Franci

Thanks nickrey, I put it on my list

Scottyboy, this picture is beautiful! This is exactly my son kind of meal. Also the "stelline" pasta are his favourite.

Not all the quick cooking polenta are the same as well. Valsugana is pretty bad, Moretti precooked is decent. I'll add that the thickness of the polenta is very personal too. I never follow the instructions on packages. I bring some water to boil, add salt (and try the water, need to be just right to me), lower it to simmer and start pouring the polenta in a thin stream, while whisking. I personally stop when looks custard creamy, it will get stiffer. At the beginning the polenta will splatter, so carefull . Even the quickcooking a generally cook longer, 8-10 minutes, stirring. I make sure the bottom of the pan has a nice crust and I can smell "cooked" polenta. Then dip a spatula in water and gather the polenta and flip on a wooden board. I like to cover with a dump towel to give a nice shape to it.

Can I borrow your words, Heidi? Thanks for the idea. Now there are going to be plenty good lemons around. I surely want to try this.

Oh, I forgot to show you what we broght home!!! Greetings from Monaco

We got home late in the afternoon. To tell you the truth, left with little energy for cooking... I'm very grateful to the Italian service: my fishmonger cleaned all the fish for me, included the tiny anchovies I bought! I only had to rinse the fish and fry. And although I didn't feel like putting much effort into dinner, we cannot go without some vegetables. A plate of cucumber, tomatoes and pepper was good enough for the family. Thanks everybody for following, I had a lot of fun blogging and I hope you have enjoyed it too

One more stop to a supermarket to buy some salumi, cheese and pasta.

When eating in Ventimiglia we are left with two options: pizza or Ristorante Hanbury We like it for many reasons: we can eat outside so feels less formal, the children can walk around if they are done eating and the food is good. Local food, maily fish, not boring and it tastes great. We are welcomed with a little pizza plate She is definitely more interested in the food than her brother My husband got as antipasto a "crudo di pesce" and the house antipasto for me. Some warm potato and octopus, saute' scallop and shrimp, baccala' mantecato (very good!) and some fried anchovies. Good seasoning, perfect temperature at the table, delicious. Then spaghetti with vongole for the husband And spaghetti with langoustine for me, shared with the children. Well executed.

Hi Kay! The wines span between 5 euros to 300 euros, which really represents the range of Italian wines. In Liguria, and for the French consumer, the prestigious Piemontese wines (e.g. Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, Nebbiolo, and Docetto) are prominent and take high prices. Some of the super Tuscans are also represented and expensive. Fortunately, there are also some good regional wines, especially whites, that are available. For example, Valpolicella (bad name in the States) are actually excellent, along with its cousin Amarone. There are also wines from where I grew up in Puglia (e.g. Primitivo di Manduria aka Zinfandel, Salice Salentino) that cost 5 euros. The Italian whites deserve special mention. I don't think any other country quite have the variety of whites that still exist in Italia. I can name Roero Arneis in Piemonte, Pigato and Vermentino in Liguria, Vernaccia in Cinque Terre, Lugana and Soave in Veneto, Falanghina and Greco di Tufo in Campania. My husband usually gets 12 bottles at a time from Ventimiglia - 2 barbera d'asti, 2 nebbiolo, 1 dolcetto, 1 primitivo, 1 salice salentino, 1 nobile montepulciano, 1 barolo, 2 lugana, 1 roero arneis.

Next stop was the liquor store. I don't know how many liquor stores there are in Ventimiglia. Many. Many. Distribution is set in a way that once you cross the border you cannot find such a variety of Italian wines. We talked about this over lunch my husband and I. He is the one who does the shopping for wine and he has been very impressed with Ventimiglia. He has not seen such a place where you find wines for all over Italy, with such detail, and very good ones.

At the far end of the market they sell fish. Cod tripe, anybody?

Plants, here tomatoes More vegetables Dried mushrooms and dried tomatoes by these guys. Porcini and black summer truffle Many deli stalls on the side Nuts

Cheese mostly from Piedmont Honey, also coming from the mountains in Piedmont Some bakeries/pasta stalls. In Liguria they are big on ravioli (meat or borage filling and trofie with pesto) A pastry shop

Ventimiglia is a small town at the border, a working class town. Bordighera and Sanremo are closer to people's idea of charming places on the Riviera. Not Ventimiglia. But it is convenient for us to shop for food and wine. This is the entrance to the market Saturday morning is very crowded, full of Italian and French shoppers. One aisle is taken mostly by farmers cardoons borage wild dandelion wild fennel prepared minestrone fresh beans Trombetta everywhere, which cost 8 euros in France and Monaco

Hello! Sorry it took me so long to get back, it has been a long day, spent mostly shopping for food and eating. Today I got up and was out of eggs. Sometimes I treat myself with a middle eastern style breakfast (I loved Hassouni or Nikki beatiful breakfast in Beirut) but let's say that I didn't have much in the fridge. So I got a tomato and cucumber salad and some feta with pain au levain. The red mullets are dredged in a mix of fine cornmeal and flour. The artichokes are dipped in a simple batter of eggs and flour, fairly thick. I use peanut oil for frying. I deep fry (in a wok) first the artichokes and secondly the fish. I don't think there is a particular policy on discarding oil here, when I use a lot of oil once cool I pour back in the bottle and goes in the general garbage, if the oil is not much I admit I drain down the toilet.

Oh, thanks Scudadoo97! You are very nice . I kept my food very simple and I try to cook what I know is liked in my house, in fact, tonight dinner has already been seen to egulleters on the "dinner thread". Two things my husband is particularly found of: fried fish and fried artichokes. I generally like much smaller red mullets for frying but these were still pretty good. and I think I'm going to be done with artichokes for a while, they were still sweet but time to replace them with zucchini blossoms which strangely I couldn't find this morning

The children already had their dinner The sole was very nice Served with oven roasted chips. My daughter ate half of the fish, my son ate the potatoes We are going to have a late dinner. Tomorrow morning we are going to Italy. Please, let me know if you are curious of particular aspects. There is a big vegetable market, one side dedicated especially to farmers. In the far back the fish section and on the sides some general stalls (salumi, fresh pasta and butchers). Ventimiglia is also full of wine stores, they make most of their profits with the French and Monaco shoppers.

Today the weather is very nice and warm. I decided to bring the girl down to the beach in the afternoon By the beach there are many snack places and little restaurants. A relaxing atmosphere From here, facing the beach, I couldn't take pictures, it was too bright. So I had to move on a little bit, to the next restaurant We decided to stop at the last coffee place on the way out for an ice cream A couple more weeks and here is going to be very crowded

On Friday I can have someone bringing in fish from Ventimiglia. Today I got a big red mullet, enough for pasta for me and my daughter. A sole that is going to be childrens' dinner and half a kg of small red mullets to fry for my husband and I. Here is the red mullet for our lunch I filleted the fish and used the head and bones for a quick fumet. Some EVOO and garlic, trimmings and head, some cherry tomatoes, parsley stalks, deglazed with white wine, water and quick cooking for 10 minutes. Strained the sauce and put on the side. I cut the fillets in bite sizes and saute them in garlic and EVO, plus cherry tomatoes, some black olive and the fish stock Saute' some spaghetti in the sauce, dusted with chopped parsley. Done. It was nice And the head it's for me

This morning I went to the bakery and got a couple pains au chocolat for breakfast and some bread to make a roll for my son's trip with the school. Then, I went to the Beausoleil market. Around there are also 2-3 little Asian stores, where I get some bottle sauces or sushi rice, very limited selection. I especially don't feel like buying their vegetables

Heidi, they were steamed for 20 minutes. Differently than the green asparagus they need peeling and longer cooking. The taste is also quite milder sometimes with a bitter note. One time I tried some white asparagus brought from people living around Padua, they were amazing, so much better than other white asparagus I tried. So I think sourcing the right product is very important in this case to really have a good experience. I would like to be able to answer in a more specific way to your question, Linda. Reality is that I've really not dining out much since we got here and especially in Monaco. We go either to Nice for fruit de mer or to Italy for pizza...And I don't know what my neighbors do. I know that most people here don't stay in Monaco all the time, they travel and have properties all over the world. So if they get bored with the local fair they surely have the opportunity to go to fancy restaurants elsewhere. I don't have the impression that people is very much interested into food. There is not a high-end supermarket. Hassouni, I'd love to cook more Chinese food especially because I don't go out for Chinese here and I miss it but my Chinese husband doesn't want to eat Chinese food that much I don't want my children to perceive Chinese food as foreign...but so far my son dislike the taste of soy sauce. This morning I took a couple pictures of my local little store for Asian ingridients...another reason I don't cook much asian food.

So far, I've bought heirloom tomatoes only two times. The black crimea you have seen in the teaser picture and a beef heart. The black tomato was disappointing, very mealy. The coeur de beouf was decent, with a good smell but still not that tasty. So far the only tomatoes I found good are the small "datterini", little dates (last picture from the open market, next to the trombetta zucchini. Today was a rough day. The little one didn't sleep in the afternoon, so I didn't have time to make something I had in mind: rendering beef fat. In the fridge I keep many different fats, I was out of tallow, so the other day, from Formia, I got some fat to render (they forgot and didn't keep for me the best option but I guess it is still ok). The girl was of course very irritable for the rest of the day. I decided for an earlier dinner for them . A soup, just like the one you have seen a couple days ago, some grilled meat and a cucumber salad. I peeled the white asparagus and the girl wanted to help. They were huge! I was disappointed to find a hole so big in one of the asparagus I served in the most simple way. This season I've not had very, very good white asparagus...hopefully soon, because when they are good I find them truly good. Then we had some scallops (yes, defrosted!). I wanted to try a recipe on the side note of Flavor Bible. I don't like it, meaning that for me that is fine if a want to make a calamari sauce to dress pasta. Possible my mistake...to much brown bits in the pan...so a darker sauce. A larger, tomato concasse'. I'm not sure but I'm with my husband on this one, better plain simple scallops with plain salt.

Lunch as usual takes me start to finish 20 minutes at most The batter for the spaetzle was ready With the spaetzle tool I dropped the batter in boiling water, drain when the dumpling floated to the top and crisp them up with butter In another pan I saute quickly some scalliions, carrot, trombetta, speck in cubes, chiffonade of the trombetta flower at the end. A little basil and some grated comte for me Voila'

Ha! Many would kill for that beautiful selection of produce! Can you describe your potsticker filling? Also what makes the rice have that yellow color? Enjoying this immensely. Yes, I know Heidi. I should keep my mouth shut. I followed Andrea Nguyen recipe of pork filling for the regular jaozi (so pork, napa cabbage, scallions, ginger, soy, salt and rice wine). I like her skins for potsticker but not for water dumplings. I made the filling in the past and froze, doesn't keep that well but it is so convinient to have it ready. In the yellow risotto, or risotto alla milanese, the color is given by the saffron.

Ok, let's get back to the market The covered part of Condamine doesn't leave me with a good feeling, it's mostly empty. Pissaladiere Fresh pasta, gnocchi and sauces to dress (bolognese, pesto and tomato), plus panisse (the chickpea polenta) general food and this new place that look more like a bar to me... I counted three butchers inside Next stop is the little Bio market at the back. My son is going out for a field trip with school and I got some dry fruits and nuts Just in time to pick up my son from school