Food Wine The Italian Riviera & Genoa
  • Published: 15 November 2008
  • ISBN: 9781892145642
  • Imprint: NY Review Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $59.99
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Food Wine The Italian Riviera & Genoa

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Most food guides for Italy suffer from the “too-much, too-little” syndrome. The territory is vast, yet for each city and village they rarely provide enough information. This guide focuses on a manageable territory–Liguria–and covers it in depth with an emphasis on understanding the local culture through its food. This is not an encyclopedic volume but a renowned food writer’s highly selective guide to Liguria’s authentic small eateries, culinary traditions, wine, wineries, food artisans, and gourmet shops. (The “big” restaurants are covered in a short and amusing sidebar that lists the places that everyone knows and can read about in any guide or on the Internet: a tip of the hat to the great toques, but many other suggestions are given so the reader can dine elsewhere. In Italy, the restaurants Michelin rewards with multiple stars have little to do with regional or local food.) Recommendations center on “where the locals eat.” The book is also lavishly photographed, perfect for the armchair traveler. There is a glossary of food items and unusual specialties, as well as a typical Ligurian menu, detailed indexes, many sidebars, and a map.

Learn all about the savory Ligurian flatbread called farinata (and where to buy farinata baking pans), garlic (raw in local dishes, braids, the pink heirloom variety from the village of Vessalico, and the village’s annual garlic festival), pesto mania (and a profile of the hothouses of the western Genoese suburb of Prà that produce what most Italians and 99.9 percent of Ligurians claim to be the world’s best commercially grown basil) and which restaurants serve authentic mortar-and-pestle-made pesto, as well as dozens of other regional topics.
  • Published: 15 November 2008
  • ISBN: 9781892145642
  • Imprint: NY Review Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $59.99
Categories:
Share…

About the author

David Downie

David Downie's books include Enchanted Liguria, Cooking the Roman Way, The Irreverent Guide to Amsterdam, and Paris, Paris. He is the author of three Terroir Guides published by the Little Bookroom: Food Wine The Italian Riviera & Genoa, Food Wine Rome, and Food Wine Burgundy.

Also by David Downie

Paris, Paris
Quiet Corners of Rome
Food Wine Burgundy
Food Wine Rome
See all

Praise for Food Wine The Italian Riviera & Genoa

Praise for Cooking the Roman Way

  • "Downie has beautifully and evocatively captured the cuisine of one of the world's best-known cities." --Publishers Weekly
  • "Can't afford a trek right about now? Fortunately, a great vicarious substitute is available: David Downie's Cooking the Roman Way.But this is way more than a cookbook. It's a veritable tour guide to so much of what makes Rome special." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune
    • Praise for Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Amsterdam
  • "Like being taken around by a savvy local." --The New York Times
    • Praise for Paris, Paris
  • "Perhaps the most evocative American book about Paris since A Moveable Feast." --Jan Morris
  • "David Downie lives in a Paris, like wine in a glass. Paris, Paris is his quirky, personal, independent view of the city, its history and its people. Residents will recognize a place they can vouch for and not the clichés so frequently conjured up to match the legends. Visitors and newcomers are bound to find Paris, Paris reliable company as they discover the city's beauties and pleasures and its problems too." --Mavis Gallant
  • "David Downie's prose illuminates Paris with unequalled poignancy and passion. He understands and evokes the souls and the substance of the city with a critic's intelligence and a lover's heart. He makes me want to live in Paris again." --Donald George, Global Travel Editor, Lonely Planet
  • "The delightful and insightful essays in Paris, Paris meld history, atmosphere, and observations on Paris places, Paris people and Paris phenomena." --Chicago Tribune
  • "Downie brilliant upholds the American expat tradition of portraying the City of Light with an original and endearing touch." --John Flinn, Travel Editor, San Francisco Sunday Chronicle