Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

For our trip to Cinque Terre in northern Italy, we follow loosely the itinerary set by NYT’s 36 hours in Cinque Terre.  That includes trying out the recommended restaurants.  We’ve picked a few NYT’s restaurants recommendations from the series but results were spotty.  A recommendation for Seville that was particularly bad as the restaurant was overpriced and unpopular.  I conclude that the recommendations really depend on the writer and this particular writer knows his stuffs around Cinque Terre and here’s our take on the paper’s recommendation.

Trattoria dal Billy (Manarola):

Manarola’s institution - people we sought directions from guessed correctly where we were going  - is tucked in the middle of a residential area and off the normal tourist route.  Perched daintily on a hill, the terrace affords excellent view of the sea and the surrounding vineyard.  After the first bite, we made our reservation for dinner the next night.

They served excellent home made pasta with silky and firm texture and rich flavour.  I suspect they mix in a little seafood broth in their pasta dough but obviously I can’t be sure.  As recommended by NYT, I chose pasta with tomato, pecorino, pine nuts, and baby shrimp which was excellent.  We also tried fresh mackerel with lemon.  Essentially cooked in acid and not by heat as we know it, the raw mackerel was opaque, firm and slightly rubbery with intense lemon flavour.   The fillet, swimming in olive oil, was great with crusty bread. 

We ordered trofie, the Ligurian pasta made of flour and water shaped like little worms.  I liked it served with pesto and plenty of grated parmesan.

We also recommend the grilled mixed seafood for two (a lot of their dishes are for two to save time and space in their very small kitchen).  The extremely fresh seafood was treated correctly and respectfully:  pieces of fatty swordfish, large shrimps, white-baits, and squid were lightly seasoned with only olive oil and salt.  My husband, who is not too fond of seafood, couldn’t stop raving about the swordfish which melted away like a piece of salmon belly.   

Trattoria Gianni Franzi (Vernazza): 

We opted for lighter dishes here.  I ordered Ligurian Minestrone and my husband chose ravioli.  For the second plate, we shared a piece of whole, grilled sea bass.  I was surprised to find that Ligurian Minestrone is green -and delicious - with pesto and all manner of green vegetables without a sliver of tomato.  The grilled whole sea bass was very tender and sweet.  As the food here was also great, we began to suspect that generally Cinque Terre has good kitchens.   

Il Frantoio (Monterosso al Mare): 

It was indeed unassuming and unpretentious and it served one of the best foccacia I’ve had with its thin and chewy crust.  We also sampled delicious and unique snacks such as dolci castagnina (warm circular pastries baked with chestnuts, salt, milk, pine nuts and raisins), Farinata (thin chickpeas pancake), rice cakes with eggs and cheese (beautiful rice texture), and fragile, puffy fried dough stuffed with Stracchino (similar to Mozzarella but more delicate-tasting and malleable).  We unashamedly bought all those in bulk to bring back and they were good even on subsequent days after a short reheating in the microwave.  For those limited by budget, this store makes very good lunches as they’re cheap and incredibly delicious.

Outside this NYT list, we discovered Trattoria La Lampara, a restaurant on the alley leading to our apartment in Riomaggiore. 

Sicilian-influenced, their pasta fares were unexceptional although the seafood pasta with chopped tomatoes, baked in a parcel of aluminium foil, was interesting enough to recreate at home.  However, their fried seafood mix - prawns, white-baits and squid thinly floured and deep-fried- was sensational.  Eaten on its own, it was crunchy and sweet.  We literally ate the whole pieces, including the prawn shells and heads, as they were really crisp which was a sign of proper deep-frying.  The white baits were best consumed dipped into a pool of olive with a squeeze of lemon so the plain but tender flesh took on a more rich flavour offset by a little tartness.  The restaurant also served a great lemon sorbet.  Perfectly portioned in a small glass, it was cold, creamy and lemony. 

We skipped NYT’s two recommendations:  Marina Picolla and L’Ancora della Torguga.  The first one was just another scenic restaurant with uninspiring menu and we were not really in the mood for temporary kitchen so we skipped the latter. 

As a parting shot, allow me a few words on shopping.  The area is filled with olive grooves, vineyards, and lemon trees.  It is also famous for Genovese pesto, a paste made of pine nuts, genovese basil, and olive oil.   The wines (Cinque Terre has a DOC or Denominazione di Origine Controllata status) are delicious but rarely found outside the area.  They’re dry but not simple, lemony and refreshing, suitable for seafood and pasta.  The more expensive one can be more substantial but still light.   Enoteca in Monterosso al Mare and other wine shops in that village had a tasting menu (4-5 types at about EUR 10), with or without side-order of bruschetta.  

Other specialties of Cinque Terre include raisin wine (Sciacchetrà ) and limoncino (their version is slightly different from the Sicilian).  My husband bought a dry version for his office -which the sugar is simply added rather than cooked- and the colleagues loved the tangy and lemony digestive.  I could only wish we stocked one too.