Sunday, July 10, 2011

Dario Cecchini, the Tuscan Butcher


We left Rome in the late morning and headed up north on the A1 autostrada, to Panzano in Chianti - to Dario Cecchini's famous butcher shop.  In case you missed it, Dario is the opera-singing, Dante-quoting butcher immortalized in Bill Buford's book Heat, and also in a great little episode of "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain.

It took a little over 3 hours to get there from Rome, and we entered the Dario+ restaurant for lunch.  The menu consisted of two items - either a fancy burger patty or a selection of meats.  The selection was interesting with Chianti sushi (steak tartare), porchetta (my favorite!), meatloaf (just ok) and Chianti tuna (essentially a shredded pork).  Sean enjoyed Dario's special beer (pictured alongside Dario's special olive oil).

We went downstairs to the butcher shop and met Dario, who seemed very jovial (and not singing or quoting Dante that particular day).  We bought his special beer, plus a few jars of the special fennel pollen that all the foodies are raving about.  Not sure what I'm doing to do with the latter as yet, but apparently, it makes everything taste better.

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