Kevin72

Rosamarino.

I'm not sure what you're getting at . . . he is of Italian descent and spent 3 years in Emilia Romagna cooking at a well thought-of trattoria. While it's easy to take shots at him now that he's moved into saturation marketing mode, he still remains intensely knowledgeable about Italian regional cooking.

Yes, they just did a big relaunch. If you check out The Dallas Morning News' excellent food and dining blog, they track the changes.

If you're talking about chili oil, yes, put it in a squeeze bottle and toss it in the fridge. You'd be surprised how many uses you'll come up with for it. Pizza of course is as the top. How much caponata do you have left, Tupac? Every time I make it I love it, but wind up having to toss it after eating off it in vain for the next couple weeks.

The last Guidelive review from December 06 (w/o Fearing) was 5/5/4.5.

What happened with the artichokes? I've not tried his recipe specifically, but I do like Carciofi alla Romana. You have to braise the hell out of them, though, and only serve them when a knife tip sinks in easily.

Whoah. That's an uncanny resemblance, Tupac! Good show. That's not like Mario to back down on spice, but then again, his recipes have been notably problematic. I also have seen ingredients in the pic that aren't listed or explained in the dish, too. I went back through the book again recently and was amazed that there was more I wanted to cook out of the Babbo cookbook than this one. I still get frustrated by the redundancy with his other works and that too many recipes are just variations of each other.

Bill Addison reviews Fearing's today: Guidelive Review I usually don't partake in the whole "star" and star system debate, but the four star rating seems too generous here, particularly since the food was only three stars. I'm sure it's been copiously debated elsewhere, but I think that a restaurant can't get more stars overall than the food is rated. Again personally, I'll overlook service and decor if the food is outstanding, but the reverse isn't true. Anyways, if you've been, share your thoughts here as well.

No; from my understanding porcini have an entirely different texture when frozen. These had that telltale fresh sponginess to them. What's the truffle season been like, then, or has that even started out there?

I 2nd Dolce Vita and Goode Co Taqueria. Hugo's serves Mex-Mex food from the interior and is quite an eye opener if he's only used to Tex-Mex. Gravitas is pretty fun, not necessarily in the cheap category but not outrageous, either. Phoenicia Deli is pretty interesting. Ooh! and Kahn's in Rice Village. Got to try that one.

Central carries them occasionally, more typically in the summer. Whole Foods very, very rarely has them. Price ranges from $36/lb all the way up to $69/lb. These, bless the man, were $15/lb. I've looked online for source but keep getting hit with dried porcini instead.

You sat in the regular room; if you do indeed ever go back consider requesting the tasting room (the separate, side room off to the right if you faced the bar). 9 course chef's tasting with a wine matched for each trio of courses. Glad you liked it. There's always that someone in dining groups, isn't there?

Yeah, as beebop suggests, I'd cook the hell out of it and use it in either a pasta or risotto dish.

Scargo, I'd be interested in your thoughts on York St which is neck and neck with me now for favorite "splurge" places in Dallas. If you can't get in at Lola, they may be worth a shot.

Dare I ask how it went?

Porcini Fest! I got these from a local seller who caters to many of our restaurants in the area and who decided to recently open up to the public. He's now my weekly ritual since his storefront is right next door to the big Italian deli in Dallas as well. They were a third or more than the usual price and as you can see they were enormous. Yes, they weren't hills-of-Italy quality and were a little bruised and waterlogged. And maybe it's a mushroom buyer faux pas to get a porcino that big, but how could I not? So we started with the standard grilled porcini salad: I asked the dealer for some suitable greens and he obliged. His microgreens alone are worth the trek. This was probably the most pure porcini flavor of the night. Meaty, smokey, and had that custardy texture in the interior when it's been grilled. Then porcini with homemade pasta: I've heard that parmgiano and mushrooms are looked at in a similar vein to parmigiano and fish: as a general rule, don't do it. But I can't help myself. It's pasta, dammit! But then let me turn around and say that the porcini didn't really come through here. I've made this before with different more commonly available exotic mushrooms (chaunterelle, in particular) and they really shone through. It was still good, but then what wouldn't be when mixed with pasta, olive oil, butter, and parm? The secondo was chicken braised with porcini: Again, the flavor of the mushroom kind of lost out to an otherwise great dish. Well, this is two in a row now where I splurged and got a seasonal exotic ingredient and made an entire meal. Last week I did a black truffle fest inspired by Umbria and the truffle flavors were nonexistent, even though they smelled powerful and divine when I was cooking with them. Maybe I didn't use enough? This was 2 pounds of porcini, so I find that hard to believe.

Well, you'll be in Piemonte during December, which is still white truffle season, so you can't get much better than that! There's plenty of Piemonte discussion threads on the forum, though. If you are wanting to expand your range just a little, when you're talking "epicurian" and "Northern Italy" I think you really owe it to yourself to check out Emilia Romagna, esp. Bologna. Also, do you have a car?

Tasting room or regular room? Interested to hear how it goes!

Good show, LIU! I've made the lamb with oranges before, myself, and left the orange peel and pith on and didn't like it too well; it left a bitter flavor in the sauce (though Mario said that was the appeal to it). I wound up wishing I had just supremed them instead. And yes, you've picked up on the notoriously inaccurate FTV recipe translations from Mario's shows. Unforunately, however, some of those inaccuracies have made their way into his cookbooks, as well.

I've experienced the same problem drying pasta. And if they don't get brittle, they get mold on them. So I freeze pasta instead. I've done it with orecchiette and it's fine. You're not going to achieve the same texture and quality as artisinal dried pasta, but they have their own appeal anyways.

Third time's a charm: Lola this time was the strongest experience we've had. We did the prixe fixe again, not the tasting room, and had 4 dishes. The only one even slightly subpar was a too-orangey cannolli. I had superb oysters, a scallop with an intense, flavorful mushroom and fennel mixture, and then a plate of pork: smoked tenderloin, braised belly, blood sausage . . . all over a bed of lentils. Excellent. No service issues this time and they explained the amuse brought to the table. Maybe they got the feedback after all?

Many of their cheeses seem to have a more "buttery" flavor and texture, which I've grown to like in most cases except their mozarrella. I've had Italian scamorza before, for instance, and it's more aged and firm and lean. Also they are averse to selling their mozzarella fresh: I went to the storefront one day and specifically requested a ball of mozarella that had just been made and they said they had to let their cheeses sit for at least 3 days before selling them. That hints at a different production method since Italian mozarrella (er, fior di latte) is supposedly best within 24 hours of production. Finally, their montasio is made with goat's milk and to the best of my knowledge it's a cow's milk cheese in Italy.

I almost got the Buratta the other day but I didn't because it didn't really look like buratta? I say that being a person of very limited buratta knoledge so I could be missing on this? ← Like alot of their cheeses, if you step away from the Italian product and judge the cheese on its own merits it's pretty good. It isn't comparable to real Italian buratta, but it has it's own appeal. The filling is more like ricotta than cream and curds, for instance.

Yesss! What is it with cutting in line in Italy?! And it's so blatant! We've literally been elbowed aside so someone can wedge themselves into a perfectly orderly line. What's the protocol there? Can you call them on it? Anyways, what fantastic pictures and what gracious hosts Judith and Jeff are. Beautiful food and sites as always. Thank you for sharing.

I'm a fan of their smoked scamorzza, too. And they really should start marketing their buratta more; it's divine. Oddly, however, I don't like their mozarella as much.