I didn’t sleep very well, but that’s life with jetlag. The hotel provides a breakfast buffet with cold cereals, assorted cold meats, pastries/breads, juices, and coffee. Not bad, but not exactly what I wanted.
Today is the “Fiera del Tartufo Bianco d’Alba”, or translated: The Alba Festival for the White Truffle. It runs 5-6 Sundays in Oct and Nov. And it draws an amazing number of people. Every piazza in the city is transformed into a sort of farmer’s market. There’s honey, salumi, cheeses, arts and crafts, flowers, clothes, etc., but no vegetables. And the truffle exhibition in a large hall that also includes a number of booths with wines, cheeses, etc. The truffle exhibition hall was redolent of truffles. The Alba white truffle is a rare thing: it sells for about 5000 euros per kilogram (that’s $142/ounce). A truffle is a fungus, sort of like a mushroom, so a white truffle about half the size of a fist weighs about an ounce. Pretty pricey, but wonderful to taste. Black truffle is also on display, but it sells for a small fraction of the price of a white truffle and isn’t as rare, so it takes 2nd billing.
There are so many people at the festival that there aren’t enough restaurants to feed them all. It’s almost impossible to get anything to eat for lunch as there are lines to get in everywhere. I got a table at one place, but was ignored by the staff, and left after 45 minutes of waiting.
Dinner tonight is in Alba at Osteria dell’Arco (Michelin guide recommendation). While Barolo isn’t as expensive here as it is at home, it still isn’t cheap. Most bottles in restaurants are 35-75 euro ($49-$105), or about the same as in the wine shops at home. Gaja wines are still pricey, no matter where.
1 comment:
Wetz, you're eating your way through Italy! I'm sitting here in Ohio, getting hungrier by the minute just reading about all that food. The only thing quick that we have in the kitchen is peanut butter (crunchy), but we're out of bread.
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