In the Eternal City Again

I discovered a delicious little restaurant just around the corner from the Campo di Fiori at 53 via del Pellegrino - the Cantina Lucifero. Just 28 people can fit in here. I ate there 3 nights in a row. Fresh tagliatelle with fresh porcini mushrooms - one night I had this dish with slivers of fresh white truffle from Alba, fragrant and with a sublime taste, and homemade ravioli of fresh spinach and ricotta. There are also meat dishes and the restaurant's speciality, various cheese fondues. Ask Francesco, who runs the restaurant, for his advice on wine. In this neighborhood you find a mix of tourists and locals and this holds for the Cantina as well. The staff is friendly and helpful and multilingual. Open only in the evenings 7 days a week.The parent restaurant, the Locanda Lucifero, is on a parallel street.

For breakfast, because I had rented a small flat, I walked to the Campo and ate at Obicà, a trendsetting mozzarella bar that also makes pizza, salads and other dishes. You never know what is inside an Italian croissant: sometimes jam, sometimes chocolate. And splendid coffee. There are three kinds of mozzarella to be had - delicate, intense or smoked. All the salads, for a small additional sum, can be enhanced with your choice of DOP mozzarella.

Off to the Vatican to visit the scavi, the underground archeological ruins. First, into what remains of Constantine's basilica and then down into the lowest level, into the Roman mausoleums,  many of which have mosaics and frescos, a whole city of the dead. And most moving of all there is the tomb of St. Peter, whose bones have been gathered into a small plexiglass box. I found the visit to be a moving experience, regardless of belief. You have to reserve on the internet in advance for a guided visit.


Tagliatelle ai funghi porcini as prepared at the Cantina.

For 4 people

Sauté 600 grams of fresh porcini, cut into small pieces or slivers, in 3 T. of extra virgin olive oil, with 1 minced clove of garlic. When the mushrooms and garlic are soft (do not let the garlic brown, or it will be bitter), add 4 T. of freshly chopped Italian parsley. Cook 360 grams of fresh tagliatelle egg pasta, and when al dente, drain, and toss with the porcini sauce. Pass freshly grated parmesan to garnish. Simple and delicious.

Puntarelle in Salsa d'Acciughe

It's Puntarelle season again. Puntarelle is a kind of chicory; you can see not so young ladies cleaning it and stripping it of its outer leaves at the Campo di Fiori market every morning. I have never seen Puntarelle except in Rome. So if you, too, cannot find it where you live, you can use Belgian endives, or curly endive, or radicchio. This is a very Roman salad.

Put one head of cleaned Puntarelle into a bowl and mix with the following dressing, which you can puree by mashing with a fork, or by using a robot or blender.

3 anchovy fillets - I prefer to use salted ones that I desalt by soaking in water for half an hour and then cleaning. But if that is too fiddly use canned anchovies in olive oil.
2 cloves garlic - peeled, core removed, and minced
3 T. white wine vinegar
4 T. extra virgin olive oil

According to David Downing, in the past, chopped hard-boiled eggs were added to the salad.

Irresistible Istanbul

What a wonderful city; what friendly, helpful and tolerant people.

Where to stay: I stay at the Valide Sultan Konagi, a 17 room hotel of charm. In Ottoman times the Valide Sultan was the name of the sultan's mother. The staff is always ready to help you. The rooms are small, but beautifully kept. The last time I stayed here my room was in the shadow of Saint Sophia, which was just outside my window. The delicious breakfast is copious and interesting and included in the room price. The hotel restaurant serves simple, but often delicious food; try the stuffed vegetables. The filled eggpant, or imam bayaldi - translated as the imam fainted because the dish was so delicious - is indeed very tasty.

Where to eat: To note - food in Istanbul is not overpriced, but wine is. My favorite restaurant is Asitane, away from the center. The restaurant serves traditional Ottoman food, often based on recipes for dishes served in 1539 at the circumcision of the son of Sultan Süleyman. The meze, or first courses, are delicious, carefully prepared and beautifully served - I began with fava bean purée (hummus) and creamed cheese  Turkish cuisine, like the cuisine of ancient Rome, often  serves fruit with meat. Try the quince stuffed with lamb. Desserts are sublime.

For excellent meze and fish, but not always pleasant service, Balikci Sabahattin in Sultanahmet is a good choice. When I was there with an English speaker the waiters were polite, but when I was there with a French friend, and we were speaking French, the waiters were very rude. The grilled sea bass and rice with mussels are very good.

In one of the hans near the Grand Bazaar, I ate in a tiny restaurant that served only fresh, batter fried anchovies and large, light crepes stuffed with herbs and spinach. The drink was ayran, a yogurt drink that I like but that may not be to everyone's taste. Unfortunately the restaurant had no name. You will have to follow your nose. About 5€ for lunch.

Another inexpensive and always crowded spot, especially at lunch time, near Saint Sophia, is Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi, where you eat köfte - lamb meatballs - white beans, rice and salad. Yummy and inexpensive.

Hamdi, filled with both locals and tourists - large wandering Japanese groups who would not touch their desserts - from its top floor overlooks the Bosphorus and the Galeta Tower.  Enjoy the many sorts of kebabs, especially the one of ground lamb with pistachios. The baklava is exceptionally good. The tablecloths are white and the waiters are professional and helpful.

Where to shop: I cannot stay away from the Spice, also known as the Egyptian, Bazaar. I go there everyday just to inhale the smells and to look about me. All kinds of spices and food products are on sale.
The Grand Bazaar is fun, too, but the prices can be exaggerated. For Turkish carpets go to Adnan and Hasan, whose owner speaks perfect English. Do NOT bargain here. The store only sells good quality merchandise.
Food and ceramics are my two weaknesses.
For the best Turkish Delight, or lokum, go to Haci Bekir; there are two locations, one near the New Mosque, near the Spice Bazaar, and the other in Beyoglu.
For beautiful ceramics, often real Iznik, and sometimes just copies of Iznik designs, you cannot go wrong at Fettah, just across from the restaurant Asitane. Look at the beautiful work by Emine Peker, who was born in Kütahya, one of Turkey's ceramic centers.

Lamb with Quince

Brown 1 chopped onion and 500 grams lamb, cut into small pieces, in 4 tablespoons olive oil. Add 3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses and 1 cup water. Then add 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinammon, ground allspice and salt and 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

In a separate pan brown in 4 tablespoons butter two peeled quince, cut into small pieces, until caramelized. Add the quince, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, a pinch of ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinammon to the stew. Continue simmering uncovered for 30 minutes.

Serve with basmati rice. For perfect rice every time, soak the rice in cold water for several hours. Drain and put into a pan with water that is 1 and 1/2 times the amount of the rice. Cook on high heat until the water has almost evaporated and there are pock marks on the surface of the rice. Turn off the heat and cover the pan tightly for 10 minutes. Fluff up and serve.

If you cannot find pomegranate molasses you can make it yourself:  Boil a litre of pure pomegranate juice -  best place to find it is in a health food store -  with 100 grams of sugar and the juice of one lemon. Simmer for an hour until syrupy.

Carrot Halwa

Today, essentially a dish from the Punjab in India,  halwa is also popular in the Middle East and is easy to make at home. Here is a recipe for my favorite - carrot halwa.

Take 4 cups (for a cup use 240 gr (or 240 ml for a liquid) of peeled, grated carrots and fry, stirring often, in 4 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter) in a wide, high sided pan for about 15 minutes. Then add 3 cups of whole milk and cook over a fairly high heat for 30 minutes, stirring often. When most of the liquid has evaporated stir in 1 cup of sugar and continue to cook and stir for another 15 minutes. Then add the seeds of 4 cardamom pods (or more to taste) and cook for 10 minutes more. Delicious hot or cold. This is a very rich dessert. If you cannot buy ghee you can make your own clarified butter. Melt 250 gr of butter VERY slowly.  Remove the foam that forms on top.  You are left with clarified butter.

Surprise Surprise

Here in the remote southwestern French countryside, an hour south of Toulouse, in Salvayre, is the Indian restaurant Penjabi, whose chef prepares everything himself - his tamarind puree, his spicy,  crunchy mango relish, his creamy mango and cinnamon sauce, all of which are delicious on his samosas and pakoras, served as a first course.  His cheese nan - even his pistachio kulfi, a sort of chewy ice cream - and everything in between, are homemade. His food is well seasoned and spiced - unusual to find this in France, for the French palate is not too fond of hot spicy dishes. The main courses are cooked in the Tandoori, or in the Masala or the Madras - the hottest - style. And the meat or fish is not overcooked, so it remains tender. Do not be put off by the humble surroundings, or the flashing sign that says "Franco-Indienne Cuisine," which is probably an attempt to entice more French people into the restaurant, although a friend who ate there with me said that the chocolate fondant was delicious. Very tasty food.

Back in France to Castelnaudary and its Cassoulet

The TRUE, the REAL, cassoulet, whose name comes from the cassole, in which the cassoulet is traditionally cooked, is fought over by three towns in southwest France - Castelnaudary, Carcassonne, and Toulouse; that of Castelnaudary is called the father, that of Carcassone, which adds lamb, is the son, and that of Toulouse, which uses tomato, is the holy spirit. These facts come from the Universal Cassoulet Academy.  Here is the recipe from Castelnaudary. The photographed cassoulet is of my doing.

Ingredients:
350 to 400 grams of dried Tarbais beans. I like to use these beans for they stay firm, even after a long time cooking. Strictly speaking you can use any dried white bean, if you cannot find the origin protected Tarbais. The haricot Tarbais can be ordered through the internet.
2 or more - I use 4 - preserved duck legs.
4 pieces of Toulouse sausage, each weighing 80 grams
4 pieces of pork shoulder or shin, each piece weighing 50 grams
250 grams of pork skin
A bit of salted lard
Several carrots, cut into chunks and several onions, cut in half, and a chicken carcass.

To prepare:
First soak the beans overnight. The next morning put them into 3 litres of cold water, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and reserve the beans; throw away the water.
Prepare a bouillon with 3 litres of cold water, the pork skin cut into large strips, the chicken carcass, and the carrots and onions. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper - use plenty of pepper. Cook for an hour, then filter the broth and keep the pork skin. Cook the soaked beans in this broth for about an hour, until they are tender but still firm. Drain the beans, but save the broth. Mix together in a mixer or a robot 6 peeled, degermed garlic cloves and salted lard that weighs twice the weight of the garlic.

Degrease the deboned duck legs, cut into pieces, in a frying pan and then remove. Brown the sausages and the pork pieces in the remaining duck fat. Reserve the fat.

Now to put it all together.

Line the bottom of a cassole with the pork skin and add a third of the beans. Then arrange the pork pieces and the duck on top and then cover with the rest of the beans. Put the sausages on top of the beans, pushing them down a little bit into the beans. Cover these ingredients just to the top with the broth. Save the remaining broth. Add more pepper, if you wish, and add a tablespoon of the reserved duck cooking fat.
Put into a oven preheated to 160°. During the cooking a crust will form on top; push this crust into the cassoulet 7 times. If the cassoulet becomes too dry, add some bouillon. Cook for two to three hours.
Serve the cassoulet very hot in its cassole.

An authentic and inexpensive cassole, handmade, can be bought at Not Freres, a pottery just outside Castelnaudary in Mas-Saintes-Puelles.

If all this seems fatiguing, go to the Cantelgril (NOT part of a similarly named French chain) in Mirepoix in the Ariege for a tasty cassoulet. Or go to Le Colombier in Toulouse, a lovely old restaurant that has been serving its delicious cassoulet since 1874.

On the Boat to France

For a lovely trip back to France take Brittany Ferries. The food is delicious, as good as that served in a fine restaurant. Leave it to the French.  For dinner as I sailed across the Channel, I began with duck filled ravioli in a cream of lettuce sauce. Then I had lovely pink lamb garnished with a garlic stuffed langoustine served on a potato puree and ratatouille. The cheese platter was copious and the cheese varied and well aged. Dessert was a Grand Marnier souffle, light, slightly creamy, not at all dry, accompanied by a small glass of the liqueur, which I poured into the center of the souffle. The restaurant staff is professional, courteous and mostly Breton, but all of them speak good English.
After a good night's sleep in a comfortable cabin, breakfast was very good too. The buffet features perfect croissants, plus pain au chocolate, pain au raisins, brioche, hard-boiled eggs, various cereals, fresh fruit salad, dried fruit, and creamy yogurt. There is also a full English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes, and mushrooms. The coffee is served in a large pot, with hot or cold milk. I had an espresso noisette, so called because the bit of foamed milk lightens the color of the coffee.

Detour in London

I have two restaurants in London that I return to again and again. Neither is expensive - for London - and both are very good indeed.
Dumplings Legend on Gerrard Street in Chinatown specializes in dimsum, or as it is pronounced in Mandarin, dianxin - little heart dots. The dumplings are varied and excellent. If you do not know what to order look at a neighbor's table for help. And when the word hot is next to the dumpling, it is hot and spicy. There are also noodle dishes and other main courses. The clientele is mostly Chinese, always a good sign. I know about Chinese food, for I have spent time in China, have taught Chinese cooking, and have written about Chinese food.
About Indian Food I know nothing at first hand, for I have not been to India. But it seems to me that for tasty, and I hope authentic Indian food- go to Masala Zone; there are six restaurants plus one in Selfridge's. A red pepper, or two, announces how hot the dish is. There are vegetarian options too. Masala Zone is owned by the same group that owns the much more expensive Veeraswamy on Regent Street - old fashioned and elegant - and Chutney Mary on the King's Road. in Chelsea. Lunch on Sundays at Chutney Mary is less expensive than at other times, but go early for there are no reservations for Sunday lunch.