Liguria region, Italy

[KeithA]

After we left Florence last week, we headed up to the Liguria region - specifically Santa Margherita Ligure - a wonderful medium/small town with beautiful architecture, great food, nice shopping and a busy boat-filled harbor. SML is just north on the peninsula from the more famous but much smaller, Portofino. SML was full of Italian vacationers and a much smaller amount of non-Italian tourists - the ratio switched a bit when we went to Portofino. Ligurian is known for its focaccia, pesto, and seafood. All were great. SML has several fishing boats that dock in the harbor - one even does little cones of fried seafood on the back of its boat and there are several seafood markets. There are also many small groceries offering some pre-made dishes as the town caters to many vacationers who rent apartments. Here are our food highlights:

SML:

1. Oca Bianca (white goose) was the best meal we had in all of Italy. It is known as the place to eat meat in SML since most places specialize in seafood. The restaurant is almost 100% outside on their shaded patio in the summer and they have several fine dining touches from special boxes to put purses on, amuse bouches, nice bread basket with a good variety of breads, and very friendly and more attentive service than most other restaurants in Italy. We started with excellent gnocchi with pesto - it was very tiny and just melted in your mouth. We also had a very creative and delicious appetizer of fried onion chips that were filled with a cheesy cream and topped with pine nuts, raisins, beet sauce, another sauce and braised cabbage. On the menu and my description make it sound like a mess and odd, but it was beautifully presented and wonderful. We also had their T-bone bistecca fioerentina where they had a nice selection of different sizes so we were able to get one that was just right for us to share. The wines by the glass suggested to us were very good too. The only hiccup was the dessert - we got a "cheesecake" but it was more like a loose cream in a cup with a bit of a crumble and some fruit - not too tasty. Luckily we found a gelato place nearby to satiate the sweet tooth.

2. Gelato - lots of places around town and many very very good. Two we liked a lot were Gelateria Gepi Mare, a bit south of the busier section of the port but still on the road alongside the harbor and Gelato Generali - famous for their Pinguino (Penguin) where they careful scoop your gelato into a cone shape on a cone and then dunk it in very good dark chocolate for a dip cone.

3. Apertivo and Breakfast buffet at Hotel Blu di Te - this is the boutique hotel we stayed at. In addition to great cocktails, they give a really nice spread of apps - wonderful thick fries, tomato salad, rice/tuna salads, and super fresh fried anchovies. It was so good we did it two days in a row. The breakfast buffet was also big and very good - lots of the usual pastries and cereal, but I really enjoyed the fresh greek yogurt with granola and fresh berries drizzled with chestnut honey. They also had a variety of excellent local cheeses, various hams which I didn't try, soft/hard boiled eggs to order and various cakes/tarts plus fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee and tea.

4. Focaccia and baked goods- so many little bakeries selling fresh from the oven throughout the day focaccia in a variety of flavors. The plain olive oil is great, even better was the rosemary. If like me you love onions, the thinly slice covered in onions version was good for a meal too. There also are pizza like focaccia with tomato sauce with various veggies. The best one is Panificio Fiordiponti which is very popular with the locals where you take a number and wait 5-15 minutes for your turn. It is on a back street one block behind the main shopping drag and worth searching out. They also have a variety of other breads and pastries. We also really like the focaccia and sweets (rich cream filled sfogiatella and strongly flavor almond horn cookies) at Panificio Canale in Portofino

While SML is a seafood lover's place, we don't eat shellfish so we were a bit more limited. Lots of places offering the special local red prawns and fried calamari. We had a really nice fresh sea bream ligurian style with potatos and olives but the rest of the restaurant wasn't worth recommending. 

Also everywhere serves trofie pasta with super light, flavorful pesto. We found they are more delicate with less garlic than we usually get in the States.

A word about Portofino - all of the guidebooks warn you that it is crazy expensive. I found that to be a bit misleading. We only ate at some bakeries and gelato places but we looked at menus and it is a real mix between overpriced places and pretty regularly priced places. Similar to the town itself which while known for the mega yachts and rich visitors, also caters to more middle class folks. So if you visit, I'd recommend looking around and you'll likely find a place that isn't too much more expensive than similar places in SML or other nearby towns and avoid those that are overpriced. The shopping is the same - you can go to Ferragamo, Gucci, etc but also cheap places selling tourist trinkets and everything in between. One last good to know thing is that you should make the hike up the hill to the Brown Castle for amazing views and while there -they have a small cafe with snacks and drinks so you can have a mini-apertivo if you like before heading back down.