Roman holiday 3/3 - Food

Visited a few markets, being the capital, you can find the best seasonal produce from the whole country. The best liked are raw red shrimp from Sardinia, and sweet firm cherry from Puglia.

I won’t believe that I will find eating in Rome more pleasant than in Paris! Well, star restaurants are great in both cities, but simple lunch and snacks are far easier to find varieties in Rome. The 4 days fermented pizza dough is thick yet light to eat with crispy bottom, artisan gelato delicious, whipped cream bun even better than the Victoria sponge cake. 

Restaurant Zia, grilled lamb sweetbread in bbq sauce

Restaurant Acquolina, raw squid with spicy sausage

fresh whipped cream soft bun

Roman holiday 2/3 - Street scene and atmosphere

I spent time wandering around the old town, which is relatively small and can easily be covered on foot. I like the old colourful buildings, expanded as they need and full of curves and trees around, lovely especially on sunny days. Some how I find the atmosphere much more cheerful and lively than Paris. 

I read too much about Paris from books and have this unrealistic romantic feel for the place. Actually Paris is grand, the buildings are more recent than Rome, much more orderly. Rome old centre is chaotic with few straight roads, but lots of piazza and fountains, great to explore and rest.

Roman holiday 1/3 - the monuments

Last visited Rome in my 20s, I remember well getting a map of the city, circled all the monuments, and planned how to visit all of them in 3 days, walking from 8 to 8, very excited and full of energy.

This round, I also visited most of the major sites, still as impressive as in my memory, good to refresh. The Roman empire was so powerful in its days, leaving behind loads of grand buildings, I guess wherever you dig, you find something underneath. Still such a powerful empire lasted not more than 400 years, similar to the other strong nations in the last 4000 years.

The Vatican, the museum, will be the place I won’t go back again, if there is another visit to Rome, probably not the St Peter Basilica too. First very crowded with many tourists and local students, on top, the opulence is far too much to your/my face. 

Honey harvest

From April onwards, bees have been busy, collecting honey and pollen to build up the colony size. For me the weather has been cool, but native Irish black bees are quite fine to get out and about, even in light drizzle, a tough race of bees.

There is a worry that they will swam, to set up a hive elsewhere, leaving behind a new queen and small colony to get fertilised and expand the gene mix. They will also swam if the hive becomes crowded, meaning no room to lay more eggs or to store more honey. 

This latter reason could be avoided by giving them more room, simply by taking a filled and comb of honey and insert an empty bar for them to keep going. 

That’s the theory and we will observe their progress. Meanwhile there is fresh spring honey to enjoy, a top note of mix herbs and a balsamic body probably form pollen mixed in, could imagine the rounded rich mouth feel of vanilla or chocolate.

遊湖

 

五月仍然是密雲天多，今早難得無風，湖上水平如鏡，遊湖好時機。

眼前處處光影異常，廣濶湖上人影少見，只有吱吱渣渣的鳥兒作伴，異常靜謐。

 

 

Kailan harvest

The Kailan growing inside green house are tall with broad leaves and started to bear blossoms, time to harvest. Second lot of seedlings are being planted out door.

One Kailan plant is enough for a meal for two, very easy harvest and cleaning. The dark green tender thick leaves taste great and the stalk sweet and crunchy.

On comparison, growing small Pakchoi uses more surface area for the quantity needed for a meal, more bending down to harvest and more water and time in washing, tastes fine, but not special. Don’t think I will grow it again next year.

Sourdough cake

I am using Maurizio’s The Perfect Loaf method to keep the sourdough starter alive and active. The loaf of bread for breakfast looks and tastes great.

To keep the starter in good condition, I have to refresh it everyday, taking most out and feed with fresh water and flour.

These sourdough discards are being used to make various simple breads for lunch, basically adding a little flour into the starter to make it less water,  and make focaccia, pancake, steam buns etc., I like the feeling that the bread seems to digest fast and not swell up and fill the stomach.

I have been practicing making cakes from sourdough discard, and have quite a good result, using whisked egg white to help with the rising.

Basic recipe is :

160gm sourdough starter
40gm flour
40gm honey/sugar
40gm melted butter/coconut oil/olive oil
3 eggyolks

3 egg whites whisked to soft peak
pinch of salt
10gm honey/sugar


for a chocolate walnut version, substitute butter with 100gm melted dark chocolate, sprinkle chopped up walnuts on top.

Bake at 180˚C until golden around 20 minutes.

Khol rabi in miso

 

 

Quick pickle of raw khol rabi in miso.

I like the crunchy texture of khol rabi, with a mild sweetness. The plant Is so cute, with the round ball in mid air, a must grown item in my garden.