Fried Mozzarella

Near Piazza del Popolo in Rome, there is a small cute Sicilian place (close to the metro Flaminio entrance). Food are cooked daily and placed behind the glass. People order them for lunch and eat at small table stands (only have 3).

I had fried mozzarella and it is delicious! Never thought about deep-frying cheese would taste so good! I also had typical Sicilian pasta, which looks like small circles, with tomato sauce and bread crumble on top.

Parmesan cheese with truffle honey

I tried it for the first time in Rome and I love it!!
Parmesan cheese with truffle flavored honey, simple but delicious! I have never thought about eating cheese with honey!

Cheese Salad - Crottin de Chavignol (Brussels)

A perfect flavorful balanced lunch salad with raisins, nuts and cheese: Crottin de Chavignol. I am starting to love the cheese!

“Crottin de Chavignol is the most famous goat cheese of the many varieties produced in the Loire Valley. This cheese is the claim to fame for the village of Chavignol, France, which has only two hundred inhabitants.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crottin_de_Chavignol



And I like their mineral water bottle design.

Italian appetizers

A friend Simone prepared typical Italian appetizers for me: tomato, buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto (Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served uncooked) and anchovies (small, common salt-water fish).

“Anchovies are abundant in the Mediterranean, and are regularly caught on the coasts of Sicily, Italy, France, and Spain. They are also found on the coast of northern Africa. When preserved by being gutted and salted in brine, matured, and then packed in oil or salt, they acquire a characteristic strong flavor. In Roman times, they were the bases for the fermented fish sauce called garum that was a staple of cuisine and an item of long-distance commerce produced in industrial quantities, and were also consumed raw as an aphrodisiac. Today they are used in small quantities to flavor many dishes.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchovy

I love Buffalo mozzarella a lot even since I first tried it in Rome.

“Buffalo mozzarella (Italian: mozzarella di bufala) is a mozzarella cheese made from the milk of the domestic water buffalo rather than from cow's milk. ”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozzarella_di_Bufala_Campana

To accompany the appetizers, my friend also made me a drink with liquor, blood orange and ice cubes. But to be honest, I am not much an alcohol drink. It tastes too bitter for me.

Beef with arugula – a Roman dish

I am so lucky to meet Alberto (grown up in Rome) in Milan, and even better he cooked a roman dish for me: Straccetti con la rughetta ("tattered" strips of beef with arugula). Lean sirloin is cut into thin strips and browned quickly in a skillet, and a mess of arugula is tossed in at the last minute, just to wilt it.

I was very surprised to discover the technique of wilting arugula. I always put them in salad and never thought about other way of cooking it. The dish is simply amazing combination between strong beef flavor and rich, peppery arugula. It is very simple to cook as well:

http://www.recipelink.com/mf/3/10883

“The term arugula (variations of Italian dialects) is used by the Italian diaspora in Australia and North America and from there picked up as a loan word to a varying degree in American and Australian English, particularly in culinary usage.

It is rich in vitamin C and potassium. It has been grown in the Mediterranean area since Roman times, and is considered an aphrodisiac.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arugula

That is just one dish. We also had ravioli with zucchini and 2 year-old Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano in Italian). It is my first time to try a 2 year-old true Parmigiano from Parma where they produce it. The traditional marking with the inscription in full “Parmigiano - Reggiano” is impressed along the side of the whole cheese and enables the identification even on small pieces. The flavor is rich, nutty and a slightly gritty texture. I would through away all my cloth to empty the luggage and bring back home some true Parmigiano. A dinner like that makes all worries go away! Of course we had red wine too!

“Parmigiano-Reggiano is a hard, fat granular cheese, cooked but not pressed, named after the producing areas of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna, and Mantova, in Lombardy, Italy.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmigiano-Reggiano

The link also explains how the real Parmesan is made- quite amazing process.

Market in Turin

Every market is different for me and I always enjoy visiting them while traveling. My friend told me that they deliver fishes from Sicily to Turin by airplane; therefore, you can get freshest fish in Turin. The fish market is fully of people at weekend. It was quite an amazing place to visit.
Out of the fish market, there are other parts sell fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. The market is huge and it seems ever end. I was so delighted when I saw they are selling cherry blossoms. It was the beginning of March. It was still very chill but the cherry blossoms represent spring for me. While spring in Toronto does not come till May, I felt really lucky to see them in March.

Funky cheese in Genova

At weekend I went to Genova, one hour by train from Milan, a city close to the seashore. I was wandering around the weekend open-air market in the center and saw many amazing funky cheeses. Like other Asian tourists, I can’t help to take tons of pictures of those “alien food”. Of course, the Italians were laughing at me. They were joking about 5 euro for each picture. They are so kind and let me take all pictures without buying anything. Not like those low-mannered Chinese just yell at me: no pics!