Florence - Blueberry steak at Acqua Al 2

Acqua Al 2 is a famous enough restaurant in Florence that they have locations in the US in San Diego and Washington DC.  I had read about their balsamic steak and blueberry steak as well as hearing about it from friends.

I emailed a couple days before my Florence arrival to make a dinner reservation without any problems.  The problem was which steak to try or both.  We decided to get the blueberry steak.   I wanted a bigger cut of meat than I saw being served up in the steak sampler platter to ensure the steak wasn't overcooked and we were a bit overloaded with balsamic vinegar flavoring given it found some way to appear at every meal in Spain and Italy.  (I guess I will need to try the balsamic steak as well as have another blueberry steak next time I visit San Diego.)

My favorite steak sauces are quite simple: soy sauce, ponzu, salt, pepper, or A1.  I would rather have a steak with just some salt than a fancy French sauce.  The blueberry glaze was a complex and fruity sauce that I will try to reproduce at home.  It had some natural sweetness and did not seem to have extra sugar added.  Think of it as a blueberry A1 sauce!  I mean that as the highest complement!  The picture below doesn't do this dish justice.  

Acqua Al 2 gets some negative reviews from others due to their sampler platters, food not being authentic, and being too touristy.  The menu was in Italian. Service in English and Italian was friendly, quick, and purposeful.  I think the few negative reviews I read were unfairly harsh at best and potentially just BS.

Their sampler platters for steak, salad, pasta, and dessert come with a generous portion size and are very reasonably priced.  I would go as far to say they are value priced.

The salad sampler had 3 different dishes which were all good.

It was quite dark in the restaurant and I couldn't get good pictures of the additional courses.  The pasta sampler included at least 5 different simple pastas for around 10 euros.  None of the pastas were great, but the variety was worth it.  The dessert sampler included 4 items which were all good.

On my next trip to Florence, DC, or San Diego, I will be visiting Acqua Al 2.

Acqua Al 2
Via della Vigna Vecchia 40/R, 50122 Florence, Italy

Rome - Cacio e Pepe at Roma Sparita

I have been a fan of Anthony Bourdain for a long time.  I have been happy with his restaurant recommendations that I have tried.  If you watch his show, you may remember an episode on Rome that featured cacio e pepe, cheese and pepper pasta.  In the only time I can remember Bourdain failing to mention the restaurant name, he just referred to it as Restaurant X.  Five seconds of searching on the Internet will tell you Restaurant X is Roma Sparita in the Trastevere neighborhood.

We headed out to Trastevere to see what the hype was about.  I am glad I tried out their taglioni al cacio e pepe, but with some reservations.  It had a great cheese and pepper flavor balance with perfectly cooked pasta.  The dish was good.  It would very difficult to impossible in my opinion to truly make this dish great.  I will be probably be able to better picture the great version when I run into it.  The highlight of the dish is arguably the perfectly toasted cheese crust bowl the pasta is served in.  If I had a shorter stay in Rome, I don't think it would have been worth the trouble to make it out to Roma Sparita for this simple pasta dish.  I doubt this good version is that much better on an absolute scale than any version that someone puts a little effort into with quality ingredients.    

Their other speciality is oxtail.  Coda alla Vaccinara is a Roman oxtail stew.  I thought the meat was cooked decently tender.  I did think the dish lacked depth of flavor and was overly salty though.

To be healthy, we also had some greens.  I think it was swiss chard.  I do think the swiss chard was perfectly cooked with just a little garlic and spices.

Ristorante Pizzeria Roma Sparita
Piazza Santa Cecilia, 24 Roma - Zona Trastevere

Local Drinks of San Sebastian

While we were in San Sebastian, we enjoyed trying out the local drinks.

One San Sebastian specialty is Sidra, a type of hard apple cider. It is less sweet and more beer-like than the typical Woodchuck cider you may be used to. Delicious and refreshing, it has an enjoyable yeasty flavor. It's poured from about a foot above the glass, so it's nice and bubbly when you drink it.

Sidra

Another San Sebastian specialty is Txacoli, a young, dry, acidic white wine. It's made in Basque country, about 30 miles from San Sebastian. It's made of 80-90% white Hondarrabi Zuri grapes (zuri means white in Basque). The wine is bubbly, a bit like champagne, but with a somewhat stronger personality. Like the Sidra, it's poured from 1-2 feet above the glass in order to aerate the wine and get the bubbles going. It's very refreshing on a hot summer's day, and it's a great complement to some salty tapas!

Txacoli

You may recognize these pictures; they are from Bar Nestor, our favorite restaurant in San Sebastian.

You can find more of my writing on my blog at lauradhamilton.com.

Cinque Terre - Homemade pasta and seafood

The food situation could only go up from Venice.  Venice food was over priced and pretty mediocre.  The food there wasn't bad, but it is too big a tourist location without enough space for locals so you don't find a lot of real cooking that people are taking pride in.  In Venice, I saw a lot of places only serving store bought pasta and sauces that probably were not made slowly from scratch.  Thanks to Laura we realized the poor dining value in Venice and didn't focus on trying to get good/great meals there.

In Cinque Terre we found delicious homemade pastas, fresh seafood, and various raw and cooked fresh veggies.  The food was very reasonably priced given it is such a tourist destination.  Our two favorite restaurants were Belforte in Vernazza and Belvedere in Monterosso.  Both had great food, friendly service, and views of the water.

menu with view at Ristorante Belforte

limoncello to end meal

sweet wine to end meal

Apologies for not taking better pictures in Cinque Terre.  I focused on getting the food in my mouth instead of taking my time with food photos.

Homemade Pasta:

trofie pasta with pesto - one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had

black and white pasta with mussels

fish ravioli with prawns

squid ink pasta with seafood

not homemade pasta, but I needed to try the bolognese sauce.  when my brother spent 3 hours making bolognese, it was better.

Fresh seafood:

grilled seafood platter

fish soup

squid stuffed with seafood and zucchini

Vegetables:

salad - apple and fennel were a nice addition

caprese salad - finally some ripe tomatoes!

boiled vegetables - not clear to me why someone would boil to death fresh veggies

Cinque Terre - Lovely little villages in Italy

After a couple days in the elbow to elbow chaos of Venice, we took several hours of trains to arrive in Monterosso.  Monterosso is the largest of the 5 villages in the Cinque Terre.  Rick Steves made these little villages famous to the American tourist, and potentially the world, over 20 years ago.  Once again Rick Steves does not disappoint.  The Cinque Terre provides a mostly relaxing glimpse at village life in Italy, great seafood and homemade pastas at reasonable prices, and simple B&B accommodations.  Cinque Terre quickly became one of my favorite places to visit.  I wouldn't do Cinque Terre as a day trip from a bigger city.  I think you definitely would want to stay here for 2 to 5 days to just slow down and experience the villages at different times of day.

Lots of tourists in the small villages

We stayed at L'Antica Terrazza which had simple and clean rooms in what appeared to be like new refurbished condition even though it sounds like they remodeled several years ago.  The B&B is run by a friendly husband and wife team.  Although the room was on the smaller side, it had a great view down one of the three main village streets and there is a nice rooftop terrace you can use.  When I return to Cinque Terre, I hope I can find a room here again!  It couldn't have been more different from the normal urban or suburban setting I am used to.   

View from room balcony

The area is still recovering from floods in 2011.  The villages have rebuilt, but a couple of the shorter main hiking trails between villages are still closed down.  We did a couple hikes that were a decent 1.5 to 2.5 hour work out with picturesque views.  I was entertained to see so many hikers on the two trails doing dangerous things and not really in shape for such steep steps and trails.

Monterosso

Vernazza

Corneglia