teonzo

This is my last experiment, the layers are: pistachio croquant, rose mousse, chestnut honey jelly, ginseng mousse, rose glaze. The decorations are white chocolate with ground pistachio on the sides, dehidrated rose buds on the top. This cake took some efforts to get the correct balance, the chestnut honey tends to overcome the other flavours and destroy the whole effect, it just needs to be a "soft" background. Similar thing about pistachio, if it's not on the secondary level then it ruins the balance. I'm satisfied with the final result, and I love the ginseng-rose match, as usual I haven't invented anything new since I just discovered this match is well established in the soap industry. Teo

I'm not good in giving tasting notes about wine. What I can tell is that fragolino rosso can recall a mix of lambrusco and moscato with strong strawberry notes, while fragolino bianco can recall moscato with strong strawberry notes. As far as I know it was banned in the 80's after that huge methanol mess that happened here. Since its production was limited, I suppose nobody had the economical reasons to try to reintroduce it. I don't know of any place in Venice that is still selling the true fragolino to their customers, since after the internet boom almost all bacari stopped being totally traditional. Besides that, I suppose that they would give it only to trusty customers, if a foreign tourist asked them a glass of fragolino then most probably they would serve the legal version (cheap crappy wine with added strawberry aroma). The only place I know where you can find the real old fragolino is this osteria in Treviso: Osteria Muscoli Via Pescheria, 23 31100 Treviso it's one of the few traditional osterie remaining in this region, they are still true to tradition and serve even the rare fragolino bianco (if you ask them, it's not on the list of course). This osteria is just in front of the fish market. Treviso is a really nice city and deserves a visit for its art. If you go there I can suggest also this pastry shop: Pasticceria Cioccolateria Max Via Sant'Angelo, 75 31100 Treviso and this gelateria (hoping it will remain open, the owner wants to retire): http://www.ilvecchiogelatiere.it/ They are both outside the city walls, so you need a car or a long walk to reach them. Teo

You're welcome! Uhm, no, the effect is quite different from licorice+chocolate. If you have some eucalyptus and some tobacco at hand, then you can try to smell them together and get your idea. I'm sorry, but I'm totally ignorant about cigarettes. I'm asthmatic so I've never smoked anything in my life, I can't stand any kind of smoke in any form since I immediately have troubles about breathing. I don't know what smokers taste in their mouth while smoking, I'd like to know but the thought of how I could feel really scares me (I must admit i'm a bit envious, since I can't try something a lot of people love). I tried to eat something tobacco flavored years ago, since all my friends were praising how good some tuilles tasted. I liked it a lot, to my surprise, but I still can't stand smoke and am ignorant about tobacco types. To decide what tobacco to use I went to a store specialized in pipe tobacco and asked for help. They suggested me some samples to smell, after trying some I decided to buy a can of Rattray's Highland Targe. This is what I used for this cake and this is all my non-knowledge about tobacco types, sorry to disappoint. If there exist some cigarettes flavoured with eucalyptus then I need to ask for more infos to my smoking friends, guess I can find some inspirations. Teo

The whole idea started because I wanted to try a cake with eucalyptus. My only experience with eucalyptus in pastry was when I tried to make a praline years ago (it was promising, but I used too much eucalyptus in the cream infusion), so I had to start from scratch. The first pairing that came to mind was tobacco, can't explain the mental reasoning behind it, it was an immediate association. Eucalyptus and tobacco have various things in common: strong aroma, a bit pungent and bitter. So I decided to try to structure this cake by similarities and not by contrasts, and thought about what could go well with tobacco and could also go well with eucalyptus. Something alcoholic was the first idea, I was undecided between rum, peaty whisky and sherry/port. The problem with using rum and whisky was that they have strong aromas too, so this would have made the final result a bit too strong for my tastes and I would have been forced to use another strong aroma as 4th (otherwise it would get submerged). I chose to go with 2 main aromas and 2 secondary aromas in the background to create armony, so I picked the sherry (a Pedro Ximénez). Then remained to find the 4th component, I thought that tobacco and alcohol were related to vices, so coffee came to mind and it sounded good (I made the bavaroise substituting all the milk with coffee made with moka, not espresso or lyophilized coffee). About how using the eucalyptus, I thought that it would have been better to use it in something really airy to avoid the overpowering effect. I had to decide which kind of airy recipe use, trying to keep in basic stuff since it had no sense to experiment both on flavours and textures. I thought that yolks would not be a good match, so remained whipped cream and meringue. I thought some sugar was needed to balance the "balsamic" side of eucalyptus, so meringue was a given. Then I had to choose how to make the eucalyptus infusion, in water or in cream. I opted for the water, it gave me much more odds to balance the flavour at the first try. So I tried this recipe: -------------------- 80 g egg whites 40 g water 160 g sugar - 150 g water 10 g eucalyptus (dried leaves) - 6 g gelatine sheets - 250 g cream (35% fat) Make an Italian meringue with egg whites, water and sugar. Store in the refrigerator. Make the eucalyptus infusion: bring water to boil, add the eucalyptus leaves, simmer for about 5 minutes, then filter and weigh 100 g. Add the gelatine to the infusion and let cool down. When it reaches about 40°C pour the infusion on the meringue and amalgamate using a whisk or a spatula. Whip the cream to soft peaks and add to the eucalyptus meringue using a spatula. (I'm not good in writing recipes in English, sorry) -------------------- I'm satisfied with the result, the eucalyptus really cut out the sweetness, I've been really lucky to find a good balance at first try. The texture is a bit firm, if you want it to be really soft and airy then I suggest to use 5g or 4g of gelatine. But it depends on where you want to use this mousse, in a cake like this it's better to keep it a bit firm otherwise it will be difficult to cut and serve it without making a mess. Teo

This is my last experiment: sponge cake + coffee bavaroise + sherry cremeux + eucalyptus mousse + tobacco glaze. The decorations are macaron shells, white chocolate ganache and coffee beans (the first things I had at hand, cough cough). I did not focus that much on the look, I was interested to try the flavour matching and the balance, as this was a first try. I'm really satisfied flavourside, now I need to work on the apppearance. Teo

As the others pointed out, there are various troubles due to the square angles and the complicated shapes. You need a tempering machine and keep it in the high temper zone, plus a vibrating table. If you work manually (none of the two), then you'll regret buying those molds. Remaining in the Pavoni products, I much prefer the silicone ones. They are intented for dipping (you mold only the ganache) and are expensive, but they work perfectly. Teo

For the Migoya fanboys like me, his third book appeared for pre-order on Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/The-Elements-Dessert-Francisco-Migoya/dp/047089198X Teo

I second the Mugaritz, Marque and Sat Bains books, and add "Pastries" by Pierre Hermé, the third book by Francisco Migoya, "The Square Cookbook" by Phil Howard. Teo

We have a couple of TV channels that focus mainly on food stuff, they are: Gambero Rosso Channel Alice TV where some chefs have their own series presenting their recipes. The best one in my opinion is Luca Montersino (Alice TV), he is a pastry chef and explains professional recipes (pastry shops items) quite clearly. Another pastry chef is Maurizio Santin (Gambero Rosso), he is focused more on plated desserts. About savory dishes, there are the series by Laura Ravaioli and Massimiliano Mariola. Both of them are at Gambero Rosso, and their recipes are mainly for amateurs. Laura Ravaioli makes some cakes too. If you search their names on youtube, you can find a lot of videos. But to be honest I can't say if they are easy or difficult to understand for a person starting to learn Italian language. I suppose the easier should be Mariola, then followed by Ravaioli. There are some little series of few episodes dedicated to famous chefs, but they are short (2-3 episodes), so I can only suggest to search the name of the chef you are interested, and hope he went on TV. Teo

I've never said you can found a lot of written parolacce here and there. Besides that, it depends on the zone where you live, and the social extraction of the people you frequent. Living in Milano is quite different from living in Veneto. Frequenting religion professors is quite different than frequenting port workers, and so on. If you never ecountered people with love for parolacce and bestemmie, then simply it means you never frequented the zones where those people live, and not that those people do not exist. Try to come here in Veneto and conduct a normal life for a couple of weeks (living in a village and not a city full of tourists, going to stores, bars and so on), then tell me if you spent a hour without hearing people saying bestemmie. Or even other zones (Livorno, Maremma, Salento, some parts of Sicily, and so on). The "tradition" is on spoken language, not written, and, honestly speaking, denying it seems really strange to my eyes. I know pretty well it's not common in every part of Italy, but if you travelled enough in this country meeting common people, then this should be a consolidated fact. Nothing to be ashamed or proud, just a fact. But as I said, I simply can't believe that if you've ever been in Veneto then you could not have noticed that half the people here say a bestemmia or more every 100 words. Living here I know it for a fact. Teo

Thanks for pointing out about the existence of this book! I think I'll order a copy in January or February. Teo

I didn't know this, so I apologize if I seemed pedant. Uhm, this fact changes many things... I assumed the owners were from Italy. Teo

I don't know the owners of this brewery, but I can try to explain the "reasoning" behind giving that name. Some Italians, not all but a good amount of us, like cursing and have fun doing so. It's quite difficult to explain why it's funny, because it's something you are immersed since you are born. Here in Veneto we say a lot of "bestemmie" (insults to divinities) and feel they are funny, not because they are blasphemies and we are evil bastards that hate religion with full force, but because they became part of our culture in the past centuries and now they are just seen as a simple interpose, like a "crap" or "damn it" in English. For people that are not used to this, it seems really weird and of bad taste, because they associate this kind of cursing to bad offenses, while we just look at these light-hearted. Truth be told, I heard even some priests saying bestemmie, just to point out how much common they are here, and how low importance we give to the literal meaning of them. Once you are raised with this way of thinking, you tend to look at words with bad meanings with a funny eye. This leads some people to think that it's funny to induce foreign people to say these cursings without knowing what they mean, or to hide some cursings in professional papers and so on. You can look at it as a strange case of goliardery. Just for example there is an Italian restaurant in Japan which name is a bestemmia. It's a weird, maybe wicked, sense of humor. So I suppose the owners just thought "let's call it Stronzo so Danish people will start cursing in Italian without knowing they are doing so". As I said, many Italians don't see dirty words, swears and cursings as bad things, but just only as a way to joke. Personal example: my nickname is "teonzo", which comes from "Teo" (my real first name) + "stronzo" ("stronzo", as you pointed out, has various meanings, in this case it's like "asshole", my friends call me so because I always tell what I think directly and without diplomacy). They don't call me "stronzo" to offend me, just to make fun of me. And I find it funny too, at the point that I chose to keep this nickname and I'm using it from more than 15 years. Teo

Please pardon my ignorance, but I've never been in an English speaking country, so I lack in too many things about English language. I thought that "ice-cream" was the English translation of the Italian word "gelato" (a term that, here in Italy, indicates that generic kind of frozen preparations), so I always assumed "gelato = ice-cream". Which kind of particular preparation do you refer to with the word "gelato"? Thanks. Teo

I suggest you to check this book to learn about the physics of ice-creams: it's downloadable for free. Teo

This is the English version of "Encyclopédie du chocolat", which was originally published about 1 year ago in France. I have it (the French version) and it does not cover what Punk Patissier is looking for. It's a really good book, but it must be considered for what it was intended for: giving the bases on a huge spectrum of chocolate utilizations (pralines, cakes, ice-creams, cookies and so on). A professional already knows almost everything written in the book, there are "only" the basics. It's a great book for the amateurs, or for people starting to be a professional, but there is almost nothing advanced. Teo

Janice Wong is the chef and owner of 2am Dessert Bar in Singapore, one of the few dessert restaurants in the world. This is her first book, and involves on her plated desserts. Visually it's great, the packaging and photos are stunning. I haven't tried any recipes, but after reading some they seem consistent. My main complaint is that this book has few dishes (about 30), it has about 120 pages, and a good amount are occupied by full 2 pages photos. So overall this book is on the pricey side (about 55 US$ plus shipping), but I'm happy to have bought it. As far as I know you can buy it only through the official website: http://perfectioninimperfection.com/ and until now it went under the radar of all the press. Teo

Best thing to do in Palermo is to taste all the traditional street foods. The 2 most famous are "pani ca meusa" (bread with beef spleen) and "arancine di riso" (fried rice balls with various fillings), but there are a lot more. So I think it's better to go there with a "tapas tour" mentality than with a "fine dining" mentality. Some addresses: Bar Alba - Piazza Don Bosco 7/c Bar Massaro - Via Basile Ernesto 26 Antica Focacceria San Francesco - Via Paternostro Alessandro 58 Mercato della Vucciria - Via dei Cortellieri (this is the market, with a lot of different stands) About fine dining, there is only one restaurant which is talked about outside Sicily, it's Bye Bye Blues, and if I'm right it has a Michelin star: http://www.byebyeblues.it/ If you like sweets, then Palermo is literally full of pastry shops that produce the traditional Sicilian pastries (cannoli and so on). The 2 most famous are: http://www.accardipasticceria.com/ http://www.pasticceriacappello.it/ If you come also to Venice during your trip, feel free to pm me. Teo

I love desserts made with azuki beans. Here is the last I made. AZUKI CREMINO 300g milk chocolate 300g azuki beans puree Cook the azuki beans, then sift them to separate the skin from the pulp. Dry the puree in the oven at 60°C to loose some moisture. Weigh 300g of the azuki puree. Melt the milk chocolate, add the azuki puree and amalgamate. Pour the cremino into a square mold (20cm x 20cm). Let it set, then cut squares 2.5cm x 2.5cm. RED BELL PEPPER SAUCE 300g red bell pepper pulp (cooked) 50g sugar Cut the peppers in 4th, clean them from the seeds and the stems, then peel away the skin with the potato peeler. Cook the peppers' pulp sous vide (or steaming). Weigh 300g of cooked red pepper pulp, grind it in a mixer, add the sugar, cook until desired density. WHITE SESAME TUILLE 125g sugar 35g flour 50g orange juice 50g butter (pomade) 100g white sesame seeds Mix the first 4 ingredients, then add the sesame seeds. Put the batter in a sac-a-poche, and for some little circles on a sheet pan (get some distance between each of them, since they broaden a lot during cooking). Cook at 160°C until golden brown. Cut each tuille in half while they are still warm (if they are cold they crack), to get a semicircular shape. SERVICE Alternate squares of azuki cremino with sesame tuilles (these ones in vertical position, standind on the base of the semicircle). Garnish with the pepper sauce. Wine pairing: late harvest Gewürztraminer. Teo

Can't help you about other cooking methods, but I can tell you how the chef dealt with these eggs during service in a restaurant where I worked. He immersed the egg in water, craked the shell while immersed in water, and used a drilled spoon http://www.rgmania.com/media/images/superproductimage-picture-cucchiaio-forato-piccolo-lucido-2267_wm_w1_o100_gs0_r0_p-443x-274_s4.jpg to collect the egg and place it on the plate. Teo

The layers seem quite parallel, so I suppose he did something like this: - pour a medium-thin layer of white chocolate in the big mold; - wait until it starts to set, shake the mold to give some ondulations to the surface just to not get it completely plain; - pour a thin layer of milk chocolate (the ratio white/milk seems like 3/1) in the big mold; - wait until it starts to set, shake the mold to give some ondulations to the surface just to not get it completely plain; - repeat. The "wood effect" is given mainly by the curves of the surfaces from the angle of this photo, if they took a frontal photo you would just see parallel layers. Teo

As Baylee Chocolate Lady wrote, the best general rule is to go far from the main routes. The second rule is to avoid at all costs every place which has a waiter at the door trying to call in people walking on the road. The third rule is to go where you can hear people talking Venetian dialect, but this is almost impossible to notice for non Italian people. When looking for an address in Venice, I strongly suggest this site: http://maps.veniceconnected.it/en it's the most reliable. If you use google maps or similars, a lot of times they indicate a different place from the correct one. If you want to spend few money near Rialto, then I can suggest these two places: Pronto Pesce http://prontopesce.it/about.html it's just in front of the fish market of Rialto, beware that it's not open till late. Here you can find traditional fish dishes, and you can get good wines by the glass. Rosticceria Gislon, Calle de la Bissa I can't find the exact number, but when you are in Calle de la Bissa it's really easy to find. Their speciality is "mozzarella in carrozza", but also baccalà and other things are good. Besides these two, you can look for "bacari". A "bacaro" is a traditional Venetian bar where you can eat "cicheti", which are small portions of traditional Venetian dishes. The concept is similar to the tapas bars in Spain. Until 10-15 years ago they were attended only by Venetian people, so prices were kept low. After that they started to be suggested on the internet, so they started to get foreign customers, and the prices went up. They are not as cheap as Pronto Pesce and Rosticceria Gislon. Some names: La Cantina, Calle San Felice, Cannaregio 3689 Do Mori, Calle dei Do Mori, San Polo 429 Al Ponte, Calle Larga Giacinto Gallina, Cannaregio 6378 All'Arco, Calle Arco, San Polo 436 Alla Vedova, Calle del Pistor, Cannaregio 3912 La Mascareta, Calle Lunga Santa Maria Formosa, Castello 5183 My favourite restaurant in Venice where you spend less than 50 euro (not including wine) is: Anice Stellato, Fondamenta de la Sensa, Cannaregio 3272 it's quite far from Rialto, but it deserves a visit. For a good breakfast: Caffè del Doge, San Polo 608 they have the best croissants in Venice. For chocolates: http://www.viziovirtu.com/ Unfortunately there are not great pastry shops in Venice, some good ones, but nothing great. And the 2 best ones changed owner in the last 2 years, going down in quality. Teo

The only recipe I've found in my books is this one, taken from "Come Musica" by Luca Mannori: ---- 800 g chocolate 64% 400 g hazelnut paste (light, not dark) 80 g extravirgin olive oil 1 g fleur de sel Melt the chocolate to 45° C. Add the hazelnut paste and the olive oil in small doses. Temper the ganache. When it reaches 28° C add the fleur de sel and pour in the mold. ---- Teo

Re-reading what I wrote, I must clarify something. The law states that each restaurant, bar and so on need to have a list of prices, it must be printed and put in clear view of the customers. There are cases (like Cafè Florian in Venice) where the list is printed and is really easy to see for everyone (in that case it's at the entry), and all prices are really really high (something like 15 euro for an espresso). If you go in a place like this, you can't complain if you have to pay a huge amount of money for the bill, since you've been warned by the price list and you had to know you were going to pay that much before ordering it. If the price list is not there, or if the restaurateur/bartender/whatever is pumping up the bill (a despicable thing, but a lot of people do so with foreigners), then he is committing an infraction and it's better to denounce him to Guardia di Finanza. Now some other suggestions I received. A couple of places where to buy "bottarga di muggine" at Cabras: http://www.spanubottarga.com/index.aspx?m=53&did=1 http://www.orodicabras.it/ A nice agristurismo: http://www.mutodigallura.com/ an agriturismo is a farm where you can eat and sometimes even sleep. It has a familiar style, nothing high end, just for example in most agritursmi the customers eat all at the same table, together with the owners. What you eat must produced by the farm. Some cheesemakers: http://www.thiesilat.com/ Fogu Casearia, Zona Artigianale S'Utturu Snc, 07027 Oschiri (OT) Luigi Pulinas, Località Pittone, 07033 Osilo (SS) Gavinuccio Turra, Località Monte Luiu, 07033 Osilo (SS) Quirico Antonio e Luigi Altea, località Lizzos, 07033 Osilo (SS) Giovanni Borrode, Viale Domenico Alberto Azuni 121, Santu Lussurgiu (OR) Giampaolo Piu, Viale Domenico Alberto Azuni 199, Santu Lussurgiu (OR) Giuseppe Sanna, Via Merella 17, Paulilatino (OR) Salvatore Bussu, Località Bara, Macomer (NU) Simone Cualbu, Località Serradellu, Macomer (NU) Roberto Logias, Località Spasulei, Sorgono (NU) Baked goods (pane carasau, pane pistoccu, savoiardi): F.lli Moro Srl, via Gramsci, 08023 Fonni (NU) About pasta, there are various traditional types made in various zones, mainly dried pasta: "lorighittas" in Morgongiori (OR) http://www.pastificioporru.com/ Pastificio Polese, via Vittorio Emanuele III, Morgongiori (OR) "filindeu" in the province of Nuoro Paola Abraini, via Gramsci 49 , Nuoro "maccarrones de busa" in the province of Nuoro http://www.pastificiosale.com/ Other dried pasta makers: http://www.tandaespada.it/ Pastificio Andarinos, Via Mazzini 20, 07049 Usini (SS) Fresh pasta makers: http://www.coronaemanca.com/ Laboratorio Artigianale di Marci Richard, nazionale S.S. 125 Km. 124,00 snc, 08040 Cardedu (OG) La Vera Pasta Fresca, Via Monsignor Virgilio 35, 08048 Tortolì (OG) A torrone producer (torrone is something similar to nougat): http://www.pruneddu.it/ In Siniscola (a village) you can find a particolar citrus fruit called "pompia", which is grown only there. It is used to be candied, or in a traditional cake called "s'aranzata". Here is a list of producers, where you can find other stuff too: http://www.dolcisardimulargia.com/ http://www.panecarasau.org/ Stefania Cotza, Località Santa Lucia, Siniscola (NU) Maria Cristina Contu, Via Nazario Sauro 5, Località La Caletta, Siniscola (NU) Nicolina Frau, Via Roma 68, Siniscola (Nu) About saffron (we are in late season now, last days for the harvest, then they will plant the new flowers for the next year), there are various producers in San Gavino Monreale: http://www.zafferanodisangavino.it/ http://www.zafferanosangavinomonreale.it/ http://www.zafferanosargidda.com/ Leonardo Figus, Via G. Cesare 12, San Gavino Monreale (Vs) Gavino Inconis e Chiara Meloni, Via S. Croce 52, San Gavino Monreale (Vs) Rossana Orrù, Via Matteotti 55, San Gavino Monreale (Vs) There is a particular breed of cows called "sardo modicana". The breeders are united in a consortium: Consorzio Il Bue Rosso, Via Aragona 7, Seneghe (OR) The official butcher is: Giovanni Catzeddu, Piazza Mannu, Seneghe (OR) other butchers where you can find this meat: Aldo Manca, Via De Castro 61, Cabras (OR) Natale Manconi, Via Campagna 12/14, Sardara (VS) Costantino Sassu, Corso Italia, Bonarcado (OR) Giovanni Ricci, via Arborea 4, Oristano (OR) Walter Vivarelli, Via Bosco Cappuccio 61, Cagliari Stores: http://www.enoteca-prodottitipicisardi.com/ (mainly wine) http://www.antichisaporisardi.net/ http://www.enotecacagliaritana.it/ (mainly wine) http://www.mulaspasticceria.it/ (pastry shop) http://www.laboutiquedellacarne.com/ (butcher) http://www.baracciaro.it/ (pastry shop) http://web.tiscalinet.it/pasticceria_puggioni/inizio.htm (pastry shop) Salumeria Lo Squisito, via Antonio Pacinotti 15/17, Cagliari (charcuterie) Casa del formaggio, via Mazzini 43, Alghero (mainly cheese) Gelateria Vaniglia, via Carlo Alberto 41, Ghilarza (OR) (ice cream) Pasticceria Monne Luisa, via Tola 22, Nuoro (pastry shop) Gelateria Smeralda, corso Umberto 124, Olbia (ice cream) Specialità Sarde, via Figoli 41, Oristano Artigiani del dolce, via Stazione 9, Ozieri (SS) (pastry shop) Su Nuraghe, via Nora 53, Pula (CA) (pastry shop) Caffè Conti, via Regina Margherita 2, Santa Teresa di Gallura (OT) (bar / cafè) La casa del miele, via Is Collus 53, Santadi (CI) (honey) La Salumeria di Multineddu Tonino, via Principessa Maria 70, Sassari (charcuterie) Drogheria Mario Alberti, Via Roma 23, Sassari Panificio Pala, via Umberto 54, Sorso (SS) (bakery) Cioccolateria Sperandri, Zona Industriale Str. 1, Suni (OR) (chocolate) Other restaurants: http://www.ristoranteilcormorano.net/ http://www.piazzadelprincipeportocervo.com/fiordacqua.asp http://www.ristorantelagritta.it/ http://www.letiziaristorante.it/ http://www.hotel-moderno-sant-antioco.it/ristorante-achille-sant-antioco.html http://www.lanticahostaria.it/ Teo

First of all I must state that I've never been in Sardinia (yes, I'm Italian and never been there, shame on me), so all the informations I have are collected from friends. And I must correct myself about casu marzu. I've just been told that last year it came back to be legal, now it's protected as a "typical product". The traditional festival is at the beginning of June, but now it's mainly a folkloristics tourist trap. As far as I know, if you have a good contact with the fishers there (working to get this), you can be their guest and attend while they fish tuna in the other days of the year. It's not the historical mattanza of the festival made with old boats and so on, but it's still a mattanza and interesting (of course if you can stand cruel visions). Plus you can get the chance to eat some parts of the tuna that is quite difficult to find in restaurants, just like raw marrow (my favourite), eyes, cheeks, heart, and so on. I'm pretty sure you already tasted them, but who knows. Plus personally I'm mad about those parts, so as I have the chance to eat them then I'm in first line. When I read these stories I really got angry (not with you). I really hate when restaurateurs, bartenders and so on try to screw tourists, so as you can understand I hate a huge amount of Venetians, since Venice is probably the worst case of tourist screwing (just for example, one time I went in a Venetian bar with a Japanese friend and was talking with my bad English, the bartender tried to pump up the check, I had to tell him in Venetian dialect that he had better to try to screw his family members). People like them are ruining this country, we could live just with tourism if we could be able to value all the art we have to offer, but no, those idiots just think that it's better to treat the tourist like dumbs with big money to milk. I hope things will change in the future, but it seems almost impossible, there's a huge lack of culture of hospitality and honesty. If you are a foreigner in Italy and face a similar case, the best thing to do is to call the number 117 with the phone. It's the number of Guardia di Finanza, the public force that supervise on economical frauds, and denounce what happened. Do this in front of the owner of the place, and don't fear to be heard by the other customers. In most cases the owner will try to accomodate, asking to apologize and reducing the bill. But please be firm and wait for the arrival of the Guardia di Finanza, so he will have to pay a nice penalty. This way he will learn better he must not screw anyone. Now the first suggestions I got: http://www.corbula.it/ a good store with typical products http://www.santulussurgiuproduce.it/formaggi.asp a list of the producers of the typical cheese in Santu Lussurgiu http://www.ristorante-ilcaminetto.com/ http://www.darenzo.it/ http://www.hotelraffael.com/ http://www.sugologone.it/ http://www.sacorte.it/ http://www.ristoranteilcorsaronero.it/ http://www.appenaprima.it/ http://www.ristoranteilrubino.com/ http://www.sasbenas.it/ http://www.agnata.it/ Ristorante La Meridiana, Via Littorio 1, 09073 Cuglieri (OR) Bar Quintilio, località Calabona Grotte di Costa, Alghero (SS) traditional restaurants Mos Tapas , Via Carducci 3, Alghero tapas restaurant http://www.sapposentu.it/ http://www.laghinghetta.com/ http://www.ristoranteandreini.it/ http://www.luigipomata.com/nicolo/default.asp high end restaurants http://www.capichera.it/en http://www.vignesurrau.it/ http://www.vinimura.it/ http://www.malvasiacolumbu.com/ http://www.vinicontini.it/ http://www.giuseppesedilesu.com/en/ http://www.sellaemosca.it/en/legal.php?r=/en/index.php Gabbas Giuseppe Winery, Via Trieste 65, 08100 Nuoro http://www.agripunica.it/ http://www.cantinesarduspater.it/ http://www.feudidellamedusa.it/ http://www.argiolas.it/ http://www.cantinapedres.it/ http://www.vernacciaserra.it/ winemakers I'm asking for suggestions about charcuteries, cheesemakers and pastry shops (there are typical pastries like "amaretti sardi" and "torrone sardo"). If you need help with translating some pages, since most of them are only in Italian, just ask. Teo