Good Weekend, Bad Weekend

Ah, spring is in the air.  It’s almost feeling balmy in Milan at the moment, as winter starts to drift definitively away.

The 442 Pub, Milan

And I wish the problems with my hosting service would drift away definitively too. I did not manage to post anything to this blog at the weekend.  Partially because of family stuff, and partially because my dear old hosting company has been having some major problems, which meant visitors would have been greeted with a cold message saying something about the server, which many would not have understood anyway.

For the moment, even if the server problems still have not been resolved, it looks as though I can write, though for how long, I have no idea.  Actually, I have no idea whether anyone will even see this post, but I’ll write it anyway, on the off-chance that someone does.  And I have not written about Milan’s  good old 442 pub in a while either. … Continue Reading

News from the Sausage front

Well, I don’t want to give too much away, but there has been some movement on the banger front. Some of these ‘ere sizzlers found their way down to deepest darkest southern Italy, and went down well. Interesting. My thanks go to my sausage partner, Gaetano Salvo for his efforts on this. He has been spreading the word and has not done at all badly. Indeed, thanks in the main to Gaetano, I may have a little meeting this week in this neck of the boschi (boschi = ‘woods’ in Italian) to talk about sausagey stuff.

This thing keeps banging on. Ho ho ho (no offence intended to American women intended – this ‘ho ho ho’ is the age old traditional Father Christmas version, not the more modern American slang version with an offensive meaning, and which, it has to be said, is not oft repeated three times. At least I don’t imagine it is…).

Still busyish, but managed to find the time to brunch

Well, I managed to pay my taxes. The on-line system finally got itself together and let me make my advance donation to the Italian government. At least I won’t have to pay any fine. Now all I need is for someone to get round to paying me. Oh well, such is self-employed life.

At least last weekend I managed to get (lots of ‘gets’ in this post…) on down to the 442 for a full English brunch last Saturday, and it was good. I really had forgotten just how much I missed this tasty plate of unhealthy goodness.

On Sunday we went out with a group of our son’s school friends’ parents, and assorted kids for, wait for it. Yep, another ‘brunch’, except this time the brunch in question was nothing like the English breakfast, nor was it one of these imitation American brunches either. It was more like a buffet, in fact it was a buffet. Although only a brunch by name, it was not at all bad, but at €22 a head for growed-ups and €12 per little one, it was not exactly cheap.

The venue was the UTZ (info in Italian) restaurant in Via Solferino, which is slap bang in the middle of the posh, and pricey, part of Milan. Despite the highish price, I’d still recommend checking out this brunchy sort of meal. The buffet was excellent, and worthy of particular note was the asparagus mousse I tried, which was delicious. The best, as they say, was yet to come, for there was also a dessert buffet, and boy was it good. About ten different puddings to tuck into, and this being a buffet, it was OK to go for seconds, which I did. Diet on hold. Well, it was the weekend.

If you do decide to wander on over there, then try to book a table downstairs. This area is very attractive, it being a converted cellar, and you will be a couple of steps away from the buffets. This means that you can stuff yourself to your heart’s content. Oh, and there is also an area where you can leave the little ones, who will be looked after and kept occupied, thus enabling mum and dad to have a moment’s peace. In all, not a bad place.

Other things to report? Not really, apart from the continuing sausage saga. I now appear to have a regular Wednesday afternoon appointment to supervise sausage production, although I don’t really think I need to be there. However, I have noticed that the, very nice, chap who has been assigned to banger making has a tendency to make the said sausages a little bit on the long side, so my presence is required to curb his enthusiasm. I think he thinks he’s making Italian bangers, which are a little longer than the British variety. I dare say I shall manage to overcome this slight hiccup.

And guess what everyone is going to get for Christmas from me? Yep, that’s right, a kilo or so of finest English-style bangers! Although the portions of sausages will be presented in a festive fashion – read mini-hamper. Can’t wait to see the reactions.

Exclusive! Full English Breakfast in Milan, Italy!

Yes, it’s finally here! As you can see from the (not wonderful) camera phone shot I took this very evening, the full English breakfast down at the 442 pub here in wet old Milan is about to go live!

Tomorrow, from midday on, this scrumptious brekkie will be ready to be ordered and eaten. And you can pick up a plate of these goodies from noon until two in the morning on both Saturday, tomorrow and Sunday. This probably means that this will be the longest English style breakfast ever! And I will be down there with my wee one, and we shall be tucking in.

Tonight’s trial run was tried and tasted by Chris, all round good bloke, and English 442 regular. His verdict: ‘It’s the best full English breakfast I’ve had outside the UK!‘ – High praise indeed and I agreed with him. Wonderful!

Finally an ex-pat can find a decent breakfast that is a wee bit more substantial, and enticing, than the cappuccino and cake that is the usual offering here. Cholesterol overload, here I come.

The cost of this extravaganza? A mere 10 Euros, and this special offer price, includes coffee, tea, and toast. After Xmas you will still get the same, but the price will be 12 Euros. Still not an exaggeration when you consider that brunches in Milan can cost from 16 Euros up.

And you can blame me for the sausages. Check them out, I don’t think you will regret it.

Be there, or be hungry!

Here’s to the 442 and extended British Breakfast euphoria!

Light Canon

Nope, that’s is not a miss-spelling, ‘Canon’ refers to my Canon 400d, which now sports a heavyweight, in all senses, Metz 58 AF-1 flash unit, more about the ‘light’ adjective later on. I drooled over this lovely piece of kit some months past, and now I’ve managed to get my hot little hands on one. Yum, yum.

Some of my initial efforts with this piece of kit can be seen in the sausage posts, especially the photos of sausage making and the sausage tasting evening at my favourite local, the 442, here in Milan.

I have never had a good quality flash unit before, and so I cannot really compare the Metz 58 to anything. First impressions were positive, the build quality feels fine. It does not have a metal hot-shoe connector, but the plastic one feels good and sturdy, however, from what I’ve read, picking your camera up by the flash unit is not a great thing to do.

The controls, which I had read about, are indeed not all that intuitive and getting to the settings tends to involve quite a few button presses, but with more use and familiarity, I imagine that operating the thing will become quite fast. There are only four buttons, which, from a psychological viewpoint, means that this complex unit does not totally overwhelm. Apparently, the Canon high-end models are slightly on the fiddly side to use too. I guess at the end of the day, using these things comes down to whether you prefer Canon fiddly to Metz fiddly.

This nice Metz unit (I was about to write ‘nice little unit’ but it certainly is not little!), comes with a built in diffuser and a little white pull-out card for bouncing flash. In fact, you can also point the flash just about anywhere you like, because the head swivels round and moves up and down. This means that you can bounce the flash from wherever you think will make your photo look better, and gives you plenty of room for creativity. … Continue Reading

Sausage evening shots

It was busy:

A photo of Chris, a regular, at the 442, with a friend called Valentina:

Yours truly with Chris, although I have to admit that he looks happier to be in Valentina’s company. Can’t imagine why:

The lovely Martina, just one of the charming young ladies who work at the 442. My son thinks Martina is pretty cool, and she very kindly looked after Marty while his dad was talking bangers:

Yep, it was a fun evening.

Good place, good people, good beer, and bangers. What more could an ex-pat in Italy wish for?

Guess where I’ll be this evening? … Continue Reading