Not Nice

March 24, 2008 · Filed Under Milan - My Zone · 1 Comment

Yesterday I was out with our dog when I noticed another dog on the other side of the road. It was off its leash and appeared to have wondered into the road. The owners were a Chinese family, mother, father, and child in stroller. Unusual, I mused, you don’t see that many people of Chinese extraction with dogs.

Anyway, I continued, thinking for a moment that maybe a dog with a tendency to wander into the road should not be off its lead in a city. Oh well, it’s their dog, hopefully they know what they are doing, I hoped. Read more

Tags: accident, animals, car, cars, child, chinese, city, cost, dog, dogs, Italia, Italian, lead, problem, problems, sad, situation, town, vet, vets, white

Waste not, want not

January 5, 2008 · Filed Under Italian Food · 1 Comment

Yesterday I cooked up an improvised cacuicco, which, if you do not know, is an Italian fish soup. I’d had this soup several times, so I though I’d have a go at making it, in order to use up some seafood that had been left over from our New Year’s festivities.

I did not follow any particular recipe, although I had a quick look at one such recipe on the Internet, more or less to confirm how this soup is made. All I did was to pour a bottle of tomato pulp into a pan, add a little salt and pepper, a dash of garlic, a little chilli powder and then a glass of white wine. Then I just let the mix simmer for half an hour or so. Result? Very tasty, and even my Italian other half said it was ‘excellent’. Not bad for some improvisation.

Today, again in order to use up some of the left overs, my other half, following a recipe, created some salmon stuffed with cheese. It cooked in a jiffy, looked great, but, as I realised as soon as I put a piece into my mouth, the salmon had gone off. Just as well I managed to prevent other half from feeding our little one a nice chunk of rancid salmon.

Oh well, you win some, and you lose some. At least we tried to use up this goodies, without throwing them away.

And, this evening, I ran up some vin bruleè, which is the Italian version of mulled wine. I found an ‘Alpini’ vin bruleè recipe on the Internet (great source of genuine Italian recipes - especially if you can read Italian) , and had a go. Result? Highly drinkable, if a little sweet. Less demerara sugar would have made it more tangy, as would have a little more lemon. Still, it’s going down very well, and is just the thing to sort out my annoying little cold, I can tell you. At least that is what I’m telling myself….

Tags: Cheese, drink, internet, Italia, Italian, Italian Food, new year, tomato, white, Wine

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

January 3, 2008 · Filed Under Milan · Comment

As you may have guessed from the title, it is snowing here in wintry Milan. It’s not lying yet though, which is a shame, but hopefully when we awaken tomorrow, Milan will be all white and silent. I hope so.

Tags: Milan, snow, snowing, white, winter