Cotechino

I wrote about lentils and cotechino here a little while back. Well, the other day we had some, only this time the cotechino was not your usual stuff, but Cotechino Riserva.  And, it has to be said that this cotechino was possibly the best I have ever had.  It was not at all fatty, which was odd, in a nice way, because cotechino often is, and the flavour was wonderful, maybe because some red wine had been added.

The producer of this ‘riserva’ quality cotechino was a company known as Villani Spa, only I cannot find their cotechino on the Web, at least not under the name Villani.  Apparently Villani took over another similar company called Maletti (a site complete with Italian music, I discovered after nearly blasting my other half and son out of bed…), and Maletti produces ‘ceste’ – hampers, which include Maletti cotechino.  I assume that Maletti cotechino is not much more than a re Villani cotechino, so it should be good – really good if it has the words ‘riserva’ written upon the box somewhere.

If you have never tried cotechino before try it, if you have had it before, try some of the better quality producers – I think you really do get what you pay for.

Paying by credit card? – Watch out!

I’d noticed this the other week in the local supermarket.  There was a notice saying that payment by credit card would only be accepted upon presentation of valid ID.  This is not a great problem for most Italians who never leave home without the ‘Carta d’Identitia’, but for anyone who is not from the Bel Paese, it could be.  Today I bought a new pair of shoes and was asked for ID because I wanted to pay by credit card, and being good ID card carrier, this was no problem for me.

However, if you happen to find yourself in Milan for whatever reason and you want to splash out a bit, and pay with plastic, make sure you have some form of ID with you.  A passport would be ideal, or otherwise a driving licence with a photo on it should be OK.  Knowing this may save you some slight embarrassment, I hope.

Apparently the banks here have recently advised anywhere that accepts credit cards to request ID, presumably to curb rising incidences of credit card fraud.  I would imagine that this has become a requirement throughout Italy too.

Digital photography

My reawakened interest in photography has been leading me on some merry voyages of discovery around the wonderful world wide web, I can tell you. The standard of image creation is pretty stunning too. I happened along this site: dpchallenge.com, which I love. It also gives you some great information as to what your chosen model of digicam is able to do. Once you have a nice new digicam in your hot little hands, you can revisit the site to take up one of their challenges and put your photographic talent to the test, if you really do get a lot out of being a happy snapper, that is. The standard of work, which you will see if you dig into the members portfolios, is, generally, highly impressive. Well, they look darn good to little old me. Sort of fires up those creative juices. In fact I’ve found myself wandering down the street eyeing up things that would make potentially good images. I have already spotted several interesting scenes, which is making me even more keen to get my grubby little ‘ands on a ‘real’ camera.

It would be true to say that the advent of powerful pcs plus comprehensive image manipulation applications has allowed people to reach a level of creativity that back in the days of film could only really have been dreamt about.

Yes, good digital cameras are still quite expensive, but you seem to be able to get an awful lot more satisfaction out of photography as a result. Boy, am I itching to start a snappin’. This interest could become an obsession. Hope so.

PS Check out the Icelandic photographers on dpchallenge – they seem to be able to afford professional gear, and they certainly know how to put it to good use – here’s the work of one such snapper from the land of natual hot water.

What is going on?

It was freezing cold last night, today seemed like May.  It reached over 25°C in Turin today.  I guess winter has come and gone, but then it might be back again before deciding not to return once more.  The weather is weird.

In the dog house

Yep, I got myself in trouble last night. I was not a popular bunny. Oh no. My goose was well and truly cooked. My crime? Well, I roasted a chicken. I thought my other half may appreciate a nice bit of roast chicken seeing as we have often bought pollo arrosto from shops in the past and I, mistakenly, believed that pollo arrosto was roast chicken. It tasted like it, but the only acceptable way to roast (I think ‘roast’ is the correct expression…) a chicken is to cook it on a spit in a suitably equipped oven, I discovered. The roast chicken odour which permeated our flat did not go down at all well, especially when I decided to boil the carcass in order to make some yummy chicken stock.

I can see it now. Divorce courts:

Judge: Next case!.

Clerk: Mrs M v Mr R. M’lud.

Judge: What are the grounds for this divorce?

Clerk: Roast chicken.

Judge, after falling about in fits of laughter: Roast chicken! Tell the parties to get stuffed. Next case!

Oh, and the chicken tasted great! However, for the sake of maintaining domestic harmony I shall refrain from roasting anything in the future, for fear of getting a roasting.

Winter, maybe

In Genova, where I was at the weekend, the temperature was around 16°C.  Not bad for the bleak mid-winter.  Even in Milan we had around 10°C, which is unseasonably warm for the time of year.

Today in Milan, on the other hand, it is about 5°C and grey.  It almost feels cold enough to be winter.

The other day I was out with some friends, a rare offspring free evening, and the subject of ever warmer climates came up.  One of my friends suggested that buying up properties in Scotland may not be such a bad idea, as within 50 years or so, Scotland may be considered the new Mediterranean.  What a thought! Italy will quite possibly become as hot as the Sahara, he seemed to think.   In which case the only skiing anyone will be doing in Europe will be on water.

Yes, I’m going through an environmentally conscious phase at the moment, as you may have noticed….