musician) needed a quick fix before we get into the heart of Venice. The video shows the typical sandwich you can get at numerous cafes around Venice, let alone most of italy. However, this sandwich was filled with tuna and olives and was one of Sean’s favorite. Me on he other hand, I can’t stand the smell of tunafish let alone the taste. It was just the pick-me-up Sean needed to give me a great tour of Venice. We walked and saw one of the most unique cities I have ever been to. Where in a normal city you have road, Venice has rivers. Cities have cars, Venice has boats. It’s different but a very beautiful city.