Eat Boutique

I had some fantastic adventures in Italy in April. That weeks feel a bit like a distant dream that I am now remembering in bits and pieces as I pour through photos. This meal was definitely a dream.

My friend Davide has a sister who lives on Lake Como with her husband and daughter. Giovanna is a beautiful, generous woman and her family opened their home to me for one of my final days in the country.

We started with red wine and large white platters piled high with a salad of mozzarella, tomato and arugula, fresh meats and cured salamis, a vegetable quiche and bread.

After we massacred those plates, Giovanna served our main course of lasagna. Now, this wasn’t American lasagna. In northern Italy, lasagna is made simply, with sheets of pasta, a ragu (in this case, beef), a little tomato paste and some fresh cheese. They don’t hide the pasta in mounds of tomato sauce. (Davide had made me his special lasagna when he was living in the States, but I had to tease him as his sister’s was a touch better. I wonder if it had something to do with actually eating it in Italy.)

Our next course was cheese.

Enough said there.

Dessert was a lovely strudel served with ice cream, whip cream and a sweet, sparkling moscato. This photo didn’t turn out so well. You’ll have to pardon me. The wine was flowing, as emphasized in said photo.

After lunch, my hosts walked me to the top of the house, out onto a roof deck, to show me their beautiful garden. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stunning lavender bushes, bushes I couldn’t see in New England until now. Oh, and they wanted to share their view as well.

The photos of their specific view didn’t turn out so well. But it looked something like this. You should have been there to hear me muttering, “Tough life.” Seriously, it was beautiful and they were beautiful and I can only hope to return with the husband very soon.

I’ve been debating how to honor the new Sex and the City film as it hits theaters this week. Why honor such a silly movie on a food blog? Well, duh! If you don’t know, SATC didn’t just bring fame to fancy shoes and pink drinks. SATC brought recognition to the West Village, its eateries and to my favorite community cupcake joint, Magnolia Bakery. (Magnolia is the cupcake joint that started cupcake joints. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Seriously.)

Last month, I was at a fabulous conference in New York City. As part of the conference, I signed up for an authentic foods tour around the Village. We ended the tour in this beautiful spot, Jefferson Gardens. These quaint gardens, which once housed a woman’s prison, was the set for Miranda’s wedding to Steve.

Our tour host, Sarah Endline, was quite gracious as she explained the connection between this authentic garden and all the sweet little food shops we had hit along the way. Sure, SATC is a crazy, big, silly movie, but it did bring love back home to NYC and specifically called out the glory of all these little boutique locations across lower Manhattan.

Sarah walked us through several great spots. We hit the highest volume Whole Foods in existence, the Union Square location on 14th Street. Their head of marketing walked us through the store and gave us perspective on how they deal with such crazy demands. We then strolled down to City Bakery, a great local spot bringing green design and building methods to coffee and cake. As part of our tour, we got to sample a large cup of hot chocolate. I’ve only experienced a comparable taste in Paris!

After City Bakery, we took a long, long walk further down the isle to Birdbath, a tiny neighborhood cafe that is little sister to City Bakery. We sat through a great talk by Birdbath’s manager who explained how the entire focus is 100% green. Their site explains it all. But the photo of cookies along the back wall shows it all.

The food tour wasn’t perfect. It was a bit long, and the day was quite warm. But that said, I felt very special to experience these sweet little spots. I lived in NYC for years, and grew up just outside Manhattan - so I’m no stranger to the city. But it’s a privilege to be able to experience brand new spots year after year, especially the ones that remain despite economic downturns, exoduses from the city and major explosions. When I watch SATC this week, I will fall in love, all over again, with Manhattan - a spot I consider both home and brand new each time I visit.

When I landed in Milan on April 14 of this year, my host Davide zipped me down to his home in Pavia and immediately invited some family over for coffee. I was a bit dazed from two long flights and decided to nestle in with some coffee, a bit of cake and my camera. As the family buzzed about in quick Italian, I was touched by all the lovely mismatched cups, and amused by Davide’s aunt’s huge gold ring.

A starched linen was placed on the table, along with cups of different sizes and little spoons with which to spoon heaping servings of Fruttosio (sugar made from fruit instead of sugar cane) into their dark, rich coffee. A canister of Fruttosio was lucky enough to make it through customs on my way home.

This little white cup with blue flowers particularly mesmerized me. It was so delicate and much too delicate for every day use in America, but my Italian friends were too happy to deliver my coffee in this sweet vessel.

Davide’s aunt was equally amused by me and my passion for food and Italian recipes in particular. She went on and on about her much visited home kitchen, and everyone around the table agreed she served flavorful cuisine.

She was so pleased that she proceeded to recite her famous Summer zucchini pasta dish that she makes for every family event. It’s a dish she’s known for and she went into great detail on how to prepare the zucchini. Alas, she recited her method in Italian and my translators were too slow for her quick lips. (An email of the recipe is allegedly on its way to me this month.)

I fell in love with this little stove top coffee maker. And, though I only drink decaf coffee, fell in love with the dark, strong flavor of the regular coffee Davide’s Mom packed into this machine each morning. Davide has said Alessi makes new perfect little coffee machines, but I am trying to find this exact one from 20 years ago. I’m hoping to snag one on Ebay in short order!

I felt very privileged to partake in this regular coffee event. It energized me for day of exploring the center of Pavia. In America, we tend to steer away from weekday coffee chats in the home favoring long, drawn-out dinners on the weekends. I want to find some weekday leisure time, invite a girlfriend over and enjoy a quick coffee and sweet treat, and then get back to the business of my day. Perhaps it would help cope with the stress of the work week, and remind me to take it all with a grain of… Fruttosio.

Saturdays are so lovely in London, especially when blue skies hang above, temperatures are mild and Portabello Road is in full swing. With a week of work behind us, several of us gals tubed our way over to Notting Hill for a great brunch at Electric Brasserie, and some very expensive shopping.

I knew we were in for some high prices, so my mission was to photograph as much as possible, dream of taking all these great ingredients home for a festive meal, and crave the glorious flowers on display on each corner. It’s best to let the pictures speak for themselves, for now. Be sure to click on each photo to enlarge and take in its full glory.

On my way home tomorrow, I will think up some fabulous summary to this long week of work and fun, and promise to cook something snazzy with the little treats I hope to sneak on the plane.

I so wanted to document all my food visits while in London. That damn new job keeps getting in the way! But seriously folks, it’s best to focus on my job and delight you with some of the best views of London Bridge ever. Seriously. To get a view this lovely, you’d have to be one of those postcard photographers who position themselves on top of buildings or in helicopters or on boats along the River Thames. Or you’d have to be in the 6th floor board room of the Visit London offices for all-day meetings. You know, like me.

We did have a lovely dinner at Hakkasan, the only Chinese restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star. Owner, Alan  Yau, is also owner of the fabulously-easy and affordable chain of Wagamama restaurants. It’s very stylish, dark and moody - so much so that they refused to permit photos of the gorgeous space. I did however capture a photo of their lovely bathroom sink, before discovering the ban on personal photography. Wouldn’t we all prefer a trough in our own private bathrooms?