(see part one)
From the classics of Bar Basso we now get to the innovations of the brilliant Trussardi alla Scala, the most beautiful counter and restaurant in town, with the excellent Tommaso Cecca, a barman that anyone opening a bar would like to have in his team. Of course I recommend getting to the first floor to taste Luigi Taglienti’s delicious cuisine (you can taste something at a moderate price in the bistro, a beautiful glass case full of green plants at the top).
From one floor up, to one floor down, the life of someone from Milan needs to include some immersions at restaurant Carlo Cracco, to be aware of the state of the art of Italian cuisine, to experience new flavours and new solutions, and take a few more steps in the continuous evolution of taste of which our existence is made.
In the Navigli area I also recommend an ugly but delicious place, Al Pont de Ferr, which I always recommend to anyone who is doubtful of contemporary cuisine (and those who are afraid of algid and starred places), because it mixes the soul and most of all the looks of an osteria with the great wine list managed by Maida Mercuri and the refined and fun cuisine Matias Perdomo.
Red onion from Tropea, made with blown sugar, filled with fresh goat cheese, caramelised red onion and served on a sand made with black sesame bread: one of the classics of Matias Perdomo’s cuisine at Pont de Ferr
Here are some more simple places: for a snack, I always enjoy going to
Polpetta doc (Via B. Eustachi 8, +39.02.29517983), a bar serving hot meals, including some phenomenal
Breaded meatballs with boiled eggs, olive oil and parsley. Then there’s the not-to-be-missed
Pavé, where one can find the best brioches in Milan: desserts are delicious and genuine, savoury filled croissants are unmatched and before leaving one can also buy some excellent bread: pastry chef
Giovanni Giberti and his partners have created a cafe/pastry-shop/meeting point you always want to visit. As for pizza, well, I choose the Neapolitan one, with the thick edge, from
Frijenno e Magnanno.
Some last notes. When you’re in your own city, you eat mostly at home, if not to continue to have the pleasure of going grocery shopping. My favourite stop is at the market in Via Benedetto Marcello. There’s a large number of vegetable stands: they were once all run by people from Apulia, a festival of turnip tops and hanging cherry tomatoes, today many are run by people from outside the EU. So I’ve started to experiment with ginger, daikon, platano verde, edos gaby, chirimoya, tamarillo, Chinese cabbage, ullucus...
Is the best brioche in Milan the one made at Pavè? According to Camilla Baresani indeed it is
When in season, there are specialised stands selling mushrooms and truffle, or pumpkins, or different varieties of salad. An essential stop, on Saturday, is that at
Giuseppe Ronchi’s cheese van, parked on the corner with Via Scarlatti:
bitto,
squacquarone,
castelmagno,
arbatax,
bagoss,
raspadura, on top of a great selection of mountain butter. There’s also an excellent fish stand on the corner with Via Vitruvio (only on Saturdays).
As for fruits and vegetables, when the market is not open, I visit
Abbascià, which you can never leave disappointed. Finally, as for butchers: there’s
Bruno Rebuffi’s one in Via Annunciata, where I buy Piedmontese meat and the imposing chickens bred by
Miroglio. And then there’s Sirtori (Via P. Sarpi 27, +39.02.342482), where even a committed vegetarian runs the risk of precipitating back into the original carnivorous state.
Nervetti [nerves] are a must-try.
2. the end
