Wait, a WHAT restaurant? Yeah, that’s right, I said vegan as in…NO animal products in the food. The restaurant was this little hole-in-the-wall place called Flower Burger. The “burger” I ordered was called the Cheese Cecio and was a burger made from chickpeas, with a nice vegetable salsa that kind of looked like mayonnaise, but wasn’t. (Again, no animal products in vegan cuisine, which includes eggs and cheese.) As an added bonus, on "Meatless Monday" customers get 20% off their order!
While in Milan, I stayed at a great hostel, the Ostello Bello Grande, right near the train station. This place is fantastic. They offer the following amenities: free breakfast (scrambled eggs, bread, butter, jam, chocolate cream, plain yogurt, fruit) a nightly “aperitivo” which is basically free dinner (pasta, a variety of vegetable side dishes as well as salads, bread, and potato chips). The hostel has a bar, a basement movie room and foosball table, a 6th floor kitchen, another movie room, and laundry room (only 7 euros to wash and dry a load of clothes) as well as outdoor gardens on the ground and 6th floors. Judging from all these amenities, it sounds like a party hostel, right? Well, yes, it is, but once you’re in your bedroom on your own floor, the door shuts and it’s perfectly quiet, allowing you to enjoy a good night’s sleep.
It may seem silly to go to an epic culinary country like Italy and then go to a….Chinese restaurant, but by golly, that’s exactly what I did! About a 10 minute walk from the hostel, there’s a Chinese restaurant called Su Garden. For 14 euros, I got a spring roll, fried rice, a steamed veggie and seafood dish, water, and coffee. I opted for espresso at the end of the meal. HOO-YAH it was strong. But also…really delicious.
Later that day, I was supposed to go on a pre-booked evening tour of the Duomo, but I was unable to find the group. I got kind of stressed out and nearly started crying out of sheer frustration. But, I talked to someone at the tour office, and I can reschedule for next week when I return to Milano. Hurrah! In the meantime, here’s a view of the Duomo that I saw the moment I emerged from the metro.
Milan food tour
I'm excited about this food tour. I apologize in advance for blurry photos; you do NOT have glaucoma. I thought I had my auto-focus figured out. Alas, I did not. I played around with it a little tonight, so it should be okay for future photos. And now: the Milan food tour. If you'd like to see a complete description, please visit www.milanfoodtours.com/milan-food-tour-1.html.
I met up with the tour group in the Brera district of Milan. While walking there at 9:30 a.m., there was a peaceful hush in the neighborhood. The district, our tour guide informed us, is one of the wealthier districts, but also has some of the best food in the city. After sampling different dishes, I must concur.
Stop #1 Our first stop on the tour was at Pattini Panificio, which also served as our meeting point, where we sampled panettone and cappuccino; Panettone is a very old Milanese sweet bread. In the days when many Italians were poor, they could only afford to make panettone once a year, at Christmas. These days, you can get panettone any time of year, but it’s still viewed by many as a special Christmas-time treat. Think of how often you might have egg nog or turkey. You can have it any time, but we usually reserve the consumption of it for the holiday season.
Stop #2 Parma ham (aka prosciutto), aged pork butt (sounds more delicious than it is), parmesan cheese, and beer
Stop #3 arancine means “little orange.” They’re wonderful fried, stuffed risotto balls. I remember seeing DDD with Guy Fieri years ago. He went to an Italian restaurant (in Baltimore, I think?) and that was the very first time I’d ever heard of the dish. It looked so good, I had to learn how to make them. made with the Milanese risotto, made so because of the saffron added to it. I realized today that the arancine I make – stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella cheese – are the Southern Italian version of arancine. Like panettone, risotto a la Milanese was once a dish that could only be made on special occasions, albeit more often than panettone was made.
Stop #4 aperitivo (cocktail and chips & olives on the side)
Stop #5 meatballs (veal meatballs and then adult beef meatballs fried in butter) and lasagna
Stop #6 gelato we were allowed to choose two flavors, so I chose hazelnut (shout-out to Nutella!) and Venezuelan chocolate. All the stops were fantastic, but I think this one may have been my favorite.
On to Venice!
I’m writing this blog entry on a late afternoon train to Venice.
A seat in business class only cost a little more than an economy seat, so guess what I did? Nice comfy, leather seats plus a free beverage and snack. Yes, please!
Venice will prove to be an exciting few days for me. I'll have updates for you soon. Until we meet again.
