Sunday, July 27, 2008
Italian flatbread
The difficulty I have run into making the sort of Italian flatbread Italian restauants serve before the meal is that I never seem to roll it out thin enough. Solution: roll the dough out in the pasta maker - the dough comes hot from the oven thin and crispy and just plain delightful. A little flatbread, a little olive oil, a little salt - ahhhh!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Homemade pasta
Adventures in trying to figure out how to make homemade pasta:
Marcella Hazan says to use 2 eggs to a cup of flour (and no salt) while Silver Spoon says to use 1 egg for 7/8 cup flour with plenty of salt. Neither batch turned out perfect. Hmm, perhaps this takes some practice.
Marcella Hazan says to use 2 eggs to a cup of flour (and no salt) while Silver Spoon says to use 1 egg for 7/8 cup flour with plenty of salt. Neither batch turned out perfect. Hmm, perhaps this takes some practice.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Italy and Ireland
After eight days in Italy and Ireland, a handful of eating experiences stand out as incredible in a generally wonderful week.
Trattoria Sostanza, Via Porcellana 25r in Florence, holds the top spot mostly because two of the finest food experiences of my life were there. First was the prosciutto di Parma, served as an antipasto. It was - incredible? sensational? heavenly? - some word must be right, but these aren't forceful enough. Exceedingly thinly sliced, the fatty ham simply evaporated on my tongue, leaving behind a silky sense of ideal fattiness and ham. My daughter had been in Rome for six weeks and was pretty sure she didn't like prosciutto until she tried this. She does now.
For the main course, my daughter ordered the Chicken in Butter dish. It arrived in a dish of bubbling, foaming hot butter. The chicken breast was deeply infused with the butter taste. It was wonderful.
Back in Rome, we ate one evening at La Rustichella. Rick Steves mentions positively their buffet, and after a week of my dollars being severely battered by the Euro, a meal on the frugal side seemed like a good idea. The buffet was terrible - cold, soggy, flavorless - but the lasagna - oh, the lasagna - made up for the buffet. The lasagna would have made up for months of McDonald's. It was thin, only four sheets of pasta with cheese, meat sauce and cream sauce between the pasta sheets. The pasta was perfectly made, the cream and meat sauces were intensely flavorful.
I will also mention a simple lunch we enjoyed in the Campo di Fiore. By night, Campo di Fiore is a destination hotspot for young travelers - American students, backpackers, and so on. In the morning, though, the Campo is a farmers' market. We bought a couple of fresh rolls, a few slices of prosciutto and a ball of fresh mozarrella. Our dessert included fresh cherries and the loveliest fresh strawberries I have eaten since last summer and the last of the few local wild strawberries we can find around here. A bossy American college girl informed me that I would certainly be sick if washed the fruit under the water from knee-high spigot that Italians use as a drinking fountain. We were fine.
Finally, in Italy, gelato deserves its own award for wonderfulness. Nearly everywhere we had it, it was intensely flavorful. I love it.
Finally finally, to Ireland. Well, to Dublin. The only decent meal I had in Dublin over two and a half days was a panini at Gertrude's in the Temple Bar. Fortunately, real Guinness made up for a lot of Irish culinary sins. Real Guinness is different from what we get here. American Guinness, to my taste, is much hoppier. Irish Guinness is, to my taste, smoother and sweeter.
Trattoria Sostanza, Via Porcellana 25r in Florence, holds the top spot mostly because two of the finest food experiences of my life were there. First was the prosciutto di Parma, served as an antipasto. It was - incredible? sensational? heavenly? - some word must be right, but these aren't forceful enough. Exceedingly thinly sliced, the fatty ham simply evaporated on my tongue, leaving behind a silky sense of ideal fattiness and ham. My daughter had been in Rome for six weeks and was pretty sure she didn't like prosciutto until she tried this. She does now.
For the main course, my daughter ordered the Chicken in Butter dish. It arrived in a dish of bubbling, foaming hot butter. The chicken breast was deeply infused with the butter taste. It was wonderful.
Back in Rome, we ate one evening at La Rustichella. Rick Steves mentions positively their buffet, and after a week of my dollars being severely battered by the Euro, a meal on the frugal side seemed like a good idea. The buffet was terrible - cold, soggy, flavorless - but the lasagna - oh, the lasagna - made up for the buffet. The lasagna would have made up for months of McDonald's. It was thin, only four sheets of pasta with cheese, meat sauce and cream sauce between the pasta sheets. The pasta was perfectly made, the cream and meat sauces were intensely flavorful.
I will also mention a simple lunch we enjoyed in the Campo di Fiore. By night, Campo di Fiore is a destination hotspot for young travelers - American students, backpackers, and so on. In the morning, though, the Campo is a farmers' market. We bought a couple of fresh rolls, a few slices of prosciutto and a ball of fresh mozarrella. Our dessert included fresh cherries and the loveliest fresh strawberries I have eaten since last summer and the last of the few local wild strawberries we can find around here. A bossy American college girl informed me that I would certainly be sick if washed the fruit under the water from knee-high spigot that Italians use as a drinking fountain. We were fine.
Finally, in Italy, gelato deserves its own award for wonderfulness. Nearly everywhere we had it, it was intensely flavorful. I love it.
Finally finally, to Ireland. Well, to Dublin. The only decent meal I had in Dublin over two and a half days was a panini at Gertrude's in the Temple Bar. Fortunately, real Guinness made up for a lot of Irish culinary sins. Real Guinness is different from what we get here. American Guinness, to my taste, is much hoppier. Irish Guinness is, to my taste, smoother and sweeter.
Giovanni's in Detroit
So my wonderful husband took me and darling son and daughter to Giovanni's in Detroit. You drive through a manufacturing not-quite-hellhole/Mordor--vestiges of the manufacturing empire that's been Detroit.
And, ah, you reach an oasis of hospitality and wonderful food! A well-priced and varied wine list, warm and professional servers (our lovely server has worked there for 23 years and it was like she was serving us at her home.)
I had the pesce Francesa --a huge amount of delicate fresh lake perch filets in a flavorful sauce of butter, lemon and capers --the sharpness of the lemons and capers a great foil for the delicate fish. An herbed risotto could have been hotter but was textbook texture.
Darling daugher had a subtle, gorgeous brodo with pasta and amazingly flavorful meat cannellloni --sauce was so tomatoey! Son had ravioli with boursin cheese and sun -dried tomatoes in a wonderful lemony sauce with lucious chunks of crab meat. He said it's the best ravioli he had in his life.
Husband had a great charred pair of tournedos on pancetta risotto with wine reduction.
Steak was good, but not memorable as our other dishes; pancetta was deeply flavorful and rich, a good accompaniment for the steak (other option was polenta).
Hallmark was flavor, texure and excellence of ingredients. And the warmth of the staff, the owner visiting us.
As we celebrated our daughter's coming semester in Rome, this meal set the stage for the heart and soul of Italian food and sharing it with the ones we love.
This is what food made with integrity and love can do.
And, ah, you reach an oasis of hospitality and wonderful food! A well-priced and varied wine list, warm and professional servers (our lovely server has worked there for 23 years and it was like she was serving us at her home.)
I had the pesce Francesa --a huge amount of delicate fresh lake perch filets in a flavorful sauce of butter, lemon and capers --the sharpness of the lemons and capers a great foil for the delicate fish. An herbed risotto could have been hotter but was textbook texture.
Darling daugher had a subtle, gorgeous brodo with pasta and amazingly flavorful meat cannellloni --sauce was so tomatoey! Son had ravioli with boursin cheese and sun -dried tomatoes in a wonderful lemony sauce with lucious chunks of crab meat. He said it's the best ravioli he had in his life.
Husband had a great charred pair of tournedos on pancetta risotto with wine reduction.
Steak was good, but not memorable as our other dishes; pancetta was deeply flavorful and rich, a good accompaniment for the steak (other option was polenta).
Hallmark was flavor, texure and excellence of ingredients. And the warmth of the staff, the owner visiting us.
As we celebrated our daughter's coming semester in Rome, this meal set the stage for the heart and soul of Italian food and sharing it with the ones we love.
This is what food made with integrity and love can do.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
More Small Plates
A very pleasant outing with the family to Small Plates again in Royal Oak. I was surprised that we had no problem calling at 7:30 on a Friday night and secured an 8:00 reservation. The place as pretty full at 8, but there was no line of waiting diners and by 9:30 when we left, the place was 1/3 empty.
Food was very nice. We all shared ribs (with a modestly sweet/sour sauce) and fries, Asian lettuce wraps with chicken chunks and a soy-based sauce, crab cakes, Caesar salad and a margherita pizza. The ribs are good - not greasy, falling off the bone. The crab cakes were very nice - crispy outside, tender crabby interior with a minimum of filler so they just barely held together.
The pizza was quite tasty. It has a nearly cracker-thin and -crispy crust. The four cheeses and the tomato were lovely. The basil was pretty sparse - I could barely taste it.
This is getting to be a favorite spot just because the sharing and comparing is fun, but, yikes, we've eaten most of the menu by now.
Food was very nice. We all shared ribs (with a modestly sweet/sour sauce) and fries, Asian lettuce wraps with chicken chunks and a soy-based sauce, crab cakes, Caesar salad and a margherita pizza. The ribs are good - not greasy, falling off the bone. The crab cakes were very nice - crispy outside, tender crabby interior with a minimum of filler so they just barely held together.
The pizza was quite tasty. It has a nearly cracker-thin and -crispy crust. The four cheeses and the tomato were lovely. The basil was pretty sparse - I could barely taste it.
This is getting to be a favorite spot just because the sharing and comparing is fun, but, yikes, we've eaten most of the menu by now.
Bagger Dave's
Little need be said about this new Berkley establishment. Pleasant site, pleasant service, terrible food. I'd like another good, casual restaurant in my hometown. This aint it.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Small plates, big pleasure
We certainly enjoyed an outing to Small Plates the other evening - the new branch in Royal Oak. We got a table with no reservation on a Friday night, but we got there early, just before six.
The idea is that the entrees are small - you order a couple and share. We ordered the Caesar salad, goat cheese empanadas, the cheese and olive plate and the ribs. All of it was nice, none of it spectacular. But the experience was quite pleasant overall, perhaps assisted by a very nice Oregon Pinot Noir (I forget the winery - it's the only PN on the menu.)
The space is attractive and comfortable with plenty of room between tables. The music is louder than it needs to be, but not terribly irritating.
Small Plates has only been open in RO for a couple weeks and their inexperience showed. Things were pretty disorganized - no service for a while, menu items not available or misdescribed. The empanadas, for example, were advertised as having chicken and black beans. They didn't. We ate them, the waitperson took them off the bill and all was fine. In truth the disorganization was completely ameliorated by the cheerful waitperson who apologized for the problems and handled them well.
All in all we enjoyed it a good deal - the experience is fun and the food is more than decent. Next time we go we'll bring a few more friends - the more to share.
The idea is that the entrees are small - you order a couple and share. We ordered the Caesar salad, goat cheese empanadas, the cheese and olive plate and the ribs. All of it was nice, none of it spectacular. But the experience was quite pleasant overall, perhaps assisted by a very nice Oregon Pinot Noir (I forget the winery - it's the only PN on the menu.)
The space is attractive and comfortable with plenty of room between tables. The music is louder than it needs to be, but not terribly irritating.
Small Plates has only been open in RO for a couple weeks and their inexperience showed. Things were pretty disorganized - no service for a while, menu items not available or misdescribed. The empanadas, for example, were advertised as having chicken and black beans. They didn't. We ate them, the waitperson took them off the bill and all was fine. In truth the disorganization was completely ameliorated by the cheerful waitperson who apologized for the problems and handled them well.
All in all we enjoyed it a good deal - the experience is fun and the food is more than decent. Next time we go we'll bring a few more friends - the more to share.
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