Regional flavours Many moons ago, when I used to ski with school friends on the slopes of Abruzzo, I use to love stopping in cafes and enjoy a hot chocolate with one of the local chocolate cakes called bocconotti. Since this year we will unusually not spend Christmas in the region, and will not be skiing and eating those delicacies, I was feeling a little ‘homesick’ and decided to give them a try. In fact, even on Danilo Cortellini’s recently published…
Who doesn’t love a hamper? A giant one turned up on my door step a few days ago, full of Italian products, from lots of familiar names. Ciao Gusto in a group of household names from Italian big brands, now sold via Ocado in the UK. The basket I received had an assorted selection of products, not necessarily just for Christmas. Each product was easily recognisable and some of them brought back many memories of my life in Italy. Ciao…
***this restaurant has since closed down*** The season to be jolly is once again looming and most restaurants are gearing up for Christmas and Festive menus all around us. Pastabites was invited to taste one such menu, offered by Italian restaurant Diciannove which sits within the Crowne Plaza hotel in BlackFriars. A surprise for me was that, despite riding past this corner of London every single weekday, I had no idea there was a hotel, let alone an Italian restaurant! Diciannove…
Prima Settimana della Cucina Italiana nel Mondo Monday 21 November saw the launch in 105 countries of the first ever Italian Cuisine week, coordinated by Farnesina and organised in each country via the local Embassy. The London Embassy has coordinated an exciting programme of events in the UK and our friendly Ambassador, Mr Terracciano, has spearheaded the initiative in London, being present pretty much at most of the events, some of those hosted in the very same Embassy in Grosvenor…
***this restaurant has since closed down*** I have eaten Adam Handling‘s beautiful food loads of time, first when he was head chef at Caxton Grill just after MasterChef: the Professionals, then when the same restaurant took his name (Adam Handling at Caxton) and of course, at his new venture, his very own, curiously named, The Frog E1. I have written about him but never for this blog and never about his food, until now. My friend MondoMulia (read here post on…