And look:



http://tagliatellevaganti.splinder.c...Avenue,+New+Yo

How many tries did it take to get that great title just under 75 characters?

FiFi: Quite a few!

In my inimitable fashion of dragging out these reports so long that the details threaten to fade from memory, here is a snippet, to be followed soon by our last dinner in Turin (at the legendary Antiche Sera)




I strongly recommend a visit to the Santuario della Consolata, both for the unusual double plan of the interior, with a lavish gilded high altar by Juvarra, and for the very colorful and animated ex votos housed in a pair of side chapels. Being a fan of these plaques, I was astounded by the absolutely superb collection –reminders of all manner of gruesome accidents and sicknesses from which the victim recovered and gave thanks line the walls, rising high above the heads of visitors.

From the church, we walked northeast towards the Porta Palazzo, reportedly the largest open-air food market in Europe. Unfortunately, as I suspected, it was closed on this holiday Saturday, as were most of the other shops that we passed on our wanderings. We did see the outer fringes of the Balon flea market that sprawls along the neighboring streets and appeared to be operating in a much constricted form on this April afternoon.

Next, more Chocopass treats, a now-forgotten bag of sweets that we were handed inside the gorgeous former Agnelli hangout, the late 19th Century Caffe Platti, not far from the train station:

http://www.platti.it/locale.html

I neglected to mention that the Bicerin (the word means "small glass" in local dialect) at the cafe of the same name cost 4.50 each and were well worth it!

Here is more information on the cafe, and the beverage:


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/dining/08olym.html

What a wonderful trip report. Now I'm inspired to add Turin to our next trip.

We wandered around the city for several hours.

We intended to explore the area to the east of the city center. where a string of green parks edges the banks of the River Po, but our feet gave out before we reached our destination, so we ambled back to the hotel and relaxed in the very comfortable room for an hour or so before getting ready for our last dinner of the trip.

Several days before, I had booked a table by phone at Osteria Antiche Sere, a casual Slow Food eatery located to the southwest of the city center in the workaday residential district of Borgo San Paolo. .

Shortly before our 8pm dinner time, we set off in a taxi from the hotel. The ride to the restaurant took about 15 minutes and cost 13 euro; the return trip (we asked the restaurant to phone a taxi for us) cost 11 euro. (The custom in Turin is to call a radio taxi, not to hail a taxi on the street. There are taxi stands but they are few and far between.)

At the risk of using a well-worn phrase, I will say that Antiche Sere is a quintessentially Torinese osteria. We received the warmest welcome of a week of very warm welcomes by Antonella Rota, the vivacious young woman who served as hostess and server, (her brother presides in the kitchen) and were ushered to a table in the front dining room. With is well-worn checkered tile floors, brown painted wainscoting, and sturdy wooden tables and chairs, Antiche Sere, founded about 16 years ago on a the site of an old bocci court, is a film director’s ideal of a homey Italian trattoria.


The menu is all Piemontese and reads like an edited version of the region’s “best hits.” We had seen these dishes on so many manus in the past week that I could probably recite them in my sleep. Prices are very reasonable. My only quibble is that this is the only place that we were served commercial grissini (breadsticks) in their wrappers. But the rest of the meal made up for this lapse. Simple, unadorned Piemontese food in a simple and unadorned setting.

Here are some photos, and a copy of a (not current) menu, with prices that approximate those that we experienced:


http://con-vivium.blogspot.com/2007/...re-torino.html




After ordering (no English is spoken here),we were presented with complimentary tastes of the local favorite insalata russa (Russian salad, made with mayonnaise).

For my first course, I ordered the tajarin with asparagus, made with a variety of asparagus from nearby Santena whose season lasts only 10 days. Excellent! (For more on Italian asparagus, and photos, see this Italian-language link; the comments are funny as everyone is touting the variety of his or own region)

http://cucina.blogautore.espresso.re...4/23/asparagi/



My partner, who would have turned into an agnolotti if he stayed one more week, surprised no one with his first course. The veal agnolotti was served with a light tomato sauce and pronounced “terrific.”

To continue the theme, I took the asparagus as a secondi; hefty (unpeeled) spears were topped with poached orange-yolked farm eggs. Simple and absolutely impeccable. (Although I would have peeled the asparagus, and in fact I did when I coped the dish a couple of times after our return home.)

I followed this dish with a salad—mache, arugula and a few other varieties of spring greens.

On inquiring about dessert, our delightful server informed us that Antiche Sere is renowned for its panna cotta. With an endorsement like that, we found it impossible to resist. This was one of the best desserts of the trip. Exquisite.

With a half carafe of house wine, coffee, cover and water, the bill for two totalled 57 euro. No credit cards are accepted and the restaurant is closed Sunday. Reservations are essential. We watched with sympathy as finer after diner was turned away, including one forlorn Japanese couple who had arrived by public transportation and looked absolutely devastated upon being told there was no room. The phone did not stop ringing the entire time we were there, and each time the response was something along the lines of “ questa sera completo.”

ANTICHE SERE, via Cenischia, 9; open for dinner only; closed Sundays; cash only

The next morning, Sunday, after breakfasting on the extensive hotel buffet, we set out for the drive to Milan Malpensa airport, where we were booked on a flight departing at 12pm. I had debated about the advantages of taking the airport bus from Turin, or keeping the car and driving to the airport. The first option would have meant taking a 7am bus from the train station in Turin (with taxi to the station) ; the second meant parking the car in the hotel lot for two nights at 18 euro per night. With much hesitation, we decided to keep the car and drive to Malpensa.

Via Michelin shows the driving time as 1hour 37 minutes. But when I asked the hotel concierge to print out the ViaMichelin directions, she warned me that the drive would take “more than 2 hours, driving very fast.” She was very vehement about this, saying that she had made the trip several times, and I became quite worried!

On the Sunday morning of departure, newly printed Via Michelin instructions in hand, we set off, pulling out of the hotel parking space at 7:40am. The drive was, in a word: Easy! A straight shot northeast out of the city and onto the autostrada.

There was very little traffic on this rainy Sunday morning and, after a stop to top up the tank, we arrived at Malpensa (remember to follow the sign for “car hire”; you can pick up directions for drop off when you rent the car; I recommend doing so), dropped off the car, and were inside Terminal One two hours after setting out.

I made 2 purchases at the Malpensa duty free shops: 1 bottle of Aperol (9.80 euro) and 1 bag of Martelli “artisanal” spaghetti, manufactured in Pisa (3.80euro for 500 grams—probably not a significant savings over US prices—I’ve yet to verify). The airport shops offer lots of food items at high prices.

The flight home (Delta) encountered some very scary turbulence (flight attendant dropping to the floor in preparation for ????) but was otherwise uneventful. (The turbulence may be a seasonal (spring?) issue because a few weeks later we encountered more of the same on a flight returning from London.)


And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the account of our introductory visit to a few selected
highlights of Piedmont. Thanks for reading!

Thanks for the delightful introduction to Turin! You've helped make up my mind-- spring 2011 trip will be Turin + Milan. (But how to wait two years for that bicerin?!)

FiFi--Glad you enjoyed. We will have to keep you busy until spring 2010!! I will think of a few ideas!!

Oh, sorry. Until 2011! A slew of ideas are needed!

Had to laugh about the grissini. DH and I found it ironic as well. We put ourselves at the mercy of our server in Turin. After 6 or 7 courses from the roasted dinner trolley, we were sorry we ate so many of them!

Can't wait to try Eataly. It will be yet another good excuse to hop the megabus to NYC!

Just found this again and read the last bits.

Thanks, ekscrunchy. Lots of great info that I'll be using on my trip in October. Can't wait.

Good luck to you in your future travels!

For Julie or anyone else going to Alba --

I emailed Cascina San Cassiano, producer of the fab foods in jars ekscrunchy described above. Turns out that Gallo Winery in La Morra is the main store for selling their products. The address at San Cassiano 4 in Alba is their production facility only.

I decided to take Rina out to a new restaurant as a birthday treat- which is a perilous task since she is such an accomplished (and acclaimed) cook, and partly on the excellent review on this thread and based on some of our guests (from Mexico) rave review we chose Prufumo di Vino in Treiso

After a wonderful wine tasting with one of Piedmont’s pioneer lady wine-makers, the fabulous Chiara Boschis of E.Pira in Barolo (www.pira-chiaraboschis.com) we wound our way around Alba past Villa Favorita on to Treiso on a truly gorgeous Piedmont day – we had a thunderstorm the night before and the day was fresh and sunny with reach out and grab me Alpine vistas. We sat on the outside terrace facing the piazza and the mountains and relaxed for a long slow lunch.

However I am sorry to say after all the build-up about Profumo we were truly disappointed. Some of my tasting notes:

Amuse Bouche-: stewed turkey and vegetables – too much vinegar, killed the aperitivo wine.
Antipasto 1 : Uova in pasta (egg ravioli) – raw egg yolk, all you could taste was the yolk, needed lemon juice and parmigiano.
Antipasto 2: Fried rice balls in squid ink with fried calamari heads in yellow pepper sauce – by far and away the best dish, the calamari was perfection and the sauce divine.
Primo Piatto 1 : Gnocchi with fresh tomato and mozzarella sauce – gummy-bear gnocchi, couldn’t eat it and can’t believe a restaurant of this calibre would serve such an inedible version of a classic dish
Primo Piatto 2: Seafood ravioli with tomato pasta and herb-flavoured oil – no explosion of flavour, the seafood was not fresh (I thought it was frozen), and pasta was dry. Very disappointing.
Secondi Piatti 1: roasted rabbit rolatini with sautéed pepper sauce – rabbit was dry and tasteless, peppers not peeled, fried potatoes greasy, and Rina couldn’t finish the plate.
Secondi Piatti 2 : Roasted quall with rosemary sweet onion relish and olives. It was OK, can’t go too wrong with roasted quall, but the olives on the side didn’t quite match.

The dolce’s were excellent and did go a long way to salvaging what was becoming a disastrous outing. I had baked peach stuffed with biscuits and ginduaja chocolate, Rina had a nocciola (hazel nut) tasting plate with a beautiful light torte, a rich mousse and a light meringue and we washed it down with an excellent Moscato Passito.

The wine list was very extensive, and being such a warm day we chose an excellent metodo classico (champagne style) sparkling Arneis from Giovanni Negri in Neive.

The bill was 140 euro which was in my opinion very dear for the quality and what we have paid at far superior restaurants in Piedmont. After the food sat in our stomachs for hours – very uncomfortable.

Overall we were disappointed to have chosen this restaurant when there are so many wonderful places yet to try in Piedmont, too bad we didn’t go to Ciau del Tornavento down the road that we have still to try. Maybe we just hit a bad day for the chef, but sorry to say, we cannot recommend Prufumo di Vino to our guests.

Tim: So sorry you did not like Profumo di Vino. We spent 62 euro and 63 euro for two wonderful dinners. All of the secondi on the menu we had were under 20 euro, so the fact that your bill mounted so alarmingly must mean that you drank much better wine than we did!

Of the dishes you mention, only one was on the menu on the nights we ate at the restaurant. That was the egg yolk ravioli which, indeed, had a healthy lashing of cheese.

I will look forward to your comments on Ciau; both principals of Profumo di Vino worked there, as I probably mentioned in my report. Not sure that the comparison is fair, though, since Ciau is a much more elegant, and expensive, restaurant that PdV.

Sorry again for your poor experience. Happily, you live in a fabulous restaurant area and will hopefully enjoy lots of superb meals in the future!

Ekscrunchy (how do you derive your name?), like or dislike are not the words I would use, everyone has different tastes and some people can love one place but others hate it. In plain words it was downright terrible and not worthy of Piedmont. I will admit going out with Rina to a restaurant is fraught with peril, she is such a gifted cook and a fierce critic of restaurants, but even myself who am normally a trencherman when it comes to food, I always eat everything (except for wine, that’s my forte, give me a bad wine at your peril), couldn’t eat some of the dishes (gummy bear gnocchi!!), and what we ordered was quite representative of what we would expect to be perfect or near perfect in most Piedmontese restaurants.

We live in Piedmont and our lifeblood is to be able to pick good restaurants and wineries for our guests to have a great experience. Often it happens that the first place someone goes to when they arrive, after a long journey to get here, they fall in love with and go back repeatedly. We always take rave reviews with a grain of salt, given that guests are in holiday mood and not as used to the local cuisine as we are, we will send someone else to eat there with a proviso, and if we get 3 rave reviews Rina and I will go ourselves and see if its worthy to be included in our short list of recommended restaurants, and we develop a personal rapport with the owner.

And once in a blue moon someone has a bad meal at one of “our” restaurants, so we will review it again, talk to the owner and sort it out or drop the restaurant. A few of our standbys have never had any bad report in our 8 years of being here (Rabaja, Vignaiolo, Tacabanda to name a few) and that’s what we like.

So in this case we were looking for a treat for ourselves as well as a possible inclusion on our list. Bitterly disappointed. Its very rare that I will go online and write negative stuff, but I was p****d off to use a mild expression. We should have just gone for the treat and gone to a higher end like Ciau or Doumo in Alba. However most of our guests are not in this expensive eating bracket so we like to stick to reasonably priced restaurants. For a treat Rina loves the Enoteca in Canale which is up there with the others, but a more reasonably priced, we paid 180 euro last time we treated ourselves and it was truly fabulous, our review of this and others of note are on E-Gullet.

Pricing – 66 and 63 euro for your dinners. You only had wine by the glass? Most of the bottles were at least 20 euro, we had a 25 euro bottle of sparkling Arneis and liked the Moscato Passito so we took the half-bottle home at 20 euro. But that’s still 95 euro for one antipasto, primo, secondi and dolce each. Are but I note that they gave you free desert. Not in our case. Their fixed menu ‘s were 35 and 45 euro, although they list at 18/25 euro fixed lunch in the Langhe restaurant guide. Maybe they jumped their prices for summer. Did you have a tablecloth (-: We noticed a section without table linen presumably cheaper prices.

Oh well, at least we are not starved for choice in Piedmont – Ciao.

Tim, again I am sorry that you had a bad meal. We ate in the main dining room and yes, we had wines by the glass. I do not recall any fixed price meals. It is possible that they raised their prices because the menu that I have lists all secondi under 20 euro and primi in the 6-12 euro range.

Hopefully I will be able to try some of the places you mention on a future trip!

Happy eating!

Last week I happened to pass the site of the soon-to-arrive NYC branch of Eataly in the Flatiron district near Madison Square Park. It seems that Mario Batali and the Bastianich's plan a spring opening:

This is from the press release:

<Eataly, the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in the world, is coming to New York. Two years after Oscar Farinetti opened his groundbreaking food and wine market in Turin, Italy, he is teaming up with Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and Lidia Matticchio Bastianich of Batali-Bastianich (B&B) Hospitality Group to transform a 42,500 square foot space in the Flatiron District into New York City’s premier culinary mecca.

The marketplace located at 200 Fifth Avenue (the former Toy Building) will be the city’s ultimate destination for food lovers to shop and taste and savor – an extravaganza that will include a premier retail center for Italian delicacies and wine, a culinary educational center, and a diverse slate of boutique eateries. This gourmand’s delight will feature cured meats and cheeses, fruits and vegetables, fresh meats, fresh fish, handmade pasta, desserts and baked goods and coffees.

Eataly — at its essence – embodies the philosophy and commitment of artisanal products that represent the finest quality, sustainability, affordability, and responsibility – all of these are cornerstones of the Batali-Bastianich brand.

Each retail area will be paired with its own dedicated restaurant, including a wood-fired pizza and pasta bar, a cheese and salami counter, a beef restaurant, a vegetable restaurant, a crudo and seafood bar, and a classic Italian bar serving gelato, espresso, and wine. There will be a separate wine shop, bakery and patisserie. On the roof will be a 4,500 square foot open-air rooftop beer garden serving pizza and sausages.
Education will also be a defining focus of Eataly. There will be events year-round with food and wine courses, demonstrations and lectures from renowned chefs and food and wine producers from the best farms in the world.


Eataly is scheduled to open in spring 2010.>

I changed my itinerary because of this thread...
Going in May!