Osteria Il Ciliegiolo a stop for a "little" lunch ..... Fiorentina steak again!!! 9~12 Sep 2010 - Impruneta, Italy

As we left the highway and got into the old wine road that leads to Greve in Chianti, we couldn't bear the hunger pangs anymore and decided to stop by any decent osteria for late lunch. When we saw an osteria that had many cars parked outside, I cruised to a stop. Osteria Il Ciliegiolo proved a surprise find that served sincere fresh traditional Tuscan food. The osteria is located in Impruneta along SR222 and just a short drive from Highway A1.

Italy is indeed blessed with fresh vegetables, meat and seafood that made cuisine in their osterias so sincere. I define sincere Italian food here as fresh, cooked with simple methods, unpretentious and eaten as soon as it's prepared.

Everyone that came chose to take the outside seats out in the comfortable patio. The ambience was casual and everyone seemed chirpy and happy with simple food served here. Many of the clienteles were locals.

The gift of food to us humans comes best when it's freshest and with the freshest there's no need for elaborated seasoning. Our salad of Tuscan lettuce and tomatoes were simply drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and some lemon juice. That's all that's needed to accentuate the sweetness of these Tuscan tomatoes and lettuce. I'm not fan of vegetables but I'm really enjoying this.

Our prosciuttos came on a wooden board. These had more sparsely interlaced fats and a nutty fragrance to it. It seemed boring after seeing so many prosciuttos that we eaten so far but in the land of prosciuttos, you can't help but to try and enjoy while you can before it hit us hard on our pockets when we'll like to have them in Singapore.

Some carbo loading was most welcome after a half day of "exercising" in the Barbarino outlet stores. We chose pasta with arrabbiata sauce. The arrabbiata sauce here was made from mashed tomatoes, chilli oil and garlic. It was not as cloying when compared to pre-mixed tomato paste. It had the nice light and sweet taste of the tomatoes and that little kick from the chili oil. Macaroni was a good choice of pasta as the arrabbiata sauce got filled into the tubular pasta. It was really fun eating it as the spicy sauce oozed out of the pasta as I bit into them.

HY and I were indulged by Bistecca di Fiorentina in Il Latini and the best just got better at Il Ciliegiolo. At Il Latini we had the 1.1kg T-bone, here we got the 1.4kg one. I liked it that Fiorentina steak is simply seasoned with salt and pepper and non of the other fanciful sauce to clout the palate.

This Fiorentina steak was cooked on the outside, very juicy and rare on the inside. Even if it's 1.4kg, it was all taken out by both of us.

Via Chiantigiana per il Ferrone, 22

50023 Impruneta, Florence, Italy

Tel : +039 055 2326327

Osteria Il Ciliegiolo Website