August 9, 2017
Now this is a rare experience. I shall travel in the height of summer heat: to two nations I’ve not visited: Hungary (Budapest) and Austria (Vienna – and its Woods).
Even rarer, I have no clue what I will be eating. Other than paprika, coffee, and a Sacher Torte.
Let us go on this journey of culinary discovery together, shall we?
Now, I guess I should pack.
April 16, 2017
You would have expected the Romans to spend their Buona Pasqua at home, eating chocolate and Easter bread, and roasting lamb for dinner. After attending morning mass at one of the 900+ churches in la bella città.
Well –
Certainly that is a bit of a cliche, but I did think I would find few establishments open – and rather empty streets. Not so. It was a stunning sunny day – in the 70’s – and thousands of people, Italians – not just tourists – were out and about. In the historic center anyway.
But I thought this scene on a small side street of the Monti neighborhood was rather touching. 
A family held their Easter dinner outside on a wooden table – here just a few members of their group were wrapping up their meal.
Carina. Sweet.
April 12, 2017
So, I set out for a lake adventure on this sunny Spring day in Italy – getting an “open ticket” on the ferry, allowing me to stop in one of six towns on Lake Como, including Bellagio.
I realize once I am on the boat that wherever I start – I would have about a two-hour wait until the next ferry departure because it was lunchtime. That’s okay – I am going to need something to eat anyway.
I make my first visit at Lenno – walk along the waterfront. See a few tourist places – and head up the hill to find the center (il centro) of the tiny little town. And a restaurant not for tourists – which, of course, I don’t regard myself as — but a place to eat for the townsfolk.
I stop at a post office and buy some stamps (francobolli) for my postcards (cartoline). I ask the dude behind the counter – in Italian (of course: hey, I’m no stinkin’ tourist!!!) (which is ridiculous because I am. But I digress).
Where can I find a restaurant, I inquire. Oh, we have hundreds of restaurants, tanti (many). 10 kilometri.
I know enough to know I am not walking 10 kilometers to find a non-tourist restaurant. Pizza would be fine. At this point. Tic toc – lunchtime is almost over. My ferry departure is closer. AND I needed a toilette!
I return to the restaurant I’d rejected. Order a nice salad and a glass of vino bianco and ask the waitress. Scusi. Dov’è il centro? Oh madame, she answers: here! This is il centro!!
Ha! Serves me right.
Lunch was perfect, by the way.
April 10, 2017
It comes to the table – steam, redolent of garlic, warmly wafting from the plate. 
A mosaic of buckwheat pasta, melted cheese and green vegetables. Where to start? With a bite of potato? Or some kind of perfectly cooked green vegetable: the leaf of a romanesco cauliflower, a slice of – I don’t know – perhaps fennel. Subtle little greens – maybe broccoli – maybe spring vegetables.
And that pasta! Humor me as I wax poetic over this pasto di pasta. A thick, not wide, noodle – with that hearty bite of buckwheat, delicately covered with sauce.
It may triumph over Cacio e Pepe.
Maybe. I haven’t spent any real time in Roma, yet.
My very first pizzocchere. Accent on the second syllable: pea-ZOCK-uhree.
Oh – did I mention dessert: la meringa con fragole?
Soft and crunchy. Meringue. With strawberry sauce and a kinda squishy, gelato-like layer.
Burp!
Janet Eats, indeed. Better head out for una passeggiata up and down those steep and narrow hilly streets called contrada.
August 26, 2016
Every year, my trek to the Great Minnesota Get-Together is both the same. And, absolutely different than years past. But, always, consistently, fun and memorable.
I always go to Day One of the Fair in Saint Paul with my “fair husband” Steve. We are particularly compatible as a fair couple because we like the same things, yes, but are also open to the choices of the other person. Plus, we share the food.
Iron Range Meat & Potatoes
So without further ado (because I know you are dying to find out) here is what we ate at the Fair:
For more pictures and narrative, I invite you to check me out on Instagram @nyproducer
October 6, 2015
This little apple faces extinction in Bagnacavallo – the small Italian town not far from Bologna. It is called a Florina. 
It tastes like the essence of appleness: crisp when bitten, juicy but not slurpy, the perfect combination of sweet/tart. Like an apple, only better.
I met Florina while visiting the home of Anna Tazzari – the creator of Signora Maria. Her husband Massimo explained to me that you could not buy this apple in a store – you could only pick it off a tree or buy it at a farm stand.
Sad, this little Florina – I hope she makes it in the world of Honeycrisps.
October 5, 2015
October, 2015: my annual voyage to Italy.
I visited my cugini in Bologna. I really love to spend time with cugina (Italo-Americano) Paul, his beautiful Italian wife Laura, and one of their daughters: the adorable Michelle. The other daughter, Alessandra, is in California right now – attending high school in the Bay Area.
Bologna is, as I mentioned in a prior post, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Pretty much when you think of Italian food, you are really thinking of food from this region: prosciutto, lasagna, tortellini, ragu, etc.
Food in Italy — as in many countries, even the USA — is regional. On this trip, I discovered many foods that, for the most part, haven’t “travelled” to American tables. Like:
Tigella – you can read about these little discs of breadliness in my post – Tigella Paradiso
Garganelli – a quill-shaped egg pasta served in brodo or with ragu. Maybe I have seen this pasta shape before, but I don’t remember. It is the pasta being held in the left hand of my new “friend” from Bagnocavallo: Signora Maria.
You can read all about my adventures with Sig. Maria on my sister blog, rulingwoman.com. In short, I learned to make this pasta and fully intend to do so when I return to America.
Giuggiole (JEW-joh-lay) is this fruit that grows on trees around Bologna.
It looks like a nut. When you bite into it, it has a crunch and taste like an apple, with a pit. Beautiful. I’d like a sweater in the colors of the giuggiole. And, finally
Passatelli in brodo. Very VERY regional. My cugini and I went to a restaurant on my last night in Bologna. When the waitress spieled off the dishes for the night, she mentioned Passatelli. My cugina, Laura, was delighted when she heard that, and immediately ordered it. “What is it,” I entreated. It is a “pasta” made out of Parmesan, breadcrumbs, eggs, lemon and nutmeg that is pushed through a press with holes (extruded almost like spaetzle though not quite). Passare – passed through. Dropped into a rich, steaming-hot broth. The waitress ladled this brothy, cheesy, doughy bit of wonderfulness into our bowls. Yep, I slurped it right up, I’m sure of it! Luckily, I didn’t have my phone with me, so nothing could stop me from diving right into this sensuous repast.
October 2, 2015
In the midst of a vacation filled with (albeit delicious) street and restaurant meals, it is a delight here in Italia to have a good ol’ home-cooked dinner.
Dinner with the the cugini in Bologna. With typical Emilia-Romagna foods.
At the bottom – un “panino” of prosciutto and mortadella on a handmade tigella. The tigella (seen in the basket) is yeasty dough placed in a tigelliera — a cooking vessel with two plates of six circles each. You heat like a grill. Put a circle of dough in each circle – and press together. Cook, then flip. Then toss into a basket. Kind of pita meets crumpet.
Split then fill. Funny, isn’t it, how every ethnic group has some kind of filled bread food. Pita. Taco. Dumpling.
On the table: carciofi, prosciutto cotto, squacquerone, funghi rustici, salumi culatello, rucola.
Squisito!
September 18, 2014
And while we’re at it, what ARE natural flavors?September 14, 2014
August 24, 2014
Corn Fritter at the MN State Fair (Photo: foodbeast.com)
Walleye Roll move over! There’s a new fave food in town. You are looking at the Blue Corn and Cheese Fritz. It is a top-notch combination of tender corn fritter with the perfect choice of blue cheese for the fair crowd (Gorgonzola) speckled with succulent kernels of good ol’ Minnesota corn. With a side of chimichurri sauce that condimented the crispy, deep-fried but not greasy, balls of wonderfulness perfectly.
If you have the good fortune of being close to St. Paul and could go to the Minnesota State Fair, you can get these little paragons of deliciosity at the Blue Barn food stand in the newly completed West End Market.
Good appetite.
June 22, 2014
Citarella Vegetable Salad
Fruits and veggies in Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Brussels were good. But, I missed my salad!!
June 19, 2014
June 17, 2014
June 17, 2014
I ended up at a little off-the-path (but not too much, had to get back to the hotel to meet the group – and I didn’t want to get lost again. It was bad enough I got split from my group). And ordered a potato soup that the menu described “in bread”. No suspense — you can see the picture. But I thought it was a mistranslation – and I think the waiter was laughing under his breath when I asked for bread on the side. You know, thereto. (see fish note). June 17, 2014
Meet “Spaghetti Eis.” This dessert (which I bought in Dresden, but is apparently ubiquitous in Germany) is ice cream extruded through a noodle maker – to look like spaghetti.
The Eis is piled over a mound of whipped cream — which I suspect was pre-frozen — and topped with sauces and crumbles and shreds that make it look like a real spaghetti dish. “Marinara” is usually strawberry (tomato sauce) with shredded white chocolate (Parmesan).
I picked “Spaghetti Carbonara” – which was covered in a vanilla sauce with walnuts, hazelnuts and amaretto cookies.
Sounds a little weird. Tastes a lotta delicious.
Three Eis Later
June 16, 2014
June 15, 2014
I am sad to see the Berlin leg of our visit end. Several of the other journalists will be returning — many of us not.
I’m having my lunch on the bus right now – made from our hotel breakfast buffet. Cheese with little salami bits and another slice of stinky cheese. Bottled water. And a few crudités. All wrapped in plastic bags from our hotel bathrooms.
I do have to laugh — one morning someone in our group said they were “sick of the bread.”
Really?!? They have the most incredible bread here. From hearty wheat to even sliced white. How can you get sick of this bread? I am reminded of people I knew back when I was in high school who, for one reason or the other, had the opportunity to travel to Europe (much rarer in those days of Pan Am and TWA). And they would come back 10 pounds heavier because of “all that bread!” I understand.
More coming for Dresden, I’m sure. More news. But also (hopefully) more bread.
June 14, 2014
How is it that an American coffee institution that built its business around ersatz European coffee drinks with coffee that is almost always overroasted, gains any popularity whatsoever in the actual Europe?
It is hugely popular. Always crowded. I do avoid Starbucks if I can, so I’m not entirely clear if it just draws American visitors. I think it likely attracts locals as well.
So, when we were a little early for a lunch right inside the Brandenburg Gate in Eastern Berlin, we found ourselves in search of a cup of coffee. The only place at that particular location we could find was, yes I am sure you guessed it, a dreaded Starbucks. I dragged my feet as we neared the crowded establishment when lo and behold — immediately next door sat a German bakery and coffee establishment.
There, I got a simple and delicious cappuccino. My friend got a hot chocolate with whipped cream on the top. And to top it off — a big ol’ pretzel with mustard.
Oh yeah!
June 11, 2014
This trip — while visiting the studio of the artist who first devised the idea of making one very large section of the Berlin wall, a “canvas” for 180 artists (called the East Side Gallery) — our group leader pointed out Curry 36 — allegedly (one of) the most popular curry-wurst joints in town.
So – this is what it is:
Big ol’ bratwurst, cut into small rings, sprinkled with some kind of curry powder-salt mix, topped with a high quality ketchup. Served with a tiny red plastic fork, the likes of which I would love to have the patent on those perfect little plastic tined instruments.
You can order the wurst with or without the casing. Mit darm means with the casing. With or without French fries (“frites“) plain or with ketchup or with mayo. All, some, none.
OH
MY
GOD
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Janet Eats: Thoughts on Food, Diet & Eating
Janet Eats 