Category Archives: Travel

The Full Italian Meal at Osteria Uvaspina in Montevarchi, Italy

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Before going to Italy, a couple of my best friends said that while I was in Italy we had to go to a restaurant and have the full Italian meal.   I needed to have all the courses.

So let’s review, what are all the courses in the full Italian meal? I’ve heard different versions but there’s Antipasto, Primo (Pasta), Secondo (Meat), Dolce (Dessert), Espresso, and then after dinner alcohol like limoncella.

Well, one night while in Montevarchi a city in Tuscany, we were looking for some food.  One of the local shop owners recommended Osteria Uvaspina.  We walked by.  It looked like a cute place.  Had a nice modern interior, which was different in ancient Montevarchi.  We decided to go in.

After a quick chat with the waitress, who also may have been the chef (it was a slow night), we decided… what the heck! Let’s get the tasting menu with all the all courses.

Let me walk you through what we had.   First, let me warn you.   This will be a food porn heavy blog post…

This was just a quick bite to start things off.  It’s a sardine in a cucumber foam.   Definitely don’t eat a lot of sardines but this was deliciousness.

We had two antipastos.  I don’t remember what this one was called exactly but it had ham, mozzarella, basil with some balsamic vinegar, in between two flaky pastry sheets.  It was delicious.

The second antipasto was  a carpaccio of horse meat.  Yep horse… like Wilber.  It’s the meat raw and cut really thin and pounded out.  I think there was basil under it.  Had some type of cheese shaved on it with a drizzle of olive oil.

The pasta course was house made tagliatelle with a pea puree and bacon.  It was one of my favorite courses.  Of course, it was a play off of the classic of peas & bacon.   And… as they say, a meal without pasta is a sin against god & man.

Next was some kind of pork medallion deliciousness with a puree of something that looks like mashed potatoes but it wasn’t .  It could have been polenta.

Next was dessert.  I had some sort of peach thing with a flaky cookie thing and peach juice.

Lauren had some sort of multen chocolate cake.   It oozed chocolate in the middle in a very sexy way.

By the time we were done, it hardly felt like we were there for 2 1/2 hours but we were.  You really got to see eating as something more than this utility that you do to give yourself nutrition.   Eating is an experience.  It’s an experience that you share with your friends & family.

The Little Sandwiches

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Little french bread sandwich with jamon

One of my favorite discoveries in Europe was these little French bread sandwiches that had either jamón or prosciutto on them.   They were typically just a couple of euros and absolutely delicious.

We first discovered them during a layover in the Madrid airport but we also saw them all over Germany and Italy.

When I had it in Madrid, it was around breakfast time and it seemed like what everyone was eating.   Why can’t we bring this to the USA?  Instead of the Egg McMuffin, why can’t McDonalds serve this?

Five Things Different About Food in Italy

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Montepulcino

Sorry for my absence.  Got married and whisked my bride off to a honeymoon of a week and a half in Italy.  It was AMAZING.  If you’ve never gotten lost in Central Italy, I’d highly recommend it.  Now, I’m back and I’m ready to write a lot.

Being that it was my first time in Italy (and really Europe), my eyes were opened to all kinds of funny differences in our food cultures.  Here are just a few that I noticed…

Espresso & pastries EVERYWHERE.

There’s good espresso and pastries everywhere.  You could go into a gas station on the side of the highway and they probably have an espresso machine on par with a lot of coffee shops in America.  Plus everywhere you go there are folks selling really good pastries.  Do people really eat these every day?  If so, how do they stay so thin?

Give me some of that orange Fanta

I never thought of Fanta orange soda as something that was that big of  a deal.   Their wacky commercials are the kind of thing that get seared into the back of your head but… Yeah, so Fanta is HUGE in Italy and it seemed like in Spain and Germany too where we had brief stops.   You could find it everywhere.  (Hmmm now I’m craving Fanta.)

No fountain soda

Speaking of soda… one thing that you didn’t find very much was fountain soda.   Just about everywhere you went you were served cans or bottles.  No refills for you!  Maybe this is one reason why obesity & diabetes are such a big issue in America. We’re all running around with our Super size me big gulp sodas.

Uncut Pizza

We stopped by a few pizza places and noticed that the pie wasn’t cut into slices.  Nothing too life changing about this.  It was just funny and didn’t match our expectations when the pizza was served to us.   This was actually kind of nice because you cut better control your portions based on how hungry you were.

Gelato… so much better and healthier than Ice cream

Seriously, why don’t we eat more gelato in the states?  It’s so much better than ice cream.  In Italy, I think we had gelato everyday.  It was glorious.  Like ice cream, it comes in all kinds of flavors.   And… it’s actually healthier than ice cream.  It contains less butterfat.

That’s all for now.  Will have more photos and updates soon.

Easter is a Feast Day in Germany

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Note: Germany is a prominent feature of your contributor’s posts (for example), but now he lives in the country, not far from Stuttgart. He believes German food is not a contradiction in terms, and he looks forward to sharing the tastes of his newfound home.

The church refers to Easter as a feast day, and my German family truly lived it out here in Baden-Wuerttemberg. One of the nice things about Germany is that Easter is an official holiday. On Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, everything is closed, with Saturday set aside for holiday hustle and bustle. In fact, having a little time off gives the most important day of the Christian year almost the same respect as Christmas – you could go through the holiday rituals without thinking of pressing work deadlines. My German family feasted like they believe in Resurrection, like they believe Easter means death truly is overcome. The food was heavenly. Here are the highlights.

I grew up eating sweet ham on Easter, but in the Germany, lamb (appropriately) is the traditional Easter meat. Uncle Gerhard grilled some choice cut from a lamb raised in near-by Goeppingen. My mother-in-law used lamb to make a delicious Hungarian Goulash. In addition, we had a surprisingly-juicy turkey breast served in an exquisite wine sauce.

Grilled lamb

Lamb Gulasch

 

 

 

 

 

 

That same wine sauce was served over one of my favorite German foods, spaetzle (pronounced shpet-zleh, not spate-zull), home-made egg noodles. For Easter, my wife’s aunt prepared two varieties, one plane, and one mixed with Chives.

Spaetzle: German comfort food

Spring in Germany is asparagus season – they even have asparagus festivals. Our Easter asparagus was served baked with Gouda cheese, though it is normally served in a hollandaise sauce. Of course, my preferred vegetable is anything that goes in a good salad, and our salad was a spring garden mix of arucola, lettuce, tomatoes and herbs grown in the garden. Any German grocery store provides great salad seasoning, which, mixed with the right amount of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar makes a delightfully tangy dressing.

Swabian Potato Salad

Speaking of vinegar, spring is also that time of year when the Germans start to make potato salad, and our Easter feast was no exception. Potato salad in southern Germany has less mayo and more vinegar than in the north, which makes it a light, cool side on a warm day. Yes, it may look like a big bowl of scrambled eggs, but let me assure you, the flavor makes it one of the tastiest things on the menu.

Of course, a Resurrection feast needs the appropriate drink:

An afternoon thirst quencher

Perfect. You probably know that Paulaner Hefeweizen is available in major grocery and liquor stores in the U.S., and it’s one of the best German beers on the market. It’ll be on the pricey side, but if you want some authenticity at your next biergarten party, grab some Paulaner instead of some American Oktoberfest seasonal (which, I do admit, have their place). Hefeweizen is served in beautiful vase-like half-liter glasses. I could go into more detail (that’s for another blogpost), but mistrust anyone who serves Hefeweizen in your average pint glass.

Let’s not forget dessert. I struggled to include it after maybe overeating just the teensiest little bit, but I coudn’t resist the four varieties of cakes. Generally speaking, German cakes are a little less “cakey” than the American variety. In terms of consistency, if there is a scale with “cake” on one side, and “pie” on the other, most German cakes fall somewhere in the middle. They are not cake or filling heavy; they have  a lot of both. German cakes usually have less sugar, but make up for it in the fruit or chocolate area and some are made with enough liquor to knock out a water buffalo.

For example, egg nog is an Easter drink here in Central Europe, and my wife’s aunt bak ed a delectable egg nog cake. Yellow. Creamy. Egg Noggy. Goodness. The only thing that could match it would be some sort of chocolate bottomed caked soaked in cherry liquor, topped with fresh cherries, cream and cocoa: A Black Forest Cherry Torte. I apologize in advance for any hunger caused by the following pictures.

It's not Christmas, it's egg nog!

Black Forest Cherry Torte

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait, did someone order a fresh strawberry cake?

Or what about Rhubarb? Yes, we had both. I had space on my plate for a piece of each.

Strawberry goodness

So, on Easter, we feasted. It was all delicious. It was a team effort; everyone contributed. Everyone, except… well… hey, at least I wrote about it afterwards!

 

In Praise of Antonio’s

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It would take something special to post again on this oft-neglected piece of cyberspace. Justin and I have been busy, after all. In my case, working and new fathering have kept me from sampling DC’s finest or reflecting more on the absolute perfection of Hefeweizen (at least in written form).

But I am on vacation at my parents’ house in Orlando. Last night, my folks took care of our little one, while my wife and I found a new corner of restaurant heaven.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Orlando? The land of Disney and plastic culture? Isn’t Orlando the headquarters of all those big restaurant chains that push a bland uniformity into U.S. food culture? Isn’t Orlando cuisine nothing but overpriced tourist trap food?

Well, in part. But step away from International Drive. Go from the corporates to the foodies. Put down that expensive Disney Turkey leg. Next time you take the kids to Disney World and Universal Studios, be sure to drive over to Antonio’s Cafe & Deli in Maitland on 17-92. We did so, on my parents’ recommendation, and we tasted the best Italian food I’ve had in a long time.

Our romantic table in the liquor section.

Now, here is the charm. The Cafe & Deli, as you can see, is nestled within a mini Italian grocery and wine shop. We had a romantic little table in the liquor section. It may sound strange, but experience it, and you’ll find it creates a natural ambiance that most restaurants attempt to produce with funky decorations and weird lighting. We sat at our table and had two servers: A nice waitress who took our order, and their resident wine expert. The wine expert helped us select a bottle of wine from around the store (“we have an excellent wine list, and it’s all around us,” he joked), and was kind enough to open it and give us the “sniffy sniff sniff.” To go with our food, he selected a Dogajolo – 80% Chianti and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon (“which gives it more complexity,” he said). Yum.

For an appetizer, we had the Topped Ciabatta – fresh Ciabatta bread, blanketed with Mozzarella and tomato sauce – fresh, delicious, opposite of canned. It was a generous appetizer to say the least – on another more budgeted night we may have gone with just appetizers and wine. But this was a rare date night for new parents. We were going the distance. (I should also mention that this was alongside some fantastic bread, fresh butter and olive oil that could have stood alone)

My wife ordered the pizza. Delightful, authentic crust, generous portions of prosciutto, red onions, sauce and spices that blend and flavor delightfully without dominating. As a real European, she has authority to say what she said afterwards. “Here in America, all the Italian food is Chicago-Italian or New York-Italian. It’s fine and everything, but it is hard to find Italian-Italian.” Antonio’s fit the bill. Yes, she’s from Germany. But as Texas has top-notch Mexican food, southern Germany is peppered with fantastic Italian restaurants. She knows what she’s talking about.

I had a hankering for some pasta and went with the Linguini Calabrese. Wonderful sausage, onion and that perfect tomato sauce, tossed lovingly into linguini noodles. The garlic was present but not overwhelming, and as far as I could tell, the ingredients were fresh. Excellence.

The portions were generous, and though good taste spurred us on, we couldn’t quite clear our plates. But our server corked our wine bottle and gave us boxes, and our movable feast would continue the next day.

We walked away from the restaurant with a sense of satisfaction I don’t often feel. We did not feel like we had a lake of grease cratered in our stomachs. We did not feel as if we couldn’t look at another garlic clove again. We strolled through the the shop, admiring the wine selection, fresh meats, cheeses and gelato. All the while, the full feeling in our bellies didn’t make us groan. It made us smile.

Bene.

Boston’s Beer Culture

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When I was in Boston a couple of weeks ago, I definitely stopped by my share of neighborhood pubs, bars, and restaurants.   It seemed like each one had a pretty decent baseline choice of beer on tap or in bottles.

At the very least, every bar has Sam Adams or Harpoon (the locals) on tap.

When I talked to Boston folks, I was really impressed with the level that beer is a part of the culinary culture of Boston.  It’s just everywhere.

It’s very different than DC.  You could go into DC  bars that just have Coors Light and only in bottle.  It was funny telling this to Bostonians.  They responded like I was coming from a third world country.

So… yeah.  Boston is great for beer.

(Photo by xJasonRogersx)

Boston’s Pizzeria Regina Is So Good I Dream About It

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Not this weekend but last weekend, I was in Boston for work.   The conference was on Saturday so I had some time on Sunday to explore and have fun before I came back to Washington, DC.

I decided to walk through Boston’s North End or what looked like ”Little Italy.”   It was a lot of  narrow and bumpy brick paved streets.  Every corner had some type of shop, cafe or restaurant on it, most of which had some type of amazing smell emanating from it.

Now, I remember 2-3 years ago I was in Boston for a different conference and going to this pizzeria up on the North End but I didn’t remember what its name or where it was exactly.  I just remembered that it was good, that it was in kind of back alley and that it was on the North  End of the city.

And, like wise men getting guided to the stable by the star, I was led just out of muscle memory back to Pizzeria Regina.   It’s at an intersection where three or 4 streets come together.  None of them are particularly busy streets.  You kind of felt like you were wondering through a series of back allies but you knew what was in there was going to be amazing because it was 11am on a Sunday and people were already lining up for it outside.

I decided that I’d come back a little bit later, get a spot at the bar, and enjoy some pizza for lunch.  When I came back, it was just like I remembered it.  The staff was doing everything that they could to stuff as many patrons into the restaurant as possible.   They patrons knew what they were about get was going to be worth it.  It was a delicious brick-oven pizza.

I ordered the white pizza.  (I have an obsession with white pizza.  I’m not sure why.)  I got the small, which was PLENTY of food for one person.  The mix of all the cheeses together with the very good crust in your mouth is just a magical combination.  Really, how can you go wrong with anything with goat cheese on it?  Hah!

All in all it was like $9 and another $4 for a beer.  It was the perfect way to end a great trip.

The next time you’re in Boston, you need to seek out Pizzeria Regina.  You won’t regret it.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/pizzeria-regina-boston-4

Backlogged…

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Per an earlier blog post, I’ve done a lot of traveling over the last week.  I was both in Boston and San Francisco.

While traveling, I definitely went out of my way to make sure that I tried new things and take notes of trends that I saw.  Over the next week, I’ll do my best to go through my notes, clear my backlog, and tell you about my various adventures.

Let me tell you.  There’s something about traveling which gets me especially excited about food & drink.  Every area really has their own culinary language.  You learn so much about the attitude of an area by what kind of food they eat.

So I hope you enjoy my regaling you with my stories.