Above: Pork Fillet with red peppercorns, sausages and wurstel. Funny enough wurstel never really gets a mention in the many descriptions of Tuscan food, although it is ubiquitous enough.
Above: Most people are aware of the British connection to one of Florence's most famous dishes, "Bistecca" ("Beef Steak"). Less well known is the local version of British "Roast Beef".
Above: A great deal of the Butchers goods are actually prepared foods in one form or another. Not exactly Slow Food, but that doesn't make it bad or unpleasant.
Above: a local verison of one of the Mediterraneans oldest documented sausages. Luganega is mentioned by Apicius and Varro.
Above: Stuffed chicken necks. Tasty enough, but the stuffing coming out of the chickens beak tends to give it a look of vomiting.
Above: More Tuscan fast food that you will not see mentioned in any regional cookery books.
Above: Stuffed pork loins. Because of the time of the year, these tend to have a lot of fruit.
Above: skewers of bread, fatty pork and sausage. A direct desendent of spit cookery.
Above: Grapes specifically for making "schiacciata con uva" (flatbread with grapes). This is a special seasonal treat, made with very sweet red wine grapes. Worth noting that these are not a local product, although the bread it a regional dish.
Above: Schiacciata con uva, delicious.
Above: Porchini mushrooms. The green herb is Nepitella (Lesser Calamint; Calamintha nepeta) which is commonly used in mushroom dishes, and has a very strong mint flavour, similar to penny royal.
Above: Boiled udder.
Above: Beef Diaphragm
Above: A Peruvian stall at the Florence central market.
Above: English salted herrings, the last remains of a trade going back to the medieval period.
Above: one of Florence's many tripe and lampredotto stalls
Above: another of Florence's many tripe and lampredotto stalls
Above: Florence's most famous tripe stall Nerbone's in the central market
Above: Lampredotto with porchini
Above: Menu at the tripe stall.
Above: The heart of the Italian kitchen - the Nonna.
Above: A legacy of the British "Roast Beef", although the local fashion is to serve the beef with copious amounts of local olive oil.
Above: Amanita caesarea (Caesar's Mushroom) known locally as "ovolo" (plural "ovoli).
Above: The Forno in action.
Above: an outdoor lunch.
Above: battered carddons, porchetta, spinich and zucchini.
Above: a menu at a local bar, with some interesting local and regional dishes.
Above: Delicious head cheese.
Above: Pici with wild boar sauce, one of Tuscany's few native pasta.
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