 In Canada and the US, going to the market is an event for special occasions, an outing, a break from the supermarket – in other words, an exception. In Italy (and I imagine most other places in the world that filter life less) the market is still special, but for different reasons. Fresh food and eating well are integral to daily life; it is a given that gastronomy begins at the stalls. Granted, the market is a few steps removed from the watering and harvesting, feeding and slaughtering that produces even the average dish, but it is still a better point of departure for truly understanding cuisine than the supermarket.
The flavours for this venture are those of Florence, Italy – that famous Tuscan cooking! If you can go armed with some knowledge or at least a culinary guidebook, you'll be able to spot some of the most savoury and intriguing ingredients, which will aid you in your menu choices later on...
Read the rest of: "Gastronomy Through the Backdoor: The Markets of Florence"»  There are many methods of discovering good restaurants and avoiding bad ones in an unfamiliar city.
The simplest one I know of involves walking secondary streets of the target neighborhood in the evening, taking note of restaurants that quickly fill up with locals. Avoid the empty ones, avoid the ones with people who look like tourists. Above all, avoid the ones with menus in English. Obviously, read the menus. That's pretty much it.
As simple as the method may be, most of the time it just works. Et voici my latest Parisian discovery: L'Absinthe Café in the 3rd arrondissement (not to be confused with the restaurant L'Absinthe in the 1st)...
Read the rest of: "L'Absinthe Café: First Impressions"»  Cinque Terre is situated in the Ligurian coast and without exaggeration, it's one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Italy. What's more, people are nice, the food is good and the scenery is fantastic...
Read the rest of: "Cinque Terre"»  Winter travel is popular for people looking to escape winter, or for those in search of a ski resort, but rarely do people travel to winter for the sake of winter itself. Coats, boots, scarves and mitts are cumbersome to carry – another suitcase in and of themselves. Besides the practical advantages of off-season prices and less tourists to contend with, what could be interesting about travelling in winter, other than sport, that couldn't be done with less baggage in another season?
Glühwein, mulled wine. Now, does it sound more interesting?
Read the rest of: "Glühwein in the Crisp Air"»  A visiting Parisian recently made me laugh. Stretched on the grass next to the esplanade in the
Old Port,
she suddenly noticed Habitat 67's retro-futuristic assemblage across the Lachine Canal.
" Et ça" - she said peering confusedly at the distant building - " Ce sont des logements sociaux?" ("And that... that's a housing project?"). I laughed because although nothing could be further from the truth (the internationally acclaimed building houses well-to-do Montrealers - one could even say, the city's elite) many people somehow make a similar mistake. They are put off by the building's stern look, uninviting color and absurd shape, and so they wrongly assume something of the sort can only be used to house the underclass. I am here to clear up the confusion and defend the merits of Habitat 67...
Read the rest of: "The Habitat"»  Attitudes to public drinking in Italy seem to be more lax than in most other places I've been to. This is hardly shocking if you remember that we're talking about a wine-exporting Mediterranean country, but still, what you can matter-of-factly do here may very well surprise your typical New Yorker.
One example: during our last expedition to Rome (which neatly coincided with Ree's birthday), we got it into our heads to finish the evening with a glass of champagne next to the Trevi Fountain. Guess what?
Read the rest of: "Drinking Champagne by the Trevi Fountain"»  They are a familiar sight on the banks of the Seine - those faintly weary people manning dark-green wooden stalls filled with used and new books, postcards, posters, paintings, compact disks, LP's other pre-digital-era media curiosities.
They are Paris Bouquinistes - a tribe that has existed (and flourished) since as far back as mid-16th century, although it was only from the late 1790's, when they were first officially recognized, that les bouquinistes gradually came to occupy most embankments on and around Île de la Cité - despite organized resistance from the more "orderly" bookstores which, as you know, are aplenty in Paris...
Read the rest of: "Paris Bouquinistes"»  I am not a wine connoisseur, and completely hopeless when it comes to Hungarian wines, so I am not going to give you any advice to guide you through the wine list at Aszú. Heck, I didn't even try any Hungarian wines there! My mission for the night was much simpler: to have a decent terrace meal in the
Old Port
and enjoy a nice conversation with my dining partner who happened to be another SiteBits contributor...
Read the rest of: "Dinner at Aszú"» |
