The kitchen is not merely Italian, it is
wholly Tuscan, and the Tuscan kitchen in skilful hands appears to
content both the gourmet and the gourmand. Affairs once brought a
distinguished English gourmet on a brief visit to Leghorn, and accident
(for its fame had not preceded him) took him to the Giappone. Instead of
staying three days, he stayed three weeks, so that he might ring all the
changes of that wonderful menu, and he has since publicly declared that
the kitchen of the Giappone is one of the finest in Europe. The English
visitor to Leghorn is a rarity, but all famous Italians have at some
time or other eaten at the Giappone--Crispi, Zanardelli, Cavallotti,
Benedetto Brin, Puccini, Mascagni, to mention only a few among many. The
proprietor is the Cav. Pasquale Cianfanelli, known even on the London
market for the excellence of his Tuscan wines.
The full Tuscan dinner does not follow in the order of fish, entree,
roast, _piece de resistance_, and game, but of boiled (_lesso_), fried
(_fritto_), stewed (_umido_) and roast (_arrosto_). The boiled may be
beef; the fried, sweetbread; the stewed, fish; the roast, pigeon; but
this order is always maintained, and the stranger's disappointment at
there being no fish after the soup has only been equalled by his
astonishment when it turns up in the fourth place.
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