Italy’s New CostCo? Nonna would never approve. Bagni di Lucca and Beyond Just outside Bologna, FICO is the world’s largest food park. Food from all over Italy is on display in a huge 100,000 square metre area that used to be a wholesale market in the 1980s. Helpfully, FICO […]
SPRINGTIME BRINGS SWEET TOOTH SAVY Like so many things in Italy, bread and cakes come by many names, especially if it is a holiday and then, it depends on what kind of holiday or occasion it might be. Of course the names and kinds of bread and cakes […]
Afar.com posted photos from Shutterstock of the remarkable yearly Poppy Show at Walker Canyon, Lake Elsinore, Ca. because this year the amount of auto and foot traffic from spectators “was unbearable”. What is more unbearable is the disregard of posted signs to not pick or trample the poppies […]
FARM FRESH TO YOU is my go-to Organic CSA (Community Sustainable Agriculture) supplier of fine organic fruits and vegetable to my door. Take a look at their website for easy to customize deliveries of local goods of all kinds, including farm fresh organic eggs, jams, honey, baby food, […]
Dubbed “the house that kills”, this 500 year old Venetian Gothic palace has claimed lives and repelled boatmen, boarders, renters, owners and potential owners like Woody Allen. Built for the aristocrat Giovanni Dario in 1479, the house then passed on to a long list of owners who were […]
Did de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), aka All Saints Day, All Souls Day is celebrated throughout the world, especially in Mexico, South America, the Caribbean and is associated with American Halloween. Here are some highlights: Oct. 31-Nov. 2; traditional Aztec dancers, parades with costumed figures, regional […]
LITTLE KNOWN COCKTAIL TRIVIA Just short of 90 proof, Angostura bitters is now available on tap in Chicago’s Best Intentions bar (best patio bar in 2015). Who drinks that stand-by dash provision to the Old-Fashioned? By itself? Bartenders world-wide apparently are consistently searching for the new, unusual, best […]
L’Italo-Americano on-line newspaper celebrates “The #1 source for all things Italian since 1908”. In their recent articles, I especially appreciated the exclusive interview with Superstar Chef Massimo Bottura, “Knowing the Past to Shape the Future of Italian Cuisine.” By SILVIA GIUDICI | OCT 19, 2018. The article seemed more to […]
Very trendy right now is the concept of the one sheet pan dinner. I remember our family using this idea ever since I was old enough to shell peas. For one thing, there was hardly time after a busy day in the restaurant, in the house, in the […]
Each season, the overwhelming harvest of figs makes me frantic. They are at the farmers’ market, the orphaned neighbor’s tree, and in my own yard, bursting forth on a daily basis in tantalizing shades of greens and purples. Plump and juicy they are too delicious and voluminous to […]
Meet the passionate people of central Italy's farm-to-table wonderland.
