Stratford as a town

Stratford has a lot to offer as a town, the Theatre Festival is now more than 60 years old and employs one thousand people year round in various tasks connected with the  Festival, a huge enterprise. I have been looking into our move to Stratford, now that I am retired I really see little point in staying in Ottawa. I came here for study and work, I never planned to die here. One factor to consider though is our friends and we have a lot of old and dear friends in Ottawa, people we have known for 30+ years. We do not know anyone in Stratford and would have to start over which can be difficult at our age. But Ottawa is a very expensive town, oh yes, it ranks up there with Rome and London, I am not exaggerating, I was involved in price comparison studies and Ottawa is not cheap, food, rent, gas and general expenses reflect the fact that it is the National Capital. So how do we entice our old friends to move or at least visit us. I should do a separate entry on this topic of why I am inclined to leave Ottawa.

But I digress, Stratford functions also outside the Festival and has been mindful to keep in mind that it must be more than one industry town. At one time and for more than 100 years Stratford was a major railway hub and international quality furniture maker. Today the furniture industry is gone and the railway is greatly reduced. The Festival brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue which profits to all local businesses, hotels, B& B, restaurants and many shops. To meet the demand of the many tourists and travellers who come to Stratford there are 3 fine chocolate makers with an incredible array of quality hand made chocolates. One is Rheo Thompson rheothompson.com beautiful quality chocolates and candies. The other are Barr Chocolates and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. All are worth a visit because of their in house specialties.

 a very large piece of Fudge with nuts, it weighs about 6 Kg. 

 We actually bought this Creamsicle Fudge it has an orange taste and is quite nice

There is also for the gourmet some 15 fine dining establishment where Chefs outdo themselves with wonderful culinary delights. There are 8 real estate offices, 8 Art galleries, 7 fine coffee houses each one catering to a clientele who prefers good coffee in a relaxed atmosphere. In that category I like Revel Caffè on Market Place. Also 5 bookstores offering a lot of service to its clients in the old fashion way bookstore use to cater to the reading public. I shop at Fanfare Books on Ontario street which has a wide array of books for all taste. For those who love old things 4 antique stores, you can find some real gems often from old Estate sales.  There is also numerous professional services, lawyers offices, Medical doctors, numerous banks, etc... The city does not die during the winter Season as of November, some business have reduced hours but on the whole life goes on. visitstratford.ca

Of the restaurants we enjoyed Pazzo Taverna is a favourite, the Italian cuisine and service are very good, staff are knowledgeable about the wine list and the house specialities. You will not find lasagna or spaghetti on the menu, the chef follows original Italian recipes found in various regions of Italy.
pazzo.ca

Pazzo Taverna on Ontario Street

There is also an excellent Indian Cuisine restaurant Raja on George street, the atmosphere, food and service are excellent. rajastratford.ca

For after dinner drinks and a bite to eat where you are most likely to run into the actors and theatre staff Down the Street Bar on Ontario Street. www.downthestreet.ca

Another favourite restaurant is Mercer Hall Inn mercerhall.ca on the ground floor is the restaurant and  above there are two floors of well appointed rooms and suites, we stayed there and loved it.

We also discovered a new restaurant Bijou on Erie Street, they have no menu, just a blackboard and you read it and choose what you want to eat, there is a prix fixe of  2 plates for a set price and 3 plates for another set price. So it is very simple and good again the service was courteous and knowledgeable. bijourestaurant.com

Stratford is part of what is now called the Nouvelle Ontario Cuisine, focusing on local ingredients and what is in Season. Ontario also has a lot of very good award winning wines. So it makes for a great combination.

Stratford also has many beautiful streets and old homes, it is a town with character.

Stratford Court House

All along the streets arrangements of either fresh herbs or a variety of flowers

What is interesting to note is the display of colours and arrangements everywhere in parks and along streets, a great deal of care has gone into this display throughout the city.

Ornamental fantasy gate in the city centre.

Street scape note that the tall facade were built to impress, the building is in fact not very deep as it can be noticed on the Stratford Tourism building.

Homes on Lake Victoria across from the city centre

Food EATALY

Here are some photos inside EATALY the great Italian Food Emporium of Rome.
A paradise for the gourmand and the gourmet. The Emporium is open 7 days a week, from 10 am to Midnight, photos taken around 23:30. It is a fun place, just love it.

 Prosciutto hams and cheese counter

Cold Italian beers

Love this chandelier made of Espresso cups very stylish  

Restaurant recommendations in Rome this week

Italy is know for the quality of its food and we now have a great opportunity to discover the complexity  and variety of Italian food in a new complex called EATALY.
This complex on 4 floors is housed in the old Airport Train Terminal near Ostiense.

I had heard of it and wanted to see it for myself. WOW!!!!!! For those unfortunate ones who believe that Italian food is Spaghetti and meat balls or pizza and lasagna, EATALY will show you how uninformed you are.

The complex has 8 restaurants on various floors, showcasing specialities such as gelato, beef, poultry, game, fish, fried foods, breads, olive oils, coffee, wines, beers, cheeses, chocolates, nuts, truffles, hams, fresh vegetables and fruits etc... all produces in Italy, specifically for Italian cuisine.
You can shop for various products, samples in the various food stations where chefs will prepare dishes. The decor is ultra modern and the furniture and light fixtures are in the stylish modern style famous around the world as the signature of Italy. When I think of the kitschy so called Italian decor we have in Canada and the limited menu served in restaurants, EATALY will for sure change any misconception you might have. It is a MUST and should not be missed if you are in Rome.
http://www.roma.eataly.it

Adresse : Piazzale XII Ottobre, 1492, Roma

Téléphone :06 9027 9201

Horaires d'ouverture :

lundi	10:00 – 00:00
mardi	10:00 – 00:00
mercredi	10:00 – 00:00
jeudi	10:00 – 00:00
vendredi	10:00 – 00:00
samedi	10:00 – 00:00
dimanche	10:00 – 00:00

Another selection but this time in Trastevere, that area of Rome which sits next to the Vatican and at the foot of the Gianicolo Hill. Our B&B recommended a restaurant called

MERIDIONALE on Via dei Fienaroli 30. Tel 06 5897196 their web site: www.meridionaletrastevere.com  

The food is exceptional it is one of those restaurants you remember years later as a great meal. Reasonably priced and great service. The kitchen has 2 chefs from Calabria and Sicily so the flavours are definitely southern and very nice. 

We also went to CAFFÈ PROPAGANDA on Via Claudia15, web site www.caffepropaganda.it

This restaurant is near the Colloseum area. Very nice food and away from the silly tourists.

We also had our breakfast and aperitivo every night at the BAYLON Caffè

Via di San Francesco A Ripa 151, Trastevere. Great service, good food and great cocktails, live music, no tourists, all Italians.

Web site: www.baylon.net

Little me in front of a beautiful Olive tree and the Basilica of St-John and St-Paul ( 2 obscure Roman Soldiers) built in 398 AD on the Celian Hill and Clivus Scauri. The basilica is built above a series of rooms which housed wild animals (Vivarium) a tunnel led them directly to the Collosseum. 

Restaurant recommendations in Rome

While in Rome in March for 10 days I returned to many of my favourite restaurants. Many Roman restaurants are family owned, often the mother or father are the cooks and the waiters are relatives or people who have been working with the family for decades. Being a waiter in Rome is a profession not like in North America something you do waiting for a better job. The waiters are often mature men, no there are no waitresses, a women can be at the cash or cooking but not waiting on tables, this is a man's job.

The decor is simple in most restaurant, you have tablecloth and cloth napkin, the cutlery is polished, the restaurant is your dining room and the atmosphere most be conducive to dining in a relaxing, convivial, leading to conversation, no jarring background music. The emphasis is on quality food, well prepared, fresh ingredients, something that is sorely lacking in North America where often the food prepared is frozen or from industrial quantities bought from large corporations who deliver to restaurants. In Italy, the cook still goes to market everyday and will buy fresh, fish, seafood, meat, vegetable and fruits.
Desserts are the usual torta, a crust with jam, or a torta with pecans or almonds, a mont blanc cake in winter, or a chocolate mousse cake, maybe a tiramisu if you are in a touristic area with lots of foreigners around. The tiramisu is a home made dish prepared and eaten at home not something an Italian would have in a restaurant. But it has to be understood that desserts in general are not really an item on most italian menus, an espresso is decaffeinated in the evening. Fresh fruits, a cup of wood berries simply with lemon juice or a bit of sugar is usually preferred, no whip cream, don't ask for it, they do not have it. Besides milk products are not found usually after 11 am on any menu. Each neighbourhood has a baker and the cakes and pastries come usually daily for that bakery and are delivered to the restaurant. Again quality is everything and so is personal reputation.

On any menu you will find the antipasto first, then the pasta dishes there is no meat in such dishes usually fish or seafood is a common ingredient in the sauce and again the sauce is accompanying the pasta in other words your pasta will not be drowning in pasta. If the sauce is based with tomatoes it is usually whole tomatoes used and cooked as is, usually a small cherry like tomato or a sauce made with a tomato base and other ingredients.  The second part of the  menu will have meat, usually, lamb, steak filet, veal. Again chicken is a rare menu item because it is considered the food of the poor. Do not forget to ask about accompaniment or contorno, otherwise your meat dish will be lonely on the plate.
Many people unused by this tradition are taken aback that the meat dish is served without any garnish. Ask your waiter for a contorno. Usual vegetables found on most menus and this is true of most restaurants are roasted potatoes with rosemary, sorry no french fries, spinach, chicory, not creamed but sauteed in a pan with a bit of garlic, green beans, in season you will have Porcini mushrooms, braised radicchio  or a green salad. Olive oil replaces butter, so again do not ask for it, they will not have any.
Another nice tradition I really like is instead of bread, you are offered pizza bianca which is the thin crust of the pizza taken pipping hot and crunchy from the oven and served with rosemary and olive oil.

As for wine you can have a glass or a quarter or a half liter, after that they will bring a bottle. Every restaurant has a house wine which is usually made by the family owning the restaurant and will be good table wine or a wine from a local vineyard. The difference in price is not enormous, table wine is a few euros and a good bottle of wine will be about 10 to 12 euros. You can of course have very expensive wines but again in Italy that usually means 20 to 25 euros a bottle, but this will be exceptional wine.

Now here is my very own personal list of restaurant and caffè I like in Rome, been there many times to each one and know the waiters and the family owning the place.

For dinner around 8:30pm, note good restaurants are not open prior to 8 pm. I am so use to eating late now at night that I cannot imagine having dinner before that time. Rome is more formal in the evening and you have to remember that this means dressing up, no jeans or T-shirts.

In front of the Opera house in Rome, La Matriciana owned by the Crisciotti family, this trattoria on Via del Viminale 44 has been around since 1870 and the decor was updated in the 1930's art deco style and has remained since. Again the waiters have been serving tables for at last 40 years. You need reservations if you go on a night the Opera house across the street is open, diners will come in around 11pm for late supper after the show and it will get crowded with the artists and members of the orchestra.

Anatra Grassa on Via Savoia 68 across from Villa Albani is an excellent restaurant with great nouvelle Italian cuisine.   Again reservations are recommended. The Chef a young man is a genius, he arranged a very special menu for an important anniversary I gave 2 years ago and I am still thinking of the excellent food.

For dinner or lunch

I limoncini, Via del Giuba 12, in a quiet neighbourhood off Via Asmara in the Afrika neigbourhood, so named because all the streets name are after cities in the former African colonies of Italy.
Cristiano runs the restaurant and his mother is at the cash, the staff is Philippino and the chef Egyptian but this is a very Roman restaurant, very good food and atmosphere. In the summer and early fall you can have dinner outside and it is very pleasant.

Stella Maris, Viale Regina Margherita at the corner with Via Nomentana. A Sardinian restaurant, specialty seafood dishes Sardinian style. The family running this restaurant are very pleasant, the food of good quality and reasonable prices. A very good white wine is the Vermentino di Gallura to go with your fish.

Da Giovanni, Via Antonio Salandra 1 at the corner with Via XX Settembre. Basic but brilliant, the chef is the old mother of the owner, she has been cooking since 1948. You have to go down stairs to enter the restaurant, the walls are covered with wood paneling and simple checkered tablecloth. The menu is Roman dishes, they also have in winter the best Mont Blanc Cake I have ever tasted. In March they also have the Roman Stuffed artichokes. The waiters are in their 60's and the restaurant attracts a lot of famous people in Italian society who come for a quiet meal, so try not to stare if you should recognize someone.

For a simple quick lunch or your second breakfast at 10am

My personal favourite is the Antica Gelateria on Via Alessandria at the corner of Corso Trieste, this place is also known as the Australian Bar because many years ago the Australian Embassy was across the street. Massimo runs the caffè with his very distinguished looking mother who is always impeccably dressed at the Cash. Massimo's father comes in several times a day and he looks more like a prosperous banker than a caffè owner. They are charming people all. They also have a very good Italian breakfast which consist of Tramenzino sandwiches with tomato bread or sage bread or simply plain white bread no crust. Their coffee is quite good and they also have croissants (corneto) stuffed with apricot jam.

Their cook Judy prepares light lunches, excellent salads and hot dishes. One of my favourite is her yellow curry Gnocchi.   For dessert ask for Caffè affogato from the verb affogare to drown. It's a cup of espresso coffee with a single scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream, the idea being that the ice cream is drowning in the coffee, absolutely delicious.

Rome Eternal City for rent temporarily.




   

Sunday 25 July return to Roma

Well our restaurant last night did not live up to the standard of the Gambero Rozzo or our expectations. A few things went wrong, first despite having confirmed our reservation with us, it was not in their book. We had a table but again it was in an odd corner of the restaurant. The restaurant itself has lots of character in its décor, frescoes, wook beamed ceilings. The waiter took his time in bringing the menus, then brought the white wine just left the bottle on the table, we had to ask for an ice bucket. The waiter looked indifferent not caring much, distant, the room was half empty.

The food was ordinary, really not worth the price, poor quality to euro value. I had a sea food salad which is usually about 8 euros in any restaurant in Rome, here it was 20 euros, main course monkfish, good but again nothing special with a side dish of fiori di zucca, just the flowers no stuffing, good but again I thought this is not freshly made, they have been sitting on the counter. For dessert fruiti di bosco, only the raspberries where good and sweet, the other berries were sour. Will did not have much luck either, his antipasto was prosciutto with figs which he liked but the main dish was overdone with mozzarella. Will write to Gambero to tell them that this recommendation was a huge disappointment. After dinner we went walking in central Milan, very quiet at night but so many beautiful shop windows, something we do not see in Rome.

Il Duomo Milan

Speaking of which, big scandal yesterday, the Italian police raided a sweatshop where dozens of Chinese workers do piecemeal work on clothing. Now all of them had their papers in order, no illegal workers here. The discovery was that all the work they were doing for a few centimes per item, all of it is for known Italian designer brands, customers usually pay large sums of money for one clothing item thinking that it was done by professionals, not so. This is a growing problem in Italy, you get a lot of made in China copies of designer items, cheaply made and you also get now items made in Italian sweatshops. In both cases the items are not worth the price tag. A retired tailor who worked for 50 yrs for one well known designer told me that nowadays people want labels they do not look for quality in workmanship as was the fashion years ago. Designers know this and give the public the labels, nothing more, sad really. The same can be said of the actual work of the designers, today the big names are too busy managing their image and business empire to actually design, sketch or draw new patterns for clothes or other items. They have apprentice to do this work, they may look over the work, give general instructions, make sure it is more or less what they want or has their trade mark, that is were it ends. You pay for the name, so buyer beware!

Saturday with the Chef

This Saturday morning I went on a walk with Chef Deb (Deborah Rankine) who is on YouTube and also has a blog, a TV show and gives cooking classes in Canada. She gave me a copy of her book. Her web site is: www.thefridgewhisperer.ca and www.culinarycaravan.com
We met through the Internet, I saw her on YouTube and sent in a comment about one of her recipes. She answered asking me about restaurants in Rome and then told me she was coming to Rome with her family for a visit.

She said she wanted to see a local fresh produce market in Rome where Romans shop for food. I met her at Porta Pia and we went around the corner to the market of Piazza Alessandria. She bought wine and olive oil, cheese and other Italian specialities. I also took her to 2 enotecas and for coffee in our little local bar. We went to Bartocci on Via Alessandria where she saw the staff make fresh gelato. She got quite a tour of the food shops in our area.

Tomorrow she goes to the Amalfi coast with the family. It was fun to meet her and to be able to show her around my neighborhood.

Dining in Rome

Last night we went to a restaurant in the old Jewish Ghetto of Rome. The area is alongside the Tiber and by the Teatro di Marcello (nephew of Augustus) and the Portico d'Ottavia (sister of Augustus). The area in antiquity was built by Augustus outside Rome, it was considered the Suburbia (suburb), though it is immediately next to Roman Forum. In the middle-ages the area was the fish market of Rome and until the 20th Century it was thus. The Jews lived inside this precinct surrounded by walls and gates and were locked in at night. Today the area is quite beautiful and surrounded by a lively neighborhood. Only a few Jewish families still live in the shadow of the great Synagogue of Rome. Many shops and Kosher restaurants maintain the Jewish traditions of this old Roman neighborhood.

We went to La taverna del Ghetto, Via Portico d'Ottavia 8 (www.latavernadelghetto.com), the food was wonderful with a good wine selection and friendly service. We ate outside on tables set-up on the sidewalk surrounded by the ruins of the Portico. The area is charming and has a lot of character. The menu is kosher and offers many dishes of fish, meat mostly lamb and poultry. Many dishes are also both Roman and Jewish in character, Jews have lived in Rome for 3000 years, as a community, they are part and parcel of this city and its evolution through the ages.

I had an antipasto of Spiced Chicken liver pate and then a grilled Tuna steak with a side dish of spinach in lemon juice and garlic.
Will had an antipasto of oven roasted tomatoes in olive oil, with chopped garlic and parsley and as a main veal goulash with a side dish of roasted potatoes. Quite a good meal.