January 2012
2 posts
Riccioni
Riccioni is the italianization of a dialect word. It’s how in Reggio Emilia we call a special wild radicchio, it’s very green, curly and bitter. You can find it in the countryside, but it’s better not to eat it nowadays because it’s probably poisoned by pesticides. I was so lucky to find at a local farmer’s market some riccioni that were harvested in the...
Haruki Murakami's Sapporo beer commercials
murakamistuff:
A few days ago we reported about the television commercials Haruki Murakami wrote for Japanese beer brewery Sapporo. Those commercials (four in number, not only one like previously assumed) were aired during the annual Tokyo-Hakone Ekiden which is a very popular race telecasted on Nippon TV. The four videos which are each one minute in length were produced by movie director...
December 2011
1 post
Zuppa di lenticchie con pomodori e cipolle arrosto →
October 2011
1 post
The Perfect Cake →
Torta Pistocchi
July 2011
2 posts
Tataki Night
(trying to make this Sunday last)
June 2011
1 post
Gorgonzola Novarese
(no, I’m not on a spring diet)
April 2011
1 post
Taleggio and Pears
Friend E. reconciled me with risotto.
March 2011
3 posts
The Purple Cauliflower
turned red in the oven (maybe because of the lemon juice).
New in Town →
Osteria dei Sognatori. Piedmont Cooking. Organic.
February 2011
2 posts
Lavorare stanca →
Kosher Carnival treats?
January 2011
1 post
December 2010
8 posts
Freebies →
The re-usable shopper bag of the Mercato Albinelli (the local marketplace), and the mug of the old dairy shop.
Some more tables at my favourite pizza place →
(where I have my personal VU&Nico table)
I’ll have the baked potatoes, no lamb, and... →
Still a beginner, actually
I like to consider myself quite an experienced restaurant-goer. So I was puzzled to discover yesterday night the existence of a blind menu for ladies, with no prices on it.
I spent various minutes wondering about the fondue de topinambour, how on earth you can obtain a fondue from a topinambur and how much that’s going to cost you, when Logan shocked me announcing he was going to order the...
November 2010
2 posts
www.adottaunamaiale.it (gift idea) →
They raise a a pig for your in a free roaming farm in the countryside and in the end you get the sausages. The first pigs were “saved” from intensive farms.
October 2010
1 post
Friday night at the pub (driving again)
I thought he was staring at me because of the stains of Val Dieu Triple on my jeans. But it turned out he was R. from high school (second year, which means more than 20 years ago).
September 2010
7 posts
Now with more girls
At last I have a colleague who is interested in science fiction. But unfortunately he still hasn’t seen Soylent Green. I was so hoping to talk about it during coffee break, in front of the vending machines…
The Shrimp of My Life →
In Paris
The spell on my spaghetti is broken
I went to the Festa del PD (former Festa de l’Unità) yesterday and the spaghetti allo scoglio (mussels spaghetti) were definitely disgusting.
This is the fist time a fish course at the Festa de l’Unità (or whatever it is called now) tastes bad to me. Either the decline of the PD is now complete, or they have discovered I’m not supporting them anymore (and so they have lifted the...
“Don’t squish the avocado”
– non-bento #26: the very hungry caterpillar
When it comes to Italian food are you a purist,... →
A test in SixDegrees, Finland’s English Language Magazine
Art & Judaism
Tomorrow is the 11th edition of the European Day of Jewish Culture. This is the menu my friend Silvia has created for the occasion at her agriturismo.
Antipasti ruschette salate e pita accompagnate da salsa all’avocado salsa alle melanzane oznei aman fritte
Primi piatti riso giallo con salsa di piselli o fagioli tagliolini all’uovo con bagnabrusca o...
August 2010
14 posts
Pizzaholic
Yesterday night I was enjoying a slice of red pizza in my favourite take-away place, before the cinema, and I witnessed a single couple buying more than 100 Euro of assorted pizza by the metre. So comforting.
I don't scream for ice cream
But I do like GROM, because they have good chocolate, real whipped cream, and nice berries. I just need to get rid of this creepy mental association of mine… with pogrom…
Anyway, they have GROM in Tokyo too, and it’s in Shinjuku, in front of the Isetan, They have people queueing up in the freezing cold of March for a concept ice cream from Piemonte, and then walking to the Gyoen...
Never at the canteen
I hadn’t noticed Montana is now targeting body builders. Recreational body builders very often eat canned meat for their timed protein intake, as canned meat is easy to buy, store, carry and consume at the office without alarming your co-workers with protein supplements in powder or bars. As highly processed as it is, you can still call canned meat a meal, maybe the last stage of the concept...
Herne
Peas (herne) are in season right now in Finland, and you can buy a litre of them for 3 Euro in Helsinki from the market stalls. As far as street food is concerned, you are supposed to eat them raw, while sitting at the Esplanadi Park. Berries make a nice alternative if don’t dare raw herne.
In restaurants your three different qualities of bread come with whipped butter, and your salmon soup...
“Swimming out to the open sea
like the great wild herring.”
– Leonid Voskovec
Innocent Drinks
Orange, Karotte & Mango by Innocent Drinks. Bought a bottle at Frankfurt airport to keep hydrated.
Cute ingredients.
Inhalt einer 250 ml Flasche:
18 gepresste Weintrauben (36 %) 1/2 pürierte Banane (20 %) 1/2 gepresste Orange (18 %) 1 kleingemixte Karotte (16 %) ein Stück zerdrückte Mango (8 %) und ein Spritzer gepresste Limette (2 %)
Breakfast buffet in Helsinki
Variable buffet:
Mon: small croissant (LL), small sausages (L, G) Tue: bacon (L, G), Karelian pies (L) Wed: meatballs (L), small sausages (L, G) Thu: small croissant (LL), bacon (L, G) Fri: small sausages (L, G), bacon (L, G) Sat: vegetable-cheese patty (L), meatballs (L) Sun: bacon (L, G), meatballs (L)
Every day:
Edam 17% (L, G) Smoke Cheese (LL, G) Cottage cheese low in fat (LL, G) Ham (L,...
John Cale →
eating gelato
Friday night at the pub (driving)
A Guinness in its half-pint glass is so small and cute, it reminds me of a charm.
Multi-dimensional pizza! Three halves!!!
MEZZALUNA Metà calzone, metà peperoni, metà salame piccate.
Which reads: HALFMOON Half calzone, half capsicum, half pepperoni.
Suomi?
In a few days I’m leaving for Finland and I’m a little worried about food. What I remember from my previous trip to Scandinavia is a huge, depressing display of highly processed ham and cheese, canned soups, crisps, industrial candy bars and a number of soft drinks at supermarkets. We would buy something and try to fix dinner at the hostel. But we missed fresh food, and above all we...
Bento Factory →
kyaraben
The Sauce in the Sandwich
How do you react when the sauce in your sandwich turns out to be different from the one listed on the menu? Do you complain? Do you you pretend not to notice? Do you notice it, in the first place? If your sandwiches have always contained the expected sauce, chances are you just don’t notice sauces in sandwiches. This is ok. It’s just a sandwich, and it’s just a sauce, probably an...
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...
July 2009
9 posts
Real Food →
for a Small Island
“Cooking is actually quite aggressive and controlling and sometimes, yes, there...”
– Nigella Lawson
Reggio Emilia
La Zucca via Nicolaj Gogol 1/A 42100 Reggio Emilia
La Zucca is no 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...