FGF&WBW in Lombardia

Our first night in Milano

Milano (obviously), 28th April

Well, we arrived in Milano, fresh as daisies after our 26 or so hours of travelling and being treated as Qantas and BA's finest cattle (sometimes I wish I'd never experienced business class). Having made it through most of the day on just airline food and pizza, crashed out for several hours, and woken up starving around 9pm, we decided to go on a hunt for a nice place to eat. We turned our noses up at the 'too touristy for us' places near the Duomo which, in addition to menus in English, had massive pictures of the food, just in case you weren't entirely sure what to expect from a "tomato and cheese pizza". Instead, we wound up at an enoteca very near our hotel, sitting outside on a cosy covered and ivy'd deck with candles in wine bottles cum evolving wax sculptures, and a good feeling about things. We opened our menus, glanced through them, looked at each other, and laughed our heads off - couldn't understand a flipping word. So, reassuringly guaranteed a non-touristy experience (and thankful for the phrase book in my handbag), we ended up with massively generous pours of Sangiovese and large plates of local salumi and local cheeses with honey, fruit pastes, and chunks of various fruits, like pear. All utterly delicious. And so the foody adventure began...

Italian Cafes

Still Milano, end of April

Possibly due to jet lag, possibly simply seeking a feeling of familiarity whilst we got used to the idea of being in Italy for six months, and possibly simply due to the really tasty croissants/brioche/cornetti (pick whichever word you prefer), we ended up going to the same cafe for three breakfasts, and thus getting the hang of Italian cafes.

First point to note is the pricing structure - most Italians will grab their quick coffee and brioche standing at the bar, with just a serviette around the brioche, talking loudly, and punctuating particularly important points with clouds of icing sugar from said brioche. If you choose to take the cafe staff up on their offers of "please, sit...", they'll then cheerfully charge you at least twice as much for the same coffee and brioche, although you will get a plate with your brioche. Not being desperately committed plate fans, we chose to stand.

The next point is that in a lot of cafes, you are expected to pay for your food/drink before getting it, thus meaning a lot of people barging in, having a good look at everything, then paying, then ordering; and in my case, once ending up paying for a brioche which got taken by someone else before I got there. Never mind, they gave me two small ones instead. In other cafes, it's the other way around - you have your food and drink, and then just head over to the till and tell them what you had. I found this bizarrely trusting. And the till man in this cafe seemed to find our attempts at explaining what we'd had bizarrely amusing. But, by our last breakfast there, we were getting nice smiles from him, and being wished well with our day.

Fagottini alla Panna

Veleso, Lago di Como, 2nd-5th May

There was an upside to the complete 'escape' to Veleso - the food in the hotel, namely a pasta dish called fagottini alla panna. Part of my, um, philosophy I guess (or maybe simply aim) when it comes to food on this trip is to try things without necessarily knowing exactly what they are, on the basis that they're almost bound to be tasty, because the Italians are so damned good at food. And so I discovered these fabulous little northern pastas. They're somewhat like tortellini, that is to say a small stuffed shape containing plenty of pork, probably prosciutto, parmigiano, simple spices, and possibly also beef and stuff, and the panna is a simple thick cream and parmigiano sauce that coats them perfectly. Texture wise, the panna absolutely rules, and the flavour of the fagottini was by turns delicate and totally more-ish. I only had them for all three nights we stayed there.

Picnics Rule

Lago di Como, 6th May

I love picnics. There's just something about going and sitting in a beautiful and relaxing spot, on a warm day, with good food, wine (but of course!), and someone to relax with. Our picnic on the Duomo plan in Milano kinda fell through of course, what with the May Day madness, but fortunately the plan B option of heading out behind the castle and finding a grassy spot worked perfectly well.

So, of course, faced with one of the largest and most beautiful lakes in Italy, Lago di Como, and a one-day ticket for the ferries upon it, we decided that a picnic would be the best option for lunch (picnics having the added bonus of not involving eating in restaurants with tourists who assume everyone speaks English if they shout loud enough). We grabbed ourselves some tomatoes, mozzarella, bread, basil and red wine (oh how we suffer), got on our ferry, and decided that rather than potter around yet another pretty little lakeside town, we'd do something a bit different and head to the only island on the whole lake, Isola Comacina. The views up the lake towards the island are of course stunning, and you can also see why the Lombard Kings used to use it as their 11-12th century hideaway when people were trying to kill them - isolated yet close enough to the side of the lake to be safely and quickly reachable.

Anyhow, we had our little wander around the island, admiring the views, wondering why we hadn't seen any duck on italian menus yet, talking to lizards, and generally chilling out. We then came upon the ruins of one of the 11-12th century buildings and decided that it was a perfect spot for our picnic. The food of course was simple but really tasty, the wine well chosen, and the overall mood one of being very pleased with ourselves and the world...

Polenta Cakes

Bergamo, 7th May

The people of Bergamo apparently really like polenta. So much so that they make a 'polenta cake', known as polenta e osei. My first glimpse of them was as a cluster of radioactively-yellow little bombs (or breasts if you're that way inclined) in a side cabinet of a deliciously scented bakery/pasticceria/pizza-by-the-slice shop that I passed on my way into the middle of the citta bassa (lower town) to find the tourist office and some help finding a room for the night. On the way back down from my abortive attempt to find said office (Lonely Planet lied to me!), I decided that I should do the decent thing and forage for some food. Two fresh and tasty pizza slices later, Sam and I were cautiously contemplating our polenta cake - I bought just one small one to share, just in case...

It looked very much like a large blob of solid polenta, thoroughly coated in sugar. With a dodgy little white and brown splodge on top, which we found out later is meant to be a couple of little birds. Thusly, we approached it with some trepidation. Fortunately, they're delicious! I'm not entirely sure where the polenta actually figures - in the cake mix I guess - but the polenta-esque icing is in fact just really tasty icing, and the cake underneath is wonderfully soft and yummy, and filled with chocolate-mousse style filling to boot! Fabulous. Loving trying all these new foods - they're all great!

Al Donizetti's, Bergamo

Bergamo, 7th May

After having a good wander around the citt'alta (upper city) of Bergamo, exclaiming about Perugia having a lot to live up to, and generally starting to feel really great about the whole living in Italy, in lovely little towns like this, idea, we decided, inevitably, that it was time to eat. We'd not bothered to consult with either the Lonely Planet, or Fred, about food options, on the basis that we couldn't be bothered to unpack Fred for just one night, and the Lonely Planet had lied about the location of the tourist office, resulting in the aforementioned runaround for me. So, instead, we went for the tried and trusted method of ambling until we liked the look of somewhere.

Al Donizetti's is a little enoteca with cute and slightly eclectic wooden seating and tables in the old stone covered marketplace. Looks great, and the menu was intriguing - it included a tasting plate translated as "degustation of lard". We figured it had to be a mistranslation of some sort, and started wandering away, in a 'let's see what else there is' kind of manner. About six foot away, we decided this was a dumb idea, and returned looking for a table. Very good idea.

Our waiter was fantastic, and totally endeared himself to me with his English: the English waiter-speak of "I'll be right there / just a moment" translates into Italian as "arrivo", which literally translates to "I'm arriving", which is clearly the translation he'd found and was using liberally - very cute. We settled on a degustazione of local salumi for two, along with local cheeses for one (I found out later that Sam expected me to share these), and having explained to our waiter's amusement that we weren't from around here, but would like a good local wine with our food, got a fantastic local wine with our food.

As you can see from the picture, the food was beautifully arranged, always something I appreciate, I must admit. It tasted even better than it looked. My first taste of fennel-flavoured salume, known across Toscana at least as finocchiona, produced much grinning and enjoyment of the new flavour combination, with pretty much every other meat also resulting in big grins. The one thing that gave us pause was the lard, or lardo, that we'd seen as that intriguing degustazione, and a few slices of which appeared on top of our meat. It is, basically, solid pig fat, sliced in much the same way as prosciutto, and we assume cured in the same way. And it is absolutely delicious, in an almost very wrong way - fat should not taste that good, surely!

The cheese went down just as well of course, with the highlight being the piece of Taleggio that we, sadly, finished early on, seeing as we were following our waiter's suggested order of tasting. It had to be one of the best taleggios either of us has ever tasted. If you've not tried it, it's a cow's milk cheese made in a similar kind of way to bries and camemberts - that sort of rind with soft gooey innards. Much much nicer though, at the same time both stronger flavoured and milder, with a gorgeously creamy consistency. Definitely worth checking out if you can find some (easily done in Melbourne at least), although I'm not sure the local farmer who made the one we had exports, more's the pity.