Breakfast at Tiffany's
Last year this same week I was in NYC enjoying the end of summer. One morning, maybe this same day, I happened to discover that my beloved eggs benedict can still improve, with the addition of… asparagus.
I was served asparagus eggs benedict to be remembered at the lovely Settepani Bakery, down my road in Harlem.
Eggs for breakfast are a scary idea for most Italians (breakfast in Italy is always light and super-sweet, otherwise no breakfast). The hollandaise sauce is fat and a scary idea for most girls wanting to wear a bikini. In addition, a lot of people I know avoid eating asparagi (the smell, you know).
So, there is nothing better than sitting at a small table, outside, in a pleasant street, one morning in NYC far far away from home, enjoyng a deliciously scary breakfast.
This year I decided for South East Asia instead, and had a variety of colourful indian and chinese-malay breakfasts, ranging from curry and dahl to blue rice with fish, to hard boiled eggs and baked beans. But NYC asparagus eggs benedict remain my favourite option.
Yert, the Suria KLCC, a luxury shopping mall is Kuala Lumpur, beside the Petronas Tower, does include a Tifanny & Co store.
“ Cooking is actually quite aggressive and controlling and sometimes, yes, there is an element of force-feeding going on. ”
Nigella Lawson
Reggio Emilia
La Zucca
via Nicolaj Gogol 1/A
42100 Reggio Emilia
La Zucca is not longer to be found in charming Piazza Fontanesi. Unfortunately, the very old building was in need of major works, in particular in the ground floor kitchen, so the restaurant has moved outiside the centro storico, in a depressing area on the via Emilia. But the owners are the same, the menu is the same, and the chef now can work in a fantastic brand new kitchen - and I want a happy chef - therefore the new location is ok with me. At least as long as they keep that painting of old Piazza Fontanesi hanged on the wall, to remind me the time when I was too young to go out to dinner in fancy restaurant and I would sit in Piazza Fontanesi, where friend V.’s aunt and uncle used to have a bar, near La Zucca, and people watch.
My dentist, instead, still works near Piazza Fontanesi. I have to see him in Autumn. After all this eating, it seems like my 1985 fillings are in need of some attention.
The most interesting items on the menu at La Zucca are the gnocchetti alla zucca (dumplings with pumpkin), and buffalo meat (coming from a nearby farm).
Eating buffalo meat is uncommon in Italy. Buffalos are raised for their milk, as buffalo mozzarella is a delicacy. But together with delicious buffalo mozzarella comes an ethical problem. In order for buffalo cows to produce milk they have to produce calves, and of course half of them are males. As buffalo meat is not requested by the Italian market, male buffalos are often killed as soon as they are born.
Therefore, as paradoxical as it may sound, and as hard as it is to know, eating buffalo can save a buffalo.
Best Milchcafe in Berlin… according to someone with a lactase deficiency (but for some reason I am able to drink Vollmilch in Germany, and milk with my tea in England)
(open 24 hours, great when waiting for the first U-Bahn of the morning)
Schwarzescafè
Kantstraße 148
10623 Charlottenburg
Berlin
Learning to use chopsticks gave me cramps in my fingers, at the beginning. Now I have problems only with big springrolls, and with futomaki (when the nori seaweed is particularly dry)
Pho
Spicy, hot complex, refined, yet unbelievably simple
Pho in Anthony Bourdain’s words, and No Reservations
Once you’ve eaten pho in Vietnam, your quest to the perfect pho is started. And in case you happen to leave Vietnam at some point (for example to go back to work in a gloomy office in Europe), the quest becomes more complicated.
Best pho I had in Europe:
Viet Hoa Café
70-72 Kingsland Rd
Shoreditch London E2 8DP
Best pho I had in North America:
somewhere in Toronto (Tranna, maybe Spadina Avenue, lost in time)
Paris
I met M. many years ago in Berlin, as we were studying German at the same school. Back then, we would often go out with a few Spanish people and they were always late, so we used to wait for them in a Konditorei near Zoo. Now M. lives in Paris, pronounces its own surname with a French accent (especially on the phone), and sometimes switches to French while talking, forgetting I don’t understand French (lost in muticultural friendship). Well, one night in December, while I was visiting him in Paris, we had dinner at L’Opportun, a lovely bistrot in Montparnasse.
I had the very nice poisson du jour, which came on a bed of cabbage leaves, and an incredible fondant.
Being early december we drank beaujolais nouveau, from a demi bottle called fillette.
L’Opportun
62, boulevard Edgar Quinet - 75014
Paris France
Keeping note of great meals on planet Earth
