Sotto Sopra (Milan, Italy)

Aaand as promised in the previous blog post, we're back! Still in Milan, the pizzas from Trattoria Toscana Il Cerchio still a fresh memory in our minds (and stomachs). And still lot more to explore. But first of all, ladies and gentlemen, we worked, of course.

We were in Milan for two reasons: a 2 day meeting with a European agency Cedefop based in Greece which does a large-scale job vacancy web-scraping project and an immediately following 1 day meeting for the Eurostat project we work on (looking at using web-scraped job vacancy data in official statistics), involving participants from around 10 different countries.

As a funny point, none of us in the "UK contingent" are actually originally from UK - I am from Slovakia and Nigel from New Zealand. Even more funny, all of the people that came from that European agency based in Greece were actually either Czech or Slovak! And most funny of all (I know, you must be gasping for air by now), the key person from Cedefop, Vladimir, used to work with my dad and mum! At one point during the meeting, I was about to share our group's findings from an exercise we did when Vladimir announced to the whole group of 30 or so people something like: "By the way, just to let you know, 20 years ago, Fero's father used to work with me and comment on our work so I am quite used to receive feedback from this family" :-D

The university campus on a sunny day

One thing I liked about the meeting was its location. It was held in the spaces of the University of Milan-Bicocca, on a huge 35 000 student campus. Walking through the university always reminded of my time at Matfyz in Bratislava, despite some major differences (e.g. this buildings were very nice and modern and there was not that much risk of pieces of plaster tearing off, falling on your head and killing you when walking next to the building. Oh, Matfyz, you were such a charming place!)

On the first day of the meeting, there was not much scope for pizza hunting, as the meals were mainly provided. Not that there was anything to complain about - on the contrary, this was one of the most gastro-interesting and digestive days of my life (that sounds weird, but it is true). And it is not just because I still had some food left from the journey the day before (ok, that is weird, but also true).

Inside of Sotto Sopra

The main reason  for the above mentioned words was, however, the dinner. We were all invited to Sotto Sopra, a restaurant on the campus for an unprecedented degustation of foods that I not only didn't know, but also foods that I didn't know that I didn't know and those I could never know that I would have known that I might know! Entree after entree was coming until we were beyond full when Mario (director of CRISP, a research centre at the university) announced: "ok, and now we eat". A first course was brought, we struggled through it (as for myself, still very much enjoying it!) after which a decision was made to call off the second "first course", since the chairs started to creak under our topped-up the weights. So a desert was brought instead to conclude a very nice evening - thank you again!

Ok, now please, connect the food titles to the pictures.

Thus it was only the next day that my pizza hunting instinct fully returned. Lunchtime was announced and we got out in the still chilly, but sunny late-March day. Students were hustling and hurrying around, searching for studenty lunches, discussing studenty stuff, or reading studenty books by the fountain. I approached a group of them, asking "where's a good pizza?". However they did not know and the picture of that perfect Italian dish was getting blurrier with every passing second. Then we turned around and saw it - Sotto Sopra. After all, why not? The restaurant from the day before seemed a bit too classy, but the food was really good. So if they do pizzas, should we, perhaps... ?

The restaurant was a different place at the lunch time. It reminded my the rush hour at London Paddington station, albeit with more smiles on the faces and people carrying food instead of suitcases. There were some other differences of course, (e.g. I did not see any trains here) but you get the idea. In short, it was very busy. We nevertheless ordered some take-aways and prepared for the wait. The truth is, though, we were barely given a chance to wait and two boxes were hastily handed over the heads of customers waiting to be seated. Wow! First points for Sotto Sopra.

Sotto Sopra during lunch time

We joined a group of our colleagues at a nearby table, and opened the boxes. My next impression: WOW (again)! More points for Sotto Sopra! The pizzas (Parma for me and Tricolore for Nigel) looked amazing. One could already see this is a fair deal with no dodgy savings of ingredients ("let's put just 4 slices of ham, they will not notice, muhehehe!!!"). As for my gusto, the pizza was absolutely perfectly baked, with the right amount of crispiness (still soft enough to bend under the load, but already a tad crunchy at the crust), at the same time far from dry, with ideal blend of tastes leaving one saying "mmm" with every slice. And as one of few pizzas I've ever had, this one was actually large enough to leave me without a hungry feeling. With the price of around 8 euros, this was simply a six out of five experience.

Parma

With the French and Swedish colleagues

Tricolore

I was pondering then, if this could rank at the top of my pizza hunt list. And I think the answer is yes - we have a new winner, moving the current champion from Real Italian Pizza company down to the second place. You see, at this level it comes down to the details - the RICP pizzas are basically just as good and are very, very similar to what is baked in Sotto Sopra. Both are kinds of real Italian pizzas after all. However, Sotto Sopra had the home advantage, and I thus believe it was thanks to the quality of the ingredients that this pizza takes the leading position. King's not dead, but long live the king!

We continued the day with the meeting on our Eurostat project and later reunited for another dinner out, this time in the very city centre. I came a bit sooner to book a table at a recommended restaurant, got our of the metro station and spent the first obligatory moments being mind blown by the views at Milan's astounding architecture. But another mind-blowing moment was just round the corner - a few metres away, there was a group of people listening to three buskers. I joined in and stayed jaw-dropped for about 10 minutes. I have seen quite a few buskers in my life, as I busk myself. They are often quite good, sometimes great and in rare cases exceptional. These guys definitely fell in that last bucket, causing goose-bumps all over my skin and making me short of 5 euros, a well deserved tip. Although this video I took hardly captures the goose-bump moment to the full extent, it can at least give an idea of how good they were.

Soon I met the rest of the group and we strolled around somewhat aimlessly, deciding the journey one step at a time. At one point, we found ourselves in the middle of the square with a super-fancy fashion shop in every corner - Prada, Versace etc, you get the idea - stores where a pre-chewed bubble gum costs 499€. We wanted to take a look inside, with the idea of assuming a nonchalant face expression of the millionaires, possibly that of "hah, only 3799 euros? They must be kidding me!" type of people. However, either something has betrayed us, or they really were closing the stores at 7:23pm, since the security at the entrance just stuck their hand forward in single rejecting motion, unknowingly causing the company to miss its biggest business of the year.

We followed with a dinner at Di Genarro, a restaurant in the immediate city centre. Here I opted for Risotto Milanese, thinking I should perhaps try something "local", just like Chris who went for Marinara with French fries :P (Ok, to be fair, Chris was trying out a vegan diet, and I must say I admired him for his strong will in face of all the temptation of Italian cuisine) . However, my choice  turned out a bit of a mistake as the risotto was quite underwhelming and I felt like giving away 10 euros for a small bowl of rice. At least they had the Czech beer Plzen, although at 6.5 euros this was overpriced too.

Monzese pizza

I made up the experience the following day at lunch, when we aimed again for Sotto Sopra and again for the take away pizza, this time recruiting a bigger army of pizza co-hunters among our colleagues (although I am not sure they were aware that they were "hunting for pizzas"). For me it was a sort of a final check - if this is equally good as the day before, Sotto Sopra secures its position at the top of the pizza hunt chart. If not, it may still stay there, albeit it may be more unstable in face of future revolutions, if that makes sense (or even if not).

This time I chose something quite random, a pizza Monzese with Italian sausage, sweet peppers and cheese Scarmoza. But just like the day before, the experience was the same, if not better. Great balance of tastes on a well baked crust, the most satisfying pizza I could recall. Sotto Sopra thus  established its position at the top of the pizza hunt chart and like few other restaurants scored top points three times in a row. And that is definitely not a coincidence.

With Nigel, German and French colleagues

But it was time to go home now and we made it to the airport without much time to spare. Italy is a wonderful destination and while I understand that a tourist point of view is surely different from how the locals living there see it, I cannot help but wonder if life is just better in Italy. For it is not just the best pizzas in the world - people seem expressive, yet nice, the weather is generally beautiful, there's miles of coastline and as the plane took off, taking a slightly different direction than usual due to a strike of French pilots, I had one final jaw-dropping experience, absorbing the hundreds of snow-covered peaks of Dolomites. Hm.

Yep, will be back.

Dough - 10
Ingredients - 10
Sauce - 9
Atmosphere - 10
Service - 9 (during dinner, the other two were take-aways)

Trattoria Toscana Il Cerchio (Milan, Italy)

Italy. Bella Tutti Grande Ferro!

This random gibberish ending with (almost) my name (meaning steel in Italian, I am proud to say) is just one reason I fell in love with this country during a vacation here in September 2017. Therefore, when a chance came up to join my boss Nigel for a 3 day work meeting in Milan, I did not have to think twice. There's work to do! And pizzas to eat! (Martin would be sad there's no volcanoes, so he went to Naples instead. I would like to now officially assure everyone, that we, civil servants, do not go on work trips because of our hobbies and interests. At least, not only because of them. Therefore do not worry, the country is in good hands).

The journey there went relatively smoothly, despite starting off with a late March repeat of a "heavy snow" in Wales, which just a couple weeks earlier prompted panic buying of all available bread and milk in the supermarkets and a complete shutdown of the country. Crazy people! Hah! Can they not survive a day without food? Ts ts.. I am very different, and this is why I packed up for the journey only 4 wraps, 2 breads, a soup with more bread, fruits and a box of cakes.

Nevertheless, when we arrived to Milan on Monday evening, the plan was to drop the stuff in the room and hit the city hard. That is, to go for a pizza. My secret intentions to combine the work trip with a new entry in the pizza hunt blog were soon to be dramatically uncovered. (Ok, maybe not so dramatically, but the word just fits there)

The Trattoria Toscana Il Cerchio was just round the corner and was one of the few above 4/5 stars rated placed around the central station. Considering this is a very touristy area full of hotels and tourists used to eating burgers in MacDonnalds, we were positively surprised by entering a relatively cozy interior with a touch of family atmosphere and a sign "1969" proudly displayed on the wall, which was definitely not just a reference to Bryan Adams' epic song or the year of invasion of Soviets to Czechoslovakia! It just seems like Italy still values the tradition and uniqueness of the restaurants, in contrast to clear UK's dominance of franchised chains and preference of burger uniformity.

We got quickly seated, provided with menus and made up our minds. Nigel went for Quatro staggioni and I chose just a pure Marinara, as for some weird unknown reason, I was not that hungry.

The pizzas came just a few minutes later, and we had barely time to explore the funny translations of the menu in "English" (for example, we liked "four chinds of cheese") or the Angelo Poretti beer (for example, we liked it). So - how were they?

Definitely up to expectations! These were proper size, the-right-amount-of-time baked pies that came unsliced. The main highlight of my pizza was the sauce. Well, there's not much more on Marinara, but that's why you should get one - it makes you enjoy the unique dough + sauce combo, the two main ingredients of a perfect pizza. All the other ingredients can definitely add up to the experience, but also act covering up the true facts, almost like Soviets invading Czechoslovakia saying "this is to protect you folks!". Let me stop talking about Soviets invasion though, I am not sure why I do this.

The sauce was simply very enjoyable, sweet, plentiful and where it combined with some saltier mixture and oregano, it was a pure treat! Nigel was also satisfied with the Quatro Staggioni, which came typically divided in four regions of olives, mushrooms, ham and artichokes, as if whispering "pssst, enjoy the ingredients, one by one!"

We finished them all, wetted the throats with the rest of the beer and set off back to the hotel. All in all, Toscana Il Cerchio is a either a highlight in the area, or Italian cuisine is simply damn good everywhere. Come to think of it, both statements are probably true.

But there was more to come, because as I said, this was just the first day in Milan ... : -) . 

Dough - 8
Ingredients - (none)
Sauce - 9
Atmosphere - 8
Service - 8

PS: Oh yes, I should probably include the picture of snow in Wales! Did you know this snow storm was called "Beast from the East" and was said to be sent here by Putin, president of Russia, almost like the tanks sent to Czechoslovakia during the Soviet inv... Damn! Again! No more talk of Soviets invasions!