That's it! Chianina is beyond me. What does one do when the ultimate prized and offered meal is giant slabs of lovely white ox? They are beautiful, dainty feet carrying heavy but graceful bodies, manes and tails braided with scarlet ribbon, and flowers on high days and holidays.
When we were to be married Mr HG gave me a pair of buoi di razza chianina. To be honest my father-in-law to be was much more impressed than I was, but I did think them very lovely.
They used to be seen ploughing, in the farthest reaches of Toscana, though now they are just bred for eating. But not by me. Never again. This is not just touchy-feeliness.
Have you any idea how much chianti you have to drink to swallow such a steak?
4 comments:
Yes indeed, but it would be fun trying. Such a pretty beast. How does one serve a meal of such beauty and magnitude.
Are these where bistecca fiorentina comes from?
I think I would have a go at the Chianti, personally.
Anon. 1.
You place an enormous steak, previously beaten with a branch of bay tree and rubbed with best olive oil, over a bed of glowing oak coals. For as long as you choose from barely waved at it, to cooked through thoroughly oh yuk raw meat put it back.
There is a famous clip of Mr HG demonstrating:
Chianina and how to cook and eat it.
I will put it up if it can be obtained from the film maker.
Anon. 2.
Yes (though not necessarily, beware false representations, particularly in Florence in July and August.)
And Yes again, you and me both, but it tends to leave me reeling. It has been known, though rarely and before I had developed local resistance, to leave me fainting in coils. Now I do the Italian thing - one glass of chianti, one glass of water, no glass of chianti, one glass of water, get back into my own kitchen, large gin with fruit of the day.
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