Sugar Apple

Forgot to mention, if you get anywhere near a sagra...GO. There's a good listing at http://www.sagreinitalia.it/.

Not sure where in Umbria you’re going to be but here are a few recommendations for good dining at decent prices in and around Orvieto sent to us by a friend who has a house in the area. We stayed there this summer and only got to a few but I highly recommend Trattoria del Conte (aka the Grouch). Trattoria del Conte Localita Buon Respiro, 18 (Orvieto - Montefiascone highway) Tel: 0763.217046 Cell: 349.4211355 Frumpy, grumpy and indisputably the very best food in the whole area. Our friends simply refer to this restaurant as "the Grouch" due to the chronic surly attitude of the owner. However the waitresses are very pleasant and you can't dispute the quality of the food. Reservations recommended. . I went, loved it and wrote this one up on my blog (www.abigailblake.com/sugarapple/ - just do a search for “grouch”). La Palomba via Cipriano Manente, 16 05018 ORVIETO (centro historico) Tel: 0763/343395 Closed Wed (Note: reservations a must!) A resident Orvieto foodie friend told our friends that that after "the Grouch," this is the best food in the Orvieto area. They have been and say it is friendly and the food is delicious and inexpensive! They tried three times without making reservations and did not get in once so reservations are a must. Mezza Luna via Ripa Serancia, 3 05018 Oriveto Tel. +39 0763.341234 This is a must for any short list of Orvieto restaurants. Recommended by more than one friend (several Italians who live in Orvieto). Trattoria delle Corte via Roma, 11 05023 - Baschi Tel. 0744957193 (15 min drive from Orvieto in direction of Todi) (Reservations recommended) Outside Orvieto in the historic center of Baschi, a town that could serve as a 1930's Italian movie set today. Good, cheap family cooking in a very comfortable and picturesque setting. Make reservations to be sure to get a seat on the outside terrace. Osteria Lo Spugnone, via delle Terme, 4/6 Bagni San Filippo Castiglione d'Orcia (SI), tel: 0577.872030 Closed Tue This one’s really in Tuscany, but 25 mins from Acquapendente on the road to Siena (The Cassia) you will find a turn-off to the small Tuscan village of Bagni San Filippo. At the foot of Mt Amiata, this village has some very interesting and inexpensive (indeed free if you like) thermal baths. It also has what this weekend became my favorite restaurant. I have been back twice! Enter Osterian Lo Spugnone and you could be in the Italy I remember from my very first visit 30 years ago. 'Quaint' does not do it justice. From the village to the venue to the menu this place is country Italian! From Rabbit cooked in milk to snails stewed four hours in tomato, pork jowl and fresh sage this place is unique. My friends were tipped off to come here by a restaurant owner in Montepulciano who said, "If you want something really unique in southern Tuscany, this is the place to go!" He was right! Take your swimsuits and spend a half day at the baths while you are there. The outdoor public baths are free and (and quite beautiful) and the private baths are less than 10 Euros. With regard to lodging, where are you going to be? I don't do hotels, we always rent a house so that we can do some cooking with the lovely Italian ingredients. I can recommend several villas, one in Umbria about 15 minutes from Orvieto and one in a beautiful village called Torre Alfina, in Lazio. Fantastic area, almost no tourists except in a few of the larger towns like Orvieto.

The supply of fresh produce in the shops here is unreliable at best so when I see nice vegetables I buy them. A lot of them. And then, because I've bought way more than 3 people can eat, half of it rots in the fridge. Such a waste but I can't seem to stop myself. I too abuse my non-stick pans. And I've never cleaned an oven. In our "outside" kitchen, I never clean the grill right after I use it. I wait until the next time I want to use it, at which point I find remnants of whatever was last grilled stuck to the grate. So I have to spend half an hour cleaning it before I can use it. It would be so much easier to clean it right after it's used instead of letting the bbq sauce dry out and become one with the grate.

Great topic...my earliest influences were: 1. Craig Claiborne's NY Times Cookbook is still a go-to reference that I refer to constantly. 2. Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking taught me about real Italian food. 3. Charmaine Solomon's The Complete Asian Cookbook. My husband brought this one into the marriage and we both still use it all the time. Worth getting hitched to get a copy. 4. Bill Neal's Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie is the Southern baking bible that taught this Southern girl to make biscuits. 5. Some of the first books that I ever cooked out of when I was a child were a collection of those spiral bound cookbooks that were put out by the Junior League or to raise money for a church or school. You know the ones. They had easy, accessible recipes that a 10-year-old child could manage. Yes, lots of cans of soup, but some really good home cooking too. I still refer fairly regularly to the River Road Cookbook, Talk About Good, and Charleston Receipts.

The Masons Arms in Branscombe was always my favorite. Good beer, local cider, straightforward pub food and on Sundays they used to do a big roast on a spit in the fireplace. Not sure if it's gone all gastro as I haven't been in a few years. Hope not.

Out of approximately 250 cookbooks (or books about food with recipes), I've used 45% of them at least twice, much higher than I'd thought it would be. But if I look at what I use regularly, the number is probably closer to 10%, still not that bad. And yes, I did find a few I need to dig out and use. I think I'll start with The Arab Table tonight. Don't know why I've never used it, it looks like it has some lovely recipes.

I have several file folders and loose leaf binders full of clippings but you could probably count on one hand the number of times I've used any of the recipes. I should probably throw them out but you never know...

252 - I feel so much better now that I know my cookbook obsession is not nearly as over the top as some!

Good chicken - it used to have more flavor. And my Grandmother to fry it for me. Also, McDonald's french fries cooked in beef tallow and real Coca Cola, together with the idea that chips, sodas and candy were a real treat to be savored in small amounts on special occasions, not supersized and eaten daily.

xxchef - Amen to that! Also, to echo Chris, I've found that (at least in my neck of the woods) restaurants don't always get better over time. Often the case is, sadly, the opposite. I've been to many a restaurant that I really liked when it first opened. But then the quality of the food rapidly declined and the service went with it (and the Caribbean is not known for its great service to begin with...friendly yes, but not usually quick or particularly polished). So I tend to get in quick and form at least an initial opinion.

I'm assuming we're talking about high end restaurants here. So my answer is absolutely - cleanliness counts. I've been to some dives with great local food and you just hold your breath and get in and out as fast as possible where the restrooms are concerned. But if the restaurant is "nice" then I certainly expect a clean restroom. And I'm with Beebs above...I don't want to think that anything on my table might have once lived by the toilet.

"Meld" - most often used by persons reviewing recipes on Epicurious. I'm with those who bristle at "foodie". I was originally a stage manager and couldn't stand being called a "techie" either. Hate those cute little "ie" terms. I also cringe at Nigella's fake, made-up adjectives.

I'm not sure if it's a result of geography but my experience is totally different to what was described in the article. I live on a small island and there isn't much in the way of entertainment here. So the dinner party, the Sunday lunch and the beach barbecue constitute the majority of our social life. Most everyone I know cooks and, with very few exceptions, most of them seem to like cooking. We have no chain restaurants but there's certainly fast food and pizza. And our supermarkets carry plenty of pre-packaged junk. But I don't know anyone who eats it anything more than occasionally. I come from a family of food lovers and cooks, and my 3 siblings and I all married food lovers and/or good cooks. In turn, my 11-year-old daughter is now learning to cook and can prepare simple meals by herself. She actually cooked a meal for the whole family when we were last in the States. And all of her friends know how to cook at least a few dishes, which they like to show off on sleepover nights. So it's not just our family that cooks at home and is teaching the kids to cook. Also, I honestly don't pay too much attention what the "statistics" say. Usually those coming up with them have something at stake. In the case of the fast food numbers given in a previous post...the amount spent on fast food in 2001 was about 66% higher than the amount spent in 1970. But the population of the US had also grown by about 40% during that time. The article doesn't mention whether the figures had been adjusted for inflation. But if they haven't, it would seem that spending per capita on fast food might actually have declined. I admit I am really, really bad at math and would love for someone who isn't to check the numbers. I'd also be interested in seeing some numbers on the amount spent on fresh fruits and vegetables for those periods. That has to have risen substantially. So, maybe the reports of the demise of real food and cooking are a bit premature? I hope so anyway.