Venice 1

I was in Venice, the first time, 5 years ago. Wow! Has it been that long? I was there with the girls during Easter this year, as part of our itinerary to Italy. The first trip, my sister and me stayed a night in a fancy hotel that faced the Grand Canal- very nice. This trip, we visited as a day trip from our base in Bologna. We went by train and it took 2 hours and with each stop we picked up more people going to Venice. It was standing room only on the train, we gave up our seats for some old German tourists. They were so happy that when we finally reached Venice train station they gave my 2 nieces 2 euros each. We still have a good laugh over this.

As usual, Venice is overrun by day trippers, those poor pigeons- they don't stand a chance, there were so many day trippers, it left no room for the pigeons. The girls were awed by Venice. Venice is always so special, it's like no other place in the world. Even with other water filled cities, they are still not like Venice. We could only afford the vaporetto ride from the train station to Piazza San Marco and back. I couldn't afford the gondola ride, I didn't even check the price. I had to be careful with money since I was paying for the whole trip for all 3 of us. It was still fun without the gondola ride, when they make their own money, they can always come back and ride the gondola around the waterways of Venice.

Spending a night in Venice during my first visit was very special. My sister and I couldn't afford to have evening drinks at the cafes that rim St Mark's square but we sat on the steps nearby and listened in on the dueling orchestras! There are always ways to spend less or nothing at all and experience as much pleasure.

Our room was 390 euros a night. I left looking for a room in Venice till too late, the cheap rooms were all full. I couldn't get a room except for this incredibly expensive and terrific room in this fancy hotel. It was their last room and most expensive one because it faced the Grand Canal, (except for the penthouse which was taken). Paying 390 euros for a room 5 years ago was like paying for a presidential suite, well, not quite but almost, for me anyway. I don't remember what it was like waking up in Venice. I remember Venice, at the end of May, was oppressively hot. We stayed in our hotel room which had air conditioning. My sister had hot flashes most of the time and she wasn't tolerating the heat very well. She was miserable.

Venice, in March, was much cooler albeit crowded, it being Spring break. Crowds or none, Venice is still a very special place.

Battistero Neoniano, Ravenna

This is a small dome shaped building with incredible mosaics inside. It is the baptistery of infants, there's a huge font in the center of the room. All around the inside of the dome are mosaics featuring the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan river. It is very beautiful. The intimacy of the place adds to the feeling of sacredness.

According to "Let's Go Italy", ' The mosaics of Ravenna are omnipresent.' They are everywhere and they are so beautiful, very different from the ones in Sicily which are as magnificent.
This baptistery was ordered in 452 AD and there's a naked man in the river, 'was this to depict Jesus?'

Byzantine art at Ravenna

Rimini

Rimini

Rimini

San Vitale, Ravenna

San Vitale, Ravenna

According to the book, 'The world is full of wonders' , the fate of Ravenna has been a strange one. "Two thousand years ago, it was a busy seaport, today it is a little landlocked town." The sea is 5 miles away at Rimini, a seaside resort full of colorful beach bungalows and boats, a place where Italians spend their summers. This is the exterior of San Vitale, inside are some of the most magnificent mosaics (read my previous posting). This church was the prototype for the Haggai Sofia in Istanbul (when am I going to Istanbul). Next to San Vitale is the funerary chapel of Galla Placidia in which the Byzantine art of mosaics achieves incomparable effects. The mosaics in the funerary of Galla Placidia is truly sumptuous, no photographing was allowed but it was awesome, there were 3 sarcophagus inside and the atmosphere is somber as in any burial place.

Bread of Sicily

Bread of heaven? Almost. They make the best bread in the world, those Sicilians sure know how to make bread. Don't take my word for it, go and taste it for yourself and come back and tell me if it's not the best. Going to Sicily from Los Angeles will be easier, come June 1, 2008. Alitalia will fly direct between Los Angeles and Rome, then it's just another 1 and 1/2 hours from Rome and you're in Catania, Sicily. Or you can take the night train from Rome, sleep on the train and be there when you wake up in the morning.

I found out why Sicilian bread tastes so good. It is the durum wheat that is only grown in Sicily. It is the same durum wheat that made the 'bread' for the 'bread and circuses' in Rome. Sicily was the bread basket for the rest of Italy or at least for Rome in the olden days.

On a flight from Catania to Rome, I was with some US military personnel (we maintain a small military presence in Sicily), one of them, a woman who's been stationed there for 5 years, mentioned that she gained 25 lbs while living in Sicily, she loved the bread too, she was being reassigned back to the US. On that same flight was Tom Ricks, a former newspaper columnist and author (his recent book, Fiasco is about about our military adventure in Iraq). We chatted, I'm curious about why Americans are in Sicily. He was there for a writing conference. We've seen large groups of retirees and we know they're visiting the island, maybe they went to Corleone, thinking they'll see some mafia people. I've not been to Corleone, I heard they didn't shoot the 'Godfather' there, it was another village. It's just the name 'Corleone' that they used.

One thing I noticed about the bread shops in Sicily, they're only opened in the late afternoon and well into the night, maybe these are the ones that cater to the restaurants. In Catania we had a favorite restaurant because we like the selection of bread rolls they put out, we are always finishing the bread basket and needing replenishment every 15 minutes. One can really put on a lot of weight living in the 'bread basket' of Italy. Walking past these bread shops is such a treat, to smell the scent of fresh bread wafting out the door. I did buy some rolls to take with me on the flight home. I remember munching on a stale grisini while on transit in Rome and the last of my stale rolls while on transit in Paris. Now the bread of Sicily lives on in my memories....

Lavender days

a Renault we rented in Provence, to take us to the lavender fields

California lavender fields

I can't believe it's been a year when I first saw this lavender grower at the farmer's market in Santa Monica. They're back, I saw them last week and I realized it's been a year already. How time flies. It's been 3 years since when we visited the lavender fields in France. We arrived by train in a little town called Digne les Bains from Nice. We had to rent a car in order to get to the lavender fields. Sophie drove. I thought she did pretty well, fast enough till some French guy behind us was gesticulating with his hands for us to move over which we did. I remember hearing the cicadas, they squeak the whole time, non stop. All along the train tracks there were patches of lavender fields. It is a truly glorious sight and when the tractors harvests them, it emits a smell that fills the air and it smells like heaven. I would go back to see those lavender fields again. It brings back such incredible memories. At home my soap is lavender soap, my lotion is lavender lotion, every thing's coming up lavender....

New shoes

New shoes arrived in the mail the other day from Doc Marten, my 7th pair in my life. Shoes are important in my life, not Manolo Blahnik's, not that kind of shoes. I'm on my feet at least 10 hours a day and for years I've never found any shoes in the USA that fit. Growing up in a third world country meant we never had shoes growing up and that results in wide feet. Nothing in the US is wide enough and for years I suffered. After a hard day's work, I usually limp to my car and home. Until I discovered Doc Martens, now my feet are happy. The selection of Doc Martens in the store is disappointing also. So each time I'm in London, I'd visit their flagship store in Covent Garden. Even here the selection is dismal. I discovered their website 2 weeks ago and wow, they have a humongous selection. I picked this leopard skin pair, I thought it'll be fun and they are fun.

Memorial day barbeque

ingredients for the Cherry crumble, one of the desserts

ingredients for Spaghetti alla norma, evokes memories of Sicily.

a salad of baby Arugula

a melange of crockery

Voila, the Cherry Crumble that just came out of the oven, hot and bubbly.

Spaghetti alla norma

I love this island, it doubles as a prepartion table and a buffet table. The food is prepared and once is cooked, the cooked food is arranged and the eating starts at the dinning table.

The black and yellow color is dated but I'm not going to spend any money updating this kitchen. I love the commercial stove, it's huge and hot, I can cook 2 turkeys side by side in the oven, it's that big.

Dinner time, quick, a picture before all the food is consumed. Bon Apetite!

It was very nice to have everyone gather together for a meal, our first since New Year, we couldn't do it over Easter because I was in Italy with my nieces. I was very happy to be cooking again and making food that reminds me of my trips abroad. I look forward to July 4th and am even now thinking about what to cook.

Breakfast of champions

That's right, the breakfast of this champion, leftover Cherry Crumble. The thing with cooking a lot, I cooked a lot for our Memorial day dinner, is so that I have a lot of leftovers. I have enough for the rest of the week. I can have leftovers for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. I had some leftover Cherry Crumble for breakfast with pouring cream. MMmmmmmm, it was so good, healthy? I don't know.

Panna Cotta

We ate Panna Cotta at a cafe in Piazza Navona, Rome, this costs us 8 euros, we split 2 among the 3 of us. It was so good, that was the first time I ate Panna Cotta (cooked cream), I've seen it done on cooking shows on TV, so this Memorial day I decided to make it. I found the recipe in an Italian Cook book that I had, it's so easy. Recipe follows, at the end of pictures.

I made the blackberry sauce earlier and froze it. I took it out of the freezer yesterday to defrost it. Here I'm cooking 1 cup cream with 1 cup sugar and it is now cooling on the kitchen counter.

Et voila or should I say something in Italian. This is the finished product. Panna Cotta, anyone?

Every one loved it, what's not to love, it's 2 cups of cream. It was delicious. You should try this at home. You'll be an instant hit as a cook. I don't even watch cooking shows.

Suffice it to say, we didn't have any leftover Panna Cotta. I shouldn't have left that carton of cream on the dinner table, as if we didn't have enough of the artery clogging stuff. It was left there for the other dessert, a cherry crumble which had a lot leftover. The bottle next to it is Grappa con Mertilli or Blueberries in Grappa, an exquisite drink. I brought it back from Rome. Here's the recipe for Panna Cotta,

2 envelops of Knox Powdered Gelatin (local supermarkets)

6 tablespoon water

2 cups of heavy whipping cream

7/8 cup sugar

In a small bowl sprinkle gelatin into the 6 tbs of water, set aside, do not stir. In pan, over low eat, warm half of cream with sugar till just about to boil. Do not boil, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Whip the rest of cream till stiff peaks, mix into the boiled cream (now at room temp). Pour into bowl and chill in fridge for at least 3 hours. Before serving loosen edges with knife and place bowl into hot water. Invert on serving plate and serve with favorite berry sauce.

The sauce I used is Blackberry sauce. Make a simple syrup by melting 1 cup of sugar in 1/2 cup water, cool. Take a bag of frozen Blackberries (1 lb), mix with simple syrup, pulse in mixer or food processor and there you have it, your Blackberry sauce. It can be done ahead and frozen.

Panna Cotta is sometimes served with caramel sauce like a flan in Italy. We tried both ways. I prefer the berry sauce. You can use any kind of berries. For the little effort, the taste is so huge. You'll be a success, everyone will want to come to your parties. My family loves to come over, I always come up with new things that I've tasted abroad. While we have our own standbys, I add new recipes each time.

Buon apetito!