Mediterranean Pt VI (Final)

This was the last stop on our trip and let me tell you, we saved the best for last.  The entire trip both the wife and I were looking forward to seeing (and tasting) Tuscany.  “Under the Tuscan Sun” is one of her favorite movies.  Wine and dried cured meats are some of my favorite foods.  Tuscany embodies everything I expected out of Italy.  At first I thought to myself “All those beautiful pictures you see of vineyards and endless hills must be the nice part of Tuscany.”  From what I saw (we drove for hours through the countrywide) it ALL looks like that with a vineyard visible on every hillside.  The beautiful farmhouses nestled in the hills amongst the cypress trees and fields of wild poppies filled the hillsides.  We passed by Andre Boccelli’s house and an outdoor amphitheater with posters announcing his show the following week … I love this place.

We started our Tuscan adventure in San Gimignano which is the home of the world’s BEST gelato.  Or, so the sign says.  We will get to that in a second.  Our first stop was at a café for a cappuccino and a cannoli.  I did not get pictures of them but this is the display case in the café filled with premade ready to grill paninis.

We walked around for a while trying to find places that my wife and Pam would recognize from the movie.  After searching we found a place called Pluripremiata Gelateria.  This was it!  This is what I had heard rumblings about on the trip here.  I thought Venice was supposed to have the best gelato but it turns out that it is right here in San Gimignano.

Being the food connoisseur that I am, I wasn’t going to take their word for it.  The flavor choices seemed endless.  With our friends Tom & Pam anxious to explore the tastes and smells of our discovery, Tom decided on the Nutella gelato, and so did I.  I had just eaten a Nutella crepe in France, but you can’t go wrong with chocolate and hazelnut.  Gelato is very similar to ice cream.  The difference is that it is not whipped so there is much less air in it making it a much more dense (read: heavy) dessert food.  Since I was sharing with my wife, I went for the medium.  It was an overcast rainy day but that didn’t stop me from eating this amazingly delicious frozen treat.  

Full hazelnuts were covered in fudgy dark chocolate and large chunks of chewy chocolate all throughout the dish.  Almost every bite had a hazelnut in it.  The ones that didn’t were filled with chocolate.  It was a remarkable midmorning snack.

As we headed to our next destination (a farmhouse in the countryside of Livorno), we passed several more vineyards and a prison.  If I were incarcerated this is where I would want to go.  The views were spectacular.  When we arrived at our meal location we were introduced to the owner and his family.  We sat at a family style dining table and were served fresh olives.  We then did a little wine tasting with three distinct wines made on the premises.  The first was a fruity Chardonnay.  It was very light and had a very nice slightly tart and very sweet aftertaste.  The next two were Cabernets.  The first was younger than the second one.  They were both full bodied and smooth, with the older one having a slightly earthier and deeper finish.  Then one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever eaten was served to me.  First came the pasta ragu, fresh penne rigate with a thick meaty sauce.  This is not your mothers meat sauce.  The ragu was mostly ground meat with very light tomatoes and fresh seasonings.  Next was the salad consisting of freshly grown lettuce (I believe it was from the family farm) with light vinaigrette dressing.  We were then served fresh bruschetta and Tuscan garlic bread.  The bruschetta tasted like I was eating it in the garden.  The vegetables were so fresh and full of flavor; I’m pretty sure they were picked that morning.  The Tuscan garlic bread was grilled fresh bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil.

Following that came the main course.  Although I was stuffed full of gelato, olives, pasta, and bread, I started to salivate when this came out.

The cheeses are two different aged pecorino cheeses made from goat milk.  They were aged 9 months and 18 months.  They were rich, creamy, and paired perfectly with the local prosciutto and salami that was served beside it.  These dried meats were by far the best I have ever had.  The owner of the vineyard worked with a local farmer who made the prosciutto and salami a few miles down the road.  The prosciutto was dry and salty, just like it should be.  The fat melted away in my mouth giving every bite of food a burst of flavor.  The salami acted in similar fashion.  The peppery seasonings hit the tip of your tongue as the fat dissipated into a flavor wave over my entire mouth.  I had found the most amazing food I had ever eaten in my life.  Maybe I’m a little biased because I am Italian.  Maybe I hyped up Tuscany in my mind so much that no matter what I ate, it would be amazing.  I don’t care.  I want to go back.

After the feast we were served an almond biscotti and an aperitif wine made from honey.  It was similar to mead but not milled with spices.  It was also much thicker and more concentrated.  As people were leaving the dining room to go and walk off the meal Tom and I went back for wine.  

The rest of our day in Tuscany was filled with excitement.  We went to Volterra and saw some guys dressed up as knights preparing to reenact some important historical event.  Tom and I both got shit on by pigeons and were told its good luck.  I could write a book on what I saw and learned in Volterra.  Churches, towers, wars, foot races, vampires, etc… Volterra is a very old settlement dating back to the Neolithic era.    The ruins date back to 700 B.C.There’s a lot that has happened here.  Let’s just leave it at that. 

Sadly, our Mediterranean vacation was over.  We headed back to Rome, hopped on a plane, and flew back to the States.  The memories that were made during this amazing trip will last a lifetime.  We met new friends, saw spectacular places, and ate some of the most amazing foods I have ever put in my mouth.  We hope to be able to travel like this again sometime in the near future.  Until then, I guess I’ll have to deal with American food.

Mediterranean Pt 3

The next stop on what was quickly becoming our gastronomic tour of the Mediterranean was Sicily.  Home of the cannoli and the Mafia.  I wasn’t sure what to except when we got there.  All I could picture in my head was a bunch of really mean goombas all wearing Gucci suits and dark sunglasses.  Boy, was I wrong.

We docked in Messina and were promptly shuffled on to a bus headed for Taormina.  It is a quaint old hilltop commune whose origins date back to sometime B.C.  Once there, you enter in to the town through and old stone archway.  First stop, the first place I can find that sells cannolis.  And I didn’t have to walk far.  Taormina is known to tourists for two things: cannolis and its close proximity to Mt. Etna.  So, there were two basic types of shop.  Those selling little trinkets made out of lava rock from the volcano and pastry shops, which had fronts that looked like this.

So, we stopped and got a cannoli.  Sicilian cannolis are similar to the cannolis I was raised on, but better than I could have ever imagined.  For those of you who don’t know, a cannoli consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta cheese (or alternatively, but less traditionally, sweetened Mascarpone).  The filling is blended with some combination of vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, Marsala wine, rosewater or other flavorings. Some pastry chefs add chopped succade or chocolate chips. They are typically made in several varying sizes, from the "cannulicchi", no bigger than a finger, to the fist-sized proportions typically found in Piana degli Albanesi, south of Palermo, Sicily.  The ones we got had a small amount of succade mixed into the filling, but no chocolate, and were middle of the road in size.  These were the best cannolis I have ever had.  The shell was fresh, flaky and crunchy, yet did not shatter upon first bite.  The pastry seemed to be resilient against the usual sogginess of the filling, not like most of the ones you can get in the States.  The filling was velvety smooth, rich, and creamy.  I never knew any kind of cheese could be so sweet.  I could have sat there eating these sweet Sicilian treats all day.

After the wife had to pull me away from getting another one (and thereby possibly ruining my appetite for more treats to come), we headed down the pedestrian street to check out the rest of the city.  It was an overcast rainy day, so we dashed in and out of several store fronts.  Coincidentally, shopping makes me thirsty.  So, we stopped to get a beer.  We found a nice and somewhat busy outdoor café right next to the main entrance to the town.  We grabbed a table right next to the street, and ordered two beers.  Here is what we got.

Two beers, aptly named Baffo D’oro, or the “Golden Moustache”, and three tiny plates of food.  Something about the name of the beer and the fact that I had facial hair seemingly amused our waiter, as he put the beers down, pointed to the label, looked and me, and began to laugh.  At first, I thought he may be playing a joke on me and that the beer was going to be horrible.  It was, in fact, rather refreshing.  It was slightly bitter, but very malty, which balanced the final flavor of the beer very well.  The dishes we received were extremely crunchy (probably several day old) seasoned croutons, some sort of Sicilian style “bar mix”, and the greenest, briniest olives I have ever tasted in my life.  And, in fact, the only olives I have ever actually enjoyed eating.  I know.  I’m Italian so I should LOVE olives, right?  Well, my family stems from the Calabria region of Italy, which is a stones throw across the straight from Sicily.  And these are Sicilian olives.  So, I like the olives of my ancestors.  And they paired great with the croutons.  The slightly crunchy outside of the olive popped between your teeth releasing a rush of salty, almost tart liquid into your mouth.  At first, it caused me to pause mid chew and actually ask myself “Do I really like the way these taste?”  After a few more, I was certain. Yes, I liked them.  So, I polished off the rest of them, and ordered more (with a few more rounds of Baffo D’Oro, of course).  We sat there eating olives, drinking beer, and waited out a rainstorm.  Then, we grabbed a few more cannolis (with pistachios this time) and a cappuccino before heading back to the ship. 

As we left the port of Messina, we cruised past their patron saint, Madonna della Lettera.  Standing tall in all her glorious splendor, she states "Vos et ipsam civitatem benedicimus".  She even seems to follow you with her hand as you leave port.  It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day.  

Mediterranean Honeymoon Part 2

After a wonderful day in Croatia, we cruised overnight to Venice.  I was going to write about our horrible experience with our assigned tables, but it was way to boring to even write.  Let’s just say we were extremely happy to meet Pam & Tom while in Venice.  We ended up dining at their table with two other couples the rest of the trip.  In this dining room.

 

Yup, that is snake skin décor.  And it was all over the dining room.  On the walls, in the ceiling panels, even on the wait stations.  I tried to figure out how it all tied in, but gave up after the first few days.

Anyway, the next day was on to Venice.  Now, for some reason, I didn’t take many pictures of food in Venice, though I remember scarfing down several gelatos.  The one picture I can find of our trips is this one below.  This was taken at the Art Blu Café in Venice.  Pictured are my wife and our new friend Tom and the difference between ordering a small and a large beer in a café in Venice.  As in Italy, Tom, not friggin Oktoberfest.  We also all shared in the joy that is Italian pizza.  It was OK.  Nothing spectacular and I didn’t even get a picture. The crust was thin, just like I like it, but could have used more salt. The sauce was very fresh tasting, not overpowered with spices like we tend to do in the US.  You could actually taste the sweetness of the fresh tomatoes.  The cheese was perfectly melted, not so hot it would scald the roof of your mouth, but hot enough that it almost swallowed up the topping. Ah, the topping; ham.  The ham was just that. Little bits of thinly sliced ham chopped up and topped on our perfectly sized Venetian pie.  I also recall that the beer was cold, and the conversation was filled with laughter.  We had just met our new cruising friends.  We even switched our tables on the ship and ate with them for the remainder of our cruise. 
 

Oh yeah, and huge jars of Nutella.