Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Report From Cook at Seliano
I haven’t been able to write during the last 10 days because I had a group here at Azienda Seliano and it required my full attention. Then I plotzed from exhaustion for a couple of days. As usual we cooked a lot, we ate and drank too much, and we sometimes laughed until it hurt.
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Thursday, March 22, 2007
Wild and Crazy Fennel
One of the questions I am often asked by my Cook at Seliano groups here in Paestum is what food products are they allowed to take home, and which products are worth taking home. My answer to people who live in the New York City metro area is that there is very little we can’t buy at home, if not at the supermarket then at Italian specialty stores. Of course, if you live in Texas or Ohio, there may be many foods you can’t buy at home.
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Friday, March 16, 2007
Report from Modica
Our trip to Modica was very productive for my food research, and -- no small thing -- the city is an amazing and beautiful place to see. It is yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site in the southeast of Sicily, a status shared with Catania, Sicily’s second largest city (after Palermo), Ragusa, Noto, and Siracusa. An earthquake in 1693 leveled these cities and they were rebuilt in the early to mid-late 1700s in high Baroque style. It’s not only the churches and grand public buildings and palaces that were designed in this elaborately decorated mode, but also the small houses. Even modest two-story homes – essentially row houses in that they are all attached – have iron balconies, often elaborately wrought, held up by curvaceous consoles with shell motifs, cherubs, rosettes, swirls of acanthus, and other things fantastic. And every time I see curvaceous frames around Baroque windows and doors I think I should go home and recreate them with paint around my own horrible New York windows. Oh well.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Report From Catania, Sicily
Before I begin, I should tell you that this was written several days ago. It was a big problem finding an internet connection in Siracusa. There were three internet points, as they call them in Italy, in our section of town. None of them worked for nearly the week I was there. I returned to Rome about an hour ago and I have to say it like being back in civilization, as chaotic as Rome can be. I love Sicily. I love Sicilians. However, I do get frustrated trying to get things done there. As our driver to the airport said, “Americans have watches. Sicilians have time.”
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Monday, March 12, 2007
NYC Restaurants
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Sunday, March 11, 2007
No To Truffle Oil, Yes to Roma
I hate truffle oil. Maybe you’ve heard me say this before.
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