Peripatetic Picnic

Summer sunset + clam picnic = picture perfect

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:18:00 -0400

Clam

Picnic

Sunset

Summer sunset + clam picnic = picture perfect

le 19 et le 20 février Paris…good to be back, it’s...

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:07:00 -0500

Belons de Bretagne at Lutetia

La Tentation de Saint Antoine

Le Panthéon

Le Panthéon

Jardins de Luxembourg

Ména et moi

le 19 et le 20 février

Paris…good to be back, it’s been ten years for me. Lovely to see my good friend Aména, too. Final feast highlights for this adventure:

Belons de Bretagne (briny, citrusy oysters) at Lutetia
Crispy, spicy, crunchy falafel at L’As du Falafel
Boudin noir at Le Verre Volé
La Tentation de St. Antoine (Pig parts!) at Au Pied du Cochon

le 18 février

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:37:36 -0500

Pizza Demo in Marcigny— Crazy and wonderful. We led two sold-out demonstrations that day on pizza-making. We felt like exotic birds when we saw the crowds gathered outside the Emile Henry Boutique, and we had a fantastic time. Three hundred people from Marcigny and the surrounding villages came to hear Mark talk about how to make perfect pizza at home. Much to my delight, I got to put my French to the test as the interpreter. New word for me: “chaleur tournante”! Convection…not a word I ever used while teaching a grammar class or French lit. Also, the real stumper for me: the verb “to bake”. It never occurred to me (in all my years of study and teaching) until I had 150 people staring at me, waiting with baited breath for my interpretation of “Baking is science”, that “to bake” does not exist in French!!! A whole culture of bakers, and to bake something, all they say is “put it in the oven”!

Everyone was so excited to learn about pizza making. Also astonishing, and what becomes clearer to us as time goes on, the human desire to make something so rustic and homey as delicious, crispy/chewy pizza is a universal one. It is such a simple and such a mysterious dish—and the French asked us the same questions that our students do in our classes back home.

Pizza a Casa voudrait bien remercier nos gentils hôtes à Marcigny: Jean-Baptiste Henry, Jacques Henry, Romuauld Gouby et Nathalie Byrgiel. C’était un moment inoubliable pour Mark et moi!

le 17 février

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:36:46 -0500

Marcigny, France

J’adore Marcigny. We met so many warm, welcoming people. Mark and I were invited to demonstrate pizza making using Emile Henry’s fantastic pizza stone.

…but, prior to Saturday’s demo, Friday held an unexpected treat. We were greeted by Jacques Henry, 5th generation CEO of the company, who took us, not only on a tour of the factory, but surprised Mark with a hands-on pizza stone workshop. That’s right, Mark made a pizza stone with Jacques Henry at the factory. Unforgettable. Here’s Mark signing the stone with M. Henry himself:

And then we had crêpes (galettes) de sarrasin for dinner! With fizzy refreshing bowls of cider!

le 16 février 2012

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:29:54 -0500

Lyon enfin!

As soon as we got to Lyon, we feasted. Brasserie Georges was not to be missed, and we thoroughly enjoyed our “choucroute garnie” (several sausages, a pig knuckle, roasted pork belly, sauerkraut and boiled potatoes). It was a delicious, pink pile of smoky meats… We also couldn’t resist the “Dôme croustillant” for dessert—enticingly and excellently translated as a “caramel crunchy butter surprise”!

15 febbraio 2012 Trapped in Italy! We discovered the hard way...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:04:30 -0500

15 febbraio 2012

Trapped in Italy! We discovered the hard way that it’s not super easy to get from Florence to Lyon by train. Purchasing tickets online wasn’t possible. Purchasing tickets in Florence wasn’t possible. We had to take a train to Turin, and then, find a French-friendly travel agency (not at the train station) to sell us a ticket to France. So, a quick, surprise trip to Turin worked its way into the adventure. We barely snacked on this leg of the journey, and I’d definitely like to return for a longer visit. And then, finally, our train trip through the snowy mountains was a gorgeous one.

Slicing a giant sopressata in Firenze.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:51:41 -0500

Slicing a giant sopressata in Firenze.

12-15 febbraio Firenze - Florence After I stopped gaping at our...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:01:00 -0500

Hotel room ceiling--crazy...

Another crazy ceiling.(Inside the Duomo)

Che bella Firenze! (View from cupola.)

Us

So easy to make new friends in Firenze!

Tiny wine glasses!

The Duke...

12-15 febbraio

Firenze - Florence

After I stopped gaping at our hotel room ceiling (above left), we tasted our way through the city, munching warm sandwiches slathered with anchovies and butter, drinking tiny glasses of red wine, sipping cappuccinos. Other highlights of our feasting included more pasta e fagioli, fegato (liver), Florentine steak, fried artichokes, plates of fresh pasta, pea-green (aka naturally-colored) pistachio gelato. We made new friends at a wine shop near our hotel, and on the way out of town purchased a giant, thin slice of Florentine sopressata (very different from what we get in NYC—more of a head cheese than a salami). Plus, between snacks, I finally got to meet the Duke of Urbino…

11 febbraio 2012 After a day of pasta making with Chef Lorenzo...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:38:00 -0500

11 febbraio 2012

After a day of pasta making with Chef Lorenzo (see here), we took a walk. Did we tire of seeing Orvieto and its Duomo in the snow? Nope!

10 febbraio 2012

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:56:00 -0500

Orvieto, in Umbria, and more snow. The Duomo surprises us with its gray and charcoal striped exterior, bejeweled marble and mosaic façade, brown and cream window panes of thinly-sliced, translucent alabaster, and almost contemporary-looking, graphic Signorelli frescos. This cathedral must be incredible to see on a hot sunny day (it was built to be seen in the sunshine); its beauty was still unparalleled in the snow.

The town has shut down (first snow in ten years), and we’re cozy with wine, Umbrian cheese, crispy porchetta from a butcher down the street, and salumi di cinghiale…buonissimo…

8 febbraio 2012

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:59:48 -0500

Perfect lunch—a copious platter of salumi, cheese, and tiny hot peppers. L’Enoteca del Grottino, Napoli. Let your host guide your feast, and you won’t be disappointed.

6 febbraio 2012 In Scafati— we met with Raffaele (grandson...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:54:00 -0500

Jenny, Gino, Raffaele

Raffaele, Mark, Gino

Lemons at sunset

Orange tree

Pompeii

Pompeii

6 febbraio 2012

In Scafati— we met with Raffaele (grandson of the founder of La Bella San Marzano, the purveyor of the tomatoes we sell at Pizza a Casa) and Gino (bon vivant and philosophical interpreter) at the La Bella factory for a quick and chilly tour of their facilities. Post-tour, the four of us feasted together, for three hours, on a fantastic lunch of pasta fagioli (pasta and beans) bubbling and hot in a stoneware pot, all in the snow-capped shadow of Mt Vesuvius. As Gino said, we must seize these happy moments when they come along and savor every minute, lest they escape our consciousness too quickly…

And then we visited Pompeii—incredible.

3 febbraio 2012

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:18:00 -0500

Tropical Rome turned wintry today, so, we trudged. And ate. And then trudged some more. And ate. And trudged! Snowy Rome was beautiful and muddy, stunned and busy.

Visual parallels of surreal proportions: snow falling through the Pantheon’s cupola, followed by black truffle freshly shorn onto a bright orange pan fried egg yolk (see videos below).

Pasta highlights: tortellini bolognese in brodo (broth), taglioni with burro (butter) and alici (anchovies), tonnarelli cacio (cheese) e pepe (pepper).

And of course we drank wine and then espresso and then ate and then drank wine again. With all that trudging, we were starving! And thirsty, certo!

Truffle snow.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:17:00 -0500

Truffle snow.

Pantheon snow.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:28:00 -0500

Pantheon snow.

2 febbraio 2012 Fantastic to be full-on tourists for a day. We...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:06:00 -0500

Palazzo Venezia

Colosseo

Pini di Roma

Gino at Volpetti...our new friend

Tartufi di inverno

Via degli Specchi

Open Roma (Baladin)

2 febbraio 2012

Fantastic to be full-on tourists for a day. We gaped at antiquity, sniffed truffles, sipped beer brewed with myrrh and made new friends.

1 febbraio 2012

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:02:00 -0500

Rome (yellow orange pink, tropical-looking, with long-trunked pine trees) was dappled with sunlight and rain when we arrived. After nabbing breakfast: three crusty, chewy slabs of pizza al taglio (sold by the cut/weight),

we wandered into this ancient bit of history and it took our breath away…

Rain does pool on the marble floor of the Pantheon, by the way, in case you ever wondered…

We concluded the day with dinner and a frenzy of good conversation, wine and high spirits with our new friend Susana (pictured here with one of the owners) at a cozy spot, Ditirambo:

31 gennaio 2012

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:08:00 -0500

Off to Rome…anticipating the mystery of travel! What will we see first? And taste? What does the air feel like there? Smell like?

Essentials are packed:

Picnic knives
Corkscrew (Mark’s Leatherman complete with pâté knife and cocktail fork)
Backup corkscrew (Mark’s Swiss army knife featuring a useful/necessary laser pointer)
Collapsible polycarbonate wine glasses
Watercolor pen set and tiny colored pencils for doodling as we go

We’re prepped to savor any adventure that saunters our way…

En route: