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Connoisseur's Guide · Europe · italy · Turin · Top European Restaurants by Martins Ritins

Italy perhaps isn't the best place where to look for Michelin starred restaurants, failing to meet my expectations more than once. Yet Turin, the cradle of modern-day vermouth and chocolate production, managed to surprise me with an incredibly good restaurant with no stars at all. The restaurant Porta di is situated in the very center of the city, swarming with tourists. Such location raised certain doubts at first, but already the first moments of the warmest most sincere reception proved that I couldn't have made a better choice.
Porta di Po is a typical Piedmont restaurant. Usually you would see an Italian mama cooking in a place like this, but this time it's different. A professional team of chefs are fusing innovation with tradition here and doing their best to please taste expectations of their guests.
Perhaps a question might arise why menu of classic Italian cuisine should be written in French. We shouldn't forget, however, that historically this region has been under French rule for some time. Another surprise is its sommelier - a really fun-loving and jesting guy is a total opposite to so many arrogant wine experts elsewhere. I wish that more restaurant owners would recognize importance of such a positive communication!
There is only one thing to be said about food there - I wouldn't want to share the contents of my plate with anyone else! Especially those fresh anchovies were so incredibly good! And cime de rapa leaves (its peculiar taste is somewhere between broccoli and rutabaga)! They are very typical for south Italian cuisine. At Porta di Po you can try agnolotti - a traditional Piedmont version of ravioli (usually stuffed with veal, rabbit or lamb), and to discover a true taste of the region in Minestrone soup. Another surprise perhaps will be "buttery" escargot (a French word for snail). It also turns out that escargot market trends are set in Piedmont, just 20 km from Turin where escargot world exchange is located. Yes, it is there, rather than somewhere in France!
If you happen to be in Porta di Po, be sure to wrap up your meal with the Montblanc dessert, which is made of chestnuts, topped with whipped cream and with delicious crumbs at the foot of the mount. A real treat is also a dessert supplemented with T'a chocolate (www.tamilano.com). In my opinion, it perhaps surpasses Amedei chocolate that has won the prestigious "Golden Bean" award.

Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1/e
10124 Torino
T.: 011 812 76 42
info@portadipo.it
www.portadipo.it

 

^12/2012

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