Florence, the city that colors people 2.- Food adventures -
"Every single bite I had in Italy was amazing."
Once, my teacher in junior high told us. He went to Italy with his wife as honeymoon.
I was just a bored sassy girl living in a country side of Japan at the time, and his words made me curious what food culture in Italy is like.
My friends told me I should eat bistecca alla fiorentina (T-bone steak Florence style) when I told them I decided to go there.
Since I'm a BIG meat lover, I added it to my eating list in Florence. The restaurant I visited is Trattoria Marione, my friend Yonosuke Kaneko took me there.
He told me there is special cooking method to serve the steak as Florence style.
Look at it, who can't smile in front of this tempting cross section?? I seriously think steak has a special power to make people happy. It tasted with just salt and pepper, but simple is the best theory is totally working.
Then this artistic-look caprese. Red tomatos, white mozzarella, green basils, isn't it beautiful? This combination is absolutely perfect, and I wonder if it is just a coincidence it has Italian colors...
Having good mozzarella in Japan is expensive. My mouth was simply happy welcoming the rich taste and melting texture, as if saying "Heeey it's been a while sweetheart!"
I also heard they eat tripe in Italy before I came. We eat tripe a lot in Japan too. We usually eat tripe with miso-based soup, so I was curious how they eat here.
The right plate in the picture is their "tripa", I tried it at NERBONE, one of the most popular place for the dish. The sign says "since 1872", wow!
The left is "Pappa al pomodoro", the Tuscan tomato-bread soup.
Both are SO delicious and I will definitely look for the recipe and try to make it!
You can also ask them to make a sandwich with the tripe. After I left the shop I saw people eating the sandwich while taking a walk, or sitting on the grass in a park.
It was a beautiful sunny day, I thought that was also a good idea!
And of course, gelato! It's always a tough decision to choose the taste among many beautiful gelatos in front of you.
I tried raspberry and pistachio. Both were good but I prefer pistachio better, I loved the rich taste and smell of pistachio.
My junior high teacher was right. Food in Italy is literally amazing. Even now my mouth is watering, remembering those happy food adventure I had. It's 0:36 o'clock now and I should go to bed, but it seems like I have to say hi to my refrigerator before I asleep...
