So, we drove about 1.5 hour to Chianti region. The new building was very interesting. They've covered the new building with grass and vines. The point is to blend into the scenery. They're trying not to be a flashy landmark. After the tour, we tasted 1 white and 2 Chianti classico. The second of the chianti was Riserva and it was pretty good. Some Chianti is a bit too dry for my taste but this one had good balance of acid, residual sugar and tannin. Later we bought a bottle.
Then, we headed to lunch. Enoteca Fuoripiazza Morandini at Greve in Chianti was very cozy place. For the primi, we had gorgonzola saffron risotto and bean and pasta soup. The gorgonzola in the risotto was subtle. The flavor was good but it seemed it needed a bit more salt. Perfectly al dente, though. The bean and pasta soup was very good. It had an amazing Tuscan flavor. The beans were well cooked and became a half puree. Very nice.
The secondi were rather disappointing: Cod in tomato sauce and their special pork dish, accompanied by unseasoned beans. The server brought salt, pepper and olive oil to season the beans. Unfortunately, I didn't taste anything flavorful. Perhaps this is authentic peasant food?
The desserts were tiramisu and tangerine sorbet. This was my first Tiramisu in this trip. It wasn't too sweet and pretty good. I found it's fluffier than ones in the US. Maybe more whipped cream? A very light tiramisu. The sorbet was good too. I thought the citrus flavor was similar to Yuzu.
After the lunch, we went to a wine shop with wine tasting by automatic dispenser. First we purchased the card with some credit. Then we inserted the card to the dispenser and select the wine we wanted. The price of the wine (mostly between 0.50 to 3.00 Euro) is deducted from the card. There were at least 100 to choose from.
We purchased 10 Euro credit and tasted about 10 different varieties. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything I liked. So many to choose from that I didn't know which one to pick...
After the tasting, we went to Pisa to see the tower, then headed back to Bologna. Because of the traffic, we decided to take local streets. It was a bad choice.... On the map, the road looked like a reasonably wide street but in fact, it was very narrow winding road. Because it was getting so late, we decided to drop by at a roadside restaurant on the way to Bologna. Yes, it's risky. It can be amazing or horrible. Did our risk pay off? Well.....
Two appetizers were octopus salad and langoustine salad.
The octopus salad was pretty good. But the langoustine salad.... What's this?? 2/3 of the dish was the thousand island dressing - like sauce. It wasn't as strongly seasoned as thousand island dressing. Perhaps it had a sour cream base or mascarpone? Anyway, it was an overwhelming amount of sauce. And the shrimp inside the sauce were way over cooked. I know we were just unlucky this time, though.
The good thing about this restaurant was the pizza. We had Sicilian pizza, which came with tomato sauce, olives, and anchovies. No cheese. The crust was very thin and crispy. Not bad.
We arrived at the hotel after 11:00pm. Tomorrow is the first day of the cooking class. It was supposed to be from 9:00am but it was changed to 3:00pm at the last minute. Well, I'm in Italy, so what can I say? I should be happy that the class wasn't canceled... Anyway, we can take a rest tomorrow morning because of this change.
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