foodie – M's Adventures

Cook Italy – Food Tour in Bologna

November 13, 2021November 13, 2021M's Adventures

Bologna’s streets will make it hard to move on.

Do you know someone who is so extremely picky? As in, never satisfied? Oh, maybe YOU are that friend.

If you are one of those people who has such high standards for everything and never quite finds things up to scratch, then Carmelita of Cook Italy is the guide for you.

We booked her for a food tour. I mentioned some of the places earlier. We met at an excellent pastry shop where I am glad that I got a good breakfast.

Carmelita then showed us the formerly great, the famous, the touristy, and the abominably disgraced. She then showed us the still great shops and vendors downtown. Along the way, we had a snack stop and the history of why Bologna, “La Grasso” is translated too literally — the nickname refers to the bounty that is Bologna.

[A note about bologna, boloney — mortadella. It is a whole separate food product in Italy. It can be eaten sliced, cubed, and in a meat pate like a smear. There are required amounts of lardons per product and, of course, there are standards. People eat it like proscuitto. Yes, just like having slices of proscuitto on a charcuterie board… that’s how they eat mortadella.]

Bologna is a bountiful foodie city with warm red brick porticoes, shopping opportunities galore, and enough foodie gems for a month of feasts. One of the best things about the tour was being taken to the “horse” emporium.

This shop is a knife shop but so much more.

Carmelita ended our tour at an enoteca who kindly stored our wine while we went to Carmelita’s newest “project” – a new gelateria called Sablé. Check it out!

Carmelita also offers cooking classes. I found her through a friend, even though I see that she is famous on TripAdvisor. For a food tour, this was the least amount of food that we ate but the pace was very nice for the more mature traveler. It was a relaxed tour. Carmelita is very communicative and will send all kinds of recommendations even after the tour. A tour with Cook Italy is a gently paced tour.

But Carmelita’s standards and critique of the gastronomy scene is fierce and pointed. Carmelita is passionate about those she disdains and even more passionate about those whom she admires. If you want that style of guide, then she is for you.

Those hams are all the same because of special selection.

Here are some of Cook Italy’s recommendations:

Best aperitivo

Gamberini via Ugo Bassi
I Conoscenti via Mazzini
Stefano Cardi same street

Best gelato

Sablè – in a Class of its own
Cremeria Santo Stefano – via Santo Stefano
Cremeria Cavour – in Piazza Cavour

Best little cakes

Pasticceria mignon

Regina de Quadri – via Castiglione
La Borbonica – via Riva Reno
Stefano Cardi as before
Gamberini as before

As my friend commented, we had the least amount of food on this food tour. But, we did stop for a quick snack, and then for the light lunch. Also, a balsamic tasting. For three hours, the tour cost 280 euro for the group.

Carmelita will also come after you after the tour to write reviews. Beware. In the nicest way, but you are forewarned.

Eat and Shop the Bounty of Bologna

September 12, 2021September 20, 2021M's Adventures

This is knife/kitchen store, horse store (see below)

Looking back on Bologna, I see why people love Bologna. It’s a real city without pretension and it’s a foodie city.

I had an intro food tour with Cook Italy’s Carmelita, carmelita@cookitaly.com. These are the shopping places she recommended. Carmelita runs food tours and cooking classes. In English. Carmelita has incredibly high standards. Hire her if you are one of those people who almost never find anything quite up to scratch.

Simoni, Via Drapperie 5/2a: the deli that still maintains the high standards of yore. They have several stores in the area.

Bruno e Franco – La Salumeria Bologna. Via Guglielmo Oberdan, 16: This is on many a food tour. (also across from a store that sells Reisenthal bags which is not part of the Bologna tour but I like their bags).

Eataly: the one in the bookstore.

Ancient Aguzzeria Horse, Via Drapperie 12. It’s a knife store that now sells all kinds of things for the kitchen. You want to go there. Trust me. The staff are incredibly nice as well.

Eats: I got many recommendations but these were Carmelita’s that I liked.

Impero, Via dell’Indipendenza, 39: bakery with great breakfast options.

Enoteca Italia, Via Marsala 2: wine and a light lunch

Sable Gelato, Via dei Mille 3a (behind the red newsstand): This gelato maker makes super creamy artisanal gelato and he is a renaissance man whose current passion is gelato (he said, “do you know what is the most beautiful thing? freshly made gelato”).

And where to stay (This I found on my own): Il Terrazzo Di San Colombano/la porta rossa, find them online for a good price. Or call them: 347 058 1371 . I found this place online and it’s a great find. It’s on a quiet side street, has a terrace, and for 25 euro per day, a parking spot in the underground garage. The cost is around 200 dollars per night but I think it depends if you pay cash or go through a booking service. The place sleeps six (two full beds in the same room and a queen in the other room). The artwork is too weird for my liking but other than that, I like it.

As for dinner or other places to eat, I wasn’t there long enough. I’ll have to go back. I didn’t like the place that was recommended to me by the apartment owner so I don’t want to recommend them (it was a place on Oberdan street). I have a list of places recommended by my Italian teacher so I’ll write about that another time. Clearly I’ll have to go back.

No Reservation? The Secret to Eating at All the IT Places in Lima

January 7, 2018August 18, 2019M's Adventures

When entering a restaurant in Lima these days, the waiter will automatically ask if you have a reservation. Even if the restaurant is empty and it’s 5 p.m. So what do you do? How do you get to eat at the places that are a MUST? Like Maido, recently ranked as the number 1 — No. 1 — numero uno restaurant in the world by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants?

What indeed. What’s the secret? Go at an off-hour. Walk in at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. and promise to be done by 7 or 8. Maido doesn’t even open for dinner until 7 so try going at 3:30 p.m. at the end of their lunch hours or be at the doors waiting to get in at 12:25, five minutes before they open for lunch (try a Saturday or Sunday when Peruvians would normally eat lunch at 1:30 or later). Or at a place like La Mar, which serves lunch (they are not open for dinner) until 5:30 p.m., try going at 4 p.m. for an early dinner or “linner” as the kitchen is still open until 5:30 p.m. For other places, try going on a Monday or Tuesday night. If it’s a famous breakfast place like El Pan de la Chola, try eating there at night (when you might actually feel like having a glass of wine or beer — which they always have on the menu — but you perhaps don’t want at 9 a.m.).

Or you can plan your visit around the restaurant visit. Make the reservation and plan your visit around it. Perhaps this is the solution for places like Central. It’s possible that you are super well-connected, but for the rest of us, try one of my tips.

Or, go to one of the lesser famous places but with equally delicious food (a chain — horror! — like La Seguende Muelle, or La Preferida) or my secret, Cosme. The current trend in gastronomy is a wee bit too fancy for me, but then I don’t like hype over foam and tiny portions. The exception is Statera. Easy to get in to and the owner worked at Central for two years.

Note: Most of the photos are from Astrid and Gaston, including the Guinea Pig Peking “Duck” Style (object in photo appears larger than in real life).

Diverse Food Cultures in DC – H Street

March 21, 2014M's Adventures

Three kinds of fancy ham and a stuffed artichoke.

As I’ve mentioned before, Washington, DC, is filled with food adventures. Newly gentrified H Street in northeast DC is the newest “hot” area of international food eclecticism. It has quirky pubs, rice dives, and even the chain pizza restaurant has fancy pants “jamon iberico” on the menu. Plus, this being DC, you can even get pizza with sweet potato. And, of course, they bake the pizza in a wood burning oven.

The orange pieces are the sweet potato/yam.

At the Lebanese restaurant, they sell “ayran,” a salty yogurt drink, “mamoul,” a Fig Newton-like treat, plus the usual middle eastern treats like baklava. An extra experience we had was getting good tips on Iraqi music from the guy behind the counter (there’s an app for that!).