davecap

The Bolzano region is known for mountain potatoes, white pasta, sauerkraut, buckwheat flour and something called ‘farina di frumento’. My dictionary defines frumento as wheat or as graham cracker. Anybody? I have a friend from Florence who is checking into a translation. This farina di frumento shows up quite a bit. Hathor That is some great background. From what I can determine, "farina di frumento" is as you described - wheat flour. Dave

I recently made some venison jerky from a deer I got this year. I marinaded thinly sliced meat overnight then placed on sheet pans in a 160 degree oven overnight. Jerky came out great, I think.

Puff pastry, layer of pastry cream, your cherries, another layer of puff with slits cuts into it and baked in the oven, tasty!

From what I can recall there is a Selfridges not too far from that station that has a nice food court with prepared foods, a coffee and pastry shop. Le Gavroche is not too far from that stop either. What a wonderful time!

Thanks Jenny and Duncan I have some nice wines put aside for dinner. I do not drink a lot of whiskey, is there a good one you could recommend?

Thanks for all the suggestions. Could I substitute mascarpone for double cream, or do you think I can get in the states?

I would say that 170 is very high as well and that the temperature recommendations from the FDA may be required for health concerns, but when you go to a restaurant, the actual cooking temps are much lower, and much lower than even Jackal has suggested. If I was cooking beef, I would cook to the following temps: rare - 125 medium rare - 127-132 medium - 135-140 medium well - 140-150 well - over 155 One should always be a little more cautious when cooking hamburgers and when ordering them out.

A friend of ours is coming into town over the holidays with her new boyfriend, who is originally from Scotland. I would like to try to make him something that would be traditional at the holiday time over there. For the main course for dinner we will be having Beef Wellington. Does anyone have any suggestions and possibly recipes as well? Are there any traditional beverages at Christmas time? thanks for your help Dave

I think everyone has already given some good advice, I just want to stress the removal of the gills from the head and a thorough rinsing of any blood on the head or on the bodies. When you crack the backbone, as noted above, make sure to rinse out any blood. I am sure down in Cambridge you can get lots of striper bodies too.

my only suggestion, and I do not know the size of your oven, but if the two birds are too cramped in the pan, the side of the bird facing the other bird will not receive as much heat and will need to be rotated accordingly to make sure it gets cooked accordingly, as well as colored nicely. I love roast chicken.

My brother-in-law was nice enough to take me to his hunting camp this weekend and I got a nice stag. I would like to make some deer jerky with some of the meat and was wondering if anyone has a recipe for deer jerky. thanks

Daniel Thanks for the posts. I could not wait to see the pics after having such a great time up there ourselvfes a few years ago. Brought back some great memories. You noted one thing in your comments which I think is very poignant - just one of the many great things about Montreal, which made me want to visit - the French speaking part of Canada being so close to those on the East Coast. Add to that the exchange rate and then the really nice people and the "european" atmosphere, MOntreal can't be missed. And then when you add great food like what you had, everyone should go. Thanks for all the hard work in preserving your trip and your experiences. I'd move there in a heartbeat, but I do not speak French. Dave

they are perfect for tarte tatin

Cromesquis for appetizer, unbelievable. For entree I had the sweet breads which were great.

Thanks Percyn. I can't believe it was so long ago I read about La Cena and did not go. Life goes by way too fast.

I haven't lived in DC for a few years so I do not know what the pizza situation is like there. I live in Philly now and when I go to visit my family in DC I always bring some pizza with me from the City and my family loves it 'cause they say there isn't anything like it down there. We do have an awful lot of Italians up here, and good pizza makers at that. I know Pizzeria Paradiso on P Street in Dupont Circle is good, and the owners opended another one, two amy's, maybe

By the way is Au Pied du Cochon, the foot of the pig? - you got it! I forgot to mention while we were there, we saw a duck confit dish- a huge amount of food - they bring out a can of duck confit, that I think they make themselves, and open and pour it on your plate and it looked amazing. I am not giving it the description it needs, but may be worth a try. Have a good trip!

My father in law is a big fisherman and we are fortunate to receive some of his catch. What we do not eat right away I vacuum pack and we have taken shark out of the freezer six months later and it tastes almost like the day it was caught. Now purists will tell you that freezing breaks down the fibers of anything so nothing will be as good after being frozen, but the vacu seal does a pretty good job. A lot of restaurants nowadays even vacu seal items when they get them in fresh to keep them even fresher when in the refrigerator.

Can't say enough about Au Pied du Cochon. We went to Montreal for a long weekend and ate here the first night after driving from Philly. We sat at the bar with our one year old and had a fantastic time. I used to work in a kitchen so love watching the cooks work. If you go, you must have the cromesquis, they are fried and crispy bite size pieces of foie gras that are liquid in the center and unbelievable. I had a sweet bread casserole, which was very flavorful, lots of mushrooms and full of sweetbreads, not just one or two. I don't remember what my wife had. We had some beers to drink, but thought it was overall pretty reasonable, especially with the exchange rate. I want to go back just to go here. I loved Montreal.

After reading your review I headed over to de Puebla last night to take some home for dinner. We had the cemitas al pastor like you suggested. The meat actually has nice little chunks of pineapple in it and a real good flavor. We also had tacos con chorizo and the suederos, which were all really good. I think I left with five different choices, which was way more food than we needed, for about $30.00. I always get so excited in these places that I order way too much food. We are going to finish it tonight for dinner.

Thanks Natasha!

We were driving through Downingtown looking for the Mexican/Latin American place that I thought I had seen mentioned here, La Cena or something like that, right near the Diner on Route 30/Lancaster Avenue. It is connected to a Rita's. Anyway, we found it, with brown paper all over the windows. Big bummer. We did find a mexican/Latin American looking grocery store though further down on Rt. 30. Has anyone been there? Do they serve any prepared food?

Dave I had a hankering for some chorizo last week and found your recipe. I did not make the paste, just added the ground peppers into the mix. Flavor is outstanding. Ate some just grilled and then I stuffed the rest into casings and into the freezer. I am really liking it! If you were in the neighborhood I would share. Dave

I just made some skins the other day, byproduct of my bacon making, but I do not deep fry. I cut the skin into bite size cubes, place in a pot and into a 350 degree oven until crispy. May take at least an hour or two. Periodically I stir the skins to keep even crisping, and drain the pork fat that renders, which is amazingly clear and awesome for frying vegetables and other things.

Soup, too, is one of my fond memories of going to school in Firenze. Being a student, we did not have a lot of money, and unfortunately or not, we did not have a kitchen so we had to eat out a lot. The time was back in the 80's, the 1980's, and the exchange rate was quite good with the dollar. We had to stretch it. We were in school during the winter and we would eat pappa al pomodoro and ribollita and minestrone for dinner at least once a week. Though the soups are made with bread, I am salivating for some pappa al pomodoro with some of that crusty, no salt, Florentine bread. Too good!