Marco_Polo
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Posts posted by Marco_Polo
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The aim is to get the butter not quite melted, thus creamy, bacon warm, and the marmalade as the ultimate foil.
The ultimate foil.
Slacker, so far it has gone without comment (Curly? Circe? Moby?) that your perfect bacon buttie has, in lieu of the hallowed and sacred brown sauce (of whichever brand, hey, we're a broad church here), um, er, did I read this right: Tiptree marmalade??
That sounds an awesome and interesting combo: sweet and bitter and chewy in lieu of the smooth, tart and sweet spice of the brown.
I can't wait to try it!
MP
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They moved everything as there was a problem with the monks!
Do you think, perchance, that they (those always thirsty monks) were padding down to the cellars at night just to see how the wines were developing?! If I happened to be living above the shop, I sure wouldn't be able to resist...
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They can't use the Abbey anymore I believe!
Is that so, Divina? If true that would be a shame. The Antinori used to age Tignanello and Solaia in French barriques in the vaulted cellars of the Badia a Passignano. Very atmospheric and perfect conditions for the wine.
Eljo, if you're in this area, a good place to hunt down (and it will take some hunting) is the Cantinetta di Rignana, located down a tiny strada bianca (unpaved back country lane) that runs roughly from Badia a Passignano to Panzano. Good simple Tuscan foods, including crostini in 16 modi, and an authentically prepared and cooked bistecca alla fiorentina. Call in advance in case it's shut: address Loc. Rignana, telephone was 055/852601.
MP
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Well it's certainly relative. We were at Matelote last September and we detested it. The service was ungracious and incompetent. The food could not be described as one star quality. The fish was overcooked and poorly presented. The composition was poor, with plates looking a jumbled mess and combinations that did not work for us.
We left angry.
Mmmnnn, had a similar experience ourselves at La Matelote, but as it was a few years back I hesitated to report it. Problem is, the place inevitably is filled up these days with day tripper foodies, hot off the hovercraft or ferry in search of an instant fine-French-food-fix. The staff even back then seemed jaded and cynical; the food was frankly mediocre; the (mainly British I'm afraid) clientele pompous and undeserving.
I can confirm that the Auberge de la Grenouillere is a delightful place, a truly idyllic French country inn. Just four beautiful bedrooms, and an atmospheric beamed dining room decorated with frescoes that illustrate a fable by La Fontaine in which an impreccably dressed frog eats and eats until he explodes. Chef proprietor Roland Gauthier is talented and respects the traditions and produce of Nord-Pas de Calais with menus that reflect both land and sea. I don't have a 2004 Michelin but I'm pretty sure the place has one star. If not, then it certainly deserves one.
MP
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That's the La Matelote just across from "Nausicaa", the aquarium and marine life centre, right?
The eating options in Nausicaa are fairly basic but worth noting. Where else but in France, for example, would you, after touring a ultramodern and impressive aquarium and marine life centre, end up feeling peckish for, um er, a little bit of fish or shellfish.
It's worth coming here for local mussels, a plateaux des fruits de mer, or something more substantial like a choucroute de poissons. Or just hang out in the bar and linger over a half dozen huitres and a large glass of Alsatian wine (or two).
MP
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An easy day trip is to visit the wine zone of Carmignano. You can rent bicycles and cycle to Artemino (big climb to the top helps work up a healthy appetite), visit the Medici villa, and enjoy lunch in a sensational restaurant not to be missed, Da Delfina. Also visit Poggio a Caiano (another Medici villa), Carmignano itself (worth popping into the Church of San Michele to see the famous but weird mannerist 'Visitation' by Pontormo), Etruscan tombs in Comeana on the Calvria wine estate, the Cappezzana wine estate (appointment necessary for visit), and the wine estate of Bacchereto, which also has a great farmhouse restaurant, the Cantina di Toia, located in the house Lucia di Zosa, Leonardo da Vinci's maternal grandmother. Good traditional foods, some cooked in woodfired bread oven, and great wines.
The Chianti Rufina wine zone, to the north of Florence, is also worth visiting. Far less visited than the Chianti Classico, it is located on a steep balcony of hills and is stunning countryside combined with sensational and still somewhat undervalued wines. The Museo della Vite e del Vino in Rufina itself is a good point of reference.
Just outside of Florence, it's worth the trip to Lastra a Signa to eat at the Antica Trattoria Sanesi for authentic, well prepared bistecca alla fiorentina in a typical Tuscan eating house.
MP
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She told me to marinate the chicken in teriyaki sauce overnight then fry it haole style - breaded. My haole classmates and friends loved it!
Sounds excellent, Pake! Your post reminds me of my Korean grandmother (who came to Hawaii as a picture bride in the 1920s when she was only 16). She was a great cook and used to talk about making things 'haole style'. Or when something was really good, she'd say 'Even haoles like this.'
We do a lot of cooking 'haole style'.
MP
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Barolo 2000
in Wine
Not all Barolo need be exhorbitantly expensive. Small winegrowers who in past generations sold their grapes to the larger houses (and sometimes still do when the need arises) are now making and bottling their own wines that can be exceptional - and available at a fraction of the stratospheric prices that wines from the superstars fetch.
An example: Mario Fontana of Cascina Fontana has Nebbiolo vineyards on the cru sites of Villero and Valleti in the commune of Castiglione Falleto, adjacent, in fact, to the privileged vineyards of Bruno Cerreto. These vineyards have been in Mario's family for generations. He, his wife Luisa and his mother work the vineyards by hand themselves; they harvest and make the wine in the traditional manner (not capello sommerso but seeking full extract to result in wines with tannin, fruit and power), age in large Slavonian oak casks, bottle when ready to drink, and sell almost their entire production to private customers. In fact, Mario regularly loads up his van and delivers his wines direct to customers in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and, yes, Devon, England.
I'm currently drinking the 1996 and the 1998. The '96 is a massive wine with the chewy and complex character of aged Nebbiolo at its best; the '98 is more supple, with an underlyng backbone of tannins that are sweet and not in the least aggressive, providing structure to a gorgeous harmony of dense fruit and vegetal aromas and flavours. Of course it's still young, but gorgeously approachable and enjoyable even now. I don't think the 2000 is yet released (I'll check with Mario) but I'm sure it too will be good. If it's not, in any case, he doesn't make Barolo, preffering instead to declassify to produce an always superlative Nebbiolo d'Alba.
Mario's Barolo (produced in very limited quantity) is currently selling in the UK for about 15 pounds a bottle, which I think is very good value (available from execellars). The Dolcetto d'Alba and Barbera d'Alba wines are also worth considering - I adore the Barbera and knock the stuff back in frighteningly prodigious quantity as our everyday house wine (well, it's not just me, honest - my wife loves it too).
MP
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Well, I think there are two ways you can go with the discovery (of Miracle Whip in your casserole, of a well-trained monkey in your bed, etc.) One is that you can allow it to change your perception of the experience: "Oh gosh, in my view of the world Miracle Whip/monkey-sex is loathesome and disgusting, and my view of the world is absolute, infallible, and unchanging, therefore I did NOT in fact enjoy this experience. Nope nope nope."
The other way is to allow the experience to function as a wake-up call, a suggestion that perhaps your view of the world is NOT infallible and perhaps should NOT be unchanging. That conversation might go like this: "Well well well, I guess there are more things in heaven and on earth, Hubert, than are dreamt of in your philosopy." In other words, you can allow the experience to expand your perception of yourself, and your capacity to enjoy things you had previously categorized as unenjoyable.
Personally, I get a major bang out of being happily surprised and having my (many) snobberies successfully challenged.
Have been struggling to make sense of this thread, but Mags, your post clarifies all.
As a resolution, I'm going to try and be more open-minded and challenge my preconceptions, starting right now. Tracking down Miracle Whip might not be too hard a place to start (on the other hand it could be, considering where I live), but the real problem is, how on earth am I ever gonna find that extraordinary monkey?
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We get kale often through the winter months in our weekly organic vegetable box from Riverford.
One of my favourite ways to enjoy it is cooked with pasta Southern-Italian style. This is what I do.
1. De-stalk the kale and roughly chop, then parboil until just tender. Add a chopped potato or two to the pot while your cooking it.
2. Meanwhile slice 4 cloves of fat garlic and stew in extra-virgin olive oil together with a chopped chilli or two (or some dried chilli pepper flakes). Add the cooked kale and potatoes to the mixture, then a glass of white wine or a cup of broth, season with salt and pepper, cover and allow to cook until tender (I do this in a wok). Sometimes the mixture goes almost mushy, like a dense vegetable sauce, other times we eat while everything still hangs together: both ways are good.
3. Cook some pasta (I like penne rigate or you can use something like orecchiette) al dente. When done, add to the kale medley, turn up the heat and toss to mix well. At this point you may need to add a ladle of chicken stock or broth, or perhaps some more olive oil. Serve in bowls, with a good dribble of your best extra-virgin olive oil on top. Definitely no parmigiano or pecorino: this is a no-cheese pasta.
Enjoy with a good, gutsy bottle of Puglian wine, say a Salice Salentino, Copertino or a dense, jammy Primitivo di Manduria.
MP
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Had to go out this morning to Staples to buy some office supplies (as one does on a Tue morning when you should be doing other things but can't quite get around to it - the life of a freelance). Staples shares a car park with B & Q and what do I spy as I pull in: a greasy-spoon trailer set up in the middle of the car park called, wait for it, Yummy Tummy. It was festooned with signs for 'All day breakfast' 'Black pudding 40p' 'Bacon rolls' etc etc...
How could I resist? The result, admittedly would not be worth getting on a train from Paddington to Exeter St Davids for, but it was not too shabby all the same: flat, floury white bap, three rashers of rindless back bacon cooked on a griddle but still nice and floppy and with a good ridge of fat (I don't have a problem with fat, love the stuff), and genuine HP sauce on offer (not some lableless cash & carry abomination).
I scarfed it pretty quickly anyway, standing up outside in the cold beside the trailer. If I'm being ultra-critical (as one must), the bread wasn't quite airy and insubstantial enough, rather claggy and dense. NO BUTTER, a very serious omission. And HP just ain't quite the same as Daddies, is it? 5/10
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...which must be made with soft square white sliced totally processed to hell no fibre no goodness bread. Any deviation from this is actually punishable by law.
I agree with curlywurlyfi though I reserve the right to the added possible deviation: a mushy, manufactured, processed white roll (which said humble item after all is what began this thread) is also permissible.
Come to think of it, there is another significant variation (though I admit it really is another beast altogether): the 'bacon and egg buttie'. That is, add a fried egg, sunny-side-up, yolk still runny, white just set from a dribble or two of the hot bacon fat spooned over, a grind or two of salt and pepper, on to the generously buttered manufactured, processed white bread or roll, along with the fried middle-and-back dry-cured bacon and a big, really big dollop of brown sauce.
That way, when you take a two-fisted bite, not only the butter (melted from the hot bacon fat), but also the yellow egg yolk and the vinegary brown sauce dribbles down your chin, sometimes all down the front of your shirt or blouse, too.
But then, as Moby has indicated above, this is food to eat outdoors, standing around, say in the North Car Park of Twickenham before a match, or after cooking on a camp stove at Mother Ivy's Bay, Cornwall, or just in the garden on a warm spring (we live in hope) morning.
MP
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So the question is, did you gain weight after the ride.
Thanks GG and Yellow.
GG, sorry to hear you experienced the dreaded bonk big time. Sounds like you nearly got it spot on if it only happened five miles from the finish. Hope you've got some good rides planned this year.
As for weight, believe it or not, I actually dropped a couple of pounds (not from dehydration either). But I'm sure it will be back on soon as I've been eating almost non-stop ever since...
Speaking of which, I'm a firm believer in the calories-in, energy-expended school of weight management. Eat more energy than you expend, gain weight; burn more calories than you eat, weight loss. Never could really understand anything else. Food combining, Atkins, this-or-that-flavour-of-the-month, all way to complicated for me, though they might work for others. For me it's simple: eat whatever you like, exercise like a madman.
MP
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But who eats uncooked cod? I'd imagine it makes the worst possible sashimi.
Never found the little critters myself, and what a posh name for them?!
As for 'uncooked' cod, in fact, Miguel, we do eat it from time to time. Cod is much maligned and said to be boring, but when it is really fresh it is incredibly sweet (which is why fish & chips, when well-made from really fresh fish can be sublime).
I buy cod from our local fishmonger Derek when he tells me that it's just landed and use it to make a Mexican-style ceviche. Not really raw, but thinly sliced (with all the bones picked out with tweezers if necessary), then 'cooked' in lime juice for about 3-4 hours, until the flesh is no longer translucent but turned a beautiful milky white, then mixed with jalapeños, tomato, cilantro, garlic, what else? oh yeah a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Serve in sundae glasses with soda crackers.
But creepy-crawlies? Eek. If I spot the little buggers wriggling out of the next slab of cod I buy believe me it'll be pitched straight into the bin. And after Adam's post, I'm sure going to be putting on my specs to have a closer look.
BTW, we also adore the above ceviche made from just-caught mackerel, which when really fresh, i.e. within hours or better still minutes of coming from the sea is a sensational fish, seafresh, firm, not at all fishy in taste. Also good good quickly gutted, then sprinkled with rock salt and thrown over a charcoal fire for no more than a minute or two a side, just to char the silvery black skin and lightly cook the flesh. Sprinkle with lemon and eat with your fingers.
MP
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Wait a moment, please. Another Yank asking for an explanation:
Marco_Polo mentioned a "PBB" --
huh? surely not Peanut Butter and Bacon?Hi Suzanne, sorry to have confused the issue. PBB simply stands (in my lexicon) for the 'perfect bacon buttie', the quest for which is never ending.
The best bacon? Dry-cured Cumberland from Bar Woodall's, Waberthwaite.
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Marco_Polo I hope you are ready for your ride. I know how it feels to do the first ride of the year. I hope that you have enough miles under your belt so far this year to do a 124 miler.
Well, I managed to do the Lanes and Valleys 200K yesterday, first long ride of the season, and survived.
I'm not particularly proud of the following, in fact it's rather appalling to put down in black-and-white an historical record of all the junk and gunk and sugar that I scoffed. But in the interests of eGullet, I made a careful note of everything that I ate and drank along the way (as well as before and after).
For the record, this is what I ate and drank:
For breakfast (6am at home): Big bowl of leftover spaghetti alla amatriciana (with pancetta and chillies) topped with grated farmhouse cheddar and baked in the oven. Pint of water. Cappuccino.
30 minutes before the 8am start in Clover Leaf Cafe, Honiton: 1 egg salad sandwich + 1 cup of tea with sugar (never normally have sugar in tea, only when I'm cycling)
1 Fruit & Fibre bar + 1 bottle Lucozade Sport lemon (while riding up to km 21, a lovely route to the south coast at Budleigh Salterton)
1 hot croissant (at km 21 control in Budleigh)
1 homebaked flapjack + 1 bottle of water (while riding up to km 58)
Pot of tea and big wedge of homemade fruitcake (at km 58 tea stop control in Tiverton)
1 homebaked flapjack + 2 bottles water (while riding to km 108 - tough leg into the wind, climbing to the top of Exmoor, very hard work - ride overall had nearly 6000 feet climbing)
Bottle of orange juice + packet of salted potato crisps (at km 108 control in pub – could not face the roast carvery lunch at the Royal Castle pub, Dunster - dominant smell was of overboiled cabbage, the place was heaving with locals and it was very hot - we escaped as quickly as we could)
Farmhouse cheddar and Branston pickle sandwich + 1 bottle Lucozade Sport pink grapefruit (km 115) (the Branston pickle was a serious but not catastrophic mistake)
Packet of salted potato crisps + 1 homebaked flapjack + 1 bottle of water (km 158)
1 bottle of water (while riding to finish)
At finish at Clover Leaf Cafe, Honiton (5.20pm): pot of tea (with milk and sugar), bowl of hot soup and bread roll and butter
1 hour after finish (at pub) 2 pints of Draught Bass, packet of crisps, packet of salted peanuts, 1 pint of Branoc (you may wonder why the Bass then the Branoc - reason, quite simply, was that my favourite pub, The Bridge, was shut until 7, so we had to go to another pub while we waited for it to open; good though Bass can be, Branoc from the Branscombe Brewery is one of the most deliciously quenching beers in the world)
At home: roast chicken with roasted vegetables on a bed of rocket. Glass of Italian red wine (Rosso di Montefalco)
Apart from the first and last items, this was a pretty rotten-sounding diet and probably difficult to understand for non-cyclists. But constant energetic activity for nine-hours plus makes massive demands on the body, which simply needs to be refueled. I would have liked a hot meal somewhere along the way, but nonetheless the constant eating and drinking kept me going pretty well. It was a hard ride but I never got the dreaded 'bonk' (which happens when your muscles run out of glycogen as an energy source - believe me, it's a terrible feeling).
Point is, I suppose, on such occasions, any thoughts of good or real food normally go out the window as you try desperately simply to refuel in order to keep going. And frankly, I prefer the above to munching sports bars, or sucking down gel or other 'scientific' performance foods.
It's a pretty poor admission to make on this site, but we're talking about no more than food as fuel. At its most basic level, that is really what it is all about for all of us, isn't it? Staying alive. Keeping going.
MP
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HP Sauce is a thick fairly fruity thick brown sauce...HP once stood for Houses of Parliament...I prefer it to Daddy's. Either is essential for a bacon butty.
Brand of brown is of course a personal preference, but I'm glad we agree that it is an essential element of the bacon butty...
And of course we should mention, in the great panoply of brown sauces, the sub-variety known as 'fruity sauce'. Not my favourite, I hasten to add, but in a pinch, I've been known to shake out a good dollop or two of HP Fruity or even, yes, Tescos own-brand Fruity Sauce to rescue a bacon butty from the dustbin of oblivion. Not quite the same tang of pure brown but better than nuffin'.
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Bacon roll is just that... bacon roly-poly, which is a suet pudding, or a bacon butty which is between buttered sliced white bread...
Good god, the wonders of the Internet never cease to amaze me.
Jackal's authoritative definition of a bacon roll, bacon roly-poly, and bacon butty made me do a Google to see if I've had it wrong all these years (which is quite possible, believe me).
What do I discover? Brownsauce.net, 'the site dedicated to bacon butties'. What next?
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A bacon roll - butter, bacon, and if your a 'soft southern sh--e' like me, plenty of ketchup.
Ketchup? Nah, at least not for me: the perfect bacon buttie has got to have brown sauce, preferably Daddy's. And the roll (white of course, no other will do) has got to be slathered with butter so that when the hot bacon is added, the butter melts and dribbles down your chin as you devour it (along with aforementioned Daddy's sauce).
MP
PS. My kids, perhaps by dint of having been born and raised in the *soft* West Country, both prefer ketchup in their vision of the PBB. Perhaps I like brown sauce because I first had a bacon buttie cooked by then-to-be mother-in-law, who is a Midlander (not just a Midlander, a Brummie though no one in the family would actually admit to it).
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Hungry, I cant even eat a half dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. Are there Krispy Kreme's in the UK.
Indeed they have. Fiona Beckett, the food-and-wine matching author, in her latest Match Report, states that the definitive combination is, wait for it, Krug and Krispy Kreme.
Now if such sustenance were to be offered on the Tour de Donut...
Reminds me of the Bordeaux Marathon where runners are offered glasses of fine claret at the stops in lieu of water. My wife, who prefers running to cycling (that's an understatement), and who has run the Paris Marathon, has always had a hankering to do the Bordeaux.
MP
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Tour de France, forget it.
Tour de Donut.
Thanks, Yellow Truffle! You made my day. This about the funniest thing I've read in ages.
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For skinny people, bicyclists do gorge on substantial amounts of food
Mmmnnnn, there does seem to be a definite connection between love of cycling and love of eating. Come to think of it, one of the main reasons I cycle what many (but not me) consider to be an absurd numbers of miles is so that I can eat in what some (but not me) might consider outrageous quantity. The reason I eat in outrageous quantity is so that I can cycle further...
I cycle therefore I eat
or is it
I eat therefore I cycle?
An eGullet team for an eGullet century? Sounds great. Who's cooking?
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And nerves of steel. I put away plateaux des fruit de mer, steak tartare, raw egg mayonnaise, sashimi . . . But I steer clear of rare chicken and pork.
I can confirm firsthand John's intrepid approach to eating. But what, my friend, what on earth induced even you to purchase shellfish from a supermarket close enough to its sell-by date to be reduced in price?? With some things - for example, well, how 'bout tins of baked beans, what else? - it doesn't really matter if you purchase up to or even over the sell-by date, does it. But fish or shellfish? Um, er, John, brave is not the word that comes to mind.
Sad thing is, even if you had pounced on that packaged shellfish medley the day it was first put out on the shelves, it would probably have tasted not one bit better...
I'm sure the above comments are correct and that such foods are treated, pasteurised, sanitised, whatever, so that they will cause minimal harm at the expense of loss of any flavour that they ever had. Or else, they are doomed from the moment they are caught, like those flavourless scallops that are deep-frozen at sea and which look beautiful plump until you cook them, at which point they shrivel away to tasteless nothingness.
MP
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Has anyone else encountered a post ride feast by the sponsor like that one...What are some of your better tasting pre, during, post ride meals prepared by the sponsors?
Actually, yellow truffle, there's an epic ride in the Heartland that I've wanted to do for years, RAGBRAI, the Ride Across Iowa. A friend in Washington DC does it every year and he has said that the food all across the state is fantastic: simple, homecooked, filling, delicious. In fact he's gone so far as to say that it is worth the cycle just for the homemade FRUIT PIES.
Have you done this or do you know anyone who can confirm my friend's opinion on the pies? He's usually quite reliable, I add, and is a true aficionado of both cycling and food -- he came over to Britain two years ago to ride the Nello century (not least because of the post-ride feast), and while he was here, he got married -- the day before the ride. (I was never entirely sure that his wife was over-the-moon to have to cycle a hundred miles the day after the wedding...)
MP
(edited to add link for RAGBRAI)
Filled Roll
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Mmmnnn, rereading the thread reminds that marmalade is indeed is indeed a feature of the breakfast buttie...but what, how did this pass without comment, 'slathered in English mustard'? Surely you jest, CurleyWurly? Marmalade or no marmalade, how you can you consume anything 'slathered in English mustard'? English mustard is blow-your-head-off stuff and definitely not for the faint-hearted. We've had a small jar of Colman's for what, nearly 20 years, and we've hardly made a dent in it...(and believe me, I buy and consume chillies by the metric tonne).
MP