In this neighborhood, Saturday is market day. A string of city blocks nearby is blocked off and filled to the brim with produce, fish, cheese, flowers, housewares, clothing… and people. It seems to be when everyone does their big marketing for the week, going home and filling their tiny fridges and cupboards with Italian veggies, [...]

Imagine making a cheesy pouch out of fresh mozzarella, then filling it with cream and mozzarella strands. That’s “Burrata“. “Burro” means “butter”, so it gives you an idea of the fatty, smooth deliciousness of this cheese! Burrata is a fist-sized, creamy cheese ball, and for those that don’t dare indulge themselves with a whole burrata, [...]

Fresh figs are in at the Saturday street market just a couple of blocks away, and they share the display with the magenta-splashed Borlotti bean pods! I bought some of both green figs and black, and enough borlottis to make a pot of something. (I also bought some picadilli tomatoes, slender green beans, pickled onions, [...]

Having spent the morning walking all over old-town Nice, on the jewel-toned Riviera coast of France, it was time to eat a bite… or maybe a hundred. Miriam and I passed many little cafés with people sitting in front of grand, black buckets of just-steamed mussels. It was an enticing choice that we didn’t resist. [...]

This is real Italian food. They’re not over here just eating pizza and spaghetti. And they’re NOT eating “Fettucine Alfredo”! (If you see it on a menu, it’s only there for the tourists.) The range of Italian food is so vast. It truly does change every hundred kilometers. And most of it is nothing like [...]

As it turned out just by chance, my dish of gelato was my nod to Italy. Today is June 2, a holiday celebrating the formation of the Republic of Italy in 1946. The Italian flag is referred to as the “Tricolore”, three colors. Whereas, in the U.S. we say “red, white and blue”, in Italy, [...]

Wandering the street market today, I saw this woman in white from head to toe, including white, fishnet gloves. She was beautiful! I tried to take some “stealth” photos, but kept getting just the back of her. So I moved to the other side of the seller’s booth and got this photo from in front [...]

Brrr! It’s been chilly in Milano much of the last week. For late May, temperatures in the low 50s are quite a surprise. I hadn’t expected it, so I didn’t even pack full length pants! Sitting here in my house trying to get my work done, my fingers were cold, my toes were cold, my [...]

On Saturday, three blocks from my house, is the weekly street market selling fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, cheeses, olives, preserved foods, household sundries and clothing. It’s a hub-bub of people buying their provisions for the week. You have to know “the system” for shopping there. Decide what you want, then go stand in line at [...]

WHERE are these being grown right now?! The tomatoes are like sugar candy and the nespole are exotic after apples and pears alone. And they’re so beautiful together! The food alone could keep me here…

First day in town required some grocery shopping. A few things to eat (favorites I’ve missed), and a few things for the house. Starting from the back, left to right: Cherry tomatoes – sugar sweet and full of flavor. Who needs candy? Fresh Mozzarella di Bufala – the real thing Whole milk for my coffee [...]

Today, under sunny, blue skies, 34 foragers showed up at Seahurst Beach for the Urban Foraging Walk organized by Sustainable Burien. We browsed for edibles between the shore and the woods with master forager, Melany Vorass and hadn’t gone even two feet before the first few edible “weeds” presented themselves for our sampling: horsetail, salmonberry, [...]

How many years has she fed family and friends through this combination of flour, egg and oil? When I came across this video of Elia Neri making pasta dough for homemade tagliatelle, I watched, marveling as her hands worked, so knowing from the years. The slow pace of this video is like following a Tuscan [...]

Part of what makes this feel like home is having my dear neighbors show up at my door with a fresh harvest of arugula – rucola in Italian – and radishes. I did have sweet people in Italy (over)feeding me, but the friendships and interconnections here in my Burien neighborhood, south of Seattle, make me [...]

I just had to. I’ve been here in Italy for almost 2 months and my apartment here in Milano is just 3 doors away from the best pastry shop in the city, Pasticceria Spezia Milano. I hadn’t been in yet for my favorite: Babá, a sponge cake filled with sweetened ricotta cheese and chocolate bits. [...]

Such dear, dear people. I feel so welcomed by Agnese, Ninni, their son Erik and Ninni’s sister Bea. They greeted me so warmly and then said goodbye with hints of visiting Seattle this year! It was three years ago that I had “Warm Octopus with Potatoes and Olives” for the first time at the Carlotta [...]

The next time you eat sausage, thick pork chop, sauerkraut, polenta, hot mustard and horseradish, think northeastern Italy. Delicious and nothing like what Americans think of as “Italian Food”. Rovereto is not far from both Austria and Switzerland and the influence is clear in the food. Certainly, the buildings have more painted, decorative facings, but [...]

At the Saturday street market yesterday, there were a couple of meat vendors selling rotisserie-cooked chickens, still rotating behind them. I stood in line with the rest of the crowd because the aroma was irresistible. One woman gave up on the wait and gave me her number, “90″, just 4 spots away. For 5,50 euro, [...]

After my first week in Milan, I toured the south of Italy for two weeks, and then have spent the subsequent week writing about it and prepping photos! (I shot 2400.) What an amazing time. I met tremendously dear people and saw rich details. Indeed, as I’ve always heard, the south of Italy is very different [...]

It’s hot and I’ve had too much salt. My fingers and toes are like little sausages. My skin is tight. I don’t think I could put my shoes on if I had to. My sandals are uncomfortably snug. I’ve eaten too many pickles. I’m 4 doors away from the best pastry shop in town but [...]