John DePaula

I went to Sicily in 2004 and had an absolutely fabulous time. The people, the sights, the food… Wow! We spent 10 days driving west from Palermo around the coast until we ended up in Taormina. My favorite town was Erice in the mountains along the West Coast. Especially since I discovered quite by accident the pasticceria of Maria Grammaico, of whom I had never heard. But that's another story. Since you're not going that way, I have to agree with Doc about Siracusa being a good culinary destination. My partner and I stayed at the Hotel Gran Bretagna on Ortygia, and the staff recommended to us a trattoria whose name I can't quite recall. I'm still looking for it and will post if I can find it. Ha! I found it in an old email: Trattoria Cordari on Via Cordari. Anyway, we went looking for this place and turned down a short narrow street. We came out the other end but did not see the restaurant. So we backtracked and found what looked like a closed restaurant. No lights in front, no sign, but tables set for service. As we are eating early, we discovered that 8:30pm is early in Italy, there are no customers. We tried the door and it was unlocked so we entered. In the back seated at an imposing desk was a smartly dressed matronly woman, "La Signora." From here, she can keep an eye on everything. She motioned for us to sit wherever we wanted. Neither of us spoke Italian, so this was going to be interesting. After we were seated she approached us. "yabi-da, yabi-da, yabi-da, ANTIPASTI, yada, yada," she said, making a circular motion with her finger over the table. Well, we recognized the word "Antipasti" so we nodded our head "Yes." "Bene!" she declared, nodding her head as if to say "You've made a wise decision." Well a few minutes later, plate after plate after plate full of various kinds of antipasti arrived. The table was completely covered! Very fresh simple preparations bursting with flavor: Deep fried sardines (don't snicker, these are fresh sardines that in no way resemble canned), marinated shrimp, anchovies swimming in olive oil and aromatic spices, red bell peppers with bread crumbs and cheese, squid salad, sautéed crab cakes, baked stuffed mussels, etc. "Mangia Tutti!" "Eat Everything!" her finger, and an eyebrow, raised as if in warning. We did our best to polish off all of this food and did a pretty good job between the two of us. By the time we finished we were as stuffed as the mussels we had just consumed. It simply wasn't possible to continue with the requisite primi platti and secundi, 2nd and 3rd courses. But evidently not too stuffed to eat dessert. When she came to ask what we wanted next, we said only "dolci." A mild flicker of disappointment flashed across her face, resigning herself to the fact that foreigners just don't know how to eat well. She explained the dessert list and because it was something we recognized, we chose "sorbetto limone" or "lemon sorbet." It arrived in an enormous frozen lemon shell; very elegant and the creamiest and tastiest sorbet that I've ever eaten. I'm not kidding. I've never tasted such perfectly balanced sorbet. I don't know what kind of lemons those were but if I could get them in the U.S. I'd be making some sorbet right about now. I'm sorry that you're not a fan of seafood, but I'm sure you'll find lots of wonderful food wherever you go. Buona Fortuna!

I tried this at the Fancy Food Show in SF and I liked it a lot. Fancy Food Show - Hot New Foods, What's new... And I agree with Ktepi, there aren't enough unsweetened beverages out there. For years, I'd stop at one of those quick marts during a road trip trying to find something to drink that wasn't cloyingly sweet. Voila! Finally we have something.

I see that lots of folks have already thanked you for this post, but I found it quite interesting, too, and wanted to add my appreciative thanks as well.

Ditto for Lavender...

Oooo... that sounds wonderful. You wouldn't happen to have a recipe for the stew, would you?

Yes, I have a terrible time working with the chocolate when the room temperature is below 68F. Thanks, Vanessa, for your comments about my chocs! I haven't used the Chef Rubber colors but a lot of folks here, both professional & amateur, seem to get great results with them.

Trimoline, a natural preservative, is an invert sugar consisting of glucose and fructose.

I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive but will contribute to the thread soon...

I like to substitute quince for half of the apples in a classic American Apple Pie. The quince give the pie an amazing perfume.

I know that this is a serious topic… And I intend no disrespect… But there are some great zingers here! Maybe we should publish a book of eGullet Zingers (copyright protected and appropriate attribution given to sources, of course). Oh, please. just say "dumbass" and get it over with. ←

By the way, Welcome to eGullet, Vanessa!

Your chocolates should last about 3 weeks with no preservatives but this depends largely on the amount of water and sugar (a natural preservative) in your filling. The Wybauw book has a lot of good information about "activity of water" and shelf-life.

Like everyone else, I sometimes have the filling a bit too high. When that happens, I lay a piece of plastic wrap (film) over the top of the mold and gently smooth out (level) the filling in each cavity. Depending on the filling, I may then decide to chill the mold until the it sets; always allow tray to return to room temperature before removing the wrap or you may get condensation. When you remove the wrap, pull gently at a very sheer angle (i.e. not straight up) so that you don't dislodge the chocolates. Again, as Wendy said, allow to crust and scrape once. Hope this helps.

Touché !

I'm going to be pretty busy this Spring but count me in!

When you poured it out to cool, did you scrape the pot? It's hard to leave any of the delicious caramel in the pot, but this is often the cause of re-crystallization.

Wow, Wow, Wow! What a list!

We are very much looking forward to your evaluation of these books, Neil. Thanks!

Yes, I've been keeping track of it for weeks on amazon.fr and they always say it's unavailable...

les deux... Try Centrifugeuse

They're NOT ?!? Could have fooled me!

Thanks, Ted! BTW, after going to pastry school in France, the language shouldn't be a problem... Assuming that I haven't forgotten everything already!

Thank You!

Kerry, I think there certainly would be an interest in this since the subject of tempering is raised quite often. ← So John, What is the procedure to doing a demo, do I check with Wendy about how to get started? Kerry ← Yes, I think that checking with Wendy would be good. You'll probably want to begin by uploading all of the pictures to a Public Gallery in eGullet and then you can start a new thread in Pastry & Baking forum with a title something like "DEMO: Tempering Chocolate." I wrote my demo in a word processor first to get my thoughts and pix in order, then cut/paste into the new thread. It's kind of a chore, but everyone here is very appreciative of the effort. PM me if you have any difficulty or need some questions answered. I can also help you with resizing photos, if need be. Cheers!

Has anyone tried this book? Ph 10 : Pâtisserie Pierre Hermé (Ph 10 : Patisserie Pierre Herme) It's very expensive so I'm just wondering if it's worth it. Seems to be pretty much unavailable in the U.S. right now, for some reason.