barry continues to explore the mercato, and goes beyond the cheese...

...only to come back to it because, after all, what's life without cheese?

so the fantastic thing about il mercato is that you can get almost any kind of food here. not all of my pics turned out, but imagine heaps of pomegranates, mounds of spinach, oodles of noodles, barrels of oils, and porcini mushrooms as far as the eye can see. this place is a kind of mecca for foodies everywhere; a pilgrimage that needs to be undertaken at least once in a food lover's life to achieve enlightenment.

or, at the very least, a very full stomach.

for a truly authentic experience, join the florentine locals for lunch at nerbone's, located on the main floor of il mercato. go for their traditional panino con bollito (boiled meat sandwich dipped in meat drippings), or their trippa alla fiorentina (florentine style tripe).

of course, a trip to florence would not be complete without a traditional steak. take note: if you're looking for the authentic, go for a cut similar to the below picture. anything else, while WE might consider it a steak, is just a piece of beef for florentines.

...or there's cow testicles. your call.

the homemade pasta we saw looked out of this world! and for those of you who've never tried it, gnudi is the ravioli filling, minus the ravioli. it's delicious, especially with a fresh pomodoro sauce.

look at your cheese in the fridge. now look at these cheeses. look again at your cheese, and back to these! your cheese isn't any of these delicious european concoctions, but it could smell like them if you let it sit on the counter for a few weeks. or, as a healthier more delicious alternative, you could book your plane ticket now.

i think i'll have to have a separate post dedicated solely to cheeses i found in europe. many of them can't be found in edmonton (maybe in montreal), but just imagine if they were! for starters, i'd be 400 pounds and have diabetes, but i would be in heaven so it wouldn't matter!

barry attempts to explore florence's mercato centrale...

...and is at a loss of where to begin. so i think i'll break this up into a couple of posts.

bustling with locals and tourists alike, the mercato caters to all tastes. luckily, i was there on a private food tour with angel walking tours, and so was able to enjoy stuffing my face with delicious goodies in relative peace. our guide, Samanta, started us off with a "small" selection of italian antipasti and wine (can you already tell that this is going to be good?!). everything was local, fresh, and told a history of the region that made you wish that all history lessons you had in grade school had a sample involved, because you would actually remember what you learned. i'll try to impart just a fraction of the wisdom i learned, and leave it to you to discover the rest on your own food adventures.

can i just say that i love cheese? i've been smitten with it for years, but would never have thought to serve it straight up with huge dollops of raspberry jam and orange-onion marmelade. DO IT. a staple around florence, and with so many sheep in the countryside, both fresh and aged pecorino cheese is the only way to go when sampling tuscan cuisine.

how can you tell a florentine salami from a venetian, or even a hungarian? no, this isn't some dirty joke, there really is a way. just look at how big the fat bits are. florentine ones will have larger fat bits, and lots of black peppercorns. other sausages will have smaller bits closer together. eccola! with info like this, you're going to be a hit at all the cool kids parties!

let's talk carbs, shall we? or more specifically, tuscan bread. no, i'm not talking about the soft, fluffy stuff they serve at olive garden with their mozzarella fonduta, but instead, the saltless wretch that tries to rip you teeth out of your mouth when you take a bite of it. ah...THAT bread.

for years florence and their rival (well, one of their rivals), pisa, went after each other in anyway that they could to get the upper-hand, and one thing that the pisani had access to that the florentines did not was the harbour...and salt. by heavily taxing salt headed for florence, almost no one in the city could afford to puchase this basic seasoning. the result: a new bread weapon...um, recipe, that was salt-free. ha! take that pisa!

i don't like olives. argh! i can practically hear you judging me. i do like olive oil if that makes you feel any better. no, these olives were not the typical olives you'd find at the corner store in edmonton. they were fresh, and done in a simple brine to keep as much of their fresh flavouring in. it also made them more meaty than other olives i've tried. tuscany is brimming with olive trees, and you'll find their fruit and their oil in almost everything. we were also educated in what to look for in a good olive oil. 1) make sure it's cold pressed, and 2) the freshest olive oils will be a murky green. the longer they sit, the clearer, and paler in colour (towards the yellow many here are used to) they become.

what would italian cuisine be without a little garlic? i ate these. raw. well, pickled. and surprise, surprise, i did not create a 10-foot barrier around me with my breath. sweet with almost no after taste, these suckers were probably my biggest surprise on this tour.

i also don't like sun-dried tomatoes. calm down, calm down! if i WERE to like any though, it would definitely be these. packed in good olive oil to be carefully preserved with love, these ruby jewels were crammed with enough flavour to work over your tastebuds as you chewed. only the best plum tomatoes are to be used - use the tomato-flavoured olive oil with salads!

20 year aged balsamic vinegar. you know all those trendy restaurants that started serving strawberries decked out in balsamic? yeah...they're doing it wrong. good balsamic vinegar should be sweet and almost syrup-like in consistency. anything less is just gross fwhen you're using it for dessert or appetizer toppings. try drizzling the good stuff over strawberries, ice-cream (really.) or, like we did, freshly shaved parmesan.

barry gives you a sneak peek...

...of strange and often wonderful european delights.

one month, five countries, and some might say too much wine (but not me, because that is crazy talk). stay tuned for more shortly, but here are a few pics to whet your appetite.

barry presents a feast for your eyes.

barry's bringing sexy back.

i thought i'd share a few pics and recipes from this past easter weekend.

some of you may recall the avocado pie my bud informed us about last year. i finally tried it, and let me say, it's my new go-to dessert. 4 ingredients. 10 minutes prep. no baking. SNAP!

zest 2.


then juice them (1/3 cup).

mash up 2 whole ones of these.

mix them with one can of condensed milk.

start drooling.

put the mix into one of these pre-made (don't do chocolate though - too cocoay and dry).

chill it for 4 + hours.

tastes like heaven.

meyer lemons? try liar lemons! supposedly these "innocuous" fruits are supposed to look like lemons, smell like lemons, and taste like lemons without the sourness. LIES! sure you might peel these suckers like a mandarin orange, but everything else about them is bitter - like me.

plums, blackberries and starfruit. a hit with the nephew...and no one else.

the infamous "pail".

the breakfast of champions...and barry's family.

dinner was not for the faint of heart. case in point: carrots smothered in butter.

world's best stuffing (carb treat #1). notice the glorious sultana gems.

carb treat #2: potatoes...smothered in butter.

nalisnyky: carb treat #3 (with some farm cottage thrown in for good measure).

carb treat #4 (because there's no such thing as too many carbs): holubtsi.

my brined turkey (brined with apples, brown sugar, onions, 1/4 cup salt, garlic, cinnamon, and fresh rosemary, thyme and sage).

we overcooked it.

damn.


and finally, what's easter without the food equivalent to crack: farm cottage cheese.

happy eating!!

barry bakes beer bread.

and clearly loves alliteration.

so, i bought another plane ticket. this means three things to you. 1 - for about a month this summer you will not hear from me (i know, you're absolutely devasted). 2 - when you do hear from me again, i will be sharing stories of wild sangria concoctions, pretzels that melt in your mouth and hot chocolate thicker than pudding. pudding! and finally, 3 - currently, i am poor.


it's this third point that led me to my latest recipe trial. see, without money i can't go out to restaurants OR grocery stores, and so must make do with what's in my cupboards.

i'm going to be honest - it's pretty limited.

enter judy schultz and her AMAZING recipe for cheddar beer bread. i had beer (German white beer), i had cheese, and yes, i had flour. the result was a redonkulously easy recipe, and a moist and super tasty bread. highly recommend trying this guys - the hardest part is trying not to drink the beer first.

judy schultz's cheddar beer bread

1 3/4 c. flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp sugar

(i added a pinch of chipolte chili powder)

1 medium onion minced and browned in 2 tbsp. butter

1 c. cheddar cheese grated

1. mix above ingredients. make a well in the middle.

355 ml. beer (any kind, but darker has more flavour) at room temperature

2. pour beer into the well, and mix until JUST combined.

3. spoon into a well greased loaf pan. top with an additional 3/4 c. grated cheddar.

4. bake in pre-heated oven at 350f for 45 - 50 minutes.

5. cool 10 minutes on wire rack. serve hot.

barry: "why yes, i am obsessed with cheese - and you?"

i ate these two delectable crostini for dinner the other night. just thought i'd share. they were tasty; they were pretty; they were damn sexy; and yes, they were particularly cheesy.

using two halves of a whole wheat ciabatta bun i created two very different tastes. on one half, i combined garlic, apple slices, brie and cinnamon (out of the two, i would say this was my favourite) for a sweet, yet savoury taste, while on the opposite side i wilted spinach with olive oil, garlic, sun-dried tomato feta (on sale at superstore), lemon juice and dill, to create a salty, pseudo-spanikopita topping.

all of this food manipulation came about due to a craving for some cheese. enjoy!

barry goes bananas for barbeque.

…and barbeques bananas!

to celebrate good weather FINALLY arriving in edmonton, a couple of barry’s buds hosted a ‘barbeque everything party’ this past weekend.

people went all out, and there came a point when i couldn’t tell if i was sweating from the heat, or from the meat consumption. we ended up consuming an assortment of barbequed items including, but not limited to: meat on a stick, meat marinated in yogurt, meat marinated in teriyaki sauce, ground meat formed into patties, and vegetarian hot dogs masquerading as meat.

to top off all the protein was a gut-expanding collection of salads, vegetables, appetizers and desserts. my buds’ buds really classed-up this barbeque with such delights as saint andre cheese heated on a cedar plank, and topped with toasted almonds and red wine jelly, and chocolate fondue done in orange halves and served with marshmallows and pound cake.

fancy, i know.

and i made banana boats. childhood camping memories would not be complete without a banana boat here and there. all that’s needed are bananas with a slit cut in them, then chocolate chips and marshmallows to be squished in and everything then wrapped up tight in aluminum foil to be thrown onto the barbie until the banana caramelizes. i also added a wee-bit of kalhua for the grown-up crowd.

so simple, so good.

happy barbequing!

(as a complete side note, i finally tried smirnoff’s mojito vodka. i’ve been wanting to try it for awhile now, but revolted against the idea of a mojito without rum. guys, don’t think of it as a mojito, but as an insanely refreshing minty-lime drink when mixed with club soda (it’s too sweet otherwise). superstore has it for ~$16.)