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peterpumkino

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Everything posted by peterpumkino

  1. I think that we're all fixated on the border points as that is the one place where you can see the difference clearly - witness my 60 yards in Chiasso. Having said that I do notice that RealItalian® food does start to change the further North you go into Alto Adige (or Sud Tyrol) towards the Austrian border. The pasta dish changes and the main course gets more 'Austrian' but, of course, many of the people there don't consider themselves Italian (although they don't consider themselves Austrian either - when I asked a waiter - in German, as he wouldn't speak in Italian - he said he was'nt Austrian, wasn't German, wasn't Italian but.......... 'Sud Tyrolean!).
  2. There's also a few in Old Compton Street (near Piccadilly Circus) which have been there for eons and full of Japanese. Not cheap but not expensive.
  3. You are so right Tony, ambiente does stand for a lot but I really feel that participants to this site (minus one) do know there stuff and can definitely tell the difference on taste alone. That's not saying that sitting outdoors on a balmy night eating pasta and drinking a nice Barolo isn't wonderful, it is! That's the mentalita del cortile meaning you don't care about anything else! That's why Italians put up with a completely f---ed-up society!
  4. Exactly my point - and one of the reasons SP's reference to Bepe's cuisine in NYC being so different. Don't forget these chefs are first and foremost businessmen - they have to be otherwise they go out of business real fast.
  5. Steve, if Bepe served exactly the same food that he served in Tuscany people would not go! Hence the difference. I did agree that the ingredients DO matter but it's the attitude as well. You may think I'm 'preposterous' but it seems that Craig and IndiaGirl agree with me.
  6. Go East along Gerrard Street (Chinatown) and take a right at the end and directly on the left on the corner is a cheap Japanese but I cannot remember the name. NOT chic. Instead of comparing the prices of London (one of the few really major cities in the World) with Portland Oregon (one of the many, many minor cities in the World) you may want to compare like with like (i.e. New York) but I get your point as Sushi is expensive in London however it's even more expensive in Paris or Rome!
  7. But you don't have to wade through his minutiae . Just go directly to the last few paragraphs and read his (usually excellent) review on the restaurant concerned (personally I like his ramblings but there you go).
  8. Yes, and the food tastes totally different the minute you hit Menton. Steve, did you actually READ the last para of IndiaGirl's post regarding squeezing the tomatoes. I know these things look minor bt they DO make a difference.
  9. Very well put Macrosan and my sentiments exactly. Of course SP won't have a clue what you are talking about as he just doesn't 'get it'. Regarding my RealItalian® trademark: RealItalian® is a description of a type of cooking as cooked in Italy. I'm not saying it's the best way to cook Italian (although I personally think it is) but only that it is the cuisine you find in Italy. Then, of course, there's EnglishItalian which is great for many but it's very different to the cuisine cooked and served in Italy as is AmericanItalian which is something else altogether. I repeat again AA Gill's comment that people are going to Italy and returning, complaining that they couldn't find any Italian food! As to your contention that Italian chefs shun measurement that's true too. In fact I read somewhere that there is a real problem translating Italian cookbooks into English for the American market as the Americans demand very precise measures in their recipes whilst the Italians seem to wing it (very successfully).
  10. Boy, your posts are getting better by the moment. I made a point of specifying that it depends on how you cook the tomato and with what ingredients, that's the difference - what part of that statement didn't you understand? How much is that castle?
  11. A raw tomato is a raw tomato, right? But you can bake it, boil it, fry it in butter, fry it in oil, fry it in oil with garlic - need I go on. And, sorry Steve, but you can submit all day and all night that it's impossible there's a noticeable difference between two restaurants that are 60 yards apart, but it's a fact. They may be only 60 yards apart but we're talking Italy vs Switzerland here - these two countries are thousands of miles apart in the dynamics of the country, their people, their political system, their food, their discipline, their organization, their enforcement of traffic laws, their legal system etc etc etc ad nauseum. Maybe that's the difference between you and me, your more Swiss and I am definitely more Italian. In other words I can put up with there not being any stamps in the post office (something that would NEVER happen in Switzerland) for the mentalita del cortile of the Italians.
  12. Funny - now I understand SP! But you missed out the best bit when the arguer refuses to argue as his time is up- the client then pays for the 'full half hour', money changes hands and: Q: Well? A: Well what? Q: Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes. Right? A: I've told you I am not allowed to argue with you unless I get paid. Q: (indignant) But I just paid you! A: No you didn't.
  13. As you know this is one of my favourite subjects. Read my previous comment about having pasta in Chiasso (Ticino), literally a stones throw from Ponte Chiasso (Italy) and the pasta in Ponte Chiasso was RealItalian® and the one 60 yards away was not. SP is wrong again, it's not just the suppliers (and it's definitely not your imagination) it's the whole balance and mind set of RealItalian® (Craig says he registered this for me! - I think he was kidding.... I think) food. So there!
  14. Drat!! I thought I had both Craig and Bill with that question regarding homemade pasta vs dried pasta - however I am not surprised that SP caught the hook with his erronous statement that 'nothing beats home-made' (he must have read this in one of his massive collection of guide books). As Craig stated, it depends on the sauce. As Bill stated, you cannot get home-made to be as al dente as dried pasta. So the correct answer is: it does depend. I have been in many Italian restaurants where the pasta dish is served with the exact same name and sauce but a choice of pasta type (same price). I read an indignant letter in the UK Sunday Times from a Doctor (they think they know it all) very angry as he had recently been to an expensive Italian restaurant and actualy spied the chef smuggling supermarket-bought pasta into his kitchen as if he was conning everyone in the place by not using home-made pasta!! What rot!
  15. Yes Tony, but that is exactly the point I was trying to make earlier on in this thread. The creative emphasis is on the antipasti and the pasta but not on the main course and that is intentional. That is Italian food as I like it (and, presumably, so do the Italians). That is, dare I say it, RealItalian®. Change the balance and it is no longer Italian food. In fact it is exactly this balance which non-Italians do not like (as AA Gill, your good friend, once said, people are going to Italy and complaining that they can't get Italian food!). Another thing is that so far nobody has given any credit to the Italians for creativity with pasta. I've had some amazingly creative pasta many times including up to last week when I had home-made ravioli stuffed with truffels and a wonderful sauce. Another question: what's better? Home-made pasta or supermarket bought? Careful, it's kind of a trick question!
  16. Wow Bill, you've been to Girardet too!!! What a restaurant - IMHO the best example of French cuisine - and it's not even in France!!
  17. Steve, Steve, Steve.....that's a very silly statement. We're not talking about Ramsay, we're not talking about the UK, we are talking about Italian food and the importance of pasta within the cucina. Italian food is a question of balance and, to be very honest, the main course in Italy is usually pretty simple. Main courses in Italian food do not have lots of side dishes as we have in Britain and that is exactly why the Pasta course and the antipasti course are so important to Italian cucina. Without them you would not have anything substantial. Geddit!!!?????
  18. Steve, Steve, Steve. I'm sorry I have not misquoted or misunderstood you at all, your post demonstrates this. Yes, your so right that originally pasta was a filler and your also right in that cultures over the centuries have their fillers too (india and china had/have rice for example) - however what we had in Britain was NOT sandwiches (invented by the Earl of Sandwich less than 2 centuries ago) - we had................. potatoes. Now you know exactly what can be done with potatoes when you try. For me there is not much that can beat roast potatoes perfectly roasted with excellent gravy (plus a roast joint of course). That's the UK way. The Italian way was to use pasta as the filler and they developed this over the centuries to provide unbelievably varied dishes, some innovative, some complicated some very simple, which form a major part of what is considered as.......Italian cucina. That's Italian food. Can you get it in your head Steve, THAT IS ITALIAN FOOD!!!!!! If, as you suggested, you took away the pasta course you would take away 2,000 years of care and culture, taste and good humour and you would end up with what? Certainly not Italian food that's for sure. So admit it once and for all, you do not like pasta, that's the bottom line and that is exactly why you cannot like or appreciate Italian food. PS I couldn't care less what one restaurant in Firenze says! There you go again quoting other people, pity there isn't a guide book called 'Italy Without The Pasta Course' as you would buy ten copies and quote them constantly.
  19. Again, you are 100% correct. Pasta that your grandmother makes is NOT high cuisine, nor was the pasta that my grandmother made. However the pasta that my ex-wife (from Piemonte Bill - Ivrea La Bella to be precise) could, when she wanted, be alta cucina. Anyway Steve, I understand that you don't even like pasta (not even your grandmother's pasta cotta) so, as I've said many times, you are in no position to judge Italian cucina (sort of like a Jew going to St. Johns and being asked to judge the pork bellies or a Hindi being asked to critique Berne's Steak House). However I do like the idea of an Italian database. Excel would be easier, I think, for non-computer people whilst Access (obviously) for those that can. Either way it's a great idea and we could all share and access the same DB with our own comments etc. What a wonderful idea, where do I sign up?
  20. Steve, for the first time in months you are 100% right: It's NOT cuisine - it's cucina. And as DeGaulle said 'vive la différence'.
  21. Sorry Steve about the deplorable state of the streets in Ponte Chiasso - it's all due to me throwing napkins from Chiasso into PC to prove that whilst I am a few yards from Italy I am miles and miles away from RealItalian® food. I would think so as 99% of restaurants in Italy do it so well.
  22. Actually I have a personal interest here. I used to live about 20 mins drive from Chiasso (or Ponte Chiasso as the Italian side is known) and went there at least once a week (to my Swiss bank!). Yes Steve, you are so right. Chiasso is organized and very clean. Ponte Chiasso is typically Italian, a place with warmth, friendlines and (oh my God!) a little bit of dirt. There's a small bar on the Swiss side that I used to relax at just for the change. From there, if you could throw hard enough, you could throw your napkin into Italy - I'm not kidding here! Yet, and this is the point, the pasta in Chiasso was demonstrably poorer than Ponte Chiasso. But your right Steve, it was very clean and organized. Bottom line here is this: Steve is in no way qualified to say anything about Italian cooking for one simple reason: he doesn't like pasta. Just for your information Steve, pasta IS Italian cuisine. It's the basis from which wonderful antipasti, riso, osso buco, saltimbocca, panna cotta et al is drawn on. Not liking pasta is the same as not liking curry in Indian food, not liking rice in Chinese food, not liking garlic in Spanish food - need I go on. If you don't like pasta that's fine but please Steve, read your many books, do your calculations as to which restaurants are considerred best but do not refer to Italian cuisine because your basic arguments is flawed.......i.e. you don't like pasta. End of story. BTW Bill that was a wonderful diatribe on Italian food! And extremely accurate too. I particuarly liked this: And it IS scary your comments on the Americanisation of France especially when you consider that the largest McDonald's in Western Europe is in.........Rome! Steve, youre humble???
  23. Problem is that it seems at least 80% of this board hate him. I have no idea why as he always seems on the money as far as his reviews are concerned. Is it some kind of jealousy? As an added bonus he is always very funny as well. Plus he does believe in RealItalian® which means he can't be all bad. And, yes, he did give Pharmacy a really bad review - feedback? And, yes Simon, he did give an excellent mini-review of St. John a couple of weeks back. But I'm sure he was mistaken!
  24. Craig, I couldn't agree more. Some of the home-style cooking is not interesting, it's amazing! It's amazing that something that you can have every day and is pretty average can be like honey in the hands of a good chef. I really don't know how the Italians do it! Steve, with 7 seperate appetizers and 3 seperate pasta dishes don't you think that notwithstanding the fact that I was in a 'rustic' place there would be some 'very interesting' food (your definition). Apart from anything else Steve have you actually HAD home-style cooking in Italy. One of the best meals I have ever had lasted 4 hours and was in a converted farmhouse of a friend whose complete family came and everyone cooked one dish each. This was Michelin 4-star, very interesting encompassing, as it did, 200 years of Italian cuisine. Literally unbelievable.
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