Geriatric Delicacies: Searching for Love in a City of Inox

In Milan, my heart is constantly caught between a sleek, stainless steel wine bar and a bowl of risotto so yellow it could stop traffic.

One Monday in December, I was invited to a press dinner at Trattoria Masuelli (Viale Umbria, 80). It is a sanctuary of the old guard, a place where the risotto alla milanese con ossobuco is a religious experience and the mondeghili meatballs are practically sacred. Nothing beats a classic Milanese dinner in the dead of winter. When the city turns grey, we are the undisputed champions of comfort: porcini saltati, a thick costoletta (a huge fried veal cutlet); the kind of warmth you only find at institutions like La Milanese (Via Santa Marta, 11), La Latteria (Via S. Marco, 24), Mirta (Piazza S. Materno, 12), La Pesa dal 1902 (Via Giovanni Fantoni, 26), or Al Garghet (Via Selvanesco, 36).