Category: food fascination

As much as I adore Roman style pizza, there is a place in Rome that I like going to when I have a hankering for Napoli style pizza.

Some years back, Cart and I visited Naples and we managed to eat from a recommended pizzeria. I find Napoli a very charming place, and as you know, Naples is where pizza was invented and there, I had a very memorable and delicious dinner.

Unlike the Roman styled pizza which is characterised by its thin and crispy crust, the Naples styled pizza has a soft, thick crust at the border but gets thinner towards the middle. It’s been said that a good pizza Napoletana could be folded in four.

It takes about two hours by train to get to Naples from Rome. But for any reason that you can’t manage to get there, there is a place in Rome that serves pretty good Napoli styled pizza, called Rossopomodoro.

There are many Rossopomodoro branches all over Italy. A quick search online, I’m quite surprised that it has different branches in other parts of the world.

The one that we normally go to is the one in Euroma2, a commercial centre that’s not far away from where we live.

While it can get quite crowded during high traffic hours during lunch and dinner, it’s all worth waiting for once you get a table, and bask in the atmosphere.

You could see families, group of friends, businessmen, basically people from all sorts of life here, giving it a cozy vibe.

On your table, there will be a piece of paper printed with different Italian recipes at the back. You could bring it home, and it comes  pre-punched for easy filing.

And when going through the menu, it’s nice to see sprinkles of Napoli dialects for some of the names of the food.

Rossopomodoro serves a variety of foods like pasta and grilled meats, but I feel that their pizza is the highlight of the show.

I noticed that the menu changes seasonally, which I appreciate as there are so many wonderful seasonal ingredients. Each pizza is cooked in a wood oven, and comes out fluffy and perfectly cooked.

Each bite is such as joy as the dough is soft and chewy, the toppings taste delicate and the ingredients work well together, never overwhelming the other.

Here are some of the pizze that we had. I don’t quite remember the names but I’d normally ask for a tomato based pizza with mozzarella, while Cart loves pizze with strong cheeses or tartufo. I think it’s quite easy to tell who had what in these pictures 🙂

At about 8 euro a pizza here, Cart and I normally spend about 25 euro in total when dining here. Personally I think it’s always a treat to be here and it’s a pretty close to the real deal to the pizza in Naples.

Rossopomodoro
83, Viale Dell’Oceano Pacifico – 00144 Roma 

For fun, I’m going to add this video of a guy who’s crazy about pizza boxes. According to him, this box from Rossopomodoro is the best that he’s come across. Skip to 2.16 onwards.

Last weekend, Cart and I spent some time at La Città Dell’Utopia. If you haven’t been to this place before, I think it’s worth visiting when they host their monthly organic market or have their courses. While it’s not a touristy place, I love La Città for its charm and how it invokes such a rustic feeling in me and there are always friendly people here.

I was here before, a number of times for courses such as learning how to make your own shampoo as well as when I participated in their annual soup festival. This time round, Cart and I were here for their bread-making course.

First off, we were introduced to an important ingredient called, “Lievito Madre”. Directly translated as yeast mother, this fresh yeast could be made by yourself with some flour, yoghurt and water.

The texture is sticky and viscous, almost like glue.

We were given a choice of 2 different flour – semolina and wheat, weighed at 200 grams each.

With the flour, we used our fingers to form a well and scooped in two spoonfuls of the yeast in the middle.

We then covered the yeast with the surrounding flour bit by bit and eventually kneaded the ingredients together slowly and firmly to form a dough.

The process reminds me quite a bit of when I learnt how to make fresh pasta some time back. It was methodical and quite relaxing pressing the dough back and forth.

If the dough feels dry or hard, add in some water. The texture should feel soft but not too sticky. If you’d like at this point, you could add extra ingredients such as seeds or salt and continue to knead it in.

Cart chose to have some mixed seeds in his, while I opted to have mine plain with just some salt.

Once the bread is shaped as a ball, a small piece can be pulled out. This can be used to make a new batch of yeast.

Next, a cross is cut into the dough. This will allow the oven to make it crunchier as there is more surface area.

Leave the dough to rest for about 3 hours.

After which, put a small ceramic bowl with some water, put it in the oven and heat it up to about 180 degree Celsius. Once the bread has risen, let it be cooked in the oven for about 50 minutes. After which, a most inviting smell will emanate from the kitchen.

Pull it out and let it cool down, and soon you have freshly baked bread, ready to be eaten. On the left is Cart’s semolina bread with mixed seeds and on the right is my wheat flour bread.

The smell of freshly baked bread is wonderful and it’s even more special knowing that it’s home-made with your own hands. Biting into it, it’s very dense and hearty. I especially liked the crusty parts outside.

All in all, I really enjoyed the course, making our own bread. But I feel it’s especially meaningful that Cart and I did it together. It’s the little moments like these that I cherish.

While I don’t really care about Valentine’s day, every 14th of February, Cart would get me a box of Baci Perugina chocolates. This is probably one of the most recognized confectionary brand due to it’s deep blue and stars packaging.

Here is the one Cart got for me in 2010

Baci means kisses in Italian and in each Bacio, is milk chocolate, a hazelnut inside and a message with 4 languages inside. It’s hard to miss this when you’re in Italy as it’s sold in practically every supermarkets, tabbacaio and bars here.

I was at the Museo Centrale Del Risogimento recently to see the Perugina, the makers of Baci, exhibition. Situated within walking distance from the Colosseum, I’ve been here for the Botero as well as the Modigliani exhibition many years back.

As it was a free exhibition, the display areas wasn’t big – basically just two rooms. I found it enlightening, nevertheless. The first room was dedicated to the history and the start of the company and the second represents the company in contemporary times.

Perugina was founded in 1907 by Giovanni Buitoni and Luisa Spagnoli, who were both known confectioners, in the town of Perugia, located in Central Italy.

Together, they created different types of chocolates, such as the Banana and Roxana. I enjoyed watching a video filmed in 1933 on how the chocolates were made. The final product looks so exquisite and were beautiful enough to be given as gifts as it was.

One day, Luisa noticed that unused chocolate and chopped hazelnuts were thrown away at the end of the day. She then collected them and created a candy using a mixture of the remnants, topped it with a whole hazelnut and covered it with dark chocolate. She thought the treats looked like little fists and called them “Cazzotto”.

Giovanni didn’t think that the name would do well. Imagine going to the chocolate shop and asking the shopkeeper, “Give me a punch!”. He thought that it would be more genteel to ask for a kiss instead.  Thus the Baci was born in 1922, and it was so popular that it expanded to New York and then all over the world.

As I looked at the different artefacts, I felt a sense of respect for the company as it was founded on unity. From the pictures and videos, I could see that the workers were proud to be working there, to be part of a big family. Even when the company had to close the company during World War 2, the retrenchment letters looked genuinely heartfelt.

My deep admiration goes to Luisa, who was forward thinking enough to create a childcare centre in the factory to allow women to work while their children were being taken cared of. I think that this was probably one of the crux of women’s empowerment and independence considering that Italy tends to be a patriarchal country, especially during that time.

Fast forward to now, Baci Perugina is a well loved and recognized brand comparable to the likes of Fiat 500 and Vespa.

The exhibition ends at 23rd March and could be an interesting visit if you are a chocolate, or historian lover and are in Rome till then.

I’m lactose intolerant to a certain extent. While I can consume dairy products like cheese and yoghurt with no significant issues, when it comes to cow’s milk, my face tends to break out when I drink it too much.

Thus whenever I can, I prefer to drink plant derived milk like soy, almond and rice milk. How they are made is typically having it crushed, mixed with water and then filtered.

One of my favourite plant milk would be hazelnut. I love the sweet nutty flavour and for me, it tastes good with almost everything – in tea, for eating with cereal, dipping cookies in.

This is one of my favourite brand :

The thing is, it’s quite pricey – at about 2 euro for 750ml which is enough for just a few bowls of cereal.

Coincidentally, I found a name-card for a vegan food store and looking around at their website, there were a number of interesting items that made me intrigued enough to pay a visit. I got for myself their 4 pack plant milk which was on offer.

In total it costs 10.90 euro which might sound pricey, but keep in mind that the four boxes was enough to make 8 litres of milk.

These are the different flavours I got. From left to right : Oat and Walnut, Rice and pine-nuts, Wheat and Almond, and Soy and Pistachio.

The ingredients looks basic and you don’t see any strange and unpronounceable additives.

When compared to whole cow milk, the amount of calories is slightly higher but it’s good to see that it’s also packed in additional nutrients.

The reason why this pack of milk is cheaper is because it’s in dried version and when you open your box, you will find a pack with a mix with a consistency of crushed nuts.

But it’s really easy to make. Just pour the contents of the package in a blender, add in a litre of warm water and blend for about a minute.

And here is the remaining bit that I made recently. It looks just like regular milk and it even froths like regular milk. You’d need to shake it in the morning though as bits tend to form sediments at the bottom.

Nevertheless, as soon as it’s made, you’ll get to drink it immediately. What I like about the pack as compared to trying to make them from scratch yourself, is that there isn’t any wastage here – there is no leftover pulp to throw away.

Taste-wise, it might take a bit of getting used to. I’ve yet to try the rest of the milk, but drinking the oat and walnut milk, while I like the rich and creamy flavour of the oat and walnut, it tastes a little too clean for me as there is no sugar added. I’d normally add a little bit of honey to make it a little more palatable.

Here is Cart’s milk next to my mine. At this point of time, I’m quite happy to stick with my milk. No zits yet! 🙂

Since starting on my training, I keep thinking of rich food like meats and cakes. I had the most intense craving for pizza yesterday, so I guess I’ll blog about it for today 🙂

In Italy, you could have your pizza in two ways – ‘ala tonda’, which is a round, typically personal pizza or ‘al taglio’ where you could choose from a variety of pizze on display and have it cut and weighed.

One of my favourite pizza al taglio in Rome is Pizza al taglio di Fattori Eligio.

Located in Monteverde, this pizzeria is small and unassuming and can be easy to miss in this quiet neighbourhood.

Nevertheless, as soon as you enter the small establishment, your eyes will immediately gravitate to the myriad of colour, as you breathe in the inviting smell of freshly made pizza.

I’ve loved this place ever since Cart first took me here back in 2009. Not much has changed since.

When you first step in, you’d be greeted by a cute female server, and as soon as you’ve made your choice, just point them out to her and let her know how much or how little of it you want. She will then weigh the pizza and you will be charged accordingly. Usually it costs less than 20 euro for the both of us.

Looking around, you’ll see a lot of pictures on the wall, some of them being shots from a national pizza competition where Eligio Fattori emerged as champion.

As you wait for your pizza to warm up, you might want to eat some of their fritte like arrancini – fried rice balls covered with breadcrumbs.

What I love about pizza al taglio is that you could try different varieties at one go. When your pizza is hot and ready, it will be charmingly served on a wooden board.

The pizza at Eligio has a Roman styled crust, meaning that it is thin but soft without it being overly crunchy, due to the dough being left to rise for more than two days.

I love the choice of toppings here, some of them you might not find at other pizzeria.

These are some of my favourites :

Sun dried tomato (On the left)

Caramelised onion (in the foreground)

Ripiene di radicchio, gorgonzola e miele and Pomodorini e pesto next to it.

The one with parsley is hot which made me an instant fan.

Here is one with roasted bell pepper.

There was a time when they did a strawberry dessert pizza with fresh cheese, some years back. I liked it a lot and it was so popular that it got sold out quickly. The last time I saw it was in January 2010 though, so I don’t know why they stopped making it.

Sometimes if you’re lucky, you might meet Eligio himself. He is easy to talk to. Even if you’ve never met him before, he’d talk to you as if you were friends.  He is friendly and chatty and yet still humble, despite his thriving pizzeria.

I adore the pizza here and Cart and I try to visit as much as we can. In fact, we’ve been bringing our visiting friends to try this place whenever possible so that they could have a lovely piece of Rome to remember them by.

Pizza al Taglio di Fattori Eligio
Viale Villa Pamphili, 46A, 00152 Rome, Italy

Cart and I finally went to OPS! last Friday. We were supposed to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary there a couple of weeks earlier, but as you know I fell sick then. But better late than never.

OPS! is a restaurant off central Rome that serves organic and vegan Mediterranean food. Cart, who is a vegetarian, first discovered this place while watching a program on TV showcasing vegetarian restaurants in Rome.

I’m not a vegetarian, but I don’t mind going veg sometimes as there are so many delicious options out there, moreover you’d have to be careful in what you consume when you eat out, as a lot of food establishments may use lard (which I don’t consume) or other animal products while preparing their food.

When you reach the restaurant, you are to take a round card at the entrance, as a sort of table reservation, also giving you a mental idea of how many empty table there are judging from the cards outside, and then you sit at the table that you like.

OPS! Is a simplistic beauty and modern looking restaurant, with it’s minimalistic black furniture and white walls.

There were a number of people already there when we arrived, but it didn’t feel crowded. Glancing around, there were various types of people there from couples, group of friends, and small families, many of them looking like yuppies. I basked in the hipster vibe.

Where Cart and I were sitting, there was a screen showing various inspirational pictures, which interestingly enough was much more fascinating to me than watching certain TV programs.

As this restaurant is self service, once you’ve settled down, you could head to the buffet table and choose from the wide variety of food and then have it weighed at the counter.

Unlike other buffets where you pay a fixed price, here you are charged 2.80 euro each 100 grams of food, excluding the weight of the plate. In a way, this is good as it makes you aware of how much you are consuming, while in a regular buffet, one tends to have the unhealthy mentality of stuffing oneself as much as possible to have value for money.

Nevertheless, for buffets, I like to try each of everything so I put a little bit of each on my plate and before you know it, my plate was crowded!  I know my plate doesn’t look pretty, but trust me when I say that everything that I tasted was absolutely divine.

Some of the memorable ones are :

• Black rice with pomegranate and apple
• Sauteed seitan with herbs
• Cauliflower with linen seeds
• Beans in coconut milk

How was the chef able to make vegan food taste so good? Everything was so flavourful, and delicious that I felt compelled to take another plate, just to get that euphoric feeling again. But believe it or not, I was already full after one plate.

My one critique though is that certain foods needed easing in on the salt, like the tempeh slices.

As full as I was, there is always room for desserts. Cart had a ‘light’ tiramisu made of coconut milk, while I had a dessert called ‘Natale’ which has a mix of red berries. And between us, we shared a chocolate and carrot cake.

I have to add that while we were there, there was a couple with their two young children sitting beside us and I heartened seeing how the kids were so readily open to eating their vegetables. And at the table in front of us, was a couple who brought in a dog so large, I thought it was a grey wolf instead.

All in all, I really enjoyed my experience here and am looking forward to visiting this place again. While it’s not that cheap to eat here, with the quality of food served here, I think it’s worth it.

OPS! Cucina Mediterranea Vegetariana a Roma
Via Bergamo 56, Roma 00198

While Cart and I were in Bevagna some years back, we were looking at some cute bunnies in cages during a medieval fair. I don’t remember how the conversation started, but Cart explained to me that they will probably be cooked in the near future.

At first I was a little shocked at the nonchalance, how could anyone eat such a cute creature? But rabbits are mostly seen as food for Italians rather than pets. In fact, Italians wouldn’t even bat an eye if they saw horse meat in their menu.

Despite it all, I’ve always been curious to eat rabbit meat. I’ve eaten a lot of interesting things in my lifetime like snails and turtle eggs. While there are people who are against eating bunnies, I am open enough to try it at least once, just to see if I’d like it.

I’ve actually tried rabbit burger before while I was on a convoy with the Vespa Club many years back, but to be honest, it tasted just like chicken, so I am not counting that.

So by chance this morning I was at the doctor’s which was quite near the market at Piazza San Giovanni di Dio where there was a halal butcher. Usually their rabbits would be sold out by the time I arrive, but they had some for sale then. So I jumped at the chance to get it. Finally! I get to try it!

It was quite expensive though, at about 12 euro for a whole rabbit. But there was enough for a good 3 to 4 portions.

As soon as I reached home, I was so excited to start cooking lunch, starting up with my sofritto intending to make alla cacciatora with the rabbit. What I didn’t expect though, was when I opened the pack, apart from the chopped up meat, was a whole head – cold blue eyes staring back at me. I was so stunned, I just looked at it for a whole minute.

I can deal with de-scaling a fish. I can deal with cutting a whole chicken, heads and all. But seeing the rabbit head in my face was an unexpected experience that I’ve never ever had before.

It was challenging to think at that point of time, but I knew I didn’t want to throw it away, so I put it in the freezer so that I can think calmly about what to do with it later. Maybe a stew? (A quick search online, and I found a recipe for rabbit head pasta!) Well, waste not, want not.

In the end, I managed to cook my coniglio alla cacciatora and have a drama free lunch. It tasted quite good by the way, although I think compared to chicken, rabbit meat tastes significantly lighter and softer.

So I guess I can cross out rabbit meat now, in my list of things to eat. Next I want to try to eat reindeer.