The Chianti Butchers

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Up for brerakfast at 8, Tuscan cheese, ham, breads and relish, croissants, jam tart & cappjucino, good start. Now to discover Chianti. We get to our car and the fog is thick, so we take it slow as visibility is poor. First to Grieve - from the main square we explore the shops - here has one of the most famous butchers in all of Tuscany, the place is full of prioscuitto and his trademark black pig salami and many other cuts. We buy a vacuum sealed pack of the salami for later. Another butcher down the end of the square has a small bottle of white truffle oil in the window and go in to check the price. The old woman only does Italian but is doing her best to sell us everything in the store, until the son arrives to rescue us! He explains in perfect english how to cook with it and then sells us a muchroom paste also infused with truffle - looking forward to cooking something with that when I get back! Meanwhile mama is still giving us bread and oil and balsamic and cutting of strips of meat from the display case and dipping in balsamic for us to try - Tuscan sashimi - before escaping with our goodies. Next our now standard mid morning Machiato, 1 euro each! We buy some bread and a pastry (just one, to share) and head off for the next town, Strada. Not much happening there, so we head east but somehow find ourselves back on the road to Grieve. Nevermind we didn't stop at Penzano on the way up & this town has THE most famous butcher shop in all of Tuscany (according to Gourmet Traveller magazine), renowed for his local beef so we park and wander again, stumble on the shop at no 13, but we are looking for one of his 3 restaurants, which has the famous Mac Dario (his name is Dario Cecchini) burger. Enter #11 does not look like a restaurant and an american girl takes us back into the shop and out back through the cutting room, via a heavy metal sliding door and up some stairs where a friendly old chap, Dario's father?, greets us and sits us at a huge long table which is nearly full amongst the locals and presumably some tourists as well. We settle on the (now called) Dario + which is the crumbed burger (very rare), potatoes baked with rosemary and some caramelised + pickled veggies and 1/4 litre bottle of Chianti each, bread, a coffee and some olive oil cake, all for a total of 30 euros, awesome. Next to Radda. Like most towns this time of year, just about everything is closed for the winter, so do a bit of an exploratory, head to Castelina which is on the way back to San Danato. Most of the wineries and tasting places are also closed, but what the hell, we just buy it by the bottle. Got a great appreciation of the Tuscan countryside as the fog lifted in the afternoon. Back to the B&B for a bit of a rest,. We head down to the bar for a beer, a Moretti this time and later go back to the same restaurant for dinner - not something I usually like to do, but the other one in the town seemed dead and didn't feel like driving anywhere as the fog had settled again & we only had pizza last night - I liked the look of the sea bass that someone on the table next door ordered last night. Wasn't disappointed - the fish was baked, presumably in the pizza oven with some potatoes and tasty tomatoes. We got a complimentary pizza bread as an appetiser & Jules ordered an entree only, octopus salad which she saw the guy next to us having and only managed to eat half, such a girl - the dude finished his and then ate a whole pizza! All washed down with half a litre of the house red! Retiring Cognac and some late night Italian TV.

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