Italy Diaries: Part 1

So, Under the Influence was fortunate enough to be invited to the Torino Wine Forum, which showcases some of the top producers in the Piedmont region in the north of Italy. Piedmont is renowned for a number of things, some of which include white truffles, Barolo and Barbaresco (wines made from the Nebbiolo grape), bread sticks, the founding of the slow food movement, Barbera wines and two towns called Asti and Alba. Phew! What was evident this evening at a dinner with 100% purebred Italians of the region is that it is not any one of these factors that makes the region famous, it is the way they all come together so beautifully.

We ate at a small restaurant outside the city centre of Turin. What made this place unique the fact it was clearly a local joint. I was quickly told that if you want to enjoy a good meal in Italy, head for the place that truck drivers frequent. Watch out though, truck drivers strike pretty often here, so you could head into the middle of a group of trucks hoping for a good meal, and end up having to choose sides! Yes indeed, truck drivers love their food, don’t want to pay a lot and certainly don’t want to get bothered by tourists! I kept as low a profile as possible, even though I did mistake the gents for the kitchen and walked straight into a murderous looking Italian chef. Excuse!

Food is just a way of life here. No time to sit around twiddling your thumbs or making arbitary conversation before ordering! Within 1 minute there is a bottle of wine, bread, olive oil AND a first course! Vitello tonnato to be precise (chilled veal with a tuna sauce). Oh, you are a vegetarian? Bastardo! The poor Guest was quickly assisted though and we were all eating soon. A comment was made about the wine before we started the meal. It was a Barbera d’Alba, which means a Barbera wine from the Alba region (named after the town of the same name). “The wine is good, nothing special” said our Italian host. I tended to agree, until we started eating. The richness of the wine, the chewy tannins, started to combine beautifully with the flavoursome foods on the table. We moved through carbonara, sirloin in a red wine sauce and a dessert that must have been created at the nearby Caffarel factory, which invented solid chocolate by the way. Suddenly the food, the wine and the conversation had all started to meld into a superbly relaxed pairing, epitomising the point of wine in Italy… which in itself has not point without great food and great company. The beauty of the system is that bad food and company can be improved by great wine, and vice versa!

The evening ended with an espresso has yet to yield me to sleep and conversations on where to buy the best white truffles, how to store them (in rice to impart the flavour), how to eat them (simple pasta AND fried eggs with the leftovers the next day) and where to buy genuine Italian shoes, because you have to be careful these days of imitations from China. What an evening.

Oh, and you think South African taxi drivers are bad? Try an Italian who seemed to have missed their calling as a fomula one driver and has deep and unresolved issues on the matter.