Gasztro/Utazás

Near Lucca-Toscana lovely hideaway, great food – Fattoria la Torre

Tibor M. Kovacs

Lucca is not among the famous Tuscan towns. It is shadowed by the nearby Firenze, Pisa and Siena. Of course if you have only a week in Tuscany you will not have time to go there but if you have some extra time it is worth visiting. It is shabbier not so fancy but special with its big wall around. You have to rent a bicycle and go around the wall (mura).
If you go to the area it is worth not sleeping in the town but outside among the Tuscan hills. Fattoria la Torre is an ideal place for this. Near Montecarlo town you find a small estate producing wine and oil and what is more have a good restaurant. Prices are good you can have a double room for 100 Euro even in July. They have a huge pool too.
The food is great based on Tuscan meat mainly. Wine selection is good but try to avoid their own wine which is mediocre.
http://www.fattorialatorre.it/

Having a vermentino before dinner.

 

 The menu

 

 

 grilled peccorino

 

Duino Al Cavalluccio – Ideal stopover in east Italy

Tibor M. Kovacs

Duino is famous because of a German poet Rilke. He stayed there and wrote his elegies. The town is just after or before the Slovenien border depending on where you coming from. If you want to have your first or last good dinner or good coffee it is ideal to stop here. It has a nice little port with a reasonable restaurant called Al Cavalluccio. It has a huge wine list and a very enthusiastic sommelier called Miro. You can taste all different kind of local wines and he tells you about it.
The food is good and a the view is fantastic. The local accommodation is perfect and cheap. It is much better to stop in Italy than over the border where it is harder to drink good wine and eat good food.
Of course if you want to have Michelin star rated gourmet food you have to travel at least 30 km more from this place. But to have gourmet food by the sea it is at least 100 km.

Here is the view:

 

 Here is the menu

 

And the place

 

Ultimate street food from Cambodian village market

Tibor M. Kovacs
Do not bother food safety on Cambodian village market – just enjoy the atmosphere

Food safety regulations are not so serious but this just makes life easier. Easy displaying row pork meat clinched to the post, with a rusty nail.

The place is not so busy. They have time to have a nap.

In this video you can see sticky fish paste, fermented fish, dried fish, sun dried snails and mango sold 10 cent/piece and soup like sweets. Pay attention to lizard, chickens etc. running under the stands. And the nice guide Chamrong.