Weekend Pleasures

A beautiful weekend it has been. Friday night we had a violent thunderstorm again with high winds and many trees felled, strangely enough the very old and very large tree, it is at least 90 meters high, at the front of our building on Cartier Street which is full of holes where the squirrels have established homes, stands impervious. I always expect it to come crashing down one fine day and given the size of it, I do not want to be around to see it.

Our summer balcony on the Rideau Canal were we have our meals.

So I walked to Lansdowne Park named after Lord Lansdowne who was Governor General of Canada at the time. I wanted to see this great piece of land return to its park like state. It was originally some 120 years ago well outside the City of Ottawa, a racetrack for thoroughbred horses and a great park for agricultural fairs held every year. Major cities in Canada had them, to help farmers with new implements and show off the best in animal husbandry and farm produce, this included a big flower show. Toronto had the Canadian National Exhibition and Ottawa had the Central Canadian Exhibition. In the last 50 years Landsdowne had become a tawdry place where a carny show was held, the main buildings had become ruined shells even the football stadium was in a ruinous state, no one cared it was mediocre and every year it was a grotesque show to all that a National Capital should not be. A few years ago the City Council finally closed the park down cancelling the Ex which was no longer attracting anyone. It promoted the revival of the whole area, which was now well in the centre of he City a terrible eyesore on the Rideau Canal. This new redevelopment was not achieved without major opposition by the navel gazing gang in the Glebe, privileged upper middle class entitled yuppies who opposed the re-development for the simple reason that it might bring people from other parts of the city to their neighbourhood. The judicial wrangling was carried out to extraordinary length, at one point the media and the police were called out to protect bird nests and squirrels. Committees set up to adopt a squirrel and the CBC even had a campaign on it. For anyone who lives in Ottawa it is well known that squirrels are so numerous that they are a pest we tolerate.

After a multi-year fight the re-development went ahead and the final result is pretty impressive. A new stadium for the new football team called the Red Black, the old Horticultural building has been moved on rails from one end of the park to the other and completely renovated, it is built in the Prairie style school of architecture. A new apple orchard has been planted, there is a new underground garage, the Aberdeen Pavilion known as the Cow Palace has been restored to its former glory, to think that 25 years ago when the current Mayor Jim Watson was just a young councillor, he spear headed the fight to avoid its demolition, good thing he did. Where use to be the old asphalt parking lot is now an immense field of green the size of the one on Parliament Hill, hundreds of trees planted everywhere. There is a large play structure for kids, an artificial skating ring and a new Water Park Sculpture which will be ready in the fall.
It is truly beautiful, it is a real urban park, there are also new shops and 2 condo towers facing Bank street.

New Lansdowne Park 

 The green which use to be a massive parking lot

Modern light sculpture still under construction with the new Stadium behind it

Renovated and re-positioned Horticultural building at Lansdowne Park

The partial view of the apple orchard with the Aberdeen Pavilion in the background, the Farmer's market will be permanently relocated inside the Pavilion in a few weeks.

We also did a bit of cooking this weekend with squash, peaches and tomatoes, apparently Dr. Spo tells me that tomatoes do not grow in Arizona where he lives, poor things, living under the dictatorship of the Tea Party and bourgeois reactionaries. We went to Brewer Park which is located on the Rideau River next to Carleton University Campus, a very nice area of the city that I do not know well. There are lots of nice neighbourhoods in Ottawa, quiet and leafy and this is one of them.

 What would a Farmer's Market be without the bake goods including doughnuts freshly made

I thought of Dr. Spo who is a famous doughnut connaisseur from AZ. That picture is for him.
http://sporeflections.wordpress.com

The Farmer's Martket at Brewer Park is moving, it was only temporarily at this location while the whole of Landsdowne Park was being re-built and re-made into a green area.  In the coming weeks the Farmer's Market will return to Lansdowne Park and will be housed in the Aberdeen Pavilion, a giant place and much more convenient since it will be protected from the elements.

Will's creation an Ontario Peach Schnitz pie 

Some of the variety of tomatoes we bought at Brewer Park to be used in various recipes in the next few days, I think we have about 8 lbs or 4 Kilo in total. 

Aubergines and Patty Pan Squash which will be used in recipes also in the coming days.

A whole pot of fresh garlic about 2 lbs or 1 Kilo of it in total, very fragrant 

Will's famous roasted tomatoes a recipe by Marcella Hazan, wonderful with any meal.

 portion of BC Red Snapper and Rosemary accompanied by Yellow Spaghetti Squash dressed with tomatoes, parsley, Basil, yellow pepper and walnuts

More tomatoes for the spicy tomato soup

Dinner of Shrimp Tempura with roasted tomatoes

We also attended the last lecture of the Gustave Doré Exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. The lecturer was Dr. Eric M. Zafran the Curator of the Susan Morse Hilles European Art collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford Connecticut,  a well known authority on art from Doré to Calder. His lecture was on Doré and the Bible, the artist Gustave Doré illustrated the stories of the Bible and it became a worldwide best-seller in the 19th century. The Bible Society of New York has a large library with many wonderful examples of those bibles which were translated in many languages.
The lecture was as well attended as my own Mercredis Culturels program at the NGC.

I also purchased a few other books on Doré and his illustrations, I also got a book of posters of the First World War 1914-1918, entitled the Art of selling War and a book of Charles Perrault (1628-1703) with comments and notes on his fairy tales with illustrations by Doré. The NGC shop also has a wonderful collection of calendars for 2015 and thinking of how Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese wood block paintings got a calendar on that topic.

War is heck, Prosit!

Cooking with recipes, Autumn and September

Late August means the start of harvest time in Canada. Fruits and vegetables in many varieties appear  at the Farmer's Markets around the Capital. I bought a basket of Ontario Peaches and was looking for a recipe to make a cobbler. Will said he had a recipe in one of the books where we collect our favourites. Could not find it at first and then saw it wedged as a page marker in one old cook book, I also found recipes on little photo like cards for various dishes.

One was Spinach sautéed with Indian spices another was Carrot and Parsnip purée or a winter crudité salad. All pretty simple and things I like to make for dinner.  Canadian Thanksgiving is one month away, will we be at home or will we go to Merrickville on the Rideau Canal like we have done in the last two years for lunch.

So I went through the books we have, most are fairly old cook books bought because we loved the recipes. I also found cards with hand written recipes. One is for Fennel Parmesan bake, another for Egg Potato and Prosciutto Pie, that one is really good on a Fall or Winter morning. Or what about Chicken Curry Tea Sandwiches, I remember this one from my Beijing days where we use to go downstairs to my colleague's place, Caryl A. and she made those sandwiches while we sang Karaoke, Bridge over troubled waters was my hit song, Unforgettable was another. There is also Crunchy Turkey Cranberry Pie and I did find the recipe card for Peach Schnitz Pie, Will was looking for.

I also found in my Mom's handwriting, she had a lovely hand and her handwriting is very easy to read. Her Campbell Tomato Soup Cake with cream cheese icing, I really have to try this one, she wrote it out for me years ago and the paper is all yellow with age now. A sentimental memory, the first anniversary of her death comes on 28 September.

If you want copies of these recipes let me know and I can send them to my readers/friends (only).

Sunday 31 August was also the day of a spectacular storm, high winds, crashing thunder and lightning, heavy rains with sunshine and what I call 18th Century clouds a la Canaletto with the most vibrant double rainbow I have ever seen. Afterwards we had fresh air and a beautiful sunset.
Which got us to talk of the Gustave Doré (d.1882) exhibit at the National Gallery which ends in 2 weeks. I have seen this exhibit 5 times and attended 3 lectures on it.

Doré lived in 19th Century Paris but also travelled to England and Scotland, his art is full of the romantic style of the era and false religiosity which looks so kitsch to us today. White clouds are transformed in swarms of Heavenly Angels descending to do God's work.  From the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco the 3 ton bronze, 156 feet high and 81 feet circumference, Poem of the Vine is on display. It came to Ottawa on a flat bed truck.

Poème de la vigne. A spectacular piece 

So this being the last long weekend of Summer it is still summer until 21 September, despite the fact that kids go back to school tomorrow and Universities have re-opened. I only hope that the old Almanac is correct and that our September-October months will be warmer than usual, this past summer has not been exactly the warmest.

I continue at the War Museum until 18 September and then return to the National Gallery for the Season, now as a Docent and Cultural Conference convener (les mercredis culturels). A Season of training and learning, not to forget the school program Vive les Arts for the 6 to 12 years old, a tough crowd who likes the moderns.

Ottawa's restaurant scene in the Capital

For years Ottawa had very little to offer in terms of good restaurants, with the turn of the millenium everything changed. We now have a serious food scene and here is a compilation of the best in the Capital. Of this list I have been to several of them more than once. I would certainly recommend them and see my list of preferred at the bottom of this post.

Black Cat Bistro
Where: 428 Preston St.
Type of food: Modern French bistro
Words of praise: "The flavours and textures were already expertly layered, without my having to do the work of dabbing and assembling all sorts of dips, foams, and frills." - Ottawa magazine

Navarra by Rene Rodriguez
Where: 93 Murray St.
Type of food: Spanish and Mexican
Words of praise: "[How] could your meal be as good as the extravaganza of dinner at Navarra? Indeed, you could pose the same question to all of Rodriguez’s competition." - Ottawa Citizen
Bonus reason: Rodriguez is competing on season four of Top Chef Canada.

Town
Where: 296 Elgin St.
Type of food: Modern Italian
Words of praise: "Every so often a restaurant surfaces that, right from the get-go, seems exactly in the swing of its time and place. Such is Town." - Capital Dining

Oz Kafe
Where: 361 Elgin St.
Type of food: Asian shared plates with a twist of Mexican
Words of praise: "But the real magic of Oz is that its tiny closet of a kitchen has the best karma in town." - Ottawa magazine

Fraser Cafe
Where: 7 Springfield Rd.
Type of food: Seasonal and local
Words of praise: "[We] want a restaurant with thoughtful, fresh, delicious food that doesn’t require an enormous splurge. Fraser Café is all that." - Ottawa Magazine

Restaurant 18
Where: 18 York St.
Type of food: 'Cutting edge' French-based cuisine
Words of praise: "When you are rating a restaurant you want to be sure that you do not become too generous in your praise lest no one believes you. But 18 is one of those that requires an alltogether [sic] different scale." - OpenTable

The Whalesbone and The Elmsdale Oyster House & Tavern
Where: 430 Bank St., and 1084 Wellington St. W.
Type of food: Seafood, of course, that is sustainably sourced
Words of praise: "I love a place with a raunchy vibe that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Is The Whalesbone Oyster House menu pricey? Yes it is, but my friends, that’s the price you pay for sustainable seafood, line-caught, farmed in sound conditions and approved by the watchers of the sea at Ocean Wise." - Food Gypsy

Murray Street
Where: 110 Murray St.
Type of food: A carnivore's dream
Words of praise: "They take ordinary things and they do an extraordinary way of preparing them." - Food Network Canada

Sidedoor
Where: 18b York St.
Type of food: Thai-influenced tacos
Words of praise: "Refreshingly unlike anything else in Ottawa, Sidedoor is about small, Mexican and Asian-inspired, produce-driven sharing plates." - Capital Dining.
Bonus reason: He was the second runner-up for Top Chef Canada's season three.

El Camino
Where: 380 Elgin St.
Type of food: "Tacos. Tequila. Raw bar."
Words of praise: "We didn’t recall a place having such high energy on a Wednesday night on Elgin street in quite a while.
There was a good reason. The place was fantastic and didn’t affect our pocket books too much." - Apartment 613

Supply and Demand
Where: 1335 Wellington St. W.
Type of food: Heavy on the seafood, with pasta thrown in
Words of praise: "All in all one of the best meals I've had in Ottawa, even though I'm not much of a shellfish person. My boyfriend and I have already made plans to go back." - Ottawa Foodies

Next
Where: 6400 Hazeldean Rd.
Type of food: Asian-influenced cuisine
Words of praise: "[The] food presented an exceptional balance of textures crisp, crunch, soft and supple, embellishments salty and sweet, rich yet refreshing, often on the same plate." - Ron Eade

Gezellig
Where: 337 Richmond Rd.
Type of food: Global cuisine
Words of praise: "The Lake Erie Pickerel was seasoned to perfection, laid on a bed of salted fingerling potatoes and chard. If you are looking for light but filling, this dish was perfect." - Food Search Ottawa

Allium
Where: 87 Holland Ave.
Type of food: Fresh and local, with a constantly changing menu
Words of praise: "Allium is our favourite spot in Ottawa. Delicious food, complex enough to be special but still accessible." - TripAdvisor

Atelier
Where: 540 Rochester St.
Type of food: (Stunning) molecular gastronomy
Words of praise: "[Chef Marc Lapine] masters the unique modernist techniques and weaves them into the local and seasonally inspired ingredients, while having fun with his menu descriptions." -Vacay.ca

Union 613
Where: 315 Somerset St. W.
Type of food: "The Canadian take on Southern hospitality," so lots of comfort food
Words of praise: "With its communal seating, ear-busting playlist, and late-into-the-night hours, Union is ushering Ottawa into a new dining dimension, already adored by restaurant-industry insiders and those who think everything’s better when smothered in Thousand Island dressing." - Ottawa magazine

Absinthe
Where: 1208 Wellington St. W.
Type of food: Contemporary comfort food (and fondue Mondays!)
Words of praise: "This joint is one of the most reliable in the city, IMO. Relaxed but professional servers, good wine list and good variety of delicious dishes make this a solid stand by." - Ottawa Foodies

Zen Kitchen
Where: 634 Somerset St. W.
Type of food: Vegan healthy, whole foods prepared in an environmentally friendly manner
Words of praise: "The food is so satisfying, so balanced, and so incredibly varied -- nothing like the old-fashioned stereotypic if not cafeteria-like vegetarian eateries where you pile greens and sprouts on a tray to weigh at the cash register." - Ron Eade

Domus Cafe
Where: 87 Murray St.
Type of food: Canadian, with a focus on local ingredients
Words of praise: "Domus never fails to satisfy me. We go there at least once a year on special occasions. Last time was my 10 year anniversary." - Ottawa Foodies

Brothers Beer Bistro

Where: 366 Dalhousie St.

Type of food: Made with beer!

Words of praise: "There’s an excellent burger and fries, to be sure, but the menu otherwise travels as far as possible from traditional pub fare. Forget baskets of greasy nachos and wings — Flowers opts to make a delicate tuna crudo and plates it beautifully." - Ottawa magazine

So here is my list based on what I know and have tasted.

I really enjoyed the quality of the food and the service coupled with the imagination the Chef showed in preparing and presenting dishes at the following restaurants,

my list of restaurants in no specific order;  OZ Café, Absinthe, Fraser Café, Allium, El Camino, the Whalesbone, Play Food and Wine on York Street. We will be trying out Union 613 this week, I have been wanting to go there for a long time.

On another good cheerful note, I am happy to report that Yesterday's in Spark Street at O'Connor the last of those dreadful Ottawa Family restaurants has closed and is gone. Thank You GOD. Yesterday's formerly known as Sharry's was one of those restaurant which at one point in the very early 60's could pass for a restaurant, service was surly, food lukewarm and the theme of the restaurant was more important than the cuisine, not to mention the fact that it was for families with lots of screaming kids, stretch pants and well you get the picture. All those restaurants are gone and this was the last one to go. Not a minute too soon, a blight on Sparks street just one block from Parliament.

Recipe, Recette Gâteau à la soupe aux tomates

Here is a childhood memory of a cake my Mom use to make for us. Unusual cake if you think of it, though very typical of French Canada, tomatoes belongs to the fruit family and not a vegetable. Tomatoes are delicately sweet tasting and this makes for a nice cake which can be enjoyed with a cup of tea in the afternoon.

Gâteau à la soupe aux tomates

Tomato Soup Cake 

ingredients:

50 ml butter
175 ml sugar
2 eggs
375 ml all purpose flour
1 tea spoon of baking powder
1 tea spoon of cinnamon
half a tea spoon of grounded clove
a quarter tea spoon of Baking Soda
175 ml Campbell Tomato soup
175 ml raisin sultana

Soften the butter gradually adding the sugar, the eggs, and beat well.

take a small part of the flour and coat the sultana raisins with it, set aside.

take the rest of the flour, the cinnamon, the ground clove, the baking powder and
baking soda, mix well.

take this mix and add the tomato soup and add the sultana raisins as well, mix well

pour the mix into well greased and floured cake mould.

Bake in the oven at 180 C. or 350 F. for 35 minutes.

Once the cake mix is baked let cool.

Cover with a Cream cheese icing.

Recipe for Cream Cheese icing

Glaçage au fromage à la Pie.

Ingredients

125 ml of ricotta cheese or cream cheese
250 ml Icing sugar
half tea spoon pure vanilla extract
half tea spoon lemon juice

Soften butter and add all other ingredients
Mix well until a good consistence is obtained

add sugar if required.

  

food blogs

While in Greece I visited with a friend of mine who is a bit of a celebrity, he has been on TV and participated in a cooking reality show in Greece.

He gave me a jar of his home made jam as a gift and it is wonderful. Have a look at his blog
BourBour

Very interesting blog, beautiful photography.

Athens, evening sky over the Aegean sea and the city, 15 october 2010.

Saturday in Milan

We went shopping today and we also went to see an exhibit in Palazzo Morando in Via San Andrea near the corner of Via Monte Napoleone. The exhibit entitled Il costume veste la Musica was created by l’atelier del Teatro alla Scala, Milan. On show, costumes created for operas presented in years past at La Scala, truly beautiful creations, it gave us a good idea of the cost of mounting an opera when you see the rich costumes.


Afterwards we went a block away at a little restaurant in a beautiful courtyard called Bacaro del Sambuco, via Monte Napoleone 13. The Chef is the mother of the head waiter, a lady who makes you feel welcome. I complimented her on the food and she beamed.
Elegant surroundings and the menu is new Italian cuisine, wonderful creations with all the original flavours and ingredients, simply presented. I had the red tuna tartare salad and Will had a salad of chicken breast meat, poached egg and local cheese. For dessert a sorbet of ginger, all of it accompanied by a white wine of the Friuli region RBL.

Bacaro del Sambuco, via Monte Napoleone

Red Tuna Tartare

salad of chicken breast and poached egg

Ginger sorbet

We also shopped at Frette, the sales are on now 30 to 50% off all linens. Beautiful sheets and pillow cases, good quality and designs. They have contour sheets and North American sizes, in Europe sheets are usually flat with a light duvet.
Tonite we are having dinner at a restaurant from the Gambero Rozzo guide. Will see if it lives up to the critique, it is not because a restaurant is in a food guide that it is up to scratch.

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.

Egon Ronay Food Critic

This week a great man died Egon Ronay, aged 94. He was born in Hungary, his family owned 5 restaurants in pre-war Budapest, the business was seized by the Soviets in 1944. He fled communist domination in 1946 by being freed by a Russian Soldier to whom he had sold coffee just before he was to be shipped off to Siberia. Egon fled to Britain where a family friend gave him a job as a waiter. He would later open his own restaurant in London The Marquee near Harrod's, introducing French food when it was largely unknown after the war in a London of food rations and austerity. Then he went into publishing with his famous Ronay Food guides, who in many ways surpassed the Michelin Guides. Egon had a staff of 30 inspectors and he himself would visit restaurants always under an assumed name, eating 4 meals a day.

I remember well a BBC World program about traveling and Heathrow airport in 1994 when he was inspecting food outlets and restaurants at Heathrow in London. One of the driving forces behind the remarkable change in Heathrow's catering standards at the time was food critic Egon Ronay who was recruited by BAA's chief executive, Sir John Egan, in 1991 to help overhaul the whole experience of eating at the airport. Ronay was an elegant man, always well dressed, very professional in his approach, witty, courteous and polite.

Ronay’s policy of accepting no advertising or hospitality from hotels or restaurants boosted his credibility with the public at large. He later began publishing annual pub and budget-restaurant guides.
The Ronay guide, published for nearly 30 years, could make or break a restaurant. Mr. Ronay bolstered the careers of chefs like Raymond Blanc, Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay, although he could turn on a dime. In 2008, he complained to The Daily Mail that Mr. Ramsay and the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver “are not chefs anymore, they are businesspeople.They're not as good as they used to be."

I completely agree with him, in my travel I noticed to often in one city or another a celebrity chef opening a restaurant and letting others do the cooking, only his name is suppose to guarantee excellence, but that is all a scam really, celebrity does not equal merit.

I also travelled countless times through Heathrow airport and always found at the time the restaurants cleaner with better food than other airports in the world. Air travel nowadays is a chore, security, rude staff, overcrowded and poor dirty facilities, that is what most airports are all about, push people through. Imagine having a good coffee or a sandwich that is fresh with good ingredients, as if you made it yourself. Pleasant staff and clean facilities, all this to me enhances traveling pleasure.

I think I liked Egon Ronay because he cared about food and quality and loved simple food well prepared. He use to say:
“I really wanted to see better food. That really was my purpose.” Going to a restaurant, you want to be able to understand the menu and know exactly what it is you chose, I simply hate it when you read the menu, you look at an item and wonder what is that or how is this prepared, the waiter does not know, has to go and ask, comes back with a vague answer. No that is not what restaurant dining should be, I am not interested in the fact that it is fancy, food should never be fancy, just good and well prepared. At least that is the way I learned it in Switzerland at the hotel school. How to cook green vegetables, so that they are crisp and with a beautiful color, or prepare a steak so that it is cooked the way the customer wants it or offer a dessert that is simple and yet pleasant without being heavy and difficult to digest. It seems that those qualities are difficult to achieve these days in most restaurants because they are more focused on the decor and the atmosphere than on the food.

When I think of all the pre-prepared, processed frozen and factory shipped food being served nowadays in countless restaurants, with countless additive, too much salt or sugar, this is when I remember Egon Ronay and his efforts in raising the standards. As the old saying goes: '' Eating well is the best revenge''. The world needs more people like Egon Ronay.

In 1989 he published a memoir, with recipes, “The Unforgettable Dishes of My Life.”

Food Holiday

On Sunday morning we drove to Riano just 20 minutes outside Rome, we went to Wendy Holloway's B&B located on a hill which has an amazing panoramic view of the Lazio Province and Rome in the distance, truly breath taking. Wendy has been living in Italy for 25 years and for the last 10 years has developed her business which is called ''Flavor of Italy'' see her wonderful website at www.flavorofitaly.com

It is a very easy drive from Rome on the Flaminia, you can also take the metro and then transfer to the regional train, getting off at Montebello, no more than 25 minutes from Piazza Flaminia in central Rome.
The Canadian Club of Rome had organized a cooking class for Sunday morning, Wendy thought up the menu and it was fun and wonderful.

We made several dishes, fresh anchovies, a wonderful little white fish marinated in orange juice, red and yellow roasted bell peppers in a sauce of anchovies, capers and olive oil, fresh pasta ravioli with a stuffing of ricotta and zest of lemon, the sauce was a light butter and cream with lemon zest, Salmon steaks Sicilian style, which is sweet and sour sauce, raisins and balsamic vinegar, Risotto with chanterelles mushrooms and mild Italian sausage meat, and a fig torte. She picks hundred of figs off her trees and then removes the stem and simply freezes them during the winter, so she can use them in recipes and they are as delicious as if just picked off the tree. We had a nice white wine from the Lazio region to accompany.

Each one of us made one dish and others then help out or observed with Chef Wendy encouraging us along.
Will and I have done many cooking courses around the world, the most memorable being in Vietnam 3 years ago in different cities, Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon, and also in Thailand. It is always nice to learn how to do a dish and to learn the different flavors and mix of ingredients. You learn to appreciate the culture of the country, not just by visiting sites but also how food mixes with the culture and what is important to the people. Rice in Asia is very important as bread is in Western culture, olives to the Greeks and olive oil to the Italians, dates to the Arabs. You gain a better appreciation all around.

Will is good at making pasta and he made the ravioli. The anchovies though most people think that it is a salty unpleasant fish is in fact if fresh, a very nice white fish and very good grilled or eaten as we did marinated. The caper and anchovy sauce I made for the roasted peppers, I washed the salt off the capers and simply added them in the blender to the olive oil and anchovies.

Pasta has a range of cooking time from 8 minutes for raviolis and spaghetti to 12 minutes for bigger pasta like fettuchini, of course in Italy all pasta is cooked aldente (to your teeth), which is the way we like it now.

We are planning to return to ''Flavor of Italy'' B&B on 31 January for a weekend of cooking classes and olive oil tasting.