Franci

Judith, I really like your lunch, looks so much better than my simple salad!

Probably speaks more to my frying skills than anything, but I tried semolina (I'm guessing also not the same as semola?) as a coating once and wound up with a horribly leaden, oil-drenched final product. ← I mean semola rimacinata, the fine one used for bread, durum flour. When frying fish at home we normally use to prepare two pots for frying, when the oil gets dirty in one pot, we switch to the "fresh" oil. Even if you shake the extra flour off, it's normal that the oil get a little dirty and if it's too dirty the final result is not pleasant. Of course we use plenty of oil at hot temperature and extra virgin. I was constantly fighting with my chef instructor in the States, for him (a Swiss) extra virgin was just to dress salad but in the South of Italy is different. In the States or here in London, just for a matter of cost I use peanut oil (why is so expensive outside Italy?). I think there is a culture of frying because oil is available at relatively cheap prices (so not just south but also Liguria and Toscana), in Emilia Romagna strutto, lard, is what is used. And as we say: fried everything is good, even the legs of the table .

Many italians use semola for frying fish.

Ops, I didn't read about your request of pink meat! Yes, it is a contraddiction, don't make pot au feu

For the chocolate lovers, this is Caprese. Very moist chocolate cake from Capri: chocolates, eggs, butter and almonds. Very good. Also posted in the Italian forum for the The Cooking and Cuisine of Campania

For the chocolate lovers, this is Caprese. Very moist chocolate cake from Capri: chocolates, eggs, butter and almonds. Very good. I wasn't in the mood for a fancy presentation, so I simply served with a little of vanilla ice cream and some grated chocolate. Just to show the inside

I graduated from the French Culinary Institute. At school we use to add to the pot au feu alway the shin, the "chicken steak" piece or if you go on fresh direct what they call top chuck shoulder roast, you can use thick flank, or beef cheeks if you find, short ribs of beef and knuckle plus marrowbones.

Torta Caprese Serves 6. I took this recipe from the Lydia Capasso on the Italian Forum of Cucina Italiana. Leaving the same quantities, I completely changed the method, getting in my opinion a better result. It is a very moist cake and doesn't cling to your palate. It keeps well for several days with no refrigeration and actually improves its taste. It doesn't contain flour, so it's also a perfect cake for gluten intollerants. 140 g sugar 140 g bittersweet chocolate 140 g unsalted butter 140 g unpeeled almonds 210 g eggs total whole weight (about 4 small eggs) 1 pinch of salt This quantities are ok for a 20 cm diameter mold. Preheat the oven at 200 C. Butter and flour your mold. I slightly toasted the almonds in the oven and when cold grated in the mixer (I have a bosch mixer with the grating dish, make a perfect flour without overheating the almonds), alternatively you can pulse the almonds in the coffe grinder with a couple teaspoons of sugar (taken by the recipe quantity). Leaving the almonds with the peel is a little tastier, more rustic flavour. I grated the chocolate with the fine microplane. Whip the soft butter with the sugar until very light and foamy, add the yolks one at the time, add the chocolate (here, half of the chocolate was just grated, the other half I decided to melt, let cool before adding), then add the almond flour and alternate with a little bit of whipped egg whites. Fold in remaining egg whites. Pour in the mold and level with a spatula. Bake at 200 C for 5 minutes, then reduce to 170 for about 30-35 minutes, check toward the end. If you have some bitter almonds, it's not a bad addictions, but I don't like almonds extracts, the most of the time are nasty. You can add some vanilla essence if you like. Do not overbake, it's important it stays moist. Serve with creme anglaise, or gelato, or simply dusted with 10X. Keywords: Cake, Italian, Dessert, Chocolate ( RG1793 )

Since yesterday I found some nice muscat grape at the market, I decided to go with Schiacciata con l'uva, a sweet focaccia from Toscana

It was quite chewy indeed but the sauce was very tasty. I just tried for the sake of trying but it was not my favourite dish. Sorry, I said tripe not intestine because my husband translated for me in that way.

Yes, the most of it was cooked to order, with the exception of few dishes which I suppose require long cooking time. So it was really fresh and service was fast, time to finish the stroll and there was already something waiting for you at the table.

Since I never heard of spaghetti alla chiummenzana I searched for it in google italian, it is a dish from Capri and chiummenzana refers to a concasse of tomatoes and oregano. But I'll ask around.

In Guilin we also had an interesting meal at the food court at the Niko Niko Do Plaza. I like the concept which is very uncommon for Europeans. There are many stalls, every time you see something you like they will stamp your ordering card and the food will be delivered directly at your table. It's good because you don't need overorder, eat a little and if you feel you want more just go and pleace a new order. For foreign visitors I find it perfect, it's a good way to go with traditional food but also having the possibility to actually visualize all the dishes is of great help. Language is not even a problem because pointing is enough Funny this pasta shape reminds my gnocchi sardi... And so on...

Breakfast was the traditional Guilin noodles Then we headed to a driftage centre where we had once again the beer fish bamboo yucca, if I remember We also had a nice meal at the Fengyu Caves. Sorry, no pictures, but once you are in front of the main entrance there is a little roller coaster that will bring you to the cave entrance. If you decide to walk instead of taking the roaller coaster there is a path on the side along the river with some restaurants. We had lunch at the last restaurant, the one closer to the cave. It was very good. My husband uncle and aunt go there often. They freshly killed a chicken for us, we had wild vegetables and fried little fishes from the river and beer fish, which indeed was the best one I had.

At night in Yangshuo we went to see the beautiful Impression Liu Sanjie by Zhang Yimou and after the show we had dinner in one of the restaurant by the river. The local specialty is the beer fish I am not a huge fan of sweet water fish, it tastes always muddy for me, but I really enjoyed the snails stuffed with pork meat which also I belive to be a local specialty

We spent almost a week in Guilin. My husband has family there so we didn't eat out all the time, his aunt, I was sorry to discover, deserves the title of worst cook of the family that my mother in law gave to her If anybody is interested in seeing more picture a loaded in the blog in my signature. First meal in town was very good Goose tripe Tofu, I did really like this dish, anybodies know more? It felt to me like crab roe. The sauce had a little bit a granular texture

Yes, correct! The Centre is really humongous. The exact address is Victoria City 2nd Floor, Sun Hung Kai Centre, 30 Harbour Road Wan Cha

Look for the traditional recipes of Risotto all'isolana, Risotto alla pilota and Riso al tastasal (very hard you can find outside verona)

By chance we found this restaurant My husband, beeing Shanghainese, was very happy to eat again, after many years, some of these dishes glutinous dumplings in sweet wine syrup rice cakes with syrup And again rice cakes with shanghainese cabbage This meal was a little repetitive but still were all dishes my husband was craving for. Both the food and the service was very good, it is a perfect place for lunch. The restaurant I liked better was anyway shanghainese, maybe I am just more accostumed to the food. I did really enjoyed Xiao Nan Guo. We also went to Lotus reccomanded by Aprilmei where -I couldn't belive my eyes- I met a school friend of mine from elementary school!!! With my friend we went out another time before leaving and we have been at Soho Spice in Soho, it's a Thai/Vietnamese place, I didn't particularly liked it. I find it odd the difference in "expats" restaurants and chinese restaurants. In Soho, my husband was quite frustrated because he could not use mandarin. Overall we tought Hong Kong gives very good choices of eating out but it still requires to know were to go and what to order to make the most out of the experience.

Someone was talking about the Modern China Restaurant in Time Square Food Court. We had the endurance to stand the line for almost two hours the night before leaving At the end we were so hungry that we over ordered. Tofu salad by the house Brown braised gluten, it was too mushy for me, I did like so much more the one upstairs at Xiao Nan Guo Zucchini, abalone and conch salad. The dish I liked better Prawns Fried pork and the winter melon soup After eating all this we had problem sleeping Well, the impression we got from this place was that we had, once again, the wrong ordering stategy. We guessed people come here to have a nice cheap meal; most of the people ordered dumplings, noodles, more this kind of cheap stuff where 2 people can eat pleanty for 100 HKD.

Back to report pictures and impressions. Thanks everybody for the suggestions. We went to Victoria City My husband, for some reason, decided that on this vacation we were on the "moderation" rule, so we tried to order the right amount of food the most of the time. For this place I feel we didn't order enogh or the appropriate things to give a judgement Scallion pancake, I din't like this one Shrimp dumplings The xiao long bao with crab roe, which is not for me the glutinous rice cakes with black sesame seeds, very good Yes, I know, it was more a snack than a proper meal

Hi everybody, I am just back from Asia. Thanks for all the suggestions, not only for Macao. We went for lunch to Fernando. Thanks to Dave we couldn't miss the clams which actually were the thing I liked better The leitão assado and the sardinhas assadas I didn't like much (and I normally do) My husband was also very happy for the jerkies he bought and brought back to London And I bought some of the traditional cookies, although, don't do like me, read before you buy, the one with pork and sesame are a little too salty for me

I am back from holidays, finally. I couldn't try everything I had on schedule, I think the Dubai thing to jump from one taxi to another somewhat restrained me from crossing the all town just to go to a restaurant. I managed to go to Karam Beirut. It was not bad but I didn't find it better than the lebanese food I can get in London. I went also to Al Nafoorah, just because we were staying at the Emirates Towers and as last dinner in Dubai it was just easier. I am happy I have been there, I liked it more than Karam. We didn't order a lot but still I found it has a fresher touch, we had a zaatar salad, which I had for the first time and was curious to try, steamed artichokes with lemon, grilled fish and dessert. Instead I can suggest future visitors to stay far away from Marina Seafood. My husband wanted to go there for the view. It was one of the worst meals ever, the place was empty and we still waited 45 minutes for our appetizers. Same night, we were around the creek so we went to Bastakia Nights. Probably is a very touristy place The dinner was not memorable but it was still pleasant. More than anything I have been very happy with the service, it was very late but they let us in anyway, they didn't rush us. I really tought: ah, finally exist still some old school professional waiter!

Andrew, your eggplants look very good. Here are stuffed mussels Mussels are open by hand, not on the stove without tearing them apart (Tarantini eat raw mussels ) eggs pecorino breadcrumbs little garlic parsley and salt mix together to a soft consistency. Fill the mussels and secure with cotton string. Make a runny tomatoe sauce (add water to it) starting with garlic and hot pepper. After 10-15 minutes add the mussels and cook about 15 minutes longer. Eat with plenty of crusty bread. The sauce is very good for spaghetti

I am going to be in Hong Kong next week, any suggestion on a good bookstore for cooking books? Thank you!