Food in Portugal

Tags

cuisine, Food, Portugal, Restaurant, wines

The fun of travel is often to discover national cuisine in the place you are visiting. Portugal has a very distinct cuisine if compared let’s say to Spain next door. While we were in Lisbon we discovered some wonderful food. Portugal is known for its fish and seafood, Cod from the Newfoundland banks, Sardines, Octopus, etc. it is also known for its beef and pork dishes and its rich soups. I was looking forward to this food adventure despite having some friends who recently returned from a trip to Portugal to tell us that the food was ordinary and nothing to talk about.

The first night we went to Ramiro on Rua Palma, it is stricly a fish and seafood restaurant   though you can get the famous beef steak sandwich, it is a small steak no bigger than an english muffin and it is usually served after your fish meal, somewhat like a dessert dish.

Good wines and Portuguese beer like Sagres, the service is fast, this is a two floor restaurant, food is good and simple. It is all about the experience and talking with other people around you. They do not take reservations, you get to the restaurant, there is a computer which gives you a number, ours was 3317, no this is not the number of people in front of you waiting for tables, it is just a number. While you wait you can get a big glass of  Sagres beer for 2 Euro.

We ordered a giant swimming crab for dinner, very rich and good. Some large red shrimps and wine. In Portuguese restaurant, olives, bread and sardines paté comes automatically to the table. For dessert a favourite Portuguese sweet is lemon sorbet doused with vodka refreshing and cleanses the palate. It was a great meal.

Sitting on Tram no.12 which has 20 seats and 38 persons can stand. The trams are very small and 90 years old made of wood frame. The most helpful numbers to get you around are no.12, 28 and 15.

The next day we took the Tram no. 12 up all the way up to the Castle of San Jorge and afterwards we had lunch at the Solar Dos Mouros Hotel, their patio had a spectacular view of the city. The Hotel is on a street called Rua do milagro de Santo Antonio, translation the street of the miracles of St Antonio. Though most people think that St-Anthony was from Padua in Italy, he was in fact Portuguese and he travelled to Italy to join St-Francis and the Franciscan order. He is the patron saint of Lisbon and his church is very popular, just a few steps away from the Cathedral Sé of Lisbon.

One night we had dinner at Infâme which is across the street from Ramiro. It is a young hip place, and it is also located across the piazza from a nice little bar called Josephine as in Josephine Baker. We met 3 young guides there, Nuno 23 years old, Pedro 26 and Alexandra 35, all operate Tuk Tuks, a three wheel electric people mover which is so small it can navigate the very narrow streets of Lisbon at great speed. Josephine is a friendly place and we quickly discovered that Portuguese people are friendly and helpful, unhurried and just happy.

The restaurant’s business card.

For our anniversary dinner we went to Sommelier on Rua Telhal 57, as the name indicates they have 80 wines on their list and all are pared with dishes prepared by the Chef. It is a very elegant restaurant and the wines are all individually chilled at the right temperature for serving. A computer controls it all and the back wall is a great glass display and you can see each bottle with the temperature number electronically displayed. Since you taste the wines, what you ordered is measured and served in the correct glass corresponding to the wine you are having. A Sommelier would know which wine is served in which glass, it is not all the same, ours was very knowledgeable. I was very impressed with their expertise. The food was wonderful we ordered the Lamb salad, the best lamb ever, a grilled John Dory, Filet of goose liver poêlée, melt in your mouth good and grilled octopus done perfectly. For dessert we had a vintage moscatel wine and a dessert called Papo de Anjo or angels double chins, which is whipped and baked egg yokes in a sugar syrup.

There were many other places where we had meals and I will mention them in my next posting. Needless to say there are plenty of excellent restaurants with great service.

 

 

Lobster

Tags

cuisine, Delmonico's, lobster newburg, Recipe, Restaurant

Lobster Spring Season opened 2 weeks ago and the boats went out to sea. Lobster fishermen live on the North Coast of the Island about 25 minutes from our house. At the moment lobster bought from Fishers at the dock on arrival go for about $5 a pound, in stores like at Mr Seafood https://mrseafoods.com  you will pay $7 dollars per pound uncooked or $8 dollars cooked.  In the restaurant you will pay about $40 dollars per pound.

So today being Mother’s Day which is apparently a Feast invented in the 20th Century, grocery stores and Mr Seafood were offering a special on Lobster and we bought 2 one pounder for $16 dollars, a good price really.

For dinner we are having Lobster Newburg which originally was called Lobster Wenburg. The story goes that Mr Wenburg was a client of DelMonico on Beaver street in New York and he asked the Chef to prepare the lobster according to a recipe he provided. Later a dispute arose between Wenburg and the management of the restaurant so they changed the name of the recipe to Newburg. This was the age when restaurants did not have a formula or a Corporate set menu and were courting clients and trying to cater to their taste. A good restaurant will cater to their clients taste, though by today’s standard it is a rare thing.

So to start you need 2 one pound lobster cooked. 

break them up and take the meat out carefully, the shells seen above can be use to make a very good stock, which can be used for chowder or bisque.  

One pound lobster will give you this much meat, remember the recipe calls for heavy cream, sherry, eggs, nutmeg, cayenne. So it is rich.

Voilà, Lobster Newburg served on hot puff pastry. Just a simple little Sunday dinner and your guests will think you fussed. To be enjoyed with a Chardonnay, Pouilly -Fuissé.

Because we must have them, here are 2 tourists across the street waiting for a table inside this seafood restaurant to have their $$$$$ lobster. Note their accoutrement the Anne of Green Gables hat with pig tails. Ah, Summer!

 

 

St-Viateur Bagels, Montreal

Tags

cuisine, Food, Jews, life, Montreal, Outremont

Montreal a metropolis of 4 million people, the second largest French speaking city in the World after Paris, has a Jewish population that has been part of the fabric of the city for over 200 years. Almost every neighbourhood of the city has a Jewish population with its businesses, schools, synagogue, restaurants, delis, institutions and the Jewish general hospital. As a child I lived in Snowdon where there was a large Jewish population, other neighbourhoods like Hamstead, Côte Saint-Luc, Westmount, NDG and Outremont all have their Jewish enclave and because the population has been there for such a long time, it has developed its own character and ways of doing things. Jewish owned businesses in Montreal, you always have service in French, English and Yiddish.

Montreal is known for the quality of its Smoke Meat and its bagels. I could not leave Montreal without a dozen bagels. So I went to the St-Viateur street in Outremont, the area has, for as long as I can remember, a large Orthodox Jewish population dressed in the famous black garb and fur hats. Outremont is a wealthy French speaking neighbourhood and the Orthodox Jews are simply part of the fabric.

Bagel St-Viateur  (since 1957)

263 Rue Saint Viateur Ouest, Montréal, QC, Canada

Ouvert 24h/24, 7 jours sur 7

(514) 276-8044

It is an institution in Montreal and a remarkable one at that, the bagels as you can see in this photo above are hot, fresh, just out of the oven. Even when they but them in a bag, you feel the heat and that wonderful aroma of just baked. A Polish Jew, Myer Lewkowicz who immigrated to Canada in 1946 learned the trade of making bagels from Hyman Seligman who was already in the business. Mr Lewkowicz explained that when he arrived in Canada, he knew nothing of bagel making, it became his lifelong trade.

The Montreal Bagel is different from the New York one, first it’s smaller, sweeter and the  hole is bigger. Quality ingredients go into making them, the pastry is hand rolled, they are boiled in water with honey, they are cooked on a wood tray in a wood oven, they are turned over once and taken out at just the right moment when crunchy. They make 3 dozen bagels per hour in the oven. A perfect bagel takes 20 minutes to cook, a slow process but what quality! Same family, same recipe and the original shop on St-Viateur.

St-Viateur Bagel is world famous and today in Montreal there is 2 bakeries and 5 coffee shops where sandwiches and salads are served just like in 1957 when they first opened.  WEBSITE http://www.stviateurbagel.com

 

 

 

My recent trip

Tags

art., cuisine, Food, French, life, Travel

I travelled to Montreal my hometown for a week’s vacation away from PEI. Islanders will tell you that you need to get off the island especially between November and end April for mental health reasons. I did not listen to them and I should have, everyone I know goes away for a minimum of 2 full weeks in that time period.

I was born in Montreal and lived part of my childhood there from 1956 to 1960 and 1965 to 1974, only returning occasionally afterwards for family matters or to see friends.

I witnessed great changes in Montreal during the period of Mayor Jean Drapeau who had a grand vision for the Paris of the New World, Montreal is the second largest French speaking city in the World after Paris. It also was the metropolis of Canada until 1977 a title she lost to Toronto but regained as the other Metropolis after 2008.

The Metro system was opened in 1966, then we had the World Exposition in 1967, then the Olympics games in 1976. Montreal is also the seat of IATA and several international organizations, fine museums, art centres, great dining, etc.

It had been 4 years since my last visit when my father died and that visit was all about death and cleaning out my parents home, so not exactly a fun time.

I flew from Charlottetown on a regional jet (small plane) that is all that flies here to the island, the flight is 75 minutes so fairly quick. Montreal is a city of 4 million people and growing, construction everywhere, including the road system and a new bridge across the Saint-Lawrence river. People everywhere, traffic, very cosmopolitan and French.

I was staying with an old friend in the Côte des Neiges neighbourhood, near the Jewish General Hospital and the Université de Montréal. Montreal has 4 universities. The neighbourhood is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, though everyone speaks French and all signs are in French, you will hear a multitude of languages from around the world.

On Monday we went to a German grocery store which sells all manner of product from Germany and Austria but also has a great lunch counter with specialties as you would find them in Europe. It seems that many customers spoke German with the staff and French with everyone else. The food was very good, this business has been on the same corner of Queen Mary and Côte des Neiges for 60 years.

Then I went downtown, to look around and was very surprised at how much familiar streets where my parents lived and worked had completely changed to the point I could not remember what was previously there. The area around the old Windsor Station which is now a complex of tall stylish condo buildings, there is about 9 new towers. The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, my Mom’s favourite in Montreal has been completely redecorated for its 60th anniversary and it is very nicely done. The old Birks & Sons Jewellery store on Phillips Square is being remodelled into a luxury hotel but is keeping the famous jeweller on the ground floor.

Birks and Sons Jeweller on Sainte-Catherine street at Phillips Square under renovations.

A new Four Seasons Hotel is being built next to Ogilvy’s department store which is now amalgamated with Holt Renfrew. I thought of Dad when I saw this project, he knew all about it, it has been in the works for 10 years and is now coming to completion. My father opened the first Four Seasons Hotel in Montreal back in the 70’s, how he would have love to see this one, a tall tower of black glass.

I also walked by the former Mount Stephens Club which was the home of Sir George Stephens the builder with Sir William Cornelius Van Horne of the transcontinental railway in Canada in 1888.  Today the mansion has been restored preserving the rare and exotic wood panelling and original decor and is used as meeting rooms and bar, dining rooms  and joined at the back to a new hotel tower part of the Leading Hotels of the world collection.

Detail of the interior of the house, top is the former reception room panelled in Lemonwood or Degame, beautiful soft yellow colour. The other bottom photo shows the top of the staircase all in mahogany, the windows have Tiffany glass, it is very dark despite the very large windows, giving the house a very formal atmosphere.

Then on Sherbrooke Street I went to the Musée des Beaux Arts also known as the museum of Fine Arts to see what was on show. The museum has 2 new wings, one called Le Pavillon pour la Paix, a gift of Michal and Renata Hornstein and the other is the Pavillon Claire et Marc Bourgie, a gift of the Bourgie family, the premier undertakers for funerals of distinction in Quebec. The Museum was founded about 120 years ago by art lovers in Montreal on the same location it is now but with the years it has grown into a 7 building complex. What is interesting about its expansion is how organically it grew, incorporating other landmarks around it like the Erskine & American United Church with its 17 famous Tiffany Stain glass windows of 1897. I love this museum, the collections are superb and if you go to Montreal you really should make an effort to visit, even if just for one hour. The restaurant of the museum is also wonderful, I had lunch there and the food is very good as is the wine selection, I had a grilled octopus salad accompanied by a Pouilly Fuissé Chardonnay and then a Magret de Canard, very good indeed.

I return by Métro to my friend’s home, tired but very happy for this first day.

 

 

Tulip a sign of Spring

Tags

Birthday, Canada., cuisine, Election, municipal, Spring, tulips

PEI grown tulips have now appeared everywhere, they are grown here on the Island by Vanco a Dutch/Canadian family, their grow operation is just a few minutes away from Charlottetown.

On Sunday we will change the clocks to one hour forward Canada Atlantic Time. This means that days will automatically be longer with more sun light, so a strong signal that Spring is here. Someone told me today that the Cruise ships will be back in 8 weeks, we are scheduled to receive 94 cruise ships carrying on average 2000 passengers this year. Yes they all come up Prince Street and make a left turn at Water Street, they pass under my window, all of them. Walking with maps etc the way tourists do in every city in the World, oh joy!

Winter 2017-18 has been mild, no major storms and very little snow, I call it a European Winter though Europe got a lot more snow than we did. We always have very high wind storm in the 60 to 90Km range which can be spooky if you are not use to them, but living on the Island in Winter you become accustomed quickly.

Since 15 February (Canadian Flag Day) I have been busy with my municipal electoral campaign. The key is to meet everyone at least twice in my Ward, population 2300.

ward1councillor2018.wordpress.com

Given that a lot of our friends and neighbours have gone South this Winter, I was starting to think that we too should have gone away for at least one week. Now I have so many commitments that it is somewhat difficult to get away.

As a little project I decided to look at our book shelves again, in the last 40 yrs we have done this periodically. Many books have been given away to the Library or sold at the Used Book store for 0.50 cents. On our trips we often pick-up pamphlets of places we visited and will read them but after a few years they become irrelevant and sit forlorn on the shelve, time to go out.

I just discovered a Williams-Sonoma Easter Menus by Chuck Williams who died at 100 in 2015, the recipes look interesting but I know we are not going to do this for Easter this year or in years to come.

I also discovered books on Canadian Cuisine, one on Fish dishes published in 1959 and the other is the famous cookbook of Chef Jehane Benoit publishes in 1970, she compiled Canadian recipes from all 10 provinces, demonstrating that Canadian Cuisine does exist and is varied. Unfortunately nowadays you would be hard pressed to find a Canadian who knows anything about Canadian original dishes. This is why I am disappointed when people point out Poutine as a Canadian dish when in fact it’s was created in 1957 by a truck driver who had little to eat and combined a bunch of ingredients he had on hand. Later cheap eateries to make a fast buck started to feature it on menus.

And in 2 weeks another Birthday will be upon me, years roll by with alarming frequency. I calculated that if I live to be as old as my parents, I should have another 23 years to go, not bad really, but strange nonetheless.

I leave you with this beautiful photo of the driveway of the Official Residence of H.E. the Ambassador of Canada to the Empire of Japan in Tokyo. It is called Marler House after it’s builder Sir Herbert Marler who in 1931 built at his own expense this magnificent residence famed for its spectacular gold leaf ceiling in the grand dining room and its silver leaf ceiling in the morning room. The house is across the street from one of the Imperial Palaces in central Tokyo and sits in a grand park. I visited this famed residence about 10 years ago, one word comes to mind, elegance.

 

 

 

PEI Christmas recipes

Tags

Canada., cooking, cuisine, Food, PEI

The Guardian in Charlottetown is the newspaper of PEI and it published the following recipes from Chefs, some of whom I know in Charlottetown. I thought I would reproduce the article here to give you ideas.

These recipes are typical of PEI and the Maritime provinces.

Chef Duncan Smith- Broadway 45, Kensington, PEI

Ma Pa’s Creamed Lobster On Toast

Our lobster season starts in late November, or early December, so lobster was always on our Christmas Eve menu, before we went out visiting family, which was an onslaught of bite sized apps, cheeses, crackers and dips of all types. But here is my father’s recipe for our Christmas Eve meal, creamed lobster on toast!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter, yes BUTTER

2 lobsters shelled and cut into bite sized pieces

2 tbsp. minced onion, optional

2 tsp. white vinegar

2 pieces of toast, buttered

1 can 250 ml. cream

Directions:

-Melt butter and sauté the onions. When soft and sweet, add the lobster and sauté for another couple of minutes

-Add enough cream to cover the lobster, and heat through

-Add vinegar and keep stirring

-When heated through, serve over the buttered toast

Some people would add some ketchup to it at the end for a more pinky colour, but the vinegar does that as well as help thicken the sauce. A more traditionalist would use evaporated milk instead of cream, so either way works. We usually did 1 lobster per person, so this recipe is easy to alter.

 

EZ Maple Pecan Cheesecake

Crust:

1 cup diced bacon, sauté and strain most of the fat out

2 cups pecan pieces, toasted in the oven

-Combine these and make crust.

Cheesecake:

1 pkg. cream cheese (room temp)

1 can sweet condensed milk

1/4 cup maple syrup, the real stuff

1 tsp. vanilla

1 lemon, zest and juice

-Whip all of these ingredients together, until smooth and pour into cake pan.

Now here, we could make individual cakes, using cool martini or wine glasses as the mold. Put the pecan crust on bottom, then the cream cheese mixture, you could even layer it like a parfait, because everyone likes parfait! You could also garnish with some of the remaining pecan/bacon mixture, and a little sea salt just for another flavour.

The Guardian reached out to several local chefs for the “A Culinary Chrsitmas” series, which features the chefs’ favourite Christmas recipes.

See the other recipes:

Chef BobbiJo Maclean’s easiest gingerbread cake ever

Chef Cobey Adams’ apple crumble

Chef Ilona Daniel’s kifli cookies

Chef Stephen Wilson’s cinnamon roll bread pudding

Chef Megan Beairsto’s oyster dressing, eggnog bread pudding and stout toffee

Summer food

Tags

Canada., cuisine, Food, PEI, Potato, salad, Summer

This being the first long weekend of Summer in Canada, here is a recipe that goes well with your official Bar-B-Q inauguration.

Curried Red Potato Salad

Ingredients:

15-20 mini red potatoes, skin on, washed well, cut into quarters
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
4 eggs, boiled, peeled and cut into small pieces or slices
2 green onions, thinly sliced

Dressing
1/3 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp of currie
Dash of hot sauce or Tabasco
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
2-3 sprigs fresh tarragon for garnish (optional)

 

Instructions: 

Wash potatoes and cut into quarters. Place in a large sauce pan of salted water, set over high heat and bring to a boil. Partially cover and simmer until potatoes are just tender, 8-10 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
Prepare boiled eggs and place on top of cooled potatoes.
For the dressing, whisk mayo, sour cream or yogurt, Curry and Cream sauce and hot pepper sauce or Tabasco in a bowl. Stir in the green onion, salt and pepper. Fold the dressing, potatoes and eggs together. Cover and place in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
Garnish with fresh tarragon.

Lobster Season

Tags

cuisine, Fish season, Food, lobster, Lobster thermidor, PEI

Yes the lobster Season is OPEN, the boats left the harbours around the Island. Here is a beautiful picture of the boats as they go out. Probably around Rustico which is 30 minutes from my place. Really nice to see.

My favourite lobster recipe is Lobster Thermidor

Lobster Thermidor is a French dish consisting of a creamy mixture of cooked lobster meat, egg yolks, and brandy (often cognac), stuffed into a lobster shell. It can also be served with an oven-browned cheese crust, typically Gruyère. The sauce must contain mustard (typically powdered mustard).

This version, by 1940s Gourmet chef Louis P. De Gouy

INGREDIENTS

2 (1 1/2-lb) live lobsters
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1/4 lb mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons medium-dry Sherry
1 cup heavy cream, scalded
2 large egg yolks

PREPARATION

Plunge lobsters headfirst into an 8-quart pot of boiling salted water*. Loosely cover pot and cook lobsters over moderately high heat 9 minutes from time they enter water, then transfer with tongs to sink to cool.
When lobsters are cool enough to handle, twist off claws and crack them, then remove meat. Halve lobsters lengthwise with kitchen shears, beginning from tail end, then remove tail meat, reserving shells. Cut all lobster meat into 1/4-inch pieces. Discard any remaining lobster innards, then rinse and dry shells.
Heat butter in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook mushrooms, stirring, until liquid that mushrooms give off is evaporated and they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add lobster meat, paprika, salt, and pepper and reduce heat to low. Cook, shaking pan gently, 1 minute. Add 1 tablespoon Sherry and 1/2 cup hot cream and simmer 5 minutes.
Whisk together yolks and remaining tablespoon Sherry in a small bowl. Slowly pour remaining 1/2 cup hot cream into yolks, whisking constantly, and transfer to a small heavy saucepan. Cook custard over very low heat, whisking constantly, until it is slightly thickened and registers 160°F on an instant-read thermometer. Add custard to lobster mixture, stirring gently.
Preheat broiler.
Arrange lobster shells, cut sides up, in a shallow baking pan and spoon lobster with some of sauce into shells. Broil lobsters 6 inches from heat until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Serve remaining sauce on the side.
When salting water for cooking, use 1 tablespoon salt for every 4 quarts water.

 

Good restaurants

Tags

cuisine, Food, Ireland, pubs, Restaurants

We did an extensive tour of Ireland in September 2016, here is a list of great restaurants in Dublin.

Amuse Restaurant, Dawson St
Ananda, Dundrum
Assassination Custard, Kevin St Lwr [NEW]
Bastible, South Circular Road
Brioche, Ranelagh
Brother Hubbard, Capel St
The Cake Café, Camden St
Chameleon Restaurant, Temple Bar
Chapter One, Parnell Square
Craft, Harold’s Cross [NEW]
Dunne & Crescenzi, South Frederick St
Ely Winebar, Ely Place
L’Ecrivain, Lwr Baggot St
Etto, Merrion Row
Fish Shop, Smithfield
Forest Avenue, Sussex Terrace (pictured)
Forest & Marcy, Leeson St Upper [NEW]
The Fumbally, Dublin 8
The Greenhouse, Dawson St
Hang Dai, Camden St [NEW]
Heron and Grey, Blackrock [NEW]
L. Mulligan Grocers, Stoneybatter
Luna, Drury St
O’Connell’s, Donnybrook
Osteria Lucio, Clanwilliam Tce
Pickle Restaurant, Camden St [NEW]
Piglet Wine Bar, Temple Bar [NEW]
Restaurant Forty One, Stephen’s Green
The Winding Stair, Ormonde Quay

The McKennas’ annual 100 Best Restaurants List was first published in The Sunday Times. for more info see guides.ie or @McKennasGuides on Twitter.

There are many good pubs and great restaurants throughout Ireland in Galway, Cork, Belfast, etc.. Cuisine is inventive and different with a certain flair.

Tomorrow 24th Dec.

Tags

Christmas, cuisine, Festivities, Food, Hanukkah, Italy, Rome

Tomorrow is Christmas eve but this year it is also the beginning of Chanukkah which in Hebrew means dedication. The Festival of Lights marks the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 165 BC. Having been desecrated by the Syrians, the 165 BC rededication occurred thanks to the Maccabees. Hanukkah is a holiday I like a lot, Jesus was Jewish after all and so were all of his relatives, so this link with this Christian Holiday is great. We spent quite a few Holiday Season in Rome and partook of all the great Roman Traditions, its food and the fun that comes with it.

Jews in Rome or Italy today can be traced back to 160 BC when the first Jews arrived in Rome. They had fled historic Israel from the Syrian King Antiochus. Having arrived in Rome, this was to be known as the oldest Jewish settlements in the Western Europe.

So Rome has a Jewish community for the last 1,856 years, they have stories to tell.

The centrepiece of the Hanukkah celebrations in Rome happens at Piazza Barberini where a massive Menorah is lighted. The Menorah stands at 6 meters tall, there is another one at Piazza Bologna.

Piazza Barberini, Rome

Roman Jews have their very own cuisine which is very different from what can be found in the Jewish communities in North America, no bagels here.

A common tradition is fried food – fried in its own special way, and created to give a unique but tasty eating experience at Hanukkah time. Pollo Fritto per Chanuka is a hearty meal of chicken fried with a winning combination of ingredients. The chicken is marinated in a mix of olive oil with lemon juice, garlic and nutmeg. After the chicken has been marinated, it is then covered in flour and egg before it’s fried to make a crispy but moist dish. A good accompaniment to the fried chicken is Fritelle di Patate, which is fried mashed potato pancakes. The mash is seasoned to add that extra flavour before receiving a smattering of coated breadcrumbs to add to that fried kick. Rome is known for its Carciofi alla Giudia (artichokes), and also for Melanzane alla Giudia. This dish is fried eggplant – simple to make, and delicious to eat, the eggplant’s seeds and majority of flesh are removed before being fried in a combination of garlic and olive oil.

In keeping with the fried theme, Fritelle de Chanuka is a big hit for Italians to eat at Hanukkah. This dessert is basically fried sweet dough fritters. The dough is mixed in with raisins and anise seeds. It’s then fried and topped off with hot honey. Another favourite dessert is Torta di Ricotta, which is Ricotta Pie filled with either sour cherries and/or chocolate.

To all my Jewish Friends, Chag Sameach!