Food Diary
of Two Greedy Pigs

 

(Or Lard As Far
as the Eyes Can See)

 
 

This is my account of the Slow Food Salone
del Gusto, Part I:  The important stuff…  (What we ate)  In part two, I'll talk about the less important stuff like what the Salone del Gusto is, etc. 

Two years
ago, I couldn’t pinch the pennies to go to the Slow Food Salone del Gusto from
my budget.  Because it happens only every
two years, it was quite a disappointment
for me to miss it.  So last year (last year), I made my lodging
reservations and in February or so of this year, I put in for the time off from
work. 

My friend
and my hand model Baby Alice, with whom I make quite a few of these weekend
trips, did the same and we started to count down the months, then the weeks,
then the days til our departure. 
Originally slated to stay in Turin for four days, our minds were
changed in May by our trip to Milan, and we decided to dedicate two
days to Turin, and two to
Milan to retrace our steps at da Claudio, Princi, Osteria Grand Hotel, and
Dongiò .  (NB:  that is gorgonzola cheese on the bread in the photo above, not lard!!  Lard is usually served in very fine slices that melts at room temperature.)

Before I
left, I used my 2008 Slow Food Osterie d’Italia restaurant guide to make
reservations for dinner for the three nights in Turin, and for our Milan meals.   We opted to not add new restaurants in Milan because you can’t improve on
perfection… 

Wednesday evening: 

Shared amai
noodles (no chicken no prawns) from Wagamama in Heathrow Terminal 5, on train
from Milan to Turin, and vegetable gyoza.  (We
thought the ‘ethnic’ smells of our food would ward off anyone tempted to sit
next to us.  We were wrong.  I guess they thought we’d share.  They were wrong.) 

Dinner at I Saletta (below is William, owner and cook).  Mixed antipasto of cold cuts from the
Piedmont region: speck, lonza, salame with tartufo, cooked salame, classic
salame, prosciutto cotto, and lard. 
Buttery, melt in your mouth flavorful herbed lard (the last time I
called something buttery soft, I spent three days doubled over a toilet, and
Baby Alice spent 12 years laughing at me. 
I think she’s still laughing…) 
First course gnocchi with Castelmagno cheese and plin (small agnolotti (like tortellini)) with ragu sauce.  We shared a slice of flourless hazelnut cake
with zabaglione.  We turned down the Asti
Spumante and Castelmagno cheese, compliments of Slow Food Asti.  We were dumb. 
We want our Asti and Castelmagno back!!!

 

Thursday

Breakfast
at the fantastic bed and breakfast The Julians.  Cookies, tarts, sandwiches, cereal, yogurt,
coffee, tea, juice… 

Salone del
Gusto.  Countless cheese, salame, bread,
cookie samples.  Countless.  Some stuff you paid for…and it was nothing near as good as the free samples.  Let that be a lesson.

  

 
 
 

 

 Lunch: cold
cuts and cheese platter at Eataly, including lard. 

Then Baby Alice went to get gelato at Eataly.  I turned around to talk for 1 minute to a guy at the wine counter to ask where I could order wine, and when I turned back around, Baby Alice was there wiping her mouth off.  She had already finished the gelato.  So no picture… 

Dinner at Antiche Sere  Antipasto…the lard part waning in
excitement.  The lard was not anywhere
near as good as the lard at Eataly, and nothing resembling the lard at I
Saletta.  But there was red pepper with
bagna cauda and vitello tonnato in addition to the usual cold cuts and peppered
cheese.  Gnocchi with ragu, and plin with
porcini mushrooms.  Asti Spumante and
mandarin ice cream, compliments of Slow Food Asti.  This time we accepted it.  We have no regrets.  And then the house chocolate pudding cake of
some sort…  So good, we should have
ordered another, but we were already bursting at the seams…

Friday

Same
wonderful breakfast!

Not so many
tastes at the Fair. 

 

 Lunch at
the Slow Food wine and food bars—we chose the Neapolitan stand which offered
pasta from Gragnano or rice dishes.  We
chose the linguine with mussels.  And did
a wine tasting around.    Oh, then went for more gelato… 

 Dinner was
so totally forgettable…  A waste of a
good meal.  We vowed to recoup in Milan. 
And we did…

 Saturday

Same
breakfast.  Fabulous! 

Exit Turin…Hello Milan! 

 

 

Lunch da Claudio, octopus carpaccio on a bed
of arugula, followed by pizza from Princi
with prosciutto and mozzarella, no tomato sauce, then a strawberry tart
(just Baby Alice).  The lady sitting next
to us told us to take the time to go to Marchesi
pasticceria.  We took the mental
note.  Then we had an early evening
aperitif with about a whole bag of potato chips.  Then dinner at Dongiò.  Mixed cold cuts and
vegetables preserved in oil (Eggplant, zucchini, olives, stuffed peppers…).  Followed by spaghettoni crotone style (VERY spicy with sausage) and
spaghettoni with nduja (even spicier!). 
No room for dessert.  I actually
left a PILE OF PASTA on my plates.  What
remorse!!  I want it back!

Sunday 

Breakfast
at the hotel buffet.  Fruit, cereal,
toast, eggs, sausage, cookies, juice… 

Second
breakfast at Marchesi.  Croissant and cappuccino. 

 

Lunch at
Osteria Grand Hotel.  Antipasto of
polenta with taleggio cheese and mushrooms. 
Then spaghetti alla chitarra with guanciale and pecorino cheese and
lasagnette with deboned veal tail.  Then
shared timbale of potatoes and porcini mushrooms.  Then dessert wine on the house.  But no dessert!!!  What idiots we were…  

 
 

 

 

Oh…but that’s
because Baby Alice wanted one last gelato, her last hurrah, before returning to
London. 
So we went to “Riva Reno”, recommended by the owner of Osteria Grand
Hotel, and ended our eating spree with an ice cream. 

Recapping our trip (and referring to our Paris trip earlier this year during which we ate French Fries at every meal), Baby Alice said, "We didn't do so bad this time.  We didn't eat French Fries once!" and I responded, "No, we just ate LARD at every meal!!!!"

We’re
already planning our next trip…