Why is it that the world’s best food is cooked inside a truck or van? It is the fact that true competition at a small level produces better products? The big boys, after all, eliminate competition economically, by buying up the competition, or out-advertising them (not with facts, but with simple math: bigger boobs = greater sales).
When I’m in California I can hardly resist the urge to eat at a “taco truck”. It’s where you get real Mexican grub. The tacos can hardly be compared to the bland, one size fits all slop served by the chains.
In Florence, I can always find the fortitude to forgo the Renaissance in favor of the Lampredotto stands that dot the landscape. Yes, Lampredotto is one of the more refined stomachs of the cow, the last one, or fourth on the butcher chart. You cook it slowly. It softens to a sensuous silkiness. You spike it up with green sauce.
I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the “Lampredotto stand in Florence’s Borgo San Frediano, as our panini were being made.
This is the internet age, and now it’s easier than ever to find these stands because of the tireless work of folks like Dan Woodford, who has mapped Florence’s lampredotto and trippa stands