Torino- Mon Amor- Part One

The Grande Madre church, on the river. Full of mystery- Is that the Holy Grail in her hand? 

Torino is a city of mystery and magic.
Everytime I visit Torino I fall more and more in love.
It is a city like San Francisco to me, great downtown,
fabulous food and wine,
great bar-caffe life,
wonderful musuems
and
still modern while retaining its older elegance.It is more similar to Paris than Rome or Florence.

Torino became the capital of Italy as soon as it was united, in 1860’s,
having been the home to the Royal family of Savoia.

Today Torino is probably more thought of for the Fiat Factory
and as an industrial town and not a place to visit.

Think again!

Torino has it roots in France which shows up in the architecture,
dialect and some of the older customs as well as food.

I adore grissini, the hand-rolled breadsticks from Torino

Torino has incredible musuems:
Cinema- very cool as well as interesting
Egyptian -( second largest in the world)
A modern art musuem, design musuem, EATALY for foodies, all the Royal palaces and parks.

This trip I went to see
Palazzo Madame and the special Exhibitian on Sicilian Coral

It took me a whole day, the place was facinating.

Another goal was to finally get to eat at
a “private club”, for painters and decorators,
that has always been closed when I was there

Located in a nice neighborhood, behind the Grande Madre
in an area called Borgo Po,
this was opened in 1883 as a club.
Still today it is a place to gather, but now also offering food and wine.

We were seated out by the Bocce ball court,
candles lit everywhere, a lovely atmosphere.
Simple food, fixed men with choices of first course and main course.
25 euro plus wine.

Was simple but lovely.
here is my main course
an incredible assortment of cheeses with a homemade fig jam.

The full menu was-

antipasto:
warm spinach stuffed tomato,
puff pastry with prosciutto and cheese,
bresaola ( air-dried beef)

primo:
( they let me have a tasting of both)
Risotto with ragu
pasta with a hazelnut pesto

secondo:
two of us had the cheese plate
My husband had the roast veak with a hazelut sauce.

dolci:
There was a large choice of typical sweets
I had the baked peaches filled with chocolate and crushed amaretto cookies
My husband had a warm zabaione with cookies.

All in all PERFECT

The other reason I went was to find some modern classic places
to add to my Edible Torino project

Thanks to an Sandra
and
fellow Twitter-er blogger Vittorio
We dined at the wonderful
Sotto le Mole
Husband and wife team,
Simone Ferrero in the Kitchen and his wif, Rosa Anna Grosso in the front of the house.
She is a fabulous sommelier, let her guide you!

A tiny jewel located right in front of the Mole, where the Cinema Musuem is located.

It is the perfect place for special dinner, without breaking the bank.

Their tasting menu was 35 Euro, plus wine.
We had a fabulous meal and spent about 45 Euro a person, with wine.

I was not very good at taking foto’s
but

an antipasto tasting

Piedmonte is famous for its beef, so I ALWAY
get tartare, here it is hand chopped and not seasoned.
It doesn’t need it.
That is horseradish garnish, simple and lovely

Wer were 5 at dinner so I got to taste quite a few dishes.

There was fresh pasta with local mushrooms,
incredible veal tagliata with perfect fried potato garnish

even a rare dish called Finanzier, made with livers and other innards.

My friend Sandra had snails.

breaded and fried porcini to close the menu,
we thought!

One of the best bites was a Robiola cheese
served with a glass of Moscato di Asti sparkling wine.
No foto ate it too fast!
The cheese was perfectly ripe and creamy and the wine clean and not too sweet.

Desserts were lovely and not too sweet, but I was in a food coma!

I am just posting one,

More on Torino to come….
one post is not enough!