albiston

A quick tip for anyone who has to catch a train from Termini and has a little time to wait in the evening (from 18:30 onwards). La Barrique Wine Bar Via del Boschetto 41/B (About 10-15 minutes walk from the railway station, less then 5 by bus, on a side street of via Nazionale.) A nice wine selection, with some unusual and hard to find bottles, and a few nice nibbles to go with them. Also quite a few wines by the glass. If you feel like trying the regional wines of Latium ask the owner for some tips, there’s a good selection on offer.

Happy you liked it and Cy, I promise I'll write up about any other worthwile Italian restaurants should the occasion come up (sadly not as often as I'd like). John, I was wondering if there's any particular restaurants that impressed you last time you were in Campania. Besides Torre del Saracino and Don Alfonso, the surroundings of Sorrento have another two restaurants with a good reputation, Taverna del Capitano and Quattro Passi. Moving southwards I've heard really good things of Nonna Sceppa in the Cilento area. I would have loved to try another one or two between these but time was not exactly on my side.

Robert, To be fair I have the feeling GR, both magazine and guide, is having a slight identity crisis. Some of the restaurants in the list might have a certain French touch, someone like Alajmo is not without reason the youngest Michelin three starred chef ever (something not many know). Still, I think that even accounting for that there are quite a few differences between Michelin and GR. On the other hand, many of the newer entries are following another path. As good examples for this I would point to Torre del Saracino, Lorenzo and Antonio Colonna. These restaurants make haute cuisine but they're unmistakably Italian. I really hope that from these (and others just below the three forchette mark) a new wind will blow through the Italian restaurant scene . Also don't forget that GR guides votes on many parameters, service, ambience and cellar and many of the top ones in that list get really high scores in these fields. I always like to have a look at the cooking aka kitchen votes, which are IMO more interesting. As soon as those are out I'll post them. now I'm curious. Which ones did you try apart Gambero Rosso? Also, I assume from what you write that you purposely avoided dining in some of these. Isn't it difficult to judge without first hand experience? A rhetoric question, I know, people like us don't have someone paying for our restaurant visits and one clearly has to choose, but I'd be still be interested in knowing the reasons for these choices

Campania, like most of Southern Italy, might be worldwide known for its traditional dishes, pizza and spaghetti al pomodoro were born here after all, but fine dining, excluding the once three-starred Don Alfonso 1890, seemed for years to be a hard to find commodity. In recent times there has been signs of change, with a few young chefs and restaurants quoted on national press in different occasions, which reached a climax with last year’s Gambero Rosso tre forchette award, and one of the highest notes for the kitchen, to a young chef from Campania, Gennaro Esposito, and his restaurant Torre del Saracino in Seiano, on the Sorrento peninsula. In contrast, the response from other guides was far less enthusiastic. Opinions from foodies were likely split. I don’t really give that much importance to guide notes, and even less to the opinion of people I hardly know, but the contrast in judgment intrigued me, especially since in most cases renowned restaurant appear at the top in all the guides if with minor differences. If what they say is true, this is Alain Ducasse favorite place when he’s in Italy and if Monsieur Ducasse thinks so there must be a good reason. I had to wait about one year before I had the chance to travel back to Italy AND get a reservation but finally on a warm late September night me, my wife and my maybe–I’ll-drop-out-from-college-and-become-a-cook brother made our way to Seiano. The restaurant itself is inside a simple one-story building: the part nearest to the road is taken up by the kitchen, where about eight people were working on the night we were there, while the rest is occupied by the dining room. Both overlook the gulf of Naples through large windows and there’s also a terrace, used in the summer months, with an even nicer view. The dining room itself is very simple, almost a bit bare. The ambience, often criticized, is indeed somehow lacking what one might expect at these levels. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by the friendly and very capable maitre and shown to our table, elegant but simple, as the tableware. We took a little time to decide what to order, the carte being very tempting, but being this the first time here, we decided to go for the 75 Euros 5-course menu. Both menu and carte are extremely fish-centred, there’s only two meat dishes to choose from for the hardcore carnivores, but if you’re here it would be a shame to miss the fantastic local catch. After some talk with the sommelier, we decide to order a very pleasant white wine from Campania, a Fiano d’Avellino colli di Lapio, as our first wine for the evening. The rhythm at which service took place throughout the evening was quite quick, maybe even a tad too much so, therefore, after a very shot wait we dug into our amuse, a very simple dish of acqua di pomodoro e filetto di triglia, tomato water and red mullet filet, the tomato water as a soup, surrounding the filet elevated on a few green beans cooked al dente. The classic tomato-red mullet combination showed the great quality of all the ingredients, and the tomato acidity served perfectly to refresh the palate and open the stomach for the rest of the meal. Our first course, zuppa di zucchini con uovo affogato e gamberoni, zucchini soup with poached egg and shrimp tail, a simple reinterpretation of a traditional pairing , was one of the high points of the evening. Very simply presented: the perfectly poached egg resting on almost raw shrimp tails, sweet and plump, crowned the zucchini soup made of the smallest zucchini I’ve ever seen and their tender leaves. No flavor explosion here, rather a mellow, comforting taste, which still managed to be seducing in its discrete way. The next appetizer was instead quite a disappointment. Cozze ripiene con purea di melanzane e ricotta, Mussels stuffed with ricotta and aubergine puree, served inside a comfit cherry tomato with just a thin stroke of pesto as sauce, are one of Esposito’s classic. I found the problem with this dish to be the same one other similar dishes balancing strong and mellow ingredients have: these flavor pairings are like rope-walking above the void, there’s just no room for mistakes. One step too much in one or the other direction and you end up with either a bland dish or one where the strong flavors dominate. The latter was the case here: the comfit tomato, fantastic by itself nonetheless, absolutely overpowered the rest. To make matters worst one of the dishes served was over-salted. The pasta course, Ravioli di Patate con salsa di Frutti di Mare, Potato dough Ravioli, with an Aubergine and Tomato stuffing, served with a Mussel and Clam sauce, managed to quickly improve our mood again. The dish was maybe not breathtaking but pleasant and enjoyable as only pasta dishes can be: nice dough, light and with a clear potato flavor, pleasant stuffing and great sauce, the mussels and clams (huge for the standards of Italian vongole) tender and properly salty, the sea iodine aroma all there. I hate it when mussels loose their proper sea taste, they’re not meat for Pete’s sake! We also changed wine with this course and went for the quite famous Vintage Tunina (2001 vintage), a white from Friuli by Vinajoli Jermann, an opulent and impressive wine. The main course was the other dish, after the zucchini soup, that made me want to go in the kitchen and hug the huge, teddy bear look-alike Gennaro Esposito, who was just at the moment peeking from the kitchen door, a smile on his face. Nasello in tre cotture, Nasello, a Mediterranean relative of haddock, cooked three ways had all the things I love in a dish: perfect temperatures, clean flavors, a great respect for the ingredients and a certain bravery. Two squares of filet, one cooked sous-vide the other just sautéed, lay next to the fried head of the cod and a minimal garnish, a broccoli floret and a tiny tomato bruschetta. The sautéed filet was perfectly cooked but almost unexciting compared to the sous-vide filet, plump, moist and velvety, and the head, fried to perfection in one of the most delicious batters I’ve ever had, dry, crunchy and carefully flavored with pulverized orange peel. The head left us slightly perplexed at the start but soon we were eating the delicious cheeks, tongue and the little flesh left attached which usually gets lost during filleting. The decision to serve a cut as the head, waste actually, and make a heart-moving dish out of it really showed some courage. Before the dessert course we were served a small selection of local cheeses, caciocavallo silano, pecorino di Moliterno and a blue goat cheese I forgot the name of, with a little pink grapefruit marmalade and some chestnut honey. The cheeses were all of high quality, especially the pecorino, but I had the feeling the cheese course had been introduced in the menu more to make critics happy than to meet client demands. I love cheese courses but they don’t really fit too well inside a fish menu. I was a bit doubtful and slightly prejudiced about the desserts of Torre del Saracino, made by Esposito’s wife Vittoria. I had read about them and seen photos before and was never particularly impressed. It just goes to show how nothing can substitute taste, since the desserts were simple, sure, but made so well the it almost made me sorry I couldn’t eat more. The only problem with them was the portion size. They would have been quite big on their own, but after another five courses they were almost huge. My white plum tart, of which I’d love to have the crust recipe, served with a rich creamy custard was quite big, but the baba’ my wife ordered instead, redolent of rum and coming with pastry cream and wild strawberries, could have served four. After this we hardly managed a taste of the little pastries served with coffee. Esposito’s cooking is a simple one carried out with great knowledge of the craft; there’s no Pollock-like sauce drizzles; no towering food constructions or weird shaped plates; and no adventurous creations of molecular gastronomy. His dishes try to remain as true as possible to the ingredients he selects by himself, something which he’s very good at, and they almost follow an ethic of understatement. His flavors are clearly Italian but his preparations recalled at times of a certain Japanese influence, especially his Nasello dish, asking you to concentrate on that single ingredient and on the shades of its taste and texture. I guess all these considerations also answer why the opinions on this cook are so split: his cooking just can’t strike everyone’s chords. Those looking for flamboyance should better search elsewhere. Not everything is perfect; there certainly is room for improvement, both in the cooking and in the restaurant itself but Esposito is someone who we’ll probably still hear about in years to come. I’ll certainly be going back, those swordfish ravioli with colatura d’alci and the pesce bandiera parmigiana sounded just too delicious to miss.

Just out: here's the Gambero Rosso Tre forchette awards and the Tre Gamberi (best trattorie) Gambero Rosso, Fulvio Pierangelini 96/100 Vissani, Gianfranco Vissani 95 Dal Pescatore, Nadia Santini 93 Ambasciata, Romano Tamani 93 La Pergola, Heinz Beck 93 Enoteca Pinchiorri,Annie Feolde and Giorgio Pinchiorri 92 Don Alfonso 1890, Livia and Alfonso Iaccarino 92 Le Calandre, Massimiliano Alajmo 91 La Siriola, Stefan Wieser 91 La Torre del Saracino, Gennaro Esposito 91 Villa Crespi, Antonino Cannavacciuolo 90 Perbellini, Giancarlo Per bellini 90 Villa del Quar, Bruno Barbieri 90 Laite, Fabrizia Meroi 90 Il Desco, Elia Rizzo 90 Paolo Teverini 90 St. Hubertus, Norbert Niederkofler 90 Lorenzo,Gioacchino Pontrelli and Lorenzo Viani 90 La Madonnina del Pescatore, Moreno Cedroni 90 Antonello Colonna 90 TRE GAMBERI Da Amerigo, Savigno – BO L’Asino d’Oro, Orvieto – TR La Brinca, Ne – GE Caffè La Crepa, Isola Dovarese – CR La Cavea, Pietravairano – CE Locanda al Gambero Rosso, Bagno di Romagna – FC Nangalarruni, Castelbuono – PA Osteria del Boccondivino, Bra – CN Osteria della Villetta, Palazzolo sull’Oglio – BS Taverna 58, Pescara U.P.E.P.I.D.D.E., Ruvo di Puglia - BA

CyN, that's the same question I've found on Italian food forums. Having never been there I can only say the general consensus is that L'Alberata has been undergoing some serious shaping up in the last 6 months and the few people I've heard talking from direct experience mentioned a very big improvement. That said, it's not a place I'd feel like trying out even if I had the time to do so.

Yes, it is that time of the year again, when chefs nervously wait for a confidential rumor, a sign, anything, just to stop the waiting before the Restaurant guides come out. Or better it was that time of the year since today the first one from Espresso has reached the bookshops. Gambero Rosso will announce it's best restaurant awards on Monday, and the other guides will follow. (For an overview of Italian Restaurant guides take a look at this thread). For those interested there's a special report on the Espresso guide in Italian at the link above. There's recipes interviews and review of the three 19 points chefs, an interview with Enzo Vizzari, guide chief editor, and a few other articles. An interesting interview with Enzo Vizzari appeared on a new interesting Italian food blog a few days ago, and if you're interested you can find it here. Espresso's guide has two new features this year, the piggy bank symbol for good priced establishments and they also took a leaf from the Slow Food guide adding a few pages on street food, like the best trippai in Florence and so on. For all those not familiar with Dante's language here's a brief summary of the restaurants who received the three toques, the highest award, given to restaurants judged between 20 and 18 according to the same method used in the French Gault-Millau guide: 19 points Gambero Rosso, San Vincenzo (LI); Vissani, Baschi (Tr); La Pergola dell'Hotel Hilton, Roma 18,5 points LE Calandre, Rubano (PD); Enoteca Pinchiorri, Firenze; Dal Pescatore, Canneto sull'Oglio (MN) 18 points for L'Alberata di Gualtiero Marchesi, Erbusco (BS) Of the 32 "two toques" (between 17,5 e 16,5 points) a few get a special mention: Cracco Peck (Milano), Miramonti l'altro (Concesio), l'osteria La Francescana (Modena), and Giancarlo Perbellini (Isola Rizza) at 17,5. Between 17 e a 16,5 among the others the newly awarded Combal Punto Zero (Rivoli Torinese), Antonello Colonna in Labico, Paolo e Barbara in San Remo, Uliassi (Senigallia), La Taverna del Capitano (Nerano), Vittorio (Bergamo), l'Antica Corona Reale in Cervere, il Capriccio (Manerba), Bracali in Massa Marittima.

I won't lie: as a chinotto hardcore-fan I really don't understand how it is that people do not like this fantastic drink, or even prefer cola to it . Admittedly San Pellegrino is not really the best Chinotto out there, there are mellower ones. I guess it's pretty much a cultural thing, we Italians are probably more used to bitter tastes than North Europeans and North Americans, though we're mere amateurs in comparison to the Chinese, and therefore appreciate thastes such as chinotto more. BTW: We're having a discussion on Italian soft drinks over at the Italian forum and if you'de feel like adding your comments they'd be welcome and appreciated.

I'm with Kevin, though my lovely German wife is a rice and beef supporter. A slight variation of the breadcrumb stuffing is one made substituting the bread with very little penne pasta, actually cut maccheroni (the Italian ones which are thick hollow spaghetti). cooked al dente and dressed with the same ingredients used cor the bread crumbs plus one or two diced tomatoes. Another stuffing I really like, but seldom make is the tuna stuffed peppers from Piedmont. I don't have a recipe at hand but if you'd like I could look it up when I get home.

Dear Peter, I must first of all thank you for your fantastic books. I had been Baking bread before, but only after reading "Crust and Crumb" and, later, "The Bread Baker Apprentice", did I manage to achieve home baked bread that really made me proud. I'll always be in debt to your clear and useful tips and explanations. A slightly tecnichal question. Living in Germany, I've had at times problem following some bread formulas designed to work with american flours, especially when it comes to full gluten development. I've recieved different suggestions on how to overcome this problem but I'd love to know if you would suggest any particular solution. Thanks.

echristie, welcome to eGullet. Not having much experience with Salone del Gusto and not being able to make it this year I'll leave suggestions to the others. I wanted to take the chance to encourage anyone going to report their impressions, pictures, complaints, i.e. anything pertinent on this forum. Salone del Gusto is an important event and it would certainly make us happy to have some discussion about it here on eGullet.

Back from vacation, very little stuff in my fridge: eggs, scallions and cabbage among the few items bought imediately after coming home. I would have never thought of mixing the three together to be honest. Then I start browsing eGullet again, looking around till I stumble on this thread. Mmmh... okonomiyaki... I heard about these before but I have no clue about what they are. I read this thread throughout, then the older threads too and I'm totally hooked. I must make some. So, following dougery's recipe from a previous thread I mix the batter. Topping is hard, very little there, but I manage to scrape some gari, some bonito flakes and some sesame seeds together. And here it is, my first take on okonomiyaki. Not on time but I hope I'll be excused . No sauce available, but very satisfying nonetheless. Thanks to all you guys for your intriguing posts that made this japanese-food ignorant Italian hooked on okonomiyaki. I'll be making these again. And thanks to Kristin for coming up with this great thread.

Sorry, I expressed myself in a rather unclear way. It was only the weekly closing day, monday. AFAIK cucina casareccia is closed only during the beginning of September. Gallipoli, apart June-August, when it turns into a crowded and quite fashionable destination, has a lovely city center, some interesting restaurants and a nice fish market (great if you have a kitchen available). I find it's a nice place to spend one or two days. Monopoli sounds great too. It probably depends on what you prefer: admittedly the rest of Gallipoli, outside the city center, is quite ugly. Whatever you chose I'm sure you'll be happy, I found Puglia a very nice destination, great food and nice people, though quite behind Sicily in respect to tourism and connected structures.

Kevin, just back from Puglia, or better Salento to be precise. Had a great two weeks there and some delicious food and wines. As soon as I manage to order my notes, pics and so on I'll post about it, so maybe you might find something useful there. Except Lecce (sadly visited on the closing day of cucina casereccia), I don't have much regarding your other proposed travel destinations but maybe I'll manage to convince you to spend a day in Gallipoli . Regarding the train trip from Rome to Bari consider about 5 hours with the Eurostar Train, longer with other, slower, lines.

Still in Italy, and with only occasional net access but with a few news and gossips. The first new tre forchette to be announced, in the newly published GR Rome guide, is Antonio Colonna in Labico (if anyone's interested in the points he got 50/60 for his cooking and 18/20 for the wine list). I met some people more or less loosely coonnected to Gambero Rosso two days ago in Rome and they were raving about his oxtail ravioli in pigeon broth. Might not sound very Italian but the oxtail comes straight from the very Roman dish of coda alla vaccinara. I have also been told that the tre forchette this year will be 20, with quite a few new entries and old "stars" losing their award from the past years. I'm quite curious to see who will rise and who will fall.

Apart the aforementioned Slowfood guide tips, always very helpful, a restaurant which has been constantly recieving praises on the Italian press is chef Roberto Petza's s'apposentu in Cagliari, serving a creative cuisine with strong references to traditional cuisine. have fun in Sardinia

Wow, this is some news to find after two weeks off-line. I'll sure miss you as Italy forum co-host. In bocca al lupo with vinocibo, Craig.

Definitely, some rum is a great addition and I often use it too. Another nice "alcoholic flavoring" that works quite well is some good marsala, or a decent oloroso sherry. And if you like mascarpone and citrus flavours together: just one word... limoncello. Store bought or made witht Katie's now famous recipe ← .

Matthew, If you can wait a few weeks I'll give you a more thorough answer, especially regarding restaurants and such. I'm just packing and leaving for Italy for the next three weeks so not too much time to write. Sorrento is definitely the best base if you want to use public transport but certainly not the prettiest place to stay on the Amalfi coast. On the other hand for other places, Amalfi, Ravello (my favourite), or even little Minori you really need a car to be free from the somewhat erratic bus timetables.

Cannoli... with mascarpone? Might taste perfectly fine, and I bet they do, but if it's made with anything else than ewe's milk ricotta... nah, it just ain't cannoli. Foreigners, ah! The classic thing to do with mascarpone would be tiramisu'... mmhhh

Just a word Tigulliovino's restaurant reviews. What you find in this handy source is mainly a collection of reviews submitted to the newsgroup it.discussioni.ristoranti. Having followed the ng since the start it might be helpfull to add that the reviewers are really heterogenous bunch, ranging from well informed and intelligent ones to those that are negatively biased just for the sake of demonstrating restaurant guides are wrong. Worth taking with a pinch of salt. Leslie, have fun in Italy and looking forward to reading about your experiences.

Ore, the pics are all there, looking great and making me hungry. BTW congratulations for becoming the next Italian TV celebrity chef ! Which program were you on? A question about Feudi: did you eat there as well? I've heard interesting things about their restaurant, which should be under the supervision of Heinz Beck of La Pergola in Rome, but it'd be great to hear some first hand experience.

bulls eye! Did you guess because of the topic of the article or because I referred to the review as "quite confusing" ? Andrea Petrini is actually writing all the specials on European countries GR publishes, and has a monthly news column on the magazine too. Really informative although I can't say I'm a fan of his writing style.

You wouldn't, by any chance, care to tell us a bit more about Il Duomo? A little review maybe ?

On October the 11th Gambero Rosso will announce its annual Tre Forchette prizes for the best restaurants in Italy. On their newly started blog Papero Giallo the chief editor, Stefano Bonilli, gives a few hints on the chefs that will be honoured with the pirze this year. A few names get explicitly mentioned: Pierangelini, Vissani, Alajmo, Tamani and Santini. The usual suspects, one might add. Maybe more intriguing is the reference to "a squad of new entries". Considering the media coverage some restaurants have recieved from GR itself I wouldn't be surprised if the following would get the three forchette this year: Bill Klapp's favourite Combal.0, Cracco-Peck in Milan and Uliassi in Senigallia. Just for kicks, is there any other places you think might or should get the prize?