FOOD TOUR OR DELICACY TOUR
I TAKE YOU TO EXPLORE THE TASTY SIDE OF LANGHE AND ROERO
Travels are known to have a thousand purposes: to learn about new destinations, to see new places and people, to delve into interesting cultural aspects, to escape from the office and routine, and so many other reasons that drive us to book and go.
Whenever then you have arrived at your destination and looked around, one of the first curiosities is also standing behind the question: What are we eating today?
Don’t lie, even you when you arrive in a new city and start walking around, you also cast your eye to the grocery stores, eateries and even some menus. Because every city is also characterized by its cuisine, its scents and the abundance of its gastronomic products.
Italy then has an almost unlimited variety of raw materials, products and regional dishes. Each season presents the visitor with a varied and mouth-watering offering to taste.
Every place you have visited also carries in your memory the dishes you have tasted. Many times even your friends know the local products because you bought them for them as a souvenir of the vacation.
And here we come to an answer to the question:
What is a Food Tour?
The Food Tour was created with the goal of reversing the approach to a destination. I take you to a place and through local delicacies introduce you to the city.
A Food Tour has one basic requirement: it must be organized by people who live in those places. You are well aware that certain little stores, certain eateries, certain dishes, you would not have tasted them if your friend who lives right there had not suggested them to you.
Some guides, while showing you around the city, also point out some little places where you can, at the end of your visit, have a good lunch. In the case of SlowDays Food Tours, the guidebook, the map, the stops, will all be cadenced by the tastings you’ll make.
Food Tours you can find them now in every city. So if you are in the mood for arancini you will choose a Food Tour in Sicily, if you are curious about what ribollita is, you will go to Tuscany. I am taking you to my home in Piedmont. Precisely in the Langhe and Roero.
How does a food tour take place?
After making a reservation, I get to work for you. The Food Tour can be done on foot or by car. The difference is in the distances you will have to cover! If yours is going to be a city tour, then strictly on foot; if, on the other hand, you will be in the hills of the Langhe and Roero, you will have to use a car.
Food Tour stops in the city, Alba for example, leave around 10:30 to 11:00 am. You will receive a map that will take you from one stop to the next. I will describe what you can see during the stop and also point out some typical products to buy! You will have one main rule: stick to the schedule.
An Alba Food Tour can have four or five stops. Much depends on the season, the opening hours, and the availability of the various vendors that will be waiting for you on your way.
Usually you will start with an aperitif, glass of wine and some savory appetizers. Continue with appetizers, which are one of the most important pillars of Piedmontese cuisine. In fact you could do a Food Tour of only appetizers, so rich and varied are they! There will be a stop dedicated to a traditional first course, usually the famous agnolotti del plin.
I forgot, both the appetizer and the first course will be accompanied by a glass of wine.
On wine I must open a parenthesis, because if we speak only of Piedmontese gastronomy, we leave behind an immense world that is that of enology. The Langhe and Roero have become famous, along with their cousins in Monferrato, precisely because of the hills of vineyards. They have earned the title of a protected Unesco Site with their: Viticultural Landscapes of Piedmont: Langhe, Roero and Monferrato. So actually the SlowDays Food Tour, is a Wine and Food Tour, because it is an eno-gastronomic tour.
So, I left you that you had eaten the first course and so you had also found out what agnolotti del “plin” was. Don’t worry, I won’t interrogate you in the end! You have to go on and then I would tell you that you should also taste the truffle. A product of the land that characterizes these areas and has made Alba and the Langhe known all over the world. I will then take you on a few tastings of this mushroom, of the genus Tuber. You will taste a few products and understand the scent of this strange fruit of the earth. You will surely buy a few jars that you will then, at home, use to impress your friends. I already know…
The Alba Food Tour usually ends with dessert. The legendary hazelnut cake is almost always a nice discovery. Again, a glass of Piedmontese wine will be served to accompany this final stop.
Food Tour by Car
The Food Tour outside the city and taking you around Alba usually has fewer stops. But they will be richer and more complete. In order to give you a taste of Piedmontese cheeses, I also wanted you to get to know the producer, his workshop, and the stages of production.
As for the wine, I preferred to taking you to the winery, offer you a tour of the place where the wine is produced and where it rests to age. See with your own eyes the surrounding vineyards and understand the methods and labor behind a glass of wine.
The tasting of hazelnuts, which you sample in Alba in the form of a slice of cake, in this case becomes a journey from the plant to the workshop. With all the steps that mark the months of the year and give rise to another product of excellence from this corner of Piedmont: the round gentile hazelnut.
You will also have a map for the Food Tour by car. The stops will all be booked and paid for. You will have the pleasure of meeting the producers and you will take home knowledge, tastes, landscapes and respect for the many labors behind the products of the earth.
Have I convinced you? Then what are you waiting for? The most beautiful tours to get to know a land are the gastronomic itineraries that allow you to get to know a tasty aspect of this region.
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