JulieVikmanis

<b>Dining in Piemonte</b>

After “discovering” Piemonte via the NYTimes article on Turin and Eataly and then starting to see more and more about it on this forum, the thing that truly turned me on to it was (what else?!!) the food. Everything I started to see and hear about the area suggested it was gourmet heaven and sure enough it was. I perused my Michelin red guide to Italy and counted 14 stars in about 100 square miles, including 2 one starred restaurants in a town of less than 700 people. Surely these people know how to cook.

Considering that Piemonte is also the home of the Slow Food movement with little snail insignias appearing not only in Cherasco but just about everywhere, suddenly Piemonte was calling, not in a whisper but with the insistence of a carnival barker.

The only tough part of eating in the area is choosing which of the many wonderful options you’ll do this time and which you’ll put off until next time—and the time after that and the time after that. The good thing is that I get the feeling that many/most of the restaurants of Piemonte stay put better than those of larger cities and more trendy areas. Many of the places we ate had the feel of being long established temples that you can count on being there when you return.

Of course, then the old problem of whether to return to the tried and true that you loved on your last trip or to try something different will arise, but once again, it’s not a bad problem to have.

But I digress. On to the business at hand--where we ate and what we thought of it. First the list, and then the reactions.

<b>Caffee Umberto on the piazza Savona, Alba
Locanda San Giorgio in the hills above Neviglie
Antica Torre, just beyond the tower in Barbaresco
La Luna nel Pozzo, atop the hill in the old part of Neive
La Collina on a main square in Monforte d’Alba
Antine on the main street—via Torino 34, in Barbaresco
Il Piola in Piazza duomo, technically Piazza Risorgimento 4, Alba
Osteria del Unione just off the main squares of Treiso on one of the roads out of town
Torino Ristaurante on the main square of Turin
La Ciau del Tornavento, Piazza Baracco 7, in Treiso</b>

As I look back over the list I recognize that a lot of big names are missing. Some of this reflects my efforts to try to be a bit more spontaneous in our choices at least for lunches to allow greater flexibility in our sightseeing. As those of you who might have read my trip report/essay on Paris and reserving for meals vs. not reserving, may remember, this is a big issue between Val and me in our travels.

Val prefers to just drop into someplace (which he is confident will be fantastic and more importantly immediately available) at the moment he gets hungry. I prefer to have reservations and work our routes of march around them lest we experience (quelle horreur!) a bad meal. In Piemonte we pretty much split the difference and did lunch by the serendipity plan and dinner by reservation, however fate intervened in a couple of instances, requiring a change of plans.

Ok, ok, I’ll get on with it.

<b>Caffee Umberto, Alba</b> was our first meal in Piemonte and a great introduction. It was total serendipity. We’d been dropped off at Piazza Savona by our taxi driver on the day of the Truffle Festival parade and palio and after walking about the market there to drool over the cheeses, sausages, truffle extensions, etc, etc, we were more than hungry. We were ravenous.

Unlike so many of the Piemonte restaurants we were to eat in later in the week, this one appeared very new and trendy with a sort of hip vibe. Even so the food was trendy in an old-fashioned, stick to the standards sort of way. We took seats at the bar (it was sort of a wine bar surrounding an open kitchen with wine bottles lining the walls in little cubby holes.)

Val had anchovies with a variety of sauces including an excellent dill pesto that I, a non-anchovy lover, found quite fantastic. I had a pork neck slice over beans and potatoes which I judged already the best meal of the trip so far. So much for food from the Lake Como area. I immediately noted a preponderance of butter in their cooking and felt at home.

That evening we dined at <b>Locanda San Giorgio, near Neviglie</b> a place where I’d made advance reservations with the best of intentions. I presumed Val would be tired from a long day of driving so I wanted a good dinner in a nice place but as close as possible to our Agriturismo Marcarini so he’d not have to drive much further. My extensive research led me to the San Giorgio presumably just a couple of km from our place. Well that must have been measured “as the crow flies” because it took us a while and more than a few km to reach this place—and remember that by this time our trusty Garmin had deserted us.

It was one of those awful situations where he threatened to give up, turn around and go back and forget dinner entirely, and I kept urging him on with “it must be just over this knoll” all the while being totally unsure if we were even traveling in the right direction. At this point I not only doubted my choice of a dining venue, but even my choice of lodging, featuring us spending night after night endlessly searching the hills on back roads for the places I’d booked.

Just as I was about to cry “uncle” the lights of a complex that turned out to be the Locanda appeared and we coasted in to the parking lot, made our way through one of several dining rooms filled with happy diners and grumpily (Val) assumed our chairs in the lovely mostly white dining room we’d been led to. Just to make things more challenging, this was one of the few places where none of the wait staff spoke English and the menu had no translations—and I’d left my translation pages back in the room.

I’m pleased to say that in spite of all of this we had a good if not great meal and finally relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

I had my first truffle experience. I ordered a soft-boiled egg with cream. After putting the dish down on the table, the waiter returned with the holy of holies, the white Alba truffle and his little pocket scale, sort of like a culinary Kindle. He set the scale on the table, proceeded to weigh the truffle, then shave some of it into my dish until I said “stop” or halt or held up my hand, whatever, then weigh the truffle again and record the cost of my shavings—15 euros for about 5 or six swipes over the truffle slicing instrument. Quite a production.

Next came tiny, tasty veal-filled ravioli with sage butter and finally lamb chops with carrots and potatoes. Val meanwhile started with shrimp and crispy prosciutto, then tajarin in tomato sauce and finished off with fried fish in a sort of tempura preparation. All this with a bottle of Barbera pinot nero came to only 115 euros. Everything was nicely presented and the food was good, we just got off on the wrong foot with our journey to the place. So much for trying to plan ahead. BTW we returned to the Marcarini with nary a problem though I spent most of the meal more or less dreading the trip back every time I thought of it.

Lunch on our second day was one of those wonderful combinations of planning and serendipity. We found ourselves in <b>Barbaresco</b> when we got hungry and I knew where all the likely good places to eat were. It helped that we got to our selection, <b>Antica Torre</b>, early though because by the time we finished our lunch the outdoor area was completely filled so that, had we come later, my efforts at planned serendipity might have come to naught.

This was a delightful lunch in a very unpretentious spot with a nice bustle about it. When we arrived early we were treated to the extra touch of one of the older, grandmotherly ladies of the crew seated at a table outdoors shucking peas. Doesn’t get any fresher or more authentic than that.

We started with salami and Barberesco Langhe, then I had a great ravioli with butter and sage—even better than that I’d had at the two previous meals, and then shiny, glistening rabbit with herbs and colorful carrots. Val was very happy with his two mushroom meal—cold chicken and pickled mushroom salad, then porcini fried with polenta coating.

To prevent further problems like we’d experienced getting to Locanda San Giorgio the previous night, we had “pre-found” our restaurant for dinner that night—<b>La Luna nel Pozzo in Neive</b>. In fact I hadn’t made advance reservations but rather scouted the place out while walking about the town, and stopped in to make the reservation for that evening while we were there. This gave us two assurances—one that we liked the look of the place and the menu, and two that we would be able to find it without problems.

I knew we’d like it when the owner of the Mom and Pop place (Pop, as it were) was sweeping the small outdoor patio himself, and stopped to welcome me and take my reservation. The place is a throw back to the 60’s or so with tres elegant roses floating in bulbous wine glasses, dark blue candles in silver holders with plastic drip catchers, nice artwork on the walls, and very caring service, solicitous even.

Eschewing the 110 euro truffle menu, we opted for the 55 euro degustation and found excellent value. We started with beef or veal tartare/carne crudo, then rabbit galantine with black truffle garnish, then tagliatelle with shrimp and thin shreds of veggies, and finally two thick lamb chops (making this my third lamb chop dinner in a row, I’ll admit) with potato and spinach purees on the side as well as a baked tomato.

We skipped dessert, as we usually do, but had espresso which they accompanied with an assortment of sweets. We accompanied all of this with arneis by the glass then a bottle of nebbiola selected by Pop for a mere 18 euros. While there was no single outstanding dish the meal in total was very good and the atmosphere and service combined to make it a wonderful dining experience.

More to follow

JulieVikmanis

<b>La Collina in Monforte d’Alba</b> was an excellent serendipitous pick when da Felicin which tortured us with its incredible smells and beautiful patio proved not to be serving lunch that day. I’d given thought to staying here also but concluded that the town was not as well positioned as it should be for minimal day trip driving to the places we wanted to see within the area. After getting ekscrunchy’s recommendation to consider it and then seeing it for myself, I’d certainly recommend it to anyone considering that area of the Langhe as a place to stay and to eat.

It’s darling, has a wonderful outdoor dining area and the cooking smells alone were enough to convince me that the food must be good, really good.

So it was with a heavy heart that we tromped on to see what else might be open in town for lunch that day. I was pleasantly surprised when an apparently new place trying desperately to be trendy and situated in an unfortunately center-of-traffic spot, turned out to have excellent food.

We had bagna cauda for the first time ever and promptly pronounced it one of our new favorite dishes of all time. It was beautifully presented in an oval bowl in the middle of a plate where it was surrounded by strips of red and yellow peppers, carrots, tomatoes, celery, fennel, leeks, radishes and boiled potatoes. I can’t imagine why we’ve never ordered it before, or at least why Val, the great anchovy lover, hasn’t, but whatever, as soon as I learn how to prepare it at home it will become the new vehicle to get veggies into his diet without coaxing.

Val followed with tajarin with a great tomato sauce and a smattering of black truffle, and I with gnocchi smothered in a local cheese sauce and then we both had the most delicious pork sausage and pork neck meat over yellow and red peppers, all with a chardonnay (unlike those in the US, thank goodness) by the glass and a bottle of Barolo.

The bagna cauda, the gnocchi and the pork sausage made the list of top dishes of the trip. Whoda thunk?!! Especially from an unlisted place with ditzy looking young waitresses selected as a second choice. Just goes to show.

Dinner that evening was back in <b>Barbaresco at Antine</b>, and drbb, I’m sorry to say, a disappointment to us.

They open at 8 and not a second sooner. After having a glass of wine in a little shop nearby to pass the time, we waited with another couple, our noses pressed to the window, while we got the impression the folks inside were counting down the seconds to the magic hour when they’d spring the doors open and deign to admit us. Another couple approached with the audacity to ask for admittance without reservations and were quickly disabused of any thought that they might get in even though we were one of only four occupied tables that evening—unless the custom there is to dine very late.

The contrast between Antine and La Luna nel Pozzo of the previous night was striking. At the latter, everything was sincere desire to please with overtones of conviviality, though the place was surely not raucous. At Antine everything was hushed tones and formality and to my mind spoke of taking themselves too seriously. At one point a lone diner having the expensive all truffle menu, dropped a knife on the floor which seemed to send reverberations throughout the tiny, u-shaped dining room. I almost expected the waitress to come out and admonish him to take care and be quiet rather than simply present him another knife.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh. Perhaps we were just at the satiation point where we start to doubt the rationality of it all. Whatever, our impressions of the place were just not of a warm and caring establishment. Understand, I don’t need to be coddled when I dine, but I do like to feel comfortable and here I did not. It’s also seldom that I find service and atmosphere to overshadow food as my reason for liking or not liking a restaurant, but again, here I did—although the food was very good and included two of the best dishes of the trip.

One of those was the first course of sliced veal tongue with itty bitty hand chopped veggies and parsley sauce. It was beautiful, had great texture and tasted delicious. It followed an amuse of unctuous slices of sausage with a hint of allspice in a smooth-as-silk chick pea sauce. After the first course, Val had porcini soup with potatoes in it while I had tajarin with veal sauce, one of the best tajarins of the trip. His final course was duck, again with porcinis, and I had the snails I’d been longing for since our time in Cherasco, and the other dish I considered among the best of the trip.

The snails came in butter, cream and herbs en cocotte and were the most tender I’ve ever eaten but I could only eat about half the dish since it was too much and too rich after all that had passed before. We finished with espresso and no dessert and amazingly a tab of only 142 euros including a nice bottle of barbaresco, making the place not only good for food, but also good value. Too bad about the service.

Drbb, I’d be interested to get your take on the service atmosphere I’m speaking of. Did you notice it at all, or was it just me? I remember from your report that you felt your meal there was one of the best you had and that you, too, had a very reasonable tab. Perhaps I am being too harsh.

Our third day in Piemonte got off to a bad start when I slept until 9:00 or so having been up ill most of the night (most likely not the fault of Antine but rather of the market sausage I’d snacked on, or of the appetizers I’d had at the little wine shop while awaiting our dinner at Antine). Whatever, we got off to an inauspicious start and when I still wasn’t feeling all that well by lunchtime I didn’t much care where we ate.

We happened to be on the Piazza Duomo/Risorgimento in <b>Alba</b> where we found <b>Il Piola</b>, a place I’d noted from a Chowhound post or somesuch. Perhaps because our expectations were low, we found it acceptable, contrary to drbb’s experience which if I recall correctly, she pronounced the worst of her trip. The differences may also have something to do with the fact that she ate there for dinner and we only for lunch.

I started with a salad of shaved red cabbage, greens and local cheese with super thing, almost transparent slices of veal head cheese with balsamic vinegar. Pretty and fairly tasty. Val had an appetizer plate of cured veggies, veal tartare, and Russian salad, then another dish of tajarin with veal in tomato sauce—the staple of Piemontese cooking. Nothing outstanding, but acceptable.

Dinner that evening was supposed to be back in Alba where I’d reserved at Osteria dell Arco but an accident caused the local police to set up a roadblock making it impossible for us to follow the route we intended so we stopped in Treiso to which we’d been rerouted.

I was secretly kind of glad since I knew that Treiso was the location of Profumo di Vino that ekscrunchy had written about so lovingly, that friends of ours who own a restaurant in Minneapolis (where veal meatballs with fois gras is a signature dish of the highly rated 112 Eatery) had enjoyed when they’d been there a few week before us and raved about the same veal meatballs and egg dish that eks had so enjoyed, and that had created an exchange of some heat when Sampaguita had dined at the same place and found it quite lacking.

I figured I’d get to weigh in on the controversy but it was not to be. Although we were parked practically beneath Profumo in the main square, it must not have been lit up or I must not have had my wits about me or something, but I couldn’t see it and so opted for another place I could see and that was also on my list of places to try in <b>Treiso—Osteria del Unione</b>, possibly our only representation from the many Slow Food places in the region.

Our dinner there was quintessential Piemonte fare. They served only one menu to all guests. At 30 euros per person it was an incredible bargain. They were kindly willing to call dell Arco to inform them of our inability to keep our reservations with them and seemed not to begrudge our making them second choice.

They served the antipasto in 4 waves--starting with a plate of salami, proscuitto and some wonderful thin sausage of what seemed like raw meat with truffles (about the circumference of a cheap beef jerky stick and terrific tasting.) This was another standout dish of the whole trip. Next came vitello tonnata with the veal slices forming a flower on the plate and slathered in creamy yellow tuna/mayo sauce from the center to about 2 inches from the edges, carrying out the flower look. This was my first ever exposure to vitello tonnata since I've never thought I'd like the flavor combination. I was wrong. Then they (she cooks, he waits tables) brought out a plate of sort of thin, 3" round egg omelets with spinach and finally a vegetable tureen with stinky gruyere-like cheese sauce. We were off to a good start.

The pasta was the ubiquitous tajarin with a tomato sauce--a very good example. The secondi was rabbit in a red pepper and clove studded braising sauce, good but by this point we were pretty full. All payment was cash only.
The place was small, seating probably less than 25 total at about 6 or seven tables, some, like ours for only 2 people. The bathroom facilities could only be reached by going outside and around the corner of the restaurant seating area. By the time we had finished our several antipasta plates, the place was full and they were turning folks away.

It was a good, down to earth meal, and it sounds from drbb’s experience like we were lucky to have eaten there rather than at our intended selection-- dell Arco. Nonetheless, I felt both a little foolish and a little cheated when we left the restaurant and walked to our car with the lights of Profumo shining overhead and realized that, had I just spent a little more time looking around, I might have had those meatballs, the eggs with truffle and joined in the argument. Oh well, next time for sure.

Our sole meal in <b>Turin</b> was nothing special but still good. We didn’t want to spend a lot of time dining with so little time to see the city on a day only side trip. And we’d half expected to eat at Eataly though we had to scrap that plan when we wound up going there first and being done early in the morning, well before lunchtime. So we simply strolled around the main square of town, Piazza San Carlos, looked at all the adjoining restaurants and picked the one with the best looking menu—in short what most tourists do.

The choice was <b>Torino Ristorante</b>, a place with pretty much standard Italian fare for which we were pretty much ready having had so much Piemontese tajarin up to that point. We dined outside in the square itself with other tables occupied by what appeared to me to be local or visiting business people and ladies who shop. Everything was business and shopping respectable and we were quite happy with our choices—proscuitto with melon, risotto with seafood including surprise razor clams, and a trenette alla Genovese, with a hint of cream.

Little did we know that we’d saved our best meal for last. In fact we hadn’t saved it at all. I had not made a prior reservation for dinner that evening but had a list of several I’d seen recommended in the area near the agriturismo which I provided the helpful Elisa asking her to reserve for us. When some places turned out not to be available (either full or closed for the evening) she used her discretion and booked us back in <b>Treiso at La Ciau del Tornavento</b>.

I’d, of course, reviewed it previously myself and for some unknown reason not thought to book there so I’m eternally grateful to Elisa for her excellent discretion, even though I admit that I had harbored thoughts of canceling and rebooking myself at Profumo to be able to taste and review the food there that I’d missed on the previous night. Glad I didn’t.

For starters the place is gorgeous. Drbb has described it well (again I commend you to her report, link above). We arrived fairly early and you could still see a bit of the view from the full length windows. It must be fantastic in the sunlight. The things I found most ingenious and stunning about the décor were the perfect use of small spotlights to highlight the greenery throughout as well as the lovely flowers and glassware on the tables.

The greenery was large and exuberant as it could be in the large, expansive dining room (a renovated and enlarged school house I was told when I asked). Palms, cycades and columns were judiciously placed so as to provide separation among tables in the vast—but pretty much filled—dining area. It was wholly pleasing.

With so large a space, it would have been easy to have felt a bit small and unattended had the welcome and the service not have been so kind and attentive. The hostess welcomed us with a handshake, shook our hands again as we left and gave us a nice postcard with a picture of the restaurant interior as a memento of our visit.

Val insisted on ordering the wine he wanted rather than putting ourselves in the hands of the sommelier as drbb and Mike so wisely did, causing us not to get quite as special a treatment from him as they did, but he was attentive to our glasses and responded to my request for info about the provenance of the restaurant.

This is plainly a special occasion restaurant and folks were more dressed up than we saw them at other dining venues. It is also apparently a smart place for folks to wine and dine visiting business people since two of the tables the night we were there were filled with business people, one a mixed group another of about twelve men, both appearing to be completely immersed not in conversation about business but about the food and wine they were consuming. We entered the restaurant just ahead of a party of three Americans, a perfectly behaved young lady of about 12 and her parents. The rest were 2, 3 and 4 tops, all appearing to enjoy themselves as we were.

Our meals included 4 of the best dishes of the trip—the most at any single restaurant. From drbb’s description of her meal, it seems likely that we had three of the same dishes they had—the stuffed onion, the zuppa with porcini and truffle and the duck.

The amuses included a red pepper encasing tuna mousse, black truffle over fois gras on a tiny toast round and my picture shows a sort of lollipop thing that I can’t recall and didn’t write about in my log. Hmmm. But the most outstanding amuse was a separate plate for each of us of two perfectly pink veal slices with adjoining dollops of tuna, a shard of deep maroon radicchio and a sprinkling of ruby red pomegranate seeds-–the chef’s take on vitello tonnata, and a study in shades of red, absolutely arresting.

Val had the “soup” of porcini slices, poached egg and mushroom cream covered with black truffle slices, at 18 euros a real steal and one of his favorite dishes of the trip. Meanwhile I was rhapsodizing about my whole baked onion—one of my favorite dishes of the trip. It had been baked skin on, with the top cut off and some of the onion scooped out to make room for sausage from Bra and smothered with a local cheese sauce (fonduto) which puddled on the plate and was oddly but tastily studded with tiny chunks of amaretto cookie, giving it a sweet touch and good texture.

Both of us chose the same pasta course, another favorite dish of the trip—Plin, a tiny, handmade ravioli stuffed with green cabbage and three different kinds of meat. I often find that the secondi provides the least interesting dishes of any Italian meal, so it wasn’t unexpected to find that neither of ours made the favorite dishes of the trip list, but they were surely good and provided us some of our favorite secondi offerings.

Val had the wild duck and I had the kid prepared two ways—roasted and fried in a light crust of polenta, as were the mushrooms and apples that accompanied it. The roasted part had excellent skin and it was a bonus to be able to have goat at all, my favorite meat. So, eks, I did get goat on the trip.

We finished with double espressos and the house sweets—tiny cookies and jells, most notable for being served on a diminutive square cookie sheet complete with little turned up sides and set on legs. As with this “course” overall, this was interesting more for its appearance and cuteness than for its tastes, though the jells provided a nice sweet ending.

Our wines came to 60 euros of our 200 euro total but considering the enjoyment we got from the food and the wine as well as the ambiance and service, it was certainly “worth it”—for whatever that’s worth. It was the most memorable meal of the trip. Perhaps next time we’ll break down and opt for the truffle extravaganza even if it is 200 euros a person. You only live once.

So we left Piemonte with tighter clothing and good memories to drive to Nice for some wonderful scenery and experiences but the starved pavements of not such good food. So that’s what’s up next--but probably not until tomorrow after I rest my weary fingers.

JulieVikmanis

Ok, I rest my case on the caring service of La Luna nel Pozzo. I just opened my in box to find the nicest Christmas wishes from them to us and "to every persons you have in your heart." Now how sweet is that?!!! This is a mom and pop place with good food, real caring, and someone in the family who recognizes the value of technology. You gotta love it.

drbb

“Drbb, I’d be interested to get your take on the service atmosphere I’m speaking of. Did you notice it at all, or was it just me? I remember from your report that you felt your meal there was one of the best you had and that you, too, had a very reasonable tab. Perhaps I am being too harsh.”

I know exactly what you are talking about – Antine is very quiet and very reserved. I mentioned that we only saw one person on the staff the entire evening, and she was dressed all in black and not much for chit chat, shall we say. Yet, Mike and I really don’t find this type of atmosphere to be uncomfortable in any way. We are equally relaxed in the neighborhood trattoria as in the hushed quiet of a “serious” restaurant. It sounds like your food was very good though.

And I loved hearing about Ciau. It was indeed a highlight for us. Your experience at del Unione sounded fantastic.

TDudette

Wonderful report! Glad to hear about Bergamo-it's another one on our list. And, yes, the Russian presence in Nice is interesting. Your hotel there sounded wonderful. Such food in Turin and around!

cobbie

bookmarking

HappyTrvlr

bookmarking