Italiano o Cinese?

May 14, Day five


Our scheduled tour for the day didn't start until 10:30 am so I thankfully got a few zzzz's in.  After a nice cup of strongly brewed coffee and croissant served at the B&B, we headed off to Piazza di San Lorenzo.

Here we met Cristina, our expert guide from Taste Florence which I must say was our favorite tour of the trip – because it was a food tour!  Cristina is a cute, young lady with a mildly punk-rock style who was impressively knowledgeable about food and wine and also spoke English very well.  In fact, among all four of our tours, she spoke English the best.  We scheduled this 5-hour tour for our first full day of our 5 day stay in Florence so we can get the inside scoop of the good eats of this city.  

We sampled so many things including savory pastries from one pasticceria, sweet pastries from another, various ages of pecorino (a Tuscan product), salame di cianghiale, dried porcini mushrooms, also various ages of traditional balsamic accompanied with an extensive session of how they're made and regulated, jams and jellies, olive oils, a variety of red and white wines paired with antipasti which also included a lesson on DOC and DOCG levels of wine, and drum roll please...8 different flavors of gelato!

Forno: schiacciata

Forno: schiacciata with zucchini

Forno: schiacciata with ham

Forno: coccoli caldi

Forno: coccoli caldi with prosciutto

Sieni: sofglia

Sieni: torone

Sieni: quaresimale

Marco: Cacio Nerone Stagionato - pecorino

Marco: Pecorino di Grotta 

Marco: cianghiale with truffle

Conti: dried porcini…we bought some of this to take home!

Conti: dried porcini

Conti: olive oil

Conti: pecorini with jellies & chutneys

Conti: pesto

Conti: strawberries drizzled with traditional balsamic

Conti: samples galore!

Enoteca Allesi

Enoteca Allesi: antipasti

Enoteca Allesi: antipasti

Enoteca Allesi

Enoteca Allesi

Enoteca Allesi and the foodies

Perche No!… pistachio & almond
"Perche No!" means "Why not!"

Perche No!… ginger and cioccolato al rhum e panna (cream)

Perche No!… madagascar vanilla & wild berries sorbet

Perche No!… passion fruit & sesame seeds

Perche No!… and the foodies

But my favorite stop of all was at the much-lauded, Nerbone, a "panini place" which coincidentally was on our list of places to try.  Nerbone, located inside Mercato Centrale, was not only suggested by Chowhounders, but it was also featured in a recent TV special called “Food Trip with Chef Todd English” highlighting the regional cuisine of Tuscany.  We sampled their boiled veal served with salsa verde and salsa picante...so juicy and tasty!  But what I really wanted to try was the famous regional specialty called lampredotto, a medieval Tuscan favorite, and when Cristina heard this, she quickly arranged a plate for me to try. Given it's uniqueness (it's the 4th and final stomach of the cow, not to be confused with tripe), she didn't think this group of Americans would be up for it but was happy to have me sample it.  It was deliciously tender!  Brad and another fellow from our group had the courage to try it as well and were pleasantly surprised to like it. 

Nerbone at Mercato Centrale

Nerbone's boiled veal with salsa verde & salsa picante

Nerbone's lampredotto - traditionally a peasant's dish in Florence, silky, tender, juicy and flavorful…almost melts in your mouth

so excited!

Taste Florence Tour did not disappoint…we had plentiful of samples and they were all delicious!  Our guide, Cristina, met our expectations and then some...she was articulate and truly knows her stuff!  Grazie mille, Cristina!

After the tour, we spent a few hours pricing and shopping for leather goodies at the famous San Lorenzo Market.  A nice merchant gave us a quick tutorial on what to look for and feel for to determine good quality leather products and I learned to appreciate why there is a cost variance to such items.  I must say, I made some great purchases today!  :)

We noticed that there was a Farmers Market actively going on at the Piazza della Repubblica selling organic vegetables, cheese, wine, honey, and bread sold directly by producers and local artisans.

various salame

tartufo (truffles) 

panne (bread)
more salame
formaggio (cheese)

Nearby Ponte Vecchio, the madonnari were back with some new creations…

for fun, they replaced the baby with a cat :)

the kiss of betrayal

Some of you may have heard that the cast of Jersey Shore is in Florence…of course we had to "bump" into them and nope, I did not offer any fist-pumping.

that's pint-sized Snooki in the pink…she did a quick hello but my camera wasn't fast enuf

One thing that Brad has learned over the years is that I can only go so long without rice and that at some point during our travels, I'm gonna have to find me some rice.  It doesn’t have to be Filipino food…just something from my Asian peeps and typically we end up going for Chinese food since it's the most mainstream and easily accessible anywhere we go.  We google’d up Chinese restaurant and found one very likely prospect, Ristorante Cinese Canton which had great reviews, so off we went searching for this place which based on the map was only 3 blocks away.  No such luck.  This place didn’t seem to exist and no one we asked seemed to know of it so we went into what coincidentally was an Asian market (Indian-mainly) and they handed us a “take away menu” which just happened to be a few blocks away…Jian Jian Cinese Restaurant!  A little hole in the wall place ran by a family who doesn't speak any English.  Two young girls take the orders, an older sister delivers "take aways" with her scooter, and dad mans the kitchen.  It's a tiny place with two counters on either wall that seats max 4 people.  Each menu item costs a mere €2-4 Euros...so we ordered a feast including chow mein, fried squid, salt & pepper shrimp, beef with onions and roast duck. YUM…I was in Cinese heaven!  On the condiment tray were the best chili oil and plum sauce ever!  Somehow I knew it would be delicious.  I think same reason Chinese food is better in the Philippines...there’s something about the regional spices used mixed in with local techniques resulting in a slightly different yet better tasting dishes.  Even Brad agreed this was a great choice for tonight's dinner! 

We had to return to the food tour's choice for gelaterria, "Perche No!..." because Brad was craving for their banana gelato which was made fresh today, as with all their gelatos.

We checked in on the madonnari's progress and although it was almost midnight, they weren't fully done yet but it looked amazing nonetheless.
  

By bedtime, sure enough, those annoying drunken kids were back with their loud frolicking to attempt to piss us old fogies.  Ah, but tonight I was armed with Brad's spare earplugs which saved me from a miserable evening.

Buona notte!