Over the years, the Missus and I have become advocates of small group or private traditional food tours with locals. Especially in places that have so much to offer like Emilia – Romana or places like Genoa; where we weren't too familiar with the traditional cuisine. And I thought since we basically spending one full day in the city, we might enjoy walking the streets and tasting traditional cuisine. After doing a bit of research; I settled on Do Eat Better Experience's Traditional Genoa Food Tour.
We met at Vascello Neptune, a replica of a 17th century Galleon that was actually created for the movie Pirates.
Located at the Old Port, Porto Antico, it was just two blocks away from our hotel.
It was a small group; just 8 of us. Funny thing, 4 of the folks were actually on a cruise that stopped in Genoa for a day.
We strolled past the Palazzo San Giorgio, which I mentioned in an earlier post.
And were off to "graze"….
It was a drizzly day, but not too cold.
The Missus and I hadn't really heard a lot about Genoa and were quite taken by all the ornate sculptures and monuments, like this one of the Virgin Mary in the cornerstone of a building.
Our first stop was a little shop to try traditional Focaccia Genovese.
The focaccia cannot be thicker than 2 centimeters and it is lightly coated with Ligurian Olive Oil. The crust is crisp, the interior very light, and it is a staple of the typical Genovese diet.
Focaccia e Dintorni
Via di Canneto Il Curto 54
Genova, Italy
The next stop was this little shop.
That's our guide Marina above. The place smelled heavenly!
Here we got to try Farinata which the locals call Fainá, a flat bread made of chickpea flour, quite nutty with the olive oil flavor coming thru. And Focaccia al Formaggio (aka Focaccia di Recco) which is two thin layers of slightly flaky dough with Stracchino Cheese in the middle. The Village of Recco is most famously known for making this layered focaccia.
Le Delizie dell'Amico
Via di Canneto Il Lungo 31r
Genova, Italy
We passed some interesting looking buildings and churches as we made our north to our next stop.
Which was this restaurant.
Here we had Pesto Lasagne and Minestrone alla Genovese.
The lasagne was quite rich and I was told that it is typical to use a bechamel in this version. The minestrone was quite hearty. Both were bursting with peppery Ligurian pesto flavor.
Ristorante Zimino
Vico delle Scuole Pie 4
Genova, Italy
By this time, it became quite obvious that we needed a short break so we strolled over to bustling Piazza San Lorenzo.
And were given some time to explore the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo (Genoa Cathedral).
Apparently, there has been a church here since the 5th or 6th century. This version was first completed in the 11th century.
The altar is quite stunning and there's a ton to see here, but we only had 30 minutes, so we just wandered around.
This is the tomb of Ibleto_Fieschi.
There are two lion sculptures at the entrance to the Cathedral. The one to the left is famous for looking very sad.
From here we headed more inland, to the East.
We actually passed Christopher Columbus's House, but that photo didn't turn out.
And then we got to our next stop.
Where we had a wine tasting…..
And more wonderful focaccia…..
Topped with a variety of items; pesto (of course), local cheese, salumi……
Man, I was stuffed!
Locanda Tortuga
Via di Ravecca 13r
Genova, Italy
At this point, the folks on the cruise had to head back, and we bade them farewell.
There was just one more stop. Down a quiet alleyway was this chocolate shop.
Which has been around since 1866!
We went to the gelato portion. Then over at the chocolate shop, the Missus stocked up a bit.
Cioccolateria Romeo Viganotti
Vico dei Castagna 14R
Genova, Italy
From here, we strolled back to the Porta Soprana, one of the two surviving ancient gates of the Walls of Genoa.
Where Marina bade us farewell and gave us instructions on how to get back to Porto Antico….which was straight down the street!
Overall, we enjoyed this tour, it was fun tasting and getting a better understanding of Genovese Cuisine.
But now it was time for a nap!
The portion of rice was quite large there was corn and edamame scattered about the hot plate. The beef, supposedly four ounces was topped with a small scoop of butter, which I thought wasn’t necessary.
This was interesting. The katsu had been sliced lengthwise and were as long as my fork. Rather unwieldy to eat.
The katsu sauce was very "local", being ketchup based, tangy and perhaps on the sweeter side of the scale. The mac salad was quite "local" tasting as well, having a touch of vinegar and some shredded carrots. The macaroni was nicely cooked, but unevenly coated. This was probably my favorite item on the plate.
One big minus was no mac salad, which I kinda liked on my previous visit. One big plus; they have Tabasco! Tabasco sauce has been the condiment I've used for loco mocos since small kid time!
First thing I noticed was how foamy the broth was, like it was kept at a rolling boil instead of a simmer. It was also on the thin side and seemed more like a thickened, slightly bitter, shoyu based broth. Like the tonkotsu I had here before, it also had a slight "metallic" tinge to it.
The chashu was a bit on the chewy side and lightly flavored, but not bad. The noodles were actually cooked decently and had a nice "springy pull" to them.
The pseudo tonkotsu bowl arrived seaming hot. There were some…well, interesting things about this bowl. My least favorite was the "impossible chicken karaage". It seemed to be sort of soybean based; but the texture was not to my liking; it was spongy and super chewy…think thick nylon sponge and had no flavor.
Not quite sure what to do with the slice of tomato? How much acidity, sweetness, will one slice of tomato provide for a bowl of ramen? The cabbage added a slight sweet-bitterness and was blanched. The corn also added some nice textural contrast and sweetness to the bowl.
The eggs were again nice and runny; no oof flavors. The polenta cake nice and crisp, good mild corn flavor. The carnitas a bit on the mild side in terms of flavor and also slightly stringy and dry, but not bad. The Mozzarella was fine, though the tomato added some good acidity to the dish. The "salsa" was also on the milder side in terms of spice and acidity. Still, this was not bad.
And we learned something from our meals with JJ. There's a definite difference in "Dog Friendly" versus "Dogs Allowed". This was simply dogs allowed. They are just ignored by the staff. Perfectly fine with us. It's been interesting finding places to dine with JJ!
There were some things I quickly noticed. The liner was very wet, so I started turning over the XLB and guess what? Four of the six had wrappers on the bottom that were cracked and all the "soup" had leaked out. This will also tell you what I thought of the wrappers; too thick, brittle, lacking the slight delicate texture I enjoy. I'm truly not expected anything like I had at 
Looks like lunchwagon tonkatsu, eh? It had been over fried, the breading hard, as was the dried out pork. It could have used some flavor; you know, five spice, soy sauce, a good pre-breading marinade. If it was brined or marinated, I couldn't tell. 
The bread was very crusty…it was indeed quite fresh, though it didn’t hold up real well because there was a bit too much mayo. The menu said the banh mi has pate in it; but I could not find, nor taste any. There was a good amount of pork, in chunks, fairly chewy, but decently savory-sweet-salty.
I had noticed that it was toasted, which was a clue that the folks here weren’t using Shokupan, the classic Japanese Milk Bread; a must for a egg salad sando, which this was definitely not. I missed the light, fluffy texture and the slight sweetness that the proper bread brings to the sando.
