Boots in the Oven

Dragging Nana to Siena

Well, since I last wrote, we're up one Mama Bear, freshly arrived from Mandeville with a suitcase half full of things we begged her to bring.  We're leaving in just a couple of hours for Torino and points north and Piedmonty, so let's see if I can put up a post about Siena before we go, shall we?

A post that's REALLY heavy on the pictures.  Didn't have time or the werewithal to edit down the numbers...

With Nana in tow, we hopped a bus and wound through Chiantishire towards Siena.  We arrived and checked into our hotel and immediately went in search of panforte, the Sienese yumminess that's basically a fruitcake, if a fruitcake was delicious.

Two types, panpepato (spicier) and fig and walnut.  Only one type of grandmother in this pic, though.

Then, we walked over to the Campo, Siena's main square.  It's where the Palio takes place every year, that frenetic 90 seconds of dashing horses and flailing jockeys into which the Sienese pour a lifetime's worth of neighborhood pride.  When we were there, it was just full of people sunning.  I'd put this up there with the prettiest sqares we've seen in Europe.  (And I'd say we've seen a good number, at least here in Italy.)

There's a fountain with panels by Jacopo della Quercia, whose works are all over Bologna and Lucca.  Pigeons balanced precariously, fluttering and drinking at the same time.

Then, over to the Duomo, continuing our greatest hits tour of Siena.  A fruit stand caught our eye on the way - you would not believe the amount of fruit Nana consumed while she was here.  (Well, perhaps if you knew her, you'd believe it.)

The Duomo in Siena is impressive.  No, that's not the right word for it... it's huge, and twinkles as the sun hits the mosaics above the doors.  Plus the sides are striped with marble.  They weren't going for "understated" with this building.

But it's when you get inside that the building really shines.  I've never seen another church this big with striped columns - and they're all marble, too.

(This one supports the enormous pole that held up the Florentine standard during the Battle of Montaperti, captured by the Sienese in oh, 1260 or so...)

There are so many treasures in this building.  For one, there's a small statue of Paul that Michelangelo carved early in his career for the Cardinal Piccolomini.  And off to the side, in a small chapel, is a John the Baptist by Donatello - reminiscent of his Mary Magdalene here in Florence.

There's also a crazily detailed pulpit by Nicola Pisano, which has at its base these very detailed lions and lionesses feasting on sheep and horses and such.  It's apparently supposed to be a metaphor for the Church devouring paganism, but it does look a bit strange on a pulpit.

Even Bernini, the Baroque master whose works are scattered all over Rome, is represented here.  Here's his St. Jerome playing the crucifix.  Bernini's one of my favorites - what that man can do with a chunk of marble...

The floor of the Duomo is also intricately decorated, though most of it is usually covered with protective sheeting.  Since we were there the day before Easter, even more of the floor was covered than usual because of the number of chairs set up for Easter Mass, but here's a taste - a detail of the Slaughter of the Innocents. 

Then there's the Piccolomini Library, a huge frescoed room dedicated to the life and exploits of Aeneas Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II. 

Here's the bit that shocked me - these are the original colors!  Because of the amount of light coming into this room, candles were rarely lit, so soot didn't cover up the original brilliance of Pinturicchio's paint.

We were just amazed.

Leaving the Duomo, we walked around the side of the building to the Duomo Museum.  On the side of the church, you can see the beginnings of an ambitious expansion project that would have made the Duomo just absolutely enormous.  The modern nave would have become the transept (that's the long middle part becoming the crossbar).  But then defeat by Florence, and the plague, forced abandonment.  Today, if you buy a ticket to the Duomo Museum, you can climb to the top of the unfinished facade!

Guess what we were about to do.

Don't worry, Nana kept great track of us.  Actually, she climbed up to the first level - not too shabby for 84!  (This involved a big spiral staircase being used simultaneously for ascending and decending, not an easy feat on a spiral staircase!)

The views were worth the climb, I thought.

From the top, the Campo looked just beautiful.

Speed up!  Low on time!

The Duomo Museum itself was interesting, but not... mind-blowing.  Duccio's pretty window was there.

DINNER!  Husbear's birthday dinner, to be exact - thanks Nana and Jenny!  Hostaria il Cartoccio.  (A cartoccio, I learned, is a medieval Tuscan battle cart - priests say Mass from it, it carries trumpeters and the battle standard, etc.)

Crazy antipasta.  Cup of liver, anyone?  No?  How about seventeen cured meats and a selection of delicious toasted topped breads?

Nana really wanted her some stewed veal, and that's what she got.  Though we think it was vitellone, or old veal.  (Italians differentiate between types of veal.)  She was hoping for some stewed veggies in there, but... nope.  If the Italian menu says stewed veal, that's what you get... just stewed veal.

Luckily, she ordered a sformato di spinaci for the side - a spinach pudding.  We ordered one too.

Puddingy!

Husbear and I, of course, did some coursing...

Primi - a risotto with lettuce, gorgonzola, and nettles!  Sounds tastier than the execution really was, I think.  Though I could just eat a wedge of blue cheese.

And a dish of pici, that famous Sienese pasta, here their house version - ham, mushrooms, onions, creamy, yummy.  Not homemade, I don't think - the shapes seemed a little too regular for that.

We split a secondo, a sliced meatloaf in peppercorn cream sauce.  Good, though too salty, I thought.

Dessert - "Do you have amaro?"  No.  "Limoncello?"  No.  GRAPPA.

Theirs was in a bottle with pear and coffee - a really good idea, though it was time to change out the flavorants.  Husbear is really liking the grappa.  Yurch.

Next morning - back to Nannini!  Not for panforte this time, but for breakfast.  Can you believe we did this to my grandmother?  I'm kind of embarassed showing it, but it's too funny not to share.

The morning was spent first at a Chagall and Miro' exhibit, which we enjoyed.  I'm a big Chagall fan (the museum of his works outside of Nice is well worth the trip, if you find yourself in the area), though not so much Miro'.  Sorry, guy.

No cameras here.

So, how about food stores instead?  Siena has some great ones!

Here's one with a bike in front that Nana wanted us to document for my uncle Erik.  Cool wicker bicycle, though I was more impressed with the prosciutto hanging in the window.  But that's me.  Always.

So, you know the color Sienna?  Named after the town, which is all that burnt orangey-brown because of the color of the soil surrounding the place.

We took a midday bus out of town, feeling pretty good about what we'd seen.  Goodbye, Siena - we liked your wisteria!  And your church was pretty cool, too.

And, we're off!  We don't get back until Tuesday, so please cut us some slack at least until then...

girlie

Curry and BRAIIINSSS!

So Apicius is chugging along at a fast clip. We now officially have less than two weeks until the final restaurant simulation. Wow.

However, in the meantime, we have been doing some pretty rockin’ stuff and I thought I’d share a particularly interesting day with you. My favorite class this semester is World Cuisine. It is taught by the one, the only, the giant among men, Il Barba. This man loves food (like really, really, really loves it). So he can’t help but say yes if we want to stray from the curriculum and make a few dishes that have piqued our fancy.

This was the case a couple of weeks ago during our Indian Foods class. We were slated to make a slew of curries and tandoori and whatnot, but I’ve been having a real hankering to work more with the NastyBits. You know, the parts that normally get thrown away or makes people go all wrinkly nosed with, “That? Eww. Are you kidding? I would never eat that.”

To these folks I would advise a quick retreat back to their boneless, skinless, chicken breast world and let the rest of us get on with some real eating. These low men on the meat totem pole can be seriously delicious if handled properly. More people are catching on as recently the NastyBits have experienced a little status boost thanks to the concept of Nose to Tail eating. It’s kind of that old Indian philosophy that says if you’re going to hunt it done and kill it you’d better use every part of it.

But enough of that. Back to food. Il Barba appeared on our appointed day carrying a large dripping plastic bag. He proceeded to pull out pig intestines, liver, veal brains, chicken hearts and cockscomb (the flappy thing on top of the rooster). We gathered around.

Il Barba was raised on this stuff and he wanted to start with his grandmother’s intestine recipe, a very Tuscan preparation where the long tube is cleaned, cut into tiny snippets and then braised for a long time with garlic, rosemary, white wine and tomato. Why not?

Next we started on the cibrèo. Cibrèo is a very old chicken stew based basically on various chicken organs and scraps. You start by cooking down the livers and hearts (adding some herbs and other aromatics if you want) then you throw in anything you can get your hands on: the cockscomb, the testes, nervetti, embryonic eggs, anything really. Add some water or broth and cook until everything is done.

The last step is to thicken the mess with a mixture of eggs and lemon juice. This is the defining step that makes cibrèo, cibrèo. Spoon it out over some toasted bread and you’re in for a seriously old school gastronomic treat. The cockscomb has a particularly nice texture. It’s a little chewy but soft- kind of like the rind of parmesan that you find floating in pots of soup around here.

Il Barba pulled out the brain. “I cooked this last week for my young son. When my wife came home from work his whole face was covered with it. She barely had time to make it to the bathroom.” I guess this proves that not even all Italians are big organ fans.

John, one of the guys in my class started blanching the brain in acidulated water. In an unfortunate turn of phrase he announced, “If any one here ever needs brains, I’m your man!” He cringed and stammered a quick retraction as the alternate slang of his pronouncement set in.

Once the brains were blanched we took off the membrane, sliced them and dipped them in a simple batter. After deep frying them to a golden brown you just serve them with some sea salt and a squeeze of lemon. The flavor isn’t much, but the texture is amazing. It’s super soft and pillowy like a whipped oyster mousse.

The cooking done, we laid out our huge spread. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend serving traditional style Indian food with Italian style organ meats. However, in this particular case I can’t complain. Everything was delicious and now I have a great idea for some curried testes and palak intestines.

A dopo. -L. Pants

Rainy Florence with Nana

So, Internet's on the fritz.  Again.  We're back at the bar with the free internet, sitting with potato chips and wine.  This means NO TIME.  So, fast post!

I went to the airport to get Nana on April 3.  She didn't get off the plane I was expecting her to.  Luckily, a nice woman adopted me and took me to the Air France counter, where I learned Nana would be coming in three hours.  So I prepared to wait.

And the power went out. 

Several times.  By the time Nana arrived, sans luggage, it seemed like they had the power figured out.  I got Nana home and we fed her lasagna.

Husbear says this is a gross picture.  I don't agree.

The next day dawned rainy.

See?

We looked around and got rained on some more.

We were thinking "museum", but we didn't know which one - see, the lines for the Uffizi and the Accademia have been so long, that we went and bought tickets for later in the week, and we didn't want to buy more.

So we looked at the Duomo.

I was excited to see that the copies of Ghiberti's doors had finally been uncovered, on the Baptistery.  They've been under wraps since we got here!  My Old Testament knowledge came in handy, but I wasn't able to figure out what all the scenes were.  Beautiful to look at, though!

We went into the Duomo and looked around a bit, and then Nana wanted to see the remains of the church that was replaced by the Duomo.  They're right underneath, in a small museum that's usually totally empty.  The signage is horrible, so it's hard to tell what you're looking at, but there are little maps talking about the remaining pavement.  Some of it's pre-Roman, though the part in this picture was probably the original mosaic floor of Santa Reparata.  We think.

Here's some spurs they found under the church.  Still with little bits of fabric remaining!

There were lots of tombstones around.  Dates were hard to come by, though we did find a couple that were from the mid 1100s.

Having wandered the full underground area, we left the Duomo and went around to the back.  That's where you can find the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, the museum that holds all of the church's original artwork.  It's really interesting, and usually there's nobody there.

It has one of Michelangelo's last sculptures, a Pieta' that was supposed to decorate his tomb.  That's a self-portrait as Nicodemus.

The museum also contains an extravagantly spooky Donatello.  It's Mary Magdalene, clothed in her hair.  Cloaked in crazy, I think.

Though I have to say my favorite things there were in the room of panels.  Who they're by escapes me at the moment, and since I'm running low on time I'll just have to make my apologies... but they run through a history of Man, starting with the Old Testament and ending with allegories of the Renaissance creation of sculpture, architecture, et cetera. 

Here's Gd creating woman from man's rib.  Nana didn't see the woman right away, and turning to me said "but Eve has a penis!"  Then she saw what she was missing...

My personal favorite was this one, the creation of wine.  Or perhaps the creation of overindulgence?

(Correction - thanks, Tom!  This is actually drunk Noah exposing himself, a story taken straight out of Genesis.  Oh, that crazy dog.  Look for another fresco of naked Noah exposing himself in San Gimignano, if the pictures we took in the church came out OK.)

Creepiest artifact?  Brunelleschi's death mask.  He designed the Duomo's dome, so his death mask shares room with a bunch of old tools.  Dignified, I suppose?

The museum is proudest of the original panels Ghiberti created for the Baptistry.  There are eight of them on display right now - they rotate in and out of the museum, since they're in almost constant restoration.  Apparently, there are caustic compounds between the bronze plating and the wood that's backing the scenes.  I imagine this is a sticky problem.

After all this art, it was time for gelato!  So, we went to Grom - just a block or so away.  Their April flavor is white chocolate, by the way.  Nana got dark chocolate and pistacchio.  And liked them - a lot.

Dinner was good - a solid place called Pane e Vino near our house, on Via dell'Agnolo.  It's cheap and dependable.  Nana got to have a really good Tuscan vegetable soup that made her very happy.

And then we went by Santa Croce again on the way home.  Oh well, you have to walk home some way, right?

Day One.  Mama Bear arrives Thursday, and pending Interet, I hope to have wrestled this dang blog up to date!  Look for more posts.  Hopefully.  Pray to the Internet gods for us!

Seder in Florence

During the couple of days we had between guests at the beginning of April, Passover hit!

A seder was thus definitely in order.  For those of you who don't know what a seder is, it's the traditional Jewish meal served during the holiday of Passover.  Every family has its own rituals, but basically the meal is preceded by a retelling of the escape from Egypt led by Moses.  With lots of singing. And drinking.

It takes a good bit of preparation to put together the Seder meal.  There's a traditional plate that's used, which has to have certain ritual objects represented.  We didn't have a true Seder plate, which is marked with what goes where.  Oh well - we did have a pretty china plate!

What you see on there is a cup of salt water (to represent the tears of the slaves), a roasted egg (represents sacrifice and Spring), Italian parsley (bitter, like the bitterness of slavery - you dip in the salt water to eat), a roasted lamb shankbone (also represents sacrifice), haroset, and prepared horseradish, since we couldn't find fresh.

The haroset, on the bottom, looks like the mortar the Jews used while they were slaves.  I'm the one who makes it around here.  Here's the ingredients for this year's incarnation:

And then you chop and throw everything together.  It's pretty simple, and gets better as the days go by.  Of course, after a while it starts to ferment, but then hey, it's party time!  There are lots of different ways to make haroset, depending on where your Jewish ancestors hailed from.  My family always uses Eastern European variations.  (I may have to try one of these out next year.)

The haroset gets put on a piece of matzah spread with horseradish to make my favorite Passover treat, the Hillel Sandwich.

Husbear went out the day Passover started to pick up some matzah, the traditional unleavened bread - an absolute must, since Jews can't eat regular leavened bread during the 8 days of Passover.  Pickings were slim.  He ended up with a kilo of matzah.  I'm still working my way through it.

Husbear spent a good bit of time before our friend Anna arrived preparing things for the meal.  I'm going to let him tell you what he did to this poor little lamb leg, still complete with its tuft of fur.

Ooh! Weee! I gets to writes. I'm on the internets and stuff! (Normally Mme. Pants beats me if I get near the computer.)  However, lamb is important -so with special dispensation I can lamb it up (get lamby with it?).

Basically, this is a prepartation that I stole from the awesome resturant that I've been working at.  First you trim up the overly fatty and grisly bits and then proceed to cut out the big bone in the middle.  You stuff the center with rosemary and thyme (and thick slices of pancetta if this wasn't a pork-free jewstravaganza) and then give it a healthy salt and pepperering. 

Then you tie it up real tight like (warning: do not make fun of my trussing skills.   I was in a hurry, my hands were greasy, I went blind and was overcome with vertigo. Look I'm sure there's a good reason why this thing looks like a game of Cat's Cradle played by a poorly trained intoxicated monkey but it escapes me at the moment.)

Anyway, brown the whole thing on all sides in a really, really hot pan.  When it's caramelly delicious looking, put the pan in the oven at 220°C until it's almost done.  When that is will depend on lots of things so you should probably use a thermometer.  Next, I let it cool a bit, took off the string and then put on a crust made of almonds, rasins, rosemary and anchovies.  I browned the crust all nice and crispy and then that leg was bona fide table ready.  Slice and eat.

Now back to the lady:

Our friend Anna arrived bearing side dishes and dessert and a little memory stick, on which she had downloaded several haggadot - that's the book you read during the meal to make sure you're doing everything correctly.  We set the computer up on the table and started the ceremony.  We're high-tech!

This is usually quite a meal.  You don't eat until several hours after you sit down, after the story has been told, two glasses of wine have been drunk (seriously, it says so right there in the book), and various songs have been sung and prayers have been made.  I remember when I was a child that I'd get so hungry while the parents were talking that I'd welcome the point in the seder when you eat the parsely dipped in salt water.  It tasted SO GOOD.

During Passover, you have to have matzah ball soup.  This is probably the most famous Jewish dish - dumplings made of matzah meal, served with vegtables in a chicken soup.  I've heard a cute anecdote about matzah ball soup - Marilyn Monroe was on a publicity tour in New York City, and after being served matzoh ball soup for the third meal in a row, she asked her manager, "Isn't there any other part of the matzah you can eat?"

Heh.

Husbear made a true soup (I've usually just settled for the Manishevitz mix), with actual chicken stock and ground matzah for the matzah meal.  He even added duck fat to the dumplings, in a bit of a departure from the traditional schmaltz (chicken fat.)

The perfect start to the meal.  We wolfed it down and moved almost immediately on to the lamb, now roasted perfectly and served with the veggies Anna brought.  She managed to make a delicious fennel and cauliflower roast in her little toaster oven, no easy feat.  The perfect lamb side dish, and she hadn't even known we were having lamb!

The lamb was the tenderest meat I've ever eaten.  It was pillowy, I swear - I wanted to take a nap right in the middle of it.  The flavorful crust was just awesome with the soft meat, and the vegetables couldn't have been better - fennel and cauliflower actually makes a really good combination.

The lamb gravy was delicious overkill.  Unlike so many roasted meats, this one had no need of moistening - but it sure was a tasty sauce.

One of the refrains from the Seder is "It would have been enough," or Dayenu, in Hebrew.  It's part of a song that thanks G-d for delivering the Jews from slavery, bringing them through the desert, feeding them, giving them the land of Israel, et cetera.

So, this meal would have been enough, but Anna had a delicious dessert up her sleeve.  (She's studying baking and pastry at Apicius and LOVES making desserts.)

A white chocolate souffle with whipped cream - and matzo brittle!

This was Husbear's first time trying matzo brittle, matzo covered in caramel and chocolate - and I'm pretty sure he liked it.  A lot.

Fully sated, we pushed ourselves back from the table and sang a couple more Passover songs.  Another Seder done.

The traditional line to end the Seder is "Next Year in Jerusalem."  But for the two of us, who knows?

Wrapping up the wine jaunt - Montalcino and Montepulciano

After a lovely morning of trying Croce di Mezzo's tasty wines, we headed into nearby Montalcino to get a brief taste of the town and grab some lunch.

Montalcino is a pretty little hilltop town.  (Look at the last post for a view of the whole place.)  We rather liked this cathedral, and were sort of surprised to read that Lonely Planet describes it as "an ugly 19th-century neoclassical travesty."  Maybe we all just like neoclassical travesties?

Walking down the main drag, we spotted a good-sounding restaurant from our Lonely Planet and decided to drop in and investigate.

Osteria di Porta al Cassero was full of Italian families enjoying a late Saturday lunch.  We placed our order and then sat back, only to have our very generous crostini misti plate arrive almost instantaneously!

It's a measure of both how hungry we were and how good it looked that we forgot to take a picture until we had started to demolish the plate...

This was a really generous crostini plate, for only 3.50 euro - there were five kinds of crostini represented!  One was toscani (chicken liver pate), one porcini mushroom, one a onion jam, one tomato sauce, and one fresh tomato.  All quite good, we thought.

After that, we only ordered one course.  Keef was feeling a bit cold, so he went for the "zuppa di pane", or bread soup - actually a thick vegetable soup served over Tuscan bread.

Jodi and Husbear were feeling more pasta-ey, so Jodi ordered the Maccheroni al Sugo (which was a long, thick ribbon pasta, not elbow macaroni, and which we only photographed blurrily), and Husbear got the Pinci co' le briciole, pici pasta with bread crumbs.  True cucina povera, or cooking of the poor.  Both of their pastas were fresh, homemade, and absolutely stellar.

And I got tongue.  It was on the menu, and this seemed like the place to finally give it a try.  I thought it was really tasty - it reminded me of the bollito sandwich at Nerbone, which is a fatty boiled beef cut.  Though this was topped with a delicious basil, parsley, and caper sauce.  Husbear pointed out that I'd probably eat anything topped with capers, and he's right.

It was a little surprising that the tongue came with its own contorni, or vegetable sides - I've gotten used to this not being the case in Italian restaurants.

We were completely stuffed at this point, so we asked for one (1) tiramisu to split.  The waiter looked at us strangely, but he did bring it, and it was just as good as the rest of the meal.

I think the four of us would strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone finding themselves in Montalcino near mealtime.  They did solid Tuscan food, with an even more local emphasis.  I'd really like to try their tripe.

Lunch finished, we walked the rest of the way down the main road to the Fortezza, or fortress.  Gotta love a fortress with a wine bar in it...

Just on the other side of the fortress was a small garden with beautiful views back towards town.  It looked like it would have been a great place to sit with a picnic lunch and a bottle of local wine.

Unfortunately, it was really time for us to be going if we wanted to see anywhere else before heading back to Florence.  We retrieved the car and drove towards Montepulciano.

We did have to stop a few times to admire the Crete Senese, or Sienese hills - covered with wildflowers this time of year.  The grape vines were just starting to bud, as well.

Just makes you want to roll down the hill, doesn't it?  We didn't, since we had places to be.

Here, specifically.

That town on top of the hill is Montepulciano.  Wine people likely recognize the name, because of the town's famous Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  The town does have a lot of un-wine-related beauty, though. 

Like a Fiat CinqueCento convention!  (yeah, probably not every day.  But hey, how awesome is that?)

This is a car that invites crazed loyalty.  Sort of like the Volkswagen Beetle.  They're much too cute not to love.

Montepulciano is a very Tuscan town, with evidence of the Medici everywhere.  Once you learn to recognize their family crest, with the six balls, it's amazing how often it turns up.  (Here, it's in the top of that well you see between the buildings.)

And you have to love the shades of brown.  Jodi and Keef were so excited to see all of the wall treatments visible in the town.

Of course, there are enoteche all over town selling the local wines.  They're really tempting! 

On the other side of Piazza Grande, we found an overlook that allowed spectacular views across the lower part of town and the valley below.  What a wonderful place!

While we were in town, we knew we had to go visit a cantine - a place where we could learn a bit more about the local wines and hopefully even taste a few.

The first one we looked at was rather uninviting... and smelled sort of strongly like weed, which was a little odd, given that it didn't appear too laid-back!

We recrossed Piazza Grande and walked through an open door into Cantine Contucci.  There was nobody in sight, and we walked in.   I was in the back and turned around to find a crotchety-looking older man staring at me, and asked him if we could enter.  He waved us on, looking perurbed...

When we finished our exploration, I tried to ask him a few questions in Italian, and he lit up.  He talked with Husbear about learning Italian cooking, stroked the back of my head (sort of creepily, I thought), and expounded to us about Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  Apparently, it got its name by being the favored wine of the Medici.

We bought a bottle of his wine.  By this time, it was getting late in the afternoon - so, back to the car, back to the Florence airport, back to the house...

Jodi and Keef had what I hope was a relaxing last night in town before having to catch their flight to Paris in the morning.  They had an overnight in Paris before flying back to Houston... and I hope that went well!

Next posts - seder, and then on to Nana's visit!  And I'm trying to talk husbear into a cookin' post, but we shall see.