by Maureen | Jul 3, 2009 | Food!, Journal, Quips, Shopping & Markets
Last night while messing with my camera, I set it down on the kitchen counter and this image popped into the viewfinder. Hmm. I like that. I like the big, round pear butt and the diminishing line of oils and vinegar bottles. I keep a bowl in the kitchen with garlic, tomatoes, fruit of the moment and usually a little, white paper bag with the remnant of the last bakery purchase.
I have been searching the city for a nice loaf of dense, multi-grain bread. The only thing I’ve found so far was a half loaf of very good grain-and-seed bread at Peck, downtown by the duomo. It was 3,50 euro for half a loaf, about 4 inches square! That’s about $5.25! No way will that become my staple. But of course, at Peck, everything is for show and it’s NOT where the locals shop! No photos allowed there, but absolutely everything is photo-worthy. The place is a work of art. I’m sure the tourists go in to buy and have gifts shipped home for family and friends.
This is a white-flour world with the pastas, pastries and breads. That’s fine, but I want something with some texture, fiber, flavor, density and keeping power. The lovely white breads last a day and are stale the next. (And I want more nutritive value.) (Does that make me a party-pooper?)
by Maureen | Jun 25, 2009 | Featured Articles, Food!, Meals
Dinner at Il Giardino del Naviglio (Garden restaurant, near the Naviglio Pavese canal). When our server brought this platter and set it in front of me, placing another one on the other side of the table, I thought that each platter would be shared by two. But no. She brought two more matching platters. This was just the appetizer: “Imperiale”.
What an understatement that name is! A platter of superlative, ultra fine seafood, all raw and absolutely fresh: sea bass, mussels, oysters, mediteranean scampi, red shrimp, chopped tuna with olives and oil, orata tartar, branzino, 3 kinds of caviar, olive oil, soy sauce, lemon and fresh baked bread rolls. Wow.
Then came the platter of grilled seafood: more scampi and shrimp, scallops, squid, octopus (the most sublime I’ve ever eaten), and a lovely golden-grilled white fish. (The platter was shared, thankfully!)
OK, so it all had to be topped off with a little taste of something sweet, a little counter to the salt and protein of the seafood. Dessert! But something simple and light, please. A chocolate tasting. There were 6 different flavors of chocolates, including truffle (as in, real truffle. It was my least favorite), cinnamon/sugar, vanilla, hot pepper, selection #5?, and 97% cacao. Each chocolate was paired with a rum so different from the other. What an array of flavor subtlety! The chocolate tasting was light, and fortunately shared by 5 at the table.
On the way home, we all did a “passeggiata” stroll north along the canal and back just to settle things a bit. I don’t think I’ve ever had a meal so sumptuous!
