Fashion Week Food Round Up – Milan

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by admin in From our Travels

This time of the year is a seemingly endless whirlwind of activity – the month-long stream of fashion weeks – travel, meetings, selling the current season while working on the next season, etc — but one thing we always make time for is food!   We added Milan to our schedule this season and in between appointments made sure we got out to try some of the local restaurants.

We like little touches of home when we travel so once we find a hotel we like we tend to return.  In Milan we like to stay at Townhouse 12 – part of the Small Luxury Hotels it’s located in a more residential neighbourhood than most other hotels and while it’s a bit out of the way the staff are  friendly and always ready with great recommendations.  Just within a few hundred meters of our hotel are scores of great restaurants – and ones that you wouldn’t necessarily choose based on looks. On our first night they recommended the restaurant across the way –  Jolie – from the looks (Carlsberg awnings!!!) not something we would have ever chosen ourselves but the Buffalo Mozzarella was some of the freshest we’d ever tasted and the homemade pastas could rival that of any Italian grandmother.  Another local spot was Waga Maga – an old train car converted into a casual pizza restaurant with friendly service, and great food – even with the Euro at near parity with the pound it was a bargain. The Michelin guide app on the iPhone makes finding a decent place easy – and spotted another 5 restaurants all around the corner from the hotel. On the one late night when we just needed to grab a quick bite it pointed us to a small enoteca just a few hundred meters away, Quatro Foglio. A small intimate restaurant which was just the perfect choice for a late night snack.

We did manage to venture a bit further from our hotel. The owners of one of our factories insisted we try their local favourite – a Tuscan restaurant Alle Colline Senesi in the Porta Venezia part of town.  A bit out of the way but well worth the trip -the picci with gamberi and zucchine was quite simply one of the best dishes we have ever tasted.  While the gorgeous summer weather made for the perfect excuse to enjoy lunch and later drinks in the garden at 10 Corso Como.

While many restuarants were closed on the Sunday lunch we did manage to find a true Milanese Trattoria – Trattoria Milanese on Via Santa Marta. A true old fashioned trattoria run by the family since 19333 and with decor to match I have a new appreciation for Risotto Milanese – it was truly divine.

Unfortunately with Milan now part of the schedule my clothes are feeling a little bit tighter…

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