As a founding member of the SlowFood movement, surely not accidentally located right next door to the SlowFood offices in a central pedestrian area of Bra, the Osteria Boccondivino celebrates the principles that have made SlowFood so successful - authentic regional food made from local produce, supporting traditional ingredients. The restaurant is linked to the Osteria dell'Arco in Alba and if you have been there before you will notice right away - the ambient is rather similar and the hundreds of wine bottles in the glass front wine cooler are reminiscent of similar views in Alba. The latest when you get to the Panna Cotta, you will recognise that the same recipe has been used here (it's rather unique with its unusually creamy texture, copied by myself by adding a big helping of Mascarpone after the cooking process... - not sure whether that's what they do here, but it leads to similar results). This was our last culinary stop before going back home today and you could tell that appetites had been somewhat quenched by now. Only two bottles of wine (between four of us - I was driving) felt almost anticlimactic... We also were less experimental in our choices and perhaps everyone just went for their favourites instead - and here they are:
- Lardo, Salsiccia di Bra e Carne Cruda, lard, raw sausage from Bra and the hand-cut raw veal, all at top quality and pretty much as good as they get.
- Uovo in cocotte con Tartufo Bianco d'Alba - a raw egg cooked in cream and topped off with a crust of parmiggiano and freshly shaved truffles; stay away if you can't deal with runny eggs, otherwise this is probably the best way to enjoy white truffles.
- Agnolotti "al plin", the traditional Piemontese mini-ravioli, stuffed with veal, rice and cabbage, and served with butter and fresh rosemary; again top-notch, difficult to make this much better.
- Coniglio "Grigio di Carmagnola" all'arneis - a good example for the work SlowFood does, this grey rabbit is a local variant that was about to disappear and was reinvigorated by SlowFood. Cooked in Arneis (a local white wine), simple and good.
- Faraona al rosmarino con Tartufo Bianco d'Alba - oven roasted Perlhuhn topped with black truffles, great autumn-earthy aromas, very tender meat, great dish.
- Tre sorbetti di frutta - sherbet made from lemons, grapefruit and tangerines, very refreshing with clean fresh fruity tastes.
- Torta di nocciole con zabaglione, hazelnut cake (famously made without any flour) with (cold) Marsala cream, very traditional, very rich!
Prices are reasonable but our bill was slightly misleading; with a total of 8 truffle dishes being ordered (plus all the other stuff, some of which listed above) but only two bottles of rather basic wines and a round of Passito (sweet dessert wine) we ran up a total of 365 Euros. Very friendly and competent service and a nice atmosphere in combination with the flawless food make this a safe bet and a place to come back to, just as it's sister-place in Alba.
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