Food time!

January 5, 2005 · Filed Under Italian Food · Comment

Lunchtime, baby is sleeping - dozed off while we were searching for x-ray copies and doing a bit of shopping. Well, this is Italy, so what am I having? You guessed it . Pasta! This pasta is called ‘radiatori’ radiators! They go well with the duck ragu which I mixed in with the pasta - simple quick and good - like most Italian food.

I got some of my favourite Fontina cheese from the Val D’Osta region too. Very good, but not the best I’ve tasted. That comes from a tiny little general store near Pont Ivrea which is in the countryside near Savona, Genova coastline, for those of you not familiar with Italy. This little shop does the best Fontina cheese I have ever tasted. Rich, creamy and very morish. No where here in Milan, at last within striking distance of the house, does anything like it, which is a shame.

Just for a change, I bought some ‘Monte 27′ cheese to try too. Good, hard, mature cheese, but not as nice as Fontina. Going to wash the pasta down with a little Fetzer Zinfandel red, great Californian wine! Why Californian wine in a place which is famous for wine, I can hear you shout? Simple, I have been overwhelmed with the choice of wine here, some of it is OK, some good and some wonderful, but I can never remember the names. I take photos of wine bottle labels with the camera on my mobile phone to help me remember the wines.

Food here in Italy is a national passion and the choice is bewildering! Every town and region has its own speciality and often these local dishes are unknown to other Italians. Try asking a person from Bari what Cima is and see what happens! A lot of the dishes are from peasant origins, basic food, simply cooked and often delicious. At other times you may be surprised to discover what you are eating. Anyone tried Donkey? I have and its OK, felt sorry for the donkey. However, I’m no stranger to strange food, having shot and eaten a poor little grey squirrel many years back in the UK. It was OK too, but not as good as horse, which is almost as good as ostrich, which I know is not Italian, but you can get it here too.

I only miss a few things from the English cuisine - sausages, apple crumble(I can do that here anyway - although finding the right apples can be a chore) and a good traditional English breakfast with eggs, bacon mushrooms, baked beans, fried bread and sausages and, er, nothing else. The problem with all this good Italian food is that I can see the results of it all on my waistline, I don’t cycle anymore and the results are no showing. Still, you only live once, or so I hear.

Of course, after a hearty meal here you can have a little grappa to wash it all down - mainly in the evenings and during the winter.

I remember the first time I came across grappa, the smell made me feel a little sick and then the stuff burnt itself down to my stomach. I love grappa now and if you find the right grappa it is very good indeed. Of course before moving on to the grappa, most Italians will have a coffee, which is not at all bad, although the stuff you get in bars is usually much better than the stuff you can make at home. I still drink Nescafé, because I like along drink, but Nescafé is a bit of a let down after some real Italian coffee.

An Irish friend of mine rates Swedish coffee, or rather the Swedish way of making coffee, very highly, but I fear he may be a little biased seeing as his woman hails from Sweden.

One thing to avoid is drinking a cappucino after having a meal, this does not do your digestion any good according to Italian folklore. Cappucino is reserved for breakfast at the bar, although you will find some Italians having a crafty cup of cappucino in the mid afternoon. Long after lunch, of course, now that all the food has been properly digested. I do still like a cup of tea in the mornings and but Italian teabags are a little weak. A friend from the UK brought me masses of Tetley teabags when she came to visit. They lasted for ages and when they ran out I panicked a little, until I found a Chinese supermarket which does PG Tips tea.

If you are a foodie, you will simply adore Italian food. You can spend a lifetime discovering it. Honestly!

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Tags: Cheese, Culture, delicious, drink, good, grappa, Italia, Italian, Italian food, Italian Wine, Italy, Milan, wonderful

Italy - The Place

January 5, 2005 · Filed Under Culture · Comment

Some comments and observations on the country

Beautiful - is the only word to describe the country - well I could apply this word the the places I've been lucky enough to have seen. Although I been here quite a long time now, I've not seen as much as there is to see, but those places which I have visited have left a lasting impression on me. Venice, world famous, I know, but it has to be one of the most intriguing places I have ever seen. Only a few places in the world use rivers as roads and don't have any cars. The atmosphere is magical. My first visit to Venice was in April, but it was I wonderful cool sunny day and the place was already full of tantalised tourists. There was a veritable river of people heading for St Marks - the signs were not too clear, but they weren't important, you just let yourself be carried by the largest wave of people and in the end you arrived right in one of the most famous and stunning piazzas in Italy or maybe even the world. But to discover the real Venice you need to leave the flow and head off down some insignificant little alley. Sometimes I ended up finding my way blocked by some canal, other times I came across some tiny little square - untouched since it was first constructed many moons ago -but not ruined, unkempt as is the Italian way, but living breathing and showing every sign of daily life. Enough of Venice, loads has been written about the city over the years and there are plenty of articles and books about the place, however no text can ever replace actually being there. Go there and if old interesting places are your thing, you will love it.

Other cities I have seen, which are worth going to are Bergamo, more in a moment about this jewel, Verona and Florence. What, I hear you protest, no mention of Rome or Naples? Well, Rome did not impress me that much, it has some wonderful places and things to see, but it did not leave me with a lasting impression. Maybe I should go back and see if I still feel the same way. Naples, well, nothing special visually, just a big bustling city with mad drivers. I spent my time worrying about being mown down or robbed. Neither of these things occurred, I'm happy to say, but these worries really did destroy much of my interest.

Anyway, more of this later, another day babysitting and baby wants me to watch 'Thomas the Tank Engine' and we have to go out.

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