Watch out for this delicious beef (if you can get it)
Being more of a wannabe vegetarian than a passionate carnivore, this particular column is a rather unlikely one to come from my humble self. However, I just had so delicious a beef experience that there was no way but to write about it.
Am I the only one to previously never have heard of Chianina beef? If so, forgive my ignorance (as I said, I am more into fish and salads) and please simply stop reading here. You won’t learn anything new in that case.
For everyone else, I ask you to look out for “Bistecca alla Fiorentina”, as it’s officially called. A steak from a cattle herd that traces back to Roman times, and which is fed mostly on hay from lush Italian pastures. The name comes from the Chiana Valley in the province of Tuscany in Central Italy.
The same cattle can now be found as far afield as Canada, the US, and Brazil. I have so far only tasted the Italian product, and it probably really doesn’t matter where the cattle was raised. What does matter though, is the quality of the meat. It’s second probably only to Kobe beef from Japan, and good enough to temporarily turn me into a passionate carnivore.
A quick check of web resources reveals that the Bistecca alla Fiorentina is available in a good number of steak houses around the world. The place where I stumbled across it was Brenners, the centrally located restaurant in Munich that is housed in what used to be the King’s horse stables.
Served as a 1.2 kilogram steak, this was enough meat to satisfy three hungry diners. A friend and I formed a party of two, and we just about made it. Nothing but the bone was left, simply because we couldn’t bear leaving anything behind.
Bistecca alla Fiorentina – to be savored wherever you come across it!