Osteria Acquacheta #tbtmeal

I did it again! I disappeared. No more. NO MORE I SAY. Hopefully coming back for real now, with some new ideas. The first one is the throwback Thursday meals. Basically, #tbtmeal posts will be posts about places I have been to more than six months ago. I know, that was a clever way of keeping from dying of shame for not posting anything. 

Oh well. The first #tbtmeal of this blog will be one that I have been dying to post about... and one of the best meals of my life, from when I was in Italy. 

Montepulciano was incredibly empty. After visiting Siena, Pisa, and other tourist-filled cities, Montepulciano actually looked a little bit like a ghost town. There was no one in the streets! The day was not that pretty when we got there, it was super cold and cloudy, which contributed to my impression. That was the only city we decided to spend the whole day at, I don't even remember why anymore – probably because my mom decided it was the most interesting one.

Wine and cheese tasting

We had a tip going in the city – the best part about traveling with my mom is that we are both suckers for gourmet tips, which means that if someone recommends a restaurant in a city we have never been to we will most likely tailor our visit around finding said restaurant and eating there. It wasn’t very different with Montepulciano, where we were recommended the Osteria Acquacheta. First thing we did was go to the tourism office to get a map and find out where the restaurant was. After spotting it on the map, we went into the city gates (these medieval Tuscan cities almost always have a gate). The day was basically spent going into churches and into wineries, where they provided FREE WINE/BREAD/SAUSAGE/OLIVE OIL TASTINGS. Yes. I would have gone into every single store if we weren’t so easily guilt tripped by free tastings. Since every store we went in we had to buy something, we only went into three or four I think – anyway, it was worth it.

The entrance

And then we reached the restaurant. It was a small little door at the end of a narrow street. We were very surprised noticing a full house, when the city seemed so empty. We asked if we needed to do a reservation – they only had a 2:30pm appointment. Stunned, we accepted it and proceeded to look at old buildings and go to tastings. At 2:15 we got to the door of the restaurant (need I say famished?) and still had to wait around 40 minutes to be seated.

The restaurant had one rule: each person had one glass to drink wine or water. If you want to drink water, finish your wine. If you want to drink wine, finish your water. No fanciness! I was already excited about it – I love simple places. We shared a big table with another group, which never bothers me because I usually speak a language no one understands anyway, so it’s not like I have no privacy (although I don’t think I would be bothered by it if they did, honestly.) The kitchen of the restaurant was at the back and completely open. They had a huge brick oven in there, where they grilled their meat.

Appetizer

The house specialty was bistecca fiorentina. I posted about bistecca before, on the Totò post – check it! – we ate it as part of our New Year’s Eve meal. Well this one was different; better, tastier, more delicious, amazing, wonderful… sorry where was I? Oh yeah, house specialty. But let’s start in the beginning. For some insane reason that I cannot fathom right now – it has been more than a year after all – we decided to have a four-course meal. Maybe it wasn’t a decision, maybe it just happened. All I know is I started my path to happiness with fried goat cheese balls paired with artichoke cream. Fortunately, no one in my family really likes goat cheese, so I got to enjoy all of that amazingness by myself (excuse me for being selfish). It was just... so delicious.

After we had the appetizers (each of us had one), we went into the primi piatti, a.k.a. the pasta. I ordered Pici pasta with duck ragù. Pici pasta is similar to spaghetti, but thicker and with a hole that runs in the middle of it. Doing a little bit more research into it, I found out it’s a hand-rolled pasta that originated in Siena and is typical from that region. HA! Learning about other culture while eating = ultimate goal in life. I ordered duck ragù because I wanted something different from all the truffle sauces that I was eating. I liked it, but I also found it slightly overwhelming – I seem to have had amnesia at the time, since I don’t like duck that much. I don’t really know why I ordered that plate. Well, I did, and it didn’t let me down, I let myself down (drama).

Pici pasta with duck ragù

The owner and the bistecca (whole)

After eating an entire plate of pasta, we said: “Why not have some meat?” and ordered the bistecca. The bistecca is ordered by its weight, and the server (usually the owner of the place) brings it raw to the table for you to evaluate its size. It was a beautiful cut of meat. Beautiful. The owner was so cool too, he walked around the table, serving, talking to people, mocking his friends (I guess) and being nice. He even let me take a picture of him getting ready to cut a piece of the bistecca (oh yeah they’re freshly cut, ahem). Then the meat came in all of its glory and it was raw. It was so raw it was cold in the middle. I am not a fan of raw meat (I order meats “medium”, as opposed to the generally Brazilian preferred “medium-rare”), so I was worried. Maybe I wouldn’t like it after all. And then I took a bite. And then…

I died.

LOOK AT THIS

The meat tasted amazing. I never tasted anything like it. I noticed there was barely any seasoning to it, just a little bit of salt and pepper, but it was extremely tasty nevertheless. It was very quickly seared in the oven, which left the outside almost crispy, but the inside soft and juicy. JUICY AND DELICIOUS! It didn’t matter I was full, I had just eaten a plate of pasta and really, I wasn’t that hungry anymore. That meat was SO GOOD. It was so good, there was no way it would be left behind in my plate. Excuse me for not wasting amazing food.

Get this: the meat came with a side. A side of CHEESE - yeah. Grilled cheese topped with pears. It is a match made in heaven. The sweetness of the pear complements the cheese so perfectly. It looks pretty too!

Grilled cheese topped with pear

Dessert

And then we ordered dessert. I think we got several different things: a ricotta cheese cake thing covered in chocolate and nuts, another covered in caramel and I ordered biscotti and some type of liquor cause I was dying and I needed help making the food go down. After a shot of espresso, off we went to a loooong walk so that we could digest all that amazingness into our bodies’ system.

Honestly, I have no idea how much that entire meal cost. I’m guessing maybe a lot but it was worth it? Dad? Hehehehe

They have a website where you can check out a sample of their menu if you plan to go there (which you should!)… It seemed reasonable to me. It is a small place, so it’s less likely you’re going to get ripped off? I guess? In any case, it’s worth it. Absolutely worth it.

City: Montepulciano, Italy

Restaurant: Osteria Acquacheta

Food: Amazing

Service: Great

Price: €€ (?)